Vintage soul

THIRTEEN

Johndrow sat and watched as Vein paced the room. There was nothing left to be said about the fiasco at Club Chaos, but there were still things to be settled between the two of them. For all his anger, Johndrow understood Vein’s anguish. Vanessa had brought the young one to the blood, after all. They were tied together in ways that Vanessa and Johndrow would never be. Johndrow and Vanessa were blood-bonded, but that bond had been a choice, something cultivated over many years of shared intimacy. What Vein felt was primal, like the protective instinct of a young man toward his mother.

“There has to be something we can do,” Vein said. He spun to face Johndrow and dropped his palms flat on the desk between them, meeting the elder’s eyes. “We can’t just sit back and hope the magic man pulls her through this.”

“What would you have us do?” Johndrow asked, keeping his voice neutral. “We don’t know where she is, and we don’t know who her captor is. Even if we managed to locate her, we don’t know what we’d be facing; so how would we prepare? We must wait.”

“I can find her,” Vein said. It wasn’t a boast; Johndrow saw this in the young one’s eyes. “I feel her. The bond is weak, but it’s there. I could follow it. You know I could, you’ve done so yourself, in other places, and other times. I know the stories as well as any.”

Johndrow nodded. It was true. He’d spent an entire winter tracking the one who’d made him, but that was a different matter altogether from this. That had been a journey fueled by hatred, and vengeance, and there had been only one end possible. That bond had itched at Johndrow’s thoughts and clawed at his mind. That other’s eyes had mocked him and the dry, lilting voice behind that gaze called out to him in tones that broke like brittle crystals.

“I had no choice,” Johndrow said. “When I chose to walk that road, I walked it alone, and I knew that it was likely I would never return. Vanessa brought you to us, but you came willingly enough. I was taken, toyed with, and cast aside. That is what I thought about each night, when I woke to the darkness, and that is what I thought about when I fed. There was no time for pleasure, and no room for forgiveness. This is different.”

“It is not.” Vein said flatly. “You are right in saying that what she gave me is a gift that I cherish, but how does that weaken the bond? I know she’s held against her will. I know that she’s great danger, and that the bond could be severed permanently. As much as you loathed the tie that bound you to the one you killed, I cherish mine. I have to do something.”

“Ah, but there is a difference,” Johndrow said, rising slowly. "There are two differences, in fact, distinct and important. The first is that, when I tracked and killed the one who made me, there was no council in place to stop me, or to help me. I was on my own, and I was going mad. You, on the other hand, are not alone. You have those you call friends, and you have the council.”

“What is the second difference?” Vein asked.

“DeChance,” Johndrow said, stepping around the desk to stand beside the younger vampire. “You have DeChance on your side. I know you don’t understand it — that you probably don’t believe it — but that one is strong, and he is smart. He can go places we cannot, and he can do things for us that no one else might accomplish. He has a personal stake in this, as well, so there is no fear of treachery.”

“As long as the blood in his veins flows hot and red, and it is his own, he cannot be trusted,” Vein said. “You yourself taught me that rule, and I have never forgotten it. He may help us for the money. He may even help us out of friendship. It changes nothing. He is what he is, and we are…something altogether different. There is no way he can change the instinct that makes his kind fear our kind, and with that fragile bond in the center of your bargain, I can’t trust her to him. I want to, believe me. I want to believe she will be here with us any moment, asking for a glass of your precious brandy and wrapping around you like a cat in heat. I don’t believe it, though, and that’s why I have to do something — anything — other than sitting here and waiting.”

“The Council will not sanction any rash action,” Johndrow said softly. “I want you to understand that. I know you believe you are doing the right thing, but your attack on DeChance might have cost Vanessa her life, if it had been less ill-conceived. Don’t believe he’ll be unprepared a second time.”

“I have no further interest in the magic man,” Vein said, glancing away toward the dark, obsidian surface of Johndrow’s window shield. Beyond it the afternoon shadows lengthened and stretched out dark fingers to clasp in the center and banish the light of day.

“But you will go?” Johndrow asked softly.

Vein nodded.

“I have to go.”

“If you find her,” Johndrow said, “tell DeChance where she is. Don’t try to get in alone. Don’t try to do it by yourself. I know you want to, but that’s your pride speaking, and pride speaks only for fools. Don’t let thoughts of revenge, or heroism, cloud your judgment. Whoever took Vanessa is no fool, and he will know you are coming — you or someone like you. He will be aware of the blood bond, and he will use it to his advantage.”

Vein turned to the door with a shrug. “If he has blood, I will make it mine. You can count on that.”

He stepped through the door and pulled it closed behind him. Johndrow stood in silence and watched him go. When he was sure Vein was out of sight, and hearing, he whispered.

“Bring her back to me, Vein. Bring back my life.”

~* ~

Vein took the private elevator down to the garage level. His car waited for him, as he had known it would. The others were already in the back, and the trunk was loaded with the equipment they expected to need. He’d only visited Johndrow out of a sensation of grudging respect. If Vanessa saw something in this man to look up to, the least Vein could do was to acknowledge it. That was as far as he was willing to go, however.

He had lied to the elder on several counts, or, at the very least he hadn’t been fully forthcoming. Foremost among the things he’d left out of their conversation was the fact that he was pretty certain he already knew where Vanessa was being kept. He’d followed the weak thread of the blood bond since the night of her capture, and after countless weaving, spiraling drives up and down the streets of the city, he’d managed to pinpoint where that bond was strongest.

Since the meeting with DeChance, Vein had been obsessed with two things. He needed to find and free Vanessa from whomever, or whatever had taken her so easily, and he wanted revenge on the magic man and the woman. Vein had worked long years to earn the respect of his small band of followers. They weren’t old in the blood, and there wasn’t a very bright bulb among them, but they were loyal. Seeing him bested publicly, and with such indifference, had been a blow to his ego, and to the loyalty and courage of his small posse. For the moment it was on the back burner, but it was an insult that couldn’t be ignored. That’s how Vein saw it, anyway.

He stepped off the curb as the sleek limo pulled out of its assigned spot and drew up beside him. The rear door opened and Vein slid inside. The others waited, all dressed in the long dark overcoats and dark sunglasses they preferred. It was an affectation, and Vein knew it. The world around them changed every few decades. Styles came and went, and with each transformation of that outer world, a more subtle shift ran through Vein’s own. This new wave was born of bad movies, old westerns, cheesy gothic novels and a simple desire to be “cool” that had not faded with the years. Vein was young enough to have clear memories of the time before he’d met Vanessa, and even in those early days of America, the long coat and gruff demeanor was in style. It hadn’t changed that much over the years, and for the first time in the history of humanity, vampires were “cool” just by existing. It was a good time to be undead, and Vein intended to make the most of it, regardless of the edicts and warnings of the elders. It was his time.

“Did you find everything?” he asked.

A blonde man in the front seat nodded. His hair was cut in a flat top, and his collar was turned up, shielding his face from view. This was Bruno, who was the youngest in the blood, but had been the oldest at the time of his transformation. He appeared to be in his mid forties, and it bothered him that he didn’t fit in well with the others, all of whom had given up the breathing life in their twenties. More than once he’d been mistaken for their father, or some sort of teacher with his class on a field trip. He was tall, broad, and a half-notch smarter than the others. Vein counted on him when there was anything more than the simplest of planning involved.

“Right here,” Bruno said, patting the seat between himself and the driver, who paid no attention to him at all. Kali had been eighteen when she was taken, and beautiful. She, like Johndrow, had been taken against her will, and her attitude had never improved. She hung with Vein and his crew because they paid little attention to the rules, and because Vein had promised her that eventually he would help her hunt down the one who had changed her. She didn’t speak unless spoken to, and most of the others steered clear of her when Vein wasn’t present. She liked that just fine.

Vein watched her for a moment as she pulled out of the private garage and onto the streets. He felt a special kinship with Kali that he lacked with the others, and he knew he’d have to pursue it eventually. Everything in its time.

“We had a little trouble with some of it,” Bruno said, breaking the silence. “That was expected, though, and we handled it.”

“We’ll deal with that when it’s over,” Vein said, dismissing the matter. “If we succeed, no one is going to begrudge us the few things we took, and if we don’t?”

He shrugged, and none of his companions felt compelled to fill in the blanks. If they failed they weren’t likely to be coming back at all — at least not in any condition for immediate punishment. All of them had issues with the elders in one way or another, and this was put up or shut up time. They’d been saying for years, at least since they linked their various cars to the “Vein train,” that they knew how to handle themselves, now it was time to prove it.

The sun had dropped the final few feet below the horizon and the city was drenched in twilight. Some street lights flickered on, others awaited more complete darkness. Businesses were caught in that dead zone between daylight and fluorescent splendor. Neon kicked in here and there, but was mostly silent, that gaseous, humming incandescence saved for the darker shadows. Bright lights to keep the city safe, dark, beautiful colored neon to lure them back into shadows. Vein loved the twilight.

They saw their goal long before they reached it. The Tefft Complex was a huge, gleaming structure of reflective glass windows, steel, and concrete. Lights winked out of offices up and down the north, east, and west face of the building, visible from anywhere in the downtown area. It wasn’t the tallest building in San Valencez, but it was one of the most imposing, and, as Vein had discovered, it had a secret. Like a giant, metallic bone stretching up into the darkening sky, he knew it had a core that wasn’t visible to the casual observer. The Tefft Complex had a hollow core, and it was in that central, sealed section he knew Vanessa was being held.

There were several businesses housed in the complex. There was a small, foreign bank, a jewelry importing firm, an insurance company, and even a small coffee shop on the first floor. Banks of elevators rode smoothly up and down the walls of the skyscraper, and if you walked in through any of the main entrances, you’d see that they ran in a tight circle near the center of the rear wall. The southern face of the complex had no windows, and the elevator shafts did not actually run across that back facing wall — and they were not all visible.

It had taken some doing, but once Vein had determined he had the right building, he’d started digging. When it came to the darker side of the city, what seemed apparent on the surface was almost always deceiving. The Tefft Complex proved no exception to the rule. There were at least two elevators in that structure that could not be accessed through the lobby. There was also a large section of the building itself that was accessible by no obvious means, but that certainly existed.

A little more digging, and he was certain he’d found the flaw in the facade. While the elevators didn’t open into the main lobby of the building, there were maintenance halls between the shafts, and they extended to the hidden shafts, as well as the others. Private elevators weren’t uncommon, and they required the same types of maintenance and service that public elevators did. Vein and his crew were very adept at climbing, and it didn’t seem likely that an elevator shaft would cause them much trouble.

What they might find once they entered that closed level he could only guess, and the guesswork was what made him nervous. Johndrow was right about one thing — they were less equipped than DeChance against most magical attacks. Strength and speed were on their side, but the innate weaknesses of undeath were too widely known and easy to emulate by magical means.

It was a problem. Vein had sent his followers crawling through all the darker pits of the city in search of charms, protections, and weapons that might give them an edge, or, barring that keep them from being destroyed. The haul was a small one, but surprisingly potent. He grinned, thinking about it.

On the corner of Oak and Vine, there was a small gift shop that specialized in occult items. Though she wasn’t always there, it was known that this shop was run by the woman called Amethyst, the one who’d humiliated Vein so easily in the alley. Her specialty was amulets, charms, and crystals, and though most of what she sold in the shop was powerless, meaningless junk, you could find the better items if you knew where, and how, to look. As it turned out, Vein wasn’t the only one in the city attracted to Kali. Amethyst had an apprentice.

Kali had talked the guy out of five amulets that would protect them from magical detection, and one larger crystal meant to deflect spells. In addition, Vein had purchased a blood crystal. There was little magic available to the undead, but magic didn’t always reside in the practitioner. Often it was imbedded in an object — a talisman, or a scroll where the words were enchanted to act of their own volition once the bearer spoke them aloud. Blood crystals were among the only enchantments unique to the undead, and Vein had gone to a lot of expense to acquire the one he wore around his neck.

The crystal had only one purpose. Once he placed a drop of his own blood to it, the stone would swing out to the length of the thong that held it around his neck, and it would stretch in the direction of the strongest blood bond. In this case, he intended to use it, once they’d managed to break through the security of the inner building, to find Vanessa as quickly as possible. He wasn’t bonded to any other, not among the elders, and certainly not among this crew. The only one with promise was Kali, and as he’d told himself earlier, that was for another time.

They pulled to the curb several blocks away from the Tefft Complex and sat with the motor running for few moments. Bruno handed out the amulets, and they slipped them over their necks in silence. Vein stared down at his, an almost solid black crystal.

“You sure these things will work?” he asked.

Kali shrugged. “How would I know? He said they would. Why would he lie?”

Vein shrugged and opened his door, stepping out onto the sidewalk. It didn’t matter. They were committed, and he, for one, was going to see it through to the end, even if the damned amulets didn’t work. He’d been sitting long enough; it was time for some action. He slipped his sunglasses on, and a moment later the others had gathered around him. They stood and stared up at the huge, looming structure, then started walking toward it as a group.

Vein and Kali took the lead. Behind them the other three lined up. Pierce had been unable to join them — he’d been the in the alley with Vein, and had not been back around since the attack. His absence was another thing to be dealt with at a later time. Kali more than made up the difference. Bruno walked directly behind Vein, and beside him was a thin kid they called Shade. On the far side, tall and lanky, walked the oldest of them next to Vein. His name was Robert, but they called him bones.

Vein didn’t like using the names they’d been born with. They were so much more than they’d been, why cheapen that with an outdated label? Of course, the elders disapproved, but they generally disapproved of everything Vein and his friends attempted or suggested, so the names stuck, and none of them answered to anything else. Vein wondered if Pierce had gone back to being “Darren Pierce” already, or if they could drag him back into the fold.

They entered the lobby of the Tefft Complex and headed straight for the elevators. There were security guards, but Vein gave them no chance to act. They stepped into the first elevator and Kali pushed the up arrow. The doors were closing before the first of the guards got the courage to press off the wall he was leaning on. Too late.

Once they’d left the first floor behind, Vein wasted no time. He nodded, and Kali poked the STOP button. There was a trap door in the top of the elevator car, and Bruno had it open in seconds.

“Up, and to the right,” Vein said. There should be a short tunnel, and on the far side of that there’s a maintenance ladder leading down between the shafts.”

Bruno nodded, levered himself up and through the hole, and was gone. Bones and Shade followed. Kali met Vein’s gaze for a moment, searched his cold features for something, found it, and disappeared upward like a wraith. Vein pushed the up button, leaped, and was through the door before the machinery ground into motion. He found the small maintenance tunnel, pulled himself inside, and crawled quickly through. The ladder was right where he’d expected it to be, and he dropped the six feet to the floor of the darkened passage without a sound. They stood in the darkness and glanced both directions down the corridor. The walls thrummed as the elevators rose and fell steadily; gears caught smoothly, cables spun on huge, greased pulleys.

“Come on,” Vein said, heading off to the right. “We were in the first public shaft, so the next one over should be one of the two private lifts.”

They moved quickly. The darkness was no hindrance, but the further they moved from that public elevator shaft, the more the awareness of what they were about to attempt hit home. They had no way to know what kind of security awaited them, or how effective the charms they’d purchased might prove. There was no time to worry over it now, if they’d been detected, there was no sign of it.

They came to another wall, and Bruno heaved himself up the side.

“There’s another short shaft,” he reported, “like the other one.”

He disappeared into it without waiting for the others, and they scaled the wall and followed. The far side opened into another elevator shaft, and a quick glance up and down showed that the elevator, currently, was on the ground floor. It was impossible to tell where the exit might lead without crossing the shaft and looking for another way out, but Vein wasn’t interested.

He pulled the blood crystal out from beneath his shift.

“Kali, would you do the honors?” he held out his arm to her, wrist up. She didn’t glance down at it. Instead, she met his gaze steadily. As she did so, her hand shot out and her nail opened a small cut in the skin of his forearm. She missed the vein by less than an inch. He didn’t flinch. Quickly, he held the cut over the crystal. Vein shook his arm; a single drop of blood seeped out before his skin could close and heal over it. The blood fell across the surface of the crystal and spread.

The effect was instantaneous, and eerie. None of them had ever seen one used before, though all of them were familiar with the concept. The crystals were rare, and expensive, and usually they were only employed in the “Blood Hunt,” the quest to find the one who’d brought you to the blood and kill him or her for the act. Kali watched with particular interest.

The blood spread out in a smoky haze. Though they had clearly seen the drop fall onto the crystal, it didn’t seem to have actually touched the surface. It formed a coating, iridescent and pulsing, and when the coating was complete, Vein released it. Instead of dropping to his chest, hit hung very still, floating in the air, then, almost lazily, the tip rose, pointing almost straight up the shaft of the elevator.

“Let’s go,” Vein said. He grabbed the wall of the elevator shaft and began his ascent, climbing in quick, graceful bursts like some sort of human spider. The others fanned out and followed, ringing the shaft and coming up level so that they climbed as a unit. None of them wanted to slip, or to be left behind, and if there was an attack, they had a better chance in a group where they couldn’t be picked off individually.

It became clear early on that there was a significant difference between this shaft and the public elevators. Though they climbed for what seemed an eternity, they passed only two doors. Each time they came level with one, Vein hesitated, and glanced down at the crystal, but it never wavered. It was pointed up, and he knew they were going to have to go all the way, nearly forty stories up, before they found what they sought.

They climbed in silence, and in a remarkably short time, the group of them clung in a tight semi-circle by the final door. The blood crystal stretched out from Vein’s neck, pointing not quite straight ahead, but almost. It angled to the left a little, and Vein noted this, then turned to Bruno and nodded.

Bruno climbed a bit higher, found two support beams to lodge his booted feet in, and dangled in front of the door. He slid his fingers into the crack in the center of that door, and with a single swift motion, he dragged it open. There was no time to hesitate. Vein swung through, and the other followed in a dark cloud. When all but Bruno had entered, Bones knelt and held the door, Bruno swung in over his head. Bones let the doors close with a soft snick, and they stood very still.

They were in a corridor that curved out and around in both directions, stretching back toward the outer south wall. The crystal swung to the left at about a forty-five degree angle, pointing off through the wall in front of them.

Vein turned left and followed the direction the crystal pointed, moving swiftly and keeping low. The others spread out, making as many separate targets as possible. Bones watched behind them for anyone, or thing, that might be following or trying to sneak up on them. They were out of sight of the elevator before they saw the first door.

Vein held up hand to caution the others and watched the crystal carefully. It still pointed further around the curving hallway. It was possible they could go through the room ahead to get to where Vanessa was held, but it seemed more likely there was another door. Vein slipped past the first silently, and the others followed. He rounded another bend. There were two remaining doorways. One was at the very end of the hall, flat against the wall, and the other, like the first they’d encountered, was on the right hand wall. Vein stepped up to this one, and the crystal tugged him closer, pointing dead center at the wooden door.

He glanced at Kali, then at the others.

“This is it,” he said.

He tried the knob. It was unlocked, and he turned it slowly. They waited. When there was no sound, he pushed gently, and the door swung open. The hinges were well-oiled, and there was no sound. The room was almost bare. They stepped inside and stopped at the sight that met their eyes.

Vanessa hung from the wall. Her wrists and ankles were chained, and the chains disappeared into recesses in the stone face behind her, holding her tightly. Her eyes were wild, and despite the futility of it, she struggled crazily. Vein took a step forward and she tried to scream, but she was gagged, and they heard only a muffled shriek. Too late, Vein caught the angle of her gaze, and realized she wasn’t staring at him.

He whirled and cried out. The others spread, but it was too late. There was a blinding flare of light, like what they’d experienced in the alleyway, but intensified. Vein tried to dive forward but was driven back hard. He crashed into the wall beside where Vanessa hung, and the light pinned him there. He clawed at it feebly, the strength melting from his limbs as heat rose so quickly, and so intensely, that it threatened to consume him in a sudden blaze.

He could not see their attacker. He tried to reach for Vanessa, but could barely lift his leaden arms. Then, with a soft, futile snarl, he fell forward on the cold stone and passed from thought.

Vein woke to pain, but he shrugged it off. He was in a small room of some sort, and he stood carefully. Nothing was broken, or, if anything had broken, he had healed. He didn’t have any idea how long he’d been out. The others lay in jumbled heaps around him. Only Kali was on her feet, gazing at him levelly, and waiting.

“Where are we,” he asked.

Kali shrugged. “Wherever he put us.”

The others began to stir. Vein glanced down and saw that the blood crystal was still hanging about his neck. There was a soft laugh, and Vein spun, trying to find the source. A moment later he realized he wasn’t in a room at all. It was an elevator. He slammed up to the ceiling, but found no trap door. He tried the walls, one after the other, but despite several attempts, each harder than the last, he was unable to bend, break, or open them.

“You won’t get out that easily,” a voice said softly.

Vein stilled himself, fought back the panic that threatened to rise, and stood in the center of the elevator.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“I didn’t want anything from you,” the voice replied, “though I’ll admit it was entertaining. Vanessa is quite concerned for your welfare. It’s very touching, and it gives me an edge, don’t you think?”

Vein quelled the urge to smack into one of the walls again.

“This is a very unique elevator,” the voice continued. “It’s built into the back wall of the building. Most of the time I keep it hidden from the world, but sometimes, well, I’m a bit romantic, I suppose. The wall behind you opens to a very solid window — about two feet thick, I believe, and reinforced with a silver mesh. It’s not quite as effective as if it were the east side of the building, but eventually the sun touches everything, doesn’t it Vein?”

The wall slid slowly open, and they had a clear view of the dark, star-studded sky beyond the complex.

“How long do you think it will take,” the voice asked with a soft, insane chuckle, “for all of you to become ash? I have a theory. I’m betting that it will take less time than it takes for that elevator to reach the ground, with the noon-time sun beating down on it. Not that it matters. The doors are charmed, and you won’t be able to open them, so if you manage to survive to reach the bottom, you’ll be dust before anyone gets you out. You can rest assured on that point.”

Vein wasn’t really listening. He was studying the glass. He saw the tiny silver threads woven into the glass. He thought about those slicing skin as the glass shattered, shredding his flesh like a cheese grater from hell.

“What do you want?” he repeated.

“I have everything I want, Vein. Now I don’t have to worry about you taking it.”

There was another whir, and the wall opposite the window slid aside to reveal another glass partition. This one looked out into the passageway they’d walked through moments before. On the other side, a man stood, gazing in at them with a lopsided grin on his face.

Kali slammed into the door with such sudden force and anger that Vein was sure it would shatter, and she would be shredded, but the glass held.

“You!” she screamed.

Their captor laughed, turned, and walked away.