Zero Read online

  “Kyle!”

  “What?” he asked, still staring at his screen.

  “Just how much of his body was alive, you know, back in London?” she asked, her cheeks on fire.

  “Excuse me? Like a percentage of cells?” he asked. He cocked his head and gave Paige a confused look. She shuffled uncomfortably.

  “I mean, you said he had living tissue; do you think he had any living organs . . . um . . . functional organs that he might not have had for a few thousand years?” she asked.

  “Paige, there are over seventy organs in the human body and at least fifteen more specific vampire-created connective systems, so could you be a little more specific here? I’m half past dead and using all my remaining willpower to keep watch over Grandpa until the vampire specialists arrive.”

  “Testicles!” Paige blurted out, now completely red. “Were they working?”

  Kyle’s jaw dropped and he shook his head. He then leaned in and gave Paige a long, slow sniff. He let out a deep breath. “I, um, didn’t check Grandpa’s plumbing, no,” he said, his own cheeks as bright as his stubble. “I mean, vampires do repurpose the old boys to make the undead joy juice, but if cells regenerated—”

  “Kyle!” Paige barked.

  “How long?” he asked, now wild-eyed. “Oh shit, how—?”

  “I don’t know,” Paige wailed. “I started feeling bad right around the finger incident. I thought it was sea sickness and the gangrene smell, but it’s only gotten worse. Damn it, Kyle, I thought you said werewolves were sterile!”

  “We’re supposed to be fucking sterile! It took the Lung two and a half centuries just to breed one. Lord knows, I fire blanks. Wait, I never checked after you bit me and turned me all super-wolf,” he trailed off and changed from bright red to ashen white. Paige rolled her eyes.

  “We were too long ago,” she sighed.

  Kyle eyed Paige’s still flat stomach and let out an audible sigh of relief. She punched his arm and he staggered. “I know, I know, Little Bit, but a guy can still be relieved that there will be no more obnoxious, ginger werewolves on the way, OK. So, you’re saying that you and Grandpa . . .?”

  “Come on, what do you think happens on a wedding night? For fuck’s sake!”

  “Well I’ve never married a vampire. I would think it’d be all blood and sucking and stuff,” Kyle said in his defense. He gagged slightly. “Sorry, Little Bit, I know you love him and all, but to me, he’s Grandpa and I have images in my head and guilt now like you would not believe.”

  “Oh, I believe it. He’s, um, one of two possible candidates, Kyle,” Paige mumbled under her breath. “And considering that he’s been dead for two thousand years . . .”

  “Let me guess, the other option is the cranky, possibly not-sterile werewolf who you’ve been avoiding since London?” Kyle asked.

  Paige nodded.

  “Dude, you cheated on Grandpa!” Kyle said, a little too loudly. Paige shushed him with a growl.

  “It was before,” Paige hissed. “I had no idea I was going to be railroaded into a vampire wedding the very next day. It was never part of the plan.”

  Paige grabbed her head with one hand while squeezing Lorcan’s hand with her other. She gave Kyle a pleading look. “This can’t be happening, right? Maybe something is just fucked up with my hormones since I’m a werewolf and the tests gave out a false positive. It’s possible, right? I mean, I was with a werewolf and a dead guy, and I’m full of vampire blood, and I just don’t think Clear Blue Easy was made to handle that! Right?”

  “Look, I’ve got a full lab and every piece of medical equipment I could possibly imagine. Once I get Grandpa as stable as I can and a few hours of sleep, I’ll run some tests. I’ll take a very awkward sample from Lorcan too. Do you want me to test Morgan?”

  “No, god no!” Paige barked. “Let’s just get all the info we can before I panic. I don’t have time for this. If we get any more vampire lords in here, it will be a bloodsucker convention.”

  She gnawed at her lip and gave Kyle a defeated look. “I’m starting to smell different, aren’t I?”

  Kyle gave her a little nod. She continued, “I feel weird too, but I’m a mess. Do you think the vampires can—?”

  “I know you Paige. I don’t think these vampires have smelled too many werewolves, let alone those that are kno—” He stopped abruptly as there was a rapping on the door.

  “Speaking of knocking,” Kyle quipped. Paige gave him a look that could have boiled a glacier. The doctor opened the door to reveal a strange pair.

  “Oh dear, this is who the scion had to save him,” a crackling, thickly accented voice spat out. “It is a miracle he is not dead already.”

  It was the second figure that made Paige bristle. She snarled, her irises expanding across her corneas, as she found herself once more face-to-face with a wiry Asian man with freakishly light eyes and floppy blue-streaked hair. In his short sleeves she could see an inked serpent coiling from arm to arm, its head resting on the back of his hand.

  “Don’t worry, furball,” the visitor said flatly. “I’m not here for a repeat of last time. I’m just here to make sure my son isn’t ripped apart by rabid man-beasts.”

  This younger-looking man sized up Kyle and let out a long, low whistle. “My sister, Ping, was right. I would have loved to have you around. Hiya, I’m Bam-Yin Lung – Bam-Bam if you’re playing nice, Lord Lung, the Hundred Pacer if you’re not,” he said cheerfully. He pointed to the wizened Chinese man beside him, a living, breathing anachronism in his Fu Manchu mustache and top knot. “And this is my boy, Dr. Pang, the leading authority on vampire physiology and diseases.”

  Paige snarled and stood between the bloodsuckers and her unconscious husband. The older-looking man laughed heartily and took a few steps toward the wall of monitors. He flipped up his walking stick and tapped one screen, rattling off a rapid-fire string of orders in Mandarin. Bam-Yin replied in an equally speedy string of Chinese. After a few more angry-sounding exchanges, the younger-looking of the two gave a snide smile to both Kyle and Paige.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Bam-Yin said. “He’d like to get some real work done.”

  Now both Kyle and Paige bared their teeth, fully extending their canines. Before either one could lunge with their claws, the old man raised his hands in surrender. He muttered something bitter-sounding in Chinese before exclaiming, “Please! The patient.”

  “That monster—” Kyle growled.

  “Qiānsùi,” Dr. Pang said with a deferential nod to Bam-Yin. “With all due respect, leave.”

  Bam-Yin cracked his knuckles and danced around for a few seconds before taking a few steps back. Both Paige and Kyle watched, dumbstruck, as the other vampire vanished in the blink of an eye.

  “There really is an invisible vampire. Morgan wasn’t crazy,” Kyle muttered. He then turned to Dr. Pang. “Look—”

  “You look, Dr. O’Hara,” Pang said in a ridiculously nasal and snide voice. “Until you have had three hundred years of caring for the osoi-shi, step aside. Now, I give you my word that I will help this patient to the best of my abilities, but I cannot do that with a smelly, exhausted man-beast standing in my way. Now get out and let me do my work!”

  “You give your word?” Paige growled. “You’ll do your best to save him?”

  “I am both a doctor and a vampire, she-wolf,” Dr. Pang spat. “I would not only be breaking the fourth law, I would be breaking my professional reputation.”

  She stared at the strange old man with bright green eyes. Finally, she snarled and took Kyle’s hand. “You need sleep anyway,” she muttered as she led Kyle from the room. He only weakly protested.

  “Paige?” he hissed once they were in the hall.

  “He’s right. If anything happened to Lorcan on his watch, it would ruin him. I don’t know why, but I remember him, even if we’ve never met. Ugh, I have way too much of Lorcan’s blood in my system. I’m even seeing him again.”

  “Sleep, then tests,” Kyle
muttered as he shuffled down the hall.

  “And a shower, please!” she called after him.

  Paige didn’t make it three steps down the hall before running into a trio of vampires. She snarled at all of them.

  “Please, may we speak,” Klaus said gently. Paige shifted her gaze between him and the imposing Lord Jaeger behind him. She saw her great-grandfather giving her what could only be described as the world’s worst reassuring smile.

  Something flickered in the corner of her eye. She whirled around to see Bam-Yin Lung leaning against the wall, hands crossed over his chest.

  “Oh, am I invited, or should I just crash the party?” the once-invisible vampire asked with a smirk.

  “Actually, yes,” Klaus said. “It is most fortuitous that you were as predictable as always, Kuleleele.”

  “If you are going to start calling me that, I’m going to break out some of your less popular names, Beast,” Bam-Yin retorted.

  “You can’t possibly expect me to call you Bam-Bam the Hundred Pacer and keep a straight face, boy,” Klaus sighed. Both Paige and Steve could only watch, confused, as Klaus and Bam-Yin partook in an uncomfortable staring contest. Finally Klaus offered up, “Bam it is then.”

  “Bam-Bam the Hundred Pacer?” Steve mouthed incredulously. Paige snarled again. Now it was the Jaeger’s turn to step into the conversation.

  “Please, all of you - most ironically, we do not have forever to discuss this, so all of you go to the study. Now.”

  Although his voice never rose above a conversational tone, the final now echoed in Paige’s ears. Her legs moved involuntarily and she found herself joining the procession of contrite vampires toward the stairwell. Steve maneuvered to Paige’s side and gave her a concerned glance.

  “You OK, Pipsqueak?” he asked softly. Paige only responded with a withering glare. “Dumb question,” Steve muttered as they all shuffled involuntarily into the bowels of the Arce Monstrorum.

  Paige couldn’t help but gawk slightly as the group descended past the stucco walls and into rough-hewn stone. Klaus unlocked a heavy iron gate at the base of the stairs, followed by a wooden door covered in deep gashes.

  “I must apologize in advance, my lady,” Klaus said softly, looking right at Paige. “I’m afraid that my predecessor thought that our future was best built upon the bones of our enemies. Welcome to the Arce Monstrorum.”

  “Pops,” Steve said cautiously. “Why are we going down here? You have a really nice conference—”

  “For once, my son, be quiet,” Klaus said, dreadfully serious. “It is time you understood a great many things.”

  Paige recoiled as a new, powerful stench of death and musk assaulted her nose. She glared at Klaus but said nothing. Deep in the shadows behind him she could see a distinctive pattern on the wall. Row upon row of empty sockets stared back at her.

  “You were being literal,” Paige muttered as she took in the wall of skulls.

  “Vampires aren’t big on metaphors,” Bam-Yin muttered in return.

  Klaus led them through the ossuary. Paige couldn’t help but notice the distended jaws and pronounced canines in most of the fossils. Clawed hands and feet had been pressed into the concrete floor and used to hold the sconces that lined the hallway.

  “You should be honored, werewolf,” the Jaeger said with a cold smile. “The last time one of your kind visited, they were dragged in chains.”

  “It’s still an option,” Bam-Yin murmured from the rear. “I never pack light.”

  Paige couldn’t hold back her gasp after Klaus led them to the next door. The hall opened into a massive cave lined from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. At least three stories of ladders and balconies allowed access to the dizzying array of scrolls, tomes, and tablets – the stone variety. The entire center column consisted of four effigies of titans – each supporting the ceiling. A central fire burned at their feet, but Paige could barely see the glass keeping the flame away from the priceless texts. Tablets of the twenty-first century variety sat on the tables on the lower floor where a few white-robed figures dutifully scanned images of the paper records before filing them silently.

  Klaus nodded to the librarians as they scattered like cockroaches into the shadows. Paige found herself walking past what looked like another Rosetta Stone - only this one had streaks of dried blood running from top to bottom, and there was a section of what looked like Chinese script beneath the Egyptian and the Greek.

  “Why do we have a library?” Steve asked. “This was our big secret, Pops?”

  The Jaeger snorted. “We merely agreed to guard it,” he said, waving dismissively. “It’s a collection from all the other families, and what we saved from the Library of Alexandria.”

  “The Jaeger really aren’t readers as a family,” Steve explained softly.

  “No shit, Grandpa,” Paige growled back. She narrowed her eyes as they passed a statue of a werewolf being impaled by a long-fanged vampire in a loincloth. To her surprise, the Jaeger snarled as well as he passed. She heard him mutter something in a Scandinavian dialect, but it was clearly dismissive.

  The plaque read, “Arcturus and Lycaon.”

  Paige did raise a brow as she saw a face and build eerily similar to Kyle. “Arthur,” she whispered. She barely had time to process it as the group was led around the central hearth to see a statue of two hooded figures. The one on the left carried a gladius and looked remarkably similar to the blond vampire only a few feet from Paige. The one on the right stood out for his clawed hands and feral face.

  “Romulus and Moderātus, the sword and dagger of Arcturus,” Paige read. She stared at the unfamiliar face under the hood.

  “It’s the only remaining statue of the traitor,” Klaus explained.

  “Which one?” Bam-Yin muttered as he stormed past Klaus. The blond vampire sighed and motioned the group toward the sitting area in a nearby alcove. Paige, however, lingered.

  “Mordred,” she mouthed, daring for the briefest of moments to trace her fingers along the base of the plaque.

  “You never saw this face, A rún,” she heard as she closed her eyes.

  “Paige?” Klaus asked, as he motioned to an empty chair next to Steve. She stood behind it, keeping a close eye on the equally-tense Bam-Yin and Lord Jaeger. From this vantage point she could see another statue – one of a woman with a bow and arrow.

  “This is turning into Chicago all over again,” Paige murmured. Steve shot her a curious glance, but seemed compelled to remain quiet.

  “We are living in interesting times,” Klaus started softly.

  “Like inviting the furball into our secret sanctum?” Bam-Yin quipped. “Care to explain that?”

  “She is Lorcan’s wife, and thus his representative,” Klaus replied calmly. “All of us are here because we each have a vested interest in saving the life of Lorcan Darcy.”

  A round of curious looks circulated. Bam-Yin and Paige, in particular, stared at each other in genuine disbelief, and then turned to look at the bemused Jaeger who pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a long drink.

  “Before I continue, you must each swear that what is said in this library is not repeated ever again, except to members of this council. I take full responsibility for Lorcan’s bride. Should she fail this oath, I will answer,” Klaus said.

  “No, old friend. I will take the responsibility for the werewolf,” the Jaeger said. He levelled his icy eyes at her. “She will not disappoint us.”

  “What is this, some supernatural Scooby Squad?” Steve asked. “Come on.”

  “Swear to silence, boy, and you will find out,” the Jaeger said.

  “I swear to not repeat anything I hear to anyone outside of this room,” Steve sighed. “Are we gonna pinkie promise next?”

  Klaus ignored his son and instead solicited similar promises from everyone else in the room. Even the mighty Jaeger acquiesced. Bam-Yin was the last to give a “Shì,” in agreement.

  “As you all now know, Merlin has found a way
to return King Arthur to us,” Klaus said.

  “You say this like it’s a bad thing, Beast,” Bam-Yin said. His eyes shifted from blue to red as he glared.

  “You were not around for the first reign of Arthur,” Klaus retorted. “And I think after we speak, your allegiance to the Once and Future King will change.”

  Bam-Yin rolled his eyes. He then turned his attention to the two Jaeger in attendance. “I mean, I get it, Lord Jaeger. You don’t like the sudden power shift, but Arthur and Merlin negotiated a truce. I’m sure you and your clan are pissed that you no longer get to summarily execute my kin, but I’m not my sister. I don’t want the war anymore. I just want to find out which one of you bastards murdered my mother, kill you quietly, and move on,” he said in a sweet, almost sing-song tone. Paige paled slightly but held her tongue.

  “And I’m certain Merlin promised you a great many things, just as he promised my wife that she would one day be Jaeger,” the Jaeger said with a snort. “My father is very good at making promises; the delivery, not so much.”

  “Your father?” Steve asked. He looked at the unsurprised Paige. “You knew this?”

  “Yeah, Merlin had four children – him, Arthur, Su Min, and Meenakshi,” Paige hissed. “What, you didn’t know that?”

  “I see that Lorcan told you much, Paige,” Klaus said with a nod.

  “And no one tells me anything,” Steve muttered.

  “That is because you are a blabbermouth baby, Stefano,” Bam-Yin snapped. Steve turned red as none of the vampires disagreed with that statement. Paige remained awkwardly silent.

  “Each one of Merlin’s children had a different secondary sire, each with a unique ability,” Klaus continued. “He sought out the most talented of the Cesare and seduced them to create the most powerful progeny in millennia. It was his belief that through selected breeding, vampirekind would be restored to their former glory.”