Vampire Babylon - Midnight Reign Part 25

Bluffing. It was all she had.

Mommy...

Dawn smacked the little girl quiet.

"Your Friend isn't hurt, I swear." Eva glanced at the vase and...smiled? "I was already home when the spirit attacked Julia, so I...Let's just say I've very recently been trained to captivate. We've all been instructed in how to do it because of the party last night."

So that's what'd happened to the first disappearing Friend. At least Dawn knew now. "Since we're being honest, were you the one who put me under by the pool?"

"No." Eva looked angry, or at least she was pretending to be, because maybe that's all a vamp could do-act. "And I'm going to find out who did it. Believe me."

Dawn did, and for a forbidden second, she welcomed the mama-bear protectiveness, grasped on to it until she was holding on so hard she had to let go.

She retaliated. "So you still haven't told me why."

"My handlers," the actress said, backing off of the mind screws. "They told me that, when I lost my youth someday soon, the roles would dry up. I was lucky to be in the flush of beauty now and wouldn't it be nice if that could last forever? I got scared. I panicked. Frank couldn't hold a good job and he spent money like a madman, so who was going to take care of the family if I couldn't? I didn't know it at the time, but my managers had...connections. They figured out a way for me to keep my career successful: my life insurance and residuals would provide for you and your dad while I waited Underground to make a comeback and earn a lot of money again. A lot more since my legend would pave the way. I wanted to always provide for you, even if I had to make a sacrifice to do it better."

"A sacrifice." Such a harmless word coming out of Eva's mouth. "You did this for your own ego. You and Robby Pennybaker and Lord knows who else."

"I always meant to come back to you." Eva inched closer, seeming so much like young, fun-loving, kindhearted Jac that Dawn almost bought it. Almost. "Please. I was just released, and it's the first thing I'm taking care of, besides getting resettled in my career."

It'd be so nice to just accept everything Eva was saying and offering. Imagine, righting all the wrongs between them, starting over again as mother and daughter. Could all the empty nights of hearing Frank play old records be erased? Could Dawn even be a better person with her mom to guide her now?So easy to fall into this emotional seduction.

Dawn's neck throbbed, still tender from whatever had happened last night.

Something deep inside warned her not to fall. To hold on.

"We're not bad." Eva stopped, tilting her head. "All we're looking for is a good life. Every single one of us."

Dawn didn't want to start wondering if creatures like Eva considered her, Breisi, and Kiko to be the bad guys. That would muddle all the righteous anger, all the justifications for vengeance.

Instead, Dawn summoned her Eva bitterness. Easy. Adrenaline surged, canceling her exhaustion.

Pretending to break down under all her mom's tempting words, Dawn wiped the medicinal goop off her fingers as she walked toward the vampire. After the gel was gone, she opened her arms as if to suddenly embrace everything Eva had to offer.

Probably because she wanted it to happen so badly, Eva's ageless face lit up at her daughter's approach.

Abruptly, Dawn dodged around Eva, diving for the first weapon she could-the whip chain. Within a second, she had it unfurled, spinning at her side. The silver could poison Eva.

The vamp seemed to sink into herself. "Oh, Dawn."

Heart fully hardened, she struck at her enemy, the silver dart on the end of the whip slicing through the air.

With mind-bending speed, Eva avoided the attack.

Dawn jerked in surprise, the flow of her chain interrupted. Annoyed, she got back into her rhythm.

"I'm telling you to put it down before you get hurt," Eva said, sounding so much like a mother that Dawn almost did stop.

But it didn't really work with a middle-aged woman b.i.t.c.hing at her from a young girl's body. "What's the Underground, Eva?"

The vampire looked heartbroken.

"Where's Frank? Do you know where the h.e.l.l my dad is?"

"Please put that down...."

Dawn spun the whip backward so it slowed at the apex of the spin, then allowed it to fall back into her hand. But just as Eva looked relieved, Dawn quickly stepped forward, skip-stepping into a tornado kick, releasing the whip and going into a right elbow hook spin to gain enough speed to strike.

Slowly, Eva nodded, then sighed into Danger Form.

She whirled, ghost tendrils in misty motion, then snapped into a cloud of breathtaking angel-featured splendor. Before Dawn could maneuver the chain around again, Eva had zipped under the arc of the whip's spin and flashed up to Dawn's hand, jarring the handle away.

Aghast, Dawn could only watch as the vamp masterfully manipulated the handle, circling the whip and dervishing her own way across the room. When she released the chain, it cut into a wall, spitting plaster, then died to the carpet.

As if to punctuate the finale, Eva popped back into human form, wisps of silver streaming from her body like iced smoke.

"That's so not going to work," she said, sounding like Jac-naively disappointed. For the first time, Dawn felt truly beaten, having no options. Her pulse vibrated, turning her stomach.

"I guess it's time to prove," Eva said, "that my intentions aren't that bad at all."

Out of nowhere, someone gripped Dawn's arm. She glanced up to find Julia shaking her head at her. Bad dog, she seemed to be saying. Bad daughter.

A rumbling filled the air, and Dawn glanced at the fireplace, which was moving away from the wall, exposing a slat.

Before she knew what was happening, Julia and Eva had taken both her arms, forcefully ushering her through the dark s.p.a.ce, down some stairs....

Toast, Dawn thought. I'm toast. No one will ever know what happened to me.

But when a door opened at the end of a tunnel, she saw a light. They shoved her into it, and there, in the blinding flash, she saw a well-kempt man in a T-shirt and jeans, chained to an overstuffed couch.

Dawn fell to her knees, then sprint-crawled toward him, choking on happiness and fear.

As she jumped up and collided into his chest, his beefy arms wrapped around her, cutting off what little she had left of her breath.

Then the door behind Dawn and her father crashed shut.

NINETEEN.

THE RED FINGER.

D AD!" Dawn cried into Frank's brawny chest, clinging to him. His familiar scent-the musk of car grease, a hint of old beer days gone by-washed through her.

He was real. She held him tighter. He was here.

For his part, Frank was squeezing so hard Dawn thought she'd pop. The pressure brought on a flash of memory: Daddy, I can't breathe, she'd said once after coming inside the house after school. A neighbor had dropped her off from gymnastics practice because Frank had forgotten to pick her up again. You're too strong, Dad....

Big-girl Dawn pushed away to get some oxygen, but also because she wanted to see that it was really him and not some d.a.m.ned vampire joke. Reaching up to hold his grizzled face in her hands, she laughed a little hysterically.

"You're okay," he said. "I knew the last thing she'd do was hurt you, but..."

He shook his head, out of words.

Dawn kept drinking him in. Deep lines emphasized his smile, and his green eyes were clear of their usual hangover fuzz, a sheen of what seemed like relief washing over them instead. His steady gaze was surrounded by crinkles, his skin so leathered it looked like some treasure map that might actually pay off. His dark hair resembled the usual wild-gra.s.s clearing, but it'd receded more than she remembered.

She'd missed him; she hadn't realized just how much until now.

They hugged again, and she noticed that, in spite of his brawn, his tummy was slightly rounded. Eva had kept him fed.

"You are okay," he mumbled against her hair, "right, Dawnie?" "Okay" was such a relative term. "I've found you, and that makes me more than okay. Now..." Ignoring her aches and pains, Dawn squeezed him one more time, then quickly reached down, testing one of the long chains shackling his arms. "I've got to get you out of here."

"Whoa, whoa..." Frank smoothed back her hair with both hands, then kissed her forehead, pressing her to his chest until she was gasping again. "I almost want to think that this is one of Eva's mind tricks."

Like father like daughter. "We've got a lot to talk about, but..." She backed away, tugged at his chains anch.o.r.ed against the wall.

They held like a mother, but Dawn wasn't exactly at her strongest right now.

"Ain't these somethin'?" Frank yanked on one, too. No give from its base. "You don't know how I've fought 'em. They're some kind of impossible silver. Only the best from Eva."

Was he actually joking around? That took her aback until she realized that Frank had found ample opportunity to get used to this captivity, that he was probably able to yuck it up all he wanted because it'd become so real to him. Yup, just a part of his everyday life, being chained to a wall by a vampire, aka his wife come back from the dead.

She glanced around the room, noticing how nice it was. A fireplace that probably hadn't seen flames for years, the type of couches and chairs you'd find in an L.L. Bean catalog, a door halfway open to expose a clean toilet and shower, a mini refrigerator, a television.

"I get to watch all the sports I want," Frank said, touching Dawn's head again, "and no one nags at me about it."

He jerked his chin up to one of two cameras perched in the corners.

"Ah," Dawn said. "That's how she keeps tabs."

"I think my audience is Julia, mostly. You get a load of her? Every once in a while when she brings a meal, she'll tell me what an honor it is to have Eva chain me up. Bats.h.i.t bozo."

As Dawn's heart rate began to smooth out, she marveled at Sober Frank. She wasn't used to complete sentences or articulate thoughts from him.

She'd think about all that stuff later. Right now, she just wanted to stay glad to see him and figure out how they were going to get out of here.

He motioned to a couch. "Looks like you need to sit. It'll be a while before the welcoming committee comes through that door again."

Was he kidding? "There's got to be an exit somewhere, and I'm going to find it."

"h.e.l.l, if you wanna crawl up the fire chute, give it a go. It's blocked off except for a tiny hole in the center." Frank shot one of his patented charming/c.o.c.ky glances at her. "I've tried everything else."

Well, hey, so she might as well give up then, right?

Ambling toward the fireplace, Frank demonstrated the boundaries of his chains. They were long enough to allow him freedom on this side of the room, but short enough to keep him away from the faraway door.

Smart move, Eva, Dawn thought. When she or Julia entered, Frank wouldn't be able to ambush them. But, at the same time, he had a certain amount of movement.

Dawn stuck her head into the fireplace and peered up, squinting. Indeed, there was only a tiny hole.

One of the chimneys. A red finger.She pulled out, flabbergasted that Kiko had actually seen something. His prediction had been cryptic as h.e.l.l, but he had some of his mojo back. If Dawn hadn't been stuffed into a secret room by her mother-c.u.m-vampire and her Amazon lackey, she might even say things were looking up.

"I used my fork to make that," Frank said, plopping to the sofa. He kept looking at her and smiling as if he couldn't believe she was with him. "That hole just popped up last night, so I tried to yell in the chimney, just to see if anyone would notice my voice, like maybe a Friend on patrol. Or even you, Dawnie. I knew Eva would be bringing you home at some point, and I always imagined you coming over and hearing me before she got to you. Some warning system I am."

"I'm surprised she didn't repair the hole lickety-split. A Friend could've gotten through."

"True enough."

At the same moment, both of them seemed to realize they were talking about really messed-up things. This wasn't baseball chatter or an attempted conversation about the electricity bill. This was Friends and vampires.

Frank gave her one of his funny, screwy looks. It was the type of expression that'd make her laugh when she was younger, the type that had made her love him even when she was angry enough to spit.

"So, I kind of climbed on the roof to investigate," she said.

"You did what? Dawnie-"

"Don't lecture me on safety, Frank. I was checking out something Kiko predicted."

"Kiko? Well, I'll be-how is he? And..." Frank's throat worked and his eyes caught a glimmer. "And...Breisi?"

Dawn knew who he really wanted to hear about. "Breisi's fine. She talks about you all the time-misses the c.r.a.p out of you-but she's worried. Everyone's worried."

She wouldn't go into details about the boss. Dawn felt too rushed for that now, and she wouldn't be telling Frank most of it anyway. Her dad would probably get all protective and pull out a shotgun, then order The Voice to marry Dawn and make her an honest woman or something. Frank was weird in a lot of old-fashioned ways; he didn't like "Dawn's men."

Not that he knew about a fraction of them.

He was smiling to himself, probably hearing the name "Breisi" reverberating through his head. With that one little tell, Dawn realized just how much he missed the other woman. How deeply he felt for her.

"Breisi and I have talked," Dawn said.

"Good for you two."

He lowered his gaze at her, and she understood right away.

Quiet. The cameras. No talking about Limpet and a.s.sociates allowed.

"I'm just chatting about your new girlfriend." Dawn took warped pleasure out of Eva's probable reaction to Frank moving on without her. "I don't care if the vamp gets offended."

"Dawn." He'd used the un-nickname, which meant he was pretending he could discipline her. "She's your mom."

She reared back. "You're sticking up for her?" He looked away, and the bottom fell out of her world.

"Tell me you haven't forgiven her."