The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix Page 0,138
I’ve got, and I don’t expect you to. But you owe me. You protected yourself, but you didn’t do a thing for the children of Six Mile because they weren’t worthwhile to you. Well, now he’s coming after your children. Mrs. Campbell’s daughter is one of you. Mrs. Paley is supposed to be your friend. Mrs. Scruggs saw Francine’s body in his house. What are you made of, Mrs. Cavanaugh, that lets you walk away from your friends?”
They watched Grace cycle through a dozen different emotions, a hundred possible responses, her jaw working, her chin clenching, the cords in her neck twitching. Mrs. Greene stared back at her, jaw outthrust. Then Grace pushed past her, threw open the door, and slammed it behind her.
In the silence, none of them moved. The only sound was wind whistling through a chink in the window’s weatherstripping.
“She’s right,” Slick said. “All of us…got scared and sacrificed the children of Six Mile…for our own. We were…embarrassed and frightened. Proverbs says…‘Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain…is a righteous man who gives way…before the wicked.’ We gave way…We wanted to believe…that Patricia was wrong because it meant we didn’t have to do…anything hard.”
Patricia decided it was safe to push them to the next step.
“I don’t know if the word is vampire or monster,” Patricia said. “But I’ve seen him like this twice and Slick has seen it once. He’s not like us. He can live for a very long time. He’s strong. He can see in the dark.”
“His willpower can make animals do his bidding,” Mrs. Greene said.
Patricia looked over at her, both of them thinking about the rats, about the way the house smelled for days after, about Miss Mary in the hospital, unconscious, her wounds stained with iodine, breathing through a tube. Patricia nodded.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “And he needs to put his blood through people to live. They get addicted to him. Right now, Korey would stab me in the back for him to suck on her again. That’s how good it feels. He’s gotten everything he wants, so why would he stop by himself? We need to stop him.”
“Again,” Maryellen said, “we’re a book club, not a bunch of detectives. If he’s so much stronger than us, this is futile.”
“You think…we can’t match him?” Slick asked from her bed. “I’ve had three children…And some man who’s never felt…his baby crown is stronger than me? Is tougher than me? He thinks he’s safe…because he thinks like you…He looks at Patricia and thinks we’re all a bunch of Sunshine Suzies…He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”
There was a long pause, and then Patricia spoke.
“He has one weakness,” Patricia said. “He’s alone. He’s not connected to other people, he doesn’t have any family or friends. If one of us so much as misses a car pool pickup everyone starts dropping by the house to make sure we’re okay. But he’s a loner. If we can make him disappear, totally and completely, there’s no one to ask questions. There may be a hard day or two but they will pass, and it will be like he never existed.”
Maryellen turned her face to the ceiling, arms out in a shrug. “How are you sitting here talking like this is normal? We’re six women. Five women, because I don’t think Grace is coming back. I mean, Kitty, your husband has to open jars for you.”
“It’s not…about that,” Slick said, eyes blazing. “It’s not about…our husbands or anyone else…it’s about us. It’s about whether…we can go the distance. That’s what matters…not our money, or our looks, or our husbands…Can we go the distance?”
“Not with killing a man,” Maryellen said.
“He’s not a man,” Mrs. Greene said.
“Listen to me,” Slick said. “If there were…a toxic waste dump in this city…that caused cancer…we would not stop until we closed it down. This is no different. This is our families’ safety we’re talking about…our children’s lives. Are you willing to gamble…with those?”
Maryellen leaned forward and touched Kitty’s leg. Kitty looked up from studying her knees.