Summoning Sebastian (21 page)

It was then that I decided what to do with the garlic. Using my fingers, I dug the mashed, pungent mess out of the Ziploc bag and smeared it around the doorframe. The top, the sides, the jamb, the threshold, the doorknob.
Pass by this place
, I thought, wondering why old Sunday school lessons had suddenly resurfaced. It wasn't lamb's blood, but then lamb's blood would have attracted them, not kept them away.
There's nothing here of any interest to you.

Finished anointing the door, I stood for a moment, looking at it. What else?

Aha. As a final touch, I pulled out a Sharpie and drew a symbol just above the doorknob. Something clicked, oddly, not audibly, but I could sense it. I'd done the right thing. They were as safe as I could make them.

The buzzing against my hips switched from a steady vibration to a pulse, and the heat had grown, warming me, the warmth and the vibration moving through my groin and thighs. Shit, that was distracting.

There was nothing for it, though. I'd just have to ignore it. I had important things to do.

Chapter Twenty

“Befor
e our human ancestors were truly human, the progenitors of the modern vampire were there. A race of proto humans, trapped beneath the ice of the last Ice Age, victims of a disease none of them understood. It changed them. It destroyed any chance they ever had of becoming human.”
—
The Dawn of the Modern Vampire
, Jacqueline Blachek, University of Chicago Press

The c
ompound was bigger than I'd expected. I'd thought we'd walked through most of it when Armand had taken us on the tour. I also thought I knew which way to go to get back to the laboratory. A few minutes of heading down hallways disabused me of that notion. I had no idea where I was, and as far as how to get to the more interesting places, well, that was anybody's guess.

It was quiet, that was certain. We couldn't have been too far from the human quarters if Roland had arranged for us to share their central heating, but I couldn't hear anything to indicate what direction that part of the compound might be. Once or twice I thought I heard something—the distant sound of people talking, a hint of music, a lilt that might have been laughter—but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

The vibration on my hip seemed to vary, and it wasn't until I'd wandered aimlessly for a few more minutes that I realized the shifts weren't entirely random. I stopped then, ending my not-quite-organized movement up and down corridors to pay attention to what Sebastian was doing.

It was hard to tell if he was actually trying to communicate with me or if it was a natural reaction—some kind of interaction between whatever he was now and the elements of our current surroundings. Maybe those microscopic bits of stone resonating with the machinery intended to reconstruct them into something solid. Hell, it made as much sense as anything else we'd found on this trip.

I slowed down, focusing more on the bottle than on the walls and doors around me. The flat, unadorned walls and the corridors, barely distinguishable from each other, lacked interest, anyway.

There was so little of interest, in fact, that it was difficult to determine if there was a connection between my surroundings and Sebastian's vibrations. There wasn't anything to connect to. But after a few more minutes moving in a more premeditated pattern, I determined that the buzzing increased when I moved in a certain direction. Which might have been north. Or maybe west. Honestly, I had no idea.

Following the increased activity seemed to be directing me more toward the center of the facility, though, I determined after a bit more experimentation.

“That must be where it is, then,” I muttered. My voice, low as it was, sounded too loud. I pressed my lips together to keep from saying anything else. One hand on the bottle, where it bounced lightly against my hip, I followed the signal.

Even sensing I was moving toward a more central location, it was difficult for me to make sense of the building's layout. It should have been straightforward, but somehow it wasn't. I found the whole experience disconcerting—I was supposed to be immune to glamours. It felt like it could have been a glamour, but it had to be something else. Did vampires have other kinds of sneaky semi-magic they used to confuse humans?

Who are you kidding, Nim? Of course they do.

Ignore that,
I told myself.
Focus on Sebastian
.

So I did. Focused on the soft vibration, tuning in to every shift in the vibration in the bottle, every vagary in the sense of his presence near me. It took only a few seconds before my sense of him shifted from “there” to a place that felt like it was in the middle of my forehead. Sebastian—third eye. Whatever worked.

Follow me. It wasn't words, not really. It was a sense. A pull. Like that third eye that had become Sebastian had a string attached to it that was drawing me along. Why? I'd stopped questioning it. The stone, the bond between us built by it. The bits of it that remained in my bloodstream. It was bound to us both on a molecular level. Atomic, maybe. In my bloodstream, on my skin. Wedded to the marks Roland had drawn on me. Neither of us could ever completely separate from it.

The thoughts grew more abstract as I sank deeper, until there were no thoughts at all, just a sense of connection, of instinct, and of presence. He was with me. He always had been. And in the place where we were now, I felt like we'd met halfway, like in that dream state where we'd communicated on the plane. The surroundings fell away—it was just me, the vibrations, the sounds, Sebastian.

Until it wasn't just that anymore.

It took me a few moments to realize something had changed. That the vibration around us wasn't just Sebastian anymore, but coming from somewhere outside.

And that, quite possibly, it was a threat.

I blinked. Slowly, details began to reassert themselves around me. The institutional-gray walls. The vaguely dusty, mildly metallic smell. And the soft sound, or smell, or other sense—it was hard to pinpoint where the signal had come from—that made me think we were no longer alone.

Who is it?
The question wasn't mine. I wasn't sure it was Sebastian's either. Both of us? Neither?

Who was it? I suddenly realized that was the most important question. And I needed to pay attention.

It was hard, though, to pull myself back from that connection sufficiently to focus on my surroundings. But I did it. Inexorably, almost painfully, with Sebastian's presence pounding like a migraine in the back of my skull.

And there he was. Gregor. A short distance down the flat gray corridor, posted in front of a flat, black door that said, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY in large red letters. The letters were worn, the font old-fashioned, as if they'd been painted a lifetime ago. Cyrillic letters beneath repeated the message more succinctly as
NIL ZA.
Forbidden.

The vampire hadn't seen us yet. How that was possible, I had no idea, except that “we” was really only me, and I was a small person, and Gregor might have been glamoured, or not expecting visitors, or otherwise not on his guard. Or maybe—and it suddenly occurred to me that this last theory was probably the most likely—Sebastian's presence shielded me somehow. The stone again, and the book, completely intertwined, forever inescapable. The symbols and the dust and…

I was drifting again. I dragged myself back. The pulsing at my hip had settled into a steady throb. I wondered if anyone but me could hear it.

I slid back along the wall, finding a piece of wall where I was partially sheltered. Gregor still wasn't looking at me. I wondered how long that would last. Hopefully long enough for me to scope out the situation.

I took a moment to examine him more closely. He looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes. I was pretty sure I'd never seen dark circles under a vampire's eyes before. I'd seen vamps get really pale—so pale I could almost see through their skin, which was a gross phenomenon—but never dark circles. Whatever this Amp Juice was, its side effects really needed to be addressed before they put it on the market. I set my hand more firmly on the handbag with the bottle and held very still.

Something's not right
. Again, not really words coming from Sebastian. An awareness, a communication that went deeper than words and yet not as deep. We were bound somehow, the communication moving through that tie. Sometimes when the sense of connection hit me, I could feel it in the middle of my chest, centered on one of the sketched-on runes.

Something was definitely not right. Gregor was alert, yet somehow strangely vague. Letting the connection to Sebastian take over allowed my perception to change slightly. I'd already noticed Gregor's eye bags—he'd definitely sacrificed something to be able to walk in daylight. Maybe the Amp Juice didn't completely counteract the natural lethargy a vampire experienced if he forced himself to face the daylight hours. I'd seen that in Colin when he'd sat awake with me through three days of vigil, until he was so weak he could barely move. Probably the most romantic thing he'd ever done for me.

Regardless of Gregor's weakness, and no matter how oblivious he seemed at the moment to my presence, what I needed to do would alert him. There was no way around it. Maybe I could distract him—the old classic where you toss a rock in one direction and then run in the other. But with the straight corridors, there wasn't much in the way of one direction or another. It was all one long, boring hallway.

Still, I couldn't quite decide what to do. Confront Gregor? Demand to know why he'd been stalking me at department stores and in the book aisles back home or why he'd decided to be a dickbag in Chelyabinsk? Try to force my way past him and through the forbidden door?

But none of that was likely to get me anywhere. What was most likely to get me what I wanted? Hard question. Easy answer: play dumb.

I could do that. I closed my hand over the bulk of Sebastian's bottle and headed down the corridor.

Gregor registered my movement almost immediately, his posture shifting as he moved into an erect and aware mode. I took a few steps and then stopped as if I'd only just realized he was there. I glanced side to side, taking in my lack of an escape route. Which, of course, I already knew, but this was about putting Gregor off guard, not about making myself seem smart. That last horse had catapulted out of the barn a long time ago.

His dark gaze met mine across the few yards between us, and I took a step back.

“You,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

His mouth stretched into a grimace that exposed the white tips of his fangs. “I belong here,” he stated. “Can't really say the same about you.”

I wasn't sure if he meant I didn't belong in the facility or that I didn't belong in that corridor. Probably both. I glanced around again, the picture of empty-headed disorientation. “I was just looking for…a door. I wanted to go outside for some air, you know? Some sun, maybe.”

He sneered. They were always so full of attitude, the vampires. What was that about? “I think you took a wrong turn.”

“Yeah. Story of my life.” I took another step forward. He was blustery, but I got a sense there wasn't much to back that up. Mostly hat, not a lot of cattle. “So what's that door?” I pointed. “Does that go outside?”

He actually glanced over his shoulder as if he needed to look to see what door I was babbling about. I was pretty sure at this point that it led into the main laboratory, though I was also sure it was a different entrance. “No,” he informed me, “that doesn't go outside.”

“Where does it go, then? Is that the lab Armand showed us?”

“Why do you want to know?”

I didn't like him. I hadn't liked him when I'd seen him in Denver, hadn't much cared for him when I saw him in Chelyabinsk, and my opinions hadn't changed much since then. There was something slimy about him, something uncomfortable. It was the kind of discomfort that made me not want to pretend to be dumb anymore. I tipped my head a little, giving him a narrow look. “Maybe the same reason I'm wondering why you're running around in the daylight.”

He smirked. “I wondered if you'd worked that out.”

“What? That you're a vampire and you're running around in the daylight? Or that you're the same asshole I saw poking around in Target back in Lakewood. And Barnes and Noble. Big reader, are you? Oh, and thanks for trying to scare my mom in Chelyabinsk.”

He actually looked taken aback. I wondered which one of those pieces I'd put together actually surprised him. Probably the Denver sightings. He probably thought he'd been too sneaky and clever for me to have seen him.

I just smirked at him. “Face it. It wasn't exactly a brainteaser.”

He looked me up and down, brows compressing. I couldn't tell if he was trying to intimidate me or if he had some other intent.

“I bet…” I started, since he wasn't saying anything at the moment. “I bet that's another door to the lab, just like I said. Where the experiments are. Where they make the Amp Juice. Which I believe you're taking? Am I right?”

“This is the heart of the research area, yes.”

“So, since you're here anyway, mind showing me around again? I had a few questions I didn't get a chance to ask Armand.” There was no way I could sneak in, which had been my original plan, but it didn't hurt to ask. I'd been told that being polite to people could sometimes get you what you wanted. Might as well give it a shot. Plus I really
really
wanted in there. Wanted to take a look around and see how the remaining influence of the stone inside me reacted to it. I seriously doubted Gregor would try anything. Armand had us where he wanted us at this point. His intention to use Sebastian to recreate the stone was no longer in danger as long as we showed up tomorrow night for the final experiment. “I mean,” I added, seeing the hesitation in his eyes, “we'll end up there anyway, when it's time to try to help Sebastian, so what can it hurt?”

He considered. I could see gears grinding behind his eyes. The sight made me uncomfortable. Whatever he decided to do, it would be for his benefit, not mine.

“Well…” he finally said. “I don't see how it could hurt.”

Which, of course, meant he couldn't see how it could hurt
him.
How it could hurt me was my own business to find out. But I'd also made it my business to find out what these vamps were up to and how they planned to sabotage our attempts to bring Sebastian back. And I was certain the answer lay behind that door, inside the humming and the strange vibrations from a steampunk Lego whatchamacallit that had once blown up half the taiga.

So I gave Gregor my most charming smile. “That'd be awesome. I'm sure you can answer my questions.”

He turned to open the door, and we went inside.

It was definitely the same laboratory area—I could feel and hear the same vibrations, intense enough to make my teeth hurt. I swear I could feel my skull bones buzzing, the roots of my teeth dancing in a way roots of teeth should never dance. It took me a moment to get past the physical sensations to register what I was seeing.