Kitty's House of Horrors

  Vampires felt pain. I’d seen them get hurt. But they didn’t bleed much, and they didn’t need to breathe unless they were speaking. Gemma slid herself off that hook and didn’t make a sound. When she was free, she fell forward, and Anastasia dropped the spike, where it dangled off the winch.

  Anastasia glared at Grant. “Every magician is also an escape artist, yes? You can pick the lock?” She pointed to the door of the cage.

  Grant was already kneeling before the lock, working on it with a couple of thin metal tools, his lock picks.

  Gemma leaned forward, pressing herself against the bars of the cage, leaning toward Anastasia, reaching. Anastasia held the younger woman’s face.

  “Ani, I don’t want to die,” she said, gasping now in instinctive panic. She was still more human than not, had spent more years as a human than as a vampire.

  “Hush,” Anastasia said. “Stay calm. When he opens the door, we must fly to safety, do you understand?” Gemma nodded quickly. Her face puckered and she started crying.

  I had never seen the sun rise so quickly.

  “Anastasia, go back to the lodge,” Grant said, never turning his concentration from the lock.

  “No, not without Gemma, I’m not leaving.”

  “You’re in danger,” he said. “Go back.”

  “No!”

  “I’ll save her. I’ll get her out. But I can’t worry about you both.”

  “Gemma—”

  The girl was sobbing.

  I said to Anastasia, “Some of the stories say you guys can turn to mist. You can vanish, reappear at will—”

  “We can’t just walk through walls and iron bars!” the elder vampire said. “She’s just a child!”

  “Anastasia, please,” Jeffrey said, putting his arm around her shoulder, urging her away.

  “Jeffrey,” I said. “Go back to the lodge, the hunters’ blind, whatever’s closer. Get a tarp or a blanket or something we can put over the cage to shade it,” I said. I’d started crying, too. I’d have thought I’d be out of tears by now. “Both of you, go!”

  Anastasia turned and ran, Jeffrey following, struggling to keep up. I moved around the cage, putting myself between Gemma and the sun, as if my small body could shelter her.

  Grant worked on the locks. He clenched his jaw and seemed to be struggling.

  “Grant?”

  “This type of lock would be easy, but there’s a film of silicone sealant on the mechanism. It’s glued shut.”

  Gemma pressed her back against the bars, as far away from the oncoming sunlight as she could get. Watching, I could almost see it move toward her, a reaching hand. Grant continued jamming his pick in the lock, working it in an arcane fashion that might as well have been magic.

  With a pop and a click, the lock sprang and the door swung open. Grant took hold of Gemma’s arms and pulled.

  And the sunlight reached her.

  “No!” Grant screamed in fierce defiance and clung to Gemma all the more.

  But the light touched her legs and she caught fire, and the flames raced up her as if she were made of dry cotton. Her clothing didn’t burn so fast but stayed for a moment as a shell around an inferno. Her eyes held terror, her gaze locked with Grant’s, her mouth open in a silent wail.

  Then the fire was gone and all was ash, specks drifting above on heated air. Grant knelt before streaks of soot and ash on the ground, his hands rigid in front of him, his skin burned to blisters.

  The smell in the air was… I breathed through my mouth and tried to shut it out.

  I moved to Grant, put my hand on his shoulder. The expression on his face was lost, the eyes sad. He looked old.

  “I had her,” he murmured. “I’d opened the lock. I’d won.”

  I wasn’t sure he’d even noticed his hands. He hadn’t moved them. They still curled as if they held Gemma’s arm.

  “You’re hurt,” I said. “Let’s get inside.”

  He slumped against me, and I almost panicked, thinking I’d have to drag him back, thinking he’d die, too, and then what would I do?

  “I’m so tired,” he said, leaning on my shoulder. Just resting a moment.

  “I know,” I whispered.

  Turning at the sound of running, I saw Jeffrey, standing with a wool blanket that might have come from the hunters’ blind. When he saw us, he dropped it. His shoulders slumped, and grief pulled at his face.

  A pair of gold filigree rings had survived the blaze. Gemma’s rings. I picked them up, squeezed them in my hand, and nudged Grant. “Come on, we have to go.”

  Propping him up, I pulled him to his feet, and whatever moment of despair had gripped him vanished. He straightened, the look of cold stone settling over him. He folded his hands protectively to his chest and walked.

  I picked up the blanket Jeffrey had dropped, held it up, showing the light that played through the fibers. Not a tight weave. “It probably wouldn’t have been enough,” I said, like that was any comfort.

  “It might have been,” he said. “If I’d been faster.”

  I hooked my arm through his and urged him on. Side by side, Jeffrey and I followed Grant back to the lodge.

  Anastasia was waiting in the living room, toward the back, in shadows and away from the sunlight now pouring in through the windows. She had to know it was too late, but when we came in through the door she demanded, “Where is she?”

  Grant, streaked with sweat and soot, could only look at her, his burned hands clawed in front of him.

  Tina covered her mouth, her eyes narrowing with tears. Anastasia didn’t say a word. Not to reprimand him, not to weep. She nodded once, then went to the basement door and descended into her cave.

  I followed.

  “Anastasia?”

  At the bottom of the stairs, I found her sitting on the bed, a noble statue, gazing into the corner.

  “Anastasia, I’m sorry. He tried. He almost had her.”

  “She died in his arms,” she said. “I could see that. Right now, I have nothing to say. I need to rest. I hope to see you come nightfall.”

  Hesitating, I approached, opening my hand to her. Gemma’s rings lay on my palm. Anastasia stared at them a moment, then retrieved them with cold fingers, closing them in her own fist.

  I left her, climbing back up the stairs with feet made of lead.

  chapter 20

  Tina, Jeffrey, and Grant were in the kitchen, tending to the magician’s hands with ointment and bandages. Someone must have found a first-aid kit. Grant’s jaw was taut, and he bore what must have been terrible pain without flinching.

  Leaning on the counter, I watched, wondering what to do now. I asked myself what Cormac would do, and I couldn’t think of an answer anymore. No, that wasn’t true. He’d hole up somewhere defensible with a case of ammunition and shoot anything that moved.

  Not a bad idea, that.

  Jeffrey said, “Kitty, you should get some sleep. You look like you’re about to collapse.”

  My muscles ached; my brain hurt. And the walls were closing in. “So do you.”

  “Is there a plan?” Tina said.

  I shook my head. “I’m all out of plans.”

  “Anastasia can’t leave until nightfall,” Grant said, forcing his voice to stay steady. “Getting sleep in the meantime isn’t a bad idea. We can rest in shifts while the others keep watch.”

  “They’re still out there,” Tina said. “You think they’re still after us?”

  “Of course they are,” Grant muttered, harsh with pain.

  “But they have to sleep, too,” Jeffrey said. “Maybe they’ll leave us alone for a while.”

  Maybe they would. Maybe we’d have a few hours’ respite. “I’ll take the first watch,” I said.

  “No,” Jeffrey said. “Tina’s right, you’re half asleep already.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He touched my shoulder and guided me to the second sofa, and I was too tired to shrug him off.

  I woke up not knowing how I managed to
fall asleep at all, but exhaustion had caught up with me. But I didn’t exactly feel refreshed. I still felt hunted, all my muscles tied in knots, my hackles permanently taut. When I looked around the living room, it was with suspicion, searching for the thing that was wrong. Looking to see who was missing now.

  Grant was asleep on a bed of blankets on the floor by the fireplace. His injured hands wrapped with gauze bandages lay on his chest. Tina was slumped in a chair, also asleep. Jeffrey sat in a chair near the window, out of sight from the outside, where another beautiful sunny day in the mountains shone through.

  Conrad, sitting up, his injured leg stretched out on the other sofa, was awake and looking at me. He actually seemed a little better—more relaxed, not so pale. His leg had been washed and bound with gauze and tape. Blood still seeped through the bandages. He really needed a hospital. That goal seemed a tiny bit out of our reach at the moment.

  “Hi,” I said, slowly drawing myself into the moment.

  “Hi,” he answered.

  “What’s been happening? What have I missed?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been kind of out of it. The others have been taking turns keeping watch.”

  “How are you doing?” I asked.

  He smiled wryly and shook his head. “It’s gone numb.”

  That couldn’t be a good sign. “We’ll get out of this. Everything’ll turn out.”

  That sounded lame, didn’t it? I glanced away in apology.

  His voice was soft but steady now. As long as he didn’t move, the pain seemed manageable. “You’re married, right?”

  “Yeah.” The reminder of Ben sent an ache through my heart. I couldn’t think about him right now—just think about getting through the next few hours.

  “You have kids?” he said.

  “No.”

  “You want kids? Are you and your husband trying for them?”

  My smile got tighter as the old wound twinged in my gut. “It’s not a matter of what I want. Lycanthropes can’t carry a baby to term. Shape-shifting causes a miscarriage.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah. Life’s a bitch.”

  “I didn’t think I wanted them. My wife—Trish—talked me into it. I could never say no to her. But when Toby came along—God, I didn’t think I’d feel that way. It’s like the whole world shifted so everything centered on him. This amazing little thing. Toby, then Hannah…”

  He wiped his nose on his shirt. That whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing? Maybe it happened sometimes, but I had a feeling that just three faces were flashing before Conrad’s eyes.

  “We’re going to get out of this,” I said weakly. “You’ll see them again.”

  He gave a painful chuckle. “Yeah. Sure. Okay.” Unconvinced.

  “Get some rest,” I said. “In case we have to go running again.”

  “I want to be awake. When the next thing happens, I don’t want to be asleep.”

  Yeah. I got that.

  “Jeffrey?” Conrad craned his neck, looking for the psychic, wincing as he jostled his leg.

  Jeffrey came over. He didn’t look any better than the rest of us. A beard had started growing, his hair was shaggy and uncombed, and his face was pale. Jeffrey was one of the most upbeat people I knew. I’d never seen him so grim. He didn’t even speak, just waited for Conrad to continue.

  “Jeffrey,” he said, full of emotion. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t believe. I want—can I talk to Natalie? I want to talk to her. Can you help me?”

  Jeffrey smiled, though sadly. “Just talk to her, Conrad. She’ll hear. She’s always heard you.”

  “And my kids. If anything happens to me, I’ll still be able to see them, I can talk to them—will you help me talk to them? I just want them to know—”

  “Don’t think about it,” Jeffrey said. “It’s not worth thinking about.” He went back to the window, staying at the edge, sneaking careful looks out. He was tense, arms crossed, jaw set. I wanted to hug him. Like that would help.

  Conrad settled back on the sofa, staring miserably into space.

  I went to find something to eat. Drank a cup of flat soda and a slice of bread and peanut butter that went down like sawdust.

  “Tina, Grant, Kitty—” Jeffrey called. The others woke and sat up instantly; they may not have slept at all. “I saw something. They’re out there—one of them is, at least. In the trees there.”

  “What do you see?” Grant said. He didn’t act injured at all, except that he kept his hands cradled in front of him, sheltered.

  “I think it’s Provost.”

  I thought for a minute. “You think we can catch him?”

  Grant said, “Where’s the rifle?”

  “We lost it with Lee,” I said, thinking I probably should have picked it up. I consoled myself by believing it had been damaged in the explosion. “Who has the handgun?”

  Looking around, I found it on the kitchen counter. I grabbed it, checked the ammunition. Still full.

  “Can you use it?” Tina said.

  “I’d have to get out in the open—he’d get me before I got him,” I said.

  Jeffrey said, “So that’s it? We’re talking about killing him?”

  I said, “I think we’re firmly in them-or-us territory. As nice as it would be to see them convicted of murder, they’re not going to sit still for that.”

  Jeffrey looked at Grant. When the psychic spoke, he sounded unhappy. Maybe he dealt with enough death that he didn’t want to go around causing it. “You have a spell for this? Maybe some of the hypnotism?”

  “I’d need to use my hands,” Grant said, moving to the window. “Where?”

  Jeffrey told him, describing the place at the edge of the clearing, near Valenti’s old spot.

  “What is it you keep saying, Kitty?” the magician said. “Flush them out?”

  “Who gets the short straw on that one?” I said.

  “What if you went out the back? Then shifted to your wolf form and came at him from behind? He’s looking for people coming out the front.”

  I had so many arguments against that plan. It was a horrible plan. As hyped up as I was at the moment, I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t turn wolf and head for the hills, never to be seen again. I might try to join that pack of wild wolves we’d run into. Then again, I was pissed off enough that I might be all too happy to go after Provost and tear him to shreds. But if I didn’t kill him, if he didn’t die—I never wanted to be responsible for infecting another person with this disease. Even someone like Provost. Especially someone like him. Homicidal bastard as werewolf? Bad scene, there.

  “You’re not saying anything,” Grant said.

  “I think you’re overestimating my ability to follow a plan once I shift.”

  “What if you didn’t follow a plan? What if you just ran, got out of here, and went for help?” Jeffrey said. “Even if you didn’t remember what you were doing as a wolf, you’d remember when you woke up, right?”

  “Assuming I didn’t run up against silver razor wire or get caught in another insane trap.” The whole lodge had become a trap, of course.

  “I keep expecting them to attack the lodge,” Grant murmured. “We don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  That, more than any other reason, was why we had to do something. If we didn’t, they would.

  “I don’t have to be a wolf to flush him out,” I said. “But are we scaring him, catching him, or killing him?”

  Nobody answered until Conrad said from the sofa, “Do we have a choice?”

  I had killed to protect me and mine before. I could do it again. I drew the handgun from my pocket, checked the chamber and safety one more time. Loaded with silver bullets, of course, which made me twitch. But Provost and his party hadn’t brought along any other kind, apparently. I felt horribly ostentatious doing the checking—bad action-film girl, right here.

  “Distract him,” I said. “Keep him looking out front. Make him think he can get a shot off.” Then I’d s
neak up from behind. It was a Cormac-grade plan.

  I left them and went to the back door. Quietly opened it. Didn’t make a sound. Stepped out.

  And fell back as the wall beside me exploded. Another gunshot blasted as I slammed shut the door and hunched on the floor.

  Grant, Tina, and Jeffrey came running.

  “Cabe,” I said, picking myself up, checking myself over. Some scratches from flying splinters marked my arm, but I could handle that. Just as long as nothing silver touched me, I’d be fine.

  Tina huffed, turning away in a show of frustration. “So they’re waiting us out.”

  “We have to think of something,” Grant said. He started pacing, slow, moderate steps. He winced with pain.

  Jeffrey was looking at the front door. “I want to try something. Kitty, can you stay out of sight?”

  “What are you going to do?” I said.

  “Just don’t let Provost see you through the window.”

  He went to the front door and opened it.

  Tina gasped and reached after him. “Jeffrey, don’t!”

  Jeffrey called out, so the man in the trees could hear, “Joey! We want to make a deal! Let’s talk!”

  Grant joined Tina by the front door to listen. Still holding the gun, I crouched nearby, under the window.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Grant demanded.

  Jeffrey kept calling. “You’ve made your point! Cabe just shot Kitty out back—”

  I thought I saw where this was going. I ducked and listened.

  “Except for the vampire in the basement, the monsters are all gone. The rest of us are human. We know this is all about the monsters. If you let us go, the four of us will walk away. We’ll leave the vampire to you.”

  It just might work.

  The thing was, Provost and Cabe couldn’t let anybody walk away. They’d already killed their witnesses, the show’s assistants. But maybe he didn’t know that we knew that. Jeffrey was good with people. Maybe he really could lure him into the open. All I needed was a clear shot…

  “Conrad and Odysseus are hurt. We need to get to a hospital. We just want to talk to you, Joey. Stay there if you want, but talk to me.”