“I won’t let you come with us,” I said.
“And I won’t let you go without me.”
I was too tired to argue. If we all died, well, then we were all dead. There was nothing more I could say about that. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Carl’s number. I gave him the address and he promised to be here in half an hour. He would bring Sensei. Phil. I was going to have to get used to calling him that.
I let them in when they arrived while Connor hid somewhere so the sunlight spilling in through the crack in the door couldn’t fry him. When the door was shut and everything was drenched in artificial light, he came out. Carl looked like he was irritated. I wasn’t the only one that had had issues about being in friendly terms with vampires. But if I could come round, he could too.
“Behave,” I said. “He’s one of us.”
“Don’t you mean you’re one of them?” he asked and even though his mouth smiled at me like he’d intended for it to be a joke, his eyes didn’t laugh along with it. He’d been serious. And I supposed he was right.
Phil looked at Connor with wide eyes. When Connor spoke and Phil caught a glimpse of his fangs he turned a shade whiter. It was one thing to know every trick in the book about fighting when it came down to humans. Getting to know the night world, even if you were just skirting the edges like Phil was doing now, was a whole other ball game. I wondered if he was revising his fighting technique in his mind.
Connor seemed calm even though we could both smell Phil’s nervousness.
“He doesn’t bite,” I said, and Carl snickered at my poor sentence. I had to admit, it was funny. “Well,” I added. “He won’t bite you, anyway.”
Connor smiled and Carl chuckled but Phil didn’t look like he thought it was funny. I was guessing that until now he’d really just been thinking it was all a fairy tale. Vampires were damn scary when it came down to it. I was just used to it.
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Carl asked.
Chapter 19
When darkness fell we were almost ready to head out. I’d gone home and suited up in my leathers and my guns. I had it all on me. My Smith & Wesson in my shoulder holster, my Glock at my ankle, my knife at my thigh and the SIG behind my back. The only reason I didn’t have the Carbine too was because I didn’t want to look suspicious. Three guns and a knife was an overkill already. No pun intended.
I still felt like hell, but I would ignore it. If we got through this I would have the rest of my life to survive. If he died I wouldn’t feel my aches and pains anyway.
We had a plan. We had people together to execute it. Most of all we had a drive. We had to succeed. I had to succeed.
We weren’t really much of an army, no matter how much I was trying to convince myself that we were going to beat the odds. Two humans, one of which only really became aware – truly aware – of the supernatural world tonight. Phil knew how to fight, but what could he do in the face of a vampire with red eyes and teeth that spelled out death?
Carl was used to it all but he was a human. He didn’t have superhuman strength or blurring speed or premonitions and the ability to smell blood.
Connor was the opposite. He had all that and none of the skills that a vampire slayer needed. On top of that the relationship between us was like cracked glass. Any moment I was sure it would shatter. There was so much that had happened between us, and we were building our survival on a broken base.
I was in between. The best of both worlds, everyone else had agreed, but I didn’t feel that way about it. I was the worst of both worlds. A half-breed that rejected the vampire in me and never really completely made the human side work. Two worlds I never really felt like I fit into.
Yep, we were one hell of a team.
Once the darkness of night was complete, the shimmering quality that always hung like a ghost of the sun’s rays finally having seeped away, we headed out. Connor was alert and awake, a vampire at its best. Carl and I were wired. Phil was cautious. We got in Phil’s car and drove towards town. I left my bike at Connor’s house and it was strange not using it. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a car. Maybe before, when life had still been normal.
We headed towards The Palace, a tall shiny glass and metal building in the business district. It was where Jennifer’s card said her offices were, and where she’d told me Connor’s were too.
We headed to The Palace because it was the most likely place they would be. Connor knew that they were still active at night. I wondered how long he’d known it, why he’d never mentioned it to anyone, like the police for instance. When I asked him about it he shrugged.
“It’s not always easy to stop the things you know are wrong. I’ve been trying.”
“But the police could have helped,” I said.
“Helped lock me up,” was the retort and I dropped it. The truth was I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to think of him. All I knew was that with my track record, which had been sounding worse and worse to me lately, I couldn’t cast the first stone.
The building was dark and quiet, a giant in the night, stretching up into the sky where the night swallowed the top of it and I couldn’t see it.
“How are we going to get in?” I asked. “Jennifer said I just had to mention her name to the doorman, but with Connor here…” I didn’t want to be rude and point out that he was a wanted man but that was how it was.
“Through the front door,” Connor said matter-of-factly, ignoring what I was pointing out.
“We can’t just walk in,” I said.
“Aren’t places like these rigged with security cameras?” Carl asked, his hands in his pockets. He looked like we were going on a field trip, not a fight to the death. I shuddered. I hoped that none of this would go that far, but they’d taken Aspen and she was still alive, so it had to be to draw me in.
“I called in a favor,” Connor said and nodded in a direction past the building. When I looked a shadow moved. My chest constricted, but then Carlos stepped into the dim light that reached us from the street.
“You two know each other?” I asked.
“We’ve done business before, from time to time,” Connor said, looking at Carlos, who shrugged. I should have guessed that that would have been the case. If the masters used Carlos and the masters used to work with Connor…
The world seemed too small. There were so many things going in in the dark around corners rather than out in broad daylight.
“It’s all taken care of,” Carlos said to Connor. “But I don’t know how much time you’ll have before they notice it.”
Phil shivered and I knew it wasn’t because he was cold.
“Well, come on,” Connor said and he led the way. Somehow he’d taken control, and in a way he was leading the party, even though if I said something I knew he would have followed me. It was nice to have someone else take charge for a change. It was strange to be in a group where I didn’t have to just have my own back and that was it. There were more people now, people that seemed to somehow care. And they had my back too.
And I had theirs. So help me, if anything happened to them… I shook my head. I had to focus on the positive.
We didn’t take the elevator. Instead we took the stairs, and started the climb. Eighty floors. Of course they weren’t going to wait for us on the first floor or even the tenth.
“We could have taken the elevator at least up to floor fifty,” Carl heaved. I wondered why he wasn’t fit enough for this. Didn’t he train? He was the one that had enforced Ruben’s advice from the start, that I had to make sure to follow a strict training regime and never get out of shape. When I looked at him he must have known what I was thinking, because he just shrugged like it was supposed to be an explanation all by itself.
“Carlos cut all power,” Connor said. “The cameras had back-up systems so exactly this couldn’t happen. No elevators. If the masters are here they don’t need the light anyway, so with a little luck they won’t know we’ve cut everything.”
Most of what he said slid by me, but I hovered on the word ‘if’. What if they weren’t here? What if it was all wrong?
What if Connor was leading me into a trap?
I shook the last question off. I couldn’t think like that. The only way we’d be able to do this now was if we trusted each other. Without it we would fail. If I’d been right, well, then we’d all die. It was pretty simple.
It took us a long time to get to the top, and when we finally got there, even I was huffing and puffing, gasping for air. It didn’t matter how fit you were, eighty floors were no joke. After I’d caught my breath I realized that the exhaustion outweighed the pain. My head hurt but I could handle it, and my ribs felt a bit better. I touched my eye gingerly, felt I could open it more. Vampire healing at its best.
The floor was dark. Connor walked first because he could see better than any of us and he knew his offices. Carl followed and Phil after him, and I brought up the rear. The floors were all dark shiny tiles that reflected what little light fell in through the bare windows from the moon. We moved through double doors into a lobby with secretary desks. They were empty. Connor kept moving, turning his head, listening. I strained my ears but I couldn’t hear anything. I breathed in deep. Someone was here. I could tell, feel the lifeblood pumping through veins. But I didn’t know who it was.
Connor held up his hand and we all froze. Phil looked like he was going to attack the first shadow that moved.
Connor stepped forward and opened the double doors in front of him. I was nervous. If they were there he would die. I hadn’t wanted him to come. I hadn’t wanted him to lead the team. I hadn’t wanted any of this.
And I hadn’t had a choice.
Connor poked his head through the door and looked around. I expected all hell to break loose, but there was nothing. A moment later Connor waved us on and he stepped into the room.
When I entered I realized this was what must have been Connor’s office. The walls were covered with frames with pictures of Connor as a human, and Jennifer, in some of them. Others were diplomas and degrees in various stuff, and awards he’d been given.
His desk was heavy and dark, with an expensive computer to the one said and stationary scattered across the desk. Connor walked to the desk and slid his hand along the edge of the desk. He missed it. I could tell.
I took a deep breath and picked up a faint smell, something that smelled like it had been burning at some point. With that was anger and fear. And hopelessness.
“Someone’s here,” I said.
Carl and Phil looked at me, but Connor nodded.
“You’re right.”
We walked around, following our noses, while the two humans looked on. Phil looked nervous. Carl looked bored.
“In here,” Connor said when he got to the door that led to his closet. I glanced at him, my heart suddenly beating in my throat. Whoever was behind this door could either be an answer or an ending. I took a deep breath and Connor pushed open the door.
Joel lay on the floor, tied up and gagged.
“Joel,” I breathed and kneeled beside him. His eyes were closed and his pulse was faint, but it was there. The burning smell was strong now, and his closed were singed. His face was bruised but the bruises weren’t new. When I lifted him up and held his head I felt dry blood caked in his hair. This could have been the source of the blood in the pit.
“Joel,” I said again, wishing he would answer me.
“It’s alright, Adele,” Connor said next to me. He’s going to be fine.”
I trusted him because I didn’t know and I desperately had to hold onto something. Joel was alive. I’d expected the worst for so long I felt like I was going to fall over.
“Your techy?” Carl asked. He and Phil both had their heads poked into the closet. I nodded but Connor snapped at them.
“Watch the office, dammit,” he said. “If anyone catches us now we’re dead.”
Phil whipped around and scanned the room but Carl scowled. Connor lifted Joel and he moaned, eyes fluttering open.
“Hey,” I said, running my hand down Joel’s cheek. His eyes looked like they didn’t register anything, staring into a void, but then they slid to me.
“Adele?” he asked with a hoarse voice.
“You’re going to be fine,” I said and my voice was thick. I scolded myself, commanding myself not to cry. “We’re going to get you to a hospital.”
Connor managed to get Joel out of the office.
“Can we get him to a hospital?” I asked Connor.
“We have to,” he agreed. “And then where are we headed?”
I stood up and stretched myself out. The bruises on my body were feeling better and better. I looked around the office, feeling forlorn. There was no one else here. Joel had been alone. It made me feel like I’d failed. Again.
“She’s not here,” I said, feeling the void open in my chest as I said it. Where was I supposed to find her now?
“We’ll just have to move on, then,” Connor said.
“Where?”
We all fell quiet because the fact was that none of us knew the answer to that.
“I don’t know,” Connor said softly. I paced in a circle in front of the hospital. The bright lights streaming from the emergency rooms lit up the pavement around me as bright as daylight. It made my black leather clothes look blacker. Connor looked ghostly white in the light, like a marble statue.
I closed my eyes and reached out for her. It took me a while to reach out into the night, to still my insides. When my heart rate was slowed right down and I could almost track the molecules in my body I was concentrating that hard, I picked up the faint hum in my veins that didn’t come from my blood, but Aspen’s. It was fading. I took a deep breath, trying to ignore my stomach that felt like stone. When I breathed it felt like my throat was only half the size, hard with panic.
I opened my eyes. “I can’t find her,” I said. The panic crept into my voice.
“What do you mean?” Carl asked. Connor understood. He looked at me, his eyes asking me questions. I nodded. I had her blood in my veins, however little. But it wasn’t enough.
“They keep shutting me out. I can’t find her,” I said. “I know she’s alive, but I don’t know where she is. It’s like she’s behind a metal wall.”
“She might very well be,” Connor said. Phil and Carl both looked like they didn’t know what I was talking about, like they were missing something.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“If they have her they might stop her from being able to dematerialize.”
“She can’t do that,” I said. “She only has half of the genes, like me. Or wouldn’t they know that? She looks more vampire than I do.”
Connor shook his head. “I doubt they don’t know. But they might keep her where they’ve kept other vampires before. Vampires that can dematerialize.”
What he was saying took two seconds to sink in before I understood. They might have been keeping her in the same place where they kept the other vampires. The one they sold. My hand raised to my mouth involuntarily.
“How are we going to find her?” I asked. I was getting frantic. After all this, what if we were too late after all? What if we never found her? What if she died before I got to her? What if…?
“Don’t do this,” Connor said, putting his hands on my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. I hadn’t realized I’d buried myself in the palms of my hands. When my fingers came away from my face they were trembling.
“Don’t do it,” he said again. His voice was soft, gentle. “They’re doing this because they are vampires. Because they can. You can do it, too. Just find her. Focus, and find her.”
“But I’m only half, Connor. I’m not—“
“You can do it,” he said. “You can. I believe in you.”
Chapter 20
I glanced at Phil. He shrugged. Carl looked bored. Somewhere along the lines we’d lost both of them – they didn’t understand wha
t was going on. I took a deep breath. Connor was right. This was all I had left. And I hated it.
“Are we going to get a move on?” Carl asked, sounding a lot less bored than he looked.
“We just need to find her, “Connor said in a calm voice, not taking his eyes off me.
“How?” Phil asked. Connor just shook his head, eyes glued to mine. Carl finally seemed to understand. For someone who’d been hunting vampires for so long it took him a long time to catch up.
“I think Adele can trace her blood,” he explained.
“Like a tracker?”
“Something like that.”
Phil looked horrified. Maybe he’d put two and two together after all. I ignored him, ignored both of them. Phil had wanted to come along, he’d agreed. This was the night world. This was what I was, somewhere deep down inside. If he didn’t like it no one was forcing him to stay. But he didn’t leave.
I took a deep breath and blew it out with a shudder. I hadn’t done this, ever. I had rejected this side of me since the days I was signed up for therapy. Since I’d been placed with a foster family that were human. I closed my eyes, and calmed myself again. I imagined this was what it was like to dematerialize. I focused on myself, my body. The beat of my heart, pumping blood through my veins. They movement of the platelets that carried oxygen. The rise and fall of my chest as I breathed in and out. Slowly I found Aspen’s pulse, dimly fluttering next to my own. It was weak because of the little blood I had in me that belonged to her. Not because she was fighting for her life. I realized that now.
Maybe if I were a vampire I would have dematerialized now. I felt like I was made of a stone the same way vampires looked when they had time to think about disappearing.
And there it was again. The metal wall that slammed into place, blocking me from finding Aspen. I knew she was alive. I still felt the echo of her heartbeat in my veins. But I couldn’t find her. It was like a GPS searching for signal.
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