A Little Rhine Must Fall (27 page)

“Like dis?” I heard, and a plate went spinning through the kitchen, spraying crumbs everywhere.

“Cassidy!” I yelled.

“Not fizbee?”

Mark stuck his head out the door. “What’s going on?” he looked a little panicked.

I shook my head, “Nothing, we’re just having breakfast.”

“Okay, I’m going to get a quick shower. That okay?”

“Sure.” There was a tap on the sliding glass door. “I think Cecily’s here. I’ll feed her breakfast and then we can talk.”

“Breakfast?” Mark asked. “Really?” He made a face, envisioning me serving up a glass of blood.

“Probably pancakes,” I sighed, then remembered that I was eating for two. I cheered up. Pancakes would be great! I went to let Cecily in but she was just answering a call on her cell and made hand motions signaling that she would take the call and then come in the house in a moment. I left her to it and went to get out the Bisquick and milk.

There was a gentle cough behind me.

“Hi, Aunt Karen,” Megan greeted her fake aunt.

“Good morning,” I tried to say civilly. Was it really fair to blame her for all the death and destruction going on around me? Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it was.

“What are you making?” she asked.

“Pancakes.”

“Cakes?” She sounded hopeful.

“It’s not like birthday cake,” I found myself explaining. “No icing.”

“Syrup!” Megan informed her happily.

“You’ve already had breakfast,” I reminded her.

Alien/Karen sat down at the table. “What is syrup?” she asked Megan.

Megan gave her a skeptical look. Was it really possible that someone didn’t know what syrups was, or was this one of those stupid questions adults like to ask children? “Syrup,” she said again. “You pour it on pancakes. It’s brown.” She thought some more. “It tastes almost like candy.”

“I would like to try this new form of cake,” Alien/Karen said.

I gave her what I hoped was an enigmatic look and kept mixing the ingredients in the bowl.

“Unless there is still birthday cake left over,” she finished.

Megan and Cassidy starting giggling. “Aunt Karen, you can’t have cake for breakfast
again!
” Megan laughed.

“Why not?”

“Because,” Megan rolled her eyes. “Cake is for
birthdays
. It’s not your birthday.”

“It was my birthday.”

Cassidy shook her head wisely. “Not birthday now,” she said. “Only get one birthday.” She tried to hold up only one finger and had to settle for two.

“Oh.”

“It’s a rule,” Megan said sadly. “Only one a year.”

I flipped the first pancake on a plate and poured syrup on top of it. “Here. Try this. You’ll probably like it.” She
had
modeled her look after my sister, who was notorious for her sweet tooth, so I would be very surprised if she
didn’t
like pancakes.

Alien/Karen decided that she did indeed like pancakes even if, she informed me, syrup was not as good as icing. She was eating them almost as fast as I could make them and so I had only a couple on a plate cooling when Mark and Cecily both entered the kitchen, Cecily from the porch, and Mark was the bedroom.

I tried to use my non-existent powers of telepathy to see if Mark and I were okay. It didn’t work. He didn’t come over and kiss me, but that could have been because we had an audience.

Cecily looked grim. She snatched up a pancake, rolled it up like a burrito and poured a dab of syrup on the end. “We have to leave,” she said around her bite.

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth,” Megan scolded her.

“Megan, honey,” I reminded her, “It’s not polite to correct people.”

“But you and daddy—”

I gave her the Mom Glare and she shut up. “Go play,” I suggested.

“Want more pancakes!” Cassidy clapped her hands. I would have been more inclined to grant her request if I hadn’t seen her feeding the one I
had
given her to Harvey who was begging quietly under the table.

:Otis needs more food:
a voice said in my head. I looked around for Bastet and saw her sitting in the hallway.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said firmly. “Everyone here knows you talk.”

“We would like a pancake,” she said aloud. “No syrup.”

I turned to get one and made a face at the wall. She could have at least said “please.”

“What do you mean?” Mark was asking Cecily.

“Things are spiraling out of control,” she said grimly. “The President has just announced a national curfew. Anyone outside after dark is to be shot on sight. Las Vegas has been taken over by a werewolf pack, they herded all the humans into the casinos and are offering food and water to whichever humans allow themselves to be turned. The vampires are currently located in New York. The intellectuals up there wanted a chance to talk and get to understand vampires before condemning them. They had a street march last night calling for equal treatment of the undead. Half the crowd was drained before sunrise, and at least a quarter were turned.”

She looked bleak. “It’s a war zone out there. And it’s going to move here.”

“Megan, Cassidy,” I commanded. “Go play in your room.”

The girls immediately trotted off to their room. I turned to see Mark staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

“What?” I asked angrily. “You want them to hear all this?”

He shrugged and started making a cup of coffee.

Cecily poured some more syrup on her pancake. “I’m serious about leaving. Pack what you and the kids need, and we need to hit the road.”

“Where are we going to go?” I asked. “What about our families?”

Cecily’s eyes flashed. “I just got a call from Svobadova’s assistant!” she half-yelled at me. “I’m supposed to participate in a hit tonight and then join the rest of my brood up in Manhattan.”

I swallowed hard, but I had to ask. “Hit what?”

She gave me the one eyebrow. “You really need to ask that?”

Mark stepped between us, bristling manly protection. “
I
do.” He met Cecily’s eyes squarely, not a good idea with most vampires, but Cecily just found it amusing. “Hit
what
?”

“You,” she said simply.

“Why?” I whispered.

Her eyes went black, “Because, slurpee, you’ve ticked off just about every dangerous species in the United States and they all see this as a prime opportunity to get rid of you.”

“But why you? Why would they make
you
a part of it?”

She leaned back against the counter and ran a hand across her face. “To prove that I’ve chosen the right side, Piper. They’re worried about our friendship. If I prove myself by killing you and your family, then everything is okay. If not …” she trailed off.

I took a step closer to Mark and asked his permission with a look. Sometimes it was like we could read each other’s thoughts, and this was one of those times. “Cecily, this is your choice. Give us until tonight and we can get far away from here. You can stay with your … people.”

A smile played about her lips. “Thanks, but I’ve already made my choice. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t last a day without me.”

I started to act offended then decided there was no point in denying the truth. I had to give her a choice though. By casting in her lot with us, she was risking everything. Suddenly I gasped. “What about Sarah? If they’re after me, they’re going to be after her too.”

Cecily sighed. “Okay. Change of plans.”

“I didn’t know we
had
a plan yet,” I muttered.

“Shut up, Piper,” both Mark and Cecily said at the same time, then they laughed. Swell. Picking on me was bringing them closer together.

“Gather your families—”

I cut in again, “And friends. We can’t leave Annabeth and Harry. Or Floyd.”

“And friends,” Cecily added. “Pack up as much food as you can fit in the car, bedding, clothes, whatever you need. I know a place that should be fairly simple to defend. We’ll meet there and dig in.” She thought a bit. “I also know of some lone wolves in the area. I think they could be convinced to throw in with us. With me and Annabeth and the additional backup, we should be able to protect you. Especially if we stay hidden.”

:Don’t forget us:
Bastet said.

Cecily stared her down. “Are you going to help?”

Bastet yawned.
:Perhaps. We are still interested in how this turns out:
She stalked out of the room, tail held high.

Cecily shook her head. “If the Bast is on our side, our chances of living out the week vastly improve.”

“If?” Mark asked. “She seems pretty friendly.”

Cecily made a wry face. “She’s the Bast. She doesn’t see things the same way as we do. For now, we can count on her until something else grabs her interest.” She looked serious. “Also, don’t forget that she would not hesitate to kill all of you if she thought it would save Earth.”

“And you wouldn’t?” Mark challenged her.

She didn’t even pause to think about it. “No. I wouldn’t.”

Alien/Karen looked up from the table. “I think these pancakes would taste better with icing.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Despair

And that was how we all wound up hiding out in the abandoned charter school down the road. It was built in the middle of a large cow field which meant you could see danger coming from a long way away. It was also built of concrete block, which, theoretically, meant that it would withstand hurricane force winds and vampire attack. (The second was Cecily’s assessment, not part of the building code)

The first week was spent setting up our new home. An interior classroom, with no windows, in the center of the largest building, became our bedroom, kitchen, living room, and play room. Cecily wanted it to be our bathroom as well, but everyone who actually had to
use
the restroom, protested so loudly that she settled for a guarded trip every two hours to the bathrooms down the hall.

The men were having a blast. After Mark and my dad got over the shock of vampires etcetera being real, they started to enjoy themselves. They were camping, able to carry large weapons, pretend to be soldiers, and feel all manly protecting the weak women. Cecily set herself up as the captain of our little army and, after a totally terrifying fight with one of the lone wolves, which ended with the man being half thrown through a block wall and having to spend the next week healing from a broken spine, she ruled with a paranoid hand.

The first day there we had pulled all the vehicles into the small gym, destroyed all cell phones, and only connected the one laptop to the internet once a day for five minutes. Only the men on guard duty were allowed to leave our classroom home and Cecily taught them to remain completely hidden while they patrolled. No one knew we were there and, for the moment, we were safe.

Anyone who has ever tried to entertain small children in an enclosed space for more than a couple of hours can empathize with how I felt by the end of the first week. Mom was still in shock and although she tried to help by playing and reading to the girls, I could see the terror barely concealed behind her eyes. Harry helped out a lot by coming up with new games to play that managed to keep Megan and Cassidy entertained and quiet. Sarah was in a foul mood and spent most days snuggling with Harvey on her sleeping bag, listening to her ipod and snarling at anyone who came close.

Carolyn was handling things a little differently. Mark had gone to pick her up and I’m not sure how he explained everything to her, but she was now convinced that I, Piper, was: (One) A pathological liar who had tricked her baby boy into matrimony. (Two) A freak of nature who was a worse monster than the ones we were hiding from because I violated people’s free will. (And Three) To blame for everything, because I’d gotten my membership in the USB revoked and started the whole mess.

She also took over the organization of our little home and schedule and rivaled Cecily for pure tyrannical behavior. I tried to stay as far away from her as I could, which was about forty feet, a good hundred-thousand feet closer than I wanted to be.

With all the people crammed into such a tiny space, there was no time for Mark and me to get away and talk. He still slept near me at night, but public displays of affection were definitely out, and we never finished our conversation about my hiding my abilities from him. On the surface everything seemed normal, but I caught him staring at me now and then and I worried that the threat of imminent death was the only thing keeping us together.

By the end of the first month I was ready to pull out my hair. By the end of the second month I was prepared to surrender to the WAND in exchange for a quick and merciful death. By the end of the third month I was ready to kill everyone myself, which might have been the reason that Cecily refused to let me join the men on guard duty.

“But you let Annabeth do it!” I whined.

“She’s a skunk ape,” Cecily answered.

“So? I’m a Rhine Maiden! I can protect myself. Please! I’ve got to get out of this room!”

Cecily pointed at our laptop. “Have you been listening when I read off the news?” It was a rhetorical question. Of course I’d been listening. News of the horrors going on in the outside world was the only thing keeping me from running screaming out of the building and into the sunlight.

“No one knows we’re here,” I protested. “It’s not like the men are fighting anyone. They’re just keeping an eye out for potential danger. I can do that too.”

“No.” And that was that. Stupid vampire.

“Her reasons are completely logical,” alien/Karen informed me later when I was still griping to anyone who would listen about how unfair Cecily was being. (I still wasn’t sure what
she
was hiding from, or why she had to do it with us, but it might have to do with the cakes Mom kept cooking in the school’s kitchen.)

“Thank you, Mr. Spock,” I gritted out and kept trying to get clothes clean in a five gallon bucket. By now all of our clothing was a nice shade of dingy grey and could stand up by itself when dry.

I started to cry. This was just too much. I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed my life. I missed my house. I even missed my stupid washing machine. If we ever got to go home I would never, never,
ever
complain about doing laundry again.