Anton Strout - Dead Matter

“This is Brandon, the man we have to thank for getting someone to help rescue you. If he hadn’t set his best man to the task, I don’t know where you’d be right now.”

Brandon looked at Jane, who was simply staring at him with a big blank smile on her face.

He nodded to her politely. “Nice to finally meet you in person. I’ve heard much about you.”

“You have?” Jane said, sounding a little too bubbly for talking to the lord of the vampires.

“Jesus,” I heard Aidan whisper to his Connor. “Are you going to have to buy safety scissors with her around?”

I shot him a dirty look to let him know I had heard him. He looked at me and bulged his eyes. What? they said.

“She’s just disoriented,” I said. “It’ll pass. I think.”

Brandon turned to Gerard. “Find her some clothes, if you would.” Gerard nodded and blurred off toward the door.

“I was just discussing with the council what our options were for a course of action…”

“And?”

Brandon sighed. “We hadn’t even figured out when to best discuss it,” he said.

Connor laughed. “So you’re effectively having a meeting to discuss when you’re having a meeting.”

I looked over at my partner. “It would appear our people have more in common with the vampires than we thought. That’s promising.”

Brandon looked at me, his brow nice and furrowed with frustration. “Do you have anything better in mind?”

“Actually,” I said, “I do. Your saboteur has toyed around enough with trying to keep your prophecy from coming true. Without knowing who exactly to get rid of, they tried to stop us all-first Connor, then Jane and myself. I can only speak for myself, but I’m sick of being a target. The sooner we get our sides talking, the less chance our saboteur has of succeeding. I’m taking Aidan with us. I have some business the four of us need to attend to.”

The council erupted in an uproar of protest, but Brandon shut them down with a look. “Agreed,” he said, gesturing toward me and Jane, “but first, pants.”

I smiled, feeling a little optimistic for once. My girl was at my side, albeit pantless, and I had a plan that felt like it stood a chance of actually working.

Just before sunrise the next morning, Jane, Connor, Aidan, and I walked straight into the Lovecraft Café without a problem. I was sick of all the skulduggery going on, and now that Jane was free, I wanted to take a no-bullshit approach to handling matters between the Department of Extraordinary Affairs and the slightly less living contingent that resided in the Gibson-Case Center.

In the café, no one gave us a second glance, and we kept on going, heading past the coffee counter toward the black curtain at the back. I pulled it aside and the four of us continued down the main aisle of the movie theater, where Connor MacLeod was loudly proclaiming up on the screen that, indeed, there could be only one. Aidan was eerily silent the entire time, even when we entered the tiny hallway where I pulled out my card key and swiped it outside the large wooden door marked H.P.

The offices were already busy with morning activity. Jane and I were the first to step through the door leading into the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, but Aidan remained firmly in place on the other side of it, making it impossible for Connor to get through.

“What?” I said. “He can walk into the Lovecraft Café and back through the theater, but not into here?”

Connor looked at me. “I think it’s the difference between public and private space, kid,” he said.

I looked at Aidan, hoping for an answer.

“Don’t ask me,” he said, shrugging. “I’m still the new vamp on the block.”

“Fine,” I said. “You’re invited in.”

Aidan stepped forward. The second he walked through the doorway to the main office area, he stumbled and reached for the wall to steady himself. Connor went to him, grabbing his other arm to help.

“You okay?” Connor asked.

The vampire looked a bit weak in the knees. Even his customary fake breathing became labored. The skin on his face and hands looked a little more drawn-out than usual, like a plastic bag that had been overstuffed. He looked up at his brother with bloodshot eyes.

“Crossing the threshold, it was like walking through a windstorm,” he said. “I feel… funny.”

“Even with my invitation?” I said.

Aidan nodded, then closed his eyes as he stood there trying to pull himself together.

Connor looked up at the walls of the office, and my eyes followed. Mystic symbols were carved into the heavy plaster that lined the older part of the office space back here. “Looks like Greater and Lesser Arcana have been earning their keep around here,” Connor said. “Even though you invited my brother in, the protective magic is thick in these walls.”

Aidan looked like he could use a nap. Jane looked worried.

“You think he’s going to be okay?” Jane asked.

Connor’s brother opened his eyes and forced himself back up to a standing position on his own.

“I don’t need your pity,” he said.

I put a hand of warning on his shoulder. “It’s nice to see that your general vampiric disdain for humanity is enough to bolster you,” I said.

“Go easy on them,” Connor said to his brother. “They’re just looking out for all of us. It’s risky bringing you here, more so for us than you. The paperwork alone will eventually kill us.”

I turned to Jane. “Speaking of paperwork, I’m sure Wesker has a metric assload of it waiting for you. You’d better put in at least an appearance with him. I told them you were out of town and I forgot to file the paperwork for you. They seemed to buy my filing ineptitude as an excuse…”

“Nice,” Jane said, leaning over to kiss me. She started off toward Greater & Lesser Arcana, waving to our group. “Good luck with the Inspectre. Let me know how it goes. I’m going to put in a few hours, then head on over to help Nicholas and see if we can crack the computers now that I have an insider’s view.”

Once Jane was gone, Connor turned to me, a look of concern crossing his brow. “You sure you’re okay with this?”

“Hey, if I’m to put any faith in their Encyclopedia Vampirica, I’m the great uniter,” I said, starting off through the office. “Just do your best to play human while you’re back here, Aidan. And keep an eye out for Allorah, Connor. I don’t need her going all Van Helsing on us.”

“You know,” Aidan said, falling into step behind me and speaking in a whisper, “not mocking our sacred books will go a long way to extending your life.”

We walked on in silence through the office. All around us business went on as usual and very few people paid us any attention. And why should they? By now I was well on my way to mastering the art of deception when it came to visiting the Department and Aidan was doing his best to play human. A few well-placed nods and hellos, and the three of us were already heading upstairs to the Inspectre’s office.

When we reached the top of the stairs, I turned to Aidan. “Let us go in there first, okay?”

He nodded.

The Inspectre’s door was open, and when I knocked, he looked up from his desk. When he saw it was Connor and me, he stood up.

“Gentlemen,” he said, nodding. “Connor, good to see you.”

“Hello, Inspectre,” Connor said.

“You’re looking well,” the Inspectre said to him, and it was true. The Connor beside me was much better than the beaten wreck I had rescued from the church graveyard several nights ago. Shaven, clean-cut, even a little chipper knowing his brother was alive. “Vacation suits you.”

“Thanks,” Connor said, looking a little uncomfortable after his long absence from the office.