Dread Nemesis of Mine (41 page)

"Whoa," Shelton said. "Do you know how much
sunlight I concentrated into those flashers? A lot. Last time I
checked, your pals there are vampires, so you'd better plan on
toting them outta there, too."

"I don't think the flashers will work on Ash
and Nyte," I said, and told them about the serum Maximus had made
from my blood. By the time I finished, those who hadn't heard about
the stuff looked shocked.

"The bloody fool can inject people now?"
Stacey said. "And make super vampires?"

I nodded. "We have to stop him before he
turns more people."

Shelton didn't look convinced. "Alright, so
you set off the flashers, scoop up our good buddy, Herbert, and
then what? You make a break for it?"

I nodded. "The flashers should knock out most
of the vamps. Then it'll be up to the rest of you to clear out the
vamps outside."

"Don't this just feel like déjà vu all over
again?" Shelton commented dryly. "After the can of whoop-ass the
Templars opened on Maximus down in Colombia, do you really think
you'll just be able to march in there with your fancy blonde hairdo
and fake fangs, and manage to drag Lipschitz out of there?"

"He has a point," Ryland said. "A snatch and
run ain't a half-bad idea, but I'd be willing to bet Max has a few
more tricks up his sleeves."

"What about guns?" Katie said. "What if the
place is surrounded by armed vampires?"

"Thomas has provided us with upgraded
Nightingale armor," I said. "It'll stop the bullets."

"I'm gonna look ridiculous in that black
unitard," Shelton said with a grumble.

"You can wear it under your clothes," Elyssa
said, rolling her eyes. "It's skin tight and nobody will
notice."

He groaned. Looked at Meghan. "How long does
geek-boy's sister have before—uh—you know?"

Her lips tightened. "Not long. Hours at most,
the last time I checked."

"And she's the same crazy vamp who helped
kidnap your father?" Shelton said, shaking his head.

"I seem to recall a certain Arcane who tried
to kidnap him, too, Shelton. Just before Felicia and her gang
showed up."

"Man, you're never gonna let me live that one
down, are you?" Shelton shoved the fedora back on his head, and
stood up. "Guess I need to go put my bulletproof undies on."

I looked around the room. "Look, it's not the
best plan in the world. We don't have any recon on the place, or
certainty that Maximus and Barclay will be there. If anyone wants
out, I won't blame you."

Ryland grinned. "Why would I want out? This
is gonna be fun."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Stacey
said.

A chorus of agreement went up from the
others.

Elyssa took my hand and held it tight. "Guess
we'd better get moving so you can be back in time for your sci-fi
marathon."

I couldn't help but laugh.

It was go time.

We piled into SUVs outside.

"I am pumped!" Ash said.

Nyte bumped his fist and said, "Dude, we're
gonna show them what OP is."

Ash grinned. "Totally IMBA."

"What does that even mean?" Elyssa asked,
climbing into the passenger seat.

"Gamer stuff," I said, wondering if I'd ever
get to play a video game again. "OP stands for 'over powered', and
IMBA is 'imbalanced'."

"And you're using this terminology in real
life?" Katie said, sliding in next to Ash. "Kind of nerdy." She
caught my eye in the rear-view mirror as I adjusted it, and winked.
"Then again, I guess I'm surrounded by nerds."

Ash suddenly looked self-conscious as the
cute blonde sidled up next to him. "Uh, yeah."

Adam and Meghan climbed in the third-row
bench seat, closing the side door behind them.

"Ready," Adam said.

The door opened again, revealing Cinder. "May
I ride with you, Justin? I believe my presence may cause discomfort
to the others."

Adam slid over. "Come on in."

"Let's kick some ass!" Ash said pumping a
fist in the air as Cinder took a seat.

"Woot!" Nyte shouted back, as the two
performed a complicated series of fist bumps and handshakes.

I turned on the engine. Shifted into
gear.

"Oh, wait," Ash said, a sheepish look on his
face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Can I run in and use the bathroom real
quick?"

A few minutes later, we were finally ready to
go.

The drive to Edgewood seemed to take forever,
though it was only a few miles. We arrived about fifteen minutes
before midnight. What used to be a school loomed large in the
hipster neighborhood, its Gothic architecture practically shouting,
"Vampires R Us." It lurked across the street from a popular bar and
just down the road from a number of other popular restaurants.

As usual, crowds of late-night revelers
wandered about, some in drunken hazes, while smelly bums and street
artists competed for the spare change of passers-by. If anything
went wrong, at least the Custodians might be able to convince any
eyewitnesses it had been an alcohol or drug-induced
hallucination.

The moment I stepped out of the van, déjà vu
punched me. Fear gripped my chest. I felt claustrophobic. The
memory of straps tightened around my body, of being held helpless
to the depravities of Maximus and his ilk replayed in my mind.
Never again
. A hand touched mine. I jerked. Saw Elyssa's
concerned gaze. Only then did I realize how hard my heart beat in
my chest. How tight my lungs felt despite my rapid breaths. Her
concern softened to understanding, and yet she said nothing.
Instead, she smiled.

The weight in my chest lightened, and a deep
breath cleared the fear and apprehension.

I smiled back.

My senses tingled. There were vampires
nearby, of course, but they weren't the only ones. It didn't take
long to spot random people who looked out of place in the buzzing
night life, their faces too serious and too sober to be anything
but Templars.

"Looks like my father isn't taking any
chances," Elyssa said. "This place is surrounded by Templars."

"So I noticed."

Ash and Nyte climbed out, faces somber, eyes
nervously glancing around at the crowds. I knew how they felt.
Elyssa had inserted red contacts into her own eyes, and braided her
hair. Underneath her skinny jeans and a tight long-sleeved graphic
T-shirt, she wore the upgraded Nightingale armor like the rest of
us.

I was just thankful it didn't bunch up in the
crotch.

Even with the armor as a security blanket, I
still didn't feel all that secure. I stared up the long driveway at
the looming headquarters of Herbert Lipschitz, aka Maximus. Anger
and determination filled in the cracks left by uncertainty and
slowly overwhelmed the sense of doom. It was time to pay this
jackass back for everything he'd put me through. For what he'd done
to Felicia. For all the innocent lives he'd taken with the vampling
curse in his narcissistic quest to become a big shot.

Bella and Shelton walked across the street to
us.

"Put this in your ear," Bella said, handing
me something.

I nearly shouted as the thing she put in my
hand squirmed. A small worm wiggled in my palm. "Are you kidding
me?" I said. "I'm not putting something alive in my ear. Haven't
you ever watched horror movies?"

"We thought about going with a standard
earpiece," Shelton said. "But when we got here, Bella and I ran a
few tests. Maximus has this place warded against electronic
eavesdropping."

"Dash Armstrong probably warded this place to
the gills," I said. "I guess the magic doesn't go away when you
die, huh?"

Bella shook her head. "I know it's
undesirable to put a worm in your ear, Justin, but it's quite
harmless. It will coil up near your eardrum and stay there and will
come out when we're done. We'll be able to communicate with you
then."

"It won't control my mind or anything
nasty?"

Shelton laughed. "Kid, this ain't no
mind-control worm, alright? I save those buggers for people I
really hate."

My face wrinkled with disgust as I put the
wriggly little dude into my ear. The feeling as it slithered inside
was almost unbearably creepy.

"Please don't make me put one in my ear," Ash
said.

Nyte's horrified expression indicated his
agreement to the sentiment.

"Have one for me?" Elyssa asked.

"We only had time to charm one of these,"
Bella said, an apologetic expression on her face.

Shelton nodded. "That, and it requires a
specific kind of worm." He looked thoughtful for a moment and said,
"Although maggots work. I could probably find one in a
dumpster—"

"No," Elyssa said, recoiling with a grimace.
"I think I'll be fine, thanks."

Bella and Shelton shared amused looks.

"Can you hear me?" Bella said, speaking into
her wand as if it were a microphone.

Her voice echoed in my ear at a normal
volume. I nodded. "Loud and clear."

She gave me a hug. "Good luck, dear. You're
going to need it."

Shelton shook my hand. "Try not to get
yourself killed, all right?"

Katie kissed Ash on the cheek. Smiled.
"Please be careful, okay?"

Ash looked like he was going to pass out.
"Y-yes." He took a deep breath. "Maybe after this is over we can,
uh, like maybe see a movie or something?"

A smile lit her face. "I'd love to."

His chest seemed to swell, and pleasure
flushed his skin. "Sweet!"

Ash, Nyte, Elyssa, and I walked up to the
tall iron gate surrounding the building.

"Hold it there," said a man in a black suit
as he came out of the guardhouse. "What's your business?"

"Seeking higher purpose," Nyte said, giving
him what I assumed was the pass phrase.

The man looked us over. Motioned for a woman
to come out of the gatehouse. "We gotta frisk you."

He approached, pulling on latex gloves as he
did. "I will now check non-sensitive body areas." He ran his hands
along my arms, chest and legs. "I'm about to touch you with the
backs of my hands in the sensitive buttock region," he said, and
then proceeded to do so. He stood in front of me. "I will now touch
you with the backs of my hands in the sensitive groin area."

Since when did vampires hire politically
correct security guards?

Ash snorted, despite his best efforts not to
laugh.

Backs of the hands or not, my manhood tried
to crawl inside my body at the mere thought of this dude feeling me
up.

By the time we made it through the gate, I
felt thoroughly degraded, and figured everyone else felt the same
way by the disgusted looks going around.

"Those guards are noms," Elyssa said in a
whisper as we made our way up the long winding driveway.

I extended my senses and found other male
presences nearby, unmasked, and definitely not vampires. Pretending
to tie my shoelace, I glanced into the shadows to either side of
the unlit driveway. The sight of a pair of night-vision goggles
looking back from fifty feet away almost made me fall over
backwards. The owner of the goggles held what looked like an M-16
diagonally across his chest with the muzzle pointed at the
ground.

As I casually looked around, I spotted more
and more such people. "Good god, they've got a small army here," I
said, standing and brushing the knees of my pants off.

"They look trained." Elyssa pursed her lips.
"And since they're not vampires, the flashers won't knock them
out."

"They have on NV goggles," I said, taking out
a few of the flashers and flicking them into the dark. "At least
they'll blind them for a little while."

"True." She flicked a few in the opposite
direction. "I just hope they do some good."

By the time we reached the front door, it was
evident my estimation of a small army wasn't all that far off. At
least thirty heavily armed people patrolled the grounds, and half a
dozen stood at the entrance to the building. There were probably
plenty more we hadn't seen.

The man inside the door, however, was
definitely a vampire. He wore a confident smile on his pale,
handsome face. His pants, vest, and shirt looked tight, probably
fitted, and his hair was sculpted into a spiky mess. Somehow, he
still looked fashionable and oh-so metrosexual. "Sorry about all
the fuss, but you can never be too careful these days." He held out
a hand. "The name is James."

Nyte took his hand and shook it. "I'm Nyte.
This is Ash, Wilma, and Roger."

James shook each of our hands. "How odd," he
said, pausing mid-shake with my hand in his grasp. "You look
familiar. Have we met?"

A cold feeling prickled up my spine. "No, I
don't think so."

"Who was your recruiter?"

My mouth froze half open. I hadn't even
thought about asking for that information.

"Joseph," Ash said hurriedly. "Short guy with
curly brown hair."

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

James's lips curled into a lazy, fanged
smile. "Ah, yes. Ever since the vampling incident at Edenfield
High, we've been much more cautious in our selections."

"Best of the best," Nyte replied, a grin on
his face.

James narrowed his eyes and gazed at me a
moment longer. "There is definitely something very familiar about
you, Roger." Without releasing my hand, his eyes swung to Nyte.
"And your hands are so warm."

My muscles tensed. We hadn't even thought
about body warmth. Then again, I hadn't expected someone to shake
my hand at the entrance.
It's the little things that count, you
idiot!

Nyte and Ash froze. Elyssa's looked calm as
ever, though I felt certain she was figuring out who to kill first
to get us out of there.

James released my hand and gave a
noncommittal shrug. "Don't look so worried, Roger. You're not the
first of Maximus's new recruits to come through here with a higher
body temperature. It appears the new serum has some interesting
side effects."