Seven Kinds of Hell (10 page)

A light dawned. “Like the cops. When have they ever done anything close to what I wanted? When did I ever get treated so kindly, so efficiently? Something’s not right.
You’re
not right.”

I looked over at Sean, who was sitting, a look of patient concern on his face.

Patient?
Sean?

I recognized the feeling now. Why had it taken me so long? It was nearly identical to the one I’d felt in Salem and in the cemetery. This morning, in the empty lot.

The whisper of other Beasts.

Thing was, there wasn’t a crowd of werewolves and snake-men threatening me here. It was just Claudia and Gerry.

But they were the same as the other guys, I realized. The same as me.

I bolted for the door. Gerry beat me to it, blocking my exit. Jeez, he was huge. Bigger than Sean even, like a minivan.

It didn’t matter. I was going to leave, even if it meant going through him.

I wouldn’t have bet I could move him at all. I did, but only a little, so I shoved at his face. “What are you? What do you want with me? Why can’t you leave me alone?”

Sean wasn’t sitting patiently anymore. He sprang up, lunged at Gerry.

“Claud! A little help here?” Gerry grabbed my arms, held them with difficulty. He turned us away so his back was to Sean, who was trying to pull him off me. A few of Sean’s punches landed on Gerry’s head.

I heard a growl from Gerry, sensed a frantic energy in the room.

“Zoe, calm down! Sean, back off!” Claudia commanded.

Sean sat again as if nothing had happened.

The frenzied urge to fight drained out of me like sugar from a ripped sack. I sagged against Gerry. In its place was a sense of calm…and I knew that couldn’t be right.

I jerked away. Not very effectively—it was like I had no will to do it—but I tried. I wrenched one arm loose and swung, smacking Gerry in the face.

One eye was screwed up tight while Gerry tried to keep out of range of my flailing hand. “Shit!
Claudia!
” he bellowed.

Claudia pulled my freed arm back, and then, my God, the bitch
bit
me.

Rage filled me, only to dissipate almost immediately. I slumped down to the floor. Gerry let go reluctantly.

Limp as a rag, calm as a pebble, I felt safe and inclined to listen to them.

Didn’t mean I was happy. Somewhere in the back of my brain, something still
me
was furious.

Must have been some kind of hypodermic, maybe some kind of contact poison, to make me think she’d bitten me. I didn’t remember getting drugs this good when I had a root canal.

“You need to listen to us,” Claudia said.

I saw fangs retracting.

Fangs. I’d seen them in the mirror, once or twice. And most recently across the empty lot and in the cemetery. Now Claudia had them.

More of my father’s people. Why hadn’t I felt the Beast in them before? Maybe the Steubens were better at disguising their nature. The others had wanted me to recognize them right away, and I’d been preoccupied with Sean there…

It was one thing to think I was a werewolf, quite another when others kept appearing out of the woodwork.

“You bit me,” I said. I looked at my arm and saw tiny puncture marks growing increasingly smaller, as if they were evaporating. I rubbed at the spot; there was no pain at all.

“I couldn’t calm you down any other way. It’s important you hear what we have to say right now.”

Then she…started to shimmer, blur. She
changed.

As she did, I felt the call of the Beast. I didn’t even try to resist; if the world was going crazy around me, being a wolf seemed like the best response.

The air around me was filled with weirdness. I was sure my hair was standing on end, with all the energy—more than electricity—in the room. Adrenaline pumping, like I’d done a mocha with six extra shots. I was so jazzed up, I wanted to launch myself into orbit, tear the guts out of a bad guy, right wrongs, run forever.

Emotions like I’d never felt rushed over me, and suddenly the Beast seemed like the best thing in the world. I felt like a force for
good,
me, who put the “difficult” into the “child” and the “troubled” into the “teen.”

Not bad. Not dirty. Not crazy.

In my wolfy shape, I couldn’t express this excruciating joy. I jumped, then rolled around on the floor, but then got hopelessly tangled in my clothing. I wuffed, trying to untangle myself.

Way to diminish the moment, Zoe.

Claudia, now a snake-lady, exchanged looks with Gerry, now a wolf-man.

She knelt down beside me. “Zoe, stay still. I’ll help.”

My wolfy brain didn’t have room for the shame I usually felt at the Beast’s victory. It didn’t have room for the humiliation I might ordinarily feel having a stranger rearrange my human clothing over a lupine body. If I could just stay like this forever, I’d be happy. It was like chains had dropped away from my limbs.

But Danny needed me. I tried to dismiss the Beast.

No luck.

I whimpered and tried again. Still no dice.

A shimmer of light, a frisson of energy, and Claudia was human again. “Zoe, can you Change back to your skinself?”

Crazy lady. What else could I be trying to do?

“Gerry?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, Claud. She seems like she knows nothing at all.”

He turned back into a human. And suddenly, so did I.

“Know about what?” I rearranged my shirt and shrugged my bra back into place. I should have been angry, but whatever Claudia had done to me was sticking.

“Anything about what you are, and how to control it.”

“Um, no. Until a couple of days ago, I just thought I was out of my mind. I’m still not sure what’s going on. Care to fill me in?” These two didn’t remind me of what my mother had said about my father’s people.

The Steubens exchanged another glance.

“We haven’t got much time,” Gerry said.

“I’ll keep it short,” Claudia replied. “Zoe, we’re Fangborn. That’s what it’s called. Vampires, like me, who clean blood and
heal. We can also use our venom to make humans forget, and we tend to be very perceptive. And persuasive. Werewolves, like Gerry, whose power and speed help them track and fight evil. And oracles who have all sorts of powers, from precognition to telepathy to…just plain luck. Since the beginning of time, we’ve worked, mostly in secret, to protect humanity and eradicate evil; all the myths, all the popular culture—whatever you think you know—is wrong or at least deliberately misleading. There are lots of theories about how we came to be, but some call us ‘Pandora’s Orphans,’ the hope that was left in the bottom of the box when evil was let out. Whatever story you believe, we’re the good guys.”

The Steubens, the guys who’d cornered me—these were my father’s “family”? They were all Fangborn?

“So that other guy,” I said slowly. “The one who…showed me that history reel? He was telling the truth?”

“History reel?”

I shook my head. “He sort of put his hand on me, and I
saw…
lots of this. ‘Download,’ I think someone called him? It was freaky. I busted out of there in a hurry.”

Claudia and Gerry had worried looks. “‘Download?’ You know him?” Claudia asked.

Gerry shook his head slowly. “This ain’t good.”

“Why?” I really didn’t think we needed more badness. “What’s going on?”

Gerry shifted his weight, rubbed his shoulder where I’d hit him. “We were looking for you, because we’d heard rumors of a female stray—”

“Unacculturated pack-sister,” Claudia corrected. I was kinda glad they had words for these things, “Change” and “skinself” and “pack-sister.” Made me feel better about myself, not so rudderless.

“—in our area, and we were sent to find you. The fact that this other group is looking for you is…irregular.”

“What do you mean?” I nodded. “Who are these other guys? And…” I rummaged through my bag, found the wallet Sean stole. “What do you know about this one?”

“Where did you—?”

“Wallet fell out of his pocket when he attacked Sean,” I said.

“Ah.” Gerry flipped through the cards, and frowned. “Claud, it’s like I said: someone is bringing in Family from out of state.”

“There have been some political tensions among our people lately,” Claudia said, almost apologetically.

Gerry snorted. “What it means is that some Fangborn, who want to reveal themselves to humans, are adding to their side by rounding up any stra—Fangborn who might not have been raised in a pack or nest. Some think a preordained date for announcing our presence is coming up. So they’re listening for news, then pouncing before the local Families can find them.”

“The Identification Issue has been heating up.” Claudia gave Gerry a “you’re not being helpful” look. “Identification, revealing the Fangborn to Normal humans, is incredibly dangerous, I think. If it happens at all, I think it should be taken very gradually, a slow reveal if you will, very carefully orchestrated and supported by the vast majority of all the Fangborn. Even then, many of us worry about how Normals will respond and what will happen to us all. Others believe the world would be a better place if Fangborn ruled. Some think we’d be able to organize searches for evil, streamline the justice systems of the world if we identified ourselves. Both sides have their points, and their radicals, but so far no one has taken it upon himself to reveal us for what we are.”

“Look, I don’t have time for this. I need to get to the airport. I need to get on that plane and try to find whatever this Dmitri wants.”

“Who’s Dmitri?”

“The asshole who’s taken my cousin and is threatening to kill him! I don’t know who he is!”

They shook their heads. “We don’t know anything about him,” Claudia said.

I ran a hand through my hair, ready to pull it out by the roots. As much as I wanted to know all this stuff, answer the questions that were my life, I needed to focus on one thing. “You’re devoted to defeating evil and I’m not crazy: check. Let’s use these powers to get my cousin back from that evil sonofabitch!”

“OK. We can do that, only—”

“No only! We go now! And…and what have you done to Sean?”

“We’ve done nothing to him. But by the way he responded to my suggestion, it looks like someone in the Family has given him a little forget-me juice.”

Suddenly my hackles went up. “Wait, why should I believe you? If you can manipulate us—make him forget, make me stop resisting you—how do I know anything you’re saying is true?”

“You can sense it, can’t you?”

“I…I don’t know.” The question caught me by surprise. I dug in, tried to concentrate. I
could
sense good intent, if not truth. And at least the Steubens appeared to be trying to help me—the other…Fangborn?…had only seemed interested in getting me to go with them. I had to make a decision.

“Look, trust isn’t my strong suit, but if you’re willing to help me, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But please: my cousin’s in danger and time’s
wasting.
”

I looked over. The whole time, Sean had done…nothing. Had said nothing, even when we’d all transformed. “Can’t you…do anything about Sean?”

Gerry glanced over at him. “I like him docile.”

Claudia frowned. “Gerry.”

“What? I’m just saying. He’s easier to deal with.”

Gerry was determined to work my nerves. “Is it fair to let him just sit and drool?” I asked.

“Zoe, he’s not drooling,” Claudia said. “There’s no indignity; I wouldn’t allow it. He’s just waiting for someone to give him direction, which I will do.” She glanced at me. “Even if I weren’t bound by oaths to keep my secret self…secret…would you want him to know about
you
?”

She had a point. “Uh, not yet. Not until I know more myself. Just…make him as normal as possible.”

“Don’t worry. I’m good at this.” She knelt by the immobilized Sean, looked him in the eyes. He was already mesmerized by her.

“You got knocked about when you ran into those muggers on the construction site,” she said. “Things have been a little crazy, with Danny’s disappearance, but you feel fine, and you, my brother, and I are going to help Zoe however we can, right?”

“Absolutely. I like Danny, even if he can be a little smartass sometimes.”

“That sound about normal, Zoe?” Gerry said. He tried, and failed, to keep a straight face.

I felt a flare of anger; he had no business making fun of Sean, being amused by our imperfect selves.
Deep breath, Zoe; you’d have made the same joke under other circumstances.
“Let’s get going,” I said.

Claudia held up a hand. “Wait. Your flight leaves in four hours. We’ll come with you. That gives us time to think, to plan. This Dmitri needs you to make contact with someone, make an exchange?”

I nodded. “He wants me to find another object like the one…I already have.”

“Why doesn’t he do it? Why doesn’t he just ask you to give him the object you have for Danny? Then he can get the other himself.”

I thought about it. “Maybe he can’t. Maybe he’s known to this guy Grayling.”

“How do you happen to have this object?”

“It’s nothing, it’s a small figurine. And it’s a long story,” I said, my face burning. “Save it for the ride. For now, I want to focus on Dmitri. We don’t know much about him.”

Even as I said it, I recalled what I’d been imagining about Dmitri while he spoke. Gerry noticed my hesitation.

“I bet you know more than you think. Even if you don’t know what you are, you still have your Fangborn powers, however untrained. And we have resources most people don’t.” He pulled out a gadget and waved it over Danny’s computer. He typed in a few commands and then nodded. “There was something there, but now I’ve zapped it. Your cousin has some very sophisticated software on here. As in, not ‘off the shelf,’ and close to ‘hacks just brushing the law.’ He spends a lot of time coding?”

I nodded. Memories of Danny working on a piece of code all hours, of Sean and Danny trying to whip each other at
Halo,
came flooding in.
No tears,
I told myself.
Not now.

Gerry’s fingers flew over the keyboard, hitting the keys so fast I couldn’t follow what he was typing. “What did he sound like?”