Night Owls (28 page)

“Shut up.”

“No, I mean it. You guys are kind of fucked right now. Look how badly last night ended—you lost one of your trio, and you
still
didn’t get Justin. You think they’re not ready for you now?”

Twitch’s grip tightened, his fingers digging into Chaz’ bicep. “Shut the fuck
up
. Josh was my friend.”

Josh. That had to be Asshole. “Yeah, well,
your
friend was trying to kill
my
friend, so I have to chalk that one up to turnabout being fair play.”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say. Twitch’s already-feral face rippled. His nose and jaw darkened, sliding and lengthening into a snout. “No. Josh was trying to
save
your friend. I saw it. He was keeping everyone else off him, and that mousy little bitch stabbed him when he turned his back on her. So don’t you fucking say another fucking word to me. Understood?” He was up in Chaz’ face by then, his breath hot and rank as he ranted. Chaz could see a row of sharp teeth in that canine mouth.

“Okay,” he said, holding his free hand up. “Okay, got it.”

Twitch stared at him a bit longer before he stood down. Chaz had to rethink his bar fight theory—get this kid angry enough, and Twitch would kick his ass, scrawny or no.

Bitch wandered back over to them. “Let’s go.”

They headed down the hill, the majority of the Jackals melting into the shadows. Had anyone else been out and about, they’d have only seen Chaz, Bitch, and Twitch strolling along, but the street was eerily deserted. Chaz wondered if that was something the Jackals had done, or if Val had some kind of people-repelling ability she hadn’t told him about. They passed the turnoff that would have led them to Sunny and Lia’s and kept heading toward Main Street.

Chaz tried backpedaling as he realized where their final destination must be, but Bitch and Twitch dragged him inexorably onward. “You can’t,” he said. “There’ll be people there.”

“She had warning,” said Bitch. “Any dead bystanders are on her conscience, not mine.”

You say that like you have one at all.

No one was around on Main Street, either. Even the twins’ coffee shop next door to Night Owls was closed. Chaz let out a sigh of relief, one that deepened as he saw the darkened front window of the bookstore. A shape moved within, too short to be anyone but Elly. Her hand came swooping up along the glass, completing a dark, smeary circle that began to glow a dark, warning red. Bitch swore when she saw it.

Elly saw them coming. She stepped back from the window into a pool of amber from the streetlights outside. She waited until they were all looking at her, then she waved, an echo of Bitch’s greeting in the headlights, only her smile had a savage edge to it. Blood dripped from a gash on her palm.

They slowed to a stop in the middle of the street. Jackals swarmed around them, flowing out of the shadows, dropping from the rooftops like paint dripping from the edge of a canvas.
Too many,
he thought.
There’s no way we had all these with us back there.

A new shadow joined Elly in the window. Val.

Bitch stepped forward, leaving Chaz in Twitch’s grasp. “Send out the kid,” she said, her voice bouncing off the empty storefronts. “Yours for ours, like we said.”

Val shook her head. “They’re both mine.”

Chaz registered Bitch’s slight nod a second before Twitch spun him around and slammed a fist into his jaw. He saw stars. Blood coated his tongue and he leaned over to spit it out. He snuck a glance at the window on his way back up. Val stood there, fists clenched. He tried communicating
I’m okay
with a look, but he wasn’t even sure his eyes were focusing correctly.

“Send the kid out,” said Bitch. “Your friend’s had a long enough day as it is.”

“I can’t do that.” She was shouting through the glass, but Chaz could hear the regret in her tone. “Let Chaz go, and when we figure out how to get this thing back on the pages, we’ll turn them over.”

Another nod. This time Twitch hit lower, driving into Chaz’ ribs. The air went out of him for the second time today, and this time, breathing it back in was agony.
Cracked ribs, nose possibly broken, might’ve knocked a tooth or two loose there. They’re going to love me in the ER. If I get there.

Inside, Val lurched a step toward the door before she stopped herself. Her claws were out. Chaz dug deep, past the pain, and stood straight. He shook his head no.

Bitch snorted and gestured at the seething crowd of Jackals lining the street. “Look around,” she called. “It’s, what, yourself, three kids, and a pair of slut demons in there? You might have been the shit in Sacramento, but that crew’s all dead, from what I hear. Do you really want to be the last one standing again?”

Funny that he learned more about Sacramento from five seconds of Bitch mouthing off than he’d learned from Val in five years. But it made sense now—Val’s separation from the Boston colonies, her occasional overprotectiveness.
She lost friends out there. Had she lost a Renfield, too?
He’d never asked, and she’d never offered up the information. She’d been a vampire for forty-something years, though. She must have had one in that time.
Before me.

If he was honest with himself—and what better time to be honest, really, when a bunch of assholes were beating the shit out of you in front of your friends?—he hadn’t asked because he was afraid the answer would make him jealous.

“Let him go,” Val said again, and again Twitch got him in the gut. Chaz felt his knees sag, but the kid didn’t let him fall over.

“We can start breaking bones next.” She paused and tilted her head, examining Elly’s bloody rune. “Or windows.”

The rock came sailing from behind them. Chaz saw its shadow arc across the pavement as Val and Elly both dove backward. Then came the terrible crash of plate glass shattering, incredibly loud on the night air. The Jackals around them strained forward like hunting dogs awaiting their master’s command.

“Last chance,” said Bitch.

Someone moved behind the register—Cavale?—and a gallon-sized milk jug wobbled its way through the air, cap open, its contents pouring out as it tumbled. Howls went up beneath its low arc, and when it finally hit the ground off to Chaz’ right, a clump of Jackals fell to their knees, scrabbling at their own skin.

“Get him out of here,” Bitch ordered. She turned and chattered at the rest of them in that guttural tongue, and a wave of Jackals surged toward the store.

Chaz struggled against Twitch as the kid pulled him away. He saw two shapes slide out of the sides of the broken window: tall and sinuous, wielding what looked like daggers.
Sunny and Lia?
More water bottles lobbed their way out, and Chaz was suddenly glad he’d slacked on bringing the recycling out for the last couple of weeks—Cavale must have taken them from the back room.

The store was receding. If Chaz couldn’t get out of Twitch’s grasp, he didn’t know when—or if—they’d bring him back here again. They were at the corner of Hill O’ Beans when Chaz remembered Marian’s vial. He stopped fighting Twitch so he could reach into his pocket. Despite the Jackals using him as a seat cushion and the punches Twitch had thrown, the vial had survived intact.

Chaz squinted at it. His eyes took their time focusing, but finally he could read Marian’s tiny handwritten label by the overnight lights coming out of the bakery’s display window: Silver Nitrate.

“Fuck, dude.” He doubled over, forcing Twitch to slow down. “Hang on, you broke my rib. I can’t fucking breathe.”

The kid finally stopped, loosening his hold on Chaz’ arm, but not letting go. “You’ve got like ten seconds.”

One shot at this.
Chaz gulped a couple of breaths, the wheezing and snuffling only half faked. Twitch hovered over him, clearly wanting to keep moving.
Perfect.
Chaz lurched upright, bringing his right hand up with the vial cupped in his palm. It was a textbook movie-star slap. Twitch’s whole head turned with the force of it. The vial shattered on his cheekbone, driving a sliver of glass deep into Chaz’ palm.

There was a second in which he was sure it hadn’t worked, that all he’d done was made his own situation worse.

Then Twitch’s skin started to blacken and smoke, and Twitch began to scream. He let go of Chaz to clutch at his face, the side of it melting like thin plastic in a microwave. The lips peeled back from his snout; Chaz could see all the teeth on that side as they snapped and clacked with Twitch’s barks of pain.

He didn’t stick around to watch any more. When he turned back toward the store, he saw that the herd of Jackals advancing on Night Owls had thinned. What had seemed like a hundred of them lining the street had dropped way down—twenty or thirty of them, tops, and a few already down for the count. Shadows shaped like Jackals flickered in and out of existence, their solidity varying with the pitch of Twitch’s screams.
So he’s the illusionist, not Bitch.

Was
the illusionist, maybe. Chaz glanced back at the kid to make sure he wasn’t going to come lurching after him like the villain in a slasher flick, but he was curled up on the sidewalk, fetal.

Chaz stumbled back toward the fray, sticking to the edges of the buildings. He could see Sunny and Lia now, their blades smoking as they danced through a knot of Jackals. It had been so long since he’d seen their true forms, he’d forgotten how captivatingly beautiful they were. He stood, mesmerized. Watching them fight was like watching a complex, brutal, marvelous dance. Then Cavale darted past him, intent on a target off to Chaz’ left, and broke the spell. Chaz shook himself. He couldn’t see Elly or Justin, but the woman trading blow for blow with Bitch was . . .

. . . was not Val.

He had time to think
Katya?
before a pair of hands shot out from the store’s window and dragged him inside.

“I swear, when this is over I’m having you microchipped,” said Val, as she pulled him into a hug.

28

E
LLY DIDN’T TAKE
her eyes off the front of the store. The number of Creeps had thinned, which meant the illusionist was dead or unconscious. It had made her job easier for a whole five seconds. Fewer targets meant she could toss holy water bombs more accurately. But before she could get a third gallon out the window, the vampires had arrived. At first she’d thought the illusionist was back in the game, since the ranks had swelled again. Then she realized the newcomers were
attacking
the Creeps, not fighting alongside them.

She caught a flash of fang, a glimpse of claw, and recognized a face from Ivanov’s bar.

That nixed the holy water tossing for now. Too much risk of their new allies getting hit with the splash.

Val finished fussing over Chaz and brought him back to the bunker they’d made out of the register area. “He’s going to need some looking after when this is done,” she said.

It was the “when this is done” that mattered. It meant Val still had her priorities straight. “Welcome back. Stakes are to your left, if you’re up for it.”

He took one and looked out at the battle seething outside. “I saw Katya out there. I thought they weren’t coming to help.”

“I made a deal,” said Elly, prompting sharp looks from all three of her companions.

Justin winced. “Elly, you didn’t have to—”

“Everyone keeps saying that. I didn’t do it for any of you, okay? We’ll talk about it later.” It was mostly true. Ivanov’s offer meshed with her own plans, meager and half-formed as they were. It let her earn her keep if she stayed with Cavale. But she’d seen the score last night and knew they couldn’t hold out against that many Creeps. They’d survived the attack at Sunny and Lia’s because of Justin, and who knew if he’d be able to do it again. So far tonight, he hadn’t done anything intentionally Creep-like. His eyes were even yellower, but she didn’t think that was voluntary.

Not even a week ago, she’d have ensured her safety and Cavale’s, and let the rest of them fend for themselves. It was what Father Value had taught her from the start:
Take care of your own. Anyone else is expendable.
Part of her still insisted she should do just that: get out from behind the safety of this register, find Cavale in the street, and carve an escape route through the Creeps for both of them.

Except . . . Except this strange crew had grown on her. Even Val, who seemed to have about as much an idea of what to do with Elly as Elly had to do with her.

She couldn’t leave them to die, no matter what Father Value had taught her.

Glass crunched at the front of the store. The Creeps who came barreling through let out agonized yips as they passed over Elly’s chalk wards, but they didn’t retreat. They split up, one to either side of the store, advancing even while their fur smoldered with magic. They dragged their claws across the rune lines, whimpering as their flesh burned. Elly hopped over the counter to intercept the Creep on her side. Val moved to meet the other. “Keep an eye on Justin,” they both called back to Chaz.

“It’s fucked-up when you do that in stereo,” he said.

The Creep moved fast despite its injuries, knocking over a stack of books as he lunged at her. Elly sidestepped and swung her spike. Its tip grazed his arm, the flesh withering along the cut. The Creep’s momentum sent it flying past Elly and into a rack of comic books. Creep and rack tipped over together, comics fanning out across the floor. The glossy covers slid around as he tried regaining his feet, giving Elly time to get in closer. She shuffled along the floor, careful not to lose her own footing.

From the opposite side of the store came a crunch and a thud as Val dispatched her Creep.

Elly backed away from her, toward the register. Chaz placed himself between Justin and the Creep, both of their backs to the front of the store. Which meant neither of them saw the third one come bounding through the window.

Elly didn’t bother with finesse: she danced in another step, drove the spike into her Creep’s chest and kept going, leaping over him even as he collapsed into ash. She shouted, “Behind!
Behind!
” as she went, hoping Val had seen it and was already moving. But Val was up near the front, tangling with a fourth Creep who’d decided to stick her head inside and join the fun.

Chaz whirled and grabbed Justin, trying to yank him back out of the Creep’s reach.
Too late,
thought Elly, even as she scrambled up behind them. The Creep drew its arm back to swipe at Justin. He was big, hulking even, taller than Asshole had been. Justin was about a second away from having his face ripped off.

Justin cringed back against Chaz, but then he pushed away—
toward
the Creep. He uttered a word in Creeptongue. It sounded something like
kazh
, only with an undertone that made gooseflesh break out on Elly’s arms.

The Creep lowered its arm and thudded to the floor, looking up at Justin with its neck bared.

Elly shoved her way in front of the men. “What did you do?” She held out Silver and Pointy, which was still covered with the first Creep’s blood. The one at her feet shrank back, but his eyes never left Justin.

“I, um. I told him to sit.”

Val came vaulting over the register from the other side, her clawed hands covered in blood. She hauled the Creep up and held him there, one arm barring across his chest, the other wrapped around his head, her hand on his chin. One good twist and his neck would break.

Elly risked a glance back at Justin. It wasn’t just his irises that were yellow anymore. Now it covered his whole eye, like a dog’s.

There was a terrible, vertebrae-crunching
snap
as Val dispatched the Creep. “I’m not in the mood for hostages,” she said, even though no one had objected. The Creep’s body slumped to the ground.

Elly staked it, as much to get rid of the corpse as to be sure it wasn’t faking somehow.
Never trust a Creep, not even a dead one.
She turned and peered at Justin. “How do you feel?”

“Fine,” he said, then frowned. “I feel like . . . I don’t know. Like my face is too short. And my teeth are too dull.” He ran his tongue over them. “But they’re the same teeth I’ve always had. Aren’t they?” He bared them for Elly to see, a perfect row of white, even,
human
teeth. When she got close, he backed away, hands up as if to ward her off. “I, um. I kind of wanted to bite you just then. Sorry.”

She moved out of chomping range. “It’s dug in deeper. We need to get it out of him before he actually
can
change into a Creep.”

Val took Justin’s face in her hands, sniffing. “I can smell them on you,” she said. She looked at Elly. “Do you think Cavale can try again?”

“There’s no time for a ritual. We need to do it a different way.
Now.
” She wished Father Value were here. He’d have an answer, a good one.
Who am I kidding? He’d stake Justin and be done with it.

“I’m open to suggestions.”

Outside, the fighting was still going strong, but there were certainly fewer Creeps. Cavale seemed to have paired up with one of Ivanov’s men; they moved through the throng with their backs together, letting the Creeps come to them. Sunny and Lia had moved to guard the window now, keeping anyone from getting through. Their keris knives were held idly at their sides, the blades smoking.

Elly sighed. “You’re not going to like the one I have.”

“If it’s all we’ve got, I’ll deal with it. Go on.”

“You have to turn him.”

“I . . .
What?
” Val went even paler than normal. “Into a vampire?”

“Yes. Think about it. Creeps and vampires, when you turn someone, the important part’s done within a matter of minutes. This has taken days, but it’s still happening. If you do it now, maybe the vampirism can overtake the Creep taint.” She was talking too fast, forced herself to slow down for the next bit. The important bit: “You don’t have time to find out, Val. Too much longer and he’ll be one of them.”

Val’s mouth opened and closed, but she couldn’t seem to find a good argument.

Justin walked up to her, his sneakers stirring the dead Creep’s ashes. “Do it.”

She looked down at him. “You don’t know what it’s like. You haven’t even had time to think about it.”

“I’ve had time to think about the alternative. I’ve been thinking about that for three days.”

“This is forever, Justin. No going back. What about all the things you haven’t done? Hell, what’s the last thing you ate?”

“We had McDonald’s earlier.”

“See? You want your last meal to be a Big Mac? It’s blood from here on out.”

“Val.” He’d been timid and awkward these last few days. Now all of that was gone, replaced by a stubborn resolve. “If you don’t help me, my last meal might be a
person
. Then Elly’ll stake me and that’ll be it.”

“He’s right. I’d stake him if he killed someone,” she said.

“Big help,” said Val. “Thanks.”

Elly shrugged. “I’d do it nicely.”

Justin wasn’t finished. “Listen to me. These things killed Professor Clearwater. They killed Helen.
I don’t want to be one of them.
And if that means becoming a vampire, fine. Don’t make me be what they are. Please, Val.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest, like a little boy begging to stay up past his bedtime. “Please.”

She stared at him, long and hard. From outside came the sounds of Creeps dying—the hiss of silver burning their flesh, the tearing of limbs, the meaty ripping of vampire fangs in their throats. Katya’s dark, tinkling laughter floated over it all.

Val glanced out there, then back at Justin. Her mouth set in a grim line. In that moment, her decision made, she looked old and tired, and more than anything, sad. Then she quirked the kind of grin Elly imagined you’d see on someone stepping up to the gallows.

“Your parents are going to kill me.”

 • • • 

V
AL LED THE
procession to the back room, Justin behind her, Chaz lurching along after, one hand on his side. She could smell his worry. Elly stayed four steps behind Chaz, covering their retreat should a Jackal make it past Sunny and Lia. From the pile she’d seen at their feet, though, she didn’t think it likely.

The fluorescent lights in the back were almost too bright after the darkness that had reigned at the front of the store. Val sat Justin in the chair and hunkered down in front of him. Those eyes were damned disconcerting, and hard to reconcile with the thought that this was
Justin
looking out from them. Elly was right; there wasn’t much time.

“Last chance,” she said anyway. “How are you going to finish your degree?”

“I’ll take night classes. And see what they have for courses online.”

“Got it all figured out, huh?”

“Enough of it.”

College kids.

“All right, fine.” She looked around. Elly was in the doorway, her back to them. She’d drawn a line of runes on the threshold, just in case. Chaz hovered nearby, his bruised face looking all the worse in the harsh light. When this was finished, she was going to have words with Bitch. Words and fists.

But first, she had a vampire to make. “Chaz, I need you to hold him steady.”

Dutifully, he stepped behind Justin and held his shoulders, pulling him into the back of the swivel chair. But when he tried holding Justin’s shoulders, the pain was clearly too much.

Elly glanced into the back room at Chaz’ shout. “Hang on,” she said, scuttling over to him. “I can help.” She wiped the spike off on her jeans and tugged Chaz’ shirt up before he could protest. Lightly, ever so carefully, she sketched a rune on his skin with the tip. She pricked her finger and chanted under her breath, smearing the blood over the scratches that had raised themselves up. After a moment, Chaz took a slow, deep breath.

“Hey, that’s pretty good,” he said.

“It’s temporary. I took the pain away, but your rib’s still broken. Go easy, okay? It’s going to hurt like a bitch again in another ten, fifteen minutes.” She was already heading back to guard the door before Chaz could nod.

Ready for another try, Chaz planted his hands on Justin’s shoulders once more. He didn’t question her; he didn’t argue. It was clear from the look in his eyes that he didn’t like the plan, but he followed her lead, anyway.