I had suddenly lost my appetite.
“Is it always so...quiet around here?” I asked, wanting a reason for the desolate surroundings.
“Not quite like this,” Kace said, still with his eyes between the hole in the board. “This only happened recently.”
The humans know something’s up, I thought, which struck me as funny in this neighborhood as dangerous as it normally was. They probably had no idea what they were picking up on, just that they were picking up on something. Humans and vampires were more tuned in to each other than we realized. What affected one, affected the other, just imperceptibly.
“So when did it get like this?” Lola asked.
“Three or four weeks ago,” Kace said, turning around this time. “I...I can’t explain it. It was like a dark cloud settled over and peopled scurried away before the storm hit. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, and, honestly, I was pissed. I just assumed someone else had moved into my territory, but the weird thing was I couldn’t pick them up.”
“So you can’t pick up Ivy’s gift when he’s around?” I asked.
“Not that I can tell,” Kace said. “I only knew he was here when I ran into him.”
He stopped here, and something fell over his face that I wasn’t immediately able to place.
“But something was wrong. I knew that much.”
“He’s a patterner, you know,” I said.
“Is he?” Kace said, looking surprised. “That’s interesting.”
I briefly wondered if Ivy was still able to use it since Kace couldn’t pick it up. Not that it mattered. The damage was already done. But still.
“He’s creating for gifts, you know,” Kace said. “Hand picking them, in a sense, for what he needs.”
“And let me guess, the ones he doesn’t need become food for the others,” Matt said, and I was a little surprised that he spoke up, though his insight was right on.
“Ah, beauty and brains,” Kace said and flashed his famous smile. “Yes, that’s right.”
Lola made a noise of disgust and I made it inwardly, though it must have shown on my face.
“Interesting though,” Kace went on, “one I know he doesn’t have...is speed.”
“Is that why you targeted us?” Matt asked, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Partly,” Kace said. “Or maybe I should say you made the prospect of you all being my security team that much more attractive.” Kace stopped, looked down at the floor, and kicked a piece of debris. “Funny he can’t find one, considering what a common gift it is.”
Kace didn’t mean it as an insult, but Matt’s face fell at his comment, though his arms remained crossed. It was funny how sensitive vampires could be about their gifts. Matt upset because his is too common, Lola upset because her gift never seemed to have much purpose.
“So where is he? Ivy?” I asked. I didn’t want to stand here all night having a discussion. We had made it this far and I was ready to get moving.
“Headquarters is about six or seven blocks from here. But he occupies other houses as well and, I think, one of the abandoned warehouses. That’s where the bodies are anyway.”
All four of us were silent for longer than we intended and finally Matt cleared his throat.
“Are we going to headquarters?” Matt asked.
“No,” I said without hesitation. “No, we go to the warehouse first.”
Matt and Lola looked at me but didn’t offer any other suggestions or argue. They were getting used to my new gift the same as I was.
“The knower speaks,” Kace said, spreading his arms widely in a theatrical gesture.
3
There was more walking, but finally we made it to the warehouse.
Along the way, Kace mentioned that he was only picking up one or two other vampires in the area and Lola confirmed it. He wondered out loud where all the others were. I had a pretty good idea.
“Now remember, I can’t pick up Ivy,” Kace said.
“Yeah, I can’t either,” said Lola.
“But, he’s almost never around that warehouse. Keeps others on watch if he feels the need to.”
“So are we going to surprise someone?” I asked, hoping we could avoid being seen, much less a fight.
“Well...we’ll have to move in cautiously, but between the four of us, I don’t think it will be a problem.”
We walked up to a fence that wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping people out of the area. Matt leaped right over it, landing gracefully on the other side. Lola, Kace and I did the same, though all of us stopped at the top of the fence first before making the jump down to the other side.
“Does he have someone who can jump?” I asked, not sure why.
“Two of them,” Kace answered as his feet hit the ground.
This area was dangerous to humans in some way, I realized as the four of us walked toward the old, dilapidated building. That’s why he was using it because no one wanted to go here to begin with.
Whether it was the building materials or something in the air or the ground, humans didn’t want to touch this place. Of course, vampires were immune.
It wasn’t immediately apparent to me how to get in. A large, garage-type door was shut, and I didn’t see any other entrances.
Kace pointed his finger upward and then at the side of the building where I could see a ladder. The jump to the roof could have been done by someone with the gift, but for the four of us we would have to climb at least part way.
Kace went first, jumping as high as he could get and then grabbing the ladder and continuing up to the roof.
I climbed up from the ground, as did Lola, making our way human-style onto the roof. Once I was up, I heard Matt hit the ladder hard as he jumped almost to the top. He only had to climb up a few rungs to get onto the roof. He was breathing hard as he crested the top. He had made it a little farther than Kace had in one jump.
“Show off,” Kace said with disdain on his face, but making direct eye contact with Matt. Matt smirked back.
Suddenly Kace dropped out of sight, and as I got closer to the place where he disappeared, I saw that he had fallen—purposefully, of course—through a hole in the roof.
I looked down and saw him waving up from the bottom.
I jumped, landing on the hard concrete with grace, touching just the tips of a couple of fingers onto the floor for balance. As I stood up, Matt and Lola dropped down beside me.
We were in a large, completely open room with scraps of metal here and there and trash lying around. The moonlight fell into the room from one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and it was brilliant in my night vision, like a neon-blue river of light, ever flowing. My eyes caught the nooks and crannies of the place, all filled in with brilliance. It was like being in a most beautiful dump.
I took a moment to find my inner stillness, to see what I could deduce about this place. I think it may have been one of the first times I ever purposefully used my gift and knew what I was doing.
My attention went directly to a door behind me, probably a closet, and without waiting for the others I walked over to it and tried to open it. It was locked. No surprise there. So I backed up and kicked it open, breaking the door frame in the process. I realized too late that may not have been the smartest move, as Ivy’s people would know someone had been here.
The smell was overwhelming.
I knew instantly it wouldn’t be picked up by humans, but to my nose all I could smell was rot and decay. I wondered briefly if I really was smelling something or if that’s how the information was coming to me. It didn’t really matter either way because what I saw took my breath away.
Nine bodies lined up like sardines in a can, still as the grave and as silent as night, and I knew that this was sleep.
I had never seen it before—vampiric sleep—but as my eyes roved over the sleeping, a scream welled up from deep inside of me and got stuck. Like it couldn’t find its way out of my body. I felt claustrophobic and like I might pass out.
I think I actually started to fall because hands were on me, and then I was seated on the ground just outside the door. My head spun and my eyes saw double. I couldn’t hear anything, and I had to lie down.
Finally, sound came back and I got my voice again.
“Sit me up,” I said, sounds croaking from my throat.
Matt and Lola did as I asked, and I put my arms around my bent knees as I got my bearings.
Kace stood by silently, looking unnerved. I don’t think he expected me to have quite this reaction.
Lola stood up and left me with Matt to go look inside.
“I guess these are the bodies,” she said.
If I had been feeling better, I probably would have made a sarcastic comment about making obvious comments. Instead I worked on steadying myself and bringing my breathing back to normal.
“Look at their clothes,” she said, and I could see her pointing.
“Matt,” I whispered, “help me up.”
A large hand grabbed my forearm, and one went to my back. Then I was on my feet, but Matt still supported me.
I moved up beside Lola and looked inside the doorway again, this time taking a closer look.
Of the nine, two were dressed much differently than the others who all wore modern clothing. One wore clothes that looked like something I would have worn as a human, and the other wore clothes that would have been popular around a hundred years later. The implications of this hit me hard.
He had carried them with him through the centuries. Like souvenirs or keepsakes. He kept his victims close to him.
I wondered which of the other seven was his as well. Not that it mattered. They were all trapped.
“Maybe we can wake them?” Matt said, sounding hopeful. “I mean, if we get them blood?”
I felt sorry for Matt and I felt sorry for these bodies, these people. Lola took the lead for me.
“Matt, they have no blood left in them. If we gave them blood, there would be nothing for that blood to...wake up.”
This was the normal way sleep worked—for those who chose it.
“Well, we can try, can’t we?”
And before anyone else could talk him out of it, Matt bit his wrist and walked to one of the bodies.
He knelt down like a knight beside one woman and offered his wrist to her mouth, having to open it manually a little more. His blood dripped down her cheeks on both sides as it filled her mouth and went down her throat.
He stayed like that for maybe thirty seconds, bleeding into her and watching for any kind of a response.
But all remained still.
“Matt, I don’t think it’s working,” Lola said and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
The woman he was trying to revive lay just as she had the whole time, her face and mouth bloodied, but with no other perceptible changes.
“They can’t be woken,” Kace said, and Matt finally pulled his wrist away and stood up.
“So what’s happened to them?” Matt asked, looking more horrified than he had all night. “I mean, they’re asleep, but what does that mean? What can they...feel?”
“Well,” Kace said, picking his way carefully through the spaces between bodies, “it’s like they’re paralyzed but aware. Generally—or, so I’ve heard—with normal sleep your consciousness will eventually slow down, settle in, so to speak and literally decades will pass by in an instant. That’s why people do it. You’re aware, but only in the smallest sense. With these guys, who knows.
I had the sudden and intense visualization of being inside my body, almost looking out in a way, understanding what was going on around me, but not being able to speak or move and knowing that I would be like that forever. That I was stuck. I could know, but I could never be.
All four of us heard it at the same time. Something on the perimeter, outside the building. And like startled cats, our eyes and attention moved toward the source.
The sound would have been barely perceptible to even the most sensitive humans.
They were all vampire, I knew it, but I turned toward Lola to confirm.
I’m not picking them up, she communicated, and it was clear they were Ivy’s people.
I was sure they knew we were here, and going directly on instinct, I shut the door to the room we were in.
It went pitch black, and my night vision went on full force.
I could hear the others breathing and knew they were thinking this was crazy and plain dangerous.
Our visitors were on the roof, maybe five of them, and I heard the first of them drop onto the floor.
I wondered what exactly they wanted. Were they coming here anyway and happened upon us? Did they know we were here and came to get us? I wasn’t sure, but I had a plan. I wasn’t quite ready to face Ivy yet, and when I did, I wanted it to be on my own terms.
The bodies around us lay as still as ever, illuminated by darkness, and I imagined them breathing in and out, truly just sleeping. At the end of all this, whatever happened, I was going to find a way to release them. I made that promise, and I think they understood.
All footsteps outside the door stopped. I knew they were looking at the broken door frame and the door that wouldn’t quite shut. They didn’t expect us to be in here.
I wasn’t sure exactly what we were facing outside, what powers they had, although I was certain the copycat was one. That left four to deal with, and as I took a second to decide whether to flee or to confront them, I knew what needed to be done.
I tapped Matt on the arm and his muscle tensed in return, indicating he knew what I wanted him to do. He’d probably already thought of it himself.
They were scared, the ones outside, and I wondered if they had strict orders to protect these bodies. Were they scared of Ivy? Or scared of what we might have already done to the sleepers? Scared of what we were doing in here?
We were the trapped ones, but we had taken them by surprise.
The door creaked as someone placed a hand on it outside, and Matt breathed in and out slowly.
Inch by inch the door was pushed open until it was wide enough that a body could get out of it. I didn’t immediately see anyone outside but before I had too long to look, Matt burst out of the door.
There was a bang as the door flew off its hinges and yells as people hit the floor. With his burst of speed, Matt was like a bowling ball knocking pins aside, and it gave us just enough time to get out and get over to the—
Shit. I had forgotten.
We had jumped down into this building, but it was too high for us to jump back up.
The four of us were now in the main room again, in the center of a circle of our pursuers, who were quickly getting to their feet. There were actually six of them, and as I thought of the number of sleeping bodies, I realized this was Ivy’s inner circle.
The woman who crushed me the other night was to my left, on her feet again. She must be the muscle.
A male, to my right, pointed at me and I was betting anything he was the copycat. That left four unknowns.
The fact that we also had a copycat who essentially couldn’t use his gift against these people was killing me. Although I wondered if he would still be able to imitate them if he got close enough. Not as easy a solution, but still workable.
I grabbed Kace’s arm and put him on my left side, next to my friend from the other night. I was hoping he would get my drift.
“Well, you found us,” I said, breaking the silence and trying to stay on my toes. I still wasn’t sure what they wanted or what we should do.
“We did,” the copycat said. “And we have a message for you.”
“From Ivy?” I said, even though I knew the answer. “Alright, well, what’s the message?”
“Stay away.”
“Yeah, I already got that one,” I said, looking at the woman to my left. “It was a little heavy handed if you ask me.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” the copycat said.
“What’s he so de
sperate about? From what I understand, he now has the total package. Doesn’t sound like anything can stop him.”
“You can,” he said, and I was surprised that he was so blunt. “You have a new gift, and you’ve been to see The Three.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked. I understood how they knew about my gift, but not how I’d been to see The Three.
“We got some...uh, intelligence,” the copycat said and then laughed like he was a villain in a fairy tale.
The others laughed too and I wondered why they were so smug.
“Intelligence, huh? One of you must have a special gift.”
I actually wasn’t sure what kind of gift would give them that information, and as my brain tried to process it, a lump formed in my stomach and veins of anxiety branched out from that. Something wasn’t adding up.
“No, not at all. It wasn’t any of us who gave him that information. We got it from a friend of yours.”
Lola and Matt were right here beside me, and, what the hell, I didn’t have any other friends. Fuck, I had barely spoken to any vampires besides these two in decades. The exception being—
“Raven,” the copycat finished my thought, but not because he knew what it was.
The lump got bigger and the veins pulsed. My throat seemed tighten because I had to squeeze out my next words.
“Why would Raven give you that information?” I asked, arms crossed, trying to look cool and collected.
“Because we asked her,” the copycat said and started to move slowly around the perimeter of the group, arms clasped behind his back, looking every part the villain.
“That’s funny because every time I talk to her, I can barely get a straight answer.”
“Magics,” the copycat said, throwing up his arms in an exaggerated manner. Very similar to the manner in which Kace approached everything. Theatrical and dramatic. I wondered if the trait came along with the gift. “They’re all the same.”
The way he said that made me think he wasn’t a new creation. He’d been around the vampire block at least a few decades. But for the others, I wondered if they were brand new. Like, as in, they were human a month ago. That was an advantage.
Bored To Death_A Vampire Thriller Page 18