The Sunlight Slayings (18 page)

You act like you haven't seen the Shoals before
, said Jenette.

I haven't
, Oliver replied.
What do you mean?

Don't worry about it
. Jenette reached up and turned him by the shoulders, and Oliver could see back through the smeared window of his reality. There were the members of the Brotherhood, watching the column of smoke that had been Oliver. They weren't convinced yet. Did they know the finer points of vampire powers? Did they suspect a trick?

Oliver saw that one of Dean's attackers was lying on the floor, an overturned table on top of him. The two humans who had been dining at that table were sitting in place as if the table were still there. A loud commotion of falling objects—it sounded like pots and pans—suggested that maybe Dean was holding his own somewhere in the kitchen of the restaurant. Emalie was still frozen.

“Is he gone?” Oliver heard the scar-faced woman beside Braiden ask.

“Either way, let's get the girl and get out of here.” Braiden took a step forward.

Why would they want Emalie?
Oliver wondered.
I have to go back
, he thought, pushing forward.

No, you have to wait
, Jenette said.
Help is coming
.

Help?

From your father
.

My f—

Watch
.

Braiden had almost reached Emalie when on all sides, windows began exploding inward. Flashes of animals and wings, then black coats—and Oliver saw Sebastian, Leah, Tyrus, Yasmin, and at least five others leaving behind their occupied owls, crows, and bats and leaping into the restaurant. Beside Sebastian was Bane.

Braiden staggered back. Steel flashed as the Brotherhood drew weapons. Oliver saw swords with ornate blades and wooden handles whittled to sharp points at their bases, and crossbows loaded with thick wooden bolts.

Sebastian and the others stood in a semicircle around the perimeter of the restaurant. At once, they held out their hands, one above the other, and puffs of black smoke appeared, becoming long wooden poles with hand-hammered, curved silver blades at one end. Oliver recognized the weapons as the vampires' version of Japanese
naginata
staffs. Vampires rarely chose to fight a straightforward battle, preferring surprise or to create chaos, but these were weapons of war. Sebastian and his team held the poles perpendicular to the floor and stood motionless as the Brotherhood rushed toward them.

“
Tachesssss
,” Sebastian commanded in a hiss. The vampires simultaneously slammed the poles against the floor with a deafening crack and spun into battle. Blades carved the air and clanged together. The room whirled into chaos.

The Brotherhood swung for the vampires' heads, while the vampires went low, blocking blades with the staffs, sweeping at the Brotherhood's legs. The fighting overturned chairs. Tyrus and a Brotherhood member crashed through a long marble table. There was an explosion of dust as a vampire was slain, a brutal scream as one of the Brotherhood collapsed, clutching his torn chest. All around the battle, the humans in Staesys sat unaware.

I have to get Emalie out of there
, Oliver thought to Jenette.

I know
, she said, and Oliver was confused because he thought he heard a note of disappointment in her voice.

Thanks
, said Oliver,
for your help
.

Jenette didn't reply, but suddenly she darted up and kissed him on the cheek. Oliver felt the shock of her cold lips on his skin—and then she shoved him back toward the world.

Oliver tumbled forward with a rush, through the gray and into the tumultuous reality he'd been watching. He landed on his knees on the restaurant floor, feeling the sting of broken glass that littered the plush carpeting. He had just looked up, shaking the dizziness from his head, when one of the Brotherhood crumpled to the ground in front of him.

“Heads up, bro!” Bane stood over him, blood by his mouth, scanning the melee. “I should thank you for this. What a rush!” His eyes burned with intensity. “Dad wanted me to tell you: They've got a zip line on the roof. Get your mongrel and get out of here!” He spun his naginata staff, its blade shaped like a dragon's head, then found a sword to meet it.

Oliver got to his feet. He peered through the blur of action. There was Dean, crawling on all fours under the tables, toward him. “Hey! This is cool!” he shouted. “Violence is a lot less scary when you're already dead!”

Oliver grabbed Dean and yanked him to the floor as a sword flashed where his head had been.

“You know,” Oliver replied, “you can still have your head cut off and that will be that.”

Dean's smile faltered. “Oh, yeah, forgot about that.”

Oliver looked up to see the Brotherhood fighter raising his sword again—something sizzled through the air and popped against the side of the man's head. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Oliver looked across the room to see Leah holding a slingshot as she crouched atop a table.

“We need to go up to the roof and get out of here,” Oliver said quickly, pulling Dean over to Emalie. She remained seated, staring straight ahead with glassy eyes. Oliver moved behind her chair. He placed his hand on the back of her neck with the tubes between his fingers. He grasped the first one and pulled slowly. A long, hollow needle slid out of Emalie's neck, leaving a small bead of blood behind. He pulled the second needle out as well.

“What now?” Dean asked as Oliver pulled her from her chair.

“The Staesys should be broken if we get her out of this room.”

Dean looked across the restaurant toward the elevator. “How are we going to do that?” Sebastian and Tyrus were battling with Braiden and the scar-faced woman right by the doors. Sebastian ducked beneath Braiden's thrashing sword, then sliced him across the knee. Braiden howled but blocked the next blow.

“I don't have a demon—we'd be no match for them,” Oliver said disappointedly. He glanced around. “Here,” he said, picking up Emalie and throwing her over his shoulder. He turned, grabbed a chair, and hurled it through the nearest window. It exploded outward in a rain of glass.

Oliver hopped up onto the edge of a table, for a moment teetering. Looking up, he saw that there was a ledge jutting out above the restaurant windows. It was only about ten feet out, but also hundreds of feet above the ground, a fall that Emalie would not survive.

“Oliver—” Dean warned.

There was a scream and the clashing of metal from behind him. Something slapped at Oliver's feet. He looked down to see a crossbow bolt embedded in the table.

“Never mind!” Dean shouted. “Go!”

Oliver leaped into space. Emalie's weight was more than he'd bargained for, but he grabbed the edge of the ledge and dangled by one hand, the twinkling suggestion of streets far below through the fog.

“Ehh,” Emalie mumbled, coming to. “Oliver?” she said weakly. Her face was awkwardly upside down by his armpit.

Oliver used his free arm to slide her back over his shoulder, until her head was upright, her chin on his shoulder. “Hey, Emalie,” he said, trying not to sound like they were hanging hundreds of feet above the ground.

“Hey.”

“Can you wrap your arms around my neck?” Oliver asked innocently.

“Mmm, sure,” Emalie murmured, and did so. “Why am I doing this?”

“It'll just be for a sec,” Oliver assured her. “Hold on as tight as you can.”

“‘Kay.”

Oliver swung his other arm up and hauled them onto the ledge. It was made of slats of metal, and there were many spaces for a foot to slip through. Oliver stood, balancing precariously. In front of them was the observation deck that was situated above the restaurant. Oliver vaulted over this, to the roof. He lowered Emalie until her feet found the sloping metal. She moved beside him, still leaning woozily, an arm across his shoulders.

There was a giant array of lightning rods and radio towers at the center of the roof. Oliver saw a thick wire attached to this, slipping out into the fog.

“No problem,” Dean grunted. Oliver turned to find him laboring up onto the roof. “Already dead, so nobody lend a hand or anything.”

Sirens wailed from below. Oliver saw the lights of police cars dancing through the fog from all directions.

“Oliver!” Oliver turned to see Braiden and the scar-faced woman crossing the roof toward the zip line. Braiden was leaning on one leg, the other bent awkwardly, his knee bloody. The woman began attaching a set of handles to the wire. She ran forward and leaped off the roof, sliding away to safety. Braiden now reached up and flipped his own set of handles over the zip line, balancing precariously on his twisted leg.

“You're a coward!” Oliver suddenly shouted, feeling a new hatred boil for his would-be slayer. He fought the urge to run forward, eyes blazing, as he felt Emalie wobble unsteadily beside him.

“No, actually I'm a strategist!” He grabbed the handles and prepared to slide away. “Which reminds me,” he shouted, “I wanted to tell you about your human parents!”

There was a crash from somewhere on the other side of the roof, a door banging open, and the clashing of weapons.

Oliver couldn't help but stare at Braiden, caught wondering what he was about to say. Braiden smiled. “They're alive!” he shouted, then leaped off the edge of the Needle, disappearing into the fog.

Oliver stared after him, unable to think. Alive? What did he mean? How could they—

“Hey.” He glanced over to see Emalie staring at him seriously. “Don't listen to him,” she said, trying to shake her head firmly. “We'll figure it out later.”

“Okay,” Oliver replied blankly, knowing she was right, but inside, it was like a flash had gone off in his mind, erasing everything else. There was no way that was possible. No way. His human parents had been killed. The newspaper had even said so. He'd seen it.…

“We should get out of here,” Dean added.

Oliver tried to push the thoughts into a dark corner for a while. He started toward the zip line, helping Emalie along, as police car doors slammed below.

“Oliver.”

Oliver looked over to find Sebastian on the roof, his long black coat whipping in the wind. A member of the Brotherhood lay at his feet. Oliver saw his eyes dart to Emalie on his shoulder and watched his face turn blank with what might have been shock, or disbelief, or disappointment, or maybe all three. There was nothing to do, other than just stand there. Oliver wasn't going to put down Emalie—so he didn't.

“Get going,” Sebastian said blankly, like he was looking at something he would never understand. “Now.” Then he held out his arm, and a crow landed on it. Sebastian dissolved into black smoke that wrapped around the bird and disappeared as it flew off.

Oliver stared blankly at the space where his father had been.

“Oliver …” Emalie's voice sounded like it was far away. “Let's get out of here.”

He shook it off as best he could and hurried to the zip line. He pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt over his hands and grabbed the wire. “Okay, ready?” he asked. Emalie put her arms around his neck again. Dean grabbed the wire with his sleeves as well. Oliver rushed forward and leaped off the side.

There was a moment of weightlessness, a second of falling, and then the line caught tight, and they sailed down off the Space Needle, over Seattle Center, over the giant fountain—low enough that their feet just kicked the arcing water—and tumbled onto the grass in a dark corner between two buildings.

Chapter 15

The Things Said and Unsaid

OLIVER LAY THERE FOR
a moment, the Space Needle glowing distantly in the fog. He heard Dean getting to his feet. Offering Emalie a hand.
How could my parents be alive?
he wondered. Emalie's and Dean's faces appeared above him.

“You okay?” Dean asked.

“Yeah,” Oliver replied, not knowing if he meant it or not.

They crossed the lawn back to the fountain, and collapsed onto its wall. Behind them was a wide concrete bowl. Inside, a half-sphere of silver metal was shooting columns of water in every direction to the sound of cheery music. The water was bathed in pink lights. Groups of kids sat around the edge of the fountain, and some were running around inside, making a game of avoiding the falling water.

“He was lying,” Dean said, stretching out on his back along the wall.

Oliver sat with his elbows on his knees. “Yeah,” he agreed, but he didn't believe it. “Maybe.”

“We can find out,” Emalie said. “Oliver, don't worry.”

“Okay.” Oliver watched the water and the kids. “I guess we should get you home,” he said to Emalie. Of course the idea of home reminded him of that look on Sebastian's face moments ago. Sebastian had seen Oliver with Emalie. All the lies about prodigies would be undone. He thought about Bane, fighting alongside his dad in the Space Needle—a real vampire, a real son—and what exactly was Oliver?

And then something dawned on him. “Ha,” he laughed to himself.

“What?” asked Dean.

Oliver shook his head. “They still knew.…” he mumbled in disbelief.

“Who, the Brotherhood?” asked Emalie.

“No, my parents.” He looked at Dean. “She was lying.”

“Huh?” mumbled Dean.

“My mom,” Oliver said, the pieces coming together. “That whole story she told us about going out for Valentine's Day.… They knew if they left me alone, I'd sneak out. Then they could follow me, and I'd lead them to the source of the Scourge.” He looked at Dean. “After we left Emalie's, my dad talked to Jenette. She knew they were coming.”

“Who?” Emalie asked.

“Oh, that's your wraith,” Dean explained with his best careful tone. “She's really pretty nice. I mean, she was just trying to free her trapped spirit.… It's understandable, right?”