Carrie Vaughn - Kitty's House of Horrors

“Can I ask a stupid question?” I said to Anastasia.

“I don’t know why you bother asking permission,” she said.

I ignored that. “What were vampires afraid of before Christianity and crosses and all that?”

“Crosses have been around in one form or another since before Christianity. It’s a powerful symbol.”

“And?”

She didn’t continue. Ah well.

The vampires waited in the doorway until we’d removed the several crosses we’d put up. Ariel kept them, though, stashing them out of sight in an old grocery bag.

“They may not have worked anyway,” I told her. “They’re magical. I’m afraid we may be up against something entirely mundane.”

“It’s okay,” Ariel said. Out of the blue, she gave me a hug. Quick, spontaneous. More comfort. “I’m glad you’re here. I mean, I’m not glad you’re stuck. But I’m glad you’re here, because I know you’ll figure this out.”

“I elect you morale officer,” I said. That got her to smile. My work here is done.

Lee and Grant collected weapons. They went through the kitchen, the closets, the utility shed, equipment left behind from the show, and the attic, gathering an arsenal that they spread on the living room floor. Along with the tear gas and motion detectors from the secret stash, we had a set of mean-looking carving knives from the kitchen; vinegar, ammonia, bleach, and other chemicals we could turn into some wicked cocktails; and from the toolshed, a shovel, an ax, and a set of surveying stakes.

Every minute they spent outside collecting the stuff, I had my heart in my throat, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. However much I’d have loved to entertain the thought that maybe this was over, and that what happened to Dorian and Jerome were isolated and unrelated events and nothing else was going to happen, I couldn’t.

“I wouldn’t normally bother with the stakes, but considering the company, I thought we ought to keep an eye on them.” Grant seemed pleased with the haul. I wasn’t so sure we weren’t just spitting into the wind.

“I don’t see how this crap is going to do us any good,” Lee said. Like me, he was looking over his shoulder. I wondered if he felt the same weird vibes I did, like someone was watching us, even though the cameras following us around were long gone.

“If we have it all together and locked up, it means no one else can get to it, either,” I said. “How about that?”

He scowled and went away to look out the window. Making himself a target for someone outside, I observed. So how did we keep a lookout without giving the bad guys a perfect view of us? You have an answer for that, Cormac?

Anastasia regarded the armory with about as much confidence as I did, her frown revealing contempt. “Stakes are overrated as a weapon against vampires. You have to get close enough to use them, and that’s always problematic, isn’t it?”

“If you act stupid enough around vampires, they let their guard down,” I said. “Then you can get close. They tend to get this look of shock on their faces, like getting staked was the last thing they expected even though they saw you coming at them with the thing in your hand.”

“And you know this how? ” Anastasia said, and I couldn’t tell if it was astonishment or a newfound respect in her startled tone of voice.

“Long story,” I said, blushing. “Never mind. Really.”

“What next?” Grant said, changing the subject, lucky for me. “I don’t relish sitting here waiting for this hunter to show himself.”

“But how do we act without exposing ourselves?” I said.

“We may not have a choice,” he said. “We’ll just have to be careful.”

“I still think the answer is under our noses,” Anastasia said, glaring at Grant. “This is an inside job, it has to be. You—you’ve barely flinched through all of this. Like none of this has surprised you.”

“He never flinches,” I said. “He sees a human sacrifice in a flaming pseudo-Babylonian temple and he doesn’t flinch, trust me.”

“What are you talking about?” Anastasia said.

“Never mind. But you want to know who I want to talk to?” I had their attention then, which was good, because keeping us all from arguing was going to be half the battle. “Conrad. He may be putting on a good act, but the minute the shit hit the fan, he locked himself up and won’t have anything to do with the rest of us. Now, is he really having a nervous breakdown, or is he keeping himself out of the way for whatever’s next?” I paused, then shook my head. “You know what? That’s paranoid even for me, forget I said that.”

Grant said, “Kitty. Do you think you should try to get some sleep? You’ve had a busy day.”

By any sane reckoning, I did need some sleep. I hadn’t slept nearly enough to recover from shifting, not to mention all the running I’d done. I was exhausted. My brain hurt. I couldn’t think straight. But I also couldn’t imagine trying to sleep. I’d sit straight up every time someone in the house coughed.

“This doesn’t exactly seem like the best time to be sleeping.”

“This may be all the time you get,” Anastasia said. “I think he’s right.”

Anastasia and Grant agreeing on anything was enough to convince me that maybe I really should try to get some sleep. But I wasn’t going to go to my room to do it. I wasn’t going to be alone. I may not have been with my pack, but I needed someone around. I found a blanket and curled up on the sofa, thinking I’d at least rest my eyes, thinking no way would I ever fall asleep when I was this keyed up.

But wonder of wonders, I did.

“ No. I’m sorry, I’m not doing this anymore. I’m not getting anything but nastiness. There’s something out there, and it doesn’t like us. We knew that already.”

I opened my eyes in time to see Tina get up from the dining room table and walk away. Sitting up, I saw that she’d left behind Jeffrey and the Ouija board. I could infer: they’d been trying another séance, and it wasn’t going well.

“Hey. You okay?” I said to Tina when she came within range.

She jumped, making me feel guilty. We were all on edge. Seeing me, she sighed. “Oh, yeah. We just thought we might find something out. It’s not working.”

“I’m not surprised. We’re all really keyed up.”

We were all awake. Some of the others—Lee, Ariel—looked like they’d been trying to sleep, too, curled up in armchairs, sprawled on a sofa. But no one was asleep. Everyone looked up at the sound of voices. Grant and Anastasia had been by the table, watching the psychics. Now they watched me.

Tina was pacing in front of the fireplace. “They won’t have to do anything to get us. We’ll all go stir-crazy at this rate. Then we’ll all go screaming into the woods—”

“They’re waiting for us to panic,” I said. “All we have to do is not panic.”

She rolled her eyes, evidently not too confident of our chances of doing that.

Thinking like Cormac again: he wouldn’t sit around waiting. I said, “We’re not going to find out anything about these guys until we can draw them out. Get a look at them, see what their resources are.”

Grant said thoughtfully, “Actually go outside and take a look around.”

“Are you crazy?” Tina said. “They’re out there with arrows, guns probably—”

“So we’ll have to be careful. Stay out of sight,” Grant said. “Get the lay of the land, find out what’s really out there, then formulate a strategy. Reconnaissance.”

“We’re in the army now,” Lee said, shaking his head.

“Yo Joe,” I muttered. “What do you say? Want to go hunt some bad guys?”