Vamp-Hire (30 page)

He pulled out of the lot and headed east,
Pearlanne sitting next to him in the passenger’s seat. The woman
was a lot more complex than he knew, and he found himself wanting
to know more.

“I need to get to a phone,” Nick said,
pulling out onto the street and stomping on the gas. He drove like
he was the only one who could save Dolph and he supposed in a way
that was true. If Alex and Cameron posed like visitors and walked
up to his room, they could kill him even if an armed guard were on
his floor. He had the impression that they wouldn’t bother with
discretion and would carve through everyone in their way before
reaching Dolph and killing him.

Nick realized he didn’t want that to happen
for more reasons than because he wanted to stop whatever Leonard’s
plan was. He cared about Phoebe and Randy and knew it would hurt
them if Pop-Pop was murdered. Caring about them meant, in a way,
that he cared about who they cared about. And Dolph wasn’t a bad
guy. A little rough around the edges, maybe. Okay, a lot rough
around the edges. But he was as straightforward as a person could
get. Nick had every reason in the world to stop Alex and
Cameron.

The needle on the speedometer crept over
eighty.

“I know you want to get to the hospital,”
Pearlanne said, “but I’d prefer to get there as a visitor, not a
patient.”

“What?” He glanced at the speedometer, saw
his speed, and let off the gas some. It wouldn’t do for them to get
chased by the police either. Besides, he was leaving the other two
cars behind. “Sorry.”

“Why is this man so important?” she asked. “I
mean, I accept that whatever the uber vamps are about to do is bad
and needs to be stopped, but this seems like something more to
you.”

“I’ve been living with his granddaughter and
her son,” Nick said. “It’s… complicated. The short story is I was
released from the Center and was given the address of my former
home. The problem is Phoebe had just bought it at auction. I guess
paperwork got crossed and neither of us really knows who legally
owns the house, so we made an agreement to share it rather than
fight over it. It would take forever for us to get into court
anyway.”

“Phoebe,” Pearlanne said pensively.

Was that a note of jealousy in her voice?
Nick smirked. He’d gone from being absolutely nowhere on anyone’s
radar to being a jealousy-inducing stud. He didn’t know how things
would work out between him and Phoebe, although he was reserved
enough to not allow himself to believe he could just move in with
Pearlanne.

“I’m sorry about your father and your uncle,”
he said. “I mean, I don’t know if you think it’s my fault
about—”

“No. It wasn’t your fault. I’ve been doing a
lot of thinking since we were all locked in that cell together.
I’ve been so wrong about so many things. I do believe there’s a
place for us, but I can’t go around believing that everyone accepts
me just like they would any other person. I remember the world
before the Conflict. It wasn’t a perfect place despite how people
try to romanticize it. We just adopted a whole new set of
prejudices.”

“Well, I remember before the Conflict too,”
Ray said from the back seat. “I don’t see that much has changed.
Yeah, sure, I’m a vamp. So what? I take my meds like they tell me
and I keep my routine. I spent a little time at the Center, but
that stuff about the Pens—that’s an urban legend. I mean, if they
even exist—”

“The Pens are real,” Nick said. “I was
there.”

“You?” somebody in the backseat said. “For
real?”

“Yes.” Nick felt uncomfortable and wished he
hadn’t said anything; it was too late now.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t—it wasn’t like that. It was a
misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Pearlanne said. Nick
chanced a glance at her and saw the look of concern on her face.
“What does that mean?”

Nick let several long seconds go by before
answering. “Somebody died. It happened at the Center.”

“I remember that in the news,” Ray said. “It
was the director or something. How’d he die again?” Ray snapped his
fingers until it came to him. “Oh yeah, somebody ate his
brain!”

“No.” Nick was getting upset and that was the
last thing he needed while driving at high speed. “He was found
with a fractured skull.”

“Part of his brain was missing, though.”

“Missing. Not eaten. That rumor got started
because the Center for Non-Human Studies is filled with vamps. If
they were studying orphans or kittens then nobody would have
accused them of eating his brain.”

“I don’t know about kittens, man. Those
things are the devil. Anytime some old lady with a bunch of cats
dies in her home they always find her with her face chewed
off.”

Nobody said anything for several beats. Then
Nick began to laugh. The stress of the situation ahead combined
with such a ridiculous conversation was more than his sense of
humor could take. There was every likelihood he was about to die in
less than twenty minutes and something inside him wanted to laugh
before he potentially went.

Everyone in the car joined in, which made him
laugh even harder to the point where tears filled up his eyes and
he swerved over the yellow dividing line and had to correct the
car. That gave everybody a second round of fits of laughter that
lasted another minute or two.

When they sobered nobody brought up the
Center or the Pens again. Nick was thankful for that miniscule
miracle. He hoped he could count on a few more. They rode mostly in
silence until reaching Dequindre, turning left to head north to the
hospital.

“Okay, when we get inside, what’s the game
plan?” Garvin asked. They’d gone quickly through introductions so
Nick wouldn’t only know them as plain-guy-with-a-scruffy-beard or
pale-redhead-with-a-snake-tattoo.

“The way I see it, we’re going to see one of
two things,” Nick said. “Either the place will be a wreck and we
can follow the carnage—” Nick didn’t want to accept that one as a
real possibility, it probably meant Dolph was dead— “or they’re on
their way to his room.”

“Well, they could already be there. In his
room, that is.”

Nick shook his head, pulling into the parking
lot of the hospital. “No. As soon as they start killing, somebody
is going to pull an alarm. I don’t think these two will be
circumspect about it. And before you ask, call it a hunch.”

He pulled into a handicapped spot, figuring
it didn’t matter if the car got towed. The other two cars pulled in
a moment later and they parked to either side in handicapped
spots.

“I can’t really ask any of you to do this
with me. I’m about to go in there and try to save the life of
someone you all have never met before. Someone I don’t even know
that well. He’s important to some people who are important to me,
so I’m going in there and I’m going to restrain them if I can or
kill them if I have to.”

Nick didn’t waste any more time talking. He
climbed out of the car and headed for the entrance. He walked
across the valet lane, the entrance doors sliding back for him to
walk inside. Nick could feel them following, but didn’t dare look
back. Despite what he wanted, he didn’t think he actually could
keep them all alive.

At the reception desk, a pretty blonde
greeted him. He almost mistook her for a vamp because of her dark
eyes. “I need to see a patient?” he said, lilting the end of his
sentence like a question.

“All right, what’s his name?” Her smile
didn’t waver as she no doubt must have noticed that he skipped any
sort of pleasantry.

“His name is Dolph. Adolph…” Nick couldn’t
remember his last name. “Woods?”

“Okay, are you a friend or family
member?”

“Friend,” Nick said. Her eyes darted to the
screen as she typed. Nick mentally wished her to hurry, not wanting
to alert her that someone could be in the middle of being
murdered.

‘Tina’, as her nametag indicated, twitched.
It was only slight and maybe he was the only one who noticed.

“I don’t have anyone by that name.” The smile
remained, something was missing from her eyes, though.

“Anything you could do, I would really
appreciate it. He’s desperately ill and I just want to see him
before…”

She nodded, her eyes not coming away from the
computer screen.

“Let me see what I can do.” The cheeriness
had been drained from her tone. She typed more slowly and after a
minute turned to him.

“There is an Adolphus Stone in room 402. Take
the east elevator up and the room will be on your right.”

Nick didn’t waste a moment thanking her,
running for the elevators. A half dozen managed into the car,
leaving the rest to catch another. He wanted to scream for it to
hurry. For them to be this close the uber vamps had to have been
even closer. Which meant they could have already killed Dolph by
now.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened.
Nick stepped off and found the fourth floor buzzing with activity.
A guard had his weapon drawn, held tightly at his side, standing in
profile. He looked at Nick’s group and his cool eyes went wide.

The gun went up. “Hold it right there.”

“We’re here to help,” Nick said, holding out
a hand. The man’s expression softened and he lowered his gun.

“Okay.” He let them walk by and it wasn’t
long before they saw what had happened. Alex or Cameron, Nick
didn’t know which, was seated on the floor. Two police officers had
him in handcuffs and he looked at Nick and smiled.

“You’ve been baaaad,” he said. “Cain is going
to punish you.”

“Cain is dead. I killed him.” Nick hoped
Pearlanne didn’t mind him taking credit for the moment. The vamp
made a mock shocked face.

“No. I spoke to him. He told me. Did you
think strangling him would actually kill him? You have to give
yourself to him. You are the one he has been searching for.”

“That isn’t going to happen, Alex,” Nick
said. “You tell your master next time I’m going to rip his heart
out.”

“I’m Cameron.” He made a face like being
called the wrong name had hurt.

“That’s enough outta you,” one of the cops
said, giving him a firm nudge in the head with his index finger.
Nick wondered why Cameron wasn’t being hauled down to a military
facility this very second.

“Who are you folks?” the other officer asked.
He was a vamp, which surprised Nick because he had a gun. He hadn’t
thought such a thing was possible. “Not here to make any trouble
for us, are you?” Officer Winter, according to his nameplate,
lowered a hand to his gun.

“No,” came Dolph’s meaty growl. He stepped
into the hall, buttoning up an ill-fitting red shirt with white
palm trees all over it, squeezing every bulging muscle of his upper
body. “He’s with me.”

“And they came with me,” Nick said, gesturing
to the vamps behind him. A nurse had come up to Kim and was trying
to lead her away. The vamp with his hair in a pony ushered her
along, going with her.

“Any of you who’s injured, get yourselves
looked at,” Nick said. “Seriously. There’s nothing else for you to
do.” Six others went for medical treatment, leaving ten.

“You ready to talk now that he’s here?” Dolph
said to Cameron.

“Yes.” Cameron smiled again. “Cain wanted a
test of obedience.”

“Who is this Cain?”

“Leonard,” Nick said. Dolph looked at
him.

“Really? You have confirmation of this?”

“Yes. We all saw him,” Pearlanne said.

“I’ve been searching for him for three years.
To think he’s been under my nose all this time…” Dolph took his
cell out of his khaki pants pocket, opened the back, inserted a
chip, and closed it. It was a very adept maneuver for such big
hands. “Strike one, Beta. This location. Beta seven-seven-seven.
Rabisu.”

He hung up, opened the phone and took out the
chip before placing it on his tongue and swallowing it.

“We have to move quick before he leaps
again.”

“Leaps?” Ray said.

“The rabisu can only be hosted for so long by
one body before he has to find a new one.”

“What happens to the old one?” Pearlanne
asked.

“Typically, it withers and dies.”

“You mean, like, grows old?”

“Yes.” Dolph narrowed his eyes at her.
“Why?”

“I think we already saw him. There was this
old guy who came in after they locked us all up. He had on a lab
coat like a doctor, but I don’t think he really was one.”

Was that why he looked familiar to Nick? Was
he the real Leonard?

“I saw him too,” Nick said. “He was there
when I woke up.”

“What did he say to you?”

“Hey, Colonel Stone, we need to move this
guy.” The two police officers were starting to look antsy.

“In a moment,” Dolph said. “I still need to
ask him a few questions.” He nodded for Nick to continue.

“He didn’t say anything too noteworthy, I
guess. He checked my vital signs. That and the lab coat were what
made me think he was a doctor.”

“You don’t think he’s a doctor now.”

Nick was pretty certain that was a statement
and not a question. He shook his head.

“All right, then,” Clip said. “Let’s kill
this doctor dude and this is all over!”

“If only it were that easy,” Dolph said
gravely.

Nick found Dolph’s response as obvious as it
was scary. There was nothing in his eyes that said to Nick he
wouldn’t kill a man if he felt it was necessary.

It was a good thing he was on Dolph’s side.
It was probably even better to be off his radar altogether.

The man stalked back over to where the police
had Cameron on the floor.

“I’m guessing you didn’t try to kill me
because your master didn’t tell you to. You’re here to deliver some
kind of message.” Dolph folded his arms as if to say ‘I’m
listening’.

“We have your family,” Cameron said. “That
sweet piece and her brat. You want them back, he wants him.”
Cameron cocked his head at Nick. The Wicked Witch floated to Nick’s
mind for some reason. “He wants you to come to him.”