by DC Malone
“We shall see.” Luka’s tone didn’t invite any more playful comments.
It was closing in on late afternoon when we finally caught sight of the warehouse complex. The huge, squat buildings looked drab and utterly unimportant in the bright midday sun, which was quite probably the point. Those gray, hangar-like buildings would be seen by the average eye as filled with pallets of goods waiting to be shipped off to homes or businesses, and no one would think twice about what might be going on inside.
“I think this is probably far enough,” Luka said, pulling onto the curb a block or so down from the facility. “Better to be as inconspicuous as possible.”
“Is that what you think we’ll be, Mr. Train?” Linus sniffed. “The four of us waltzing right up to the place in the blazing daylight? You, the Big Black Giant, carrying a broken old white man on your hip… Yeah, people won’t bat an eye at that. We’ll be like ninjas.”
“I could let you crawl.”
“Might be better. Has anyone ever told you that you have a distinctive aroma? It’s like citrus fruit and pungent animal musk. Not unpleasant… if you’re into that kind of thing. But it can be a little overwhelming.”
Luka swiveled in his seat to look at Linus. Glower was probably the more accurate term for what he did. “I do not have an aroma. And if you insist on continuing your asinine—”
“Uh, guys, could we not…” Francie’s voice was drowned out by Linus’s rebuttal.
“—because the truth always has a little sting to it doesn’t it?”
“Guys!”
“Oh, okay,” Linus hissed. “We’ll save the argument for later, barmaid.”
When Francie didn’t reply, I turned in my seat to look at her. She, in turn, was peering out of her door window with a disquieted look on her face.
I followed her gaze to the small group staring at us from just beyond the curb. The two men were nothing special, maybe a little overdressed in their dark suits for this part of town, but nothing to catch one’s eye in a crowd. The woman between them, though… She wore more casual clothes than the two men—just a plain white button-down blouse and a pencil skirt—but she drew the eye. She was striking, not least because of her height, which held her a full head above her companions. But there was also an intensity—a fierceness—that seemed to almost spray out of her granite-hard stare.
She turned that stare on me, and something flip-flopped in my stomach.
“Uh, guys…” I said, parroting Francie’s earlier words.
“Who is that?” Luka had caught sight of the trio as well.
“Well, the good news is that the whole covert thing is now a moot point,” Linus replied. “The bad news… is that we’re all dead.”
Chapter 26
Linus gestured for Francie to crank down the window. It took her several moments to comply, likely because she had the same frenzied maelstrom whipping around in her skull as I did. Should we try to bolt and run? Use the last tattered remains of surprise we had on our side and simply attack?
I settled on staring out the window with a slack-jawed expression aimed squarely at our quarry’s navel area. It didn’t seem overly productive, but it was the best I had at that moment.
When Francie had the window most of the way down, Linus leaned over and aimed a smile at the group as they approached the side of the car. “Change of plan, Gladys. Death wasn’t the best way forward with this one, but she will no longer be an obstacle.”
“I knew it,” Luka muttered.
Linus kicked the back of the driver seat, then immediately cupped a hand over his mouth as his face went red. Apparently, his feet were not yet up to that level of activity.
“What is this, Carl?” The woman’s voice wasn’t notable in any audible way. Just the voice of any random librarian or schoolteacher, maybe. But every syllable she uttered seemed to carry a sensation on its back. A whisper of nostalgia or faded sadness, something like a whiff of perfume that belonged to an old friend. Or the half-remembered sound of a voice, maybe that of the mother I had never known.
“Just like I said. Change of plan.”
Gladys stooped low and peered into the vehicle, taking the measure of each of its passengers in turn. It didn’t take her long.
She stood and motioned to the two men. “Bring them.” With that, she turned and started in the direction of the warehouse, her long stride building effortless speed.
“Gladys?” Linus called after her.
“Inside, Carl.” She did not look back.
Inside ended up being the interior of a large office that jutted from the side of one of the larger warehouse buildings like a boxy wart on the structure’s otherwise uniform surface. The room's expansive interior was exaggerated by its sparse furnishings. A large, dark wooden desk sat in the middle of the back wall with an expensive-looking chair behind it. The only other feature was the hospital bed that sat empty to one side.
“How did you come to be injured, and why are these people with you?” Gladys narrowed her eyes at me. “And why is this one still breathing. Answer plainly.”
Up close and personal, Gladys wasn’t much like I expected. Sure, she was taller than many women I had known, and she had an imposingness that poured off of her like heat from a sunbaked sidewalk, but she didn’t really look like a maniacal villainess. She sort of looked like some of the teachers I had known as a schoolkid—conservative dress, tied-back hair, and a shrewd look of disappointment etched across the severe angularity of her face.
She also didn’t look her age. Gladys could have passed for forty-five, maybe forty. If there was any truth to the story that she had been around at the inception of the Congregation, then she must have been hundreds of years old, but no lines or wrinkles hinted at that fact. Her conversion to vampire was a relatively new development, which meant there was some other force behind her apparent agelessness.
But now certainly wasn’t the time to puzzle out such trivial details.
Linus grimaced as Luka lowered him onto the carpeted floor. “This anomaly of a creature proved more surprising than I had thought possible,” he said. “As I predicted, our relationship got off to a, shall we say, rocky start. Hence the injury. But from there, things diverged from the scenarios I thought possible.”
“Then you were wrong?”
“Wrong?” Linus asked.
Gladys leaned back against the heavy wood of the desk and folded her arms across her chest. She tapped out a rapid beat against the floor with one of her black leather shoes.
After a moment or two, Linus began to squirm under her fixed gaze.
“Ah, yes, I suppose I was. Wrong, I mean…”
Gladys stopped tapping her foot and leaned forward to look directly into Linus’s eyes. “Then say it.”
“Say it? I said it, didn’t I? I was wrong…”
Gladys shook her head with a confused expression on her face. “What’s wrong with—”
“Oh!” Linus almost shouted. “I remember. Of course. When we last spoke, I told you I was always right, and you said that someday I would have to admit that I wasn’t.” He clapped his hands together. “Which is today. I am not always right, Gladys.”
I cringed as Gladys narrowed her eyes further. I imagine it isn’t the easiest thing to navigate a new body and brain, to try and pick out the fragments of useful memories that used to belong to someone else entirely. But the only thing Linus, and the rest of us for that matter, had going for him was the fact that Gladys thought he was Carl.
And he was blowing that disguise with each additional word out of his mouth.
“Carl, if there’s something you need—”
“I’m so glad to meet you,” I said, thrusting my hand out awkwardly and interrupting the train before it could completely derail. “Carl’s told me about what you’re trying to do here, and I’m eager to do my part.”
I didn’t go so far as to curtsey… figured that might be taking it just a skosh too far.
“Is that so?” Her grip was i
cy and strong, and it sent a wave of butterflies down into the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t sure if that was the effect of her being an Empath, or if she was just that intimidating. “Not so many hours ago, our Carl here was all but certain he was going to have to put you down like a rabid dog. And now he sits there on my floor, too damaged to stand under his own power, gibbering like an idiot. Yet here you stand with your… henchmen. Explain to me what you think I should infer from that.”
She didn’t let go of my hand.
“I suppose it does look a little peculiar,” I said, trying hard not to think of how easily this superior version of a vampire could yank my arm off at the shoulder and beat me to death with it.
“I’ve seen some peculiar things in my time,” Gladys said. “Just give me your version of the events.”
“I—” Pain shot through my hand as Gladys gave a quick, brutal squeeze.
“And remember, I’ll know when you’re holding back or trying to keep something from me. Just like I know something’s off with Carl.”
I swallowed. I was rapidly becoming a pretty good liar, which might help me at the poker table, but I didn’t know how much that would matter when faced with someone who could read my emotions. I figured sticking as close to the truth until I thought of something else was the best ticket I had.
“Well, Carl came to see me at my office this morning, as you probably already know. I was originally going to meet with Luka.” I tilted my head in the big man’s direction. “To fill him in on the progress I had made with the Besson case.”
Gladys smiled coolly. “That’s what this is to you? The Besson case? What is that, the name of one of the Norms involved?”
I nodded. “A husband and wife, actually.”
“I had heard that Necromancy was your gift, but I think shortsightedness is where your true powers lie. What was World War II to you? The backdrop for a tax evasion case?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Were you? You do smell a little… Nazi-ish.” I kicked myself inwardly. Leave it to me to try to ingratiate myself with someone by calling them a Nazi within the first fifteen minutes of meeting them…
“The fires of your anger are quick to ignite,” Gladys said, thankfully dropping my hand from hers. “But that anger doesn’t stem from my slight against you, does it? You are invested in the Norms.”
“I don’t know if I would say I’m invested. But they were part of the case I was working, and I take that seriously. Took that seriously. Carl explained the, uh, Norms’ role in what you’re trying to accomplish.”
“And you’re fine with that?” Gladys asked.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, trying to stick to the emotional truth as closely as possible. “I can’t say I understand why they would want to be changed into… one of those things.” I shrugged. “But they volunteered, so…”
“He volunteered,” Gladys said. “If I recall correctly, only the male Norm volunteered himself. He was one of the many lackeys that helped with some of the more mundane aspects of our magnificent venture here—the finances or logistics, something. The wife… was taken in as part of the bargain.”
“Of course.” I pushed the thought away as quickly as possible, but I still felt the prickles of anger dancing across my chest.
“It’s a pity, really,” Gladys continued. “It doesn’t seem to work all that well when the process is performed on the unwilling. The male… he’s a magnificent thing to behold now. Brutally strong and easily controllable. The female, though… Let’s just say it was a mercy that I put her out of her misery as quickly as I did.”
I choked down my anger and tried to look anywhere other than into the amused eyes of the wretched woman in front of me. It didn’t work, and I felt my anger boiling over uncontrollably.
“There. See? That’s the truth.” Gladys purred. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, or what you’ve done to Carl, but I know you’re not here for any other purpose but that. That anger is your purpose. And you’d love to unleash it on me. Isn’t that so?”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. Thankfully, I didn’t need to.
“The subtle approach has grown tired,” Luka grumbled as he pushed his way between me and Gladys.
Gladys opened her mouth to say something, but Luka didn’t give her the chance. One of his enormous arms shot out and down like an oversized bludgeon, blurring through the air with a speed that should have been impossible for such a heavy appendage. The blow produced a sound like the felling of an ancient tree that I felt as much as heard.
I leaped back in horror. Villain or no, this was like watching a pedestrian being struck by a tractor-trailer from a distance of about two feet.
Only, the pedestrian didn’t fall.
Luka let out a cry of pain as his arm was turned out in front of him at an odd angle. Gladys had caught the thunderous blow with all the effort one might put into catching a slow-flying beachball, and now she bent back the much larger man’s hand with an almost bored expression on her face.
“You’re right,” she said, twisting another groan of pain from Luka. “The subtle approach isn’t my favorite, either.”
At almost the same instant that she dropped Luka’s hand, Gladys’s other fist shot out like a bullet, smashing into the center of his chest. The concussive sound was even louder and more startling than Luka’s blow had been, and the giant of a man flew across the room like an invisible rope had been yanked. He slammed into the far wall, at least twenty feet away, cratering the thin metallic surface.
He slumped to the floor and did not move.
Chapter 27
The room rang with the kind of silence that could only occur after shocking violence and explosive sounds. The fight, if something that brief and one-sided could even be called a fight, left the three of us in a kind of stunned shock. Francie stood unmoving, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes shining with fear-fueled tears.
She looked exactly like I felt.
“Gladys!” Linus cried out, breaking the spell. “Thank God you saw through their ruse. They coerced me to say those things before. That big lout even broke both of my feet, tortured me, so that I would cooperate with their plan… I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You backstabbing—” I had my kick primed and aimed at one of Linus’s injured feet, but Gladys breezed between us before I could strike.
“That would have made the most sense,” she said, staring down at Linus and ignoring me entirely. “but you are still lying to me… which means there is more going on here than it would seem. You feel off to me, Carl. And I have come too far to let our familiarity compromise all that I have accomplished. You understand, of course.”
“I understand…” He didn’t sound as if he understood anything she was saying.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “Have some dignity, old man. The risks are too great. You will have to die with the others. It’s the only way I can be sure.”
“Die? Wait-wait-wait!” Linus held up his feeble hands like he expected the killing blow to fall at that very moment. “I still have value, Gladys. I know things. Helpful things.”
“Put your arms down, you pathetic creature.” Gladys turned her gaze from the former vampire with a sound of disgust. “You have nothing to offer me. We’re beyond that.”
“I do! I’ll prove my worth.” Linus turned his gaze on me for the briefest of moments, and I could have sworn I saw shame burning there in the traitor’s eyes. “She-she’s more than she seems.”
Gladys spun to look at me, her eyes greedily pawing at my face like they might be able to suss out some secret hidden there. “How so?”
“She’s not a Necromancer. Not just a Necromancer, at least.”
“Shut up, Linus,” I growled.
Gladys moved closer to me, until it seemed like I could feel the cold radiating off of her vampire flesh. “I must admit, I did feel something different from this one, Linus… Not just the usual chaotic torrent of unchecked emotions, but something
unique. Something dormant, perhaps.”
“You are wise beyond reckoning, my queen.” Linus did his best to bow, which was almost impressive given that he was sitting down. That blatant showing of extreme cowardice cut through any fear I might have felt, replacing it with the intense urge to hurl all over the floor.
“Your subservience is required, so don’t think you’re buying yourself any points with that sickly show. I should have known you weren’t Carl before you even opened your mouth. The particulars of your strange resurrection will have to wait for later. Right now, I’m more interested in this creature you’ve brought me…”
Gladys dipped her head low, almost like she was sniffing me.
“What are you, my pet? Do you even know?” Gladys moved her hand to my face as though to brush a lock of hair away, but she dropped it back to her side after a moment’s consideration.
“She doesn’t. Not really,” Linus said. His newly adopted lapdog tone was getting to be too much to bear.
“If you are going to kill us all, can you kill him first?” I asked. “I’d like to watch that…”
“All of that nastiness depends on what you might bring to the table—what use you might be to me and what lies ahead… What do you think that might be? What can you do?”
“I… drink a fair amount of gin, I guess. So, if you have a surplus on your hands, I suppose I can get rid of some of that for you. Kinda like a cleaning service or something.”
“She’s one of the Dark Ones from myth,” Linus cut in. “Eldritch-touched… you’re a vampire, Gladys, so I know you feel it too. With her—us—by your side, there are possibilities you haven’t even dreamed of.”
“Is… that what it is?” Gladys smiled, but it was the smile of a fat cat about to devour a helpless field mouse. “My child, your energy is buzzing around in my skull like an angry nest of hornets. I’ve never felt anything quite like it.”
“She’s the reason I’m back,” Linus continued. “She willed me back after my death and popped me into Carl’s body without even knowing what she was doing. Can you imagine what she might be capable of if she had the slightest clue?”
