by Anton Strout
I caught my breath as I heard it hit the ground a wet thud. The sensation of something else landing on the support beams shook through the structure and I flinched in reaction, choking my bat up into swinging position once again.
Beatriz crouched along the top of one of the beams, her hands free and making it look effortless.
“Having a little trouble?” Beatriz said, flashing me a sickly sweet smile.
“I’m holding my own,” I said, my bat still covered in a crimson web of ichor. As I decided just how I was supposed to resheath it in that state, Aidan flew up in front of me, grabbing onto the beams with ease. He looked to Beatriz.
“Everything okay up here?” he said.
Beatriz’s smile widened. “Just watching over your boy, Aide.”
“Don’t call me that, please,” he said. He checked the grounds of the castle below. “I want you to go tell Brandon we’re having a little internal-affairs problem.”
“Maybe I should stay with you,” Beatriz offered. “We don’t know how many more of those there are roaming around.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Aidan said, then looked at the bat as if seeing it for the first time. “Not that he looks like he needs protecting.”
“Oh, I do,” I said quite earnestly. I held up the bat.
“This? I got lucky. Bring Beatriz with us. There’s strength in numbers and frankly, I need as many of the good-guy vamps on me as possible.”
Aidan smiled.
“Connor told me you were funny,” Aidan said. “But I hadn’t noticed until now. As for defending yourself, you’re doing fine.”
I looked over Aidan’s shoulder at Beatriz. She was looking at Aidan for some kind of further direction, and he turned to her. “Go. Now.”
“Have it your way,” she said. “Good luck explaining this to His Worshipfulness.”
Beatriz pushed herself off of the rigging and launched herself out across the darkness, falling into a perfect dive as she went. She twirled like an Olympic diver and hit the ground standing up.
As she ran off, I said, “I guess things like that are pretty easy to learn when there’s no fear of snapping your neck or death, what with the whole being-immortal thing.”
Aidan shrugged. “It does have its advantages,” he said.
Another sharp clatter suddenly arose farther down the lighting work, followed by a snarling hiss that had me already raising the remains of my bat. As I did so, I noticed a soft popping hiss coming off of it. I looked closer at the gnarled bat, only to discover that the smears of ichor from impaling the creature were corroding through the remaining metal. “Hey!”
The clattering of talons on the rigging grew louder and I felt the vibrations as another one of the creatures started closing in on us. I stared with concentration off into the darkness until I saw the beady redness of its eyes as it moved forward.
“You see that, right?” I whispered. “You know, given your preternatural peepers.”
Aidan gave me a look of “duh” and turned back to our approaching foe as it clawed its way along the rigging.
“We need to go,” Aidan said.
“No argument from me.” I held up the dissolving stump of metal in my hands. “I’m almost out of bat.”
Aidan looked around as he assessed our situation. “Grab on,” Aidan said. “We’re leaving.”
I looked at the bat. There was no point in trying to sheathe it now, given what little there was left to sheathe. Plus I was going to need both my hands free to hold on to Aidan if I was going to survive the trip down. Below, a small crowd had gathered on the castle grounds in a small-scale battle royale with these creatures. I let go of the bat and let it fall. I was pretty sure that the crowd below had the reflexes to dodge it. And if it clonked onto one of the creatures, or better yet, impaled it, all the better.
I reached for Aidan’s shoulder, but the creature dove for me, separating the two of us and pushing me back. Aidan shoved at its mass as it passed, and its skin brushed wet against me, far too close for comfort. Even though it was thrown off by the force of Aidan’s deflection, it corrected itself with momentum as it swung full circle farther down the rigging on one of the beams, coming back toward me with increased velocity as its sharp talons went for my face.
“Shit,” Aidan said, already in motion himself. He grabbed my arm, digging into it like a vise clamp. “Come with me.”
He jumped as the talons of the creature brushed against my skin, but gravity already had me falling with Aidan toward the castle grounds. He landed hard, using his arms to absorb the shock of me hitting the ground with him. I set my feet down, shaken but unharmed, and looked around.
The scene around us was chaos. Blurs of these creatures and some familiar faces were all around me, fighting and clawing at one another. Aidan shielded me. “Follow me,” he said and started pushing his way through the forest battlefield.
“Wait,” I said. “What the hell are these things?”
He stopped and turned back. “Does it really matter?”
“I suppose not,” I said, “but I’ve been attacked by one of them before.”
“Bull,” Aidan said. “When?”
“Several nights back. Down in SoHo by my apartment.”
“Really,” Aidan said. “That far south?”
I nodded. Aidan started off toward the castle.
“You sure you want to stick with me?” he continued.
“Half an hour ago you were willing to just walk away from us.”
“I’d still like to be able to walk out of here,” I said. “Just not in several pieces. Either way they’d seem content to tear me apart, but to keep my own brain from leaping out of my head and deserting me, I’d like to know what they are. After two separate attacks, color me curious.”
“They’re ferals,” he said. “Happy?” He headed off as if that explained everything.
Before I could ask what that meant, he was off and I was running to keep up with him, dodging the vampire good guys as well as the enemies. Thankfully, there was enough chaos going on around us that no one paid us much attention.
Aidan led me back into the castle and across the vast courtyard. I followed at a close pace even though the largest and most dangerous chunk of the action seemed to be contained just outside the castle walls. Aidan turned into one of the buildings on our left and started down a winding set of stone steps within it. I stopped at the top of them.
“Hold on,” I said. “Is a basement really the best place to be?”
Aidan pushed back his hood and looked at me with blank eyes. “What’s the problem?”
“Isn’t that a bit . . . constricting? Given all the fighting going on?”
“Getting a bit claustrophobic, are we?” Aidan asked.
“I’m not claustrophobic,” I said. “I just like to have room to flee; that’s all.”
“No worries,” Aidan said. “There’s plenty of room down where we’re going. Besides, it’s not a basement. They’re called catacombs.”
“Great,” I said, putting both hands out against the cold stone of the walls as I followed. “That’s so much more comforting.”
I was relieved to see that wrought-iron lanterns lit the way as we descended farther and farther, but something in the flickering of the candles inside bothered me.
“Are those electrical, too?”
“Not the most authentic touch,” Aidan said, “but yeah. Saves a lot on real candles.”
“I feel like I’m in the line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride,” I said. “Didn’t realize your kind were so budget conscious.”
Aidan stopped and turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. “There’s a lot you don’t realize about us. You think the Gibson-Case Center was cheap to build? Brandon goes on and on about the price of things all the time.”
“Part of the In-My-Day crowd, I see.”
Aidan turned away. “Maybe at some point you’ll start thinking of us as something more than monsters . . .”
“I
think I’ve seen the real monsters now,” I said, following once again. “You ready to tell me something more about them?”
The downward spiral of stairs ended and opened up into a short hallway not much wider than myself. Aidan stopped at the remains of what looked like a large wooden door. It lay in splinters, the iron bands that had held it together torn and twisted like long black claws.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he said, pushing the twisted metal out of our path. “I’m going to show you.”
I stepped through the doorway into a large cavern. Not a natural cavern, but a man-made one that looked somewhat familiar to me. An arched ceiling rose high overhead, covered in intricate tile work.
“This is a subway station,” I said.
“Correction,” Aidan offered. “This was a subway station, years ago.”
A brush of wind came from the doorway. Without making any sound, Brandon came racing down the stairs.
“Closed around 1933, if I remember it correctly,” Brandon said, walking past me to join Aidan. “It took a little mesmerism on my part to make that happen down at City Hall, but as I’m sure you can attest to, the minds in government are a bit weak in this city.”
“Where’s my brother?” Aidan asked.
“Don’t worry,” Brandon said. “He’s safe. Beatriz is escorting him down here at a more human pace.”
“What exactly is here anyway?” I asked.
“Converted and reclaimed space,” Brandon said. “Nicholas assures me it’s all the rage with the green movement. I’m sure he talked to you about that.”
“Nicholas says a lot of things,” I said. “When he got going on his whole building thing, my brain sorta tuned him out. Not to mention that I was a little distracted trying to find out just what the hell your building’s done to my girlfriend, remember?”
“Ah, yes,” Brandon said, giving a polite smile, “but of course. It appears she isn’t the only one in jeopardy around here. Please, follow us.”
I followed the two vampires as they walked farther into the area. The wall along the right side of the room was made up of tiny rooms built into it. Modern piping and power couplings ran across the tops of them. Clear doors with bars set in them were slid off to the side on all of them.
“Cells,” I said.
Aidan moved to a control panel that sat all alone against an empty stretch of wall. “Odd,” he said.
“What is?” Brandon asked.
Aidan pointed off to where we had come from. “The door to get out of the catacombs was torn open, but look at the cells. Their doors are all fine. Someone used the control panel to get them out of here. Those ferals were released. Not only that, but Simon’s been attacked by one of them outside of here. All the way down in SoHo.”
“So either someone’s been letting the ferals out,” Brandon said, “or else it’s spreading.”
“What’s spreading?” I asked. “And what exactly are these ferals? Aidan here has been having a little trouble explaining what they are to me. Care to try your hand?”
“We’re not quite sure,” Brandon said. “Perversions of what we are, I suppose. The darker and more sinister side of our people made manifest, but how, we just don’t know.”
“And you keep them down here?” I said. “Why not just, you know, kill them?”
Brandon turned to me, his face dark. “Tell me, Mr. Canderous, when you have a sick friend, is that what you do? Kill them? I hope for Connor’s sake he never takes a sick day.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“This feral state is a relatively new development among us,” he said. “We’ve been keeping these poor creatures down here in the hopes of studying them, discovering what is wrong, but to no avail so far. And whatever it is, it is spreading . . .”
Aidan slammed his fist against the wall, the tiles crumbling apart beneath it. “We need to find out who did this.”
I was already in motion, walking across the station floor, peeling off my gloves. I headed for the control panel. “Out of my way and I’ll tell you.” I had wondered earlier just what vampires could need salvation from; now I knew.
Aidan stepped aside. I raised my hands and put them up to the box, pushing my power into it. The electric snap of connection hit, and I started searching through the past on this object. Images of the ferals popped into my mind, leaping from their cages but in reverse like I was rewinding a film, making them look like they were happily hopping backward to be locked up. I willed myself to see the face of whoever threw the release mechanism, but it wasn’t happening. The spot itself was surrounded by a soft white glow, but there was no way to tell who or what the figure at the controls was. I pushed myself even harder into the spot but that only increased the white light and still I couldn’t make out the figure. Frustrated, I thrust all my power at it, only to find my head screaming with pain to the point where I felt myself blacking out. My last conscious thought was wondering if I’d wake up with a hell of a headache or if I’d wake up at all, what with the whole being-surrounded-by-vampires thing.
21
When I came to, I was thrilled to see I was alive, although I did discreetly check for bite marks. In the meantime, Connor and Beatriz had arrived. Beatriz was off talking with Aidan and Brandon, but Connor was watching over me. When they saw I was coming to, they walked over to us.
“Jesus, kid, are you okay?” Connor asked, offering me his hand. I took it and forced myself to stand back up, as uneasy on my feet as I was. My head was spinning and my body was shaken.
“I’m fine,” I said, feeling my head and neck. “I think . . . unless one of these guys bit me while I was out . . . ?”
Aidan was the first one over. “Sorry,” Aidan said. “Not my type. Also, I hear you’re not a particularly good vintage.”
“Aidan,” Brandon said, with warning thick in his voice.
“Sorry,” he said, sounding a little humbled. “Did you get a good look?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t see anything. The harder I tried, the more I was blocked.”
“You didn’t catch a face?” Connor asked. “Maybe an outfit or a detail? Something . . .”
I fished around in my pocket for a roll of Life Savers and popped them into my mouth one by one. “Something very specifically forced me out. Someone didn’t want me to see that they did this.” I looked at Brandon. “I don’t think life here at Castle Bran is as idyllic as you think. First, the letter to Connor. Now someone is specifically blocking my powers. As a matter of fact, when Jane contacted me from within the machine world of this building, she said she felt like someone had purposefully pulled her into the machine.”
Brandon looked angry and sheepish all at the same time. It was clear he was not used to mutiny in his ranks. “I’ll have Nicholas check the security tapes,” Brandon said.
“We’ll see if they caught anything.”
Aidan stood there, his arm around Beatriz’s waist. Beatriz spoke up. “I doubt he’s going to find anything.”
“Oh?” Brandon said, turning to look at her.
Beatriz nodded. “Think about it. Someone who took the time to safeguard the control panel like this isn’t going to let a security camera catch them.”
Brandon pursed his lips. “I see your point. Still, we’ll comb through it all.”
“So much for policing your own,” Connor said.
My blood sugar started returning to normal and I felt a bit more myself than I had moments before. “You know,” I said to Connor, “I have felt that same pushed-out sensation before.”
“Really?” Brandon asked. “When?”
“A few months back,” I said. “When I tried to use my psychometry on that letter Connor received. That same type of energy blocked me from reading it.”
A commotion came from the far end of the room and Nicholas Vanbrugh came into view. He blurred into action and was standing by us in half a second.
“Sorry I’m so late to the party,” he said, looking over at the way Aida
n and Beatriz were draped on each other. He tore his eyes away from them and tried to focus. “I just heard about what was happening outside the castle walls.”
Brandon went over to him. “I’ll need you to review whatever footage your security systems caught of what transpired down here this evening. We need to see who’s behind this.”
Nicholas looked nervous. “Of course,” he said.
“Do I detect a problem?” Brandon asked.
“N-no,” Nicholas said. “It’s just that . . .”
Aidan rolled his eyes. “Just spit it out, will you? Jesus.”
Nicholas glared at him, and then turned with a stoic face back to Brandon. “It’s just that our systems are acting a little wonky right now. Specifically, because of the problem I’m helping Mr. Canderous with. Because we’re taking down certain data sectors and sweeping them manually, it’s making general surveillance and such a little difficult for us right now. That and . . . it looks like the ferals have escaped into the city. They’re all gone.”
Aidan let out a sigh and Brandon stiffened.
“Not all,” Aidan said. “There’s one more.”
“One more what?” I asked.
“One more of those creatures in captivity,” he said.
“Where?” I asked.
“Come,” Brandon said. “Let us take you to him.”
Our whole group headed back out the broken door of the prison level and headed even deeper to another door. This one, unlike the previous, was still intact with a biohazard symbol etched into it. Brandon pushed it open, leading us into another deserted subway stop. This one was a lab with medical equipment from the past fifty years spread out across a good portion of the space.
Brandon led us to another row of cages along the right-hand side of the room. This time there were no clear walls reinforcing the bars, only the bars themselves. Only one of the cells was occupied, and it was in a more pronounced stage of rot and decay to him.