Dread Nemesis of Mine

chapter 36

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."

I felt myself sag in relief.

The vampire motioned us to follow. "You're a bit early, but never fear. There are drinks and snacks waiting." He led us down a familiar hallway to a door I recognized.

It was the same door leading down into the basement. I couldn't stop the shudder as we began a long descent down the stairwell. Loud music boomed up the corridor. When we reached the bottom, I saw the source—huge speakers and a towering projection screen dominated a wall at the far end where a group of vampires competed in a dancing video game. It was the same exact game they'd been playing the last time I sneaked into this place to rescue my dad.

"Sweet setup," Nyte said, ogling the massive entertainment system.

"Knowing how to dance comes in handy as a vampire," James said. "We do so love our nightclubs."

The large basement was divided by cubicle partitions into sleeping areas. I looked across the way where a divider blocked my view. Behind it, somewhere, was a door leading down into the crypt. I wondered if there were more vamplings down there or not. I noticed Elyssa flicking a few flashers toward the dancing vampires, and dropped a few of my own into the middle of the space between dividers where they rolled into the cracks of the stone flooring.

James led us away from the music and to the other end of the sprawling space where a harried-looked vampire lined up chairs in front of a podium.

"Where are the rest of the chairs?" the organizer said, turning her red eyes on James. "I told those idiots we needed at least fifty more." She threw her hands up in the air. "Why do I even bother? We should just make the newbies stand."

"Now, now, Erin. We wouldn't want our guests to feel unappreciated, would we?" James put an arm around her shoulder and led her a short distance away as he spoke in calming tones.

"Look at all these chairs," Elyssa said, her gaze running up and down the rows. "There must be over a hundred of them."

"Maybe it's for everyone here," Ash said, uncertainty plain on his face.

I glanced back at the crowd of vamps raising the roof in sync with the game. Cold apprehension gripped my insides. If every chair represented a super vamp, unaffected by flashers, we'd have our hands full. Coupled with the armed noms patrolling the grounds, I wasn't sure our plan had a good chance of succeeding. "Do you see Max or Barclay?" I said, scanning the area.

Elyssa shook her head. "Not a sign."

"Maybe they're upstairs?" Nyte said.

I glanced at James. He and Erin had wandered further away. "Let's check out the vamps at the other end. Act casual."

A long table bore cups of red liquid and an assortment of chips and dips. Nyte picked up a cup and took a sip. He laughed. "Kool-Aid."

I tried a tentative sip myself. It was cherry flavored. "You've got to be kidding me." I piled a plate with chips along with the others and we moseyed down to the dancing vampires, doing our best to act like casual observers.

While Nyte and Ash watched two vampires do the Running Man in time with the music, Elyssa and I looked at the faces of the participants. One or two looked vaguely familiar, probably because I'd fought or run from them at some point over the past few months. One thing was clear—neither Maximus nor Barclay were in the room, unless they were hiding in one of the partitioned areas. Elyssa seemed to be a step ahead of me. She motioned toward the haphazardly arranged dividers with her head, and moved down the row, looking in each one she passed on the right.

I followed her lead, taking the ones on the left. As I passed by the area where the corridor down the middle of the room intersected with the door leading back upstairs, I saw a man hurry past, heading straight across the room toward the entrance to the crypt. Unlike most of the fashionably attired residents, this man looked disheveled. Something about his clothes seemed wrinkled. Or maybe they just seemed to hang unnaturally on his pale, doughy—

"Holy crap," I hissed, making a beeline for Elyssa.

She turned from inspecting a cubicle and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Bigglesworth just passed through here." I motioned my head toward the crypt door. "He headed downstairs."

"Are you sure it's the same guy? Wasn't he with Artemis in Colombia?"

"Unless he has a twin with the complexion of a marshmallow, yeah."

She put a hand to her chin. "He's spreading himself pretty thin."

"Considering he's really just a ball of goo, I guess he's capable of handling it." I edged toward the divider hiding the crypt door, looking up and down the center aisle for James or any suspicious vampires.

"Justin, this is Bella," said a static distorted voice in my ear. "Can you hear me?"

I resisted the urge to put a finger to my ear and said, "Yeah, but barely."

"—move…new position. –thing interfering…very powerful….careful!" came the garbled reply.

"What?"

No response. I spotted Ash and Nyte looking around the room. "We can't go without telling them where we are," I told Elyssa. "Hang on." I sauntered up to my friends, trying to look casual.

"Dude, this is the best party ever," Nyte said when I reached him. "I think I'm actually going to do it, man."

"Do what?"

"Compete in a dance-off."

I groaned. "Seriously? We're not here to party, in case you forgot."

His expression sobered. "Oh. Yeah."

Ash gave me a serious look. "So, what's next?"

I glanced around, certain with all the sensitive vampire ears around me, it would have been impossible to say anything privately without the insanely loud booming of the dancing game. "Elyssa and I are going into the crypt to check something out. You two stay up here and watch our backs. If anything happens, you have to get out of here and warn the others. Bella's little worm radio trick isn't working very well, so I might not be able to use it."

The two nodded.

"And if you can find out how many people they've given the vampire potion to, that'd be huge."

"We'll ask around, casual-like," Ash said.

I locked eyes with Nyte. "Look, I know how tempting it is to cut loose. These guys look like a barrel of laughs, but they're not. We're in the middle of enemy territory, and the door we came in through is the only way out."

My friend's face paled even more than usual for his ginger complexion as he looked to the door leading up and out of the house. "Don't worry, Justin. I won't let you down."

"Be careful," Ash said, his eyes big and worried.

I flashed a quick grin. "Ah, we'll be fine. Just do what I said, and everything will come out peachy keen." I didn't, for a moment, believe a word of what I'd just said.

Elyssa waited behind the divider at the door. The keypad was still fried, probably from the last time I'd been through here and knocked power out in the entire building with a flubbed attempt at using magic to get through the electronic lock. She looked down the dim passage beyond the metal door. Back at me.

It was time to enter the belly of the beast.