Synthetic: Dark Beginning (20 page)

Vaughn jumped down off the railing. “I say we pop Ivan in there to check it out first. He can scare off all the rats.”

“Then we’ll have to wait for him and knowing Ivan, he’s probably trying on his twentieth outfit in front of the mirror.”

The two men sat down on the steps together and listened to the steady hum of the gas torches.

“What’s going on between you and Kora?” asked Gus, breaking the long silence.

Vaughn stared at the brown stones between his bare feet. “Nothing. She just fixed my stomach, that’s all.”

“I heard. And I’m guessing that the smell of pork earlier is a sign that all is well?”

Vaughn smiled. “Eating is better than sex.”

“Just wait until you experience Ivan’s salmon surprise. Then you’ll change your mind.”

Ivan.  Vaughn had forgotten about him in the mad rush. If he was going to eat anything without hiding, he'd have to eventually tell the tiny menace he was no longer a vampire. He hadn't even told Ivan what he'd learned from Dr. Kimura.

They both turned when they heard the grating sound of Ivan clearing his throat. He clomped down the stairs in purple high-heeled boots and shiny leather pants. “You’re both just sitting around gabbing about that miserable woman, aren't you?”

Vaughn stood up and stretched. “We came across a rat hole for you, Ivan.”

“It’s not a very tall passage. Vaughn and I will probably have to crawl, but for you it’ll be like a royal hall.”

“Forget it.  I'm going back to my room.” Ivan tried to hustle back up the stairs but Vaughn grabbed him and tossed him through the opening. They heard him skid, fall over, and burst into loud curses. “I just finished this outfit a few days ago and now the elbows are scuffed.”

A delighted smile spread across Vaughn’s face.

“Ivan,” called Gus until he stuck his head out of the opening. “See if it goes anywhere.”

Ivan mumbled under his breath, and then pulled his head back in. Gus and Vaughn waited for several minutes before he returned. “It seems to go on for awhile. You might as well come up.”

“Oh goody,” said Gus, clapping his hands together. “But how am I going to get up there?”

“Just have Vaughn chuck you like a football,” said Ivan. “It’s fun.”

“Climb onto the railing and I’ll help you,” said Vaughn.

Gus climbed up the iron frets. “I don’t know about this.”

“Now grab the edge of the opening and I’ll push you straight in,” said Vaughn.

“I’m not—” Before Gus could finish his sentence, Vaughn gave him a hard shove that sent him flying straight into the tiny passage like an arrow into a target. Ivan dove out of the way, barely avoiding the hunchback.

“Here’s some torches,” called Vaughn before chucking the batons in.

“Christ. Be careful,” said Gus.

Now both of you need to get farther back to make way for me,” said Vaughn.

Gus scuttled backward as Vaughn slithered through the opening.

“This is really cramped.” Gus crawled on all fours, his hump brushing the top of the tunnel. “Isn’t the catacomb below us? We don’t seem to be going down.”

“I bet that will change soon,” said Vaughn. “Ivan, can you run ahead and see if this heads down any time soon?”

“Forget it. No more favors for you losers.”

“I can feel air. I think there’s something ahead,” said Gus.

After another few yards, the tunnel widened and allowed both Vaughn and Gus to walk on their knees.

“I think I see a ladder straight ahead. Let me have the torch,” said Ivan. He shined the light on a ladder that began at the mouth of a large pipe.

“Do you have any rope or a belt?” asked Vaughn.

“All I have is the cord to keep my robe on.”

“Take it off.”

“My robe or the cord?”

“Just the cord.”

“Maybe you could tie my naked body to your back so I could ride you down the ladder like a stallion.”

“Actually that’s not a bad idea,” said Vaughn.

Gus clapped his hands together. “My prayers are answered.”

“I was just planning on tying us together like two climbers, but it might be better if I did all the climbing.”

“I think that’s best. There aren’t many famous hunchback mountaineers.”

“Get behind me and I’ll tie this around us,” said Vaughn.  “You need to hold on as tight as you can.” Gus jumped onto Vaughn’s back and he lashed them together with the rope. “Hold the torch up higher or you’re going to set my hair on fire.”

Gus clamped his arms around Vaughn’s shoulders as he descended the ladder. “If I fall in here, I’ll die a virgin.”

“Ivan’s a virgin too, so you won’t be alone,” said Vaughn loudly.

“I am not,” said Ivan from the darkness above. “And don’t bring me into your stupid conversations.”

“At least Ivan has more possibilities than I do,” said Gus. “I’m the only gay guy around for miles.”

“Several of the men in the Food are gay,” said Vaughn.

“You never told me that,” said Gus.

“I thought you knew. You just never go to the rituals anymore.”

“I would if I’d known. How many are there?”

“Five or six. They’re the only men who let me feed on a regular basis. I actually prefer to drink from women and gay men because they’re more relaxed about the whole thing.”

“Then how come you never drink my blood?”

“You’re not part of the Food.”

“That shouldn’t matter: blood is blood.”

“Gus, if I ever fed from you I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I’d be your most devoted donor.”

“And you’d be pounding at my door every ten minutes.” Vaughn stopped climbing and peered closely at the pipe wall. “That looks like another door.”

Gus held the torch up, revealing a round piece of metal lodged into the cement. “What is that for?”

“Let’s find out.” Vaughn explored it with one hand, then gave it a push and it swung open. “After you, Gus.”

“Why me?”

“Because I don’t want to leave you on the ladder by yourself.”

“I thought going first was Ivan’s job.”

“Not this time, bucko,” said Ivan who still hovered in darkness above where he’d be able to scuttle out of reach if Vaughn went after him.

Vaughn shoved Gus through the door and waited.

There’s a huge room in here,” said Gus, his voice echoing.

Vaughn climbed in behind him and Ivan followed. They moved in a pack to the center of the floor where Gus swung the flame in all directions. Ten antique zoo cages, similar to the one in Kora’s cell, were scattered around the room.

“There’s something still inside this one.” Vaughn squatted down near an object spread across the floor of the nearest cage. “It’s the skeleton of an animal. Looks like a lion.”

“Here’s a wild boar,” said Gus from the next cage over.

“The animal menagerie,” said Ivan. “I always thought Humphrey was just making it up.”

“I wish we’d found the roller rink instead,” said Gus. “There are deep scratches in the floor around the doors. Ruby left these animals in here to starve.”

“That looks like a tank against the wall over there,” said Ivan. They moved slowly through rows of cages where skeletons pushed through the bars as if still struggling to free themselves from a slow, agonizing death. When they reached the tank, everyone gazed at the dried lumps lying on the bottom.

Gus leaned against the tank. “So part of Humphrey came from this sad place.”

A dry chuckle rattled Ivan's throat. “There must be some dead bats around here she used to make Vaughn.”

“Nice try, Ivan, but Kora made Vaughn, not Ruby,” said Gus.

Vaughn scowled at Gus who covered his mouth. “Oops. I thought Ivan already knew.”

The grin slipped off Ivan’s face. He looked between Gus and Vaughn. “What are you talking about?”

Vaughn rubbed his eyes. This wasn’t the time or the place he’d imagined telling Ivan. “Kora created me here, at the castle, before Ruby packed her off to Mirafield.”

“Randall was so impressed when he saw Vaughn, he gave Kora a full-ride scholarship to Mirafield for life,” said Gus.

“Did she tell you this?” asked Ivan.

Vaughn felt ashamed. Ivan looked oddly vulnerable, like a child on the verge of discovering a terrible truth. “I found out when I went to see Dr. Kimura.”

“Of course.” Ivan turned away with hunched shoulders. He was silent for a long time as he stared at one of the dead animals in a cage. “And I suppose she told you that Caleb and I are at death’s door while you—Kora’s masterpiece—will live forever?”

“Five hundred years,” said Vaughn. He’d intended to simply tell Ivan the truth, but the words hung in the air like a boast. This was going so badly, Vaughn decided he might as well dump it all out there. Get it over with. “Kora also fixed me last night so I’m no longer a vampire.”

“He can finally eat,” said Gus, throwing out his arms. “We won’t have to hide anymore when we chomp down your fabulous chocolate chip cookies.”

Ivan kept his back turned.

“Aren’t you going to congratulate him? Vaughn’s the world’s first recovered vampire,” said Gus.

Vaughn closed his eyes. He wished Gus were a thousand miles away right now.

“I always knew you weren’t one of us,” said Ivan, his voice raw. “At least now I don’t have to feel guilty for hating you so much.” He walked back through the cages in the direction of the pipe. They heard a scraping sound as he climbed back out to the ladder.

“You want to kill me, don’t you?” said Gus.

“Yes.” Vaughn roughly strapped Gus onto his back before climbing back through the hatch to the ladder. Ivan was nowhere in sight.

“One thing still bugs me,” said Gus. “Why is there a door from the menagerie into this pipe?”

Vaughn gazed into the darkness below. “I bet Ruby chopped the animals up, took what she needed, then discarded them through the door like a morbid laundry chute that lead straight to the catacomb.”  He climbed down, eager to leave that terrible room far behind. After a few minutes, he heard something thrashing up the ladder from the darkness below and Ivan’s horrified face appeared in the torchlight.

“There’s nothing down there,” he said, attempting to scrabble over Vaughn to reach the ladder above.

Vaughn grabbed Ivan by his jacket and pinned him in place. “Did you see the catacomb?”

“It’s just a dead end. We should go back the way we came,” said Ivan, his bulging eyes ready to burst from his head.

Vaughn unpeeled Ivan from the ladder and held him out over the abyss where his arms and legs flailed in the air like a suspended beetle. “You’re coming back down with us.”

Ivan squealed and twisted, but Vaughn held him in a firm grip.
“I think we might be near the bottom. Our sound waves are hitting something solid,” said Vaughn, who was now climbing with one man on his back and another dangling from his right arm.

“Seems a little too soon to see the catacomb floor,” said Gus.

Vaughn stepped down onto a flat surface. He untied the rope and Gus slid to the ground.

“Where are we?” Gus shined his torch across the floor and walls where something glittered. “What is this thing?” He leaned forward to examine a wooden board attached to the wall covered in tiny hooks. “There’s little hand-written labels above what appear to be keys… Maserati, Ferrari, Duesenberg.”

“We’re in the garage,” said Vaughn. “This is your hiding spot, isn’t it Ivan?” He gave him a vigorous shake.

Gus drew in a breath. “Are you telling me we just crawled through that claustrophobic slug hole and down a perilous ladder to get to the garage? We could have taken the stairway and arrived here hours ago. How could this happen? Why doesn’t the pipe continue down?”

Vaughn dropped Ivan onto the floor where he landed on his head. “Open it.”

Ivan rubbed his scalp as he shuffled over to a hidden latch. He pulled until they heard a loud pop that sent a seamless section of pipe sliding to one side. They all climbed out and torches burst into flame revealing Ivan’s meticulous shop.

“At one time, this pipe went all the way down to the catacomb until a scheming elf decided he needed an elaborate hiding place for the car keys,” said Vaughn.

“But why didn’t Humphrey tell us he filled in this pipe?”
asked Gus.

“I’m sure Humphrey had nothing to do with it,” said Vaughn. “Ivan probably just got some of his crew down here and they didn’t think twice.”

Vaughn stomped back over to the keys and held up the torch. “Look at them. They’re all here!”

He reached up to snatch the key to the Rolls, but Ivan flung himself in front of the board. “Please Vaughn—not this. I’ll do anything.”

Vaughn shoved him aside, grabbed keys by the handful, and tossed them to Gus who stuffed them into his robe pockets.

“You can have the Aston, Vaughn. It’s all yours,” cried Ivan, jumping in the air to try and grab the keys that arced over his fingertips. He drew in a quick breath when Vaughn lifted an ancient key off the lowest hook.