New Order

by Max Turner

  He walked towards the doors. They opened for him, and I caught a glimpse of a tall figure outside. It was Tiptoft. Tamerlane was beside him. There was an obvious tension between the two men. Beyond them was a crowd.

  The Changeling turned before making his exit. “This vampire war is almost over. In a short time, the contagion will be under control. It is my gift to the world, and to you, since it was your mess I was cleaning. But a few loose threads remain that must be tied. Vlad is one of them. Help me find him and I will consider the bulk of your debt repaid.”

  I didn’t consider myself indebted to him, and I had no interest in joining the likes of Famine and Pestilence, and having a mark carved into me.

  “Are you familiar with Horace Walpole?” the Changeling asked. “‘The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.’ The current of empathy runs deep in you. It is a blessing and a curse. You care for those you must destroy. It makes your task tragic, but it does not change what must be done.” He fixed me with his white-eyed stare, his pupils wide and penetrating. “Are you ready to uphold the law and make the hard decisions? Who lives? Who dies? Who must be sacrificed? Think on it. Your fate is in your own hands. At sun-up …”

  CHAPTER 37

  REUNION

  I SAT IN THE CHURCH PEW, my head in my hands, my brain on the verge of a meltdown. If the Changeling was being honest, Vlad had been brought back to life just so his followers could be killed, and he was now with my friends, who clearly didn’t know that both he and Istvan had betrayed me. Istvan, who’d seemingly done his best to save us all on the ship in Montreal. Was it possible that he’d been in the enemy camp from the get-go?

  And what did the Changeling mean about my sense of empathy, that it would make it hard to destroy those I cared about? Was he referring to my friends? If he thought I would ever hurt them, he was out of his mind. And yet, he seemed perfectly rational. Kind, even. And his interest in me felt genuine. Why else would he have posed as my old psychiatrist, and that security guard? It boggled my mind.

  The faint creak of the door and the sound of the wind outside drew my attention to the entrance. The purple-eyed bounty hunter was approaching. He’d traded his round-brimmed, tasselled hat for a Stetson with an eagle feather, and his blue jumpsuit had more rhinestones than a cheap jewellery store. Beside him was the Asian shadow-jumper with the large muscles and straight-cut bangs. Her green eyes were luminescent in the candlelight. The two stopped on either side of the pew. I closed my fingers over the hilt of my dagger.

  “Don’t,” the bounty hunter said, his hand on his pistol.

  The woman pulled back the side of her coat. A sword was belted to her waist. “That would not end well for you.”

  I must have looked harmless, because she quickly turned her attention to the shadows along the walls. A few minutes passed, then a few more. I could practically hear my hair growing over the sound of us ignoring one another. Then a mechanical hum, faint and distant, rose quickly in volume until it became the familiar sound of a helicopter. The two vampires exchanged an uncertain look. Footsteps approached from outside. This was followed by the squeak of the door hinges.

  In walked Ophelia.

  Should I have expected this? Whenever I got into trouble, she was the first person who came kicking in the door. But the last time I’d seen her, she’d been unconscious from blood loss. Now she looked like the Angel of Death. A drawn rapier rested on the shoulder plate of her new Kevlar body armour, and her face had the no-nonsense expression she wore whenever someone was about to get it. I looked at my two guards, feeling an odd mixture of relief and pity.

  The bounty hunter pulled out his automatics. Both had laser sightings. Two red beams passed over the tops of the pews, then rose to where Ophelia was standing. In the same instant, I heard a muffled sound like a person trying to quietly whistle.

  Shrish.

  The vampire flinched, dropped a gun, then reached up to the side of his neck. When his hand fell away, there was a small, red hole in the skin beneath his ear. He raised his other gun, but before he could properly aim, he stumbled sideways and collapsed to the floor.

  Another shrish followed. Something streaked through the air from behind the altar and sped like a bullet towards the woman with the black hair. She stepped sideways, drew her sword and slashed downward. I heard a metallic clink and the sound of something breaking as her blade sliced through the projectile, scattering broken pieces of it across the floor.

  I pulled the Dragon Dagger from its sheath, stepped to my coffin and push-kicked it at her. She hurdled it without even looking.

  Ophelia sprinted straight for us. “Zachary, get back!” she shouted.

  I didn’t move. My dagger was a bit short for a sword fight, and I was still woozy from my long rest, but I wasn’t going to let anyone do my fighting for me.

  The Asian woman clearly understood where the real threat lay. She moved for Ophelia and executed a perfect crosscut slash. Ophelia nimbly flicked her blade aside and shouldered her into the wall.

  I heard another shrish. This shot was coming from the pews behind me. Something zipped past my hair and thumped into the woman’s throat. She took an awkward step forward, then slumped to the ground. A small dart protruded from her skin.

  Charlie rose from behind a row of seats at the back. “Did you see that shot? Right in the neck!”

  I stared at my best friend, incredulous that he could be standing there. “How is this possible?”

  Charlie held up a sleek firearm barely larger than a .22. “With the Sure-Shot Tranquilizer Rifle, anything’s possible.”

  Ophelia laughed and moved closer. A familiar feeling of comfort washed over me. I was reminded of all the times in the Nicholls Ward when I’d become angry and frustrated, and she’d arrive to make everything okay.

  “How did you know where to find me?”

  “I’ll explain later. It’s complicated.”

  She reached up and cupped my cheek, then smiled and looked past me. Luna was standing quietly beside the altar, carrying a gun identical to the one Charlie had used. She was wrapped up in a new suit of Kevlar that was so tight I was amazed she could move. I stood gawking until my brain reminded me that it needed some oxygen, so I started breathing again, and it loosened up my tongue.

  “How did you get in without me hearing you?”

  She tipped the gun barrel backwards so that it rested on her shoulder, then walked over, her footfalls quiet on the wooden floor. “Zack, you’re so out of it sometimes I could drive a tank past you and you wouldn’t notice.”

  Charlie laughed. “It’s funny because it’s true. You’re a total space cadet.” He drew a knife from his belt and waved it at the two unconscious guards. “What do we do with them?” he asked Ophelia.

  She didn’t answer. Her eyes were on me.

  “What do you mean do with them?” I asked, although it was clear enough what he meant. All the relief at seeing him and the others vanished with a chill.

  “What do you think I mean, Friar Zack? If we let these two live, they’ll—”

  “They’ll what!?”

  “I don’t know. What do I look like, a fortune teller? But it will be bad for us, whatever it is. This guy chucked a grenade in your face on Halloween night! Don’t you remember? Do you think he’d show us any mercy if our positions were reversed?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t. But it hardly justifies what you’re considering. That man is harmless now. If you kill him, it will be murder. Is that really what you want—to be a murderer?”

  He pointed his knife at me. “What I want is to stay alive for a few more days. The fewer of these idiots I have to worry about, the better my chances.”

  “Charlie, there has to be a difference between us and them.”

  “And if you have your way, there will be. They’ll be alive and we’ll be dead, instead of the other way around. You have no idea how bad things are. We can’t let these people take over.”
<
br />   “What difference does it make who takes over if we act the same way they do?”

  He ground his teeth together. His fingers were so tight on the handle of his knife it was a miracle it didn’t snap. “I knew you’d be like this. I knew it! But you don’t understand. These two have the Changeling’s mark.”

  “Can it be removed?” I asked.

  “I’m not certain,” Ophelia said. She took my arm and turned me gently towards the door. “But we’ve got other concerns at the moment. And we can’t get caught here when the Changeling comes back.”

  Charlie didn’t move. “I’m telling you, we shouldn’t leave these guys here like this. We’ll pay for it.”

  Ophelia looked at me. “He’s right. These two are lethal.”

  “Can we take them as hostages?”

  “To what end?” Ophelia asked. “Their lives mean nothing to the Changeling.”

  “Why are we even debating this?” Charlie asked. “You were willing to kill on the ship to save our lives.”

  “Our lives were in danger,” I said. “They certainly aren’t now.” I considered mentioning how badly that encounter had ended, but I didn’t want to remind him of Suki’s death. It might have pushed him over the edge.

  “Can we fight about this later?” Luna asked.

  “Now is later,” Charlie said. “We need to make a decision.”

  “Is there room in the helicopter?” I asked.

  Ophelia nodded. And that settled it. She walked back to the Asian woman, then drew her up over her back and started for the door. “Istvan said you would be poorly guarded, but this is ridiculous.”

  “Istvan’s a traitor,” I said.

  Ophelia took the lead. “Yes, but to whom?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means things are seldom as they seem.”

  It wasn’t much of an answer. Before I could say so, Luna slipped her arm through mine. She smiled. I stared. It was impossible not to.

  “Where did you get the new suit?”

  “You like?”

  What could I say? It was round in all the right places.

  “Hurry,” Ophelia said. “The weather is changing. We don’t want to get caught in a storm.”

  Luna helped me shuffle outside. Light flakes of snow were starting to fall. Down a set of stone steps was a jet-black military helicopter with retractable landing gear. Two rocket casings were mounted on each side. There was enough firepower in them to blow a hole in the fabric of space-time. The blades were kicking up such a wind I was amazed the church windows hadn’t blown in.

  “Where did this come from?” I asked. I had to shout so Luna could hear me.

  “It was the one that was supposed to be waiting for us on top of Iron Spike Enterprises. Remember? Maximilian gave it to Vlad when they cut their deal. It’s why it was gone.”

  I remembered Charlie’s father flipping out when it wasn’t on the landing pad. The thought of his death, and my part in it, put a nervous crimp in my stomach. I glanced at Charlie. He had the bounty hunter draped over one shoulder. I wondered if he’d forgiven me. I was going to ask Luna about it, but before I could, a shape moved on the edges of my peripheral vision. I stopped. There was something in the trees.

  “Get ready for trouble,” I said to Luna. Then I drew the Dragon Dagger and waited.

  CHAPTER 38

  FLY BY NIGHT

  LUNA HELD THE tranquilizer rifle one-handed at her hip, the barrel pointing into the woods. Her other arm was fastened around my waist. Without it I might have toppled. I saw movement again, this time on our other side. Whatever was shifting through the trees was either shadow-jumping or faster than the Man of Steel.

  “Over there,” I said, squinting from the snow that was blowing around.

  Charlie nudged me forward. “Keep the train rolling. If the horde comes back, we’re going to be chop suey.”

  A human-shaped silhouette appeared in front of the helicopter. It was huge. Charlie seemed indifferent. He shifted the bounty hunter on his shoulder, then slipped past me and dropped down the steps three at a time.

  “Hey, Vin,” he said. “Anything suspicious?”

  I stared at the figure as he moved closer. It was Vincent. I recognized him instantly, despite his impossible appearance. His size made it clear that he had turned, but somehow his human features had remained intact. His nose was a bit flat and his ears pointed back slightly, and he had the same wide, yellow pupils we’d come to expect at feeding time, but otherwise he looked exactly like the boy we’d adopted, albeit twice as large.

  “Nothing around here but a bad smell, Charlie,” he said, nostrils flaring. His voice was low but was lacking the raspy, animal quality of his father’s. I’d never heard Vincent speak as a beast. He’d never done anything but flip out. “What’s with that?” he asked, nodding to the bounty hunter.

  “Hostage,” Charlie answered.

  Vincent’s eyes returned to me. He smiled. His teeth would have put a mountain lion to flight. In one powerful leap, he jumped up beside Luna and me. At his full height, my forehead was level with his shoulder. He must have outweighed me by a hundred pounds.

  “I knew we’d have you back in no time,” he said. He reached out with one hand and took me around the waist, then ducked between Luna and me so his shoulder was under my arm. When he stood, it lifted me right off the ground. “You look terrible,” he added.

  He put his other arm around Luna. She let out a yelp of surprise, which made him laugh. Then he leapt down the stairs to the helicopter, carrying us both as if we weighed no more than a couple of feather pillows. Unencumbered, at a full clip, I couldn’t have jumped half that distance.

  “Hurry,” Ophelia said. She was already inside the cockpit, closing the door.

  Charlie dumped the body of the bounty hunter in the open cabin. His partner, the Asian woman, was already strapped, unconscious, into one of the seats. Charlie hoisted the man up beside her, then took up a position behind a Gatling gun I’m certain Arnold Schwarzenegger used in the second Terminator movie. There was one pointing out each side of the helicopter.

  Vincent stepped up behind the second Gatling gun. It looked small with him hunched over it. The entire chopper lurched under his weight. Luna climbed in next and offered me a hand. I collapsed into the middle seat in a row that was mounted on the wall separating us from the cockpit. Ophelia was on the other side, playing with the flight controls.

  “You swallow some bad blood or something?” Charlie asked. “You look half-dead.”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer. I was worried that he was still angry with me for having failed his father. “Are we okay?”

  His answer was a confused look.

  The hum of helicopter blades intensified. “Hang on,” Luna said. She strapped a double harness over my shoulders, then did herself up beside me. The seat on my other side was empty. I was immediately mindful that Suki should have been sitting there. Istvan had said that there had been no time for my friends to mourn her death. I wondered how they’d been coping. When I reached out with my mind to find out from Luna, nothing happened. I couldn’t hear what she was thinking, nor did she give any sign that she could hear me. The connection we had once shared was gone.

  We rose unsteadily from the ground, swaying from side to side, as if Ophelia wasn’t sure which way to go. Once we cleared the trees, she circled, then we whooshed off into the night.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “We’re meeting Vlad,” Vincent said.

  “Vlad?” I looked at Luna.

  “Yeah. You know—thick moustache, husky build, long black hair, angry, brooding eyes. I’m sure you two have met.”

  It might have been the thought of seeing Vlad again, or the motion of the helicopter, but I started to feel queasy. “Very funny.”

  She seemed taken aback. “What’s with you?”

  I thought of what the Changeling had told me, that Vlad had knowingly given me up to be captured and killed. It mig
ht have been a lie, but my gut instinct said otherwise.

  “Are you telling me you trust him after everything that’s happened?”

  “Hey, we already got the trust speech from Entwistle,” Charlie said. “Don’t you remember?”

  “No.”

  “Last summer, when we were running around looking for Hyde. He told us not to get hung up on trust. Does that ring any bells?”

  It did. Mr. Entwistle had told us to focus on what people wanted. If we understood their interests, we’d have a better idea of how they would behave.

  “How is that relevant?” I asked.

  Charlie nodded towards the cockpit, where Ophelia was sitting. “Vlad’s main interest is right there. He risked his life to save her! You know that. You had a front row seat!”

  This was true. His performance during Ophelia’s trial had been both brave and selfless. But then he’d sent me back to Castle Dracula, where I’d been betrayed. I had no idea if that was just Istvan’s doing, or if he had he been acting with Vlad’s consent, but I had to get to the bottom of it.

  “The Changeling said Vlad knew what was happening at his castle. That he wanted me out of the way.”

  “That’s a lie,” Vincent said. His tone was unusually sharp.

  “Easy, Vin,” Charlie said over his shoulder. “Zack’s not up to speed yet.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means Vlad’s with us now. We thought you knew that.”

  “Are you forgetting that he tried to kill you?”

  Charlie’s eyes shifted upwards as he thought about it. “Yeah. You know, I sort of had forgotten.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding! He was holding you hostage!”

  “Hey, keep your shirt on. Or that robe or whatever it is. You’re supposed to be the forgiving one, remember? The Changeling kills anyone who doesn’t take the mark. We’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Vlad.”