Fevre Dream Page 0,49

wield great animal magnetism, however, the force Mesmer wrote about, and can often compel their victims to ask them in. But a cross will send them fleeing, garlic can bar them, and they cannot cross running water. Though they look much like you and I, they have no souls, and therefore are not reflected in mirrors. Holy water will burn them, silver is anathema to them, daylight can destroy them if dawn catches them away from their coffins. And by severing their heads from their bodies and driving a wooden stake through their hearts, one can rid the world of them permanently." Joshua sat back and took up his drink, sipped, smiled. "Those vampires, Abner," he said. He tapped the book with a long finger. "This is the story of a few of them. They are real. Old, eternal, and real. A sixteenth-century odoroten wrote this book, about those who had gone before him. A vampire."

Abner Marsh said nothing.

"You do not believe me," said Joshua York.

"It ain't easy," Marsh admitted. He tugged at the coarse hairs of his beard. There were other things he didn't say. Joshua's talk of vampires didn't bother him half so much as his own disquiet about where Joshua himself fit in. "Let's not worry if I believe or not," Marsh said. "If I can take Mister Framm's stories, I can at least lissen to yours. Go on."

Joshua smiled. "You're a clever man, Abner. You should be able to figure things out by yourself."

"I don't feel so damn clever," Marsh said, "Tell me."

York sipped, shrugged. "They are my enemies. They are real, Abner, and they are here, all along your river. Through books like these, through research in newspapers, through much painstaking work, I have tracked them from the mountains of Eastern Europe, the forests of the Germans and Poles, the steppes of Russia. Here. To your Mississippi Valley, to the new world. I know them, I bring an end to them and all the things they have ever been." He smiled. "Now do you comprehend my books, Abner? And the blood on my hands?"

Abner Marsh thought on that for a spell before he replied. He finally said, "I recollect how you wanted mirrors all up and down the grand saloon instead of oil paintings and such. For... protection?"

"Exactly. And silver. Did you ever know a steamer to wear so much silver?"

"No."

"And, of course, we have the river. The old devil river. The Mississippi. Running water such as the world has never seen! The Fevre Dream is a sanctuary. I can hunt them, you see, but they cannot come near us."

"I'm surprised you didn't tell Toby to season everything with garlic," Marsh said.

"I thought of it," Joshua said. "But I dislike garlic."

Marsh mulled it all over. "Just say I believe this," he said. "I ain't sayin' that's so, but just for the sake of argument I'll go along. Still got some things that bother me. How come you didn't tell me before?"

"If I'd told you at the Planters' House, you'd never have let me buy into your company. I need the power to go where I must."

"And how come you only go out by night?"

"They prowl by night. It is easier to find them when they go abroad than when they are safe in their sanctuaries, hidden. I know the ways of those I hunt. I keep their hours."

"And those friends of yours? Simon and the rest?"

"Simon has been my associate for a long time. The others have joined me more recently. They know the truth, they assist me in my mission. As I hope you shall, henceforth." Joshua chuckled. "Don't worry, Abner, all of us are as mortal as you are."

Marsh fingered his beard. "Let me have a drink," he said. When York leaned forward, he added quickly, "No, not that stuff, Joshua. Something else. Got any whiskey?"

York rose and poured him a glass. Marsh drained it straightaway. "I can't say I like any of this. Dead folks, blood drinkin', all that stuff, I never believed in none of it."

"Abner, this is a dangerous game I play. I never meant to involve you or your crew in any of it. I would never have told you as much as I have, but you insisted. If you wish to deal yourself out, I have no objections. Do as I tell you, run the Fevre Dream for me, that is all I ask. I will deal with them. Do you doubt my capacity to do so?"

Marsh looked