ass in a motel because that's my style and I run things here."
Felix grinned along with the rest of them and wondered why? Why? We haven't got a fucking prayer...
"Mr. Crow?" came from behind Adam. It was Annabelle's nurse. The men got to their feet.
"Is she... ?" Jack began.
The nurse smiled tightly. "She's awake again. She wants to talk to you."
"Right," said Jack, already moving. "The rest of you get moving. I want the motorhome here in an hour, with all the beds down. We've got to get some sleep before tonight."
Annabelle, near death, white as a sheet, surrounded by beeping electronics and pierced through with running tubes, still managed to be radiant.
Talk about style, thought Jack to himself as Davette got up and he took her seat.
"Annabelle," he whispered to her, "don't you ever sleep?"
She didn't even bother to smile. "Jack," she whispered huskily, "we've got to talk..."
But only she talked and Jack listened and he absolutely hated what he heard.
Annabelle had figured it out. She was half-dead, but she knew the score. She knew she couldn't move. She knew the night was coming. She knew the vampires, just like Jack, had their own connections. They knew who the Team was, knew all about them. Knew about her, had actually seen her and knew she was hurt.
And she knew they would come for her and the police would never know how to react or possibly even believe what they'd seen after it was all over.
No. She had decided. They must leave her here.
And Jack tried to reassure her, tried most of the junk Cat had just finished throwing at him, that it wasn't like they were trapped, they could always get out the back and, besides, there was no guarantee the vampires really would show up here and...
And she knew better, as always.
"Jack!" she pleaded, her eyes frantic, "you must go. You must save yourselves!"
And Crow looked right at her and said, "We'll see."
And she knew she had lost.
"At least get Davette."
"I've already taken care of that," Jack whispered to her "I put Felix on it."
And she almost smiled. "About time."
Then she sighed and looked away for a moment. When she looked back her eyes were filled with tears and she reached up her pale skinny arm to him and he leaned down so she could caress his dirty, unshaven face.
"Jack..." she sighed. "Sweet Jack. You were... You were always such a good boy..."
And he didn't cry because he couldn't let her carry that, too. But his eyes were hot and her tiny fingers on his face were the softest touch he had ever known.
Then she gave him a playful slap and pushed him a way.
"Where's my purse?" she demanded. "I must look a fright."
"Huh? You look fine..." sputtered Crow.
"What do you know about it?" she replied in her lady voice. "Find my purse, please."
So he rummaged around and found it and opened it and handed it to her.
"Oh, good," she said after she had glanced inside. "I've got my mirror. Now, run along."
Jack frowned. "Don't you think you should be resting? Or - "
"I repeat: what do you know about it? Now go away."
He rose, uncertain. "I'll get Davette," he offered.
"Oh, please, Jack. I think I can put my own makeup on after so-and-so many years. All of you: leave me alone to myself for just one instant. Please!"
"Well, okay," he muttered back, defeated once more. And he stumbled out through the curtain drawn around her bed and informed Davette and left to find the others.
The glass of water on the hospital tray was close by, but it took her a long time to reach it and the effort exhausted her. She lay back against the pillow, careful not to spill the cup, and rested a moment. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind but instead she saw the house in Pebble Beach and she saw the zoo and she saw the faces of all her boys who had died.
"Please, God!" she whispered. "No more of them. No more..."
And she leaned forward and fumbled one-handed through her purse and the pills were still there, where they had been for the last year.
My boys.
Part Three Chapter 28
Felix's disgust started kicking in when he had to shut down the Antwar Saloon.
He had to do it. It would delay his return to the hospital, but he couldn't have his customers and employees sitting innocently around the place while vampires wandered through looking for