The Immortal Coil (21 page)

“Go on home, sir. Don’t let me see you out here this late again. It’s for your own protection.”

“Thank you, officer, thank you,” the businessman obliged and set his briefcase down for a moment to wipe the sweat pouring off his brow.

“And a word of advice, sir: Try not to work so hard, it could kill you,” she warned and got back in her car.

I poked Lyle and gestured to go back the way we came.

“How much do you think the police really know?” I whispered as we backtracked our way around.

“Not enough, is my guess,” Lyle whispered back. “The Archios did great with containment and preventing riots, but this is something for the military to handle, not the cops.”

“And yet here
we
are.”

“You’ve got a point, but at least we know what we’re dealing with.”

Police presence was getting heavier as we neared my neighborhood. By East 71st most of the buildings were completely dark and boarded up or cordoned off by yellow police tape. The NYPD guarded barricades that barred access to any of the streets ahead.

“How are we gonna get past that?” I searched the area for some sort of opening, but the neighborhood was locked down.

“We go up and over,” Lyle said, and pointed to a fire escape between two apartments. Lyle went first, climbing up on a dumpster to reach the ladder. I was right behind him on the second rung when the sound of heavy breathing and shuffling feet came down the other side of the alley. It sounded like only one infected person and at least we were hidden in the dark. Lyle waved me on to hurry up.

We crouched on the first landing waiting for the creature to make its way closer. I looked down at my arm where I had been bitten and remembered Vance’s warning about becoming infected again.

“I don’t have a weapon,” Lyle reminded me. “Can you take it out by yourself?”

“Yeah, I think so. I'm still trying to get the hang of using my powers without a weapon.”

“Get ready.” Lyle gripped the railing tensely as the infected’s shadow came around the corner of the alley.

“Wait!” He blocked me just in time. The shadow didn’t belong to one of the infected. It was the businessman from before. He stumbled into the alley holding his chest and leaned against the wall to loosen his tie.

“It looks like he’s having a heart attack. Keep a lookout.” Lyle jumped off the fire escape and ran over to help. “Don’t worry, sir, I’m a cop,” he said and showed the frightened man his badge as he helped him to the ground. “You’re going to be okay.”

Another set of footsteps was coming from the other direction. Lyle and the man were making way too much noise. The police would be on top of us any second.

“Lyle! Police!”

“I thought you were the police,” the man groaned.

“I am. I’m going to get you help.” Lyle headed straight for the police, heedless of his imminent arrest. “Watch him, Dorian!”

I hopped over the railing and approached the man. I wished my dad were here. He’d know what to do.

“Oh, sorry.” Lyle made an abrupt stop. A young woman dressed in yoga pants and a tank top tripped over him.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

This was turning into a clusterfuck and we hadn’t even encountered anything supernatural yet.

“Dorian!” Lyle shouted. “She’s infected!”

The man at my feet did not look like he was going to make it another minute. Watching him lie there dying without knowing what to do frustrated me to the point of anger. I just couldn’t let someone else die.

Lyle managed to push the woman down before she could do any damage. “Can you handle this? I’m going to take him out of here to get help.”

“Yeah, go,” I said, keeping my eyes on the infected woman. She was already up and starting to come for us. Her body hadn’t mutated yet, but she had the telltale black veins snaking along her face.

“I know this is totally against procedure, but we have to get you somewhere safe,” Lyle told the man as he helped him out of the alley.

The woman charged at me, making that nauseating guttural croak. She was pinned against the wall by my thought. I had to destroy the head, but I was having a hard time applying enough force to crush it.

The infected creature’s cries were soon going to attract more of its kind. “Sssstop …”

I could swear it was talking to me. The whites of its eyes were blackening now. “Plleeasse …”

There it was again. This thing, this woman, was still alive. She was trying to fight the infection and watching as I killed her.

“I’m sorry!” I apologized. “I can’t let you go or you’ll kill people!”

It might have been me projecting, but her expression had a mounting sadness to it. She was frightened and confused, clinging to life. I knew there was no cure for her, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to put the poor woman out of her misery.

The dumpster was close to us. I kept my hand out to stay focused on restraining her while I walked over to open the lid. A stagnant odor wafted out from the half-empty container. This wasn’t going to be pleasant, but the choice was between dignity and death.

I willed the still flailing woman into the dumpster, guiding her through the air with my hand. Once inside, I threw the lid down and raised the bar to lock it in place. She was making a racket, banging against the metal sides of the container. I looked around to see if anyone noticed and sure enough from the apartment windows above a couple was staring down at me with phone in hand.

I ran out of the alley, staying close to the buildings to keep from being detected. There were police lights much further down the avenue, but no sign of Lyle. Headlights turned down the road toward me. I sidestepped into another alley and took cover behind some garbage cans as another cop car rolled by, shining a light between the buildings. Great. Their response time couldn’t have been any more perfect when it meant me getting caught.

I snuck toward the other end of the alley, hoping to lose them on the next street.

“Man, you're a slow learner,” a voice came from above. “How many times do I need to tell you? Always leave yourself an escape route.”

Noah was perched above me on the railing of a fire escape. There weren’t any words that would help now. I fled down the alley, but the sound of high heels on pavement cut me off.

Vivian stood in my way, sandwiching me between the two of them. Maybe if I hadn’t seen her in action at the chateau I would have thought she was the easier of the two to get past, but now I knew better. Noah was wrong for once; I did still have an escape route.

I flew upward between the buildings faster than I ever thought possible. “I taught him that,” I heard Noah tell Vivian below me.

“
Fantastique
. Now go get him,” she said, apathetic to his gloating.

Only five more floors to reach the roof, but Noah was keeping pace right beside me. He wasn’t even using his super speed, which felt a little insulting, but that was probably his point. I kept my eyes ahead of me, aiming for the roof, but it wasn’t easy with him showing off his parkour tricks as he scaled the building.

Being seen didn’t matter to me anymore. I landed on the roof right as Noah vaulted overhead to intercept me.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, backing away from him.

“Don’t worry, you can’t.” He sat on the edge of an air conditioner unit watching me. I had to stay on guard. The more I focused on him, the easier it would be for Vivian to strike from another angle.

“You must think us monsters,” she said, still getting the drop on me.

“Enough mind games.” I glared at her. “If you’re going to try and kill me, just do it already.”

“Try?” Noah scoffed. “If we were going to kill you you’d have been dead the second you got off that train.”

“You’ve been following me all this time?”

“Sure have. We’ve been having fun watching you run around the city in a panic,” he laughed.

“
You
were having fun,
I
have been working,” Vivian corrected him.

“Why are you here if you’re not going to kill me?”

“I’m positive the Carpathians’ creatures will take care of that for us,” Vivian answered. “We don’t have to dirty our hands.”

“Eventually you’re gonna run out of dumpsters,” Noah added.

“Vance said you’d say that. What happened to him?” I asked. “You got here fast, even for you.”

“He fled to a Strigoi stronghold in Munich,” Vivian replied.

“How do you know that? And why were you so certain I’d return here and die?”

“You’re predictable,” Noah said and got down from his seat.

“No, there’s no way you knew what he said and where he’d be, and make it there and back in time,” I said with rising suspicion. “Not unless you three planned this.”

The silence that followed spelled it all out beautifully. “How long?” I asked.

“Since my trip with him back to France,” Noah replied.

“
Oui
, and after witnessing that dreadful display of self-defense in the alley we have no choice but to report your impending death. It is as I told you; there is no need to get our hands dirty when the Carpathians will do it for us.”

“I don’t understand. I’m right here. You said yourselves, you could have killed me at any time.”

“You don’t need to understand,” Noah barked. “Just shut up and get out of here.”

“He deserves more than a simple dismissal, Noah.”

“Wait. What about Lyle?”

“He’s safe,” Vivian reassured me.

“I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t have to, but there comes a time when no matter how strong or how fast you are you’ll need someone to trust.” She was speaking to me, but her eyes were on Noah.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked looking between the both of them.

“Why did you not end the suffering of that poor creature in the alley?” Vivian responded with a question of her own.

“She was still human inside. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Did you not empathize in some way? You may think us to be monsters, but on the inside we are still just as human.”

“That woman is a victim. She wasn’t choosing to attack me to tie up loose ends, or get rid of me because I might be dangerous. She is being controlled, so yeah, I do empathize with her. She lost everything in a split second because she got caught up in something that had nothing to do with her, just like me and all the rest of these people. We’re not living in mansions playing God with others’ lives. We’re trying to survive.”

“We are no less victims than you, manipulated and forced to suffer tragic losses over hundreds of years. Some of us accept our place while others fight it, but our pain is all felt the same way. We do not have any choice but to obey or face a fate worse than death.”

“You mean Aurelia? She may have been the one to give the order to kill, but I don’t see why it makes any difference to you. You have eternal youth and beauty, live in a palace, and have powers that I’ve only seen in movies. Why should I believe that we mean anything to you?”

Vivian opened the briefcase she was holding and slid it across the roof to me. “What is this?” I asked, looking down at it suspiciously.

“Your proof.”

I glanced around first to make sure this wasn’t some kind of trap. Noah was gone. “Where’d he go?” I asked, but didn’t get an answer.

The briefcase was filled with forms and a newspaper. Under that were two handguns with ammo, shoulder holsters, shooting gloves, and a combat knife. The forms had Lyle’s name all over them and there was a picture of Lyle in the paper.

“What is this?” I asked again.

“Monsieur Turner’s absolution. His false crimes have been purged from history and no one shall ever know of their existence. Paperwork has already been filed explaining he has been on medical leave after sustaining injuries while rescuing civilians from your apartment. That newspaper has an article detailing his heroism including sworn statements from his superiors. He will also be receiving an award.”

Finally, a surprise of the good kind. “Why did you do all this? And how?”

“ ‘How’ is very simple,” she smiled. “The Archios still own this city. I did shut it down for us to work, after all! The government, law enforcement, and media have been taken over. We have members in every office, precinct, and newsroom pulling strings to allow us greater control during this crisis.”

“I figured that was you.”

“Monsieur Turner is selfless, courageous, and gallant. Men of his kind are a rare breed. He reminds me of another, one that I failed to save from this life years ago. I do not wish to see one more pure heart lost to our war.”

She really did have a thing for him, that lucky son of a bitch. Technically, I introduced them.

“Don’t amuse yourself too much,” she said, noticing my smile. “My best gift to give is my absence. After tonight he will be believed dead, and we will have no reason to meddle in his life any longer. I cannot promise the same for you, as other supernatural beings will sense your power as we can. The decision is yours to make, but if you truly care for your friend, you too will leave him. What happened to your family was a tragedy, one that many of us have felt, but it doesn’t have to continue if you are careful.”