Vampire Babylon - Break Of Dawn Part 26

After a.s.sessing her with a cryptic gaze, he sighed. "So why did I let Eva turn me? It's easy. I was so surprised to see her that first night. Day after day, giving in to her seemed real natural, like a reunion. You came right after that, and I realized just what I'd done."

"I suppose if I told you that her death would make you human again, you wouldn't celebrate?"

A harsh glance from her dad answered that. But a perplexed afterglow went right back to confusing everything.

Kiko took to Dawn's side. "I told Frank that if he has anything Underground up his sleeve, the boss is gonna know. We're waiting until Costin comes out again to find out."

"You trust him?" Dawn asked.

"Ah." Kiko kicked at the floor. "Who knows?"

Frank swept a concerned gaze over Dawn. "Kiko told me about what happened today. I knew our boss was hiding things, but . . .

He's got a lot to answer for."

"Until Costin decides to show himself," Dawn said, "we aren't getting much from him."

"Not true." Kiko gestured toward Frank, obviously intending to launch a few questions on this front. "These vamp powers of yours . . . What are you? An Elite? A Groupie?"

"Can't you touch me and find out, Kik?" Frank asked.

Before Kiko could decide to be p.i.s.sed, Dawn answered. "He doesn't get vamp readings. Something about you not having a soul anymore." She tried not to acknowledge what that really meant for her dad. G.o.d. "Eva told me that you're somewhere in between the two vamp levels. Is that right?" "I guess." Frank paused. "When I got here, it wasn't hard to out-speed the Servants staking out the house. Same with the lowly vamps who hadn't started snoozing yet when I left the Underground-they didn't even see me go. I couldn't function well in the sunlight, though. It drove me into an abandoned gas station, where I rested in a closet before night came."

"So, all in all, would you call yourself a 'good' vampire?" Dawn asked, recalling how Kiko had mentioned way at the beginning, on that night they'd first gone to Robby Pennybaker's, that some fang-pies could be helpful. That was why the team always had to be careful about attacking a new one.

"I swear on your life," Frank said, his gaze earnest, "that I'm here to help, Dawn."

A crusader, she thought. Costin had once said that this was what Frank had become, and she hadn't believed it until now.

But they would find out if that was true when Costin finally deigned to emerge. Would he even have time for them? Or would he kick Dawn out again, then march off to war?

After spending hours cursing him and growing back some strength, she was ready for whatever happened, especially since she was now armed with the info about "Matt"'s real ident.i.ty that Costin would want. If she decided he was good for it.

"Strange," she said to Frank, "but Kiko and I tried to get some vibes on you through touch, so we could find where you were being kept." She pointed to the tank she was wearing. "It used to work, but not this time. Not since Eva took you again. I guess we got readings from your s.h.i.+rts when you were human. When you had a soul."

Frank looked ill. "Besides that, when she kidnapped me . . . Breisi was dead-that's what I thought. I wasn't doing much caring anyway."

At the mention of Breisi, Dawn's face went hot, her palms clammy. She had to tell them what she'd done.

"Listen, some s.h.i.+t went down Underground and I . . ." d.a.m.n it, she'd been so stupid. "I called Breisi to help me. I didn't think of-"

Frank took a menacing step forward. "You did what?"

"I've already commanded her to get back here. I know-it was selfish and it was idiotic, but I was kind of in shock." Yeah, with the Master-not Matt-kneeling in front of her. Still, it was no excuse.

Frank zoomed to the locked lab door and began pummeling it with his fists. The heavy wood quaked, splinters crunching away from the door. Vamp strength.

"Dad!" Dawn tried to pull him back, but he'd always been as strong as a bull, even as a human.

He was breathing heavily, and when he turned to them, his eyes held a sheen of silver. Both her and Kiko stepped back.

Then Frank let out a bellow. "Cooooossstiiiin!!!"

His ire shook the air, but there was only silence in the aftermath.

Moaning, Frank turned back to the door, giving it one last epic pound. Dawn went to him, vampire or not, and held his arm.

"I'm sorry," she said. "If I could do anything, I-"

"Don't make promises like that," Kiko said. "You just came from the Underground, and from the looks of it, you escaped. Maybe you need to be telling us everything."

So she did: she told about almost running Eva over in the car; about going to Matt's house, then being tricked by her mother into coming Underground. Editing out the more personal parts, she relayed details about how the vamps were training to fight down there, then about finding the locator on her jeans. She was just getting to the hardest part-about "Matt" actually being the Master-when Kiko spoke up.

"Just whose side is Eva on?"

During all this, Frank had slid to the ground, his back against the wall. "She's on her own side, Kiko." His eyes still held a wisp of silver over the green. "Dawn, the Master didn't find out what Eva's been up to?"

"No, not yet." She paused, trying to gauge her father's emotions about his wife. "But Eva did tell me that she let you escape the Underground. She wanted you to leave because she thought you'd decide to come back to her in the end and that would signify your change of att.i.tude and heart toward her."

"d.a.m.ned woman," Frank said, putting his hands over his face. Exhaustion? Or didn't he want them to see that he still cared?

"Seriously," Dawn said, sinking to the ground next to him. "I can't tell what to make of her, either, most times."

She thought of how her emotions had surged after Eva had dropped her outside by the pool, how Dawn had only wanted to finally tell her mother that she loved her.

"I want," Frank said between his fingers, "to charge Underground and get Eva out of there, even if we don't have a marriage anymore."

Dawn glanced at him hard. From what she'd seen of Frank and Eva, they definitely still had a connection, even if he'd moved on with Breisi more recently. It'd been obvious when Eva had kept them both captive that his feelings for his wife hadn't died, even though she had.

But now that Breisi was a ghost . . . ? Man, love was complicated. Dawn hated it.

Frank slid his fingers down his face, leaving pink trails from the pressure. "But," he added, "the other part of me needs to see even more if they're holding Breisi Underground."

None of them commented. The Elites had learned to captivate Friends, and if Breisi had made it Underground, she might very well be a goner.

Frank hit the wall behind him. "Where's Costin?"

A terrible thought slapped Dawn. Wouldn't Breisi have come upstairs to greet Frank no matter what was going on? Then again, Breisi was incredibly focused, and Dawn wouldn't put it past her to keep right on working and put off a reunion. . . .

No. h.e.l.l no. Breisi had died the other night, and she would be up here with Frank.

s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t, Dawn had really done it.

"Costin!" Frank yelled. No answer.

Kiko sighed. "He ain't gonna hear you unless he's ready to come out of his voodoo funk."

Driven by fear and anger at herself, Dawn stood, paced. They needed to go. But where? How? What could they initiate?

"Costin!" Frank yelled again.

Dawn followed up. "Costin, get out here!"

Oooh, she wanted to see him. Wanted to- The host's voice screwed out of the walls. At least that was what it sounded like. There were speakers all over this house.

"Welcome back to you both," Costin said simply.

They all looked at one another, not knowing what to say now that they had the . . . creature . . . on the line. Frank got to his feet.

"Welcome back?" Even Dawn's skin was vibrating now. "That's all you have to say?"

"I a.s.sume you found the locator." He sounded so smooth. "We received a partial read on your position before we lost the link, and Breisi followed the lead."

She remembered first discovering the locator in "Eva's house" when she'd actually been Underground. Then she'd destroyed the thing.

"Your plan to use me to find the Underground didn't go as you'd hoped?" she asked, fury straining her tone. "I messed it up pretty good for you, I guess."

"Actually, minutes ago, we found the Underground's location."

Silence again.

Then Kiko wandered away from the splintered door. "How did you manage that?"

The Voice paused. "Breisi was called there, and when she arrived, her escort left her at the entrance and returned here to report the location. Breisi continued inside . . . then went dark."

"f.u.c.k." Dawn clamped her arms over her head, as if she could s.h.i.+eld herself. "f.u.c.k me."

Frank merely closed his eyes, probably too wiped out to do anything else.

"We need to get her," Kiko said. "Or is she another casualty of your war, Costin?"

"I understand your anger, Kiko. And I have been willing to endure it from you and Dawn since we began. But please believe me when I tell you that Breisi will be taken care of."

"How're you going to guarantee that?" Dawn whispered.

"Just hear me. We are burning the daylight I require-when the lower vampires' powers are at an ebb. I do not need them interfering with my business Underground."

"Costin." The name was a low rumble from Frank, but it threatened to build into so much more.

Then the lab door moaned open.

"I'm ready for you now," Costin said.

TWENTY-ONE.

THE CONFESSIONAL.

KIKO was the first one down the stairs to the lab, and when Dawn followed him, she thought she caught her coworker putting his hand over his mouth, as if slapping a pill inside.

But maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her again.She heard Frank in back of her, walking like . . . Well, the undead. Plod, plod, plod. The skin on her nape rippled with the hateful, justified gaze he was probably staring into it.

The soulless electric hum from the steel fridge sawed right through to her bones as they entered the lab proper. An acrid smell stifled the atmosphere, something chemical and new. Among the equipment, bedroom furniture, and the nightstand clock with its arms angled just on the cusp of the sunrise hour, Dawn looked to the far wall, as if not believing what Costin had said about Breisi really being gone.

But her portrait was empty, and there wasn't a trace of jasmine anywhere.

I'm going to h.e.l.l, Dawn thought.

Costin's voice edged out from the darkness adjacent to Breisi's old bed. "Sit, please."

No argument. Dawn, Kiko, and Frank all dragged metal-framed chairs near one another, like they were huddling together without wanting to admit it.

When she peered into the darkness, she thought she saw the flash of Costin's topaz eyes. She'd been antic.i.p.ating the moment she would see the monster again. And, this time, she was going to beat him.

But, strangely, she couldn't summon much outraged energy. There was only a deep gash of sadness in the pit of her stomach that wouldn't stop bleeding.

"We're sitting," Kiko snapped, obviously still in the p.i.s.sed stage.

From out of the blackness, the topaz eyes gleamed stronger, as if Costin had ventured closer. "Thank you. For your cooperation, for your loyalty-"

"For our stupidity," Kiko interrupted.

"Wait," Frank said, barely fitting on his little chair. "Let the boss talk. I got to hear why we're just sitting here while Breisi's in the Underground."

"She will be fine, Frank," Costin said with more confidence than all his team probably had, put together. "Until then, I wish to . . .

clear the air and make my peace."

Now Dawn understood. His earlier actions, as terrible as they were, hadn't been personal. He was a warrior going into battle, a knight seeking absolution. "Is this your attempt at a confessional? Now . . . after keeping everything from us?"

"You could call it that." His low voice almost sounded too slow, like a man on his last leg of a journey, crawling home.

Fear p.r.i.c.ked her. She didn't know if she could take what was about to come. All this time searching for answers, and she was afraid of them.

Kiko let out an exasperated sigh. "Too little, too late. Do you remember what you did to Dawn earlier?"

"Very much so. And before I go, I would like to make amends . . . as much as I can, at least."

"Good luck," Kiko said. Was he slurring a little? No-he hadn't taken a pill that long ago, if that was really what he'd been doing.

"If you wanted me to find the Underground," Dawn said, "you should've trusted me to do it myself. You didn't need to tag me with a locator and . . ."

The memory of his cruelty a.s.saulted her, and she couldn't go on.