This Broken Wondrous World (26 page)

Her eyes widened and all the color drained out of her face. “You are . . .
el monstruo
!”

“Please,” I said. “Please take care of him.”

She drew in a long, shaky breath, then nodded. “Of course. We turn no one away.”

“
Gracias
,” I said. Then I turned and walked back toward the entrance. But as I went, now I was aware that everyone was staring at me. And not in the old, pitying way. No, this was fear. This was borderline terror. Moreau's little world address had scared the shit out of them all.

It was worse once I got outside. The Dragon Lady stood waiting, and a huge crowd had gathered, keeping what they thought was a safe distance. They talked among themselves excitedly in Spanish. I wondered how long it would take before fear turned to aggression.

“We have to do something before this turns into the world's largest angry torch-wielding mob.” I said as I climbed onto the Dragon Lady's back.

“What do you propose I do, roll over on my back and show them my tummy?” asked the Dragon Lady, a little testily.

“No, of course not,” I said. “We just have to tell humans that not all monsters are on Moreau's side.”

“And how do we do that?”

“Vi, how many local broadcast systems do you think you can commandeer?”

“Okay, well, Boy, please don't get mad.”

“What did you do?”

“So when Agent Holmes established that connection with us, it went both ways. So while she was talking to you, I decided to poke around on her end of the connection. And I found this really nice server cluster. I mean,
really
nice. And it was hardly being used at all. It broke my heart. And so, um, I kind of . . . took it over.”

“Vi, how could I possibly be mad? That's awesome! So with this CPU upgrade, how widely can we broadcast?”

“Oh, well, the whole thing, I think.”

“The country?”

“The world.”

“BOY, WHAT EXACTLY
are you doing?” asked Ruthven.

The sun was just rising over the hills, casting the first warm rays on us. Ruthven's shadows were drawn close. Sunlight isn't really deadly to a vampire, but when you have no pigment, a regular sunburn is instantaneous.

“Boy, I'm ready when you are,” came Vi's voice.

“Ready for
what
?” asked Laurellen.

“Moreau gave his little monster PSA to the world,” I said. “Well, he was right about one thing. It's time to stop hiding. For
all
of us. But he shouldn't have tried to get in a media war with Vi and me.”

“So you're going to . . . what, hold a world address and reveal us all to the humans?” Ruthven sounded amused, and a slight smile played on the corners of his mouth.

“You're going to allow it?” asked Laurellen.

“It's not for me to allow or disallow anything anymore,” said Ruthven. “I failed as coven leader. Now I'm merely a wise elder. And if you want the council of a wise elder, I think we need new methods, new ways of thinking if we are to defeat Moreau.” He turned back to me. “The older generation has made a mess of things, it seems. Perhaps your generation can fix them.”

The awkward, seventeen-year-old Boy inside me nearly squeed himself to death right then. But I held it together, took a deep breath, and just nodded. “Okay, Vi, let's do this.”

Vi's avatar face flashed on the phone a moment, and she winked at me. “You're on in three . . . two . . . one. . . .”

The tiny light next to the phone's camera lens blinked on.

“Uh, hello, world,” I said. “Okay, I know this is a lot to process, but if everybody can just chill out a second, I think I can help. So, yeah, I'm a monster. My name is Boy, and I'm the son of Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride. Yep, exactly the ones
you're thinking of. And I just want to tell you that we're not all like Moreau. And we're definitely not all
with
him. I may be a little weird looking, with the stitches and everything. But I'm not a bad guy, you know? And neither are my friends. I think, I
hope
, that once you get to know us, you won't be so scared of us.”

I turned the camera to show Sophie.

“Oh, god, I can't believe you really did that.” She gave a pained smile, and waved. “Hiya, world.”

“This is Sophie Jekyll and she's a monster,” I said. “Does she look scary to you?”

“My hair might.” She brushed at her tangled, dirty hair. “Honestly, I'm usually more put together than this.”

“It's fine,” I said. “You look beautiful.”

She blushed. “That's my boyfriend. He's hardly objective, right?”

“Hey, Soph, can you, uh, let Claire say hi?”

“She's feeling a bit shy right now. Can't imagine
why
.”

“I know, I'm sorry. I just . . . it's really important for the humans to meet both of you.”

She sighed. “You owe us both big-time for this.” Then she closed her eyes and slowly, in front of the entire world, shifted into Claire.

“And this is Claire Hyde,” I said.

“Yeah, hey.” Claire gave a dismissive wave. “Look at me. Sweet and helpless maiden.”

“Two women sharing the same life, just like their grandfathers Jekyll and Hyde.” I turned the camera back to me. “They didn't ask to be like this, any more than I asked to be a massive pile of stitched-together dead body parts. But here we are, a part of your world. And we always have been.”

“This is Laurellen.” I turned the camera to him. “He's a faerie.”

“Well,” said Laurellen, “I actually prefer the term f—”

“Let's not complicate things,” I said.

I turned the camera on Ruthven. “And here is—wait does your image actually show up?”

“Yes, that's a myth,” he said wearily.

“Right, here's Ruthven and he's a vampire. As you can see, sunlight being deadly is also a myth.”

“Although not overly pleasant,” said Ruthven, squinting his red eyes.

“I'm just trying to prove a point that humans shouldn't assume everything they read or see in movies is true.”

“Carry on,” said Ruthven. “It's your show, Boy.”

I turned the camera to La Perricholi. She was busy cleaning one of her pistols.

“Here's La Perricholi. She's actually a human. But she's, like, a national treasure of Peru and a total badass, so I just thought you'd want to meet her, too. And next to her is Maria. She's a human, too. The man she loved was a werewolf, and a few hours ago he was murdered by one of Moreau's thugs.”

I turned the camera back to me. “Okay, everybody. The next one I'm about to show you . . . well, she's
really
cool, so don't freak out. Okay?”

I turned the camera to the Dragon Lady. “The Dragon Lady. Isn't she magnificent? Seriously?”

She stretched out her neck and wings, letting her scales gleam in the rising sun.

“She's showing off a little, but why not, right? She's awesome.”

I let her splay her wings out in a few different angles for a second. She was obviously enjoying this.

Then I turned the camera back to me. “And then of course there's the one I'm most proud of because . . . well, not to brag,
but I made her. She's a purely digital creature and she's the one who's able to make it so you can all see us. Vi, can you wave or something?”

Vi's avatar popped up, cutting off the camera for a moment. She gave her best anime peace sign/wink combo, then disappeared again.

“We're not all like Moreau,” I said. “And I swear to you, we are going to work with the U.S. government to take him down.” I put my face up real close to the camera. “And Moreau, if you're watching this. We're coming for you. This is Boy Frankenstein, out.”

IT TURNED OUT
La Perricholi did have a cool vehicle with gadgets after all. Claire and I rode down to the embassy with her in a bright red Hummer with silver chrome and oversized tires. I was pretty sure it could roll over a line of cars, monster-truck style, if necessary. On the inside, it had all the latest GPS and media hookups, and lots of other unlabeled buttons on the dash that I was really tempted to push.

“What's that one do?” I asked as I pointed to a big red one under a clear plastic covering. The kind you have to flip up because you don't want to press the button underneath accidentally.

“Surface-to-air missiles,” she said as she maneuvered the massive vehicle through the narrow streets.

“That's so Batman,” I said.

“Why don't you use this one more often?” asked Claire.

“It gets terrible gas mileage. We'll probably burn up fifty dollars just getting to the embassy.”

“So why are we using it at all?” I asked.

“After your little international debut, anything less would be a letdown,” she said, shifting gears. Then she grinned. “Besides, every once in a while, even I like to show off a little.”

Ruthven and the Dragon Lady had headed back to the States to get my mom, the dryads, and anyone else they could find. Ruthven was hopeful that my video had appealed to the “younger crowd” and we might have some additional recruits. Laurellen had taken Maria and the surviving rabbit people back to La Perricholi's house. He also promised he'd check on Henri later.

Once we pulled up in front of the U.S. embassy, I felt for a moment like we were in a movie, the three of us climbing out of the ridiculously massive vehicle, walking side by side up the steps to the entrance as people stopped and stared, whispering to each other.

“If you've made us into bloody celebrities, I'll never forgive you,” said Claire.

When we entered the main office, we found a woman in a dark suit standing in the lobby.

“Hey, I'm Boy Frankenstein,” I said. “Agent Holmes sent us.”

She just stared at me.

“You know, to uh . . . help the U.S. government,” I said.

But she still stared at me. I wondered if maybe she hadn't seen my broadcast. Or worse, what if she did, and she didn't like it. What if
nobody
liked it? What if I'd actually made things worse?

“Oi!” Claire snapped her fingers in the woman's face. “Wakey wakey, cupcake.”

The woman blinked rapidly. “Sorry . . . I . . . it's just . . .” She took a breath, then smiled. “I'm Ambassador Lanchester. I wanted to be the first person to greet you. I've been briefed, and I saw you on TV, but you're so much . . .
bigger
in real life. It's . . .
you're
amazing
.”

“Oh, well, uh—” I said.

“Yeah, yeah, shock and awe. Let's move it along,” said Claire.

“Sorry, yes, of course, Ms. Hyde, you're right,” said the ambassador. “We have a jet fueled and ready at the airstrip. Agent Holmes is waiting for you in Houston.”

“Is . . .” I hesitated. “Is my dad there?”

She looked genuinely sorry. “I'm afraid I can't disclose that information.”

“Then I'm afraid we can't get on that plane,” said La Perricholi.

“Excuse me?” said the ambassador.

“What?” I said at about the same time.

“The U.S. government currently holds Boy's father as a criminal, which could easily be viewed as a hostile action,” said La Perricholi. “Boy's cooperation is conditional on his father's release. So far, all he has is a verbal promise. Some show of good faith is, I believe, in order.”

The ambassador's mouth pressed down into a line. “I'm afraid I have not had the pleasure of meeting you, Perricholi, although I have heard a great deal about you.”

“It is
all
true,” La Perricholi said.

They stared each other down for a moment, then the ambassador gave a curt nod. “Please wait here. I will need to clear this with Agent Holmes.” She turned without waiting for a reply and walked back to an office.