“What?”
Alex sighed. “I took her mother away again.”
Sangster said, “You can’t think of it that way.”
“Because they’re sociopaths, right? It was still a cruel thing I did.”
“I don’t accept that,” Sangster said. “It was a necessary thing. You didn’t torture anyone. You didn’t kidnap anyone. You killed a vampire to stop a terrible thing.”
“Vampirism twists and distorts. But, Sangster, we twist and distort ourselves in response. John Polidori was willing to risk his only loved one—this adopted child—to fight vampires. And look at you.”
Sangster had gotten quiet, but now he gave that half-smile of his. “What about me?”
“I mean, you can’t get away from the Polidorium. And you know, between you and me, being an English teacher: not so bad.”
“Why, thank you.”
Alex nodded. “I know one person who walked away from this life, and that was my father. He quit. So what I want to know is: Is this my life now? I got bit and would have died if Hexen hadn’t whisked me away. The doctor, Kristatos, she showed up at work one day and now she’s dead—because of me. Is that a picture of my life; are these visions of my life?”
“Well, think of it this way,” said Sangster. “If you hadn’t been on the ball, the world would have ended in darkness. So maybe it is a picture of your life, and maybe that picture is also not so bad.”
Alex shook his head. “I just feel…like there’s always another door to go through. Like we’re always being played. Someone went to the trouble to tamper with a painting that led us to Harrow, and finally to hidden DNA in Scotland.”
“Blacktowers,” Sangster said. “Well, we’re gonna try to find out more about them.”
“Oh, sure,” Alex said. “And you know what, there will probably be a secret group behind them, too.”
“Oh, for the love of—” said Sangster, running a hand through his hair. “Look, Alex…”
“And you know, I wanted to go to that formal last month, I mean, that’s just an example.”
“Oh, my God, you’re killing me. Time out.” Sangster jabbed his hands together. “Now you’ve done your monologue, so just hang on. First of all, I didn’t stop you from going to the ball, the vampires did that, and you still made it, so give it a rest. But second of all, here’s what I know.”
Sangster put his hands on Alex’s shoulders and hunched forward, like a coach talking through a football player’s face guard.
“You. Are. Special. You’re off the charts. We don’t even have a word for what you can do. The Polidorium was founded by a doctor who wanted to save the world and who held his organization together with both hands until he died. You’re not like that. You can sense evil. You have reflexes and adaptive ability that we can’t even begin to understand. You inherited it from your mother, a witch, and your father, who passed you genes that go back to Abraham Van Helsing and farther back than that. Hexen, an organization that’s so secretive that we wondered if they’d all been destroyed, came out of hiding for you. For you!”
Sangster let go, straightening up. He smoothed down his jacket and continued. “You know what I think? I think it’s possible that this Blacktowers group has secrets for you, and if you want, we can try to learn those secrets. And I have a feeling you’ll learn even more about yourself, but it’ll still come down to the same thing: You. Are. Special.” Sangster shook his head.
“I got bit, too,” Sangster went on. “And I kept some of the curse and it makes me a little faster and a little quicker to heal. And it’s nothing—nothing compared to you. Now, I’m not even gonna call you a whiner because I know better; I think you’re a gentle and kind young man, and your questions are good. You can mourn not having a normal life. But don’t for an instant regret the life you have. We don’t need you,” he said flatly. “The world needs you.”
They stood there for a moment. Sangster patted Alex on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go give Carreras his debrief, tell ’em all how you saved the planet. And then you gotta get to class.”
“Talk about a monologue,” Alex said as they walked. “You should give speeches for a living.”
“I’m a teacher; I already do.”
“Too early for class, though,” said Alex. It was seven in the morning. “I’m hoping to make it back by breakfast time.”
“Great, see? You get to have a normal life,” said Sangster as they hurried up the stairs.
CHAPTER 28
Paul, Sid, and Minhi didn’t notice Alex at first when he wandered into the cafeteria and hung near the entrance. He took a moment to watch them, and saw that Sid was making them laugh with some extended story where he needed to pantomime being hung upside down. Minhi and Paul were holding hands, and Alex searched himself for the jealousy that so recently had tinged his soul whenever he saw them, and couldn’t find it. For a moment he touched his neck, feeling the tenderness of the injury there, already almost healed.
Astrid came around beside him and leaned back against the door frame, holding a stack of books.
Alex turned toward her and smiled. “Astrid.” He felt his chest brim with something like shock and relief at once. “I thought you went back to the Orchard.”
“You went back to the farmhouse,” she said with a laugh. “We both have these places. We work there; we don’t have to live there.”
“Thank God for that,” Alex said, watching her bright eyes shine. For a moment it was strange seeing her without an army of vampires trying to tear them both limb from limb. He wondered if her expandable staff was hidden in the pack she had slung over her shoulder. He found himself looking down and said, “I was afraid you weren’t coming back.” It sounded like a weak thing to say, but he said it just the same.
“Really?”
“Yeah, you know, weird stuff happens around here,” Alex said. “Icemaker’s still out there. And you never know when the chess team might suddenly all get cursed and turned into…giant…spiders….”
“A giant spider curse?”
“Right, and I’m just guessing but I’m pretty sure we’d have to go to Egypt for that, and I hate to fly alone. Plus there’s Elle—”
Astrid took his hand and patted it with her other hand. They both looked at each other and Astrid leaned over and kissed Alex on the cheek.
Alex smiled and looked down for a moment, then turned back to watch his friends, still clowning at breakfast.
“What are you looking at?” Astrid asked.
“I think I’m looking at the rest of my life,” he said. Astrid threw a glance around the cafeteria and tilted her head, as if considering.
“For now,” Alex clarified.
Astrid smiled, and together the pair walked to the breakfast table and began the day. There may well have been evil things watching, but for the moment they lay only in wait.
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About the Author
JASON HENDERSON is the author of ALEX VAN HELSING: VAMPIRE RISING, which was named Best of 2010 by VOYA, and ALEX VAN HELSING: VOICE OF THE UNDEAD. He has written for games and comic books, including the Activision game Wolfenstein, the vampire action comic series Sword of Dracula, and the manga series Psy-Comm.
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Other Books by Jason Henderson
Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising
Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead
Credits
Cover art © 2012 by Don Sipley
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Triumph of Death
ALEX VAN HELSING: THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH. Copyright © 2012 by Jason Henderson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downl
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ISBN 978-0-06-195103-9
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EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 978-0-06-211427-3
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