The Monsters in Your Neighborhood (15 page)

Kai grunted, but she was so focused on her love that she had no response for Linda. Linda’s eyes filled with tears and Natalie touched her arm.

“You didn’t mean to. I know it and Kai will know it, too, once she’s rational. But you’ve got to keep it together, girl. Please!”

She nodded and took a deep breath. “I will.”

“ ‘Keep it together’? Please, you can’t do anything right.” Hyde snickered as he held a handkerchief over the wound in his shoulder. “Idiot.”

Linda’s eyes narrowed and she fired the gun again, this time hitting Hyde in his opposite shoulder.

“Fuck!” he howled in pain.

“Jeez, don’t mess with the scorned woman and all that,” Natalie said as she got off of Hyde. “Hold him, Linda. And please don’t shoot him anymore. At least for now.”

“I can’t make any promises,” Linda growled.

Natalie shook her head as she rushed to Kai’s side. Rehu was ashen gray and hardly breathing. His eyes were blank and dead and his skin was beginning to flake, turn dusty.

“What will happen?” she whispered.

“Best-case scenario, he turns back into a true mummified corpse that can’t be reincarnated for a hundred years,” Kai said, and she was crying even though her dry mummified body wouldn’t let more than one tear escape her eyes. It rolled down her pale skin and dripped off onto Rehu’s hand. His ailing body absorbed it immediately.

“Worst-case?” Natalie asked.

“He dissolves into dust,” Kai admitted, her voice choked with emotion.

“What about the book?” Linda asked, without taking her eyes or her gun off of Hyde. “Does it have any spells to help him?”

Kai jumped up and grabbed the book. “There was a rumor,” she said as she flipped through pages. “A whisper about a spell. But I don’t know. I don’t know.”

She turned pages, skimming their words and shaking her head. Over and over she did the same until finally she stopped. “Here!”

She showed Natalie the page, but it was a bunch of gobbledygook to her. “Don’t read Demotic Egyptian, sorry,” she said.

Kai rolled her eyes. “I need you to hold the book for me while I perform the ritual, Natalie. I have to get something, be right back.”

Kai leapt up and ran down the hallway toward the penthouse kitchen.

“It won’t work,” Hyde sneered when she was gone.

“Linda, do
not
shoot him again,” Natalie snapped when she saw the other woman move.

Linda sighed. “Are you sure? He really deserves it.”

“I have questions for him, then you can vent whatever scorned-woman rage you have, I promise.”

“Good,” Linda muttered. “Guess where I’m shooting next, asshole.”

Kai returned, bearing a huge, sharp knife in her hand.

“Whoa, what is that for?”

“He needs my blood to merge with the dust of his,” she explained. “Now hold the book and let me read.”

“Can I ask Hyde questions while you do it?” Natalie asked.

Kai shrugged. “I don’t care. Once I start reading, it shouldn’t matter what else is happening.”

Natalie watched as Kai lifted Rehu’s head into her lap and began to read from the book. Kai’s eyes changed, becoming slits of sparkling silvery light as ancient words rolled from her lips like a waterfall. She was entirely in her own world at that point, and as the rhythm of her speech filled the room, Natalie glared at Hyde.

“Okay, asshole, what did you mean when you said you triggered Igor?”

Hyde was bleeding and Natalie knew he was in pain, but at her question he gave a smug smile and his eyes filled with bright joy. He loved this. He loved creating grief and fear and confusion. Because he truly was a monster.

“You want me to give you a movie monologue?” He chuckled. “I didn’t think you were so driven by cliché, Natalie.”

Natalie glared at him. “I can just have Linda shoot your knee next.”

“That wasn’t where I was thinking,” Linda growled.

“Yeah, well, save that for last,” Natalie advised. “Let him anticipate it.”

Hyde shook his head, but there was no fear in his eyes. “There’s no need to shoot me; I would enjoy shattering your belief in another monster. I found Igor again shortly after Jekyll’s death. He cannot help but assist; your father put that compulsion into him as much as he put other things when he turned him into a monster.”

“And you used that,” Natalie spat.

Hyde smiled. “He began helping me with some research. But he asked a lot of questions, had a lot of concerns, so one night I simply used him as a test subject. And it worked. I realized if there was another monster running around, a Creature like you, you might reach out to Igor. Take him in and trust him so that he would have access to you. And doesn’t it make the fact that
he’ll
trigger Alec and destroy everything you care about all the more painful, Natalie? To know that was done by someone you . . .
like
?”

Natalie felt like she was going to vomit. “You sadistic bastard,” she whispered.

His smile broadened. “Yes, it’s utterly perfect.”

“Did he know?” Natalie asked, forcing herself not to do something stupid like cry. “Was he lying to me the whole time while he waited to get triggered by you and become the ultimate servant?”

“He knew that I was working on a project that was against you. He never knew about his chip,” Hyde conceded. “But everyone lies, Natalie.”

She turned her face, blocking him out for a moment as she stared at Kai and Rehu. Kai’s face was almost glowing now, a light that wrapped around the couple as she spoke in a voice that was no longer her own. The black essence that had begun to stream away from Rehu now tangled in ribbons around him, around her, and she raised a hand. With the knife, she slashed across her own palm.

Natalie flinched. The cut was deep, and she imagined the pain was pretty intense, but Kai didn’t react at all. Her blood began to pour from her palm, dripping toward Rehu. With each droplet, some of the black smoky life force he had lost curled into her blood, turning it midnight-black, as well, as it fell onto Rehu’s open mouth.

Rehu cried out again, but this time not in pain. His breathing became deeper and his flesh stopped flaking. Slowly, as Kai’s blood merged with his life force, the color returned to his cheeks and the brightness to his eyes. The bullet popped out of the small hole in his forehead and bounced across the floor as the wound sealed, becoming nothing more than a big, ugly bruise.

Kai read the final words of the spell and then slipped forward across his chest, her breath coming in pants and her own flesh pale. The golden light around them faded and, slowly, Rehu sat up.

“Kai,” he said, lifting her up against him with more effort than it should have taken the ancient mummy. “Kai, what is it?”

Kai looked up at him, and her voice was weak as she whispered, “I performed the Life Binding Spell.”

His eyes went wide. “There are consequences to that, Kai.”

“But you’re alive. The consequences are not important.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but then he caught a glimpse of Hyde, bleeding on the floor. He laid Kai to the side gently and got up.

“I’m going to rip you limb from limb, animal,” he said, but he wobbled on his feet.

“You won’t do anything,” Hyde said as he struggled to get up himself.

“Stop,” Linda ordered Hyde, poking the gun at him. “You already know I’ll shoot you.”

Hyde chuckled. “But you won’t kill me, because you’re too weak. So before anyone else does, I’ll have to say good-bye.”

He swept one leg out and caught Natalie off guard by hitting her straight across the ankles. She flipped off her feet and hard onto her ass, knocking the wind from her lungs and smashing her teeth together.

Rehu lunged for him, but in his weakened state he was no match for Hyde. Hyde pushed him off like he might a child and moved for the window. He swung up and hit his feet against the glass like a ninja, sending it shattering outward and spiraling down toward the street. As he vanished into the night, Linda fired off a shot, but he was gone.

Natalie rushed to her feet and she and Linda raced to the window to look out. Hyde hadn’t gone down, so she leaned out to look up. There he was, disappearing up onto the roof.

“Damn it, so he
can
King Kong up the side of a building,” Natalie said.

She moved back into the room and found Kai helping Rehu to his feet. They both looked a lot worse for wear.

“You can’t do things like that, idiot,” Kai scolded him. “You’ll be mortal for at least twenty-four hours.”

“So will you,” he panted. “Shit, I’m tired. Being mortal sucks.”

“Wait, what you did makes you mortal? Human?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah,” Kai said with a shake of her head. “We’ll be vulnerable until this time tomorrow.”

“And that’s not the worst of it,” Rehu said with a groan as he rotated his shoulder gingerly. “But we should talk about it while we’re making our escape. This penthouse might be soundproofed against all Linda’s pistol-firing, but Hyde breaking a window and shattering glass down below likely alerted someone to the trouble. So let’s go.”

Natalie shook off all her questions. “Yes, of course.”

Linda slipped the pistol into the back of her waistband and reached out to support Rehu. He flinched away with a hiss.

“Okay, you’re pissed, and you have every right to be.” Linda grabbed him even as he resisted. “But you need me, so we can discuss how I’m going to be punished by the group later.”

They left the apartment and Linda guided them toward a service elevator at the end of the hall. As they entered it and Linda depressed the button for the underground level where they could find a sewer entrance, Natalie looked at the Swamp Dweller, impressed.

“You know, you ended up having some spark after all. Gun in your waistband and whatnot.”

Linda shifted Rehu’s weight and refused to look at any of them. “Yeah, well, I’m still a moron and I still betrayed you. I’m sure the others will hate me for what I’ve done.”

Natalie pursed her lips. If Igor had been triggered down in the sewer alone with Drake, Alec, and Pat . . . if Igor had possessed Alec’s trigger while under Hyde’s control . . .

Well, she just hoped there were “others” for them to find at all.

17

Alec paced the small circular room, letting Igor’s confessions sink into his consciousness. He was . . . well, there were a lot of emotions. He felt furious, sad, frustrated, even a little afraid. And he could scarcely express them all, let alone look Igor in the eye.

“I suppose the fact that I’m sorry doesn’t mean much, huh?” Igor asked, feeling the back of his head just like Alec had been doing over and over again since he’d learned of his own chip. Once again, Alec felt the pity he was trying to push away for the assistant.

“Maybe it would mean more if you hadn’t been in control of yourself when you got involved in this,” Alec said with a sigh. “But when you started helping Hyde, you weren’t under the control of the chip. You knew he was coming after us and you went along with it. And when you got to New York, you could have told us the truth at any time.”

Igor pursed his lips. “Yes, true on all accounts. But it’s hard for a thing like me to fight my nature. To decide to do what’s right and not just what I’m told.”

Alec shook his head as he paced away. It was hard to look at Igor—who looked so damn human—and remember that he had been altered and made into a form of monster by Natalie’s father. Could they really blame him for the nature that had been ingrained in him? He just didn’t know.

And he didn’t have any time to think about it because Pat said his name. “Hey, come here. Our friends are coming up the pipe.”

Alec rushed over and watched the screens as Natalie and Linda came up the passageway toward Pat’s secret door. They were all but hauling Kai and Rehu.

“Oh shit, that doesn’t look good,” Alec muttered. “Open the door for them.”

Pat depressed a button and the big door rattled, then swung out to allow them entry. Alec rushed outside to meet them. When Natalie’s eyes lit up with relief and joy, he wanted to kiss her right there.

But he couldn’t. Instead, he grabbed for Rehu and supported the bigger man.

“What happened?” he asked as he dragged Rehu inside.

Once they were all clear, Pat shut the door and hurried over to help. He and Alec eased Rehu onto a couch. The normally robust mummy was pale and sickly and he had a huge bruise on his forehead.

“I have a chip in me, apparently, and I got triggered,” Linda said with a shiver. “And . . . and I shot him.”

Alec backed away from Linda in three long steps.

“You?” he said, unable to keep utter disbelief from his voice. “But why is he hurt? A bullet shouldn’t be able to stop him.”

“It’s a long story,” Natalie said as she eased Kai into a chair. “And I’ll tell you all about it later, but right now, where is Igor? He’s got a chip and Alec’s remote—”

“We know,” Drake said with a sigh as he motioned to the disarray in Pat’s home. “And he wasn’t able to use the remote, so stop looking so terrified.”

Pat shifted with discomfort. “This place was much nicer when we got here. I keep a very tidy home, I assure you.”

“Where is he?” Natalie said, clenching her fists at her sides.

Igor stepped out from the back room and stared at Natalie with a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry, Natalie,” he murmured.

“You
asshole
!” She moved on him with pounding, long steps straight out of a Frankenstein movie. “You could have told us the truth at any time and kept this from happening. I
knew
I shouldn’t have trusted someone so close to my father.”

Igor didn’t step away from her, even as she ran up on him like a charging bull. “I know. I know. And if you want to kill me, then go ahead.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Natalie growled, low and angry enough that Alec stepped toward her to stop her just in case. She drew a few deep breaths before she spoke again. “Hyde said you assisted him with surgery, is that right?”

Igor nodded yes, clearly fearful of what that answer might mean vis-à-vis violence to his body.

“Then we might need you,” Natalie said, much to Igor’s obvious surprise and relief. And Alec’s. “Once we see what the Van Helsings do to remove the chip from Alec’s brain, we’re going to have to repeat that on everyone who has a chip in them. Linda; the Creature, if we can get him out; and, eventually, you.”

“Wait,” Kai said, her voice weak as she straightened up from her slumped position. “So that’s still your plan? To confront the Van Helsings?”

“Of course,” Natalie said. “Nothing has changed.”

“Everything has changed,” Rehu croaked. “Before, you would have had Kai and me as backup if things went bad. But right now, because of the spells that were spoken, we’re mortal. We can’t risk coming up there to help.”

Alec stared. “You’re
mortal
?”

Kai sighed. “Yeah, like Natalie said, it’s a looooong story. It will be over tomorrow, but don’t go testing it out, okay? And talk some sense into your girl. She’s all crazypants if she thinks she can face the Van Helsings alone.”

“If it’s over tomorrow, why not just wait?” Alec asked, staring at Natalie.

She shook her head. “No. No more waiting. The Van Helsings will get word of what’s happened if we wait until tomorrow. You know they will, especially if the window breaking and gunfire at one of the city’s best hotels hits the news. Which it will. Our element of surprise will be gone.”

There was silence in the room as that set in.

“Natalie will not be alone if we go tonight,” Pat said, flying over to stand beside her. “I will help her.”

“And I’ll still come,” Drake said. “They are my oldest enemy.”

“I’ll help, too,” Igor swore, though very quietly.

“And can I trust you?” Natalie snapped, spearing the smaller man with a deadly glare. “Even if Hyde no longer has your triggers?”

“You have no choice.” Igor folded his arms.

“I want to help, too,” Linda said. “I owe it to you all.”

“No, you stay here,” Natalie said. “Someone needs to stand by with the mummies and protect them, since they can be harmed by normal means.”

“But if you try anything, I’ll still destroy you,” Kai growled.

Linda sighed. “Yes, Kai. I understand. Roar and all that badassery. Okay, fine. I’ll take care of the pleasant twins. I guess I deserve it.”

Natalie nodded and looked at Kai and Rehu. “See, it will be fine.”

Kai rubbed her eyes and looked at Alec. “You know this is a suicide mission.”

Alec handed the mummy the triggering mechanism for himself, which she looked at it in surprise, staring at the engraved
A
on its plastic surface.

“Kai, it’s never been anything but a suicide mission. But since I don’t want to be beholden to whoever holds that little trigger, even if it’s a friend, I have to try. And I trust Natalie and her master plan.”

Natalie reached out and took his hand. He felt the scar on her palm, just one of many from her creation, and the warmth of her skin, and that touch soothed him. He smiled at her. What he had said was totally true. He did trust her with his life.

A big leap for a lone wolf.

“All right, it’s getting close to dawn and we don’t want Drake exploding in the light, so let’s get moving,” Natalie said with a squeeze of his hand before she let him go and made for the door, holding the book. “Move out, troops. We’ve got Van Helsing to hunt.”

For all her bravado, Natalie was shaking as she and Alec trailed Pat, Drake, and Igor through the smelly sewers toward the Van Helsing residence.

“Hey, you’re fine,” Alec said as he draped an arm around her shoulder like the hero out of some fifties movie with James Dean. She glanced at him. Actually, he’d make a pretty good bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold.

“I hope we’re
all
fine,” she murmured. “Kai is probably right that this is a massively stupid idea.”

“So why are you doing it?” Alec laughed.

She looked at him briefly as they walked. “Because I’m sick and tired of hiding. And running. And fearing. And I also would like to save you because, I think I mentioned before, I kind of like you.”

“Aw, I’ve taken a downgrade,” Alec said, with a dramatic hand on the heart. “From love to kind of like.”

“It’s all the same.” Natalie chuckled, despite the circumstances.

“Well, it means a lot to me,” he said, and now his voice was serious.

“We’re going to save you.” Natalie took his hand. “We’re going to save all of us.”

“I have faith in nothing less,” he said, then stopped talking. Up ahead Pat was pointing to a sewer grate above them.

“This is the one.”

Natalie let go and moved toward the stairs. “How can you be sure? It looks like fifty others we’ve passed.”

Pat laughed. “I may not know much, but I know my sewers. This is it.”

“Then up we go,” Natalie said with a sigh as she moved up the ladder first. At the top, she encountered the sealed sewer cap, but it didn’t take much monster strength for her to pop it off.

The night air outside was cold and crisp, but she barely felt it as she pushed herself out and looked around. Sure enough, they were at the back alley behind the Van Helsing brownstone.

“Nice, Pat,” she said with a grin as she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. Although they were in the alley, he yanked his big hood over his head to hide his face. Natalie frowned and helped Drake up next, followed by Igor, and finally Alec.

Once they were assembled in the alley, Alec looked around, and she could see him making his plans, setting up his escape routes.

“Igor should come with Natalie and me, to observe whatever surgery is performed,” he murmured.

Natalie shifted. She didn’t trust Igor, but right now it didn’t matter. If he could help, she had to swallow that shit down and pretend like it didn’t exist. Hope she wouldn’t be proven right by him.

“The three of us will go to the front door while you two stay out here and be ready for our attack,” Alec continued, with a glance at the other two monsters. “Drake, you have good monster ears, right?”

Drake pursed his lips. “I don’t call them that, but, yes, my hearing is of higher quality than a human’s.”

“Be ready to burst in.” Natalie smiled at the two of them and began to turn toward the door, but Pat caught her sleeve.

“Will we have a secret word to know when to come in?”

She blinked as she stared at him. “What?”

“A secret word—you know, so that we can burst in at just the right time.” Pat nodded. “You see it in the movies all the time.”

Natalie glanced at Alec. “What do you suggest?”

“Rutabaga,” Pat said without hesitation.

Alec laughed. “You sound like you’ve thought of this for a long time.”

“Oh, I have,” Pat said with a vigorous nod of his head that sent his tentacles dancing around his face.

Drake rubbed his eyes. “This conversation is less than sophisticated and our nighttime hours are fading. I hate to mention again the fact that I’ll explode if sunlight hits me, but . . .”

Natalie waved a hand. “I know, I know. Pat, you know what . . .
yes
. We’ll do the rutabaga thing. Drake, listen for the word
rutabaga
, and that’s how you’ll know to come in.”

She couldn’t tell if Pat was smiling under all those tentacles, but his eyes were definitely lit up with excitement and happiness. She couldn’t help a warm grin as she, Alec, and Igor left the two of them standing in the alley, ready to press against a window and listen for
rutabaga
so they’d know to burst through a side door at just the right time.

“That was nice of you,” Igor said as they climbed up the marble steps to the front door.

Natalie spared him a quick glance, the first one since he had admitted he fucked her over. “Thanks.”

“I mean it,” Igor insisted. “You could have said he was being silly and left it at that. Drake would have figured out the right time.”

“Aw, I doubt Pat gets to have much fun, stuck all alone. If
rutabaga
makes him happy, who am I to tell him no?” She stared up at the menacing carved door. “Besides, everything in this room, in this house, in the next hour or so, is going to be no fun at all.”