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.
EPILOGUE
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…”
The three of us headed back through the corridors of shops and restaurants. I was thankful that this time Nicholas was walking at a human pace. While I first thought this was a courtesy to us, I realized I could feel the waves of sadness rolling off of him as we walked.
“How you holding up?” I asked.
“I have been better,” he said.
“But you think things are going to be okay with the Center?” Jane asked.
Nicholas looked unsure. “Half the building’s systems are down right now,” Nicholas said. “It’s proving quite the challenge to sort through every set of code, routines and subroutines. The building is just a bit too sentient for my liking right now, and until we can clean out the damage Beatriz had done hiding her trail in the system, I’d rather play it safe.”
I could see that just saying Beatriz’s name caused Nicholas pain. Even after centuries of life, he couldn’t hide his bitterness at the way things had turned out. I let go of Jane’s arm and fell in step with Nicholas as we approached the living-statue guardians at the ornate door leading back to the castle. Nicholas started shifting the various shapes in the door to let us in.
“Listen, Nick,” I said, “about Beatriz… I’m sorry. If there was any other way…”
He took his hand from one of the large glass blocks he had just shifted and held it up to silence me. “It’s all right. I understand why you had to do what you did. I’m not thrilled she’s gone. I’m not going to lie. She was dark and vicious and callous… sometimes all three in a single moment, but to know her, to look upon her… Well, she was a thing of beauty, like a cathedral. But as any good architect will tell you, sometimes a building rots from within, usually when it’s too late to help salvage it.”
“Still…” I started, but he shushed me.
“An old friend of mine a century or so ago had a theory. He called it the ‘greatest-happiness principle.’ He said that one must always act so as to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Within reason, of course. What you did probably saved countless lives on both sides.”
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” I said, nodding. “Or the one.”
Nicholas looked at me and gave a smile. “I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be,” Jane added. “You haven’t seen The Wrath of Khan, have you?”
Nicholas shook his head. “That’s a Star Trek movie, yes?”
“I’m sure Brandon has it somewhere in his DVDs,” I said. “You should check it out.”
Nicholas went back to opening the puzzle door. I stood there watching, but Jane drifted off to look at some of the art pieces over here while we waited. Nicholas looked back over his shoulder to see how far Jane was from us and lowered his voice.
“How’s Jane?” he whispered.
“Like a cathedral, too,” I said. “A true thing of beauty. To yoink your poetic little metaphor there.”
He stopped again and looked at me quizzically. “Yoink?”
I opened my mouth to explain, and then shut it. “Never mind,” I said. “We’ve got time to get to it later. I really think you could use a little introduction to our modern century.”
Nicholas finished, and the door clicked and whirred open. Jane came back and the three of us headed down the dark tunnel and out into the nighttime forest that surrounded the castle. We followed Nicholas off to the right of the path in a direction I hadn’t been in before. A simple dirt path wove through the trees. It eventually opened into a small clearing in the forest where several recognizable stone structures rose from the ground.
“A graveyard,” Jane whispered.
I nodded. Figures both familiar and strange filled the clearing and surrounding edge of the forest. A lone coffin sat by an open grave where Brandon stood with several members of his council. Connor and Aidan were there as well.
Nicholas remained with the two of us at the edge of the forest and didn’t move to join any of his people at graveside.
“Have you talked to Aidan at all?” Jane asked. “I mean, you two do have something in common, after all… Beatriz.”
Nicholas shook his head. “The two of us have never been on the best of terms, and while I think with time this incident may bond us, I think he grieves too much with a young heart for that to happen right now. I’ve had centuries to be bitter and torn apart by Beatriz. I will give him time before approaching him about it.” Nicholas hung his head for a moment before looking up at me. “It’s good that he has Connor to help him.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I talked Connor into coming back to the offices early, but he’s still got some vacation time coming and wants to take it. I think he and Aidan are planning a kind of Road Trip of the Living Dead or some such nonsense.”
Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “And all is well in your Department with you?” he asked. “Your people have taken you back?”
“We’re working on it,” I said. “Despite my jailbreak, they can be rather forgiving when it comes to preventing mass slaughter in the streets of New York.”