Demonspawn (36 page)

I closed the door behind me, and noticed the
window was still open.

“How the hell did you get up here?”

“I'm a vampire, Alex.”

I waited for her to continue. She didn't. I
leaned over her shoulder as she typed away at the keyboard.

“What are you looking for?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. But we have
three feral vampires, all with ties to this place.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just sit there and look cute for a minute.
Keep an eye out, make sure security doesn't make their way up
here.”

I shook my head. Something felt wrong with
Victoria paying me five hundred dollars a day to stick my head out
an office door.

“So, you talk to Cindy yet?”

The question caught me off guard. Seemed like
a weird time to be talking about my personal life.

“Uh, no. The chance hasn't really come up
yet. I will, though.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“Well, getting slapped in the face and losing
my best friend, for starters.”

She shook her head. “You don't give yourself
enough credit. I keep telling you, if you weren't hung up on her,
I'd be all over you. It's a shame we're a few centuries apart.”

I laughed. “Yeah. A real shame.”

“Seriously, Alex. I just lost a good friend.
You always think there's enough time. There
never
is. You
know, when I was your age, I-” she cut herself off.

“What? What's up?”

She almost looked amused. “You gotta love
computers. Fifty years ago, I'd be tearing apart file cabinets and
offices. Not anymore. Check this out.”

I looked at the monitor, but didn't really
know what I was looking at.

“What is it?”

“I'm just poking around in their file server,
seeing what they got. Look at this.”

She pointed at a file folder on the
screen.

Hominus Nocturna.

“Hominus Nocturna? What the hell is
that?”

“Fancy name for vampire.”

“Are you kidding? That's sitting right there
on their file server?”

“Not exactly. I've picked up a few tricks
along the way.”

“Well, what's in there?”

“Let's find out.”

The file folder was full of videos, probably
a hundred or so. I wasn't prepared for any of them at all.

Victoria picked one at random. It showed an
examination room. A man was restrained on a table. It only took a
moment to realize he was a vampire. He thrashed and struggled,
looking a lot like the feral vampires we'd already found. A man in
a white coat took some notes, then faced the camera.

“The mixture looks like it has the complete
opposite effect of what was intended. Instead of killing the mutant
strain, it seems it only makes it stronger. We're gonna keep
trying.”

Victoria cut him off to load another video.
This one showed the same room, except with two vampires restrained
instead of one. The same doctor looked into the camera. He paced a
little, obviously unnerved.

“We've been unsuccessful in killing the
original mutant strain. Although, by sheer dumb luck, we've
discovered that this new mutant strain can be passed to ordinary
humans.” He gestured to the tables. He didn't look comfortable at
all. “The, uh, subject on the left is...
was...
a janitor who
strayed too close to Section B. We're still working to reverse his
condition.”

I looked at Victoria. She was cool. I admit,
I was freaked out.

She loaded one more, the last one. The same
doctor, even though this time he wore plain street clothes. He
looked visibly shaken. The two vampires behind him on the tables
were motionless. I could see wooden stakes jutting from their
chests.

“This will be my last report before I resign
my position. The new mutant strain isn't reversible. It should be
destroyed. But it seems my supervisors don't agree. I'm worried
that it could be made even stronger.”

Victoria closed the video. She clasped her
hands and stared at the monitor. She said nothing. I was the first
one to talk.

“Victoria, what did we just see?”

“They were trying to cure vampirism. Looks
like it backfired, and turned into what we're dealing with. He
called it a strain? More like a damn plague. And it just doesn't
affect some humans, but all of them, and makes them like
animals.”

“You and me alone, we've already seen four
vampires in the city. Who knows how many Bachner and his crew have
seen.”

“Yeah. This is scary. This is why I hate the
twenty-first century sometimes. Our kind and science don't
mix.”

“What's the next move?”

“He said something about Section B. Gotta be
here somewhere. Let's make a stop there.”

A new voice, right behind me.

“You can't. There's no time.”

I spun around. Victoria noticed my surprise,
and spun in her chair. But she didn't see what I saw. My mouth hung
open.

“You've got about fifteen seconds before this
place explodes.”

“Huh? What are you-”

“Get moving. Now!”

I grabbed Victoria. “Come on. We have to
go.”

I pulled her to the open window. I popped my
wings, and ruined yet another shirt.

“Hold on tight.”

She didn't ask any questions. She gave me a
tight hug.

We flew about ten feet from the window. Then
the explosion rocked my ears. I felt the heat at my back. We flew
forward, but I didn't have any control. We were heading to the
ground.

It was Victoria's turn to save me. She held
on tight and wouldn't let go. She hit the ground first, and
cushioned our fall. The air rushed out of my lungs. I rolled on my
back, in time to see some flaming debris heading right for us.
Victoria was already on her feet and pulling me out of the way.

I only remember my legs moving. Victoria had
me by the shirt and led me away from the burning building. A few
more tiny explosions went off. I gasped for breath.

When we got near the fence she stopped. I
fell to one knee and tried to breathe. She was next to me, holding
the back of her head. Vampire or not, she was in pain.

“You okay?” she asked.

I managed a nod. We both turned and looked at
the fire. Just like that, the five-story building was up in flames.
How in the hell was that possible? Explosives on each floor?

“Shit. I hope no one was in there.”

I saw some shapes moving near the front of
the building. They started wandering away from the fire, looking
lost and confused. I could make out arms and legs. Finally I could
see their clothes. But they weren't on fire.

My heart sank.

“There
were
people in there,” I told
Victoria. My voice cracked a little. “Looks like at least two
security guards, and a few late night office workers.”

“You...can see their ghosts?”

“Yeah.” It was the first time I'd ever seen
ghosts of people who had died just minutes before. It was surreal.
I'd never seen anything more sad. Just like that, so many lives and
families destroyed. “Should I say something to them?”

The voice came from right next to me.
“There's nothing you can say.”

I turned to look at him. The ghost who had
minutes earlier saved our lives. Detective Bill Sloane.

He gave me a quick nod, then gestured to the
other spirits, who wandered aimlessly. They looked at each other,
then at the burning chaos behind them.

“In about a half hour or so, they'll realize
they're dead. They'll probably lose it for a while. Just yell and
scream. Then their families will come for them.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

“Alex?” Victoria said. “Who you talking
to?”

“Yeah,” Bill said. “My parents, and my sister
who I lost when I was younger to cancer. It was great to see them
again. But I told them I had some things to do first.”

“Like what?”

“Like put away one more case.”

“Are you kidding?”

Victoria tossed her hands in the air. “Alex,
please fill me in on what the hell is going on.”

I took a frustrated breath and grabbed
Victoria by the hand. It was almost by instinct. I had no idea of
what I thought would happen.

But my hand started tingling, like it was
asleep. Then she took a quick breath. She looked right at Bill, and
could see him.

“William?”

Bill was as surprised as Victoria and me. He
almost managed a smile.

“I see why everyone on the other side is
talking about you. How are you doing that?”

I shrugged. “I really don't know. I don't ask
questions anymore.”

“William,” Victoria said. She took a step
forward to touch his face. Her hand went through his skin. She
pulled it back quickly. “I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for what I
did.”

“You drove a stake through my heart and left
me for the sunlight,” he said. “You did exactly what I would have
done. We're cool, Victoria. I don't blame you at all. I blame
whoever cooked up that vampire virus.”

“Do you know what's going on?”

He nodded. “I think so, at least a little.
I'm still a cop, you know. But we can't talk here.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “There's a park-and-ride
train station just up the highway. Let's meet up there.”

I let go of her hand. The tingling vanished,
and Victoria could no longer see William.

With a touch, I could let others see into the
spirit world.

My mind was going in crazy directions as I
followed Victoria up the highway. I thought about the exploding
medical center, poor Bill, the insane vampire mess we were in. But
my mind kept drifting back to those lost ghosts walking out of the
burning wreckage of their workplace. One second, they were working
a normal night shift. The next, their ghosts were wandering the
parking lot. Everything gone, in less than a second.

It made me think of Cindy. I needed to talk
to her, tell her how I felt. Victoria was right, there was never
enough time.

The park-and-ride was almost completely
empty. Only a few cars sprinkled the lot. I saw Victoria leaning
against her car. William stood next to her. It made me wonder how
he got there. I guess ghosts teleport somehow.

I took a deep breath as I parked next to her.
I wasn't looking forward to the conversation we were getting ready
to have. A vampire, ghost, and some kind of demon thing getting
ready to talk about feral vampires.

“Alex,” she said as I got closer. She looked
all around her. “Is William here?”

I nodded and pointed. “Yeah, right next to
you.”

Victoria held out a hand. I took it. She
almost jumped when she saw William.

“Okay,” Victoria said. She wasted no time.
“What's going on, William?”

He nodded. “I was a step ahead of you in
finding that medical center. I was checking it out, and saw some
mercenary lookin' bastard with no hair wiring explosives all over
the place. He really knew what he was doing.”

Victoria snarled. “Heins.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, I know him. Works for an old vampire
hunter buddy of mine named Bachner. Why the hell would they want to
blow up the medical center?”

I shook my head. Something didn't make sense
here.

“Victoria, when I found Bachner, they had a
feral locked in a cage. It didn't seem like they had any idea of
what it was. I don't think they know where they came from.”

“Well, maybe they
just
found out, and
decided to kill the labs where the virus was cooked up.”

Yeah, maybe. Seemed like a stretch though.
The day before, they didn't have a clue. To go from not having a
clue, to wiring a building to explode, seemed like a large leap.
But something else ate at me.

“Bachner, he wouldn't kill anyone.”

“Oh, really? You're a shrink now?”

She was irritated at my defending him. “No.
I'm just saying. I know, he hates
you
. He hates vampires.
But he wouldn't have killed those people in that building.”

“But Heins would.”

“Well, Heins works for Bachner.”

We were all quiet for a moment, unsure of
what to think. It didn't feel like we were getting anywhere.
Victoria looked at Bill.

“Did you get a look at Section B?”

“I got a look at the whole place. They had a
huge lab in the basement. No humans were there. But they did have
about ten vampires locked in cages, strapped to tables. Looked like
they were studying them. I'm guessing that's your Section B.”

“Okay, so the lab is destroyed, the ferals
dead. They kill innocent people doing it, but they wipe out that
virus. Now
we
have to make one hundred percent sure the
virus is dead and gone.”

“How do we do that?”

She smiled. “Tomorrow, we go to their little
hideout, and ask Bachner what he knows.”

Bill looked at me. “Give me the address. I'll
go scope out the place. Then I'll come get you when the sun starts
going down.”

“I'll have some friends check it out too,”
Victoria said.

“Okay. Until tomorrow night, then? What do
you want me to do?”

“Well, it's early Monday morning already. Go
to work.”

Easy for her to say.

The day at work went like any other. It was
actually refreshing. As much as loading trucks sucked sometimes, I
could put behind me all the crap I'd been dealing with over the
past few days. Vampires, ghosts, exploding buildings, my sister. It
felt good to settle back into an eight hour routine and drive a
forklift all day, even if I was exhausted.

An hour after I got home, I was listening to
the ballgame, making a simple dinner, when the cell phone rang. I
was surprised the call didn't come much sooner. I took a breath,
knowing it was time to run out soon.

“Hello?”

“Alex. It's Victoria. You heard from
Bill?”

“Nah, not at all.”

She was quiet. “That's weird. I had a friend
check out that address you gave me. Completely empty.”