Kendra skidded down the lab bench on her belly. Books and papers flew to the floor in her wake. The mound of heavy equipment loomed in front of her. She covered her head and fervently hoped that post-concussive syndrome wouldn’t affect her memory.
Instead of smashing her skull, she felt herself lifted up and back so swiftly that her stomach lurched.
“I think our first order of business should be to improve the precision and safety of landings,” Alex said.
Kendra rolled over in his arms so that she could see his face. He grinned.
“Put me down, please.”
“Why, do I have bad breath or something?” Alex looked worried.
Kendra sighed.
“Oh, right,” Alex said, and grinned some more. “We have work to do.”
Kendra nodded, and he put her down gently.
“So how is your younger self, and how young was she?”
Kendra didn’t answer him. She rummaged through the drawers until she found her electronic bug sweeper. She inserted the batteries.
“You don’t have to--“
Kendra helped up a hand to stop him. “Indulge me,” she said. “It became a habit at Stamford, a useful one.” She bent to fish out the tin of listening devices and tossed it to him.
Alex looked inside and raised his eyebrows. “Some of these are very good, aren’t they?”
Kendra nodded and swept her side of the lab. When she’d finished, Alex swept his. Despite his skeptical expression, Kendra was grateful. The lab Regis had built for them was more than twice as big as her lab at Stamford had been. Her arms ached from holding up the sweeper. Her stomach growled.
“Do we have time for lunch or--” The sweeper emitted a high-pitched shriek. Alex stepped to the side, put his back against the wall, and pointed to the frame of the blackboard. He looked angry, but said with apparent good humor, “I think your tea has brewed long enough. Would you please turn off that alarm?” He switched off the sweeper.
Who could have done this? he scrawled on a note pad and showed it to Kendra.
Kendra tapped her tin full of bugs. I found one like it in the seam of my computer monitor at Stamford. I assumed that it had been placed by American Missile.
We must tell Regis, wrote Alex, then said cheerfully, “Yes, dear colleague, we have time for lunch. Shall we?” He gestured for her to precede him, and grabbed the tin as he passed it.
Lunch was out of the question they found as the kitchen hallway spun into view. Strong arms grabbed Kendra before she’d stopped spinning. She heard a snarl to her left, and the tight grip on each of her arms vanished. In a blur of motion, four vampires dressed in black pinned Alex horizontally to the wall.
Fangs exposed, he snarled and bit at his attackers, who were careful to stay out of range as they held him. He looked so savage then, monstrous. Kendra shrank into the space between the tray stand and the wall.
One of the vampires who held Alex laughed at Kendra, and she realized that she recognized him--ponytail vamp. The crowd of vampires in the ballroom turned to face them just as Kendra realized they were there.
Kendra looked again at Alex. He had seen her fear of him, and relaxed in the grip of his captors. He retracted his fangs, and looked at her with regret. Run, he mouthed silently.
She grasped the tray and pulled it counterclockwise, past her torso.
“Oh no you don’t!” Ponytail vamp snatched her off the threshold just as it began to spin.
With one leg free, Alex managed to kick off another of his captors, and then struggled to free his arms. Several vampires rushed from the ballroom. One clenched both of his hands together, and smashed them against Alex’s head. The tremendous blow left Alex drooped and unconscious. The two vamps who still had his arms propped him in an upright position.
Kendra inhaled sharply.
Ponytail, still holding her tightly, laughed again. “Don’t worry, girly. He’ll be back ‘round in a few minutes.”
“Bring the captives forward,” commanded a voice from the ballroom.
Kendra shuddered. Though the vampires that filled the ballroom seethed with emotion, the voice was perfectly calm. It was an ancient voice.
As she was frogmarched toward the center of the room, Kendra recognized some members of Regis’ community. None looked happy, and each was flanked by some of the vampires dressed in black leather.
A space cleared at the front of the room. Kendra gasped again. Regis was bound to his throne with chains of silver. There were so many cuts on his face that he looked as if he’d shaved with a weed wacker. Two of the black clad vampires, one on either side of Regis, held knives that seemed to be made of black glass--obsidian Kendra guessed.
Behind Regis, a giant in a black tailcoat, bowtie, and trousers sat on an immense gold throne. He was the palest vampire Kendra had seen, and she wondered if the degree of pallor was a sign of vampire age. The giant’s white tux shirt glowed richly in comparison with his pallor. He met Kendra’s eyes. She felt a pull on her thoughts, and looked away quickly. Surely before her sat the source of the myths about the hypnotic gaze of vampires.
Beside her Alex groaned and coughed as he returned to consciousness. Obviously in pain, he straightened slowly between his two guards.
“Kendra Tanagawa and Alexander Sterling, or shall I say Aurelius?” asked the giant in the throne. He seemed to wait patiently, but there was nothing kind or good about him. He impressed Kendra, who was careful to keep her eyes on his torso and not his face, as a lion waiting for the best moment to strike.
Alex did not respond, other than to stare at the giant.
“I believe you have had two names, isn’t that so?” The giant sounded amused, and his army of vamps in black laughed quietly. The giant stood, and stepped down from the dais to peer down at Alex. “Why should a vampire change his name to better suit mercurial human convention, hmm?” He forced Alex’s chin up, and stared angrily at him for a moment. He released Alex, then paced slowly across the ballroom in front of Regis, who watched him in wary silence.
“You seek to preserve our kind, you and your leader,” the giant paused to gesture to Regis. Kendra looked up just enough to register the smirk on his face without looking at his eyes, “yet you wish to continue the current charade of a kinder, gentler vampire.” He stood still and faced the crowd. “Does it not seem cruel, my brothers, to save us in half measure?”
“Yes!” said the vampires in black.
“Shall we not save our true, whole selves?”
“Yes!”
“So we shall. Regis,” the giant rebel resumed his throne, “you will be imprisoned in silver without food until you see the error of your way.”
“No!” Thomas fought his way to the front of the crowd, a rebel vamp clinging to each arm.
“Ah,” said the giant, “the lover. Yes, best to join your fates together. Take them both.” He gestured toward the kitchen hallway, and eight rebels hauled Regis and Thomas away. The community of northern California muttered and shuffled, but did not fight.
Kendra was sure that she saw more than one of them glance at Alex, as if for guidance.
