The Book of Life Read online

"Thanks be to God. He's nearing the end of his frenzy." Some of the tension in Hubbard's shoulders dissipated. "Soon Jack will be back in his right mind."

  Wanting to take advantage of the moment, Matthew moved silently to the cello. He gripped it by the neck and picked the bow off the floor where Jack had carelessly dropped it.

  Matthew sat on the edge of a wooden chair, holding his ear near the instrument while he plucked and worked the bow over the strings, still able to hear the cello's round tones over the Bach that blared from the speakers on a nearby bookcase.

  "Shut that noise off," he told Gallowglass, making a final adjustment to the tuning pegs before he began to play. For a few measures, the cello's music clashed with the choir and orchestra. Then Bach's great choral work fell silent. Into the void, Matthew poured music that was an intermediary step between the histrionic strains of the Passion and something that he hoped would help Jack regain his emotional bearing.

  Matthew had chosen the piece carefully: the Lacrimosa from Johann Christian Bach's Requiem. Even so, Jack startled at the change in musical accompaniment, his hand stilling against the wall. As the music washed through him, his breathing became slower and more regular. When he resumed sketching, it was to draw the outlines of Westminster Abbey instead of another creature in pain.

  While he played, Matthew bent his head in supplication. Had a choir been present, as the composer intended, they would have been singing the Latin mass for the dead. Since he was alone, Matthew made the cello's mournful tones imitate the absent human voices.

  Lacrimosa dies illa, Matthew's cello sang. "Tearful will be that day, / On which from the ash arises / The guilty man who is to be judged."

  Spare him therefore, God, Matthew prayed as he played the next line of music, putting his faith and anguish into every stroke of the bow.

  When he reached the end of the Lacrimosa, Matthew took up the strains of Beethoven's Cello Sonata no. 1 in F Major. Beethoven had written the piece for piano as well as for cello, but Matthew hoped Jack was familiar enough with the music to fill in the missing notes.

  The strokes of Jack's charcoal pencil slowed further, becoming gentler with each passing measure. Matthew recognized the torch of the Statue of Liberty, the steeple of the Center Church in New Haven.

  Jack's temporary madness might be slowing to a close as he moved toward the present day, but Matthew knew he was not free of it yet.

  One image was missing.

  To help nudge Jack along, Matthew turned to one of his favorite pieces of music: Faure's inspiring, hopeful Requiem. Long before he'd met Diana, one of his great joys had been to go to New College and listen to the choir perform the piece. It was not until the strains of the last section, In Paradisum, that the image Matthew had been waiting for took shape under Jack's hand. By that point Jack was sketching in time to the stately music, his body swaying to the cello's peaceful song.

  "May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, / Once a poor man, may you have eternal rest." Matthew knew these verses by heart, for they accompanied the corpse from church to grave--a place of peace that was too often denied to a creature like him. Matthew had sung these same words over Philippe's body, wept through them when Hugh had died, punished himself with them when Eleanor and Celia had perished, and repeated them for fifteen centuries as he mourned Blanca and Lucas, his warmblooded wife and child.

  Tonight, however, the familiar words led Jack--and Matthew with him--to a place of second chances. Matthew watched, riveted, as Jack brought Diana's familiar, lovely face to life against the wall's creamy surface. Her eyes were wide and full of joy, her lips parted in astonishment and lifting into the beginning of a smile. Matthew had missed the precious moments when Diana first recognized Jack. He witnessed them now.

  Seeing her portrait confirmed what Matthew already suspected: that it was Diana who had the power to bring Jack's life full circle. Matthew might make Jack feel safe the way a father should, but it was Diana who made him feel loved.

  Matthew continued to move the bow against the strings, his fingers pressing and plucking to draw the music out. At last Jack stopped, the pencil dropping from his nerveless hands and clattering to the floor.

  "You are one hell of an artist, Jack," Chris said, leaning forward in his seat to better view Diana's image.

  Jack's shoulders slumped in exhaustion, and he looked around for Chris. Though they were hazy with exhaustion, there was no sign of blood rage in his eyes. They were once again brown and green.

  "Matthew." Jack jumped off the top of the scaffold, soaring through the air and landing with the silence of a cat.

  "Good morning, Jack." Matthew put the cello aside.

  "The music--was it you?" Jack asked with a confused frown.

  "I thought you might benefit from something less Baroque," Matthew said, rising to his feet. "The seventeenth century can be a bit florid for vampires. It's best taken in small doses." His glance flickered to the wall, and Jack drew a shaking hand across his forehead as he realized what he'd done.

  "I'm sorry," he said, stricken. "I'll paint over it, Gallowglass. Today. I promise."

  "No!" Matthew, Gallowglass, Hubbard, and Chris said in unison.

  "But the walls," Jack protested. "I've ruined them."

  "No more so than da Vinci or Michelangelo did," Gallowglass said mildly. "Or Matthew, come to think of it, with his doodles on the emperor's palace in Prague." Humor illuminated Jack's eyes for a moment before the light dimmed once more.

  "A running deer is one thing. But nobody could possibly want to see these pictures--not even me," Jack said, staring at a particularly gruesome drawing of a decaying corpse floating faceup in the river.

  "Art and music must come from the heart," Matthew said, gripping his great-grandson by the shoulder. "Even the darkest places need to be brought into the light of day, or else they'll grow until they swallow a man whole."

  Jack's expression was bleak. "What if they already have?"

  "You wouldn't have tried to save that woman if you were dark through and through." Matthew pointed to a desolate figure looking up at an outstretched hand. The hand matched Jack's, right down to the scar at the base of the thumb.

  "But I didn't save her. She was too frightened to let me help her. Afraid of me!" Jack tried to jerk away, his elbow cracking with the strain, but Matthew refused to let him go.

  "It was her darkness that stopped her--her fear--not yours," Matthew insisted.

  "I don't believe you," Jack said, stubbornly holding on to the notion that his blood rage made him guilty, no matter what. Matthew got a small taste of what Philippe and Ysabeau had endured with his own steadfast refusals to accept absolution.

  "That's because you've got two wolves fighting inside you. We all do." Chris joined Matthew.

  "What do you mean?" Jack asked, his expression wary.

  "It's an old Cherokee legend--one that my grandmother, Nana Bets, learned from her grandmother."

  "You don't look like a Cherokee," Jack said, eyes narrowing.

  "You'd be surprised by what's in my blood. I'm mostly French and African, with a little bit of English, Scottish, Spanish, and Native American thrown into the mix. I'm a lot like you, really. Phenotype can be misleading," Chris said with a smile. Jack looked confused, and Matthew made a mental note to buy him a basic biology textbook.

  "Uh-huh," Jack said skeptically, and Chris laughed. "And the wolves?"

  "According to my grandmother's people, two wolves live inside every creature: one evil and the other good. They spend all their time trying to destroy each other."

  It was, Matthew thought, as good a description of blood rage as he was ever likely to hear from someone not afflicted with the disease.

  "My bad wolf is winning." Jack looked sad.

  "He doesn't have to," Chris promised. "Nana Bets said the wolf who wins is the wolf you feed. The evil wolf feeds on anger, guilt, sorrow, lies, and regret. The good wolf needs a diet of love and honesty, spiced up with big spoonfuls of comp
assion and faith. So if you want the good wolf to win, you're going to have to starve the other one."

  "What if I can't stop feeding the bad wolf?" Jack looked worried. "What if I fail?"

  "You won't fail," Matthew said firmly.

  "We won't let you," Chris said, nodding in agreement. "There are five of us in this room. Your big bad wolf doesn't stand a chance."

  "Five?" Jack whispered, looking around at Matthew and Gallowglass, Hubbard and Chris. "You're all going to help me?"

  "Every last one of us," Chris promised, taking Jack's hand. When Chris jerked his head at him, Matthew obediently rested his own hand on top.

  "All for one and all that jazz." Chris turned to Gallowglass. "What are you waiting for? Get over here and join us."

  "Bah. The Musketeers were all tossers," Gallowglass said, scowling as he stalked toward them. In spite of his dismissive words, Matthew's nephew laid his huge paw atop theirs. "Don't be telling Baldwin about this, young Jack, or I'll give your evil wolf a double helping of dinner."

  "What about you, Andrew?" Chris called across the room.

  "I believe the saying is 'Un pour tous, tous pour un,' not 'All for one and all that jazz.'"

  Matthew winced. The words were right enough, but Hubbard's Cockney accent made them practically unintelligible. Philippe should have delivered a French tutor along with the cello.

  Hubbard's gaunt hand was the last to join the pile. Matthew saw his thumb move top to bottom, then right to left, as the priest bestowed his blessing on their strange pact. They were an unlikely band, Matthew thought: three creatures related by blood, a fourth bound by loyalty, and a fifth who had joined them for no apparent reason other than that he was a good man.

  He hoped that, together, they would be enough to help Jack heal.

  *

  In the aftermath of his furious activity, Jack had wanted to talk. He sat with Matthew and Hubbard in the living room, surrounded by his past, and shifted the burden of some of his harrowing experiences onto Matthew's shoulders. On the subject of Benjamin, however, he was mute. Matthew wasn't surprised. How could words convey the horror Jack had endured at Benjamin's hands?

  "Come on, Jackie," Gallowglass interrupted, holding up Lobero's leash. "Mop needs a walk."

  "I'd like a bit of fresh air, too." Andrew unfolded from a strange red chair that looked like a piece of modern sculpture but that Matthew had discovered was surprisingly comfortable.

  As the front door closed, Chris sauntered into the living room with a fresh cup of coffee. Matthew didn't know how the man survived with so much caffeine in his veins.

  "I talked to your son tonight--your other son, Marcus." Chris took up his usual seat in the plantation chair. "Nice guy. Smart, too. You must be proud of him."

  "I am," Matthew said warily. "Why did Marcus call?"

  "We called him." Chris sipped at his coffee. "Miriam thought he should see the video. Once he had, Marcus agreed we should take some more blood from Jack. We took two samples."

  "You what?" Matthew was aghast.

  "Hubbard gave me permission. He is Jack's next of kin," Chris replied calmly.

  "You think I'm worried about informed consent?" Matthew was barely able to keep his temper in check. "Drawing blood from a vampire in the grip of blood rage--you could have been killed."

  "It was a perfect opportunity to monitor the changes that take place in a vampire's body chemistry at the onset of blood rage," Chris said. "We'll need that information if we want to have a shot at coming up with a medicine that might lessen the symptoms."

  Matthew frowned. "Lessen the symptoms? We're looking for a cure."

  Chris reached down and picked up a folder. He offered it to Matthew. "The latest findings."

  Both Hubbard and Jack had been swabbed and given blood samples. They'd been rushed through processing, and their genome report was due any day. Matthew took the folder with nerveless fingers, afraid of what he might find inside it.

  "I'm sorry, Matthew," Chris said with heartfelt regret.

  Matthew's eyes raced over the results, flipping the pages.

  "Marcus identified them. No one else would have. We weren't looking in the right place," Chris said.

  Matthew couldn't absorb what he was seeing. It changed . . . everything.

  "Jack has more of the triggers in his noncoding DNA than you do." Chris paused. "I have to ask, Matthew. Are you sure you can trust Jack around Diana?"

  Before Matthew could respond, the front door opened. There was none of the usual chatter that accompanied Jack's appearance, or Gallowglass's cheerful whistling, or Andrew's pious sermonizing. The only sound was Lobero's low whine.

  Matthew's nostrils flared, and he leaped to his feet, the test results scattering around him. Then he was gone, moving to the doorway in a flash.

  "What the hell?" Chris said behind him.

  "We met someone while we were out walking," Gallowglass said, leading a reluctant Lobero into the house.

  Move," Baldwin commanded, holding Jack by the scruff of his neck. Matthew had seen that hand tear another vampire's head clean off.

  Jack hadn't witnessed that brutal episode, but he knew he was at Baldwin's mercy just the same. The boy was white-skinned and wide-eyed, with enormous black pupils. Not surprisingly, he obeyed Baldwin without hesitation.

  Lobero knew it, too. Gallowglass still held the leash, but the dog circled the Gael's feet with eyes fixed on his master.

  "It's okay, Mop," Jack assured his dog in a whisper, but Lobero was having none of it.

  "Trouble, Matthew?" Chris was so close that Matthew could feel his breath.

  "There's always trouble," Matthew said grimly.

  "Go home," Jack urged Chris. "Take Mop, too, and--" Jack stopped with a wince. Blood suffused the skin on his neck where Baldwin's fingertips were leaving a dark bruise.

  "They're staying," Baldwin hissed.

  Jack had made a strategic error. Baldwin delighted in destroying what other people loved. Some experience in his past must have shaped the impulse, but Matthew had never discovered what it was. Baldwin would never let Chris or Mop go now. Not until he got what he came for.

  "And you don't give orders. You take them." Baldwin was careful to keep the boy between him and Matthew as he pushed him toward the living room. It was a devastatingly simple and effective tactic, one that brought back painful memories.

  Jack is not Eleanor, Matthew told himself. Jack was a vampire, too. But he was Matthew's blood, and Baldwin could use him to bring Matthew to heel.

  "That stunt you pulled in the square will be the last time you challenge me, mongrel." Baldwin's shirt showed teeth marks at the shoulder, and there were beads of blood around the torn fabric.

  Christ. Jack had bitten Baldwin.

  "But I'm not yours." Jack sounded desperate. "Tell him that I belong to you, Matthew!"

  "And who do you think Matthew belongs to?" Baldwin whispered in his ear, quietly menacing.

  "Diana," Jack snarled, turning on his captor.

  "Diana?" Baldwin's laugh was mocking, and the blow he gave Jack would have flattened a warmblood twice his size and weight. Jack's knees met the hard wooden floors. "Get in here, Matthew. And shut that dog up."

  "Disavow Jack before the de Clermont sire and I'll see you to hell personally," Hubbard hissed, grabbing at Matthew's sleeve as he went past.

  Matthew looked at him coldly, and Hubbard dropped his arm.

  "Let him go. He's my blood," Matthew said, stalking into the room. "Then go back to Manhattan where you belong, Baldwin."

  "Oh," Chris said in a tone that suggested he finally saw the light. "Of course. You live on Central Park, don't you?"

  Baldwin didn't reply. In fact, he owned most of that stretch of Fifth Avenue and liked to keep a close eye on his investments. Recently he had been developing his hunting ground in the Meatpacking District, filling it with nightclubs to complement the butcher shops, but as a rule he preferred not to reside where he fed.

  "No wond
er you're such an entitled bastard," Chris said. "Well, buddy, you're in New Haven now. We play by different rules here."

  "Rules?" Baldwin drawled. "In New Haven?"

  "Yeah. All for one and all that jazz." It was Chris's call to arms.

  Matthew was so close that he could feel Chris's muscles bunch and was prepared when the small knife went past his ear. The thin blade was so insignificant that it would barely have damaged a human's skin, never mind Baldwin's tough hide. Matthew reached up and pinched it between his fingertips before it could reach its target. Chris scowled at him reproachfully, and Matthew shook his head.

  "Don't." Matthew might have let Chris get in a solid punch, but Baldwin had narrower views when it came to the privileges that should be afforded to warmbloods. He turned to Baldwin. "Leave. Jack is my blood and my problem."

  "And miss all the fun?" Baldwin bent Jack's head to the side. Jack looked up at Baldwin, his expression black and deadly. "Quite a resemblance, Matthew."

  "I like to think so," Matthew said coolly, giving Jack a tight smile. He took Lobero's lead from Gallowglass. The dog quieted immediately. "Baldwin might be thirsty. Offer him a drink, Gallowglass."

  Maybe that would sweeten Baldwin's mood long enough to get Jack safely away. Matthew could send him to Marcus's house with Hubbard. It was a better alternative than Diana's house on Court Street. If his wife got wind of Baldwin's presence, she'd be on Wooster Square with a firedrake and a lightning bolt.

  "I've got a full larder," Gallowglass said. "Coffee, wine, water, blood. I'm sure I could scare up some hemlock and honey if you'd prefer that, Uncle."

  "What I require only the boy can provide." Without warning or preamble, Baldwin's teeth ripped into Jack's neck. His bite was savage, deliberately so.

  This was vampire justice--swift, unbending, remorseless. For minor infractions the sire's punishment would consist only of this public show of submission. Through that blood the sire received a thin trickle of his progeny's innermost thoughts and memories. The ritual stripped a vampire's soul bare, making him shamefully vulnerable. Acquiring another creature's secrets, by whatever means, sustained a vampire in much the same way the hunt did, nourishing that part of his soul that forever sought to possess more.

  If the offenses were more significant, the ritual of submission would be followed by death. Killing another vampire was physically taxing, emotionally draining, and spiritually devastating. It was why most vampire sires appointed one of their kin to do it for them. Though Philippe and Hugh had polished the de Clermonts' facade to a high sheen over the centuries, it was Matthew who had performed all of the house's dirty maintenance.