Dead Matter (35 page)

“Me?” Brandon asked.

I turned to look at him, nodding. “After I saw the man you used to be and the changed man I know now, I realized how important family is. There’s a strength in family. I’ve seen it in Connor, bringing him back from the edge of madness by getting to know his brother.” I walked over to Jane and took both her hands. “And I have family, too.”

Jane smiled, but leaned close and whispered through it. “That’s sweet, but how does that help us?”

“We can use our powers together,” I said. I looked at all the faces in the room. “Someone in here is responsible for all this chaos. I was able to read Perry down in the labs without much harm to myself because he’s not a living creature. Neither is anyone in this room, technically speaking.” I turned to address the gathered crowd. “So it’s simple. No one’s leaving this room until I read them with an assist from Jane.”

Jane looked uncertain, one of her eyebrows raised. “You sure that’s going to work?”

“Nope,” I said, “but we can try. As I psychometrically read all the vampires, we can link your technomancy to the traces you’ve found in the building systems, hopefully amplifying both our powers over those of the saboteur covering their tracks. Brandon, I’m assuming your little movie-watching room here hooks into the building’s systems?”

He nodded.

“Great,” I said, grabbing three chairs and arranging them by all the home-theater setup. “One for Jane, one for me, and one for our rotating guest of honor.” I looked out across the sea of faces. “Who’s up first?”

No one moved. “Anybody?” I asked.

The vampire Gerard stepped forward. He stared into my eyes, hate rolling off him in a wave. “I will not be subjected to this,” he said.

Brandon stepped in front of him. “You will,” he said. He looked around the room. “You
all
will.” He stared Gerard down in a contest of wills until the blond vampire turned away and rejoined the group without another word. Brandon looked at his people all around the room. “Only the guilty party need worry themselves. No one is leaving and no one is exempt. Are we clear?”

Brandon was met with silence. Whether it was in cooperation or not, I didn’t know, so I continued.

“Great,” I said. “Who’s first?”

There was another pause of deafening silence while I waited for someone to take action. It was Beatriz who raised her hand and sauntered forward after uncoiling herself from Aidan. “Let’s get this out of the way,” she said.

“I’ve got an unlife I have to get back to.”

“You’re cool with this?” Aidan called out.

“If it’s going to stop all this uncomfortable silence,” she said, spinning around and blowing him a kiss. “Yes.”

“Great,” I said, offering her my hand. “If you’ll just sit down here …”

Beatriz’s hand closed on mine, but she didn’t sit. I wasn’t sure what happened exactly. All I knew was that I was in motion and no longer in Brandon’s chambers.

My arm felt sore, and why shouldn’t it? It wasn’t every day that a vampire nearly ripped it out of its socket as she blurred off to her top speed. At least, that was what I thought was happening. The wind whipped into my eyes and I had to close them, missing much of what was passing by me at an inhuman speed. When Beatriz finally stopped, I was thrown to the floor as something slammed shut with a loud
click
, but what, I didn’t know. I opened my eyes to find myself in a long rectangular room with little in the way of light in it.

“Where are we?” I asked, trying to right myself. I put my hand down and felt it stick to the floor. Thank God for gloves. I looked down. The section of the floor where I had landed was covered in a slick of rusty red ick. Drying blood. That got me on my feet fast. Beatriz stood nearby watching me. “Where are we?” I repeated.

Her face went full-on vampire, leathery and stretched over her features. “A private little chamber that the others shouldn’t be able to find. I guess that’s one of the perks of being around Castle Bran since the beginning.”

In what little light was provided by the faint flickering of the wall sconces, I backed away, searching the room, always with an eye on her. This end looked to be a feeding area for her, and I stepped as quickly out of it as I could, walking to the other end. Civility seemed to rule the décor there—a small study filled with magical tomes and a desk covered with charms and spell components. It looked like Jane’s junk drawer back at the office.

I needed to find a way out of here. If I could find the exit … That was when it struck me. There was no noticeable way out. I looked back over at the stained portion of the floor.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Want to find out?” Beatriz said, her entire manner changing like she was stepping off a stage. Her voice was different now from how I was used to hearing her. Gone was her modern, unaccented English. In fact, her whole demeanor and way of carrying herself had changed. There was an Old World poise about her now. An angered poise, but an old one.

I took in a deep breath to keep from making any sudden moves, taking my time to sort things out in my head. I angled myself away from her slightly, hopefully turning my bat-wearing side out of her line of sight.

I gave a slight twist of my arm to ready myself for grabbing it, but Beatriz shook her head no. “Can’t be having that,” she said, waggling her finger at me. She blurred toward me, put her pointer finger against her thumb, and then flicked it against my chest. The impact burned from the sheer force of it, even through my jacket, and it sent me across the room, over her desk and into the hard, rough stone of the wall. I slid down it and landed on the ancient heavy chair at her desk, toppling it over and rolling until I found myself pinned beneath it, the bulk of its weight against my ribs.

I struggled to get up, but Beatriz leapt across the room, landing on top of the chair itself and driving it down onto me even harder. All the air left my lungs and I stopped struggling. Beatriz just sat there and looked down at me, shaking her head and giving an evil little smile.

“Do you have any idea how difficult you made it to get you alone to kill you?” Beatriz asked. “You just had to keep on pushing and pushing …”

She jumped down from the chair, picked it up like it was made of tissue paper, and set it down back in place. She grabbed me with one hand by the lapel of my leather jacket and hefted me up until I was standing again.

“Sorry if I couldn’t accommodate you … ?” I said, wondering just what the hell she expected me to say to something like that. “You sound different.”

“Good,” she said. “It’s pained me for some time as well in my current role.”

“And what role is that?” I said, hoping to buy some time. I either needed to come up with a plan or else hope that Nicholas thought about this place after moving the castle to the States.

“What role?” Beatriz repeated, giving a courtly curtsy that just looked odd on her, but she executed it with a practiced precision. “Why, the dutiful girlfriend. I did Brandon and Damaris’s bidding for centuries, united to what I thought was their cause, the superiority of our kind. Had I known he’d go all peacenik after his precious got dusted, Mr. Bleeding Heart, I would have ripped it from his chest.”

“So is this the real you?” I said. “Or just one role among many? Show me the one you used to seduce Nicholas to your side …”

Beatriz smiled. “Your concern for him is touching,” she said, “and yes, this is the real me. The monster. Do you know that Nicholas was too foolish to see my true nature when I courted him? I was surprised that he fell as hard as he did, but you know those religious types and their notions of romantic love. Utterly … predictable.”

Beatriz balled up her fist and slammed it against the wall, shaking it. “You’ve all made this so
hard
,” she said, looking positively disgusted, “you humans. Look what I went through to try and finish you off. First, I thought I took care of Jane using the building and computers to eliminate her. Then I wrapped Aidan around my little finger just in case I had to deal with Connor, but now there’s you! If you weren’t around Aidan’s brother all the time, then Aidan or Brandon would be bothering me with one thing or another, making it near impossible to kill all of you. You humans are like cockroaches. You simply won’t die.”

I needed an exit from there now. And only one of us knew where it was.

“You want to tell me why you want any of us dead?” I said, stripping off one of my gloves. I raised my hands and touched her cold leathery skin. “Or I could try guessing. Although, frankly speaking, I’m one of the nicest people I know so …”

My mind’s eye flashed open and I pressed a single thought into Beatriz’s mind.
Door
. The image of a hidden door straight across the room filled my brain. I pulled myself out of the vision and stared at the far wall. I definitely didn’t see one there, but thanks to Beatriz, I hoped I knew exactly where it was.

“Get your hand off me,” Beatriz said, pulling it off her and pushing me away with some force. I staggered back, but it was what I had been hoping for. I was closer to the door. In the rush of my movement, I pulled my bat, clicked the button, and extended it. Beatriz looked at me, eyebrows raised. “You think you’re going to take me on with that?”

“Well, since you want me dead, yeah,” I said. I remembered all the private sessions with the Inspectre training in unorthodox fighting techniques under the Fraternal Order of Goodness. He had looked comical with his chest padding with a painted heart on it and Dracula cape, but it had trained me in vampire combat.

At least I hoped it had. There was a world of difference between theory and application.

I swung the bat wide and to my left, making a very obvious and open attempt at hitting her, knowing full well where she had to move to avoid it. The second she blurred into motion, I used my swing momentum to reverse my shot into an empty spot nearby. The bat connected with a metallic
thud
as Beatriz appeared there, clutching at her shoulder.

“I might not be able to follow your speed,” I said, starting another wild swing, “but I
can
anticipate you …”

Beatriz took off again, and again I aimed into an empty space. She slammed into my bat once more, this time hitting her in the gut.

“And if I can anticipate you,” I continued, gathering my strength for another swing, “I can beat you.”

I started with a high swing this time, knowing full well she would try to duck it. The second she went to move, I corrected myself and dropped low with my arc, catching her in the legs. She clutched her leg, her face a mix of disbelief and fury. I backed toward the secret door and felt for where I had seen her closing it in the vision.

“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.

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.