by Jaye Wells
Billy came around to the front of the metal desk. “Leave or I will have you taken to the Komandant’s office.”
As it happened, that’s exactly where we wanted to be, but not that way. “I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding,” I said. “We’ve only just arrived to the camp and were assigned to the children’s barracks. Matri said she didn’t have enough uni—”
“I do not care. This is not how things are done.” She was already reaching for the phone.
“Wait!” Zed said, leaping forward.
Billy sprung around with a hiss and flashed a large set of fangs. Zed froze, his hands raised to show he meant no harm.
“Do not move.” Her voice was low and mean, filled with deadly promise. She turned back around to grab the phone.
I grabbed the pole off the wall and swung it around. Zed ducked just as the hook sliced the air above his head. I ran and pushed all my weight behind the pole and thrust it toward Billy’s back.
Just as the tip made contact, she turned. The point bounced off her shoulder blade and glanced across the broad plane of her back. Because of the length of the pole, I didn’t have the luxury of turning quickly. Spinning back around took forever, and by the time I managed it, Billy was ready for me.
She came at me with a snarl of fangs and fists.
“Carmina!” Zed yelled.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of movement as he moved to help, but I was too preoccupied with the knuckles slamming into my cheekbone to feel relief. The pole fell from my fingers as I stumbled back.
Vampires are stronger and faster than any human. They live incredibly long lives as long as they get enough blood to heal their wounds, but they are not immortal. I had to remain calm enough to wait for my opening and quick enough to stay alive.
Billy swung again, but this time I was ready for her and ducked. Air swished by my face. She grunted as Zed attacked her from behind. His distraction gave me enough time to grab the pole again. The wood cracked over my knee, which made the pole a much more manageable length for close-quarters combat.
By the time I stood upright again, Billy was tossing Zed like a sack of laundry. I swung the pole around my head and cracked it across the side of her face. Her head spun and a fan of blood flew across the desk. She stumbled to the side as her hand went to her broken jaw. I spun around again to increase my momentum and this time, thrust the tip of the hook straight up under her chin. The soft skin gave easily and the pole slid home inside her skull with a sickening crunch.
Her black eyes widened and a wet gurgle came out of her bloody mouth. When gravity took over, it was like watching a tree fall.
My hands were shaking. I told myself it was because I’d been gripping my makeshift weapon so hard, but that didn’t explain the nausea or the creeping sense that things were going to get a whole lot worse before the day was done.
Ignoring the adrenaline hangover, I went to help Zed up. When he rose, he winced and favored his right leg.
“Is it broken?” I asked in a clipped tone. I didn’t have time to play nursemaid. We’d made a lot of racket killing Billy, and if we didn’t get moving we’d lose our window.
“Twisted,” he said. “It’s fine.” But when he took an experimental step, he hissed. “Shit.”
“Hold on.” I ran to Billy’s body and removed the keys that were clipped to her waist. As I opened the cage, my mind was scrambling to form a new plan. There was no way Zed could limp into the main building. Not only was it impractical but it would also destroy our ruse that we were favored workers. Vampires would never allow an injured human to take on such an important responsibility. They would be too disgusted by the display of human frailty to allow it in the main building.
Inside the cage, I realized my other problem. Not only had I broken the pole that had been used to reach the special uniforms, but what was left of it was currently impaled in Billy’s skull.
Looking up, I realized that if I stood on my tiptoes, I could just reach the hem of the closest red uniform. I looked around for something to use. Billy’s chair lay on its side just beyond the door. I ran over and pulled it into the cage. After that, it was a simple matter to get what I needed.
“You only got one,” Zed said. There was accusation in his tone and his eyes were bright, like he was ready to fight. I realized he thought I planned on leaving him there.
I shook my head. “Change of plans.”
“We discussed this—”
“Stop,” I interrupted. I grabbed the laundry cart that sat just inside the cage and pushed it out. “Get in.”
He paused and his eyes went from angry to surprised. “I’ll be damned.”
I smiled. “I’ll cover you with extra uniforms.” I flicked a glanced toward the dead vampire. “But first we need to hide her.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, we locked the cage behind us. Inside, another laundry cart held my old clothes and Billy’s body. If we were lucky, no one would come along looking for her before we were on the train.
The fabric of the red uniforms was finer than the rough, beige material of the old one, but it felt itchy and constricting. “You okay?” I said in an undertone to the cart.
From deep within piles of fabric, a muffled “okay” emerged. Buried with Zed was a gun we’d found in Billy’s desk as well as a knife. I’d have felt a lot better with one of them against my skin, but we couldn’t risk a guard patting me down on my way into the main building. As it was, we were praying none of them thought to search the cart.
I knew from Matri’s instructions that Dr. Death’s lab was located in the fourth subbasement of the main building. His personal apartments were connected to the lab rooms, and could only be accessed through a heavily guarded corridor. Because of his exalted position within the camp and the Troika, no humans were allowed to serve him. He had his own staff of servants that saw to all of his personal needs.
However, humans were allowed to collect his laundry. All of his garments were sent up to the main level via a mechanized chute. The items were collected by prisoners who then transported them to the laundry facilities, where they were washed in separate machines by a squad of vampire workers.
The sun was still up, but not for long. If we could kill Dr. Death and get out of the building before the sun was down we’d stand a better chance of making it to the station. The sun wouldn’t kill them, but ultra-violet light wreaked havoc on their immune systems and weakened them substantially. That’s why they relied on human guards to patrol during the day. If the human prisoners rose up together against sun-weakened vampire guards they’d stand a much better chance of winning than they would have at night.
I made it through the tunnel and pushed the cart into the first basement level of the main building. A vampire guard stood just inside, but waved us through without a word. I’d worried a guard might think it was odd for us to bring dirty clothes into the building, but clearly this one was too bored to care about anything.
A freight elevator stood about twenty feet beyond where I entered. I walked slowly so as not to attract too much attention, but not slow enough to earn me a reprimand for being lazy. As I walked, I spotted other workers bustling around to prepare for the evening meal and the night’s activities. A couple cast looks in my direction that made me wonder if they were in on what was about to happen.
The elevator opened and I pushed the cart inside. As the doors closed, a starburst of fear popped in my stomach. If one of the prisoners decided to try to curry favor with the vamps, they could easily blow the whistle on our plan. Images of Dr. Death lying in wait several floors below my feet paraded through my mind’s eye.
The rub was there would be no way of knowing if there would be an ambush until it was too late. At that point, I had no choice but to move forward and deliver myself into fate’s hands. I just hoped Zed had that gun ready to go when we got off the elevator. I didn’t dare speak to him to confirm that, though, because I knew I was being watched by some faceless v
ampire in a control room somewhere in the building. That was also why I needed to act fast once we got into Dr. Death’s lab. The minute shit started going down, there’d be a phalanx of guards deployed to take us out.
The elevator stopped on the right floor. I sucked in a deep breath. The floor indicator dinged. I exhaled and white-knuckled the cart as the doors opened.
But instead of seeing a squad of death dealers on the other side, an empty hallway greeted us. My heart didn’t stop galloping until I pushed the cart into the hallway and realized we really were alone. By the looks of it, this level was filled with storerooms. No living quarters or offices in sight.
Under my breath, I whispered, “We’re alone, but be ready.”
A whisper of sound emerged from the pile of uniforms.
I moved down the hall as quickly as I could without calling too much attention to myself if anyone was watching. At the end of that hall, there was a turn, and halfway down the next hall a metal door was cut into the wall. Each floor had a door to the dumbwaiter, so clothing, food, or supplies could easily be delivered directly to Dr. Death from almost any floor in the building without him needing to leave his rooms.
I looked around for any telltale red lights that might indicate a camera hidden in any of the vents or nooks in the hallway but didn’t see any. I knew better than to trust that thought so I took a moment to collect myself before I got started.
I opened the door and cursed. Inside, the space was barely large enough for a child. Even Rabbit would have had a hard time squeezing into the cube. “Shit,” I whispered.
The uniforms moved until there was a hole just large enough for Zed to speak through. “What’s wrong?”
“Change of plans.” While he lifted his head just enough to see the problem, I got busy pushing buttons to send the dumbwaiter up a floor. “We’re going to have to climb down the chute.”
By that point, anyone watching would have already deployed guards, but there were no sirens or alarms echoing through the building. It was possible they wouldn’t raise a general alarm, but just send guards to dispose of us quietly and quickly. Either way, we needed to get moving.
“You go first,” I said. “Take the gun but give me the knife.”
He climbed out of the cart and glanced down into the chute. “Six, it’s a sheer drop to the next floor. I’ll break a leg.”
We didn’t have time to argue, so I just started grabbing uniforms and tying the legs together to create a makeshift rope. He instantly caught on and pitched in without arguing. I had to admit working with Zed was a pleasant change from being with Icarus and Dare, who questioned everything I did—loudly. With both of us working, it only took a couple of minutes to create a long enough rope to lower Zed down.
“What are you going to do once I’m down?” he asked.
“I’ll tie it to the handle. Even if it breaks as I go down, it’ll reduce the length of my fall.”
He didn’t look happy about my solution, but he was smart enough to know there was no other choice. “Let’s go.”
He grabbed one end of the rope and waited until I’d put the other end around my waist as a counterweight. Without another word, he began rappelling down the long, metal throat. I braced one leg against the wall and leaned back against the pull of the rough fabric loop around my waist. Once he was down, I needed to be ready to move quickly or he’d be trapped down there alone with Dr. Death. There wasn’t a place to land and wait for me, so he’d basically have to climb out the door and into the rooms below before I could begin my descent.
It took less time than I expected for him to reach the spot two floors below. Before I was ready, he pushed off the wall and kicked open the door into Dr. Death’s inner sanctum. “Now, Six!”
I fumbled for a moment with the rope but quickly tied it to the door handle. I stuck the knife he’d given me in the waistband of my uniform. I was just swinging my feet over the edge of the hole when shouts sounded below.
As I leaped into the chute, a gunshot exploded below me.
Twenty
Zed
Behind me, crashing sounds and feminine grunts signaled my partner’s arrival. I didn’t dare look that direction because I was too busy aiming my gun at the servant I’d stumbled into when I came out of the chute. He wore simple gray clothes of a finer cloth than the prisoners I’d seen, which made sense seeing how he worked for the head of the camp. His head was bald and his lips were disconcertingly red, as if he’d recently fed and had forgotten to wipe them with a napkin.
I’d fired a warning shot when he’d refused to stop coming toward me. Luckily, the bullet that flew past his head and lodged into the wall behind him convinced him to stay put, but now we faced one another across the bed. The room wasn’t as elaborate as I’d expected. The bed had a wooden headboard and the bedspread was simple white cotton tucked into hospital corners.
“Oof,” Carmina grunted as she fell out of the chute and landed on the floor.
“’Bout time you made it,” I said. The vampire’s eyes flicked in her direction, and I raised an eyebrow at him to dare him to give me an excuse to fire.
“Who’d you shoot?” Carmina demanded.
“The wall.”
“Um, Zed—”
As she came to join me, I spoke over her to the vampire, who watched us with an unblinking gaze. “Who are you?”
He shook his head, but I couldn’t tell if it signified that he wouldn’t tell me—or couldn’t.
“Zed,” she said.
Another shake of the head from the vampire.
“Maybe he’s in the lab,” I said, pointing to the door on the other side of the bedroom.
“Only Pontius Morordes may enter the lab.” The vampire’s voice sounded like rusty chains dragging along concrete.
“Do you know how to get in there?” I demanded.
The vampire tipped his chin to indicate he did.
“Zed, that’s him,” Carmina said with more force.
I didn’t dare take my eyes from the vampire. “That’s who?”
“Dr. Death.”
I chanced a look at her face to see if she was joking. She didn’t look amused. When I looked at the vampire again, he was still smiling, but he was also halfway around the bed toward us. “Don’t move,” I said to him. To Carmina, I whispered, “How do you know?”
“I know, okay? I knew him…before.” She looked around for a moment, as if hoping proof might present itself. She finally walked toward the wall and pulled a picture from a hook to bring it to me. “Look, here’s a photograph of him with the Prime. Trust me when I say the Prime isn’t the kind of guy who has his picture taken with servants.”
“Meridian Six?” the vampire hissed. “Is that you, my dear?”
Her face paled but she refused to look at him. “It’s him.” She walked across the room to check out the door, as if she needed space. The vampire’s eyes followed her.
“There’s a security pad here,” she called. “How do we get in there?”
The vampire said nothing.
“Open it,” I said.
“I do not take orders from humans.”
I took a menacing step forward. “I will kill you if you don’t.”
The vampire smiled. “Please try.”
“Is she right?” I asked the vampire. “Are you Pontius Morordes? Are you Dr. Death?”
Instead of answering, he lunged. One second he was by the end of the bed, and the next Carmina flew across the room and a streak of gray slammed into me, knocking the gun from my hand. My body slammed backward into a side table that sent a lamp and other items crashing to the floor.
“Zed!” Carmina’s shout was almost lost in the growls and hissing of the pissed-off vampire on top of me.
Dr. Death was slight in frame but not in temperament. He giggled as his hands closed around my throat and his fangs flashed like twin daggers in the low light.
His breath stunk of copper and his eye glowed with the sort of insanity only those truly g
enius possess. “The only way you’re getting into my lab is as a test subject.”
Black floaters swam in my vision as I gasped like a fish out of water.
Behind his head, Carmina appeared wielding a lamp, but before she could strike the vampire with it, he let go of my neck long enough to strike her and give me a few seconds of much-needed air. The lamp shattered on the ground and Carmina cried out in pain. Even though she was hurt, she didn’t give up and came at him with her fists this time. This was my chance. If I didn’t manage to dislodge him we’d both be dead soon.
I bucked with my hips at the same time I threw all my weight to the left. He fell toward the right and I managed to pull myself out from under him. Carmina immediately intensified her attack, swatted him with her fists like two pistons. Though my windpipe felt crushed and my neck throbbed, I pulled myself up to go help her.
The gun lay near the chute. Before I could reach it, Carmina screamed. I looked back in time to see the vampire’s fangs sink into her forearm. The bastard growled and ripped a chunk out like a dog with a juicy bone. Carmina’s skin went white and she fell, cradling the arm to her chest. I grabbed the gun and spun around.
The first bullet lodged in his shoulder. The impact knocked him back, but he stayed on his feet.
“Stop or the next one goes into your skull.”
Carmina’s blood smeared across his lips, which spread into a smile. “Your bullets don’t scare me, human.” As I watched in horror, he reached into the bullet wound in his shoulder and dug around until he pulled the slug out of the hole. He didn’t even break a sweat. “The humans have a name for me, yes? Dr. Death.” He chuckled. “It’s precious, this name. Do you really think I’d have access to all of this technology and wouldn’t formulate a way to become even stronger and more immune to your puny weapons?”
I pulled the trigger. The bullet exploded from the muzzle and drilled into the space between his eyes. His face exploded.
