Mystics 3-Book Collection (26 page)

“Say
night night
, little girl,” said
Vlad. “On three—One. Two. Threeeee!”

And as one, the three vampire bowling balls
launched themselves towards her.

SPLASH!

The three vampires were suddenly covered in
a gray liquid. They wailed as they tried desperately to get the
gray substance off. But no matter how much they rolled and rubbed,
they couldn’t get it off. It was eating at their flesh like acid.
Vapors rose into the air, and Zoey smelled a mixture of burnt hair
and garlic.

“You’ll be sorry,” howled one of the
vampires madly.

But the three vampires melted down to three
tiny white sizzling puddles.

“ZOEY!” Aria ran towards her with a large
pot in her hands.

“Aria?” she said not believing her eyes.
“You? You—what the heck did you throw at them?”

Aria stood over the three puddles with a
satisfied smile on her face. “French garlic soup.”

“Garlic
actually
works against
vampires? I thought it was only a myth?” Zoey started to laugh in
spite of her aching ribs.

Aria tasted the remains of the soup from her
pot. “Of course it does. Didn’t you learn that yet?”

“No.” Zoey was too shocked to think about
her education right now. “I’m just glad they’re gone. For a moment
there, I thought they were going to
squish
me to death.”

Aria kicked some leaves onto the three
puddles until there was no trace of them left. “It’s a lot more
effective in its liquid state.”

“I can see that.” Zoey smiled at Aria.
“Thank you for saving me.”

Aria dropped her pot and lifted Zoey to her
feet.

“It’s my duty to keep you safe—you’re
practically like a daughter to me now—living in my inn and
all.”

She inspected Zoey like an overbearing
mother. “Are you hurt anywhere? Cuts? Bruises? I saw you fall.”

Zoey felt her heart swell to think that Aria
thought of her as a daughter. But she was still a little
embarrassed to be hugged, and she wiggled out of Aria’s many
arms.

“I’m fine—really—I’ll live.”

“Good. Come along, Zoey. I think it’s time
we speak to Agent Barnes.”

A
ria marched up to
the hive, cornered Agent Barnes, threatened him with her pot, and
told him about the vampire attacks. He called an emergency meeting.
Now Agents Vargas and Ward sat at the table with the directors, but
Agents Barnes and Lee stood. Their backs were against the wall, and
they looked flushed and livid.

The directors in
Mystic Laws and
Regulations
, room 3B, sat in stunned silence as Zoey recounted
the events of the previous night. There was no way she could hide
the fact that she had broken into the room in the first place. It
was clear that she had intended to steal the file on her mother.
But the information she had overheard was far more important than a
little thieving—or so
she
thought.

Aria broke the silence. “Do you believe her
now? Or does she have to risk dying again, for you to believe her
this time.”

She waved the French garlic soup ladle at
the directors. “She’s telling you the truth. I saw it with my own
eyes.”

Agent Ward looked over at Zoey and tried to
smile, but Zoey ignored her.

Director Hicks raised his hand. “Please sit,
Aria, before you hurt someone with that.”

“There is no more doubt in my mind that what
Zoey told us is the truth.”

His eyes moved along the great table and
settled on Zoey. “I am only sorry it took so long for us to believe
you. A girl your age should not have had to deal with
vampires.”

Zoey stayed silent and looked at the
directors. She was glad that they finally appeared to believe her,
but she still felt some resentment towards them. But when her eyes
met director Martin’s, she could see that he was still
uncertain—
he
didn’t believe her.

“These accounts are the most unusual,” said
director Campbell, her face grave. “I never thought I’d live to see
the day when our agents would be working with the Alpha Nation. It
makes no sense.”

“Believe it,” said Agent Barnes, “’cause
it’s happening. I had my suspicions about the Boston hive. I had a
feeling it was an inside job, now we know that it
was
.
Director Campbell, open your eyes, not all agents are loyal to the
agency. Some have been, and will continue to be false. They’re
influenced by money and the need for power. We’ve all seen it
happen before. Agents have even left the agency—we just didn’t
realize that they were being
recruited
. Who knows how long
they’ve been secretly plotting against us. And this isn’t just an
isolated case, there are more traitors out there. Believe me—we
haven’t heard the end of this.”

Director Hicks folded his hands on the
table. The cheerful round face that Zoey had seen before was now
flushed, and he looked like he wanted to punch someone.

“We should have paid closer attention to
them years ago. The Alpha Nation has gone too far. They are asking
for a war—and a war they will receive. We must focus upon
protecting our headquarters in London. One of the remaining
interlopers is still in their possession. The traitors have leaked
the whereabouts of that device, which means they would be in
possession of
two
interlopers if they got it—that would be a
devastating combination.”

Director Campbell leaned forward.

“Does anyone know who this ring leader is?”
she inquired. “I, for one, have never heard the name
Mrs.
Dupont
.”

Everyone around the table shook their
heads.

“Is she even real?” asked director
Campbell.

“She’s real,” said Zoey suddenly, surprised
that she even spoke up. “You wouldn’t forget her if you saw her.
Trust me—she’s
very
real.”

She met director Campbell’s gaze, but she
didn’t ask for any more information.

“We need to act quickly,” said director
Johnson. “They might already be on their way to London. We should
get the agents ready now, before the Alphas suspect we know their
plans. It’s our only advantage.”

“Yes,” agreed director Martin. “If what the
girl is telling us is
true
, then we must
move
the
interloper.”

“It’s the truth.” Zoey met director Martin’s
cool expression, ready to have a staring contest, but he looked
away.

Director Hicks stroked his beard as he
spoke. “Agent Ward, I need you to inform the other North American
Agencies. Tell them what’s happened and to send us every available
agent—we need everyone on this. I’ll speak with assistant director
Darcy at headquarters, and we’ll make arrangements to move the
interloper to another safe location.”

“Yes, of course, director Hicks,” said Agent
Ward. She looked grim and tired, like this was all a bad dream.

Director Hicks paused. “Too long have we
ignored the Alphas, and that has been a very big mistake. And now
we are going to pay greatly for it. I hope our naiveté will not
cost us too many lives.”

He hit the table with his fist. “We’re going
to hit them with everything we’ve got!”

He pointed a large finger at Agents Lee and
Barnes. “I want you two in London in five minutes. We don’t have
much time.”

Agent Lee nodded. “Yes, director.” He looked
at Agent Barnes with a mischievous smile on his face.

“And Barnes,” continued director Hicks.
“
You
will be in charge of relocating the interloper. You
only. Understood?”

“Yes, director,” said Agent Barnes.

He turned to Agent Lee and said with a
lopsided grin, “Let’s go, Richard. I’m suddenly in the mood to kick
some Alpha tails.”

“
If
they’ve got any tails,” Agent Lee
laughed, and he and Agent Barnes headed towards the door.

“Wait!” Zoey jumped up and ran over to them.
“I want to come with you.”

Agent Barnes stopped and turned. “No, Zoey.
This is too dangerous, even for a girl as brave and as capable as
you. You can’t come with us.”

“But I can help—I know I can,” she
protested. “I am the only one who can identify Mrs. Dupont. I’ve
seen her face.”

Agent Barnes shook his head slowly. “I need
you to stay here and watch over the hive for us.”

He smiled at Zoey and said, “I need someone
I can trust. Can you do that?”

“I guess.”

She knew this was a ruse to get her to stay
put, and she doubted it would work.

Agent Barnes reached inside his jacket and
pulled out her gold boomerang. He handed it to Zoey.

“Here—you’ll need this in case more vamps
decide to show up. If you don’t have any French garlic soup handy,
you can always
pop
them open with its sharp edges.”

Zoey took her boomerang and squeezed it
happily. As she fastened the gold bracelet around her wrist it felt
cool against her skin, and she realized how much she had missed it.
She had a connection with this weapon. She felt incomplete without
it. She looked up at Agent Barnes and smiled.

“Never thought I’d get this back. Thank
you.”

“You’re welcome. We’ll see you when we get
back.”

And with that, he and Agent Lee disappeared
out the door.

A half hour later, Zoey sat in the common
living area at the
Wander Inn
with Tristan and Simon. When
they had heard the news of the attacks on Zoey, they, and most of
the other operatives, had waited in the main lobby. Instead of
going home after class, they had stayed on, just to get a glimpse
of her. Even Stuart King had waited to see her. The look of shock
and jealously on his face—that she had fought and survived an
attack by three vampires—raised her spirits. Zoey never felt
better.

“So who has the file on your mother now?”
asked Simon. He lounged comfortably in one of the sofas, sipping
hot cocoa.

Zoey warmed herself in the thick chair next
to the fireplace, enjoying the smell of burning wood. “Agent Barnes
has it. I don’t think he’s going to show it to anyone. I trust him.
He said he was going to help me find her.”

“Agent Barnes is cool,” agreed Tristan. “I
wish there were more agents like him, apart from Agent Lee of
course. He’s definitely cool, too.”

He added a log into the fire. “So it’s
definitely your mother, then?”

“Yes.” Zoey stared at the fire. “I know it’s
her. She’s alive somewhere, and I’m
going
to find her.”

Simon gulped down some hot cocoa and smacked
his lips. “So, what’s our next move, people? I’m in the mood for a
little adventure again. We can’t leave it all to the agents, they
lack imagination.” The fire reflecting in his big eyes, gave him a
sinister look.

Tristan got up and fell into the sofa next
to Simon.

“We can’t do much stuck here in Cold Creek.
How are we supposed to help, when the all the action is happening
in London? This
really
sucks,” he said.

“It’s not like we’re useless—we have been
trained to fight. We could be out there fighting with them. We
could be helping them.”

Zoey sighed. “But how can we? They’re all in
London—and we’re here, sitting comfortably and doing absolutely
nothing
.”

“
I’m
sipping hot chocolate,”
suggested Simon.

“Apart from
sipping
hot chocolate,”
said Zoey a little irritated. “We’re not very helpful. I wish I
were there. I know I could help them. I wish they’d let us go with
them.”

She felt miserable, deflated, and anxious.
She rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans, wishing that Agent Barnes
had seen her potential—her true devotion to the agency—and let her
come with them. Part of her had believed that revealing the
traitors’ plans, and finally winning the directors’ trust, would
have been enough for them to offer her a place on the recovery
mission. She felt that they owed her at least a glimpse of the
interloper—after all she’d been through. But it seems they still
didn’t have enough faith in her, yet.

“The hive’s practically deserted,” said
Simon. He took another sip of his drink. “Maybe we could go back
into the
Supernatural Affairs
room and look for more clues
about your mother, or maybe even you father? You’ve never talked
about him.”

“That’s because I’ve got less information
about him than I do about my mother. I wouldn’t even know where to
look.”

“Well, I say we start with the same place
you found the information about your mother,” continued Simon.
“Your dad was an agent, too—I’m positive. Besides, I’ve always
wanted to explore that place, to look for information on the
agents. I’ve always wondered if Agent Ward is
really
a
woman.”

Suddenly the door to the inn opened, and a
man wearing a long, black wool coat and light blue cashmere scarf
walked in. His black hair was greased back and parted on the side,
just like Zoey had seen in the old black-and-white photographs from
the nineteen twenties. He looked like a posh gangster—handsome,
with a square jaw and sharp chiseled features.

He moved with grace, like a predatory cat,
and sauntered over to another man sitting alone at a table. Zoey
recognized the man at the table immediately. He was the same sickly
looking man she had seen sitting by himself earlier. She wondered
why he was alone. They exchanged words, and when he got up
nervously, his chair crashed to the floor behind him. He leaned
over and picked it up, and then brushed his hair to the side. With
his head down, he followed the other man towards the door.

As they neared Zoey, she could hear what
they were saying.

“…we still stick with the plan,” said the
man in the wool coat. They didn’t notice the three kids sitting in
the den, watching them.