Anton Strout - Dead Matter

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.

When we reached them, I pressed Brandon against them, took one of Jane’s hands, and put it on a monitor. “Broadcast this,” I told her. Jane nodded and put her hand against my face, connecting us. Then, just as Allorah reached us, I put one hand on Brandon and one hand on the Enchancellor. Pressing my power into both the undead and the living, I knew I wasn’t going to stay conscious for the whole event, but I at least hoped I could put on one hell of a show.

I felt Jane’s connection to the systems of the building, the way she communicated in a symbiotic manner with it. I felt it bent to my will through her, and I forced my psychometry into the pasts of both Brandon and Allorah, showing the gathered crowd everything I had seen of their lives interacting. Their loves, their passions, Brandon’s turn from darkness, the deep belief in their prophecy and even the bond that had been formed between the brothers Christos as a result of Brandon’s machinations. I felt my power waning, but I hoped it was enough as I fell to the floor, loving the cool of the marble against my face.

That coolness caused my eyes to flutter open and I looked around. Everyone I had been connected to was on the floor, slowly getting back up. I struggled to my feet and helped Jane, since I was far more used to these episodes of passing out than anyone else I knew in the Department.

By the time we were standing, Aidan, Connor, and the Inspectre had joined us. The rest of the gathered crowd still looked like they were digesting everything they had just seen.

I turned to Inspectre Quimbley. “I hope you believe me, sir,” I said. “I would never do anything I thought would hurt the Department.”

The Inspectre nodded his head. “I do, my boy.”

I looked over at Allorah, who had just managed to get back on her feet. “Please tell the Enchancellors about all this.”

Allorah looked stunned, but part of that eager darkness in her eyes was gone. They held a glimmer of what I had seen in them twenty years ago-hope. “I will try,” she said, “but I’m not sure how they’ll react to all this. I’m not sure how I’ll react to all this.”

“Then try harder,” I said. “Otherwise, the city streets will run with blood on both sides. We have a chance to stop that. A duty to stop that.”

The Inspectre turned to everyone from the Department. “Stand down,” the Inspectre called out to them. The team still looked a little unsure of what to do with the actual threat of vampires milling about with them.

Allorah turned to look at them now and cleared her throat. I’m sure sounding authoritative was part of the Enchancellor interview process. “By order of the Enchancellorship,” Allorah said, more sharpness in her voice than in the Inspectre’s, “stand down. You heard the Inspectre.”

That seemed to relax everyone nearby a little, but it still left our awkward little circle of mixed company uncomfortable.

“So now what?” I asked.

The Inspectre was first to move. He stepped forward, moving to Brandon, who remained stock-still where he was. The Inspectre offered Brandon his hand.

“I’m Argyle Quimbley,” he said, “with the Department of Extraordinary Affairs and senior officer in the Fraternal Order of Goodness.”

Brandon raised his hand and took the Inspectre’s in his. “A pleasure,” he said, very formal. “I’m Brandon… Walsh.”

The Inspectre cocked his head at him.

“I’ll explain it later,” I said.

“In a detailed report,” Allorah added. “A very detailed report. We may even have to start a division just for creating a report explaining all this.”

I winced. Brandon smiled, then looked at both Connor and me. “This is that red tape you were referring to?”

As Connor started introducing his brother, Aidan, around, Jane ran over to me. “You okay?”

“I think so,” I said. Other than the aches and pains, I was living, so I considered that a mark in the win column.

Jane pulled me off to one side. “You’ve got a little, um… Bea on you.”

I looked down. The bottoms of my pant legs were covered in her dust. My black boots were now gray. I looked to see if Aidan had noticed, but he looked too dazed by the events to be paying attention to me. Connor seemed to be distracting him with the mindlessness of intros.

Still a bit stunned, I turned my back to the gathered crowd and headed off toward the shopping plaza. “Care for a little shopping?” I asked. “I think I’m going to need a change of clothes and some of those amazing cupcakes of theirs to get my sugar back up fully.”

Jane nodded and I kissed her as we shut out all the goings-on behind us. All of the Departmental stuff could wait. I would be thankful to just get into a clean pair of clothes that were not covered in bits of a psychotic ex-vampire. Once I was done changing into some new clothes and scarfing down some cupcakes, I’d deal with the Department and the vampires, if they didn’t kill one another in the meantime.

The Gibson-Case Center was bustling with activity when Jane and I arrived. The sound of commerce rose up all around us and despite the dark colors we both wore, the two of us felt rather good. Preventing an all-out war between two cultures kind of did that to a person. Despite our mood, I felt Jane’s arm tense around mine as we drew closer to the kiosk that had initially sucked her into the mainframe of the building.

“You okay?” I asked.

Jane gave a weak smile and nodded, not really convincing me. She planted her feet and we came to a halt about fifty feet away from the unit.

“Too soon?”

“Maybe,” she said. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “I can go alone.”

“No,” she said, starting to walk again. “I want to be there. I feel… responsible somehow, for not being around to help Nicholas the past few days.” He’d asked Jane for technomantic help fixing all the bugs Beatriz had created in the arcology’s computer systems.

“I think you’re excused,” I said. We were closer to the kiosk now and were surprised to see Nicholas actually standing at it. “You had enough to contend with, having been eaten by the building and recovering since getting out of it.”

We reached the kiosk a minute later. Nicholas turned to look at us. “Not eaten,” he corrected. “Absorbed. Sorry… Didn’t mean to listen in, but preternatural and all.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m getting used to it by now. I just pretend I’m being wiretapped all the time. It’s just easier that way.”

“I see,” Nicholas said, his face somber as I realized my attempt at humor was lost on him. “If you give me a second to power down this unit, I’ll escort you back to the castle.”

“Powering down?” Jane asked.

Nicholas nodded, the ponytail of his hair bobbing. “Until I can confirm that this unit is clean, I’m shutting it down.”

“Oh,” Jane said.

Nicholas brought up a series of windows on the touch screen and flashed through them with lightning speed. With a final few taps at the console, the touch screen went dark and Nicholas turned his full attention to us. “There,” he continued. “Now, if you’ll walk with me…”