The Undead Pool

“That’s slicker than snot on a frog,” Jenks said in admiration, and Ivy slashed the others, a thin sheen of sweat showing. It was fear, not exertion.

“Again,” she said as she took up her place at the headboard, and this time, the bed moved when I steadied myself and lifted. Oh God, it was still heavy, but we managed it. “There,” she gasped, looking toward the bathroom, and we slid it right down the dais’s wide, shallow stairs.

It thumped halfway down and stopped. So much for stealth, I thought, but the falling counterweights would have given us away already.

Ivy was already halfway down the hole in the floor. “Wait,” I whispered, renewing my hold on the line and making a globe of light. I couldn’t touch it lest I break the charm, but Ivy and Jenks could, and the pixy flew it to her. Shadows made her face harsh with fear and uncertainty as she took it. My heart thudded, and she turned back to the stairway. It was a vampire’s safe room; I was scared to death. But there was no way I was going to let Ivy go down there alone, and as Jenks took a last look in the hall and followed her down, I pulled my splat gun again.

My light in Ivy’s hand was a comforting glow, and our steps were silent. There was another door at the bottom of the stairs, and I looked up at the dim square of light. Too many doors. There were too many doors between us and the sun, and I strengthened my hold on the ley line.

Ivy motioned for me to stay back, but Jenks was tight to her ear when she pulled the door open. In a hum of wings, Jenks darted inside.

“I-I-Ivy-y-y!” he shouted, and with a small moan, Ivy ran inside. The stairway went dark but for the thin slice escaping past the slowly closing door. Heart pounding, I reached out and stopped it. Inside, my globe of light rolled about the floor of the small room, making weirdly shifting shadows.

“She’s okay!” Jenks was shrilling as he hovered over Ivy as she frantically felt for Nina’s pulse, the blood-smeared, pale woman in her black nightgown slumped out cold in a lavishly embroidered chair. “Ivy, she’s okay. Pick her up and let’s get out of here!”

Someone had put her down here and left. I wanted to get out before that someone came back. Slowly I retreated to the stairs, taking in the room with its fainting couch, small table, and bank of monitors. Most showed the predawn sky and peaceful streets of ten minutes ago, but two showed a slightly brighter sky with FIB vehicles and ambulances. Stretchers holding vampires and handheld IV bags of blood were being carted out. Apparently Jenks had missed a few cameras. A pile of bedding, sundry clothes, knives, and what was probably blooding toys had been shoved in a corner, and the head-size hole in the floor had an obvious function. For all its lavish furniture, the room reminded me of the room under Cincinnati where we’d found Ivy’s old I.S. boss and Denon. It was a place of hiding, of last stand, and it felt like a trap.

“She’s okay,” Ivy said, her voice almost a sob.

“Let’s go,” I said, making motions to get the hell out of here.

Jenks hovered over that pile of clothes, dusting heavily as Ivy hoisted Nina over her shoulder. Blood from unknown vampires smeared the both of them, and Ivy tossed her head to get the hair from her eyes as she stood. “You going to take Cormel out of here, too?” Jenks said, stopping me cold. “We got ten minutes until sunup. They probably got light-tight bags up there.”

“Cormel?” I whispered, seeing the pile of clothes in a new way.

“Ivy?” Nina murmured, and Ivy’s breath came and went in a frustrated sound.

“Get her out of here,” I said, my insides knotting as I shoved the bloodstained, torn clothing aside until I found the round-faced businessman who had once run the entire free world.

“You think you can carry him?” Jenks said, hovering close.

“No.” Tossing blankets aside, I unearthed Cormel, the well-dressed, somewhat short vampire, pale and unresponsive. “Wait for me outside this hole.” Please don’t leave me here . . .

Jenks’s wings hummed. “Go,” he said to Ivy. “I’ll stay with her.”

I gave Cormel a smack. He wasn’t a huge man, but I couldn’t lift him. He made no response. Ivy still hadn’t moved, and I frowned at her. “I said take her out,” I said, and Ivy let Nina slip to the floor, her expression pained. “Ivy!” I cried out as she elbowed me aside and shoved her sleeve up to her elbow.

“Hitting him won’t help,” she said, and I gasped when she calmly picked up a knife from the pile and cut the inside of her arm where it wouldn’t be as noticeable. “He’s starving. Look at his pallor.”

That’s what Al had said, and I felt ill as she squeezed her fist and a trace of blood dripped from her elbow. Her expression was empty as she dribbled it into his mouth. Most of it ran down his chin, but then his lips opened. A tongue pushed out, becoming red, and Cormel’s face bunched up in distaste.