by Anton Strout
“And you have my Department to thank for all this technique,” I said.
The door clicked, swinging open behind me. I raised one of my hands, placed it to my mouth, and let out a loud whistle into the castle. Beatriz swore under her breath and blurred into motion toward me. I braced myself for the impact while holding the bat straight out in front of me, not sure what she was going for. A second later I was still standing there, but it was quiet all around me. Beatriz had blown past me out the door.
Before I had a chance to take it all in, Aidan and Brandon were first to dash onto the scene.
“Where is she?” Aidan asked, checking her secret chamber.
I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said, “but if I were her, I’d want out of this Epcot version of Transylvania pronto.”
Brandon looked at Aidan, then grabbed me around the shoulder. “The Gibson-Case Center.”
I held on tight waiting for them to take off, even enjoying the sick thrill of the chase at these speeds. It was probably as close as I’d ever get to traveling at light speed.
32
The exit from the castle was a blur. I caught a brief green hint of the forest surrounding it as Aidan, Brandon, and I flew along. By the time we were heading for the entrance back into the Gibson-Case Center, the light through the now-open doors at the end of the tunnel made me feel like I was being born. We shot out into the open atrium of that section of the building and came to a stop almost immediately.
Beatriz was standing there, waiting. So were most of the people I knew from the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, including the Inspectre. Most of them were armed with crosses, vials of holy water, and stakes at the ready. At the front of the crowd stood Allorah Daniels, strapped to the gills with a small personal arsenal. There was only Beatriz between me and my fellow humans, but behind me I heard the sound of more vampires arriving.
“Inspectre!” I called out.
I looked back over my shoulder. The growing number of vampires was already transforming, hissing as their features stretched tight over their skin. The humans bristled and raised their weapons.
The pure hatred on Allorah’s face was almost as terrifying as the vampires. I followed her closely, watching her fingers tense on the wooden stake she clutched in her hand. By the mad look in her eyes, I had only seconds before she did something rash.
I ran for Beatriz right in the thick of it all. I went in swinging with my bat. Bea made a mad grab for me at lightning speed. My post-light speed chase rhythm was off just enough that Beatriz grabbed my bat midair, twisted it from my hands, and used it to pull me into a headlock with her other arm.
“Stop right there,” Beatriz said to everyone around us, menacing me with the bat.
Trapped like I was, I looked to Allorah. “How . . . how did you find this place?” I asked.
She looked fierce but shook her head at me. “That’s where the hunting part comes in with the whole ‘vampire hunter’ thing . . . ? After you ran off on Godfrey and me the other day, I checked into what you had been researching with him. Building schematics, and, well, here we are.”
Part of me wanted to kill Godfrey even if he had only accidentally compromised me, but that was contingent on me not getting killed first.
Allorah stepped toward me and Beatriz, but Beatriz gave me a soft rap to the head, causing me to wince. Allorah stopped in her tracks.
“Stop right there or I’ll kill him.”
Allorah paused to consider this. “Go ahead and kill the traitor,” she said, moving to step again.
“Enough!” Inspectre Quimbley shouted. “Allorah, please . . . stay where you are.”
Allorah stopped, but she didn’t lower the stake in her hand.
Beatriz shook her head and sighed. “Sometimes I’m amazed that you people have ended up the dominant species on this planet.”
“You were us once, too, if you remember,” I said.
“Please,” she said, full of disdain, “don’t remind me.”
Beatriz spun around in a circle, assessing her predicament. There were humans on one side, vampires on the other, not to mention the two living statues on either side of the door that looked both confused yet ready to leap into action.
“What the hell’s going on, Bea?” Aidan said, stepping closer.
“Yes,” Brandon said, sounding pissed, “that’s what I’d like to know.”
“Just shut up,” Beatriz said, tapping the bat against my chin. “I’m going to kill him.”
“No,” Brandon said, his face becoming more human once again. “You’re not. The prophecy . . .”
“To hell with what the book says,” Beatriz said.
“Why would you do this?” Brandon said. His anger dissolved into genuine hurt. “Beatriz . . . we’ve worked so hard, for so very long . . . We’ve come so close to peaceful cohabitation with humanity . . .”
“Not we,” Beatriz said, shaking her head. “You. You worked hard for this. Don’t put all this on me. I was just your tool. When you needed an architect, I brought you Nicholas because I believed in you and Damaris. I even spent the last twenty years cozying up to your kidnapee, thinking you had a real plan for the superiority of our race.”
Aidan looked shocked. “You were playing me?”
“ ’Fraid so,” Beatriz said, laughing. She looked back at Brandon. “But when you started getting all hippy-dippy about peace and unity . . .”
“Bea . . .” Brandon said with sternness in his voice. “I don’t understand this change of heart, Beatriz. Why now, after all this time?”
Beatriz shook her head. “You were everything to us,” she said. “We believed in you, followed your counsel and did your bidding without question, and for what? To make peace with our food?” She looked over at the humans with revulsion, then turned back to Brandon. “Look at us now. We used to be kings and queens among men. We used to be feared, respected. People would tell tales of us and others would shudder. Why would anyone want to give that up? To give up their power?”
“This is power,” Brandon shouted at her. “The future is power! I’ve seen far too many of my kind, our kind, wiped away—out of fear, out of hatred. Yes, I was part of that, but I want an end to loss. When they staked Damaris, I truly remembered what it was to lose someone. I was devastated and I swore to myself no more. I want my family, all of you, to be a part of this modern world. You were part of that family.”
“I didn’t become a vampire so I could hang out around the castle watching 90210 for the next hundred years,” Beatriz yelled back at him. The pressure of her arm around my neck increased. I could feel Beatriz tensing up as she tapped my bat against my forehead. “Any last words?”
I looked to Jane over on the vampire-crowd side. She was clutching the heart-shaped necklace I had given her in her hands. I was about to die, but I would die knowing that I had tried my damnedest to keep the peace here. “I love you,” I said.
“I love you, too,” she said. She looked down at the necklace. “I love my present, too.” She looked up at me, our eyes meeting. “Speaking of presents,” she continued, “don’t forget my special delivery.”
With Bea’s arm gripped so tight around my throat, I had almost forgotten the bat she was threatening me with. It suddenly dawned on me, however, that she didn’t know of all it could do.
I double-checked the angle of the bat. Beatriz held the end of it tight in her hand, right about chest level.
“Bea?” I said.
“God,” she said. “Can you just shut up? I’m trying to kill you here.”
“Yeah, about that . . .” I reached up and grabbed the end of the bat. I pressed the button combo Jane had built into the high-tech gadget. The grip end of the bat sprung open and out shot the spring-loaded stake housed within it, lodging deep into Bea’s chest.
She looked down, surprised, and then her body began to shake. Her skin crumbled away from her body, and the arm around my throat started to fall away. Blood-slicked muscle caught against my neck,
but dried out in seconds as it flaked to dust. Before her hand turned to dust, I grabbed my bat before it could fall. All the while Beatriz screamed in agony until there was nothing of her left to produce the sound. Her skeleton was the last thing standing, but within seconds even that fell to the floor, the impact breaking it into pieces.
No one dared move. I looked over at Aidan for a split second. He simply looked stunned. It was the most human reaction I had ever seen on his face. Aidan first looked down at the pile of ashes and bone, then up at me.
I lowered my bat, but didn’t dare let go of it, not without knowing what would happen next. I walked over toward Allorah, but she was already grabbing for one of the larger devices hanging on her belt.
“Put it down,” I pleaded.
“Why should I?” Allorah said, looking at me. “Do you see what you’ve unleashed on this city?”
“I haven’t unleashed anything,” I said. “They’ve always been here. And for all that time, we’ve fought them. But it’s been over two years and you haven’t heard a peep out of them. Did you ever stop and wonder why?”
“It’s clear,” Allorah said. “They’ve been building up resources, biding their time.”
Brandon stepped forward. “My dear lady,” he said, “I assure you. If we wanted people dead, we certainly wouldn’t be stopped.” He paused, then his eyes widened. “I remember you.”
Allorah looked at him with caution. “Sure, pal.”
His face was heavy, his tone falling to somber. “You’re Allorah Daniels,” he said. “The one who killed Damaris. The teacher.”
I thought back to the vision I had had of their meeting twenty years ago. Allorah had never seen Brandon with his human face, only the hideous monster version of it, but when Brandon said the word “teacher,” Allorah’s face went gray.
“You!” she growled and ran for him. She unsheathed a vial from her belt. I wasn’t sure what concoction it might be from her lab, but it was probably bad news. I jumped in her way. She stopped and swung for me. Allorah had twenty years of fighting practice. I had a few years of street fighting and about a year of practical training. The female Enchancellor knocked me on my ass in an instant and I rolled a few feet away. Jane ran over to where I slid to a halt, helping me up.
“Stop it,” I shouted. “Enough fighting.”
This was not working. Allorah was almost to Brandon, who made no move to defend himself. “I accept your punishment,” he said, as if twenty years of penance could suddenly be solved with his death.
I grabbed Jane by the hand. “Follow my lead,” I said and dragged her straight into the eye of the storm, landing us sandwiched right between Allorah and Brandon.
“Move it, Canderous,” she said. “The monster accepts his fate.”
“Listen,” I said addressing the whole crowd as much as I was her. “I’m not really sure how all this is going to go down, but you have to promise me . . . Whatever happens, talk to each other. I know there’s trepidation . . . and fear . . . mostly fear, but you have to believe me. Brandon and his kind are good people. They’ve been building a . . . new paradigm. You can’t just look at them in black and white, like the old horror movies. Trust me.”
Allorah laughed. “I stopped trusting you the second you switched sides. Now, out of the way.”
“You want to kill Brandon?” I asked. “Fine, but first . . . Jane! With me!”
I grabbed Brandon’s arm and dragged him away before Allorah could react. As ready to accept death as Brandon was, his body moved willingly with my lead. Jane grabbed his other arm and followed. It was near impossible for anyone to attack with the two of us acting as a sort of human shield to the vampire. I headed for the bank of monitors around the art installation at the end of the hall.
When we reached them, I pressed Brandon against them, took one of Jane’s hands, and put it on a monitor. “Broadcast this,” I told her. Jane nodded and put her hand against my face, connecting us. Then, just as Allorah reached us, I put one hand on Brandon and one hand on the Enchancellor. Pressing my power into both the undead and the living, I knew I wasn’t going to stay conscious for the whole event, but I at least hoped I could put on one hell of a show.
I felt Jane’s connection to the systems of the building, the way she communicated in a symbiotic manner with it. I felt it bent to my will through her, and I forced my psychometry into the pasts of both Brandon and Allorah, showing the gathered crowd everything I had seen of their lives interacting. Their loves, their passions, Brandon’s turn from darkness, the deep belief in their prophecy and even the bond that had been formed between the brothers Christos as a result of Brandon’s machinations. I felt my power waning, but I hoped it was enough as I fell to the floor, loving the cool of the marble against my face.
That coolness caused my eyes to flutter open and I looked around. Everyone I had been connected to was on the floor, slowly getting back up. I struggled to my feet and helped Jane, since I was far more used to these episodes of passing out than anyone else I knew in the Department.
By the time we were standing, Aidan, Connor, and the Inspectre had joined us. The rest of the gathered crowd still looked like they were digesting everything they had just seen.
I turned to Inspectre Quimbley. “I hope you believe me, sir,” I said. “I would never do anything I thought would hurt the Department.”
The Inspectre nodded his head. “I do, my boy.”
I looked over at Allorah, who had just managed to get back on her feet. “Please tell the Enchancellors about all this.”
Allorah looked stunned, but part of that eager darkness in her eyes was gone. They held a glimmer of what I had seen in them twenty years ago—hope. “I will try,” she said, “but I’m not sure how they’ll react to all this. I’m not sure how I’ll react to all this.”
“Then try harder,” I said. “Otherwise, the city streets will run with blood on both sides. We have a chance to stop that. A duty to stop that.”
The Inspectre turned to everyone from the Department. “Stand down,” the Inspectre called out to them. The team still looked a little unsure of what to do with the actual threat of vampires milling about with them.
Allorah turned to look at them now and cleared her throat. I’m sure sounding authoritative was part of the Enchancellor interview process. “By order of the Enchancellorship,” Allorah said, more sharpness in her voice than in the Inspectre’s, “stand down. You heard the Inspectre.”
That seemed to relax everyone nearby a little, but it still left our awkward little circle of mixed company uncomfortable.
“So now what?” I asked.
The Inspectre was first to move. He stepped forward, moving to Brandon, who remained stock-still where he was. The Inspectre offered Brandon his hand.
“I’m Argyle Quimbley,” he said, “with the Department of Extraordinary Affairs and senior officer in the Fraternal Order of Goodness.”
Brandon raised his hand and took the Inspectre’s in his. “A pleasure,” he said, very formal. “I’m Brandon . . . Walsh.”
The Inspectre cocked his head at him.
“I’ll explain it later,” I said.
“In a detailed report,” Allorah added. “A very detailed report. We may even have to start a division just for creating a report explaining all this.”
I winced. Brandon smiled, then looked at both Connor and me. “This is that red tape you were referring to?”
As Connor started introducing his brother, Aidan, around, Jane ran over to me. “You okay?”
“I think so,” I said. Other than the aches and pains, I was living, so I considered that a mark in the win column.
Jane pulled me off to one side. “You’ve got a little, um . . . Bea on you.”
I looked down. The bottoms of my pant legs were covered in her dust. My black boots were now gray. I looked to see if Aidan had noticed, but he looked too dazed by the events to be paying attention to me. Connor seemed to be distracting him with the mindlessness of intros.
Still a bit stunned, I turned my back to the gathered crowd and headed off toward the shopping plaza. “Care for a little shopping?” I asked. “I think I’m going to need a change of clothes and some of those amazing cupcakes of theirs to get my sugar back up fully.”
Jane nodded and I kissed her as we shut out all the goings-on behind us. All of the Departmental stuff could wait. I would be thankful to just get into a clean pair of clothes that were not covered in bits of a psychotic ex-vampire. Once I was done changing into some new clothes and scarfing down some cupcakes, I’d deal with the Department and the vampires, if they didn’t kill one another in the meantime.
EPILOGUE
The Gibson-Case Center was bustling with activity when Jane and I arrived. The sound of commerce rose up all around us and despite the dark colors we both wore, the two of us felt rather good. Preventing an all-out war between two cultures kind of did that to a person. Despite our mood, I felt Jane’s arm tense around mine as we drew closer to the kiosk that had initially sucked her into the mainframe of the building.
“You okay?” I asked.
Jane gave a weak smile and nodded, not really convincing me. She planted her feet and we came to a halt about fifty feet away from the unit.
“Too soon?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “I can go alone.”
“No,” she said, starting to walk again. “I want to be there. I feel . . . responsible somehow, for not being around to help Nicholas the past few days.” He’d asked Jane for technomantic help fixing all the bugs Beatriz had created in the arcology’s computer systems.
“I think you’re excused,” I said. We were closer to the kiosk now and were surprised to see Nicholas actually standing at it. “You had enough to contend with, having been eaten by the building and recovering since getting out of it.”