Allorah paused to consider this. “Go ahead and kill the traitor,” she said, moving to step again.

“Enough!” Inspectre Quimbley shouted. “Allorah, please… stay where you are.”

Allorah stopped, but she didn’t lower the stake in her hand.

Beatriz shook her head and sighed. “Sometimes I’m amazed that you people have ended up the dominant species on this planet.”

“You were us once, too, if you remember,” I said.

“Please,” she said, full of disdain, “don’t remind me.”

Beatriz spun around in a circle, assessing her predicament. There were humans on one side, vampires on the other, not to mention the two living statues on either side of the door that looked both confused yet ready to leap into action.

“What the hell’s going on, Bea?” Aidan said, stepping closer.

“Yes,” Brandon said, sounding pissed, “that’s what I’d like to know.”

“Just shut up,” Beatriz said, tapping the bat against my chin. “I’m going to kill him.”

“No,” Brandon said, his face becoming more human once again. “You’re not. The prophecy…”

“To hell with what the book says,” Beatriz said.

“Why would you do this?” Brandon said. His anger dissolved into genuine hurt. “Beatriz… we’ve worked so hard, for so very long… We’ve come so close to peaceful cohabitation with humanity…”

“Not we,” Beatriz said, shaking her head. “You. You worked hard for this. Don’t put all this on me. I was just your tool. When you needed an architect, I brought you Nicholas because I believed in you and Damaris. I even spent the last twenty years cozying up to your kidnapee, thinking you had a real plan for the superiority of our race.”

Aidan looked shocked. “You were playing me?”

“ ’Fraid so,” Beatriz said, laughing. She looked back at Brandon. “But when you started getting all hippy-dippy about peace and unity…”

“Bea…” Brandon said with sternness in his voice. “I don’t understand this change of heart, Beatriz. Why now, after all this time?”

Beatriz shook her head. “You were everything to us,” she said. “We believed in you, followed your counsel and did your bidding without question, and for what? To make peace with our food?” She looked over at the humans with revulsion, then turned back to Brandon. “Look at us now. We used to be kings and queens among men. We used to be feared, respected. People would tell tales of us and others would shudder. Why would anyone want to give that up? To give up their power?”

“This is power,” Brandon shouted at her. “The future is power! I’ve seen far too many of my kind, our kind, wiped away-out of fear, out of hatred. Yes, I was part of that, but I want an end to loss. When they staked Damaris, I truly remembered what it was to lose someone. I was devastated and I swore to myself no more. I want my family, all of you, to be a part of this modern world. You were part of that family.”

“I didn’t become a vampire so I could hang out around the castle watching 90210 for the next hundred years,” Beatriz yelled back at him. The pressure of her arm around my neck increased. I could feel Beatriz tensing up as she tapped my bat against my forehead. “Any last words?”

I looked to Jane over on the vampire-crowd side. She was clutching the heart-shaped necklace I had given her in her hands. I was about to die, but I would die knowing that I had tried my damnedest to keep the peace here. “I love you,” I said.

“I love you, too,” she said. She looked down at the necklace. “I love my present, too.” She looked up at me, our eyes meeting. “Speaking of presents,” she continued, “don’t forget my special delivery.”

With Bea’s arm gripped so tight around my throat, I had almost forgotten the bat she was threatening me with. It suddenly dawned on me, however, that she didn’t know of all it could do.

I double-checked the angle of the bat. Beatriz held the end of it tight in her hand, right about chest level.

“Bea?” I said.

“God,” she said. “Can you just shut up? I’m trying to kill you here.”

“Yeah, about that…” I reached up and grabbed the end of the bat. I pressed the button combo Jane had built into the high-tech gadget. The grip end of the bat sprung open and out shot the spring-loaded stake housed within it, lodging deep into Bea’s chest.

She looked down, surprised, and then her body began to shake. Her skin crumbled away from her body, and the arm around my throat started to fall away. Blood-slicked muscle caught against my neck, but dried out in seconds as it flaked to dust. Before her hand turned to dust, I grabbed my bat before it could fall. All the while Beatriz screamed in agony until there was nothing of her left to produce the sound. Her skeleton was the last thing standing, but within seconds even that fell to the floor, the impact breaking it into pieces.

No one dared move. I looked over at Aidan for a split second. He simply looked stunned. It was the most human reaction I had ever seen on his face. Aidan first looked down at the pile of ashes and bone, then up at me.

I lowered my bat, but didn’t dare let go of it, not without knowing what would happen next. I walked over toward Allorah, but she was already grabbing for one of the larger devices hanging on her belt.

“Put it down,” I pleaded.

“Why should I?” Allorah said, looking at me. “Do you see what you’ve unleashed on this city?”

“I haven’t unleashed anything,” I said. “They’ve always been here. And for all that time, we’ve fought them. But it’s been over two years and you haven’t heard a peep out of them. Did you ever stop and wonder why?”

“It’s clear,” Allorah said. “They’ve been building up resources, biding their time.”

Brandon stepped forward. “My dear lady,” he said, “I assure you. If we wanted people dead, we certainly wouldn’t be stopped.” He paused, then his eyes widened. “I remember you.”

Allorah looked at him with caution. “Sure, pal.”

His face was heavy, his tone falling to somber. “You’re Allorah Daniels,” he said. “The one who killed Damaris. The teacher.”

I thought back to the vision I had had of their meeting twenty years ago. Allorah had never seen Brandon with his human face, only the hideous monster version of it, but when Brandon said the word “teacher,” Allorah’s face went gray.

“You!” she growled and ran for him. She unsheathed a vial from her belt. I wasn’t sure what concoction it might be from her lab, but it was probably bad news. I jumped in her way. She stopped and swung for me. Allorah had twenty years of fighting practice. I had a few years of street fighting and about a year of practical training. The female Enchancellor knocked me on my ass in an instant and I rolled a few feet away. Jane ran over to where I slid to a halt, helping me up.

“Stop it,” I shouted. “Enough fighting.”

This was not working. Allorah was almost to Brandon, who made no move to defend himself. “I accept your punishment,” he said, as if twenty years of penance could suddenly be solved with his death.

I grabbed Jane by the hand. “Follow my lead,” I said and dragged her straight into the eye of the storm, landing us sandwiched right between Allorah and Brandon.

“Move it, Canderous,” she said. “The monster accepts his fate.”

“Listen,” I said addressing the whole crowd as much as I was her. “I’m not really sure how all this is going to go down, but you have to promise me… Whatever happens, talk to each other. I know there’s trepidation… and fear… mostly fear, but you have to believe me. Brandon and his kind are good people. They’ve been building a… new paradigm. You can’t just look at them in black and white, like the old horror movies. Trust me.”

Allorah laughed. “I stopped trusting you the second you switched sides. Now, out of the way.”

“You want to kill Brandon?” I asked. “Fine, but first… Jane! With me!”

I grabbed Brandon’s arm and dragged him away before Allorah could react. As ready to accept death as Brandon was, his body moved willingly with my lead. Jane grabbed his other arm and followed. It was near impossible for anyone to attack with the two of us acting as a sort of human shield to the vampire. I headed for the bank of monitors around the art installation at the end of the hall.