Frey lets me finish before he launches into a litany of his own. “Random? Let’s see. Donaldson was in a parking lot that particular night because he’d gone out for a drink. Alone. To a bar he’d never gone to before on the night before he was to take off to Mexico. Did I get that right?”
He barely waits for my grudging nod. “You were there because you left a safe, secure job as a teacher to become a bounty hunter. In the grand scheme of things, makes as much sense as Donaldson risking his freedom to go out for a lousy drink. But let’s get back to what happened. Donaldson turns out not to be the human skip you expect him to be but a vampire who does not kill you, but turns you because he is interrupted and has to flee before he can finish you off.”
I don’t like the direction this is heading. I open my mouth, but Frey barges ahead.
“You wake up in a hospital with no memory of what happened. You are being taken care of by a doctor who, coincidentally, just happens to be on duty the night you’re brought in and even more coincidentally, happens to be a vampire himself.”
“It is coincidence,” I insist. “All of it.”
“Really?” Frey asks. “Then why did Avery take such an interest in you? You’ve been vampire long enough to know vampires are not social creatures. They may feel responsible for ones they themselves have turned. Williams with Ortiz, for instance. But why did Avery go out of his way to mentor you if he hadn’t seen that there was something different about you? Something special.”
“It’s called being horny, Frey. Avery wanted me for sex.”
“I’m sure that played a part in it,” he says dryly. “You do inspire that in men. But even when you met Williams for the first time, he called you ‘the one.’ He saw it, too. From the beginning.”
Damn it. I know I hadn’t told Frey all this. I wish now I’d bitten him sooner. He obviously had enough time to memorize every detail of my history before I broke our psychic connection.
I glance over at Culebra. He’s so wrapped up in Frey’s telling of the story, you’d think he was hearing it for the first time. I can’t expect any help from that quarter.
“All right. Let’s tackle this from another angle.” I sit up straighter in the chair. “If I’m so all powerful, how come Lance was able to fool me? He hasn’t been vampire that long and I didn’t have an inkling who he was. I swallowed his story like a shark swallows chum. I wasn’t even perceptive enough to sense that he was lying to me. He drugged me and dragged me off to France, for Christ’s sake. I can’t take care of myself. What idiot would want me to be responsible for the fate of the world?”
Finally, finally, I’ve rendered Frey speechless. He stares at me openmouthed. He didn’t know what had happened with Lance. He thought we’d just had a fight.
Culebra is the one who speaks first. “Anna, what happened with Lance is no reflection on you. It’s a reflection on him. He betrayed your love and your trust.”
Frey finds his voice. “He drugged you? Did he hurt you?”
“Not nearly as much as I plan to hurt him.”
“Why would he do it? What was he thinking?” He looks like he has a million other questions, none of which would make any more sense then the ones he just asked.
“Pretty much my reaction when I woke up. But I don’t want to talk about Lance. My point is I think you’re wrong about me. I’m not special and I’m not all-powerful and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone other than myself.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself.” This from Culebra. “And if Frey is right—” He sees me open my mouth to interrupt and forges ahead before I can. “If Frey is right, what you want isn’t important, is it? You won’t be the first leader to assume the burden of responsibility with reluctance and humility.”
“Well, I can sure as hell refuse to assume that mantle of responsibility. Who’s going to stop me?”
“If we’ve guessed right, Mrs. Williams.”
Frey succeeds with that simple declaration in bringing the conversation back full circle. “She must have heard from her husband a million times how you were fighting the prophecies. How you clung to your family, to David and your human life. Your family was out of reach. David was not.”
He’s slipped the book back into the briefcase with a glance to me that says he’s doing it to keep it out of harm’s way . . . out of my way. Then he shuffles the beer-soaked papers into a soggy pile. “I made notes about what I believe will happen on the evening of your ascension.”
“Ascension?” Another word that provokes a squeak of protest. “You can’t be serious.”
“As a heart attack,” he says with an earnestness that borders on mania. “Now, do you want to hear what I’ve learned, or are you going to keep interrupting?”
Culebra lays his hands over mine on the table. “I want to hear it,” he says. “Anna is through interrupting, aren’t you?”
I shake my head. For someone who may be addressing the Chosen One, you show remarkably little respect.
He grins. Come Tuesday, you might be able to smite me dead. Until then, this is my bar. He lifts a chin in Frey’s direction. “Go on. You have our attention.”
CHAPTER 36
The teacher in Frey takes over. He stands up and assumes an at-a-podium kind of wide-legged stance, papers in one hand.
“You can’t do this sitting down?” I grumble.
Culebra makes a shushing sound.
“Okay. Here’s the deal. I’ve divided my research into two categories: the ceremony itself, what to expect after.” He pauses, waiting, I suppose, for me to interrupt again.
What’s the use? I’m going to hear this whether I want to or not. “Enlighten us.”
“Okay.” Another shuffling of paper. “From what I’ve been able to decipher, the ceremony will take place at midnight on Monday. It will be attended by a representative from each of the thirteen tribes.”
Okay, my self-control doesn’t last very long. Now I have to interrupt. “Tribes? What tribes?”
Frey doesn’t look aggravated by the question. Instead he looks pleased. As if, for once, I asked the right one.
“The vampire community is divided into tribes—each representing a geographic area. They are North America; South America; Central America including Mexico and the West Indies; Australia and Oceania; Northern Africa; Central and South Africa; the Near East; the Middle East; Central Asia; Indonesia and the Philippines; China; Japan and Korea; Russia.”
“So, I’m about to become the head honcho of the North American tribe?”
“No. You are about to become head honcho of the whole shebang.”
No. Not going to happen. The impulse to run screaming from this ridiculous scenario is tempered only by the realization that Frey would track me down. He knows where I live. May as well let him finish spinning his fairy tale. I carefully modulate my expression and voice to reflect only curiosity when in reality what I’m feeling is panic. I think Frey is close to jumping off the sanity cliff, and Culebra is right there teetering on the brink with him.
“Why haven’t I heard of these thirteen tribes before?” I congratulate myself for asking an intelligent question on an absurd subject.
Frey fixes me with the same kind of look that I used to get from Williams. I didn’t like it then, I don’t like it now. Still, I hold my tongue and wait for the answer.
“Williams would have gladly told you anything you wanted to know about your vampire heritage. You wouldn’t give him a chance. Now you have no choice but to learn. Vampire society is somewhat decentralized. Each tribe governs itself. The thirteen only gather for a watershed event—like the coming of a Chosen One. It will mark your—” He hesitates, obviously suspecting how I’m going to react when he finishes the sentence. “Well, for lack of a better word, your coronation.”