“Mistress, let me be your champion!” Durgan shouted.
“He’s still alive?” BT asked me quietly.
“Apparently,” I said dejectedly.
“That could be amusing,” Eliza said.
“As soon as you open that door, I’ll blow a hole in his friggen’ head,” I said, meaning every word.
“Not very sporting of you, Michael,” Eliza laughed.
“I don’t much see any reason why I should get the snot beat out of me before I die,” I told her.
“But yet you wish to fight with me. Surely you know that there is not a mortal on this world that can defeat me,” Eliza said triumphantly.
“I would only agree to fight you if you let my family and friends go unharmed, to live out their lives as they see fit.” “Michael, the fun will be when I kill them all one by one as you watch. I could never let them go. Perhaps we can work out a different arrangement.” “I’m listening,” What choice did I have?
“What if I allowed Durgan to fight you? If you best him, I would allow your family and friends to go unharmed.” “And what of my husband?” Tracy asked.
“Either way he dies, of course, and in front of his family,” Eliza answered as if this were the most insane question she had ever heard.
“No, Talbot!” Tracy said thrusting a finger in my face.
“Tracy, I will do whatever I can to make sure that all of you are safe.” “What makes you think she will honor her end of the agreement?”
“What makes you think he could beat me?” Durgan yelled.
I hadn’t thought about Eliza not following through with her promise but it wasn’t like Vampires were noted for their honor.
“Eliza, how valid is your word?” I asked, although what was I expecting? If she lied about the first part, wouldn’t she do the same with the second? Maybe some morality would bleed through. Yup, little known fact, soulless demons can’t tell two lies in a row.
“Cross my heart and hope to die, Michael,” Eliza said coolly.
“Mike, technically her heart doesn’t beat and she is already dead,” Gary cautioned.
“Thanks for that,” I told him.
“Mike, let me fight Durgan, I’ve been wanting to bust his ass up forever,” BT said with a smile that scared the hell out of me. “I’ll fight that racist prick! I’ll be Mike’s champion!” BT yelled before I had a chance to tell him this was my fight.
“What is this, 1634?” I said, “I can fight my own damn battles.”
“Who you kidding Mike? He’ll kick your ass,” BT said none too softly.
“Don’t sugarcoat it man, tell me like it is,” I replied, a little perturbed at his lack of faith in me.
“Oh hell man, you know what I meant,” BT said, back peddling.
“Yeah, that he’d kick my ass,” I told him crossly.
“That’s what he said,” Gary clarified.
“I have no beef with you!” Durgan shouted through the door, “But me and Mike have some reckoning to complete.” Durgan sounded like the coward that he was. He would only fight when the odds were clearly stacked in his favor. I was sort of surprised that he would even decide to go one on one. He probably figured that Eliza would have his back if I somehow got the upper hand. Although I doubted first that I would get the upper hand and second that Eliza cared anything about him.
“Did he say reckoning?” BT asked. “What kind of cracker ass speak is that?”
“I will allow it,” Eliza said as if she controlled the entire production, which ultimately she did.
“Okay, so there’s a lot going on right now. What exactly are you allowing?” Mad Jack asked her.
Damn, his balls must be the size of small boulders. His stock just went up in my eyes.
“I will allow Durgan to fight Michael,” Eliza intoned smugly.
BT shrugged his shoulders in frustration.
“Michael, if Durgan kills you,” she started.
“When,” Durgan said interrupting her.
“You do that again, I will rip your throat out,” Eliza told Durgan.
“If Durgan kills you,” she continued disdainfully, “those that you are with give themselves up willingly.” Murmurs of protests arose from the group. I couldn’t blame them.
“I can’t speak for the people around me,” I told her.
“You will allow my zombies onto the roof with you during the fight so that I can be sure YOU hold up your end of the agreement.” “What if I say no?” I asked her.
“I will burn this building and everybody in it, or on it, to the ground.”
“And when I win?” I said running my hand through my now sweating hair.
Durgan snorted in derision.
“If you should somehow best my champion,” Eliza said mockingly, “I will allow everyone you are with to walk away from this site unharmed.”
“I wouldn’t trust her,” Meredith whispered next to me.
“Will you allow them to live out their lives without your interference?” I asked.
“No,” she answered.
“Most likely the first honest thing she’s said,” Alex said.
“I understand that you humans like to confer on matters of importance. I will give you one hour and then you will give me your decision,” Eliza said. I could hear her entourage heading back down the stairs, her zombies following suit.
“Clearly the answer is no,” Mrs. Deneaux was the first to pipe up.
“I’d really like to thank you, but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with my personal safety,” I told her.
Mrs. Deneaux smirked at me.
“Should we take a vote?” I asked the group.
Deneaux shrugged.
“No,” Tracy said.
“No,” Justin echoed his mother. I looked at him sternly but the vote was already cast.
“Yes,” Travis said. Tracy looked at him with a smoldering gaze that said that she was going to ground him for damn near forever.
“I don’t see what choice we have. I say yes,” Brian said. I nodded to him and received the same back.
“If Brian thinks it’s a good idea than so do I,” Cindy said firmly.
Perla was not dealing well with the whole proposal. Cindy went over to her and attempted to calm her down. “NO!” Perla shouted. “I am sick of seeing people die!”
I turned to Deneaux who had walked away to light another cigarette. “You already got my answer,” she said, never turning back lest the oncoming breeze put out her lighter’s flame.
“I will not place the fate of my children in the hands of him,” Marta spat.
“Does that count as three votes?” Meredith asked the group.
I shook my head no.
Gary walked up and looked me in the eyes for a lot longer than I felt comfortable with. “I think he can do it. I vote yes.”
“That was strange, but thanks for the vote of confidence… I think,” I told him.
“Oh, I didn’t see anything,” Gary said. “I was just trying to instill some confidence in you.”
“Again thanks, and don’t tell me any more.”
“Mike, I’ll vote however you want me to,” Paul said, coming up to me.
“I can’t tell you how to vote. It’s your lives on the line,” I told him.
“I trust you like no other,” Paul told me. “I vote yes.”
Erin placed her arm around Paul’s waist. “As do I,” she said.
“Do you people not understand what you’re doing?” Tracy screamed, “You are sentencing him to a certain death. Whether by Durgan or Eliza, Mike will not survive this!”
She was pissed. I briefly thought about going over to calm her down, but she’d just as likely pitch me over the side.
“We should all be fighting as one,” she continued adamantly.
“Tracy, there won’t be a fight,” Alex said to her pacifying her a bit. “Eliza will merely burn this place down. I would think that Mike would be honored that some of us survive rather than all of us perish. I vote yes.”