Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

Chapter 14

Chapter 14There was nothing left of Joel’shouse. The entire place had been burned to the ground, leaving onlythe outline of the floor plan and singed rubble lying in heaps allover the place.

This hadn’t been done by human hands.Humans couldn’t burn a place like this, so that there was virtuallynothing left.

I knew who’d done this. Some mastervampires had fire as their ability, and most of them weredestructive. This was beyond a warning. This was their first move.

I walked onto the property and stoodwhere the garage used to be. The sun was sinking below the horizon,casting long, creepy shadows across the ground, making the burned lotseem so much more morbid.

Any normal person would be spendingthis Sunday evening inside with their family. I was the only one whowas out on what was supposed to be a day of rest, trying to do someform of chaos control. I could feel the people in the neighborhoodaround me: calm, peaceful, content, if not overly happy. I wassuddenly jealous.

I kicked around a bit, ash flying upinto the air in a grey cloud. My toe stubbed against a latch, and Iscraped away the ash with my foot to reveal the trap door that leddown to the pit.

When I opened the door, the stairs thatled into the ground weren’t destroyed, like the rest of the place.The fire hadn’t gotten this far. The pit had served its intendeduse as a bomb shelter after all.

I stepped into the darkness, andflicked the switch. The hum of the generator kicking in filled theair around me, and the pit lit up in a light-green flicker.

It looked a lot like it had on thevideo Joel had shown me after Celia had trashed his place. But itwasn’t quite the same. Then, it had looked like someone had left awarning. Now it looked like someone had fought for their life here.

A splatter of blood on the far walldrew my attention. There were more smears on the floor. I inhaleddeeply and recognized Joel straight away. He’d been hurt here,bleeding. There was no more blood than this.

He was still alive, unless they’dkilled him somewhere else. I had to find him.

I rummaged through the rubble, lookingfor something, anything, that I could use to find a lead. There werea lot of papers lying around, most of them with information on themthat I didn’t understand. His filing system was shot to hell, andall the gun cabinets and safes had been thrown open. If there hadbeen any weapons and ammunition here, they had been taken.

But I still didn’t get the feelingthat whoever had done this was interested in his belongings. Theywere interested only in Joel. And that had to be because of hisinvolvement with me.

My stomach turned, guilt swirlingaround inside me. A bitter taste in the back of my throat told mewhat I didn’t want to admit: that this was all my fault. If peoplehad died here, their blood would be on my hands.

As a killer, that shouldn’t havebothered me. But it did, because Joel was a friend. And Aspen… Itook a deep breath. I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine what itwould be like to lose her. There would be nothing left in my life, noreason why I was doing any of this.

My hands grazed something hardunderneath the papers I’d been fishing through, and I found alaptop. It looked like it had been caught in the fire. Which meant ithad been upstairs when the fire had started, and someone had moved itdown here afterwards.

Joel?

That had to mean that there wassomething on the computer that was important. That he didn’t wantto lose in the fire. Joel had always uploaded everything onto backupservers that were protected and out of the way. Whatever it was hewanted to protect wasn’t in the cloud of data online. It was onlyon this laptop.

I tucked the laptop under my arm.

When I turned, she was standing at thebottom of the stairs. Her white hair caught the light streaming inthrough the trapdoor, and it looked like silk. She was smiling, buther green eyes didn’t reflect any kind of emotion other than coldhatred.

“Can Adele come out and play?” shesaid in a mocking voice.

I rolled my eyes. “Not today,princess.”

She scowled. I went on looking throughthe pit, pretending to ignore her, but I kept my attention on her.She didn’t move, although I could feel contempt radiating off herin waves. She didn’t like being ignored. I kept moving, trying tomask the nerves that were bunching at the bottom of my throat,clenching my stomach.

She took a deep breath through hernose, and then she cackled a laugh.

“You’re afraid of me,” she said.

Well, yes, I was. Because I hadn’tbeen able to defeat her – I hadn’t even figured out how to defeather. And the memories of my previous fights with her, where I’dlost horribly, were too fresh in my mind. But I put on an emotionlesssmile of my own.

“Being fearless is reckless. You havenothing to gain. I do.”

I was talking about love. Aboutemotion, about having something left in life that wasn’tmaterialistic. That wasn’t based on achievements. I didn’t thinkshe understood something like that.

“Well, if you wait long enough, youwon’t have anything to gain, either. The difference between you andme is that I have nothing left to lose, either. You, on theother hand, still do. And your time’s running out.”

I lost my cool. I could only put on agame face for so long. I put the laptop casually on a table andturned to face her as calmly as I could. I launched myself towardher, faster and stronger than I’d been before. Fear and anger werea deadly combination if you applied them right.

She laughed in a cackle again, and thesound danced around me, singing inside my head, echoing through myhollow bones. She was quicker than I was, and was now standing whereI’d stood before I reached her.

She dragged a long black nail over thelaptop. I wondered if she’d had those nails during the interviewwith Ruben, or if she could retract them like claws. When she smiled,I realized she could take away the only lead I might have – so Iattacked again without thinking. This time I reached her before shehad a chance to move, and I managed to hit her in the face, a strongblow to the jaw. She stumbled backward, and I got between her and thelaptop.

She hissed at me, her eyes flashingrage.

Then she disappeared, moving in a bluraround me and out of the door, the image of her remaining until longafter she’d left. A cold feeling stayed behind too, like frost thatlicked up my body. I shivered, and the nerves I’d felt beforesolidified and became a rock of terror in my stomach.

She did know what I was talkingabout. And I was about to lose someone if I didn’t make a plansoon.

Joel was my techie. He was the one Iwould have run to with this laptop to find a way to hack out theinformation. I had no idea where else to go.

So I took out my phone and did the onething I hadn’t ever thought I would do.

I phoned Carl.

“Listen, I need a favor,” I saidinto the speaker when he answered, sounding as crisp as ever.

Didn’t this man ever sleep? The onlyreason I was up and running was that life-threatening events tendedto pump adrenaline into me. Otherwise I would have been home in bedtoo. That made me think about Connor’s house, and I pushed thememories away.

Maybe Carl had a hell of a life too.Who knew what turned someone to a gun as a way of making a living?

“Oh, the great Adele Griffin comes tome. What did I do to deserve this honor?” Sarcasm bled through hiswords.

“Can it, Carl. I need help, and it’surgent.”

He groaned into the phone. “What doyou want?”

“A technician who’ll help me cracka laptop that’s been… damaged.” I turned the piece of scraparound in my hands.

“What happened to yours?”

“It was in a fire.”

“Your technician was in a fire?”

Well, yeah, but that wasn’t what Iwanted him to know. “The laptop.”

Carl chuckled, like it was a joke.

“Don’t you know someone? People aregoing to die if I can’t crack this thing.”

Carl whistled through his teeth.“Sounds like you’ve been getting some action. Better than me.I’ve been in a dry spell for far too long.”

I tried not to imagine what he meant bythat.

“I’ll give it to you on onecondition,” he said.

“What?”

“I want in on whatever it is you’redoing.”

“Are you crazy?”

He took a deep breath. “There aredays I think I might be,” he said, and his voice was so sincerethat I had the feeling he wasn’t joking this time.

“Fine,” I said. He gave me thenumber of a guy. “I’ve used him a couple of times. He’s good,knows what he’s doing. He should have some time for you. His busytime is at night.”

So, more technicians had the wrongfriends. It was calming somehow to know that this guy wasn’tstraightforward vanilla. Maybe he wouldn’t chase me away, with myleathers and guns.

“Thanks,” I said to Carl, and hungup before he could say anything more.

I phoned the guy. His voice wasgravelly over the phone, and he sounded weary. After a bit of smoothtalking, I finally got him to agree to taking on a client he didn’tknow. I guessed that in his line of work, being cautious could saveyour life. I felt the same way about strangers, so I could respectthat.

I got an address and set a meeting foreight tomorrow morning. My week was going to start with a bang. Hehad openings for tonight, but I had a rule about going to meet peoplein the middle of the night. I’d done enough killing under the cloakof darkness to know I didn’t want to be the one who ended up at theother end of that food chain.

The only thing left for me to do nowwas to go home. I took a deep breath and blew it out in a shudder. Ididn’t want to leave Joel to fend for himself alone, but I didn’thave much of a choice. I would be no good to him if I were dead – Ihad to take care of myself first.

My apartment was cold and dark when Iarrived. I didn’t usually spend nighttime indoors. I was anocturnal creature, and the walls always felt like they were closingdown on me and suffocating me. I opened the curtains so I could seethe inky black sky with the pinpricks of stars stretching across itlike a blanket.

The whole apartment looked different inthe yellow light that replaced sunlight, and I didn’t feel like Iwas at my own home. When I crawled into bed after a quick shower, Ifell asleep right away, but that wasn’t enough for me to escape mylife.

I had nightmares about Joel burningalive, throwing his laptop at me, yelling for me to get to Aspenbefore she burned too. The sound of bullets splintering tiles cameout of his mouth every time he called for me.

I tried to get to Aspen, but hot blacktar stopped my bike’s wheels from turning. When I got off and triedto run, my feet were sucked into it and I had to fight for everystep.

When I finally got to Aspen’s house,it was dark and Zelda was there, beckoning me into the blackness.Aspen’s voice called out to me, crystal-clear as always, music inthe night. I couldn’t see anything, but I followed the sound of hervoice, feeling around for her in the dark.

Flames started licking around us,consuming the house, lighting up the place enough for me to see. Ifound Aspen and wrapped my arms around her frail body, but she feltstronger and firmer than usual. When I pulled away again, it wasConnor staring back at me.

“Where’s Aspen?” I asked him,drawing back. I didn’t want to touch him. The warmth that flowedfrom him threatened to suck me in, and my memories of Aspen slippedaway from me like bathwater down a drain.

“She’s right there,” he said,pointing at someone behind me.

When I spun around, it was Celiastanding behind me. Her hair was white, her eyes a brilliant green.When I looked at Connor again, frowning, he looked like her too. Theyboth laughed, and their cackling surrounded me like a storm.

I sat up, the darkness in my roomfolding around me. The nightmare slowly faded, but my heart washammering in my chest and I was hyperventilating. I swung my legs offthe bed and leaned my head down between my knees. I focused ongetting my breathing back to normal.

When I looked up again, the night skyhad a silvery quality to it, hinting at the arrival of dawn. Thankgod.

I got up and climbed into the showeragain. I turned on only the hot water and stood underneath thescalding stream. The drops hit my skin like a thousand needles. Iignored the pain in my leg; the graze was a lot smaller, but stillthere. At least it didn’t bother me anymore, not like it hadbefore. Steam fogged up the entire bathroom, and I couldn’t breathein the humidity. But at least through all the pain and discomfort Iknew I was alive. I was back in reality.

I got into running clothes, found mychain, and left my apartment. The hallways and the lobby smelleddusty and moldy, and I wondered how I’d survived in this place forso long. When I finally stepped into the crisp morning air I took adeep breath. Then I ran.

I ran until my muscles screamed at me,until my legs felt numb and my chest burned every time I took abreath. My neck and shoulders had been rubbed numb by the weight ofthe chain. I ran until I couldn’t run anymore, and then I turnedaround and started the run home.

Finally it rolled onto seven thirty. Igot dressed in my leathers and suited up: my knife in its thighsheath, my S&W in the shoulder holster under my jacket, my SIG atmy back. I glanced at the carbine, but decided against it. I neededCarlos to let me in. I did make sure I had the black chain in thebike’s compartment, though. Just in case. I always fell back ontomy favorite saying – luck favors the prepared.

Carlos was a couple of blocks away frommy place, in an even worse part of town. I hadn’t been sure thatwas possible. The street looked like the garbage men just skipped iton garbage day, and there weren’t even stray cats around. If thecats didn’t bother, you had to know things were bad.

I found the apartment he’d describedand buzzed the first intercom on the list. None of them were marked.The wind picked up and a chilly finger sliced through me, despite theleathers. It was the kind of cold that came with foreboding.

The door buzzed open, and I steppedinto an apartment building that looked like it had been abandoneddecades ago. The decorations inside were old, the wallpaper seemedlike golden floral print under the dust, and the carpet seemed likeit had once been a deep red. I could see that on the few patches thatweren’t worn down to the concrete beneath. It, too, was dusty.

A chandelier hung from the ceiling withreal candles in it, all burned down to a pile of wax, and theelevator behind it still had a steel gate in front of the wooden doorthat closed it.

I walked past reception, where avisitor’s book was open and signed here and there with curlyhandwriting, but there was no doorman. Not physically, anyway. Thepresence that hung in the lobby made me wonder if he was still aroundfrom time to time, checking in from the afterlife.

I knocked on the first door on theground floor, a white door that looked used and lacked cobwebs,unlike the others. Two seconds later the door opened.

A man stood in front of me with longhair that hung in greasy strings around his face. He wasclean-shaven, but he had a slimy quality about him. His shirt hadgrease stains all the way down the front, covering a body that heobviously maintained with fast foods, and his eyes were awatered-down grey.

“Carlos Sanchez?” I asked, and henodded. “I’m Adele Griffin.”

“Come on in,” he said, opening thedoor wider.

The inside of his apartment was astaggering contrast to the horrible neighborhood and the rest of thebuilding. He had plush grey carpets and salmon-colored walls, withhigh-tech equipment on a desk in the corner and a wide screentelevision on the wall. It looked and smelled like it had all beencleaned half an hour ago.

“Do you want coffee?” he asked,walking into the kitchen.

“I’m okay,” I said. I wasn’tsure what to expect in the cup. Better not to expect anything.

He came out with one cup of coffee withsteam curling out of it. The aroma wrapped around the room andreminded me suddenly of home – when I was little and Aspen and Iwould watch my dad make breakfast in bed for my mom. The reminder wasso strong I felt like I had been shoved backward in time.

“What do you have for me?” heasked, nodding at the laptop under my arm and yanking me back to thepresent.

I handed it over to him. “I thinkit’s been in a fire. I just need to know why someone wanted to saveit. I think there’s something on there that might be important.”

He looked at it, lifting his eyebrows.“Well, if we get something out of it, we’ll be lucky, but I canhave a look,” he said.

We moved to his desk in the corner andhe sat down. I perched on the edge of the armchair nearby.

He unscrewed the case and pulled outthe insides. There, he found a green plate-like thing and turned itover in his hands, staring at it like it could break under his gaze.“Well, this survived a lot better than I expected,” he said.“Let’s have a look.”

He hooked it up to a silver box withwires, then his fingers flew over his keyboard the same way Joel’susually did. I wondered if all techies were the same: how they gotinto this line of work, what made them stray away from the dailygrind, where they wouldn’t have to worry about being kidnapped orburned to death.

After ten minutes, he swiveled hischair to face me.

“Okay, so it looks like the standardstuff, for the most part. Nothing I’d say I might be killed over,if it were me. But there is one thing here…”

I leaned forward. “What is it?”

“A tracking system. It was installedtwo days ago.”

“What is it tracking?”

“It’s not tracking anymore, but Ican tell you where it was pointing the last time it worked.”

He squinted at the screen and read methe address. It was Aspen’s house.

Relief spread through my body like warmliquid, and I slipped down to the seat of the armchair. “Thankgod,” I said out loud. “He was watching her after all.”

“Someone you know?” he asked. Inodded, and he went on. “Yes, someone close, I gather. People don’twatch over people they don’t care about. But there’s somethingyou should know. I know this system, because I installed a verysimilar one for somebody yesterday.”

“Okay…” I didn’t feel likehaving a techie heart-to-heart. I wanted to interrupt, but he kepttalking.

“The address for it was the sameone.”

It took me a couple of seconds toregister what he was saying, and then my body went cold. The blooddrained from my face, and I felt like I had to put my head between myknees if I didn’t want to faint. “It’s them, isn’t it?” Iwhispered.

“If by ‘them’ you mean—”

“Master vampires,” I finished forhim.

He nodded grimly.

“They want to kill her.”

“They didn’t look like the kind whowere doing it for fun,” he agreed.

“They won’t find her, though. She’snot at that address anymore.” It was a small consolation, but rightnow it meant the difference between life and death for my sister.“Why did you do it for them? If you knew they didn’t have goodintentions?”

Carlos swiveled to face me dead on.“They offered me more money than I make in a year. I havestandards… but for that kind of money?” He shrugged. “What Ican do for you, though, and I’ll throw this one in free of charge,is look up the tracker location.”

I frowned. “On their system?You can do that?”

“Well, I installed it, didn’t I? Ican hack in and check the system. I set up the firewalls in the firstplace.”

He typed in a couple of commands, and amoment later a screen popped up. It showed a map of town, and I couldsee a round loading icon.

“It should give me the address,” hesaid. “Just give me a min—ah-hah. Here we are.”

The map had a red blinking dot on it. Igot up and leaned in closer. The dot was blinking steadily in onespot; it wasn’t moving. But it wasn’t at Aspen’s house. It wasat the safe house.

“This is right?” I asked.

Carlos looked at me indignantly. “Iwouldn’t charge this much if—”

“Just tell me if it’s right,dammit!” I yelled.

His face became stony, but he nodded.

I spun and ran out the door.

“You owe me money!” he shoutedafter me.

“I’ll pay you later,” I answered,then ran through the dusty lobby and out into the sunlight to mybike.