by Хлоя Нейл
He knelt at Nicu’s side and whispered something.
Nicu looked away. When he finally began to speak, his voice was so quiet I had to lean forward to catch the words.
“One of our children is missing,” he said, thumping a fist against his chest. “One of my own.”
Scout and I shared a worried glance. “One of your vampires is missing?”
He nodded, then looked away, a red tear slipping down his cheek. “For two months now. We have heard nothing from her. Seen nothing of her. Her lover is bereft, and we fear she is . . . gone.”
“And you think the thieves were involved?”
“Who else would do such a thing?”
“Marlena? One of the other covens? We heard you were fighting.”
Nicu swiped at the tear on his cheek and barked out a laugh. “Vampires do not steal from other covens. We may not agree on all things, but we have honor enough.”
I nodded in understanding. Vampires might not do it, but Reapers definitely would.
And if we were right about the sanctuary, they weren’t above kidnapping someone to take what energy they could. But could that even work with vampires? “Do you know why they would have taken her?”
Nicu shook his head, but the vampire at his side prompted him with more whispers.
“We have heard rumors,” Nicu reluctantly said.
“What kind of rumors?”
Nicu met my gaze again, his eyes now fully dilated—sinking orbs of black.
“Rumors that the thieves are unsatisfied with their lot. There are rumors . . .”
Pausing, Nicu held his goblet out, and the man at his side took it. Hands empty,
he sat forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at us with terrible eyes. “There are rumors the thieves are no longer satisfied with their short human lives. They seek our blood and our secret.”
I frowned at him. “Your secret?”
“The secret of vampire immortality.”
I looked down at the fabric-covered floor, working through Nicu’s theory. He thought Reapers had kidnapped a vampire to take the vampire’s blood, thinking that if they had the blood, they had the immortality, and they could use that power to keep their magic forever.
But then I thought of what Temperance had said about the sanctuary, and I thought of the monsters. I came up with a different theory. A very, very bad theory.
A cold chill sank into my bones.
“I don’t think it was just the blood they were worried about,” I said, looking up at Nicu again. “And I think I know what happened.”
All eyes turned to me. I ignored my nerves and went for it. Vampires or not, Nicu and his band had a right to know.
“We discovered a new sanctuary, a new building where the Reapers are doing some kind of work. Medical work. And the creatures that we saw in the tunnels had similarities to vampires. Claws and”—I made myself get the last word out there
—“fangs.”
Scout turned to stare at me, horror in her eyes. “Lily, no. That’s not possible.
They couldn’t have—” I just shook my head, and let them reach their own conclusions.
“You think they took one of mine—used one of my children—to build some kind of abomination? Some kind of monster?” Nicu shook his head and waved a hand through the air. “You are no longer welcome here.”
“But we need to find them—to figure out how—”
“No!” Nicu said, standing at his throne, his jacket falling around behind him. “You are no longer welcome. Return to your domain, and never speak of this evil again.”
We didn’t waste time arguing.
We hurried back through the Pedway. Scout texted Daniel to let him know what we’d discovered—that one of Nicu’s vampires was missing, and the missing vampire might have somehow been used by Reapers to build the monsters that were trekking through the tunnels and trying to sneak inside St. Sophia’s.
Had Lauren and her gatekeeper friend been attempting to breach the doors just to let in the rats? Once inside, what were they supposed to do? If they started attacking schoolgirls, their existence was definitely out of the closet. And Scout and I would have to battle them back, which meant our magic was out of the closet, too.
Maybe that was the point. Did the Reapers hope the move would make us rejoin the Dark Elite? Like we’d go back to the mother ship for safety once we were outed as Adepts?
Frankly, I wouldn’t have put it past them. That sounded like the kind of plan Reapers would come up with. It also sounded like the kind of plan Sebastian might have known about. I made a mental note.
We reached the pretty portion of the Pedway again, walking quietly along until Scout held up her hand. We stopped, and before I could ask what she’d seen, she put a hand to her lips. We stood in the middle of the Pedway, soft jazz playing above us, waiting . . .
That was when I heard what she’d heard: movement and hard-soled shoes on the Pedway in front of us.
“Hide,” Scout said, shooing us all toward half walls that extended out on each side of the hallway. She and I squeezed behind one; Detroit ducked behind the other. We all peeked around the walls.
Vampires.
It was Marlena and her minions, sauntering through the Pedway like a queen and her entourage. But that wasn’t all.
“Oh, crap,” Scout said. “They’ve got Veronica.”
17
“What are we going to do?” I asked, watching two of Marlena’s minions drag a cursing Veronica down the Pedway. Her hair was falling down and her cheeks were streaked with tears and mascara, but it didn’t look like she’d been bitten.
On the other hand, total brat drama had now become Adept drama.
“What is she doing down here?” I whispered.
Scout sighed heavily. “She probably followed us into the basement one night,
then decided to play Nancy Drew. She’s been watching us like a hawk this week.”
“And she probably thinks we were with John Creed,” I realized, the puzzle pieces falling together. “She’s been interrogating me about him all week. She thinks we’re buds because he and Jason are friends.”
“Nothing to do about it now,” Scout said, taking a step into the Pedway. I followed,
and Detroit did the same.
The vampires began to hoot, the minions’ grip on Veronica tightening as she began to demand that they let her go.
Marlena stepped around her vampires, this time wearing a tweed dress, fur wrap,
and those old-fashioned stockings with the dark line up the back. She put her hands on her hips. “Did you lose something, darlings?”
“Let her go,” Scout said. “Or you get magic and firespell and a silver-tipped walking stick, and you get knocked back into the nineteen forties where you belong.”
Marlena hissed. “This is not a game, little one.”
“I am so sick of people telling me that,” I muttered, raising my hands. I relaxed and let the power begin to flow, letting it collect in my hands so that I could toss it out if necessary.
“Did you invade St. Sophia’s?” Scout asked.
Marlena arched a darkly penciled eyebrow. “We hardly have need for that, iubitu.
Not when she is wandering through the corridors alone.”
“Bingo,” Scout muttered.
“Let go of me!”Veronica screamed again, yanking at her arms as she attempted to break free.
Marlena had apparently had enough. She turned and slapped Veronica across the face, leaving a red welt across her cheek. “Silence!”
Veronica’s howls turned to silent weeping. Scout took a precautionary step forward.
“Marlena, if you have issues with us, you need to let her go. She’s not one of us,
and has nothing to do with this. She will only bring attention to your kind.”
Marlena’s expression faltered for a second, but then went stone-cold again.
“Liar.”
“She’s a normal,” I confirmed. “You keep
her down here, and things get very,
very ugly for you.”
“Uh, ladies, speaking of ugly, we’ve got a problem.” We turned to see Detroit looking behind us.
I hated to turn around, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to run. Slowly, I glanced back as well.
Vampires. An entire crowd of them, moving in from behind us.
But these were a different kind of vampire. They were Nicu’s.
Nicu stepped through them to the front of the horde. He nodded at me and Scout and Detroit, then took in Marlena.
“They are children,” he said. “Let her go.”
“She is mine. My catch. My bounty. My prize.” She rolled the R in ‘prize’ like an opera singer, and the sound sent a chill down my spine.
“She is not part of this world, and your bringing her into it will not help.” He inched closer, as did the vampires behind him.
“When it’s time,” I whispered, “I’ll grab Veronica. You two jump to the right, and then we make a run for it.”
Detroit nodded, but Scout looked worried.
“Firespell,” I reminded her. “If they get me, I take them out.”
She blew out a breath and nodded, then turned her attention back to the vampires and the turf war we’d gotten stuck in . . . again.
Marlena put her hands on her hips. “You choose children over your own kind?”
“They have offered their help. They have come to us with information and have treated us as equals. In this, yes. We choose children over those who would forsake us.”
In the silence, Nicu and his vampires took another step forward, then another,
until they were directly behind us. I wasn’t thrilled about the proximity, but I trusted him a lot more right now than I did Marlena.
“Then let us decide this once and for all.”
“Not liking the sound of this,” Scout said.
“Detroit,” I whispered, hoping the myths about vampires were true, “when I give the word, point the locket at the vamps holding Veronica.”
“Got it,” she said with a nod.
“On one,” I said, leaning forward just a bit to prepare myself for the steal. “Three
. . . two . . . one!”
Detroit popped open her locket, light flashing into the corridor as she aimed it toward Marlena’s vampires. They raised their hands to their faces, hissing at the light, releasing Veronica. I jumped forward and grabbed her, then pulled her back behind the half wall, Detroit and Scout behind me.
I dumped Veronica onto the floor, looking her over for wounds. She was quiet now, shock obviously setting in. In the vacuum behind us, the covens of vampires rushed together, Nicu’s vampires scratching and clawing as they fought for the right to exist, Marlena fighting back the vampires who’d tried to escape her.
Nicu ran through the fray to reach us, stopping as he stared down at Veronica.
She looked up at him with wide eyes, and his own widened in surprise.
I glanced over at Scout, who shrugged.
A second later, Nicu blinked, then looked at me. “Run,” he said. “As fast as you can. Get her to safety and then find the monsters. Dispatch them.”
We ran.
Detroit led the way back to the Enclave. Scout and I each had an arm around Veronica, half walking and half carrying her through the dark tunnels, the light of Detroit’s locket guiding the way. Detroit used Scout’s phone to send a message to Daniel. By the time we arrived at the Enclave, we found Katie, Smith, Daniel,
Michael, Jason, and Paul waiting. The twins must have still been off on their own mission.
The mood wasn’t exactly light, and seeing Veronica didn’t help. But Daniel stayed calm. He directed Katie and Smith to help Veronica, then clustered the rest of us together.
“The vampires are missing one of their coven,” he said. “The Reapers have,
perhaps, used the sanctuary to build these monsters. They have put Adepts and vampires, the Pedway and St. Sophia’s—the whole city—at risk. This ends tonight.”
Scout and I looked at each other, but nodded. We knew what needed to be done.
We had to find them, and we had to take them out.
“We’ll deal with the girl,” he said. “You start at the sanctuary. God willing, it will still be empty of Reapers. Either way, destroy the monsters.”
“We’ll do it,” Jason said.
“You’ve got to,” Daniel advised. “If you can’t, we’re all in trouble.”
Jason took the lead, and Paul was at our back. The rest of us—Michael, Scout,
Detroit, and me—were clustered into groups in the middle.
This time, we needed speed, so we decided to try the shortcut, hoping the vampire squabble had played itself out. We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until we made it to the Pedway. But when we emerged from the janitor’s closet—
one careful Adept at a time—things got more interesting.
The hallway was empty but for five scratched and bleeding vampires—Nicu and four others.
“Is she okay?” Nicu asked.
If he’d developed a thing for Veronica, I was going to be totally freaked-out.
“She’s fine,” I told him. “She’s being cared for.”
“Will you erase her memory of these events?”
I looked over at Scout, who nodded. “She’s not the type we’d trust in the community. She might use the information against us. One of the other Adepts will work their magic, and she’ll have no memory of what transpired. It won’t hurt her,” she added, at the obvious heartbreak in Nicu’s eyes.
Did love at first sight really operate that quickly?
“Then that’s the way it must be,” he said, resigned.
“And your coven?” I asked him. “Are you okay?”
“We have survived the night,” Nicu said, “so we are now a coven in our own right.”
Oh, awesome, I thought. We’d actually helped the vampires establish themselves. I really hoped that didn’t bite us in the butt later.
“Good night, Adepts.” Nicu placed his hand over his heart, and then the entire group of them—all at once—bowed to us.
Detroit worked her magic on the stairwell doors, and we popped back into the tunnels again. If the rats were back, there wasn’t any sign of them.
“You think that means they’re gone?” Scout asked.
“I think that means they don’t shed slime all the time,” Jason said. “At least, that’s my guess.”
“And even if they were here,” Scout said, “the Reapers could have cleaned up after them. Who knows?”
When we reached the sanctuary, we peeked around the alcove and into the final corridor. The doors were closed, the lights off.
But there was a trail of slime that led from the corridor into the sanctuary.
“And they’re back,” Michael muttered.
“Honestly,” Detroit said, “I’m a little glad to see the slime. I was beginning to worry that I’d imagined it all.”
“No such luck,” Scout and I simultaneously said. Scout glanced over at Detroit.
“The trip wires,” she said. “Got anything for that?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” After searching her pants pockets, Detroit popped another black pill into the hallway, letting the magic smoke illuminate the trip wires.
Then she unzipped a long pocket along her knee and pulled out a child’s spinning top.
“Quick invention,” she said, “but I think it will work.” She crouched down and put the top on the floor, then gave it a twirl. It wobbled, but began to spin, whirring as it gathered speed and moved down the hallway toward the double doors.
And as it spun, it began to spindle both the magic smoke and the trip wires the smoke had revealed. In a few seconds, the hallway was clean, the top glowing with newly bundled magic.
“Seriously, I think that’s the coolest thing you’ve done so far.” Scout’s tone was reverent.
“Glad you like it,” Detroit
said. She walked down and collected the top, then held it out to Scout. “I thought you could have it. You can unspindle the trip wires. Make them your own.”
With her eyes gleaming like it was Christmas morning, Scout accepted the gift.
“All right,” Jason said. “Now that the coast is relatively clear, let’s get this show on the road.” He stopped in front of the double doors and glanced back.
“Everybody ready?”
When we nodded, he pushed them open. One by one, we tiptoed inside.
“Lily,” he whispered. “Lights.”
I pulled the power and sent it upward. Long rows of fluorescent lights above us stuttered to life.
We were in a hallway—the kind you might see in a hospital. Wide corridor, pale green walls, doors on the right and left . . . and a long trail of slime leading back toward other rooms.
“Stay here,” Jason said, then began to move forward, peeking through the rooms on the right-hand side of the corridor. When he reached the second door, he stopped.
“What is it?” Scout whispered.
He beckoned us forward, then walked inside. We followed him . . . and gaped.
Temperance had thought the sanctuary was a clinic. But this didn’t look like any clinic I’d ever seen. The center of the room was lined with counters topped by pieces of medical equipment. And the walls were covered by whiteboards. Some with lines and lines of formulas, others with writing—theories about vampires and immortality and magic.
And how to keep it forever.
We stopped and stared at the last board.
Photographs had been stuck there with magnets—photos of Reaper works in progress. The rats, from tiny nubbins to full-grown creatures. For a second, I felt a little sorry for them.
“We were right,” I said. “They were doing experiments, and vampires were their model.”
Hands on her hips, Scout gazed at the pictures. “What were they trying to do?
Build some kind of forever-magic superbeings?”
“Maybe,” Jason said. “Or maybe just figure out if there was a source for the immortality.”
