Legally Undead (22 page)

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” Nick said.

I wasn’t sure I liked that, but given the fact that my own keys were still in my jacket pocket at Deirdre’s, I didn’t press the issue.

“Yeah. Tell him to bring cat food, litter, a litterbox.”

Dom snorted. “John’s just going to love hauling around kitty litter.”

I told Nick where everything was, including the cat carrier I kept in the top of my closet.

By the time the light outside began to fade, Dom and I had a pretty good virtual reality representation of Deirdre’s house and I was exhausted. Millie, who had spent a good hour sniffing almost every corner of the shop, was curled up on my lap, purring contentedly.

Nick came in from whatever he had been doing in the back part of the shop and pulled up a chair.

“Let me see what we’ve got.”

Dom began walking us through the image of the building from the front door.

“The front foyer has glass doors, so I’m guessing that’s designed for their human friends. This is the ballroom, and Elle says that the wait staff all entered and exited through this door to the right, so I’ve put in a kitchen back here. I’m just guessing at the dimensions, based on the other things Elle told me. Upstairs seems to hold dressing rooms, bathrooms, perhaps a few bedrooms—again, probably for the humans.

“This is where it gets interesting,” he said, leading us back down the virtual staircase. “This floor is set up like a hotel—lots of rooms, lots of privacy. Judging from what Elle heard and saw, I’d say this is where the vamps take their human friends when they want to be alone. I’m guessing it’s a real suck-fest down there.”

“It also seems to function as a make-shift prison, since that’s where they kept Malcolm” said Nick, “and that means that they don’t have any real dungeon area. They may not be used to having to take prisoners.”

“Which means,” said Dom, “that this floor down here, the one that Elle never saw, is probably their true den.”

“Makes sense,” Nick agreed. “It’s far below the ground, so there’s no chance of any sunlight getting in. And if they’ve got human servants around during the day, it means that they’ve got yet another layer of protection.”

“Do you think their humans will fight for them?” I asked.

“If your experience with Deirdre wasn’t some anomaly, then I’m guessing that some of these people will fight tooth and nail for the vamps. It sounds to me like the sort of thing that could work like an addiction. And addicts will always fight for their fix.”

I considered that. It would make sense; all of the people there had seemed more than willing—even eager—to accompany the vampires. And Malcolm himself had talked about actually wanting the vampires to bite him by the end of his confinement in the mansion. I started to relay that information to Nick, but stopped before I even had the first word out of my mouth. Malcolm hadn’t specifically asked me not to tell anyone what he’d said, but I’d heard the shame in his voice when he’d spoken. It had sounded like my own shame felt.

I did, however, tell Tony about Nick’s surmises about the addictive nature of a vampire’s bite.

He nodded. “So Malcolm might be suffering from some sort of withdrawal symptoms in addition to post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“You think he’s got that?” I asked, suddenly alarmed at the possibility that my own stupidity had led directly to Malcolm ending up with a medically defined disorder.

“It’s almost impossible that he wouldn’t have some PTSD symptoms,” Tony said. “And I won’t be surprised if you show some symptoms of it, too.”

“What can he do about it?” I asked. I didn’t care so much about myself—I knew I’d be okay in the long run. But I wanted to do everything I could to help Malcolm.

“I’ve already started the first step,” Tony said, “and that’s getting him to talk about it.”

“You’ve talked to him today?” I asked.

“For quite a long time, actually. He’s asleep again, though; talking about it pretty much wore him out. It’s going to take him a little while to recover from the physical trauma, too.”

And here I was thinking that Malcolm had been hiding out in his room all day to avoid me. I just hate those moments when I discover that I’ve been completely self-centered.

“So it would be okay if I asked him about it?” I asked Tony.

“Sure. The more he’s willing to talk about it, the better. And if he’s still got any residual reaction to the trauma a few weeks from now, I can prescribe some antidepressants.”

“Do you think it would make him feel better or worse to be involved in our plans to take out Deirdre and her crew?”

“I have no idea. You’ll have to ask him. But wait until tomorrow, okay? I think he’s had enough today.”

I agreed and Tony changed the subject to my own physical wounds.

“How do they feel?” he asked.

“Painful.”

He changed the bandages and let me get back to planning Deirdre’s annihilation, but not before giving me a small package containing several pills.

“Just in case you have any trouble sleeping,” he said.

I took them from him and placed them on my bedside table, but I didn’t plan to use them for the same reason I’d stopped drinking. I wanted to keep my wits about me at all times.

Chapter 19

“Before we begin,” said Tony, “I’d like to ask your permission to give Nick a report of what you tell me. I won’t give him any information that you might prefer to keep private, but anything that tells us more about how vampires work might prove useful.”

Tony and Malcolm and I were sitting in my room, Tony and Malcolm in chairs we’d brought in from other parts of the shop, me cross-legged on my bed. We were getting ready to “de-brief” Malcolm.

“Okay,” said Malcolm, “but I don’t know how what I can say might help anyone else.”

“We’re planning to go back in,” I said. I watched Malcolm’s face for any reaction—fear, excitement, anger, anything—but I couldn’t read what I saw there. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.

“You’re going to wipe them out?” he asked.

“Every last one.”

“I want to help.” His voice was quiet but fierce.

I looked at Tony—I didn’t want to agree to anything before I knew what the rest of the group might say.

“We can use all the help we can get,” Tony said. “Just as long as you’re up to it physically by the time we go in. As your doctor, I’m reserving the right to ground you from the mission.”

Malcolm nodded.

“Okay, then. Let’s get started.” Tony pulled out a small notepad and a pen. “Where were you when they first picked you up?”

“On my way home,” Malcolm said. “I’d been at the Jolly Tinker—a bar on Webster Avenue—having a few drinks with some friends. It wasn’t very late, about 10:00 or so. A young woman approached me. She looked young, like a student, maybe a freshman or sophomore. At first I thought that she was going to ask for directions or something. But she was looking at me like she knew me, so then I thought that maybe she’d been in one of my classes. I kept thinking I would figure out who she was when she spoke. But she never said anything.

“Instead, she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the bushes. She caught me off-guard; she was a lot stronger than I would have expected. I lost my balance and stumbled, and I grabbed her shoulder to catch myself. When I did, she looked me in the eye.”

He paused.

“What happened then?” Tony asked quietly.

“It was like I was still falling. Her eyes were completely black, even the parts that should be white. It made me dizzy. I don’t know what happened for a while after that.” He looked up. “Should I be worried about that?” he asked Tony.

“Not necessarily. It’s not uncommon to block traumatic memories. And there’s a good chance that it was something she did to you that made you black out.”

“The next thing I knew, I was chained to that wall.”

I could see sweat beads pop out on Malcolm’s forehead as he got to this part of the story.

Apparently Tony saw them, too, because he switched gears, giving Malcolm a chance to back off the topic for a little bit.

“What night was it that you went out drinking?”

“Friday.”

Two nights after I’d sent him away from my apartment in order to keep him safe. I wondered if Greg had been stalking him that whole time, or if he had found Malcolm right before having him kidnapped.

That meant that the vampires had him chained to that wall for four days before they used him to lure me in. Dear God.

“So what did you see when you woke up?”

“There were three people in the room with me—two women and one man. I figured out later that one of the women was in charge. Deirdre. The other two…”

His voice faltered out.

“What did the other two do, Malcolm?” Tony asked gently.

“They practiced on me. Deirdre would show them how they were supposed to take blood, and then they took turns on me.”

“What was that like?” Tony asked.

“Horrible. Wonderful. Heaven and hell all mixed up.” He paused, looking as if he were casting about for a way to describe the indescribable.

“Deirdre’s bite is sexual, but that’s not all.” I searched for the right words. “It’s like the best sex and the worst pain you’ve ever felt all at the same time.”

“That’s it exactly,” Malcolm said. “But the other two weren’t like that.” He was talking to me now; when I looked at Tony to make sure this was okay, he nodded.

“I know that in my case,” I said, “the second bite, the one from Greg, didn’t have anything like pleasure in it. Was it like that with the other two for you, Malcolm?”

He shook his head. “No. The other two weren’t as good at it. Their bites hurt a lot—a lot more than Deirdre’s—but they weren’t just pain.”

“Did it bother you that one of the vampires was male?” Tony asked.

“I’m not gay. But…” he paused for a long time, then whispered. “But by the last day, I was begging the guy to do me.”

We were all silent for a moment.

“They broke me,” he said.

“Oh, Malcolm,” I said, “you couldn’t help it. Their bites are addictive.”

Malcolm looked at me sorrowfully. “That’s not what I mean,” he said. “It’s not the bites. That’s not the worst of it.” Again, he was silent for a long time. Tony and I just waited for him to speak.

“The worst of it is,” Malcolm finally said, “the worst part of all of it, was that they were trying to get me to tell them where you lived. And I did. I told them. I think I would have done just about anything they asked me to.” With that, he put his head in his hands and began to cry.

I didn’t wait for Tony’s approval; I moved to sit beside Malcolm and put my arms around him.

“It’s not your fault, Malcolm,” I said. “They would have found out somehow. It’s not your fault.”

“She’s right,” Tony said. “This is just like rape, Malcolm, and that’s never the victim’s fault. There is nothing you could have done differently, no way you could have known what might happen to you. And as for telling them where Elle lived, that’s not your fault either. They were torturing you.”

Malcolm set his jaw and wiped his eyes angrily.

“I shouldn’t have told them,” he said.

“That’s not true,” I said. “If anyone’s to blame here, it’s me. I’m the one who knew what they were, and I didn’t tell you.”

Tony closed his notepad and tucked it back into his pocket. “I think that’s enough for today,” he said. “Why don’t you two join us out in the common room in an hour or so?”

Tony closed the door behind him. I reached over and rubbed my hand up and down Malcolm’s arm.

“You aren’t angry with me?” he asked.

“No. No and a million times no,” I said. “I meant it; they would have found me eventually, with or without you. This is not your fault,” I said, emphasizing each of the last three words.

Malcolm exhaled heavily, as if he’d been holding his breath while he waited for my answer.

* * *

“Have you ever cleared out an entire den of vampires before?” I asked Nick. He and I were standing outside his office.

“We’ve taken out dens before, but never one as big as this one,” Nick said. “If I’m interpreting what you saw correctly, then my guess is that we’ll be taking out most of the major vampires on Long Island.”

“Does that worry you at all?” I asked.

“Only inasmuch as it might piss off the other vamps in the city.”

“What are we going to do if it sets the rest of them against us?”

“I don’t know yet. I need to talk to Alec Pearson about that.”

“Have you told him about Greg yet?” I asked.

“Yes. I don’t know how much he believes me. I think he wants to continue to trust Greg.”

“That’s really stupid,” I said.

“I agree. I’ll give Alec a call right now, in fact. Why don’t you go wait for me in the common room? I’ll be there in a minute.”

He moved into his office and shut the door, but a few moments later I heard his raised voice through the wall. “Then you can damn well clear your appointments. This is your show, Alec, and what happened to that girl is your responsibility.”

His voice fell again to a murmur behind the door. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more, anyway, so I left him to his discussions with his former guardian and made my way back into the common room to snuggle into the sofa not far from Malcolm, who was flipping through the latest issue of
Time
.

When Nick joined us a few minutes later, he said, “I’m calling a brainstorming session in here.”

The other guys showed up a few minutes later and we spent the next hour discussing vampires—fleshing out our addiction theory and sharing everything we knew, or thought we knew, about vampires.

“It makes sense, biologically,” Tony said. “If being bitten by a vampire creates an addiction, then vampires and humans can form a sort of symbiotic relationship. The vampire needs blood, the human needs the vampire to take that blood.”

“Do you think it’s a physical addiction?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know yet. I’m running tests on the blood samples I took from Malcolm and Elle. And I’m watching them both for signs of physical withdrawal. I’ll know more in a few days. But really, it doesn’t matter whether it’s physical or psychological. Either form of addiction would have the same result.”