Dread Nemesis of Mine (38 page)

My childhood was so far back in the rear-view
mirror, it wasn't even funny.

The SUV pulled up a long driveway and stopped
at The Ranch. I stepped outside and looked at the horses grazing in
the pastures nearby. I briefly wondered if they bred unicorns here,
too. Of course, it was all a cover to give the Templars a base of
operations in a sprawling metropolis. My childhood home wasn't far
from here—or at least what was left of it. Since the day hellhounds
had chased me from it, I hadn't returned to see.

Katie tugged on my arm when we got out.
"Justin, will you do me a huge favor and contact Ash and Nyte?"

I grimaced at the thought of my Goth friends.
Besides Elyssa, they'd been the only other people at high school
who'd taken me in after all my troubles had started. Katie had been
one of those troubles. I'd crushed so hard on her I'd lost sight of
everything else, and managed to alienate my friends and everyone
else in school to the point where nobody else would have anything
to do with me, not even Andy Dudowitz. Nathan Spelman and his gang
of bullies had made things worse, once shoving Ash down a row of
bleachers.

Now they needed me, and I hadn't done a thing
to help. They had no idea what they were getting into with
Maximus.

"Yeah, I'll call them right now," I said.

Nyte answered on the first ring. "Justin, oh
my god, dude, where have you been?"

"Uh, travelling a lot."

Nyte chuckled. "You're never going to believe
what Ash and I have been up to. Where we've
been
, man."

Another voice came on the phone. "Justin,
it's Ash! We thought you were dead after that bus plowed into you,
but the cops never found a body or anything. Are you okay?"

I smiled at hearing their voices, feeling a
flood of relief. "I'm fine. In fact, I'm with Elyssa right now." I
tried to think of a way to gauge their knowledge, though, from what
Katie had said, they probably knew all about the Overworld. "Why
don't we grab a bite to eat tonight?" I knew for a fact I wasn't
ready to ram through Maximus's front door just yet. Besides, if Ash
and Nyte really were considering joining him, maybe they'd have
valuable intel. I could fill them in on how big a douche Maximus
was and maybe come up with a plan of attack all at the same
time.

"Definitely," Ash said. "We have a huge
surprise for you."

A wave of dread filled me at the
prospect.

We arranged to meet at a pizza place near my
old house and ended the call.

"Thanks, Justin," Katie said. "Is it okay if
I come, too?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

We swung by the armory and grabbed the
upgraded Nightingale armor and supplies before heading into the
main house. Elyssa had someone give Cinder his own private room and
a new set of clothes, along with the stern order to shower.

"We'll be back later," Adam said as he and
Meghan went outside to a waiting car, the tailpipe steaming in the
cold air. "I just want to take a nap in my own bed."

The rest of us grabbed seats in the kitchen
while I made hot chocolate.

"I do so love this time of year in this part
of the world," Bella said. "The weather just doesn't feel right in
the south for Christmas."

Harry Shelton walked through the kitchen
door, wearing his standard leather duster, jeans, and cowboy
boots.

"Harry!" Bella said, meeting him halfway with
a hug, and a kiss to both cheeks. "It is good to see you again,
dear."

Shelton's face flushed bright red. "Yeah,
yeah, darlin'. Good to see you, too."

She laughed. "Don't be embarrassed."

"I'm not—" he huffed out a breath. "Oh,
whatever." He walked over to the counter. "You got any coffee
brewing?"

I gave him an exasperated look. "Good to see
you, too, Shelton."

"Glad you made it out of there alive,
kiddo."

"I'm glad
you
made it out alive," I
said, resisting the urge to pelt him with questions.

Shelton grabbed a mug and sniffed at the dark
liquid in the decanter on the industrial coffee machine. Shrugged
and poured a cup.

"It's fresh," Elyssa said.

He took a sip and grimaced. "Weak." He sat on
a stool and looked at us, his eyes settling on Katie. "What's she
doing here?"

"Polite as the last time we met," Katie said,
crossing her arms and staring him down. "If you can't afford
etiquette school, I'd be willing to work two jobs to support
you."

Shelton laughed. "You're not the scared
little girl I remember."

"She helped rescue me from Maximus," I said.
"I think we've all done some growing up in the past few days."

"Amen to that," Elyssa said, before taking a
sip of hot chocolate. "You can add my father to that list."

"Sounds like I've missed out on a lot,"
Shelton said.

"You have no idea." Bella grabbed her own
mug. "I emailed you a couple of times to fill you in, but I think I
did something wrong."

"Heaven help this poor woman with
technology," Shelton said, a grin spreading on his face. "You typed
everything in all caps for one thing. And your email ended in the
middle of a sentence."

"Yes, I somehow deleted part of the email and
couldn't figure out how to get it back, so I sent it to you, hoping
the program would recover my missing text." Bella shrugged. "I
suppose it didn't work as I'd hoped."

I took in the perplexed look on the petite
Arcane's face and burst into laughter. It didn't take long for the
others to join in. After the laughter died down, we took turns
giving Shelton the detailed story. By the time we finished, it was
almost six and all the hot chocolate was gone. Shelton, I noticed,
didn't say a word about his abrupt departure, or what problems he'd
encountered during his brief stint in Colombia.

"We need to get ready if we're meeting Nyte
and Ash," Elyssa said.

Shelton stood. "I'm headed back to my place.
I say we meet there to plan the next move."

"I'll go with you, Harry," Bella said.
"Assuming you haven't kicked me out of the guest bedroom."

"Nah, sweetheart, the bed's still unmade and
your underwear is still all over the floor where you left it."

Her face went scarlet. "I—but I picked up all
my underwear before I left!"

He laughed. "Oh man, you are too easy."

She slapped him on the shoulder. "You are so
mean sometimes."

I looked at the two of them, thinking back to
Bella's questions about Shelton. Did she really like him? Bella
really was a sweetheart, at least as far as I knew, but she'd need
some heavy duty magic to make Shelton behave.

Shelton's face grew serious as he looked back
at me. "You've made some impressive gains in the magic department.
A few tweaks, and you'll be casting spells like a pro." He stood
back and gauged me. "What do you think, Bella, six and a half
feet?"

Bella looked me up and down. "I think it
would be perfect."

"What would?" I asked, confused.

Shelton clapped me on the shoulder. "I think
it's time we got you a staff. You're ready for the big leagues
now."

"My own staff!" I said for at least the tenth
time, so excited I couldn't stop rubbing my hands together.

Elyssa snorted and glanced over at me. "Don't
have a nerdgasm in the car, hot stuff." She took a left turn and
pulled into the parking lot of the pizza place.

"Is a staff a big deal?" Katie asked from the
back seat.

"Don't even get him started," Elyssa said
with a grin.

Nyte and Ash stood near the front door of
Ghetto Pizza, their eyes already locked onto us. Elyssa opened the
door to get out, but Nyte jogged over. In place of his usual Goth
attire, he wore designer jeans and a leather biker jacket. He wore
only a couple of earrings in place of the metric ton of metal he
used to wear in his nose, eyebrow, and numerous other places on his
face. His red hair was shorter and worn stylishly. He looked really
good.

I leaned over so I could look at his irises,
and breathed with relief when I saw they weren't red—a sure sign of
vampirism.

"Don't come in," Nyte said, looking around
conspiratorially. "We grabbed some pizza to go. Thought we'd eat it
at Spooky House for old time's sake." He winked at Elyssa. "You
cool with that?"

She smiled. "Wow, I haven't been there in
ages." She looked at me. "You're not scared to go are you?"

I laughed. "I'm petrified. Let's do it."

"I'm in," Katie said, an uncertain look on
her face.

"Sweet!" Nyte slapped the top of the car and
jogged over to Ash's tank-like, periwinkle Ford, a car that looked
like something out of a seventies film.

"What's this Spooky House?" I asked.

Elyssa rolled up the window and made a U-turn
out of the parking lot. "It's this old antebellum house just down
the street. Nobody's lived there for years. Remember how I told you
about our ghost stories in the graveyard?"

I nodded.

"This is just another place we used to go to
scare each other and party." She smiled. "Not just us, but a bunch
of other Goths, too. It's a cool place."

"You used to party? Like drink and all that?"
It was hard to imagine Little Miss Templar as a party girl.

Her lips curled into a lopsided grin. "Yeah.
Alcohol doesn't affect me that much thanks to my dhampyr–enhanced
metabolism." She gave me a sideways look. "I suppose I could lie to
you and say I did it as part of my undercover duties as a Templar,
but truth is, I actually had a lot of fun." She sighed. "I miss
those days sometimes. Now everything is so serious."

"Well, maybe we
can
have fun tonight.
Doesn't look like our friends are vampires."

"You looked at his eyes, too?" Elyssa glanced
at me as she stopped at a stop sign, and looked both ways.

"First chance I got."

"Thank goodness," Katie said. "I was so
worried we were too late."

"We might have gotten lucky."
Hopefully
. I looked out the window at the neat little houses
with their porches and tiny front yards. We were in Kirkwood, not
far from East Atlanta Village, so the houses were smaller and
tightly spaced.

Elyssa parked on the road before a crumbling
stone wall. Behind it loomed the silhouette of a house. Darkened
windows and a thick overgrown lawn told me it had been abandoned a
long time.

"Whoa, this is a spooky house," I said,
peering out the window. I looked at Elyssa. "Does it have
ghosts?"

She laughed. "Probably." We got out of the
car. "Looks like they're inside already."

"The ghosts?"

"No, Ash and Nyte, silly."

Katie regarded the house, an uncertain look
on her face, but said nothing.

The three of us squeezed through the gap in
the rusted, iron gate and waded through a footpath overgrown with
weeds, brambles, and ivy. Large columns supported a wide porch. At
one end, a broken bench swing hung by a chain. A gentle breeze
caused the swing to scrape against the deck, sending a chill up my
spine. Skeletal branches from the oak tree slapped against a
window. Despite all the horrors I'd seen, something about this
place creeped me out. The porch groaned when I stepped on it.
Cracks and holes showed where other people had found weak spots in
the flooring.

Something thudded against a wall inside the
house, followed by a muffled cry.

Elyssa and I looked at each other with alarm.
She burst through the front door. I'd actually planned to run
away
from the house, but steeled my balls and rushed in
after her. We paused in the silence at the bottom of the main
staircase and listened. Katie plowed into me in the darkness as she
caught up. Another thud boomed against the floor upstairs. Dodging
broken spots in the stairs, we ran up them. The space upstairs
consisted of one large room with a few wooden supports holding up
the ceiling.

Old paint buckets and broken scaffolding
leaned against a wall. It looked like the previous owners had tried
some renovating before leaving the place to rot. Dim light from a
streetlamp glowed through a broken window. A cold breeze ruffled
the tattered curtains. My night vision flickered on. A figure
writhed against the far wall.

"How's this for OP?" Nyte shouted and tossed
a something across the room toward the figure on the floor.

Ash laughed as another body thudded against
the hardwoods. "Dude, that is so IMBA." He flashed across the room
in a blur and leaned over the person. "How does it feel to be on
the receiving end, Nathan?"

"What in the hell is going on?" Elyssa said,
eyes wide with shock.

"What? What is it?" Katie said, picking her
way up the stairs carefully. I'd forgotten about the poor girl not
having night vision. "I can't see a thing!"

Ash and Nyte flashed over to us, huge grins
spread on their faces.

"Surprise!" Nyte said, flashing his teeth,
and revealing sharp fangs. "Guys, you're not going to believe this,
but vampires are real."

"We're vampires," Ash said. "Can you freaking
believe it?" He ran across the room to a wall. "Watch this!" He
reared back a fist, and punched a hole in the wall. Held out his
hand. "And it doesn't even hurt."

"And if that's not enough proof," Nyte said,
flicking across the room and grabbing a bulky figure off the floor.
"Look at this." He flashed over, holding the form of Nathan Spelman
over his head with one hand.

Nathan's eyes bulged. Duct tape wrapped
around his head muffled his screams.

"Put him down this instant!" Elyssa said,
eyes wide with horror.

"But—"

"I said, put him down." Her violet eyes
blazed to life in the dark.

"Whoa," Nyte said. "Your eyes…" He set Nathan
down.

"Who's the other one?" she asked, nodding her
head toward the other figure. "Bring him here."