“Sounds like an ultimate fighting championship to me,” Aidan said. “Who won?”
“Jane,” I said. “Sorta. Thing is, they never even would have had to fight if I hadn’t just freed Mina from one of the exhibits. She was encased in this clear coffin device, surrounded by this red mist that was constantly being stirred up so it couldn’t form…”
“A vampire,” Brandon said, his face grim.
“In a box,” I said, looking at the creature. I remembered the fight in vivid detail, how I threw my weight into the structure, feeling it shatter beneath me as I freed Mina. That meant I had freed the vampire, too. I even remembered the strange sensation that had washed over me when the red mist seemed to stop and take stock of me before fleeing from the chaotic scene.
“You think this is him?” Connor said. “You sure?”
“No,” I said, “but there’s only one way to be sure.”
I pulled off my glove and reached for the creature’s fingers that were wrapped around the bars of the cage. As I was about to touch it, Connor grabbed the sleeve of my coat and pulled my arm away.
“What the hell are you doing?” he said. “You remember what happened the last time you touched another person directly? Touching Faisal Bane nearly put you down and out for the count.”
“True,” I said, “but that cultist ass was a living person. We’re not dealing with living creatures here. I’m thinking that maybe these… things… are more like objects. Maybe I can read them.”
“And if you can’t, kid?” Connor said.
“Then I’ll just add to this wicked headache I already have,” I said, “but I have to try. I have to know.”
“Fine by me,” Connor said. “I’ll catch you if you fall.”
I reached for the creature again, and then paused. “Oh, and one more thing. If I pass out, do not let either of these two feed on me.”
Connor smiled. Aidan and Brandon looked a little offended.
“I’ll try, kid. But you heard my brother before… He was feeling a little thirsty.”
I looked at the two vampires. “Look, I don’t buy into this whole ‘chosen one’ crap, but let’s just say, to be safe, that I am him. It’s in your best interest to snack on Connor before you go for me, got it?”
“Jesus,” Aidan said. “Did it say anything in the big book about the chosen one being such a pain in the ass?”
“I seem to recall something about that,” Brandon said, scratching his chin, “but I can’t be sure.” He turned and looked at me with stern eyes. “You are trying to help us with our problem, Mr. Canderous. No harm shall befall you from the two of us.”
“For now,” Aidan added. “I can’t promise I’m not going to knock you through a wall later…”
“Aidan…” Brandon said.
“Sorry,” he said to his master, lowering his eyes. He turned to me. “Have at it. Enjoy holding hands with Patient Zero. I’d go easy on the heavy petting if I were you, though. Claws and all.”
“Thanks for the tip,” I said, then grabbed hold of the creature’s hand.
Tapping my psychometry into the creature was unlike any sensation I had ever encountered. I tried to think of it like any other object I had ever pushed my power into. I’m only holding a book, an ashtray, someone’s old bowling trophy, I thought to myself, trying my best to control the squick that came from holding on to the rotting vampire. As I pushed harder into its past, its scrambled thoughts tried to tear into my mind in jagged pieces of mental metal. I wasn’t prepared for the sensation. Most objects I read psychometrically didn’t fight back this way. In defense, my mind’s eye formed a shield and raised it. The resistant mental jabs from the creature fell away and I continued sorting back through the demented and erratic thought patterns in its head.
The experience was a lot like flipping rapid fire through channels with half of them dead air. My own face came into this mix with such sudden resolution it took my brain a second or two to slow things down. I was looking at myself from the creature’s perspective, only I possessed his vampiric level of sight. It was like having a high-definition television feed of that night at the Guggenheim when Jane had rescued me and I had in turn rescued Mina. Pulling back further in time I watched the feral vampire revert to the handsome human vampire known as Perry. He had short, messy black hair and I watched him fighting for his life during what must have been when Cyrus and his army of necromanced undead subdued him. I watched in horror as the vampire was forced into the glass coffin that Mina would also eventually be held in as well. I watched several moments over and over to get a sense of the passage of time by watching the movement of the zombies and Cyrus before Mina and I had been captured. When I pulled myself out of the psychometric vision, the creature’s mind fought to hold on to me, and it took all of my mental strength to pull away.
I stumbled back from the cage. The creature had been somewhat slack-jawed when I came out if it, but roared to life as the connection between the two of us broke. Connor reached out and steadied me.
“Well, kid?”
I took a couple deep breaths as I pulled myself together, trying to shake off the disorientation of freeing myself from a somewhat living mind.
“He’s the one,” I said. “Cyrus and his zombies overwhelmed him. They got him in the coffin, forced him to turn to mist form, then started up that strange pump to keep him from re-forming again. From what I can tell, I’d say he was kept in that noncorporeal form for well over a week.”
“A week!” Aidan said.
“That’s not the worst of it,” I said, turning to Brandon. “His mind is gone. It’s just a mess from everything he’s been through. I could barely make sense of his thoughts. They’re scrambled. I think it’s a type of madness that set in from not having any corporeal form. It changed something in Perry’s blood. I’m sure of it.”
Brandon closed his eyes and shook his head as if in mourning. “We’ve never tested the true boundaries or limitations of how long one can maintain a vaporous state,” Brandon said. “A natural… instinct, I guess you’d call it, keeps us from ever going that long.”
“But this poor bastard never had a choice,” Connor said.
“None,” I agreed. “Cyrus kept him in this form far too long and he came out of it… changed.”
“And now it lingers in his blood,” Aidan said. “He’s the host. Anyone he’s shared blood with or been exposed to in a prolonged manner is at risk of infection.”
Connor stared at his brother in surprise.
“What?” Aidan said.
“Nothing,” Connor said. “Just wondered when you went all mad scientist.”
“I read a lot of Michael Crichton,” he said. “And you keep forgetting I am older than you.” He turned to Brandon. “I don’t think there’s a way to reverse it. Our best bet is to hunt them down and kill them before the virus has a chance to be passed.”
Brandon shook his head, grim. “I won’t kill my own people.”
“You may not have to,” I said. “Me and one of my… colleagues were working on some lab results after Jane and I were attacked by one of these a few nights ago.”
“You’ve seen these creatures before tonight?” Brandon asked.
“At least one of them,” I said. “And from what I’ve been hearing, they’ve been spotted around town, but I think I may be able to help. I’ve been assigned to work with one of our more science-minded experts. She’s not the most vampire-friendly woman I’ve met, but she does have her own lab coat. I bet if I can get her a sample of Patient Zero, I can get her working on something to reverse it.”
“Your only other option is to kill every one,” Connor said. “Killing the infected would be merciful. This virus is what’s killing them, slowly, and the longer you let it linger because of sentimentality tied to who these ferals used to be, the longer you put all your people at risk. Sentimentality is what’s going to leave the Gibson-Case Center a ghost town… er, building. You ever watch zombie movies?”