Changeling: Zombie Dawn (8 page)

‘I’d try and stay still for a while yet if I were you,’ Ella said, stepping out of the gloom and approaching him. ‘I might have got the dosage of that sedative a bit wrong.’ She was swapping something between her hands, pouring it from one to the other like grains of sand. Except it wasn’t sand. The dull silver colour of the chain caught Trey’s eye, and he knew without needing to look down towards his own chest that she’d removed the amulet he wore round his neck.

Ella followed the direction of his gaze and smiled. ‘I didn’t want you just morphing into that wolf-man creature you become with this thing on and undoing all of my efforts to get you here.’

‘What’s going on?’ Trey said, swallowing hard to try and moisten his dry and sore throat. ‘Why have you brought me here like this?’

‘Would you like some water?’

Trey glared back at her.

‘It’s for your own safety, Trey. You’ll thank me for this one day.’

Trey lowered his head and studied the floor between his knees, trying to make some sense of what she was saying. ‘I don’t know what’s up with you, Ella, but you’d better unlock me from these chains and let me out of here. You have no idea what is going on in this world right now, because if you did, you’d know that I can’t be here. I need to get back to Lucien and—’

‘And what, Trey? Hmm? What is so important about your vampire friend that you’re willing to sacrifice your life for him? The fight between him and his lunatic brother is not your fight, Trey. Let the vampires tear each other apart. Let Caliban take over the human realm and subjugate everyone on it. What does that have to do with you and me and our kind?’ She looked down at him, shaking her head. ‘You’re
not
human. You’re a lycanthrope just like me. And whatever they’ve told you about your duty or your . . . destiny, well, it’s all lies!’

Trey struggled to take in everything he was hearing. The waves of pain and nausea made it difficult for him to concentrate, and he frowned as he tried to put together what he’d just heard. Ella knew about the forthcoming attack by Caliban. It occurred to him that she might be working for the vampire, but he quickly dismissed the idea. He would already be dead if that were the case. No, she must have found out about it from another source – perhaps she had a contact inside Lucien’s organization, somebody she’d befriended so that she could find things out about Trey. He shook his head, realizing that it didn’t matter how she’d found out. What
did
matter was that she’d captured him to stop him taking any role in defending against it. But why?

‘What am I doing here?’

‘You’re my. . . guest, albeit a reluctant one at the moment, but that will change, Trey, you’ll see. We have your best interests at heart?’

‘We?’

‘Marcus and me.’

‘Marcus?’

‘He’s joining us soon. In fact, he should be boarding a plane in the next few days. I called him and told him to come.’

‘Does he know that you’ve kidnapped me?’

‘That’s a rather emotive expression.’ She snorted and shook her head. ‘Kidnap indeed!’

‘He doesn’t, does he? If he did, he’d be here right now.’

‘Like I said, I have your very best interests at heart.’

‘Really?’ Trey let out a short derisive laugh. ‘Is that why I’m in chains? Is that why you injected me with goodness knows what drugs? Forgive me, Ella, but I think I preferred it when I didn’t have you looking out for me!’

‘You’re wrong. You need us as much as we need you. You just don’t know it yet. And when I say
we,
I mean lycanthropes – your own kind. We need you with us, not gallivanting around with some bloodsucking freak trying to save the world.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Let the vamps war against each other. And when they’re done, we’ll emerge as the strongest force that this world has ever seen.’

Trey looked up at her then, his face a mask of incredulity. This was not the Ella he’d met and befriended in Canada. And this certainly was not the girl who’d saved his life. She was like a different person, as if possessed by some evil spirit who spoke and acted through her, and for a moment Trey wondered if this were the case, if some denizen of the Netherworld were controlling her, because there was no way that the caring, giving person he had left not that long ago in Canada could be this thing before him now.

She nodded as though reading his thoughts. ‘You don’t like the new me, do you? Well, that’s too bad because the meek and pathetic Ella you once knew has gone . . . forever.’

‘What’s happened to you?’

‘I woke up.’ She snorted and twisted her face into a sneer. ‘That’s right, I woke up to the reality of what I really was. After you left Canada I went back to Norway to try and start my life again. But I didn’t know what it was like to be without the Pack, Trey. I had no idea how much I would miss it – miss the power and the . . . the sense of belonging. And then I had a full-moon Change. You know, one of those “turn-into-a-savage-murderous-beast-and-not-remember-anything-about-it” Changes?’ She shook her head. ‘I was too late getting to my lock-down. I changed before I could make myself secure.’ When she looked at Trey again, there was a terrible expression on her face. ‘You know I told you that my parents didn’t want anything to do with me?’

Trey nodded.

‘They’re dead. They died that night.’

A long and terrible silence hung between them as Trey took this in.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a low voice.

‘I need the Pack, Trey.’ Ella’s voice matched Trey’s and he had to strain to hear her. ‘I was the female Alpha, for heaven’s sake. I was at the centre of that beautiful living thing of power, and I can’t just give it up.’

‘You don’t need me though. It only takes three lycos to get together to make the controlled Change without the moon possible. There’s you, and Marcus and Lawrence. Lawrence loved the Pack. I’m sure he’d—’

‘Lawrence is dead.’

‘Dead?’ Trey thought about the gangly ginger-headed youth he’d met during his time in Canada with the Wolfen pack members. It wasn’t possible he could be dead.

‘It seems Marcus and I are not alone in needing the Pack. When we disbanded following Jurgen’s death, we all went our separate ways. But the bond we’d formed between us was too strong. Lawrence left a note saying he couldn’t go on any longer, and that he’d rather be dead than suffer a life alone. They found his body floating in a river.’ During this explanation Ella had stared out into nothingness, lost in her own memories, but now her eyes snapped back to her captive. ‘No. You have to become our third member, Trey. You’re all we have left.’

‘You’ve lost your mind.’

She paused, as if considering this. ‘You’ve never felt it, have you? Never felt the keening wrench of separation. And do you know why? Because of this.’ She hoisted the silver amulet in her hand, letting the chain play out between her fingers until it hung down, swinging gently to and fro. ‘This makes you into the lone wolf that you’ve become, Trey. It keeps you away from your own kind. It keeps you bound to the likes of Lucien Charron.’ She looked down at the thing and shook her head, before adding, ‘At least it did.’ She gathered up the chain in her hand again and placed it in her pocket before turning to walk away.

‘Wait, Ella, please. You have no idea what you’re doing. My friends! They’re in terrible danger. We all are!’

‘I’ll bring you some food and water,’ she called over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door leading out of the workshop. ‘And then you and I need to have a little chat about
your friends.’

Tom was emerging from the armoury on the first floor when he saw Lucien walking through the office. It was unusual to see the vampire up and about so early in the morning, and there was something about the look on his friend’s face that told Tom something was seriously wrong.

‘Mrs Magilton has just informed me that Trey did not sleep in his bed last night.’ Lucien said.

Tom reached for the mobile phone in his pocket.

‘I’ve tried that. His phone is dead.’

The two friends shared a look, neither wishing to voice the thoughts they were both having at that moment. Both were reminded of their recent conversations with the teenager, and how he’d hinted at a desire to run away from everything. Tom was the first to break away, giving Lucien one brief nod before striding off in the direction of his office, already barking instructions into the communications earpiece he wore. Before he entered, he turned and called across to his boss, ‘Find Hag and Alexa, especially Alexa. One of them may have an idea where he is.’

The three of them, Lucien, Tom and Alexa, sat around the large table in the kitchen eyeing each other nervously. Hag had already told Lucien that she would not be joining them, pointing out that she had no idea where the boy was, and that her time would be better spent by trying to locate him using sorcery.

‘We have to face the fact that Trey might have simply gone of his own accord, and that he’s decided that he no longer wants any part of this,’ Lucien said with a vague gesture of his hand.

‘I don’t buy that,’ Tom said.

‘You yourself told me that he’d been very down lately, and that he’d suggested to you that he’d considered simply walking away. Why is it so hard to believe?’

‘Because the boy was just voicing his fears about whatever lies ahead. He’d no more walk out on us than you or I would.’

‘You don’t know that for certain, Tom.’

‘Yes I do. And so do you, Lucien.’ Tom let out a long sigh and eyed his boss. ‘Are you honestly going to sit there and tell me you think that boy could just up and leave like that, without so much as a goodbye?’

The vampire shook his head. ‘Everything I know about Trey tells me that you’re right. But we don’t know what’s going on inside his head, do we? And we can’t begin to guess how psychologically damaged he was after his experiences in the Netherworld.’ He paused and added in a lower voice, ‘Everybody and everything has a breaking point, Tom. Even you . . . or me.’

The Irishman turned to look at Alexa, who’d been silent throughout all this, staring at the table and chewing nervously at the inside of her mouth.

‘Tell us about this girl again.’

‘She turned up downstairs yesterday. Trey wasn’t expecting her, but he went down to see her.’

‘And just left with her? Without telling anyone that he was going?’

‘I’ve told you, it’s all my fault,’ Alexa said in a low voice. ‘We had a row. Another one. I’ve been a complete bitch to Trey over the last couple of days, and he’s probably gone off with this girl because of that.’

‘Security says that they left together in a taxi,’ Tom said. ‘We’ve looked at the CCTV images from the front of the building, and we found the cab’s registration number, but so far we haven’t managed to track down the driver. I’ve put some good people on it, so it’s only a matter of time.’

Lucien looked across at his daughter. ‘This girl is a lycanthrope and a member of the LG78, you say?’

‘Yes, but she’s not a threat to Trey. She saved his life, for heaven’s sake!’

Lucien pursed his lips, frown lines etching his forehead as he took this in.

‘Maybe Trey
has
just decided to stay out for the night. Maybe he stayed at this girl’s place.’ He glanced across at his daughter. ‘I’m sorry,’ he added.

‘No!’ Tom said, banging his hand on the table. ‘The Trey Laporte I know and care about is not some thoughtless Lothario who’d just go off to a girl’s house for the night. It doesn’t make any sense.
Trey’s not like that!’

Lucien held up his hand. ‘Nevertheless, we can’t assume that our young ward’s disappearance is as a result of foul play. He left of his own free will, and went off with a trusted friend. Let’s get the number of this cab and see where that avenue of investigation takes us. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Hag to see how she’s getting on with her efforts to find
him.’

‘I’m going to put more of our people on it. I’m—’

‘No,’ Lucien interrupted. ‘I will not have any more personnel diverted from our main objective of discovering where and how Caliban plans to stage his attack. That has to remain our primary focus. He could move Leroth at any moment. As soon as he does we will need to react.’

The vampire and the Irishman stared hard at each other for a long time, and Alexa looked between the two of them uncomfortably.

‘You’re the boss,’ Tom said eventually through gritted teeth.

The vampire looked as if he was about to respond, but instead he stood, turned on his heel and left the room.

Tom watched his friend leave. He looked down at his hands, which were clenched into two tight fists on the table surface.

‘My father’s just worried, Tom. Worried and frightened like the rest of us. He cares about Trey as much as you do – you know that.’

Alexa placed her hand over one of the Irishman’s fists, and gave it a little shake. There was nothing else to say. She got up and left, her head already filled with ideas about how she might go about locating Trey.

Caliban watched the sorceress as she prepared herself to perform the magic necessary to transport the tower and then create the impenetrable barrier around it. She had invited him down here, into the bowels of this place, to see her discovery for himself, walking him through a maze of tunnels carved into the black rock until they’d arrived at the entrance to the small chamber. Upstairs, waiting at ground level in the place from which she would release them, were the zombies. The sorceress entered the small space almost reverentially, turning and beckoning for the vampire to join her. She pointed at the far wall, a number of smaller insects dropping from her arm as she did so.

‘There it is,’ she said in a low, reverential tone.

The vampire struggled to hide his disappointment. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but this rough, blank stone wall certainly was not it.

‘That’s the source of the Shield?’ he’d asked.

‘Yes! Can’t you feel the power coming from it?’

The vampire shook his head, frown lines furrowing his brow.

‘No, I must admit I can’t. But then again, I’m not as attuned to these things as you are.’ He gave her a look that was half smile, half sneer.