“Sorry if I couldn’t accommodate you…?” I said, wondering just what the hell she expected me to say to something like that. “You sound different.”

“Good,” she said. “It’s pained me for some time as well in my current role.”

“And what role is that?” I said, hoping to buy some time. I either needed to come up with a plan or else hope that Nicholas thought about this place after moving the castle to the States.

“What role?” Beatriz repeated, giving a courtly curtsy that just looked odd on her, but she executed it with a practiced precision. “Why, the dutiful girlfriend. I did Brandon and Damaris’s bidding for centuries, united to what I thought was their cause, the superiority of our kind. Had I known he’d go all peacenik after his precious got dusted, Mr. Bleeding Heart, I would have ripped it from his chest.”

“So is this the real you?” I said. “Or just one role among many? Show me the one you used to seduce Nicholas to your side…”

Beatriz smiled. “Your concern for him is touching,” she said, “and yes, this is the real me. The monster. Do you know that Nicholas was too foolish to see my true nature when I courted him? I was surprised that he fell as hard as he did, but you know those religious types and their notions of romantic love. Utterly… predictable.”

Beatriz balled up her fist and slammed it against the wall, shaking it. “You’ve all made this so hard,” she said, looking positively disgusted, “you humans. Look what I went through to try and finish you off. First, I thought I took care of Jane using the building and computers to eliminate her. Then I wrapped Aidan around my little finger just in case I had to deal with Connor, but now there’s you! If you weren’t around Aidan’s brother all the time, then Aidan or Brandon would be bothering me with one thing or another, making it near impossible to kill all of you. You humans are like cockroaches. You simply won’t die.”

I needed an exit from there now. And only one of us knew where it was.

“You want to tell me why you want any of us dead?” I said, stripping off one of my gloves. I raised my hands and touched her cold leathery skin. “Or I could try guessing. Although, frankly speaking, I’m one of the nicest people I know so…”

My mind’s eye flashed open and I pressed a single thought into Beatriz’s mind. Door. The image of a hidden door straight across the room filled my brain. I pulled myself out of the vision and stared at the far wall. I definitely didn’t see one there, but thanks to Beatriz, I hoped I knew exactly where it was.

“Get your hand off me,” Beatriz said, pulling it off her and pushing me away with some force. I staggered back, but it was what I had been hoping for. I was closer to the door. In the rush of my movement, I pulled my bat, clicked the button, and extended it. Beatriz looked at me, eyebrows raised. “You think you’re going to take me on with that?”

“Well, since you want me dead, yeah,” I said. I remembered all the private sessions with the Inspectre training in unorthodox fighting techniques under the Fraternal Order of Goodness. He had looked comical with his chest padding with a painted heart on it and Dracula cape, but it had trained me in vampire combat.

At least I hoped it had. There was a world of difference between theory and application.

I swung the bat wide and to my left, making a very obvious and open attempt at hitting her, knowing full well where she had to move to avoid it. The second she blurred into motion, I used my swing momentum to reverse my shot into an empty spot nearby. The bat connected with a metallic thud as Beatriz appeared there, clutching at her shoulder.

“I might not be able to follow your speed,” I said, starting another wild swing, “but I can anticipate you…”

Beatriz took off again, and again I aimed into an empty space. She slammed into my bat once more, this time hitting her in the gut.

“And if I can anticipate you,” I continued, gathering my strength for another swing, “I can beat you.”

I started with a high swing this time, knowing full well she would try to duck it. The second she went to move, I corrected myself and dropped low with my arc, catching her in the legs. She clutched her leg, her face a mix of disbelief and fury. I backed toward the secret door and felt for where I had seen her closing it in the vision.

“And you have my Department to thank for all this technique,” I said.

The door clicked, swinging open behind me. I raised one of my hands, placed it to my mouth, and let out a loud whistle into the castle. Beatriz swore under her breath and blurred into motion toward me. I braced myself for the impact while holding the bat straight out in front of me, not sure what she was going for. A second later I was still standing there, but it was quiet all around me. Beatriz had blown past me out the door.

Before I had a chance to take it all in, Aidan and Brandon were first to dash onto the scene.

“Where is she?” Aidan asked, checking her secret chamber.

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said, “but if I were her, I’d want out of this Epcot version of Transylvania pronto.”

Brandon looked at Aidan, then grabbed me around the shoulder. “The Gibson-Case Center.”

I held on tight waiting for them to take off, even enjoying the sick thrill of the chase at these speeds. It was probably as close as I’d ever get to traveling at light speed.

32

The exit from the castle was a blur. I caught a brief green hint of the forest surrounding it as Aidan, Brandon, and I flew along. By the time we were heading for the entrance back into the Gibson-Case Center, the light through the now-open doors at the end of the tunnel made me feel like I was being born. We shot out into the open atrium of that section of the building and came to a stop almost immediately.

Beatriz was standing there, waiting. So were most of the people I knew from the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, including the Inspectre. Most of them were armed with crosses, vials of holy water, and stakes at the ready. At the front of the crowd stood Allorah Daniels, strapped to the gills with a small personal arsenal. There was only Beatriz between me and my fellow humans, but behind me I heard the sound of more vampires arriving.

“Inspectre!” I called out.

I looked back over my shoulder. The growing number of vampires was already transforming, hissing as their features stretched tight over their skin. The humans bristled and raised their weapons.

The pure hatred on Allorah’s face was almost as terrifying as the vampires. I followed her closely, watching her fingers tense on the wooden stake she clutched in her hand. By the mad look in her eyes, I had only seconds before she did something rash.

I ran for Beatriz right in the thick of it all. I went in swinging with my bat. Bea made a mad grab for me at lightning speed. My post-light speed chase rhythm was off just enough that Beatriz grabbed my bat midair, twisted it from my hands, and used it to pull me into a headlock with her other arm.

“Stop right there,” Beatriz said to everyone around us, menacing me with the bat.

Trapped like I was, I looked to Allorah. “How… how did you find this place?” I asked.

She looked fierce but shook her head at me. “That’s where the hunting part comes in with the whole ‘vampire hunter’ thing…? After you ran off on Godfrey and me the other day, I checked into what you had been researching with him. Building schematics, and, well, here we are.”

Part of me wanted to kill Godfrey even if he had only accidentally compromised me, but that was contingent on me not getting killed first.

Allorah stepped toward me and Beatriz, but Beatriz gave me a soft rap to the head, causing me to wince. Allorah stopped in her tracks.

“Stop right there or I’ll kill him.”