“Get behind me and I’ll tie this around us,” said Vaughn. “You need to hold on as tight as you can.” Gus jumped onto Vaughn’s back and he lashed them together with the rope. “Hold the torch up higher or you’re going to set my hair on fire.”
Gus clamped his arms around Vaughn’s shoulders as he descended the ladder. “If I fall in here, I’ll die a virgin.”
“Ivan’s a virgin too, so you won’t be alone,” said Vaughn loudly.
“I am not,” said Ivan from the darkness above. “And don’t bring me into your stupid conversations.”
“At least Ivan has more possibilities than I do,” said Gus. “I’m the only gay guy around for miles.”
“Several of the men in the Food are gay,” said Vaughn.
“You never told me that,” said Gus.
“I thought you knew. You just never go to the rituals anymore.”
“I would if I’d known. How many are there?”
“Five or six. They’re the only men who let me feed on a regular basis. I actually prefer to drink from women and gay men because they’re more relaxed about the whole thing.”
“Then how come you never drink my blood?”
“You’re not part of the Food.”
“That shouldn’t matter: blood is blood.”
“Gus, if I ever fed from you I’d never hear the end of it.”
“I’d be your most devoted donor.”
“And you’d be pounding at my door every ten minutes.” Vaughn stopped climbing and peered closely at the pipe wall. “That looks like another door.”
Gus held the torch up, revealing a round piece of metal lodged into the cement. “What is that for?”
“Let’s find out.” Vaughn explored it with one hand, then gave it a push and it swung open. “After you, Gus.”
“Why me?”
“Because I don’t want to leave you on the ladder by yourself.”
“I thought going first was Ivan’s job.”
“Not this time, bucko,” said Ivan who still hovered in darkness above where he’d be able to scuttle out of reach if Vaughn went after him.
Vaughn shoved Gus through the door and waited.
There’s a huge room in here,” said Gus, his voice echoing.
Vaughn climbed in behind him and Ivan followed. They moved in a pack to the center of the floor where Gus swung the flame in all directions. Ten antique zoo cages, similar to the one in Kora’s cell, were scattered around the room.
“There’s something still inside this one.” Vaughn squatted down near an object spread across the floor of the nearest cage. “It’s the skeleton of an animal. Looks like a lion.”
“Here’s a wild boar,” said Gus from the next cage over.
“The animal menagerie,” said Ivan. “I always thought Humphrey was just making it up.”
“I wish we’d found the roller rink instead,” said Gus. “There are deep scratches in the floor around the doors. Ruby left these animals in here to starve.”
“That looks like a tank against the wall over there,” said Ivan. They moved slowly through rows of cages where skeletons pushed through the bars as if still struggling to free themselves from a slow, agonizing death. When they reached the tank, everyone gazed at the dried lumps lying on the bottom.
Gus leaned against the tank. “So part of Humphrey came from this sad place.”
A dry chuckle rattled Ivan's throat. “There must be some dead bats around here she used to make Vaughn.”
“Nice try, Ivan, but Kora made Vaughn, not Ruby,” said Gus.
Vaughn scowled at Gus who covered his mouth. “Oops. I thought Ivan already knew.”
The grin slipped off Ivan’s face. He looked between Gus and Vaughn. “What are you talking about?”
Vaughn rubbed his eyes. This wasn’t the time or the place he’d imagined telling Ivan. “Kora created me here, at the castle, before Ruby packed her off to Mirafield.”
“Randall was so impressed when he saw Vaughn, he gave Kora a full-ride scholarship to Mirafield for life,” said Gus.
“Did she tell you this?” asked Ivan.
Vaughn felt ashamed. Ivan looked oddly vulnerable, like a child on the verge of discovering a terrible truth. “I found out when I went to see Dr. Kimura.”
“Of course.” Ivan turned away with hunched shoulders. He was silent for a long time as he stared at one of the dead animals in a cage. “And I suppose she told you that Caleb and I are at death’s door while you—Kora’s masterpiece—will live forever?”
“Five hundred years,” said Vaughn. He’d intended to simply tell Ivan the truth, but the words hung in the air like a boast. This was going so badly, Vaughn decided he might as well dump it all out there. Get it over with. “Kora also fixed me last night so I’m no longer a vampire.”
“He can finally eat,” said Gus, throwing out his arms. “We won’t have to hide anymore when we chomp down your fabulous chocolate chip cookies.”
Ivan kept his back turned.
“Aren’t you going to congratulate him? Vaughn’s the world’s first recovered vampire,” said Gus.
Vaughn closed his eyes. He wished Gus were a thousand miles away right now.
“I always knew you weren’t one of us,” said Ivan, his voice raw. “At least now I don’t have to feel guilty for hating you so much.” He walked back through the cages in the direction of the pipe. They heard a scraping sound as he climbed back out to the ladder.
“You want to kill me, don’t you?” said Gus.
“Yes.” Vaughn roughly strapped Gus onto his back before climbing back through the hatch to the ladder. Ivan was nowhere in sight.
“One thing still bugs me,” said Gus. “Why is there a door from the menagerie into this pipe?”
Vaughn gazed into the darkness below. “I bet Ruby chopped the animals up, took what she needed, then discarded them through the door like a morbid laundry chute that lead straight to the catacomb.” He climbed down, eager to leave that terrible room far behind. After a few minutes, he heard something thrashing up the ladder from the darkness below and Ivan’s horrified face appeared in the torchlight.
“There’s nothing down there,” he said, attempting to scrabble over Vaughn to reach the ladder above.
Vaughn grabbed Ivan by his jacket and pinned him in place. “Did you see the catacomb?”
“It’s just a dead end. We should go back the way we came,” said Ivan, his bulging eyes ready to burst from his head.
Vaughn unpeeled Ivan from the ladder and held him out over the abyss where his arms and legs flailed in the air like a suspended beetle. “You’re coming back down with us.”
Ivan squealed and twisted, but Vaughn held him in a firm grip. “I think we might be near the bottom. Our sound waves are hitting something solid,” said Vaughn, who was now climbing with one man on his back and another dangling from his right arm.
“Seems a little too soon to see the catacomb floor,” said Gus.
Vaughn stepped down onto a flat surface. He untied the rope and Gus slid to the ground.
“Where are we?” Gus shined his torch across the floor and walls where something glittered. “What is this thing?” He leaned forward to examine a wooden board attached to the wall covered in tiny hooks. “There’s little hand-written labels above what appear to be keys… Maserati, Ferrari, Duesenberg.”
“We’re in the garage,” said Vaughn. “This is your hiding spot, isn’t it Ivan?” He gave him a vigorous shake.
Gus drew in a breath. “Are you telling me we just crawled through that claustrophobic slug hole and down a perilous ladder to get to the garage? We could have taken the stairway and arrived here hours ago. How could this happen? Why doesn’t the pipe continue down?”
Vaughn dropped Ivan onto the floor where he landed on his head. “Open it.”
Ivan rubbed his scalp as he shuffled over to a hidden latch. He pulled until they heard a loud pop that sent a seamless section of pipe sliding to one side. They all climbed ou
t and torches burst into flame revealing Ivan’s meticulous shop.
“At one time, this pipe went all the way down to the catacomb until a scheming elf decided he needed an elaborate hiding place for the car keys,” said Vaughn.
“But why didn’t Humphrey tell us he filled in this pipe?” asked Gus.
“I’m sure Humphrey had nothing to do with it,” said Vaughn. “Ivan probably just got some of his crew down here and they didn’t think twice.”
Vaughn stomped back over to the keys and held up the torch. “Look at them. They’re all here!”
He reached up to snatch the key to the Rolls, but Ivan flung himself in front of the board. “Please Vaughn—not this. I’ll do anything.”
Vaughn shoved him aside, grabbed keys by the handful, and tossed them to Gus who stuffed them into his robe pockets.
“You can have the Aston, Vaughn. It’s all yours,” cried Ivan, jumping in the air to try and grab the keys that arced over his fingertips. He drew in a quick breath when Vaughn lifted an ancient key off the lowest hook.
“What do we have here?” Vaughn held the key up to the torch; the metal was scuffed from a hundred years of getting shoved in and out of pockets.
“Looks like it goes to an ancient jalopy,” said Gus.
“Out of all the keys on this board, this is the only one I’m going to take,” said Vaughn.
Ivan moaned and dropped his face into his hands. “Please, god, no! This isn't happening.”
“What does it go to?” asked Gus, aware from Ivan’s agony that Vaughn had plucked up the holy grail.
“Tell Gus what this goes to,” said Vaughn, shaking the key enticingly. Ivan launched himself into the air to grab it, but Vaughn held it up higher so his hands grasped empty air.
Ivan’s voice shook with grief. “Not my bird, Vaughn. Anything but that. Please.”
Vaughn slipped the key into his coat pocket and patted it through the fabric. “Ivan, your car will be perfect for my next driving lesson.”
Chapter 24
There wasn’t a corner of the fridge that Kora hadn’t searched. She looked through shelves of moldy, shriveled organs that Ruby had saved since her days playing god, and even stirred through a putrid soup where Kora spotted a finger and a nose floating near the foamy top.
“Ishmael, I could have sworn I put the jar with Vaughn’s stomach on that clear shelf right inside the door. Have you seen it?”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and turned a suspicious shade of blue. Ishmael was a terrible liar. He only changed color when he was guilty.
“I’m serious. I know Gus hasn’t touched it. Did you move it somewhere?”
Kora gazed around the lab, trying to guess where he might have hidden it. Ishmael turned to watch her and finally squiggled over to the sink and crooked the tip of his arm at the drain.
She stormed toward him. “You didn’t!”
Ishmael folded four of his arms and nodded his tall head.
“You’ve never thrown anything away your entire life, and now you pick the most important thing in the whole damn lab?” Ishmael zipped into his metal shell before Kora could reach him. “Come back out here! You're getting too fond of that thing.” She pounded on the metal plates but he started up the shower to drown her out.
Then she heard heavy breathing behind her. Caleb hovered in the doorway, barefoot and dressed in pajamas.
“Not now, Caleb.” The giant tipped his head to the side and frowned. “Why don’t you go back up to your room,” she signed furiously, hoping that might scare him off like the last time, but he stood like a great heap of earth, staring at her hands. “I need to work. Go away.” Kora bent over the sink and bit her nail as she stared at the wide, empty drain. She considered taking the pipe apart. Maybe the stomach was just sitting in the elbow and she could pull it out and clean it off. Ruby would never know that her stomach had once wallowed in slime and coffee grounds. The idea brought a smile to her worried face.
“MUUUD.” The voice made the blood in Kora’s veins freeze. She slowly turned to see Caleb reaching out to her with the desperation of a drowning man, his mouth still open as if the word continued to vibrate his tongue.
“Why are you saying that name?”
He signed with unusual quickness, his clumsy hands forming a series of letters before his arms floated out to the sides like a bird.
“Mud saw, so I can be free?” Kora held perfectly still, afraid of making any sudden movements in case she snapped him out of his lucid bubble. “Free of what?”
The mist drifted back over Caleb’s eyes until he stared at her with the usual blank expression. She waved her hands before his face and continued to sign her question over and over, but all she got out of him was a big, dumb smile.
“You must be the woman I’m looking for,” said an unfamiliar voice.
Kora jumped. An old man was leaning against the door. He was worn down to a bundle of tendons, as if something had eaten his flesh to the bone. “How did you get in?” she asked.
“Through the front door.” The man’s voice was dry but surprisingly strong. “I followed that beast down here from the living room. I’m so thirsty. Can I have some water?”
Kora filled a glass at the sink, careful not to let any of the liquid pour down the drain in case it moved Vaughn’s stomach farther down the pipe.
Caleb clomped behind her as she guided the man over to the couch and dropped him onto the cushions. He gulped down the water, breathing heavily when he was done. “I wasn’t expecting you to be so young. I thought a woman who brings monsters into the world would look as old and ugly as Ruby.” He leaned forward and the corners of his mouth drew down like a taught bow as he gazed into her eyes. “But you’re not young at all, are you?”
Kora didn't answer. She felt as if this strange man could see right through her.
“I was once a man of God,” he continued, “raising my voice to warn everyone about the dangers of Mirafield.” He reached up to cradle Kora’s face. “And here, in my hands, is the keystone of that unholy place. Crush you, and the whole empire will crumble.”
He slipped his hands around Kora's neck and squeezed. She tried with all of her strength to push him off. She'd easily tossed Vaughn thirty feet, but was completely helpless against this withered, dying old man. Randall had me chipped, she thought as her vision dimmed.
Then out of nowhere, Caleb’s fist came down on the old man’s head and drove his spine through his decrepit flesh like a nail through rotten wood. Kora climbed to her feet and rubbed her neck as she stared at the smashed body sprawled on the floor before the couch.
“What happened? Why did he do that?”
Caleb drew back his lips to reveal yellow teeth in black gums. He kicked the man’s crumpled body and it flew across the floor in an explosion of blood and gore. He pointed to himself, raised his arms and crossed his fists before his face like the statue of a pharaoh.
“No Caleb.” Kora backed away. “I’m grateful to you for saving my life, but I can take care of myself.”
A rumbling growl boiled up his throat. He repeated the same signs over and over as he stomped toward Kora like an enraged bull. She fled through the tunnel leading to Ruby’s office and pounded against the panels in a desperate attempt to find the door to the secret passage, but nothing opened. Caleb caught her around the waist and pressed her against the wall with his massive bulk. She screamed and he covered her face with a hand to quiet her. Panic burned through Kora and before she could think, she struck out and hit Caleb in the chest as hard as she could. Caleb flew down the tunnel like a cannonball until she heard a loud bang like a clap of thunder.
She opened her eyes to see Ivan and Vaughn standing in the hall before her, while Gus hung halfway through the open panel door. They rushed past her into the lab where Caleb lay moaning on the floor. He’d slammed into the wall with such force, that a crack had spread to the ceiling and loosened a pane of glass that fell and exploded in all directions.
Ivan cradled Caleb’s head on his lap. Blood ran down his face and Kora tore through a cupboard until she found her first aid kit. She squatted down beside Caleb, but Ivan swatted her away. “How dare you touch him. Gus, get her out of here!”
Gus took Kora by the arm and pulled her away, his normally humorous face tight with anger. “What’s going on? Is that another body over there?” He dragged her over to the corpse of the old man who lay curled up in a pool of smeared blood, his spinal cord protruding through the muscles in his neck. “That looks like Max, though he’s hardly recognizable.”
“I can explain,” said Kora. “That man came in here and attacked me, and Caleb killed him.”
“And as a sign of your thanks, you decided to hurl Caleb into the wall?”
“Caleb went crazy after he killed Max.”
“So they both attacked you? Then how come you’re the only one here without a scratch?”
Kora pawed at her neck. “Isn't it red and bruised where he strangled me?”
Gus scowled at her neck. “No. It looks fine.”
“Dammit!” she mumbled, “I've already healed.” Kora glanced at Vaughn who was helping Ivan haul Caleb up off the floor. The giant weaved, blood gushing from his mouth as he stumbled on unsteady feet.
“I can help him. I’m an excellent doctor. You know that, Gus.”
“Ivan doesn’t want you near Caleb right now and I can’t say I blame him.”
“She’s a murderer,” screeched Ivan from the doorway as Vaughn led Caleb down the hall. “I want her out of the house, now!”
When they were gone, Gus turned back to Kora. “Start from the beginning.”
Kora rubbed her face and tried to arrange her words in her head. “Something came over Caleb. He said the name Mud aloud and I thought I could get him to say more, but his mind just seemed to snap closed as soon as I asked him questions.”
Gus’s eyebrows shot up. “He spoke?”
“And signed that Mud wanted me to be free. If I’d had more time, I might have gotten more out of him but then the old man collapsed in the doorway.”
“You and Caleb sign to each other? You never mentioned that before.”
Synthetic: Dark Beginning Page 19