Broken (15 page)

Since the Friends had already sealed the tunnel entrance that’d led to this area, Frank was heading toward the stair exit, pulling a sun-proofed ski mask over his face to cover it from daylight. Even during these hours, he would be able to run fast enough outside so that no one would see much of him.

“Hold on,” Dawn said. “I know you want to go after Breisi’s portrait, but don’t you think barging up top could attract attention, especially right now, when things are still level orange?”

“True enough,” Kiko added. “We can’t take the chance of going out until we need to. We know the vamps have access to cameras around the city, and if one’s trained near our exit . . .”

Not to mention that Ms. Shadow Girl was still out there, Dawn thought. Shouldn’t Frank be more cautious since Dawn had already mentioned the
custode
’s appearance—then disappearance—to the team?

Frank kept going up the stairs. “There’s no cameras around here. A Friend already said so when I asked her.”

The only thing that stopped him from reaching the upper level was another Friend who was winding her way down the stairs since there must’ve been an entrance for them near an exit shaft. She pushed him back toward the group.

Natalia took out one of her earbuds as the Friend spoke.

“There’s talk among the authorities,”
the spirit rushed to tell the team. She was one of the Friends who’d been stationed with the police. Tammy, Dawn thought, recognizing the businesslike Midwestern accent. She’d been some kind of feminist CEO before dying.
“The cops don’t know what to make of those charmed humans. Evidently, the vampires adjusted their victims’ memories before sending them away from our old headquarters. Maybe the girls barely mind- wiped them, because the humans are talking nonsense.”

“Elaborate?” Dawn said.

“They’re saying terrorists got to them and brainwashed them, but I suspect this is only their confusion talking.”

“Shit,” Dawn said. “That’s high profile, and it might lead to the authorities canvassing the area.”

“Or,” Kiko said, “the law could chalk it up to a bunch of loony chatter. Let’s pray the media doesn’t get ahold of this.”

Dawn pulled her jacket closer around her. “Let’s also hope that we’ll already be through with this Underground and out of London before any full investigations can get underway.”

Tammy the Friend flew off, and Natalia said, “Should we contact Detective Inspector Norton?” The team had never met him, but he was one of Costin’s sources. “Do you think he could help?”

“We might be beyond the police now,” Dawn said, glancing at Claudius, who was clearly listening with his eyes closed and that maddening grin on his face.

“But . . .” Natalia began, and Dawn knew exactly what the new girl was going to go off on.

“Natalia,” she said, “this isn’t the time to be doing follow- up work on what you consider to be the most important part of this hunt. The Friends have already told us that Norton’s come up empty with the Kate Lansing case.”

The psychic stared at the ground. She’d become attached to the first victim they’d “encountered.” Since Natalia could hear the dead, she’d latched onto Kate Lansing’s voice at the Billiter Street burial grounds, and she’d never let go. Dawn wouldn’t even be surprised if Natalia sneaked out to go to Kate’s upcoming inquest.

In a lot of ways, Natalia—the most naïve one of them all, but also the most intuitive—was the team’s grounding force. But sometimes grounding wasn’t what a hunter needed.

Dawn moved on. “Kalin? Where are you?”

The Friend breezed over; she seemed energized by all the action.

“Could you plug up Sleeping Beauty’s ears over there?” Dawn asked, jerking her chin toward Claudius. “We’ve got some sensitive issues to go over before I spend quality time with him. But it shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”

Kalin shot over to the master vamp, who started to protest as the spirit pushed him to the bed, then nudged her essence over a pillow to the ear that wasn’t against the mattress. Her force, plus the pillow, should do the trick.

Back to the team. “Even though Costin hasn’t run out of time to complete his attack yet, I want to know which one of you has the information about where he is. And don’t BS me. He told me someone on this crew would be privy to his destination and would be able to access his locator, if needed. I want to be as prepped as possible if dusk comes around and he’s still MIA.”

She wouldn’t think about his other order. To go for the Underground instead of a rescue.

Kiko was looking around at the team, and Dawn didn’t know if it was because he was the secret holder or if his pride was just as wounded as it’d been back when he’d found out that only Breisi had known a lot of Costin’s secrets in Hollywood, when she’d been a human hunter, too.

“Well?” Dawn asked when no one came forward.

Kiko said, “I can start touch- reading. At least with Natalia. That’d tell me if she’s the one. I wouldn’t be much good with Frank though.”

Dawn didn’t ask if Kiko’s mind was in decent order for any readings; he could’ve still been fuzzy from the lulling.

He seemed to get that, and his posture slumped. Soon, he’d be promising her that he would wean himself off the lulling, but she’d heard it all before with the medication.

Yet she couldn’t blame him, really. Not with all the visions and vibes that were always assaulting him, especially in this intense job.

Natalia and Frank were still mum, so Dawn fixed her attention on the new girl, willing her to blurt out the truth—that Costin had entrusted her with this piece of the puzzle.

But then Frank talked.

“He didn’t want anyone to know until he got back.”

You could’ve knocked Dawn over with mist. Even Kiko gaped at her dad.

“You?” she asked him. “Costin gave the location to you?”

Frank nodded. “I learned my lesson but good last time in Hollywood, when we shot off to help him. Breisi gave me what for, too, and I promised her and him that I’d keep everyone from joining in an attack this time. I guess Costin took that for worthiness. And the icing on the cake? Kiko can’t touch- read me for the information. I’m a vault.”

“Where is Costin, Frank?” Dawn asked.

He folded his arms in front of his barrel chest.

She stepped up to her dad. “The last thing I want to do is go after him, but I’ll be honest. I’m getting nervous, here. He hasn’t even sent a Friend back with news. Not even a phone call, either, saying he’s on his way.”

“You shouldn’t have expected any of that. He’s probably busy.”

True, and maybe she was just overreacting. But there was something picking away at her, and she only wanted to be ready to go to him at the first opportunity, if required to.

“I got it, Frank—you’re a vault.” She glanced sidelong at Claudius. “But, if I wanted to go to him now because I have the bad feeling he’s in trouble, there’re other ways for me to find out where he is.”

“You’re only supposed to use Claudius to get at a true Underground location if you need to, Dawn. That’s what Costin told me.”

She tapped her foot on the ground.

When her dad didn’t take her baiting, she blew up. “What if Claudius
did
set Costin up? Wouldn’t you regret not saying anything?”

“I doubt Costin would want us to stumble into the same trap, so, no. I wouldn’t regret it.” He shook his head. “I just wish I’d grabbed Della and brought her down here. She would’ve been an easier interview than Claudius.”

The Friends had barred the team from the girl vamps during the evacuation and, besides, the Queenshill chicks had been real fast in getting down those stairs and to that fire.

Dawn huffed out a sigh as she glared at Frank. Damn it. It wasn’t like she was going to work him for information like she had with Claudius, so the only source available to her was in this room, on a bunk, acting like an asshole. And to make matters worse, Costin had told her not to go after the info, anyway, unless there was definitely a worst-case scenario—and she couldn’t prove there was.

He
so
didn’t trust her to stay put and allow him to do his job. But she probably wouldn’t have trusted her, either.

Hell, it was only because she wanted him safe.

Her gaze swung toward the master vamp, a pillow still over the side of his head.

Surely I’d feel if Costin was gone,
Dawn thought, wondering just how far she’d take this paranoia that was chipping away at her. Costin was probably kicking ass in the Underground and the team just hadn’t been around the schoolgirl vamps long enough to see them change, reflecting the termination of Mihas.

Kiko moved toward Claudius’s bunk, and the vamp’s nose twitched from the space between pillow and blanket, as if he’d scented someone coming near.

“How about this for a compromise?” Kiko said. “I say we go ahead and parlay with Claudius, here, for peace of mind. If he could tell us the real Underground location, Frank can verify if it matches what Costin told
him
. That way we’d know if we should be worried about the boss or not.”

“And if Claudius gives us a random location just because he knows it’ll make us worry?” Frank asked.

Natalia spoke. “That’s a possibility.”

Dawn didn’t care.

Her voice was thick as she said, “Maybe we could just get Claudius to reveal what would be waiting for us if Costin
is
trapped and we had to go after him . . . after we dealt with the Underground, of course.”

Before she could truly see if emotion would overwhelm her or not, she reached for Claudius’s pillow. Kalin allowed her to tug it away from him.

Kiko was right by Dawn’s side. “Hey, Mr. Bloodsucky.”

Frank backed up Dawn, too, and Natalia did the same to Kiko.

“Before you drift off,” Dawn said to Claudius, “we’d like to pose some questions.”

The master vamp yawned, showing his disdain, and Dawn whipped out, mentally smacking him.

She almost did it twice, too, until she felt a burn near her neck, attaching itself to the latest mark, which she hadn’t even bothered to look at yet.

She gritted her teeth and held back.

 

 

ABOUT
an hour and a half later, Claudius was in a deep, probably self-inflicted rest, his eyes open, hearkening back to his near-coma state.

They’d gotten nothing out of him, and Dawn had been sweating with the effort to contain her temper.

“Stubborn dick,” Kiko said.

He and Natalia sat on one of the lower bunks, holding the shirt and jeans Dawn had shed in favor of a shower and another set of black clothes, including a turtleneck that covered the smack of darkness she’d known would be on her neck, attached to the one before, just like some kind of growing tribal tattoo.

But she’d gone beyond fighting it and into accepting that this was her life now. There was no consistency, even when it came to this mutation or devolution.

As Kiko and Natalia looked over Dawn’s clothing, she remembered the saw-bow, the injury to the keeper.

The flying blood.

“Check my shirt for Shadow’s blood stains,” she said to them. Black material wouldn’t make the blood obvious, but they’d find the traces.

Dawn let them go for it and headed toward Eva’s room. In Claudius’s present coma state, he had a reprieve since it was just about impossible to get him out of it right now. But she’d try again soon to put the full-court press on him. Meanwhile, the Friends would guard and bind the master vamp since the spirits were refreshed, relieving each other after some of them took root in their portraits back at old headquarters.

Since the Friends weren’t complaining about the inconvenience, Dawn had persuaded Frank to take some rest, too. Then they could talk about him going back to regular HQ to rescue portraits before any vampires might return. It wasn’t as if they’d realize the paintings were special, and God knew Frank needed to recharge his own powers during the daylight. Besides, there was the whole “low profile” thing they needed to keep.

Grumbling, he’d agreed, then gone to his own small room, which was next to Eva’s.

Dawn halted on her way to her mother’s, a thought popping into her mind.

“What if we split into two teams?” she asked Kiko and Natalia.

“Huh?” he asked.

“If I was able to force Claudius into cracking and he told us what we’d need to be prepared for with any traps Costin might be caught in . . . What if, then, Frank and I, plus some Friends, went to the Underground while you two went to Costin?
You
didn’t promise him you’d stay away from a rescue.”

Natalia glared at Kiko. He frowned. She was keeping Kiko in line, and he was a prime candidate for it after letting in that vamp earlier.

“Okay,” Dawn said. “Just thought I’d put it out there.”

“It’s just not a good idea to split any attacks up,” Kiko said. “Maybe that’s what Claudius is trying to get us to do, anyway.”

Point to Kiko.

Dawn left them to go about their investigation, cruising by Claudius’s bunk. His staring eyes made her think of those holographic images in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion—eyes that followed you as you passed.

She just wished this
were
an amusement park ride.

Reaching the room where the Friends had tucked Eva, Dawn rapped lightly with her knuckles, then eased open the door. A slat of light fell onto a metal bed in a corner, where a shape filled the blankets.

Sleeping, Dawn thought. When was the last time her mom had woken up?

She entered, leaving the door open for some scant illumination. Eva’s long, salon- blond hair silked over her pillow, her face turned toward the wall, one hand peeking out of the covers.

It was her healthy hand—the one she hadn’t drawn blood from the other night—so there wasn’t a bandage on it. Then again, Dawn hadn’t really spent quality time with her mom in days, so it’d probably be scarring up by now, especially with the aid of healing gel.