Part 36 (1/2)

”I still have to call her, David. I know she's worried ...”

”Later. Not now,” David said. He got out of the car and opened her door for her. Always the gentleman. ”Come on out.”

No. She couldn't go that way. If she did, she'd have to climb past Teacake on the seat. ”The cat...” she began.

David was silent, apparently examining Teacake. He sighed, and she could only imagine what he must be seeing. ”The cat's fine,” he said inexplicably.

The cat was fine? Her heart leaping, Jessica ventured a glance. Teacake's blank eyes met hers. Jesus help. Teacake didn't even look like a real animal anymore, he looked like something somebody had stuffed. His mouth was horrid, frozen slighdy open. She turned away, nauseated. ”He's dead, David.”

”Shhhhhh. Don't say that. Kira will hear. I'll take care of Teacake. Come on out. I can't leave you in the car.”

It all felt so painfully familiar, just as when Jessica had walked into her house for what she'd known would be the last time. Inside the cramped motel room, as Jessica dropped her purse on top of the plain bureau, she thought of their countless family vacations that had begun this way. The room was bare and smelled clean in the way motels could, a smell that was foreign and new and full of promise.

Her eyes shot toward the nightstand between the double beds right away, looking for the telephone. Nothing there except a bra.s.s banker-style lamp. Not even a Bible.

”No phone. Sorry, this isn't exactly the Fontainebleau. We get what we pay for,” David said evenly, following her gaze. He clapped his hands together once, turning toward Kira. ”But there's a TV. Let's see if we can find any afternoon cartoons.”

”It's time for Muppet Babies, Daddy. The clock says two!”

”They might have different cartoons in Louisiana, d.u.c.h.ess.”

”Lew-see-ANNA ...” Kira repeated, bouncing on one of the beds.

While David fumbled with the television k.n.o.bs to try to clear up the reception, Kira scooted off of the bed and began to creep toward the closet. ”No, Kira,” Jessica said, speaking for the first time since they'd walked into the room.

Kira looked back at her, sticking out her lip. ”I want to play with Teacake.”

”Teacake's still sleeping,” David said, walking over to lift Kira up and carry her back to the bed. ”You stay put. You can play with him in a few hours. Maybe when it gets dark.”

Jessica glared at David, feeling a fluttering across the back of her neck. He was insane. If she'd ever doubted it, she knew it now. Why the h.e.l.l had he carried a dead cat into the room and hidden him behind the mirrored closet doors? He should have left Teacake in the car, then gotten rid of him and told Kira he ran away. Anything would be better than such a gruesome lie. Teacake must have been dead for at least two hours. What if the carca.s.s started to smell? And what if Kira snuck into the closet? The poor child would be hysterical.

And that would make two of them, because Jessica was about to be hysterical herself. She couldn't hold it in much longer.

Jessica realized she could barely keep her balance. She shuffled to the bed where Kira sat and collapsed beside her, swaddling her like they were two fetuses in a womb. Could she protect her daughter now? And would someone protect her?

My G.o.d, my G.o.d, she thought, remembering the Book of Psalms from Sunday school, why hast thou forsaken me?

There is one way, at least, they cannot harm you or Kira.

Why art thou so far from helping me?

Tell me about the Ritual, David.

O my G.o.d, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not.

It's miracle blood.

Jessica couldn't move. Her thoughts were running wild, zipping circles in her head. And she was so, so sleepy. She wanted to touch Kira's face, but her limbs felt like they were a dozen times their normal weight. Jessica gazed across the room, and she found David staring at her. Behind him, she could see her own reflection, and Kira's, in the bureau mirror.

”You put something in my drink,” she said, knowing for the first time as she said it, ”the one from the burger place.”

”It was just a Sprite, Jess.” His lies never ended.

”Why do you want me to sleep?”

David didn't answer. He was leaning against the bureau, his arms folded in front of him. He was still beautiful, and his beauty made him more terrible to her. Jessica's eyelids fought until they closed, but she forced them open again. ”Not Kira, David. Don't give her anything. Promise me,” she said.

”Don't give me what?” Kira broke in, pulling her attention away from the crashes and frenzied cla.s.sical music playing on the cartoon. It sounded like Bugs Bunny. Kira nudged against Jessica. ”Don't give me what, Mommy?”

”Promise me, David.”

”Will you stay with me?” David asked Jessica. A soft plea.

Tears came to Jessica's eyes. She hoped Kira wouldn't look at her face and see the tears, since Kira's happy oblivion was the only joy Jessica had. What was David asking of her? And what was she agreeing to by not running from him?

”Nothing's going to happen to you,” David said slowly. ”And nothing is going to happen to Kira. Trust in that.”

”What's going to happen, Daddy?” Kira asked, bouncing impatiently. She hated it when they talked around her.

”Nothing, d.u.c.h.ess,” David said.

Jessica's eyelids won. Again, she slept.

She didn't know how much time had pa.s.sed. The TV was still on when her mind woke up, but it was playing a news program. Something about a deadly flood in India. Armageddon knocking, her mother always said. She didn't open her eyes at first, but she stirred because she smelled pizza in the room and heard paper bags crinkling as Kira and David unpacked food he must have had delivered. She was hungry, too, but she was more sleepy than hungry. She wouldn't get up yet. Just a little more rest.

Something heavy landed with a thump on Jessica's chest, and her startled eyes flew open.

There, in her face, were Teacake's green eyes. He meowed.

Jessica screamed. And then she screamed again, watching her dead cat scamper across the floor in a blur of bushy orange fur. Once her mouth was open, her screams couldn't stop.

”Baby? Honey? Listen to me. Please be calm and listen. I gave Teacake some of my blood. Do you understand? I never told you, but he's undergone the Ritual. That's why he woke up after he died. The same thing happened with me, remember? It takes a few hours. Just like at the cabin. Okay, Jessica? Tranquilo, sweetheart. Please?”

In an instant, the muddy cloudiness gave way to clarity.

David had been repeating the same words again and again, breathing fast. They were scuffing the motel's cheap plastic bathtub, where Jessica had tried to hide herself behind the smudged curtain. David was wrapped around her, nearly on top of her, smoothing her hair back with his palm. The top of her forehead, by now, felt raw and irritated from his touch. She shook her head away from him, resting her cheek against the plastic shower wall.

”When did you do that?” she said, barely loud enough to hear.

”Just before we went to the Everglades. That same morning, in the shed. I wanted to be certain I could do it.”

”You just ... gave him your blood?”

”That's why you found the syringe. I injected it.”

”And that's all? That's all you did?”