Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

Daniel shrugged, and then winced despite himself. “Get on with it, then. I’m not stopping you.”

Paul sat very still in his chair, staring unwaveringly at Daniel. “You must know you were never supposed to survive. They left you for dead.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “I did wonder why the surgeons didn’t take my body with them, so they could harvest my organs. I thought that was what happened to you and Oscar and Nigel.”

“They had other things in mind for me and Nigel,” said Paul. “They left one body behind to show what happened to policemen who interfere.”

“And then I had to go and spoil everything, by not dying after all,” said Daniel. “And not keeping my mouth shut.”

“The only reason you’re still alive now,” said Paul, “is because no one believed you when you talked about the monsters.”

“It was all true!”

“Of course it was,” said Paul.

“What were those oversized freakshows?” said Daniel.

“Creations of the Frankenstein Clan,” said Paul. “And yes, you did hear that name correctly. Tell me, Dan, did you ever wonder what happened to all the monsters everyone used to believe in? The vampires, werewolves, and mummies . . . ”

“They weren’t real. And most of us grew out of fairy stories.”

“They used to be real,” said Paul. “Real as you and me. They just chose to reinvent themselves, to disappear into the underworld of crime. These days, the Frankenstein Clan deals in illegal surgeries. The Vampire Clan deals in all forms of seduction. The Clan of Mummies deals in drugs. The werewolves supply muscle and enforcement, for when the Clans don’t want to do it themselves. All the shit work, basically. And the ghouls make sure the bodies are never found. Because they’ll eat anything.”

Daniel looked at Paul, lost for words. His first thought was that his friend had been driven out of his mind by his experiences, but that didn’t explain how a man with a broken back could walk into his flat. And if there was a way for a broken body to be repaired . . . Daniel wanted to know about it.

“I was so sure you were dead,” he said finally. “How are you still alive?”

“They wanted to know how we’d found out about them,” said Paul. “And the best way to be sure I would tell them everything was to make me one of them.”

“A criminal?” said Daniel.

“A vampire,” said Paul.

“And they say I’m crazy,” said Daniel.

Paul surged forward, grabbed Daniel by the shirtfront, and lifted him out of his chair as though he was weightless. Daniel’s feet kicked helplessly above the floor. He grabbed Paul’s wrist with both hands, and then snatched them away. The skin was horribly cold, like touching a dead man. Paul marched Daniel across the room and slammed him against the far wall. Daniel cried out at the pain, and Paul clapped his other hand over Daniel’s mouth to silence him. The hand smelled like something dead, but Paul wouldn’t let Daniel squirm away. He pushed his face right up against Daniel’s, and then he smiled slowly, revealing jagged, pointed teeth. His breath stank of blood and death. And his eyes were full of all the darkness in the world. Paul eased up a little, and Daniel turned his head away. In the mirror hanging on the wall beside him he saw his reflection . . . and no one else. He seemed to be hanging unsupported in mid air.

His heart lurched painfully in his chest, and he made himself look back at Paul. The eyes boring into his were as inhuman as a shark’s, and the smile was full of predator’s teeth. For the first time, Daniel realized Paul wasn’t breathing. They were so close Daniel should have been able to feel Paul’s breath on his face, but there was nothing. His old friend stank of the grave, and things that had been dead too long. Daniel stared wide-eyed into the unblinking eyes before him, his mouth crushed under a dead man’s hand, and wished he’d never survived to know such things were possible.

Paul slowly lowered Daniel to the floor, let go of him, and stepped away. Daniel breathed deeply, trying to get the dead man’s smell out of his nostrils. He rubbed hard at his mouth with the back of his hand, trying to forget how the dead flesh had felt. He was shaking so much he had to lean back against the wall to steady himself. He glanced at the mirror again. Paul was standing right in front of it, but there was no trace of him anywhere in the reflection. Daniel made a sound, deep in his throat, and Paul laughed softly. He went back to his chair and sat down. Daniel watched him, until his heartbeat and breathing had returned to something like normal. And then he went back, and sat down opposite Paul again.

Because his world had just been changed forever, and he needed to know what the hell was going on.

“Sorry about that, Danny boy,” said Paul. “But I needed you to believe me.”

“All right,” Daniel said steadily. “I’m convinced. You’re a vampire. Is this what happened to Nigel?”

“No,” said Paul. “He’s something else now. Listen to me, Dan. This is important. Do you still want to help people? To defend them from monsters who prey on the weak and the vulnerable?”