End of Days (29 page)

Charlie shouted the entire time. “I knew there was something about him. I knew it. I knew it!” He mixed a few swear words in for effect. His eyes were like two black pearls. Hell hath no fury like a demented vampire. I'm sure Shakespeare said that somewhere.

My uncle rose to his feet and pulled out a stun gun.

“There's no need for that.” Ophelia was right beside him, her hand on his arm.

I felt like a lost tourist in a haunted house. My friend had finally snapped. Luna was gone. Hyde was still out there, and now we were fighting among ourselves.

My uncle started coughing. His helmet had been knocked loose, and he was spitting up blood.

“You okay?” I asked. “Can you breathe?”

He nodded, then started looking around. His eyes fell to the floor. Then he stumbled over to where his gun was lying and picked it up.

By this time, Mr. Entwistle had taken Charlie to the floor. “Control . . . deep breaths,” the old vampire was saying.

I don't know if Charlie was listening, but it was hard to go ballistic with a 650-year-old vampire slowly choking you in a sleeper hold.

“What are you thinking?” Ophelia snapped. Her voice was schoolteacher angry.

Charlie couldn't answer. It took most of his effort just to breathe. Mr. Entwistle slowly let go. My friend sucked in a few deep breaths and started rubbing at his neck. Then another cascade of profanity tumbled out of his mouth. He described my uncle's character, his behavior, what he wanted to do to him, and just about anything else you could slap between two swear words. Or two hundred. If it had aired on the radio, it would have been one continuous beep. Then Charlie looked at me.

“You knew. You knew! It's why he shot me in the hospital. You knew he was here the whole time and you didn't say anything. If Luna was here, she'd murder you.”

He might have been right. I knew she blamed my uncle for
that night.
For what happened to her. And to her sister. I didn't know what to say to Charlie. This was a disaster.

“Let go of me,” Charlie said. “You may trust this bozo, but I don't. He's a backstabbing turncoat. He betrayed all of us.”

“Actually, he's more of a front stabber,” said Mr. Entwistle. “And if I can forgive him for blowing me up, you should be able to forgive him for trying to keep you alive.”

“That's a bunch of baloney,” said Charlie. “He drugged us and turned us over to that freak. We should be dead. All of us.”

“It wasn't supposed to be that way,” Maximilian said. “Vlad said he would accept you in the Underground. Swear you to secrecy. That way, you wouldn't be killed for knowing about Zachary and his condition. Instead, you'd have the protection of the Coven, which Zachary and I were to join.”

My uncle turned to me, his face sad. And frustrated. “Vlad wanted to talk to you first, to see if you were ready to assume such an enormous responsibility. That was the arrangement I made with him. So you wouldn't lose your only friends. But Vlad broke his word. I had no idea he'd try to kill anyone.”

“I don't believe you,” said Charlie.

“That changes nothing. Not the present. Not the past. Nothing.” My uncle lowered his gun and looked around at all of us. His eyes settled on Mr. Entwistle. “I have to go to the hospital shortly. If you are serious and really want to get the girls, you can take my car.”

Blood was still at the sides of my uncle's mouth. He suddenly looked gray. A kind of exhaustion had settled over his features. I'd never seen him this way. Vulnerable. Corpselike. He did things with such self-assurance, it was easy to forget he was dying of cancer.

“It's all right,” Mr. Entwistle said. “There isn't time. I'll take the ambulance once the sun goes down.”

My uncle nodded. “I'm sorry about what happened. My loyalty is to my nephew. I have always kept his interests at heart.”

“And your own,” Charlie hissed.

“Believe that if it helps you. But I'm no good to anyone if I'm dead. Dealing with Vlad and joining the Coven—it seemed the best way at the time.” Maximilian's eyes passed over all of us, then he turned to go.

“That's it? After all he's done, you're just letting him go?” Charlie shouted at us.

My uncle stopped in the doorway. For a man who'd been attacked and vilified, he had remarkable composure. “What reason would I have for hurting you?”

We all waited.

Charlie stared at him. His mouth started to move, but nothing came out. A voice in my head told me I should write this down. It was the first time in my life I'd ever seen him speechless.

“You're a one-man soap opera, Charlie,” Maximilian said, reaching for the door. “You're lucky your friends are so patient.”

A second later the door closed.

“We can't let him go,” Charlie said.

“Why not?” Ophelia asked.

“I think he's Hyde,” Charlie said. “I think he's the one we've been looking for.”

Mr. Entwistle looked at Ophelia. I could tell they both thought Charlie was right out to lunch. I understood his anger. He didn't want Suki to go back to Newark. He wanted to make her a vampire so she could be one of us. That couldn't happen if her father took her away. I felt so bad for him, I started talking and didn't stop until I'd mentioned all the reasons my uncle might have been the Beast. His size. The year he'd spent hunting a werewolf. His sudden appearance in our lives—timed perfectly with Hyde's. The fact that he'd never seen Hyde, and we never actually knew his whereabouts when Hyde was around. In the end, I'd convinced everyone, even myself.

Mr. Entwistle moved to the window and started peeking from under the blind. Ophelia sat down.

“Do you really think it's possible?” she asked.

I didn't know. But if it was true, it meant he knew where we were. He knew our defenses and how to get past them. And he knew Luna was unprotected at the camp.

Charlie rose to leave.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I'm going to bed,
buddy.
” He said the last word like a curse.

I guess, like me, he just wanted this night to be over. I opened my mouth to say sorry but he cut me off.

“Don't bother.”

Then he walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Mr. Entwistle looked at me. The muscles in his jaws twitched as his teeth ground together. “This is bad,” he said.

“Tell me about it.”

“There's more at stake here than a summer romance, boy.”

I knew this already.

Mr. Entwistle's face relaxed. He took a deep breath, apologized for losing his temper, and headed for the back door.

“Are you leaving?” I asked.

“No. Just checking on your uncle.”

I'd just assumed he'd left. When I said so, Mr. Entwistle shook his head. “If I know Maximilian, he'll walk the perimeter once more just to make certain the motion detectors are working. He wasn't lying when he said he has your best interests at heart.”

The old vampire slipped out the door, leaving me with Ophelia, who was chewing her cheek, her eyes lost. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of an engine starting. It was the painted ambulance in the driveway. Did that mean Mr. Entwistle was leaving?

“I'll be right back,” I said.

I slipped out the back door. Mr. Entwistle was pulling out of the drive. I wondered if he'd been lying. If he hadn't been talking to my uncle at all, but was really leaving to go after Hyde. He'd said he would have to face Hyde alone. But it was so close to dawn. And he hadn't even said good-bye.

Then the garage door started to open. Two headlights lit up the
apartment. It was suddenly brighter than Broadway. I heard a sound like a jet engine, and my uncle slowly pulled forward in his car. I slipped to the side of the driveway and he stopped beside me. Although I'd seen it before and had even ridden in the front, the sight of his car was still shocking. Jedi knights didn't get to drive in things this cool. It was half bat mobile, half spaceship, with doors that opened upward and a spoiler like a whale tail. The window slid down.

“Is he leaving?” I gazed at the ambulance, which was backing out onto the street.

My uncle shook his head. “No, just moving so I can get out.”

I suddenly felt foolish. But life is like that sometimes. You get so used to bad news, you just expect more.

“Are you okay?” I asked my uncle.

“Tired . . . I got sloppy. I shouldn't have pushed my luck—coming in the house like that. Thoughtless . . .” Pain was in his voice. He let his head fall back against the seat rest.

“I'm sorry.” It sounded lame, but I meant it.

“Don't apologize. I had that coming.” He took a moment to adjust his seat belt, a double-shoulder harness.

“Your father had a belief that we should put the job ahead of everything. I put myself first. And I lied to myself. I said I was doing it for you. That if I died, I couldn't protect you from the Coven, couldn't continue your father's work—our work. So I negotiated with Vlad. It was foolish. . . . And I have paid. We all have.”

He started coughing. I could smell the blood in his mouth.

“You're dying.”

He nodded. “Yes. Nothing is working. I've one last option.”

“What is that?”

“Biotherapeutics.”

I had no idea what that meant.

“You take a nonlethal virus and use it to kill the cancer cells in your body,” my uncle explained. “But I still have one more radiation treatment. I'm afraid I won't be much use for the next little while. I've never been this exhausted.” His eyes drifted up to the
eastern horizon. It was growing lighter. “You should go. Make sure Charlie's okay. I know he's angry with you, but this will pass. He'll come around. Just give him time.” The words tumbled out slowly. He sounded tired, but sincere.

I thanked him and he slowly pulled away. The car engine whined. I could feel the power of it resonate in my stomach. A second later Mr. Entwistle pulled the ambulance back in. I didn't wait for him. The light was faint, but it still made me uncomfortable, and I was worried about Charlie.

When I came in, Ophelia was in the kitchen returning the phone to its cradle. She had the ugly purse with the wolfsbane in her other hand.

Mr. Entwistle entered a second later. “Where is he?” I guessed he meant Charlie.

“He's on the roof,” Ophelia answered. “I heard him go up while you were outside.”

Mr. Entwistle nodded and headed for the stairs.

“What are we going to say to Dr. Abbott when he gets here?” I asked.

“I'll call him now and tell him where his children are. He'll probably be relieved. It means he won't have to come here and talk to any of us.”

This was true.

“I had no idea they were going to leave.”

Ophelia nodded. “I could tell.” Then she held up the purse. “Why did you bring this awful thing into the house?”

I quickly explained about the storage unit and the monkshood. I was expecting her to be impressed. We'd acquired a new poison, perhaps one that might prove useful against Hyde, but if anything, the mention of it just made her nervous. “What's wrong?” I asked.

“Wolfsbane is lethal to vampires, Zachary. And to people. If Hyde has this, it only makes him more dangerous.”

I don't know why this hadn't occurred to me. I guess it indicated how poorly my mind was working.

“I'll have to call Detective Baddon,” she said, “and see if he can find out who that storage unit belongs to.”

“Do you think Maximilian might be Hyde?”

She sighed and zipped open the purse, then carefully examined the tiny hooded flowers inside. “I hope not. I was counting on his help. But if it is him, at least he knows us as a man and trusts us. Perhaps we could find a way to help him.”

I looked away and nodded. I didn't want it to be true. I didn't want my uncle to be that thing.

“You should get some sleep. You look beat.”

She was right. It had been a long and tiring night. I said good-night and made my way up to the second-floor apartment, sealed the window shutters in my room, pulled the blind closed, and shut the curtains. Then I settled on the bed and listened for Charlie.

It wasn't my intention to doze off, but it happened anyway. I woke up to the sound of someone knocking at the door. I hoped it would be him, but when I said “come in,” Mr. Entwistle entered.

“You're not asleep yet. Good.”

I sat up and asked if Charlie was okay.

“He's fine. Just talking to Ophelia now. They're in the apartment upstairs.”

“Is something wrong?”

“He'll be fine. I just needed to explain to him why it was so important that your uncle be involved. And that he be forgiving. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. You?”

His movements were restless, his eyes busy. He strayed into the doorway, his hat tucked under his arm. The hall light was behind him, so his body was like a tall shadow. “As good as can be expected. I wanted to speak to you about a few things, but I . . .” He waved his hand through the air as if it wasn't really that important.

“No, tell me. What is it?”

He hesitated. “I just wanted to . . .” A few quiet seconds followed. “I've been trying to find a solution to this Hyde dilemma.”

“Do you think Charlie's right? That his alter ego might be Maximilian?”

He started shaking his head. “I'm not convinced. It just doesn't fit.”

I didn't know what he was talking about. It seemed to fit perfectly to me. But he didn't say anything else about it. He just sat down on the bed and looked at me over his shoulder.

“I believe he's a lycanthrope, Zack. Hyde, I mean. Not your uncle. But no matter how I reason it out, I can't get past the reality of the Beast, and that I have to face him. I've seen it too many times. . . .”