by Kat Cotton
Also weird. He hadn’t said Nic, but Kisho. Did he know about the feeding? Had there been some kind of general announcement on the vampire internet or something? Maybe a newsletter had been sent out. No matter what, we definitely stood a chance with Vlad on our side.
Nic’s phone buzzed. He picked it up.
“The Vampire King has left the lair. Now’s our chance.” He stood up, frowning. “We can get in and save those kids.”
“Let’s go,” Kisho said.
“Not you. You stay here,” Nic said. “You all stay here. This is too dangerous to risk your lives. Luis is going to meet me there to keep lookout, and I’ll take Clem. She’s expendable.”
I put my arm around Nic. “I know you’re joking about that,” I said. “You love me, really.”
“Whatever. We have kids to rescue.”
Chapter 26: Rescue
“We get in there, we work out the layout, and we rescue those kids,” Nic said. “That’s the plan. Nothing else. No mucking around.”
I nodded. I couldn’t imagine any mucking around I’d want to do in the Vampire King’s lair. Maybe dress up in his clothes and be all, like, “Whoa, I’m the Vampire King.” No thanks.
We were sitting in the car, down the street a bit from the hotel. Last time, just driving past, I’d been sick to my stomach. This time, not so much. Maybe because the Vampire King had gone out for a social visit.
“What do we do?” I asked. “Just waltz up the front steps? Because there’ll be guards watching. See those bay windows? They’d have a full view of the street from there. There’s a side entrance, but it might be locked up.”
“Let’s try that.”
“Yeah, at least we won’t have them watching us. Wow, this place used to be so cool, and now it’s creepy as fuck.”
We parked down the side street. We had to get through what had once been the beer garden to get to the side entrance. There was a huge fence in our way, but we scaled that pretty easily. We landed in a yard filled with cheap plastic garden furniture, that was all upturned and broken now. An outdoor umbrella was flapping around in the wind. The grass area near the fence had been covered in rusty cans and broken bottles.
“That door looks pretty secure,” Nic whispered.
“Not so much.” I reached into my bra and got out my demon fighter license.
“Gross!”
I grinned at Nic and got to work with my card. I didn’t think these locks had been put up by the Vampire King; they’d been there long before he moved in. It didn’t take a lot to get the lock open. When we tried to move the heavy wooden door, though, it creaked like a bastard.
“Shit,” I hissed.
The place reeked of stale beer. They’d never get that smell out. Ever. And the air had the coldness you get in huge old buildings that have been locked up. The warmth would never penetrate the back of the hotel, anyway. Not now that it was deserted. You’d need a ton of drunken punters to warm a place like this.
We crept down the hallway to the front bar. It seemed like the ghostly sounds of indie bands lingered. Nothing in that bar. The sun beaming in through the bay window at the other end of the room created patterns on the dark wooden floor, a sure sign that the vamps didn’t use that room much.
I indicated for Nic to follow me through the opening at the side of the bar, into the foyer with the grand staircase. I hoped we wouldn’t have to go up there. It’d be like a rabbit warren upstairs.
The carpet on the stairs had been ripped and hung down in a huge flap. That’d be a safety issue. The marble stairs beneath hadn’t been damaged, though.
Even with the decay and neglect, the shadow of former grandeur showed. The massive chandelier still hung in the stairwell, dusty and a little broken. The ornate cornices remained, and a massive baroque mirror was hanging on the wall. A little cracked and worn, but still majestic.
We tiptoed through to the bar on the other side of the foyer. The smell of stale beer got stronger. Smashed glasses covered the carpet. Otherwise, the bar was empty and seemed cavernous. At the end of the room, the velvet curtains on the stage were moving with a breeze from somewhere. I wanted to jump on that lavish stage just to see what it felt like, but this wasn’t a time to fool around
We’d have to go upstairs. My skin goosepimpled. Ground level seemed so much safer.
Before we got to the staircase, I heard a cry and froze. Nic looked at me. He’d heard it too. It was one of the kids.
It wasn’t coming from upstairs, though.
Of course there had to be a storeroom downstairs. The place where they used to keep the booze. I had no idea how to get there, but the entrance had to be near one of the bars.
We wandered around looking for a door.
“Check behind the bar,” I said. “They’d need easy access from there.”
We went back into the other room and found a door next to what had once been the band room. Good old band room. I remembered one time I...
No time for reminiscing on that.
“We can’t break it down, or they’ll know we’ve been here.” I stared at the door with the big padlock.
“Oh, they’ll know. They’ll be able to smell that you’ve been here.”
Damn. I hadn’t thought of that. We needed to get the kids out of here as fast as we could.
Nic wiggled the padlock. It came loose. Damn thing wasn’t even being used.
We headed down to the cellar.
If the rest of the place had been cold, that coldness was ramped up to maximum in the basement. It was like walking into a freezer. Those poor kids would be frozen. I couldn’t see much in the dark, but I didn’t want to even use the torch on my phone. There might be guards down here.
“Boss?” someone called.
Yep, guards.
I heard a thud before I saw anything. Hopefully, that meant Nic had taken him out. I moved in the darkness, trying to feel my way. We should’ve left the door open to let some light in. The only light was coming from a crack on the opposite side of the room.
I made out some shapes. Beer barrels and boxes.
I listened for another cry. I had no idea where those kids would be down here.
Nic grabbed my hand and led me to the corner. Nice vampire hearing. Maybe smelling, too.
“Kids,” he whispered. “We’re here to save you. You need to be really quiet, though.”
Now that we were closer to the light source, I could see bars. A caged-in area. Probably where they stored the expensive booze. Nic rattled the padlock. This one held.
The kids gave low mumbles. I hoped they’d be able to walk. We couldn’t carry them all out.
“Clem?” Nic said, indicating the lock.
“I need more light.” I got out my phone and turned on the torch, praying there were no more guards around. “Hold this,” I told Nic.
It only took a few jiggles of my hairpin to get the lock undone. Luckily, I’d worn that pin Nic had given me.
He handed my phone back, then moved around gathering the kids up. At least they weren’t tied up. I guessed no one had thought they’d escape.
The little girl grabbed Nic’s hand.
“Let’s go,” Nic said.
Just as he said it, something thudded upstairs, and my heart stopped. Literally stopped. I bet if Nic had a heart, his would’ve stopped too.
He got his phone out. It hasn’t rung, but maybe it’d vibrated in his pocket.
“Shit,” he hissed. “The King’s back. We can’t get out.”
Hell. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in this basement.
The iciness got even colder. Being stuck here any time would be a disaster. Being stuck here with the King about to discover us went beyond nightmare territory.
One of the kids sobbed.
There was no freakin’ way we could go back up the stairs. We had no idea where the vamps were, and we’d never get past the King.
I glanced up. That light coming through the cracks was coming from outside. Hell, I knew
what that was.
“Beer hole,” I said.
“Beer hole?”
“You know, when pubs get deliveries, they have the beer hole where they roll the barrels down into the cellar. There’s an opening on the street. It’s called a beer hole.” I wasn’t actually sure if it was called a beer hole by anyone else but me, but who cared. “Only problem is that it might be locked on the outside. A big padlock. But if it’s not, we can get out.”
“I can break the lock.”
Nic found a huge plank of wood. It must’ve been one they’d used for rolling the barrels down here. He put it up against the hole. Shit, with a heavy thud. We froze and listened. Nothing. Hopefully, the King and his entourage had gone to one of the upper floors already. Finally, my heartbeat went back to something like normal.
After a minute, Nic scurried up the plank and pushed against the door flaps. They moved. That was the best luck ever. I guessed no one needed to protect the beer hole after the pub had shut down.
It was a bit of a climb up there.
“Can you do it?” I asked a couple of the older kids.
“No problem,” one of them said.
The plank was solid and easy enough to climb if you grabbed both sides. It wasn’t a very steep slope, even. They climbed up after Nic.
When the older kids got near the top, Nic opened the latch and helped them out. There were the two younger ones, though — the boy who’d kicked Luis in the shins and the girl in the raggedy dress. We needed to do this fast, and those kids would slow us down.
“Climb up in front of me,” I told the kicking boy. “I’ll be able to hold you.”
The little girl sobbed quietly. I wasn’t sure what to do with her.
“Can you get on my back?” I asked her.
It’d be hell climbing up that plank while piggybacking her, but it seemed the only way to do it. Nic had to help the other kids out, and he couldn’t climb back down while the kids climbed up.
The girl nodded.
I took a deep breath. If we didn’t get out soon, someone would notice. You can’t have a number of kids clambering out of a hole on the street without it looking suspicious. Especially on an empty street in a desolated city.
I bent down so the little girl could get on my back. As I did so, something banged upstairs. Shit. I jumped. Were they coming for us?
The little boy knelt at the bottom of the board.
“Wiggle up a little,” I said to him.
“I’m scared.”
“You’ll be fine,” I whispered, even though if that kid fell, he’d splatter on the concrete floor below us. That risk was much better than him being stuck here to be toyed with by the Vampire King. “I bet you’re a climbing champion.”
He crawled up a little and I got behind him, trying to position my hands on either side of his hips so he was slightly protected. That put me in a really awkward position, but he had to feel safe or he’d never move.
“Hold tight,” I told the girl.
The kicking boy began crawling, so slowly. The girl slipped around on my back, making it hard to balance. If I fell, all three of us would smash to the floor.
I wanted to tell him to get a move on, but that’d only stress him. I needed to be patient and kind. Things that weren’t natural to me.
“Nice work, champion,” I whispered instead.
I tried to nudge him along a little. If he knew I was there, he’d be more confident. Hopefully.
We climbed about halfway, then I heard the door smash open. Kicking boy stopped dead.
“Fred? You down there?” a voice yelled.
Fred must be the guard. Shit.
I tried to nudge the boy again. If we got caught halfway up this plank, we’d be screwed. I couldn’t even fight the vamp, not when I was stuck halfway up a plank with a little girl on my back and the boy in front of me. If that vamp saw me, we were all dead.
The plank wobbled under me, and the boy gave a little sob. I needed to stay calm so he didn’t get even more worked up.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Nearly there.”
But the light ahead of me seemed to get no closer.
What was Nic doing? Had he taken the other kids to the car? Or had he gone?
We inched along.
“Fred? You’d better not be sleeping.”
Footsteps thudded on the stairs, way too close for comfort. The boy stopped again.
I repressed a sigh. “Keep going. It’s not far.”
“My hands hurt.”
“It’ll be over soon. Keep holding on.”
I couldn’t do anything for his hands until we got out of here. The little girl was holding me so tightly around the neck, I could barely breathe, but I didn’t want her falling.
“Fred?” That voice was way too close now.
I froze. Had we been caught? Nic could’ve been attacked or something. That’d mean we were screwed.
No. It was Nic.
I’d never been so happy to see someone in my life.
He crawled down face-first and took the boy’s hand, then reversed back up the plank. I had no freakin’ idea how he could do that.
“Hold tighter,” I said to the girl.
Without the boy in front of me, I crawled as fast as I could. As I neared the top, Nic grabbed the girl’s hands and pulled her out. I’d have bruises around my neck, but she was safe for now.
I climbed out, and we raced for the car.
“That was fun,” the little boy said. “Can we do it again?”
“No way, kid,” I said, then asked Nic, “Where are the others?”
“Luis has them. We just have to get these two to the car.”
Before we could do that, a couple of vamps rushed at us.
Fighting vamps with a pair of kids around us made life difficult.
Nic handed the little girl to me. “Run,” he hissed. Then he rounded on the vamps. “Hey, boys, what’s up?”
I didn’t look back, I just ran. The car wasn’t that far. Damn, I should’ve gotten the keys from Nic. What if he was killed? I’d have no easy way to start the car. Cars like Nic’s were a bitch to hot wire.
The car was open. I threw the kids in the back seat and locked the doors. Door locks would do next to nothing to stop vamps, but it made me feel better.
A minute later, Nic jumped in the car.
“Are we safe?” the boy asked.
Now that I got a look at those kids, they were just skin and bone. At least they were alive.
“Yeah, we’re safe,” Nic said.
“Will you be my boyfriend?” the girl asked.
“Hey, that mean kid, the one who threw rocks at me? Did you see him?” I hadn’t noticed him, but I’d not really taken a head count.
“You mean Stoney?” the boy said. “He wasn’t with us. That old man took him upstairs.”
My heart sank. We couldn’t go back for him.
Chapter 27: Magic Happens
The package arrived from Yamaguchi.
“Let me see, let me see.” I jumped up, trying to see over Nic’s shoulder as he opened it.
“Settle down. You’re worse than Hellhound.”
Hellhound just wanted to smell the packaging.
Nic pulled out a mirror, a tiny mirror thing on a chain. A multifaceted mirror. He hung it from his fingers, and, as it twirled, patterns flickered over the walls and ceiling.
“Hey, that’s exactly like the ones the old lady at the waterfront market sold. You’re been ripped off.”
He got out a note. “Yamaguchi says this hexenspiegel has been thrice blessed. It’s a powerful amulet against evil.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a lot of big words for a man who couldn’t even say hello to me in English.” I’m not a person to hold grudges, but I’d been really annoyed by the way that man had treated me.
“That’s beside the point. We have the hexenspiegel now.”
“Hexenspiegel, hexenspiegel, hexenspiegel.”
Nic looked at me like I was cra
zy.
“It’s a fun word to say. What’s thrice blessed mean, anyway? Like, I could bless something three times. Doesn’t make it magic. It’s just all talk. Tell Yamaguchi we want the dragon tooth back. Then we can raise an army. Armies beat crappy jewelry any day. You didn’t see Julius Caesar fight with a necklace. Or Alexander the Great. Or Hitler.”
“Not really a good example.”
“Yeah, I guess he was evil. And he lost. But at least he had the good sense not to fight with a little mirror necklace.”
The rest of the pack gathered around.
“I think it’s cool,” Kisho said. “It will throw his power back at him.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t coordinated an outfit around it,” Jeb said. “It’s a weird thing.”
“We need to test it,” Shelley said.
“Yes. Yes, we do.” Nic seemed way too happy about that. “Clem, we need you.”
“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I’m not using my power on that thing.”
“You said it’s bullshit. So, you won’t be hurt,” Nic said.
I hated that smug-faced vampire.
“She shouldn’t use the power. It’s not right for you to ask her. She’s suffering because of it.” Kisho took the necklace from Nic, running the chain through his fingers.
“Yeah,” I said. “I had to stand under a waterfall, and that didn’t work. And I had to have sex with you, and that didn’t work—”
“What?” Nic looked shocked.
“Oh, yeah. That was one of the things the priest suggested. Sex with a virgin. But maybe you weren’t virginal enough.” I could be just as smug-faced as him if I needed to be.
“You didn’t tell me this. You used me. You negotiated all that stuff with me without even mentioning there was something in it for you. That’s a terrible thing to do.”
“Yes. I can barely live with myself.”
I grinned. He snarled back.
“Come on, Clem. We have no idea if this will work or not. We can’t walk into the King’s lair with nothing but a trinket. If we all die, it will be your fault.”
“Nic! Don’t you ever say that.” Kisho shook his head. “Clem, don’t listen to him. You shouldn’t use that power, even to test this thing out. It’s not something Nic should ask of you.”