“Well, they could already be there. In his room, that is.”
Nick shook his head, pulling into the parking lot of the hospital. “No. As soon as they start killing, somebody is going to pull an alarm. I don’t think these two will be circumspect about it. And before you ask, call it a hunch.”
He pulled into a handicapped spot, figuring it didn’t matter if the car got towed. The other two cars pulled in a moment later and they parked to either side in handicapped spots.
“I can’t really ask any of you to do this with me. I’m about to go in there and try to save the life of someone you all have never met before. Someone I don’t even know that well. He’s important to some people who are important to me, so I’m going in there and I’m going to restrain them if I can or kill them if I have to.”
Nick didn’t waste any more time talking. He climbed out of the car and headed for the entrance. He walked across the valet lane, the entrance doors sliding back for him to walk inside. Nick could feel them following, but didn’t dare look back. Despite what he wanted, he didn’t think he actually could keep them all alive.
At the reception desk, a pretty blonde greeted him. He almost mistook her for a vamp because of her dark eyes. “I need to see a patient?” he said, lilting the end of his sentence like a question.
“All right, what’s his name?” Her smile didn’t waver as she no doubt must have noticed that he skipped any sort of pleasantry.
“His name is Dolph. Adolph…” Nick couldn’t remember his last name. “Woods?”
“Okay, are you a friend or family member?”
“Friend,” Nick said. Her eyes darted to the screen as she typed. Nick mentally wished her to hurry, not wanting to alert her that someone could be in the middle of being murdered.
‘Tina’, as her nametag indicated, twitched. It was only slight and maybe he was the only one who noticed.
“I don’t have anyone by that name.” The smile remained, something was missing from her eyes, though.
“Anything you could do, I would really appreciate it. He’s desperately ill and I just want to see him before…”
She nodded, her eyes not coming away from the computer screen.
“Let me see what I can do.” The cheeriness had been drained from her tone. She typed more slowly and after a minute turned to him.
“There is an Adolphus Stone in room 402. Take the east elevator up and the room will be on your right.”
Nick didn’t waste a moment thanking her, running for the elevators. A half dozen managed into the car, leaving the rest to catch another. He wanted to scream for it to hurry. For them to be this close the uber vamps had to have been even closer. Which meant they could have already killed Dolph by now.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Nick stepped off and found the fourth floor buzzing with activity. A guard had his weapon drawn, held tightly at his side, standing in profile. He looked at Nick’s group and his cool eyes went wide.
The gun went up. “Hold it right there.”
“We’re here to help,” Nick said, holding out a hand. The man’s expression softened and he lowered his gun.
“Okay.” He let them walk by and it wasn’t long before they saw what had happened. Alex or Cameron, Nick didn’t know which, was seated on the floor. Two police officers had him in handcuffs and he looked at Nick and smiled.
“You’ve been baaaad,” he said. “Cain is going to punish you.”
“Cain is dead. I killed him.” Nick hoped Pearlanne didn’t mind him taking credit for the moment. The vamp made a mock shocked face.
“No. I spoke to him. He told me. Did you think strangling him would actually kill him? You have to give yourself to him. You are the one he has been searching for.”
“That isn’t going to happen, Alex,” Nick said. “You tell your master next time I’m going to rip his heart out.”
“I’m Cameron.” He made a face like being called the wrong name had hurt.
“That’s enough outta you,” one of the cops said, giving him a firm nudge in the head with his index finger. Nick wondered why Cameron wasn’t being hauled down to a military facility this very second.
“Who are you folks?” the other officer asked. He was a vamp, which surprised Nick because he had a gun. He hadn’t thought such a thing was possible. “Not here to make any trouble for us, are you?” Officer Winter, according to his nameplate, lowered a hand to his gun.
“No,” came Dolph’s meaty growl. He stepped into the hall, buttoning up an ill-fitting red shirt with white palm trees all over it, squeezing every bulging muscle of his upper body. “He’s with me.”
“And they came with me,” Nick said, gesturing to the vamps behind him. A nurse had come up to Kim and was trying to lead her away. The vamp with his hair in a pony ushered her along, going with her.
“Any of you who’s injured, get yourselves looked at,” Nick said. “Seriously. There’s nothing else for you to do.” Six others went for medical treatment, leaving ten.
“You ready to talk now that he’s here?” Dolph said to Cameron.
“Yes.” Cameron smiled again. “Cain wanted a test of obedience.”
“Who is this Cain?”
“Leonard,” Nick said. Dolph looked at him.
“Really? You have confirmation of this?”
“Yes. We all saw him,” Pearlanne said.
“I’ve been searching for him for three years. To think he’s been under my nose all this time…” Dolph took his cell out of his khaki pants pocket, opened the back, inserted a chip, and closed it. It was a very adept maneuver for such big hands. “Strike one, Beta. This location. Beta seven-seven-seven. Rabisu.”
He hung up, opened the phone and took out the chip before placing it on his tongue and swallowing it.
“We have to move quick before he leaps again.”
“Leaps?” Ray said.
“The rabisu can only be hosted for so long by one body before he has to find a new one.”
“What happens to the old one?” Pearlanne asked.
“Typically, it withers and dies.”
“You mean, like, grows old?”
“Yes.” Dolph narrowed his eyes at her. “Why?”
“I think we already saw him. There was this old guy who came in after they locked us all up. He had on a lab coat like a doctor, but I don’t think he really was one.”
Was that why he looked familiar to Nick? Was he the real Leonard?
“I saw him too,” Nick said. “He was there when I woke up.”
“What did he say to you?”
“Hey, Colonel Stone, we need to move this guy.” The two police officers were starting to look antsy.
“In a moment,” Dolph said. “I still need to ask him a few questions.” He nodded for Nick to continue.
“He didn’t say anything too noteworthy, I guess. He checked my vital signs. That and the lab coat were what made me think he was a doctor.”
“You don’t think he’s a doctor now.”
Nick was pretty certain that was a statement and not a question. He shook his head.
“All right, then,” Clip said. “Let’s kill this doctor dude and this is all over!”
“If only it were that easy,” Dolph said gravely.
Nick found Dolph’s response as obvious as it was scary. There was nothing in his eyes that said to Nick he wouldn’t kill a man if he felt it was necessary.
It was a good thing he was on Dolph’s side. It was probably even better to be off his radar altogether.
The man stalked back over to where the police had Cameron on the floor.
“I’m guessing you didn’t try to kill me because your master didn’t tell you to. You’re here to deliver some kind of message.” Dolph folded his arms as if to say ‘I’m listening’.
“We have your family,” Cameron said. “That sweet piece and her brat. You want them back, he wants him.” Cameron cocked his head at Nick. The Wicked Witch floated to Nick’s mind for some reaso
n. “He wants you to come to him.”
“And what, we let you go or something?” Dolph seemed surprisingly cool at hearing Phoebe and Randy had been taken while Nick’s blood had turned to ice.
“No,” he said. “I’m an exercise in power and faith and abject obedience. And I’m a gift.”
Cameron sprang to his feet from his sitting position, his hands suddenly in front of him despite the handcuffs that were supposed to be binding them, reaching for Dolph. The old man took a step backward, planted a foot and thrust his hands into Cameron’s chest, stopping his forward motion. Dolph chopped his arms downward and in a blur of speed that belied his age, grabbed at the young vamp’s face.
Cameron screamed, his hands going up, but Dolph’s hands had already moved, one flashing straight into Cameron’s throat, whose wounded eyes bulged as his throat crunched audibly. He fell and popped up to his feet again just as quickly. Nobody moved, or everyone moved much slower than the two combatants. There was only terror in the younger man’s eyes as Dolph swiftly advanced on him.
He slashed the air with a taloned hand and Dolph easily ducked, twisting his whole upper body as he brought a massive uppercut into the vamp’s solar plexus. Cameron’s legs turned to water again. He rolled back up onto his feet quickly and slashed at Dolph again, only this time the old man stepped toward the blow, blocking it with his forearm, grabbing it and smashing the elbow over his knee like kindling.
Cameron made a sound like a steam whistle. Dolph chose the opportunity to give him a massive boot in the chest and simultaneously yank on the injured appendage. The young vamp made his broken version of a scream again and telegraphed a slash with his free hand.
Big mistake.
Dolph moved in another blur of motion and did something Nick could only have described as Segal-esque. He shuddered as the old man broke what they would later learn were a total of eleven bones in Cameron’s arm, ribs, knees, and shin. The vamp fell and tried to get up, a pained look on his face as if he were walking on shards of hot glass.
Dolph didn’t charge him again, taking a defensive stance and waiting. Cameron flopped around until settling on dragging himself away from the fight.
“What?” Dolph said.
Nick looked around and saw everyone was staring at him with their mouths open, the two police officers and the security guard included. Nick checked and saw his was hanging open too.
The cops wrangled Cameron again, pressing him into the floor despite his severe injuries and tying his wrists with several zip ties.
“You’re gonna have to let us in there,” a woman in scrubs said. Two men in lab coats flanked her, all three looking to Dolph, not the cops, for permission. “It sounds like his windpipe has been crushed. He may suffocate.” One of the men took a step back under the weight of Dolph’s intense gaze. He nodded and they moved.
“So what are we going to do?” Nick asked.
Dolph had folded his arms, his attention solely on the crowd of people around Cameron. He sprung a knotty finger up as if to tell Nick ‘not now’. He waited about four beats before strolling over to the nearly unconscious vamp and pulling two of the medical staffers away. Nick followed, hoping Dolph wasn’t looking to finish him off. Someone had cut a slit in Cameron’s neck below the smashed knot of his throat.
He bent and seized the young vamp by that knot and Cameron’s still red eyes bugged in their sockets.
“Where is my family?” Dolph said. “You will tell me.” If it hadn’t been apparent before, the low growl of the old man’s voice told Nick exactly how angry he was. He didn’t ever want that voice turned on him. Tears spilled from Cameron’s eyes and he did his best to nod.
Dolph eased his grip and Cameron opened his mouth.
“He can’t talk,” the woman said. “You crushed his larynx. He could die!”
“He dies if he can’t tell me what I want to know.”
The woman opened her mouth to complain, then shut it. Nick noticed the slit they’d made had begun to close.
“Mall.”
Nick grimaced at the sound of Cameron’s voice. It was the vocal equivalent of a car driving on bare rims.
“Which one—Oakland or Somerset?”
“Somer…set.” Dolph narrowed his eyes, veins popping out on his arm all the way up to his shoulder. “Somerset,” Cameron said again, the remnants of his voice sounding pinched.
“Make sure you sedate him. Heavily. He isn’t human.” Dolph let go and headed down the hall toward the elevators. The doctors began working on Cameron again as Nick, the other vamps, medical staff, and patients who’d stepped into the hall parted for the old man like the Red Sea.
“We have to have some kind of game plan, Dolph.” Nick put a hand on his arm. It was like touching stone. How old was this guy again?
“I already have a game plan. I’m going to give you to him.”
* * *
Despite the superior numbers of Nick’s group, nobody had moved, as though in their entirety they still couldn’t have taken Dolph. Luckily, the old man had had an actual plan other than just handing Nick over.
He’d explained while they moved that the plan was actually in three parts. Nick and Dolph potentially had the much more dangerous of the three, driving to meet Leonard. Clip, Pearlanne, and a few others were headed back to the facility. The boy was certain he could get inside again and the intention was to find weapons. Ray, Vince, and the rest were going to try to find the old man. Ray’s Skill was locating and, although it was a longshot, he was going to try to find the doctor.
Someone, probably Phoebe, had brought the big Hummer to the hospital and there Dolph was, a massive man behind the wheel of the massive vehicle. The engine roared to life and the three parties split off. No matter how long he and Dolph took, everyone else was going to make it to Somerset before the other two could meet up with them. They had too far to drive and too far to drive back.
So they needed to take it slower. Dolph was the one who’d said it and even though he understood, the only thing Nick could think about was going to where they were. They had somewhere to go to kill some time.
It was near impossible to believe this man had almost choked to death a mere few days ago. Then again, that made sense in a way. Nick wasn’t sure that anything other than Dolph could kill Dolph. He’d just faced down an uber vamp and had broken him like dropped dinner plates.
“How did you do that?” Nick asked as they drove. “To Cameron, I mean.”
Dolph glanced at him. “He might have been souped up on rabisu juice, but he’s still a boy. He’s counting on everybody to be a mortal version of him.”
“I don’t understand,” Nick said.
“If the average person gets into a fight, even if he wins he probably gets hurt because he doesn’t know how to handle himself. He pulls a muscle or breaks his hand or hesitates a second too long and allows the other guy to get a punch in. That kid got used to being the biggest bully in the yard, but he’s still a kid. No training. I went at him hard and fast and overwhelmed him. Simple as that.”
It couldn’t have been that simple. Or Dolph really couldn’t have thought of it that simply. He couldn’t have known that would have worked. Okay, Cameron wasn’t a trained killer, only a monster. Was there really that much of a difference? There seemed so much more there to learn.
“That won’t work on Leonard,” Nick said.
“No.”
Nick waited for Dolph to elaborate; he didn’t say anything more. It frustrated him that the man was so matter-of-fact. It made Nick paranoid that Plan B might have actually involved giving him to Leonard or a bomb landing on them.
He didn’t want to lose. He also didn’t want to die. There were degrees of win, he realized. They could go in, kill Leonard somehow, and take Phoebe and Randy home. They could win and Nick could die in the process. Or maybe he could be horribly disfigured or injured. Or Dolph could say ‘here you go’ and let Leonard take him.
Nick wasn’t exactly comfortable with th
eir plan working. There were too many moving parts. So much to go wrong. What if the others couldn’t find the old man? What if he and Dolph got there too early? He didn’t see how they’d be able to stall. The Hummer pulled into the lot of a plaza. A home improvement store that had taken up residence at an old Lowe’s was ahead and Dolph went up the first aisle and swung into a handicap space. They hopped out and once again, Nick was half jogging to keep up with Dolph.
How did someone his age have so much energy?
“Hey, could I ask you something?” Nick figured it was dumb to wait for a response. He’d just asked something. “How old are you?”
Dolph looked at him over his shoulder, not shortening his long stride. “Sixty-seven.”
A short, skinny Asian vamp who was trying to pass with a pair of sunglasses asked, “Could I help you find anything?”
Dolph said, “Chainsaws,” sounding as if he were doing an impression of one.
There must have been something menacing in his look because the kid dropped his head and pointed behind him. If the situation hadn’t been as dire as it was Nick might have asked Dolph to ease up. As it was, he was just as eager to get this over and done with. The idea was to have a chainsaw apiece for the remaining two or three vamps Leonard had. He could have been wrong and there might have been thirty of them waiting by the time the two of them made it there, but Nick sensed Leonard, or Cain as Cameron had called him, hadn’t had enough time to enlist that many qualified vamps. Brandon had told him they couldn’t take every vamp, there had to be something more, something special.
Dolph had lent credence to the idea that some vamps were more unique than others. Already it was known that vamps tended to have Skills, though not all of them. Other than their minor physical differences (and yes, Dolph had seen plenty of vamps that looked decidedly less human than average) some vamps were for all intents and purposes, human. Most of the ones with some type of Skill had it only to a small degree, having the ability to count how many steps a person would take from a table where he was sitting to the door when he left or something else as equally unnatural as it was mundane.
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