Vampire Babylon - Night Rising Part 30

Dawn was straining under her mind block, but this mom talk was testing it, seeing how much she could stand before her barricades crumbled. "She's been crying over you, Robby."

"And my dad? Has he been crying?"

The question was petulant, a preteen sulk.

"Your dad's very upset, too," Kiko said.

"I doubt it."

A zing of heat flashed through the terrible colors of Robby's eyes. Automatically, Dawn held up a hand, as if it would help her retain the integrity of her block. And it did, for the time being, at least.

"My dad abandoned me," Robby said. "He might pretend to be upset, but all he wants is to get me captured again."

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

Robby fisted his hands and closed his eyes, wiping out his attempted hold on her. It was like someone had released her mind from a net of chains. Stumbling under the relief, Dawn dug into her jacket pockets, just like Kiko. Crucifix and velvet- wrappedshurikenwere waiting for her to come and get them.

"I mean that I want my dad to suffer like I did all these years," Robby said, voice crackling. He opened his eyes, but Dawn didn't gaze into them this time. h.e.l.l, no.

"I know he's out there looking for me," he added. "I watch him go from place to place, searching, but he's not going to catch me.

I'm not going back to the Underground. Not ever!"

Underground?

The word provoked images of a nest, a lair of vampires. It made the tile beneath Dawn's feet seem like a thin line between herself and a dark pit. Suddenly, her footing wasn't so stable.

"Robby, we just want to take you to your mom." Kiko was walking forward, drawing his hands out of his pockets.

But before he got them all the way out, Robby screamed.

"I said no!"

With the speed of a whirlwind, the boy vampire's body seemed to spin into itself, white streaks of feathered coldness enclosing him.

Dawn heaved in a breath. Move, d.a.m.nit,move. She began taking out her weapons.

But the vampire was faster. With a snap of roaring thunder, a screech ripped through the air, and a new Robby emerged out of the compact storm.

All-encompa.s.sing, he floated on air, half transparent misty beauty, half seething fallen angel. The glow of his body blinded Dawn, and even as she squinted her eyes against him, it was too late. The invitation of his gaze was irresistible, pulling her in again with sweet promises of fulfillment.

Frank. His image wavered, then solidified in front of her. He was healthy, grinning. Then Eva materialized, holding hands with him.

They both reached out to their daughter.

Longing tore at Dawn's chest, biting, ripping.

"We can be together now," Eva said. "Will you come to me?"

Dawn had wanted to hear this all her life, craved it while watching other children with their moms in the park, resented it at night when she raged against the unfairness of life.

For a wonderful moment, Dawn went to her parents, her heart so full that she thought it might drag her down to her knees.

"Mom?" she asked, reaching out to them, sorrow scratching at the wonder in her voice.

"Dawn!" Kiko broke into her head, his voice like a brick shattering a window, destroying the illusion of the perfect family that never was.

Crying out in grief, she jerked back into herself, grabbing her crucifix and yanking it out of her pocket.

But Kiko beat her to it. He already had his out, pus.h.i.+ng it at Robby. The translucent vampire bared his fangs, long and pearly, his awful eyes fixed on the crucifix.

"Come home, Robby," Kiko said, repeating the phrase over and over, an incantation. But Dawn knew he wasn't trying to save Robby's soul. Who knew if that was even possible? Kiko was persuading the vampire to come with them, to The Voice.

To the mysterious unknown.Dawn joined him, blasting a mind block at the vamp at the same time. "Come home, Robby...."

Rebelling, the vampire reared back his head, crying out in a voice that combined the chill of a graveyard wind with the plea of a lost child in the night.

"Come home, Robby!"

Their voices were growing in strength as they advanced, crucifixes flas.h.i.+ng against the luminescence of the vampire.

Another screech. Robby glared at the crucifixes again and then...

He stopped screaming, the sounds echoing like broken icicles falling to the ground.

Robby smiled, white fangs gleaming.

What...? Oh, G.o.d.

Immune? Unlike the red-eyes, was he immune to religious imagery?

Fear pressed against Dawn's ribs. She thrust her crucifix at the vampire again, concentrated all her mind power against him.

But it seemed like the initial shock of the silver item had worn off. Dear G.o.d, is that what Robby had been talking about when he'd said he'd escaped the Guards by hiding someplace they couldn't go? Like maybe a church?

"Oh, oh," Kiko said, flas.h.i.+ng his crucifix at Robby again, then one more time...and once more after that.

In slow, warped thought, Dawn pictured a man attempting to start a car that was dead.

Survival instinct kicked in. She reached for hershurikenbecause they were closer than the gun, and she would sooner kill this vamp and suffer Jonah's anger than die here tonight. Like the bullets, the silver on the blades might do some kind of fancy Breisi-inspired alchemy in his bloodstream, even if the holy water didn't.

Yet she wasn't in time.

Robby wailed, reared back, swung forward with a tentacle-like hand. It all happened so fast...a blur...the smack of contact...

With a yell, Kiko went flying backward, spine arched.

Dawn screamed as he zoomed toward the back wall-the only one without shelves.

Crrrrr-unnnch.

The crash was bone-breaking, her body shriveling into itself at the painful sound.

"Kiko!"

As she jumped in his direction, she perceived-but couldn't process-that his body lay twisted on the floor, crumpled, eyes wide with disbelief. His mouth worked, trying to form words.

He shuddered, head hitting the tile, his gaze going blank.

A sob tore out of her and she tripped over herself to get to him, but something-a freezing hand on her ankle-was holding her back. In the next instant, her body was flipped upside down, hanging, her heart pounding in her head as she lost hold of her weapons.In the horrifying silence, her vial of holy water fell from her loose jacket pocket and smashed to wet pieces. Hershurikentingled to the tile one by one, like silver snowflakes.

Robby growled and sped back to the nearly closed door, Dawn still in tow. In his displeasure, he swung her around, her vision fast-forwarding with the speed.

Her body recognized a stunt gone wrong, and she fell into evasive maneuvering, balling up before her body hit- Bam! Her right arm blasted into a burn of agony as it caught the metal shelves. Thankfully, it went numb before she could acknowledge the full pain.

No time for it, because Robby was already rearing her back for another beating- She grabbed on to a nearby table with her left hand to slow herself, but he still got the best of her. As the table screeched over the floor, she lost hold of it. The corner of the shelves rushed toward her head, and for a sick, flas.h.i.+ng moment, she remembered that day with Frank on the merry-go-round, the green of the gra.s.s flying up to meet her....

Hollering in denial, she averted her face, expertly twisting around- Boom!The shelving caught her in the right shoulder, and that, too, went dead. G.o.d knows what she'd look like now if she hadn't grabbed that table....

He started to swing her again.

"Eva!" she screamed.

It hadn't been a plea to the mom Robby had lured her with, the prodigal lifegiver whose image had comforted Dawn in this room only minutes ago.

Or had it?

At the name, she sensed Robby pulling back his strength, and her head glanced off of the shelves, her sight going white, then exploding into a mult.i.tude of patterns and colors. She felt her cheek opening up with b.l.o.o.d.y heat.

Even though she hadn't realized she'd still been holding it, her crucifix clattered to the ground. When Robby let go of her, Dawn's body followed, cras.h.i.+ng next to the silver weapon.

She came to a crouch, oxygen chopping out of her. Blood began to wet her face.

Kiko. She had to get to Kiko.

"Your mom," Robby said, referring to the cry that had released her. His head was c.o.c.ked in curiosity again-but this time it was that beautiful, ghostly head, not the visage of a little boy. His voice sounded like it'd been spliced together from a thousand painful days. "Daydreamer...Eva was my friend."

"Yes, yes, she was, your friend and costar. Please, can I go tomyfriend?"

Kiko...G.o.d. In her line of work, she'd seen injuries before-had seen a fellow stuntman almost get his neck broken with the force of a high fall once, had come close to breaking her own back, too-so she knew her partner was in bad shape. d.a.m.n it, she needed to get to him.

With brutal efficiency, Robby sucked back into his former facade. At this distraction, Dawn used her good arm to unsnap her gun holster. But when the vampire angled his head at her again, as if trying to see Eva in her, she left it alone, not wanting to provoke him unless she was confident she could draw. And shewasn'tsure about her chances of success-not until she got a hold of herself and got her shooting hand back in working order.He sniffed, scenting the blood from her injury. His eye-color began to swirl.

Carefully, Dawn gathered a batch of napkins from a bottom shelf, held it to her face to stanch the bleeding. She wanted to hide the blood from Robby, even though she knew it wouldn't matter, because vamps were vamps, and she was a meal. Nonetheless, she started to move toward Kiko.

"He's not dead," Robby said. "I hear his heart beating."

She glared at him, so disturbed that she forgot about mind blocking, forgot about almost everything but her friend.

With an invasive swish, Robby attacked her memories, his eyes blazing into hers, bolting into her with invasive discomfort. Dawn tried to cuff him off, but- Helpless, she felt him sifting around in her, violating her secrets, her most tender possessions.

"No!" She mentally pushed at him with desperate futility. She didn't want him inside, hadn't given him permission.... Her left-hand covered her heart as he tore through her.

"You're like me." He smiled again but didn't release her. "You didn't want to come home, either."

Through her anguish, she saw Robby's nostrils widen again as he came closer.

"Can I drink from you? Please?"

"No."

Surprisingly, he didn't force himself on her physically. Mentally, he was still attacking.

And she was still fighting.

Yet, in spite of her turmoil, she wondered why he wasn't just taking her blood, too. What was holding him back?

"I'm hungry," Robby said. "Can't I please-?"

"No."

As if angry with her, he forcefully rooted around her mind some more, finding images of Eva, of Frank. He seemed thrilled with these discoveries.

"I said no, you little..." She took a deep breath, then yelled, "s.h.i.+t!"

The force of her rage thrust him back, cras.h.i.+ng the vampire against the shelves, his head banging against metal. Dawn felt a cleansing rush of vengeance and pressed it forward, keeping him back, daring him to screw with her again.

How'd she manage that? h.e.l.l, now wasn't the time to hypothesize.

"Stayout," she said, glaring, right above his eyes.

Touching his cut forehead, he looked stunned to feel the blood, then inspected her as if she were an intriguing specimen. Most importantly, he'd backed off, and Dawn was going to make sure it stayed that way.

"You miss your dad," he said, acting as if they hadn't just thrown down. Maybe it was because he was more interested in relating to her own daddy situation. Or maybe it was because he knew he could kick her a.s.s at any given second and he was in no hurry.

"You want to see him again more than anything." Even while she was mentally pus.h.i.+ng at him, she had the presence of mind to realize that Robby might be able to help. "Then take me to Frank."

Robby thought for a moment. Then, "No." It was a parody of her refusal to feed him.

"You're not going to help me? Or are you saying that you weren't the one who took him from Bava?"

"I..." The boy seemed puzzled. "I really can't help you."

Why? Wouldn't he, or couldn't he?

She felt his hold release a little, probably because his emotions had gotten the best of him, distracting him again.

Make Robby talk more, she thought, s.h.i.+elding her body with her left hand, ready to fight him off if it came down to it again. Her right arm and shoulder were still robbed of feeling, her left cheek dulled by cutting pain.Take advantage of his fragile temperament.