Dead Matter (29 page)

She looked stunned for a moment, and then smiled.

“Hello, Tall, Dark, and Human,” she said. I couldn’t help but smile back before I pulled her closer and kissed her.

I would have stayed in her warm embrace forever if the sound of crunching footsteps hadn’t drawn me back to reality. The two of us sat up and I got my first good look at her, my mouth agape.

“What are you staring at?” she asked, worried.

“You,” I said, struggling out of my coat. “You’re naked.” Jane looked down at herself as if noticing for the first time. Her face went red, even if her body didn’t. I handed her my coat and she slid it on within seconds. I reached into its pocket and pulled out the necklace, fastening it around her neck again.

“I believe this is yours,” I said.

Jane ran her hand over it, tracing the silver FOREVER banner along the front of the heart. “Thanks,” she said, standing up.

I stood as well and turned to Nicholas, who was just joining us. He had reverted to his regular human form, but nothing could hide the fact that he was covered in bits of food and flecks of broken discs. Behind him, nothing remained where the disc-throwing machine had once stood.

“Everyone okay?” he said, brushing at the shiny metal flakes that coated him.

“You look like a disco ball,” I said. Jane giggled, causing Nicholas to stop brushing at himself and look up at her.

“Nicholas Vanbrugh,” I said, “this is my girlfriend, Jane Clayton-Forrester, your ghost in the machine.”

Nicholas held his hand out, upturned in a formal gesture. Jane clutched my coat closed around her with one hand and gave him her other. Nicholas gave a low bow, and then kissed it. “Enchanted.”

“As am I,” she said. She withdrew her hand and started buttoning the coat. “Forgive me. I’m usually not so naked.”

Nicholas turned away in modesty. He looked at me. “Sorry I acted like that in the break room.”

“Hey, no apologies,” I said. “Your Hulking out seemed to have had a positive effect on getting out of this situation.”

Nicholas looked hesitant. “Still … I prefer to not show that side of myself, but when that salad hit me, something inside me snapped. I’m wearing Armani, after all.”

“A little vanity can go a long way,” I said, and he smiled.

“That it can.”

“Hey, riddle me this,” I said. “Why would vampires need a soda machine or a vending one?”

Nicholas looked mock offended. “What? We can’t drink or eat for flavor?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I guess we’ve spent so much time in the Department figuring out how to fight you guys. Not really up on your culinary habits—other than the blood drinking.”

Nicholas nodded. “Besides, not everyone who works here is of the fanged persuasion.”

“Ah,” I said. I turned to Jane. Her brow was furrowed with concern. “Jane … ?”

She held up her finger to shush me and I fell silent. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

I listened for a few seconds and shook my head. “No, I don’t. Sorry.”

“Exactly,” she said. “It’s far too quiet. Mr. Vanbrugh, is the building all right?”

Nicholas listened for a minute, and then headed for one of the few still-operational consoles in the room.

“No, it’s not,” he said, after a moment at the keyboard. “A lot of the systems are down, including the security systems.”

He keystroked in a few commands, then entered them again and again before the security doors to the room finally opened. A stream of workers poured in, all of them looking around at the chaos with amazement. A few of them, I noticed, weren’t shy about getting a look at Jane wearing nothing more than my coat.

We left Nicholas and his men to assess the damage to the Gibson-Case Center. I put my arm around Jane’s waist and headed us toward the door, carefully helping her step over all the shards of broken discs covering the floor. One crisis down, seventy-three to go. I didn’t know what I was going to do next on that list, other than find some clothes for my recently returned girlfriend. Something more substantial than just a necklace, anyway.

 

 

On our way from the control room down to the castle, we had to go through part of the shopping district of the Gibson-Case Center, but no one dared stop us. They all just stared. When Jane and I entered the forest and she saw the castle for the first time, Jane looked like she was dazed. When we finally went into the castle and came to Brandon’s chamber door, the blond vampire from his council, Gerard, let us in. Council seemed to be in session, and with them were Aidan, Beatriz, and Connor. When Connor turned and saw it was us, his face lit up.

“Jane!” Connor said. His face broke into a wide smile and he ran across the room to hug her. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. Jane just stood there, looking stunned.

“Oh,” she said, a pained look on her face. “Hello.”

Connor stepped back from her, put his arms on her shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. “You do remember me, right?” He looked to me. “She does remember me, right, kid?”

I took her back from him and put a comforting arm around her. “She’s a little shaken, I think. From the whole Gibson-Case-Center-eating-her business. That’ll do it to a lady.”

“Gotcha,” Connor said. He stepped away from her, giving her a little distance. It seemed to relax Jane a little. I turned her to Brandon.

“This is Brandon, the man we have to thank for getting someone to help rescue you. If he hadn’t set his best man to the task, I don’t know where you’d be right now.”

Brandon looked at Jane, who was simply staring at him with a big blank smile on her face.

He nodded to her politely. “Nice to finally meet you in person. I’ve heard much about you.”

“You have?” Jane said, sounding a little too bubbly for talking to the lord of the vampires.

“Jesus,” I heard Aidan whisper to his Connor. “Are you going to have to buy safety scissors with her around?”

I shot him a dirty look to let him know I had heard him. He looked at me and bulged his eyes.
What?
they said.

“She’s just disoriented,” I said. “It’ll pass. I think.”

Brandon turned to Gerard. “Find her some clothes, if you would.” Gerard nodded and blurred off toward the door.

“I was just discussing with the council what our options were for a course of action …”

“And?”

Brandon sighed. “We hadn’t even figured out when to best discuss it,” he said.

Connor laughed. “So you’re effectively having a meeting to discuss when you’re having a meeting.”

I looked over at my partner. “It would appear our people have more in common with the vampires than we thought. That’s promising.”

Brandon looked at me, his brow nice and furrowed with frustration. “Do you have anything better in mind?”

“Actually,” I said, “I do. Your saboteur has toyed around enough with trying to keep your prophecy from coming true. Without knowing who exactly to get rid of, they tried to stop us all—first Connor, then Jane and myself. I can only speak for myself, but I’m sick of being a target. The sooner we get our sides talking, the less chance our saboteur has of succeeding. I’m taking Aidan with us. I have some business the four of us need to attend to.”

The council erupted in an uproar of protest, but Brandon shut them down with a look. “Agreed,” he said, gesturing toward me and Jane, “but first, pants.”

I smiled, feeling a little optimistic for once. My girl was at my side, albeit pantless, and I had a plan that felt like it stood a chance of actually working.

Just before sunrise the next morning, Jane, Connor, Aidan, and I walked straight into the Lovecraft Café without a problem. I was sick of all the skulduggery going on, and now that Jane was free, I wanted to take a no-bullshit approach to handling matters between the Department of Extraordinary Affairs and the slightly less living contingent that resided in the Gibson-Case Center.

In the café, no one gave us a second glance, and we kept on going, heading past the coffee counter toward the black curtain at the back. I pulled it aside and the four of us continued down the main aisle of the movie theater, where Connor MacLeod was loudly proclaiming up on the screen that, indeed, there could be only one. Aidan was eerily silent the entire time, even when we entered the tiny hallway where I pulled out my card key and swiped it outside the large wooden door marked H.P.

The offices were already busy with morning activity. Jane and I were the first to step through the door leading into the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, but Aidan remained firmly in place on the other side of it, making it impossible for Connor to get through.

“What?” I said. “He can walk into the Lovecraft Café and back through the theater, but not into here?”

Connor looked at me. “I think it’s the difference between public and private space, kid,” he said.

I looked at Aidan, hoping for an answer.

“Don’t ask me,” he said, shrugging. “I’m still the new vamp on the block.”

“Fine,” I said. “You’re invited in.”

Aidan stepped forward. The second he walked through the doorway to the main office area, he stumbled and reached for the wall to steady himself. Connor went to him, grabbing his other arm to help.

“You okay?” Connor asked.

The vampire looked a bit weak in the knees. Even his customary fake breathing became labored. The skin on his face and hands looked a little more drawn-out than usual, like a plastic bag that had been overstuffed. He looked up at his brother with bloodshot eyes.

“Crossing the threshold, it was like walking through a windstorm,” he said. “I feel … funny.”

“Even with my invitation?” I said.

Aidan nodded, then closed his eyes as he stood there trying to pull himself together.

Connor looked up at the walls of the office, and my eyes followed. Mystic symbols were carved into the heavy plaster that lined the older part of the office space back here. “Looks like Greater and Lesser Arcana have been earning their keep around here,” Connor said. “Even though you invited my brother in, the protective magic is thick in these walls.”

Aidan looked like he could use a nap. Jane looked worried.

“You think he’s going to be okay?” Jane asked.

Connor’s brother opened his eyes and forced himself back up to a standing position on his own.

“I don’t need your pity,” he said.

I put a hand of warning on his shoulder. “It’s nice to see that your general vampiric disdain for humanity is enough to bolster you,” I said.

“Go easy on them,” Connor said to his brother. “They’re just looking out for all of us. It’s risky bringing you here, more so for us than you. The paperwork alone will eventually kill us.”

I turned to Jane. “Speaking of paperwork, I’m sure Wesker has a metric assload of it waiting for you. You’d better put in at least an appearance with him. I told them you were out of town and I forgot to file the paperwork for you. They seemed to buy my filing ineptitude as an excuse …”

“Nice,” Jane said, leaning over to kiss me. She started off toward Greater & Lesser Arcana, waving to our group. “Good luck with the Inspectre. Let me know how it goes. I’m going to put in a few hours, then head on over to help Nicholas and see if we can crack the computers now that I have an insider’s view.”

Once Jane was gone, Connor turned to me, a look of concern crossing his brow. “You sure you’re okay with this?”

“Hey, if I’m to put any faith in their Encyclopedia Vampirica, I’m the great uniter,” I said, starting off through the office. “Just do your best to play human while you’re back here, Aidan. And keep an eye out for Allorah, Connor. I don’t need her going all Van Helsing on us.”

“You know,” Aidan said, falling into step behind me and speaking in a whisper, “not mocking our sacred books will go a long way to extending your life.”

We walked on in silence through the office. All around us business went on as usual and very few people paid us any attention. And why should they? By now I was well on my way to mastering the art of deception when it came to visiting the Department and Aidan was doing his best to play human. A few well-placed nods and hellos, and the three of us were already heading upstairs to the Inspectre’s office.

When we reached the top of the stairs, I turned to Aidan. “Let us go in there first, okay?”

He nodded.

The Inspectre’s door was open, and when I knocked, he looked up from his desk. When he saw it was Connor and me, he stood up.

“Gentlemen,” he said, nodding. “Connor, good to see you.”

“Hello, Inspectre,” Connor said.

“You’re looking well,” the Inspectre said to him, and it was true. The Connor beside me was much better than the beaten wreck I had rescued from the church graveyard several nights ago. Shaven, clean-cut, even a little chipper knowing his brother was alive. “Vacation suits you.”

“Thanks,” Connor said, looking a little uncomfortable after his long absence from the office.

The Inspectre noticed the lone figure standing in the doorway and peered at Aidan. “Friend of yours?”

“Something like that,” I said, gesturing for Aidan to enter. He came forward slowly. Whether it was from nerves or the effects of the protective runes of the Department, I wasn’t sure. “This is Aidan. Aidan Christos.”

The Inspectre looked at Aidan, then at Connor, his brow furrowed in disbelief. He shook his head.

“My boy,” he said, “we’ve been over this when you presented your case concerning Connor’s mental well-being the other night. Connor’s older brother has been missing for at least fifteen years by now. This fellow looks much younger than …”

The Inspectre stopped himself, taking a step back as the only logical answer hit him full-on.

“Show him,” I said to Aidan, suspecting that what I was about to unveil to the Inspectre was already forming in his own head.