The Sunlight Slayings (15 page)

“Oliver, my boy,”
Illisius began to speak—

But now a blinding flash of turquoise light exploded from the top of Bane's staff. Light washed over the room, radiating out from the orb, freezing everyone in the memory. The entire world around them became lit with cold blue. Everything, even the specks of dust floating in the air, was completely still and glowing softly, as if made of ice.

“Whoa …” Emalie whispered. “How come you can see this?”

“I don't know, just watch,” Dean said with an almost triumphant smirk on his face.

Oliver looked back to Bane, relieved, ready to watch him manipulate events, except Bane wasn't moving yet. In fact, he seemed to be frozen, too.

And then, from the dark recesses of the gym, a figure swept silently across the frozen scene. He was dressed in a deep blue robe, his face hidden by a hood.

“Who's that?” Emalie asked blankly.

“I don't know,” breathed Dean, “but I think this is what really happened.”

The figure knelt beside the frozen Oliver and Dean. He pulled Oliver off, rolling him onto his back. He put his hand to Dean's neck, holding out his first two fingers. With long, pointed fingernails, he pierced Dean's skin. He gathered blood on his fingers and smeared it on Oliver's face. Then he reached into the folds of his robes and produced a thin silver syringe. He planted the sharp tip in one of the wounds on Dean's neck and depressed the plunger.

“So that's when he kills me,” Dean said, like a narrator.

The figure began whispering in Dean's ear, chanting, it sounded like. “This is what I was trying to hear when you guys wouldn't stop talking,” Dean explained. “But I still can't get it.”

“It's another language,” Oliver added, straining to hear the whispers. “Demonic, I think.”

“Do you understand it?” Emalie asked.

Oliver shrugged. “No.”

The figure took Oliver's frozen body in his arms and stood. He moved toward the door, then turned back. He took a deep breath, then started to blow. Air began to rush, washing over the entire room. Then he rushed out with Oliver.

As the wind swirled around the frozen scene, the turquoise faded and the spell was broken. Now everyone started moving. Bane shook his head, then looked quizzically at the turquoise orb. He turned and saw Dean's body lying there, and his confused look became a smile. He called to his friends and they took off. The memory became the same as what Oliver remembered now, the children screaming and fleeing, Emalie upset, then heading out, stake in hand, to find Oliver upstairs.

“I thought it was Bane,” Oliver said, “who altered our memories.”

“I think he knew that orb would do something,” Emalie said. “But that figure was really in control of it. Maybe he's the one Bane got it from. Or maybe Bane never even knew that person controlled the power of the orb.”

“My master,” Dean said blankly.

Oliver nodded. “Yeah. That's got to be the person who raised you. Not that we know who it was.”

“Maybe the enchantment,” Emalie mused, “the one that he used to alter everyone's memories, was designed to work on humans and vampires, but not zombies,” said Emalie.

“Zombies are supposed to be immune to a lot of that stuff,” added Oliver.

Emalie turned to Dean. “I guess it's a good thing you were here.”

“Yeah,” Dean said, satisfied. He looked seriously at Oliver. “You didn't kill me.”

“No,” Oliver agreed, “I guess I didn't.”

“And you didn't, either,” Dean said to Emalie.

“Well …” she started.

“So now you can both get over it,” Dean announced.

Emalie nodded. “We should get out,” she said, and started for the door. “We have to go back to that point where we entered Oliver's head, in the hallway, and then I can bring us back.”

“Right.” Dean patted Oliver on the shoulder. “So … cool, huh?”

Oliver smiled. “Yeah, cool. Now we just have to figure out who your master is.”

Dean nodded. “We will.”

They pushed through the double doors back into the hallway. Oliver noticed the red light through the windows again. It didn't seem like daylight, more like that of another world.

“Hurry up, Oliver,” Emalie called from ahead.

Oliver walked along, then spied a door and stopped. It was simple, solid black wood, with a white diamond-shaped Skrit carved in it. He hadn't noticed it on the way in.

“Oliver!” Emalie called.

But Oliver was grabbing the silver door handle. What was this? The door clicked open. Inside, he saw a small, spare room. There was a desk and a comfortable chair. The side walls were lined with black bookshelves, empty except for a book or two here and there. On the back wall was a large, diamond-shaped window. Through it, Oliver saw the red lands and starry, crystal-black sky of Nexia. There was a pyramid of gleaming jade in the distance. Lying on the red rock, closer, was the head from a huge amethyst statue. It had gold eyes that gleamed like coins. Oliver could barely focus on that, though, because beyond that, overwhelming everything, was the Gate.

As soon as he saw it, Oliver longed to sit down in that comfortable chair and just stare at it. It was enormous, shining in golden light. He felt like he could just make out its form, its towers and columns, but more than that …

Oliver
, the Gate spoke in his mind,
see me clearly
.

“Oliver!” Emalie's voice was urgent, but distant. He wanted to stay here, maybe read a book or two—because there would be more books, he felt sure of that—and gaze at the Gate.…

This is my place in your mind
, Illisius's voice echoed in the room.

Suddenly his side exploded in pain. Oliver stumbled backward, out of the room and into the hall. He looked up wildly. The door slammed shut. The grotesqua was gone. The hall had gone black. Its sides were melting away in chaotic ripples.

“Oliver!” It was Dean, but he sounded far away.

Oliver's head seared as the hissing cry of the wraith burst through everything. He looked ahead and saw blackness, and the coiling form looming over him, claws bared—

There was a rushing of light, and hands grabbed him. Oliver looked up to see Dean and the rafters of Emalie's basement. They were out of his head, back in the basement, and Dean was dragging him to his feet.

“Come on!” he shouted.

But Oliver's side felt like it had tied itself in a knot. He couldn't move.

There was another wicked scream. Oliver looked up—

The curtain of red vapor was gone. Emalie stood over him, shrouded in black, her eyes shut. Her hands were clasped together, and burning light as if from a sun radiated between her fingers.

They hadn't gotten out in time, and now the wraith had possessed Emalie. It shrieked, and Emalie opened her hands.

The air rippled with heat, and Oliver felt the full power of the Scourge hit him directly. The pain from his side brought spots to his eyes. He flopped to the ground, and now he felt hot, searing fire all over his body. His eyes went white with brightness, and he was vaguely aware of the sunlight escaping from them —

No!
he screamed inside, sunlight bursting from his mouth,
The amulet shard isn't enough—I—
He felt burning all over and a terrible panic as the world became light—then everything ceased.

Chapter 12

Removed

“OLIVER …”

Oliver felt like he was floating to the surface of deep water.
Is this the drift?
he wondered. The drift was where many believed a vampire went after being turned to dust, but he sensed light.… His eyes fluttered open and he squinted against brightness—
the Scourge!
—but it was the moon, sliver thin and surrounded by a corona of spherical mirrors. Oliver recognized the circular roof of the exam room at Dr. Vincent's office, open to the moonlight, which was being gathered and focused down onto him. He could feel the tension of metal across his body. He was in the mesh cage of the force resonance imager, suspended on his back.

“Hey.” Dean leaned over him. “You're back.”

Oliver gazed down to see his body glowing bone white. “What happened?”

Dean sighed. “Man, it was crazy. You got hit with the Scourge, and I thought you were a goner. You were lying there with sunlight shooting out of your eyes, and your fingertips glowing and stuff, plus you were screaming nonstop, but then it didn't get any worse. That amulet shard must have saved you. I carried you back to your house. Your parents brought you here. They've been cool, letting me check in on you.”

“How long?” asked Oliver.

“It's Saturday night,” Dean said. “So, two days, about?”

“Two days …” Oliver panicked. “What about—”

Dean lowered his voice. “She's all right. I told your parents that we were over on Queen Anne, looking for whoever was using the Scourge. I told them you snuck out because you were so mad about the attacks, and you were frustrated that no one would let you help.” Dean smiled a little. “That gave your mom a guilty face for a minute. Nice, right?”

Oliver smiled. “Thanks. So is Emalie at home?”

“At home, and promising not to do the dream enchantment anymore, so she won't be possessed again. Besides, she doesn't need to, now that we know you didn't kill me.”

“That's not enough,” said Oliver darkly. “My dad and the others will still be looking for her. They'll want revenge for the other slayings. If they have enough time, they'll find her.”

“Ahh,” a voice echoed across the metal room. “He's back.” Oliver heard Dr. Vincent's footsteps echoing on the metal floor. More footfalls rushed after him.

“Ollie!” Phlox appeared at his side. She grabbed the cage, looking at him with great relief. “We didn't know when you'd wake—” Her eyes burned turquoise, her face twisted as if she was mad, but Oliver could tell the difference between anger and worry. “You shouldn't have snuck out,” she said, her voice thick, “but I shouldn't have been so overprotective, I …”

“It's okay, Mom,” Oliver murmured, hoping this moment would end as soon as possible.

“His levels are almost normal,” Dr. Vincent announced. He adjusted a few knobs on a brass console, glancing at the glass computer monitor nearby. The mirrors shut off and the roof began to rumble closed. The FRI rotated, returning Oliver to an upright position. “And with that crystal splinter removed from his side, that wound should clear up, too. Still, we should do a follow-up treatment next week,” Dr. Vincent continued. He stepped over to them, holding a long syringe filled with warm orange fluid. “Just one more dose, and we should be in the clear. When you get home, make sure to drink bleach a couple times a day.”

“Thank you so much,” Phlox said.

Oliver felt the sting of the needle, then Dr. Vincent was unlatching the FRI. The body-shaped mesh pulled away from Oliver's skin and swung open.

He stepped down, but wobbled. Dean caught him by the arm.

“We'll see you in a week, Oliver,” Dr. Vincent said.

“All right.” Oliver nodded blankly.

The three walked slowly to the elevator door. When they were in the cylindrical car, Phlox said slowly: “Oliver, that crystal shard the doctor found in your side …”

“Yeah,” Oliver replied.
Here we go
, he thought. One of the many lies was about to untangle itself from the rest.

“Désirée gave you an amulet of Ephyra, didn't she?”

“Mmm.” Oliver almost felt relieved to finally have this out in the open.

“She gave it to you the other night, to protect you from the Scourge.”

The other day?
Oliver tried not to react. “Uh-huh,” he said.

“I told your mom,” Dean added quickly, “about how she gave it to us the other afternoon, when we were there. Sorry, Oliver.” It was all Oliver could do not to show how impressed he was with Dean's lying skills.

“I—I know you wanted to help stop the Scourge,” Phlox said, apparently believing it, “and I know you felt like I was babying you.”

Oliver nodded. “Kinda,” he said, playing along. This meant that Phlox knew about the amulet without knowing about the vision of his human parents. That was a stroke of luck.

“You still should have told me,” Phlox went on. “It's not a good idea to just take what Désirée gives you blindly. She often has her own ideas about what someone needs.”

They left Dr. Vincent's office, weaving among the hulking black Gasworks towers in the cold, clear night. The air stung, frost on its edges.

“I thought if I told you our plan,” Oliver said slowly, making this up word by word, “about getting the amulet for protection, you'd take it away. And I wasn't going to sneak out until I heard about Randall, and how close Bane had been to”—he paused for effect—“well, I just got so angry, I thought I could do something … and I didn't think you'd let me.”