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Pierette came back into the room just as he said it. “Do you want me to leave again?”
“No, you are obviously part of Anita’s life, so whether I approve or—”
“Fredrick,” Judith said, touching his arm.
“Forgive me, Pierette, Anita.”
“Did you actually say you’ll walk me down the aisle to marry Jean-Claude?”
“I did.”
“Wow, what changed?”
Andria sighed. “Can’t you just take the good news for once? You always had to poke at things even when we children.”
“Yeah, I haven’t changed much.” I turned back to our dad. “Honestly, after the dinner disaster I gave up on you agreeing.”
“I can understand that; I behaved very badly at dinner, and I am so sorry for any part that my behavior played in what came after.”
“If I hadn’t stormed out, our security would have been in place. I let my temper get the better of me.”
“So did I.”
“You’re both too much alike sometimes,” Judith said.
I nodded. “Maybe we are.”
“You asked what changed my mind. It was seeing Wicked and Truth injured like that. I didn’t think they were vampires and it was holy water burning them as evil creatures. I just thought, there are two people hurting and maybe I can help them.”
“You were great, Dad,” Andria said.
He smiled at her and said, “Thank you, I appreciate you both backing me up.” He held Judith’s hand and then reached for Andria’s. They had that moment of family solidarity that seemed to always be denied me.
Josh patted my shoulder. “I wasn’t there either.”
I smiled at him. “Thanks.”
Dad turned to me. “If vampires were really evil, then I wouldn’t have been moved by their pain and suffering. I would have hesitated to help them, but I didn’t. Maybe there is more than one way to look at this, and I don’t want to miss your wedding.”
I stared into his blue eyes so like Grandma’s and didn’t believe it. It was too good to be true, and if being a cop had taught me anything, it was that if it’s too good, then it’s not real. “That’s great, Dad.”
Pierette pushed away from the cabinets where she’d been leaning. “Is that more of the shutters opening?”
I listened and there it was, distant. I didn’t know why, but I ran for the bedroom and Jean-Claude. Maybe Grandma Blake was only opening the bathroom shutters so she had more light, but…she wouldn’t do that, but even as I thought it I was running and praying.
There was light in the hallway, light coming under the door to the bedroom. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I screamed, “Jean-Claude!”
“Stand back,” Pierette said. She pushed me out of the way andkicked the door by the knob, by the lock trying to get that to break, but it was a good door and a good lock; we’d made sure of it.
“Grandma, don’t do this! Don’t do this!” I was leaning against the wall watching the sunlight under the door, knowing Jean-Claude was in there in a flood of early-morning light. It was too late. Oh God, it was too late.
Magda was there and together they burst through the door. That got me up and pushing my way through them. Sunlight spilled through the window and across the empty bed. My grandmother was dragging him by his arms to get him closer to the light. Pierette tackled her, and I rolled over the bed to get to Jean-Claude sooner. He lay on his stomach on the floor, with his hair spilled down his back, to the perfect spill of his hip and down his body, still perfect and whole.
Pierette had my grandmother pinned in the pile of stuffed toy penguins in the corner. “Why won’t he burn? He’s supposed to burn like the devil he is!” my grandmother shouted from the pile of stuffed penguins where Pierette had her trapped.
I collapsed beside Jean-Claude and the miracle of him lying there in sunlight unharmed. I touched his back and he was still cool to the touch, still dead to everything, but he wasn’t burning.
“I wanted to show you that you will burn in hell with him if you marry him, but he won’t burn!”
