Envious Of Fire (Kissing With Teeth #2)

36. Good Riddance.

—?—

Kyle feels Tristan remain right where he is, left in the art gallery with the paintings and the monsters, as he heads down the hall. When he comes upon a fountain, not green in color, not glowing, he makes for the stairs. With every step taken, he presses further down the emotions that Tristan peeled apart inside of him. He doesn’t want to think about never seeing him again. He also doesn’t want to think of seeing him again. Every thought concerning Tristan hurts, even the good ones.

So distracted, Kyle belatedly realizes his brother is nearby when his Reach senses something around the corner. Picking up the pace, Kyle passes through an archway into what appears to be an abandoned clinic with several rooms. Under a pair of buzzing fluorescent lights, he follows his Reach around another corner, arrives at an area lined with cots and carts of medical supplies. A small crowd of mortals surround a bed in the corner, murmuring agitatedly to each other, one of the guys bossy and spitting orders, an impatient woman glancing over her shoulder and saying, “We have to get outta here,” over and over.

It’s when the woman’s eyes meet Kyle’s that she nudges a guy next to her, and suddenly all the faces turn his way.

The moment Kyle approaches, one of them brandishes a metal tool—something fetched out of a cabinet, a scalpel. “Not one more step, you motherfucker!” he hollers out, trembling.

“Dude, he’s human, like us,” says a teenager nearby.

The guy squeezes his scalpel. “Like hell he is. He’s wearing a fancy f-fucking tuxedo. And his eyes look weird.”

“ Your eyes are weird,” mumbles the teen back at him.

Kyle lifts his hands. “I’m just looking for my brother Kaleb.”

“Kaleb?” comes a woman’s voice. She quickly comes forth, a woman in a black dress, her hair half black, half white, pulled into one long braid, her skin pale, eyes striking and keen.

Upon seeing her, Kyle realizes she isn’t mortal, like him, but her energy is immediately trusting, no malice in her heart.

And upon seeing Kyle, she appears relieved, swatting at the others nearby. “Move, move … This is Kaleb’s brother. Blood 1025’s real older brother Kyle. Move, I said!”

“Older?” mumbles the guy with the scalpel, confused, until the group of humans part, nudging him out of the way to allow Kyle through. When he reaches the side of the bed, he finds his brother’s face covered from chin to forehead in bandages and gauze, only one eye showing, but it’s closed, and only through a slit in the gauze are his lips and nostrils freed, gently breathing.

Kyle fumbles for Kaleb’s hand, grips it tightly, eyes glued to his brother. Kyle can’t believe it now any more than he did when his brother was playing violin in a cage with a lion.

“It’s you,” Kyle whispers half to himself, in disbelief. “It’s really you … all grown up … my brother … my Kaleb …”

“The wound was bad,” says the woman whom Kyle presumes is Raya. “He collapsed as we were headed to free the prisoners.”

It hardly surprises Kyle, news of human prisoners here. His brother was one, apparently. There must be countless others.

“He will need round-the-clock care,” says a middle-aged woman standing at the end of the bed, her heavily-hooded eyes appearing tired, black hair tied back in a messy bun, voice hoarse. “I cleaned the cuts as best as I could, administered antibiotics, got him stitched up. He’s stable, but I can’t say one way or the other about that eye.” She sighs, shakes her head. “I think it’s a goner.”

“Thank you for s-saving his life,” chokes Kyle. He looks up at the one he presumes to be Raya. “Both of you.”

Raya waves him off. “I just got him out of the cage from an equally-abused and innocent lion. Mei here did the real work.”

The doctor, Mei, grimaces. “He’s got a long road ahead of him. Speaking of. Shouldn’t we get out of here while we still can?”

Kyle can’t resist clinging to his brother, scooping him into a hug. “ Kaleb ,” he breathes. He even smells the same. Somehow. Inexplicably. Is it Kyle’s enhanced senses, or pure imagination, that fills his nostrils with the unmistakable scent of home? “ I have you … You’re here , you’re alive , my dear brother …” Then he sobs. Uncontrollably. The world is gone, all of it, every last remainder of it. He’s not in the House of Vegasyn. He is back home, time-traveled instantly twenty-seven years into the past, his thirteen-year-old brother, his overworked, studious, violin-hating Kaleb …

Kyle swears, here and now, for the rest of his days, he will never again take for granted this precious human being.

“Hey, you got somewhere safe we can hide?” someone asks. “No way in hell I’m gonna get caught and dragged back here.”

Raya lets out a huff. “Well, if the hundreds of others hadn’t torn off running wherever they pleased the moment I opened the lower cells, not trusting that I wasn’t there to drink them for supper— gross —I could’ve led everyone to the exit. I hope they find their way eventually. With all of the illusions breaking apart, perhaps they have a chance.” She pauses. “Of course, they have just as much of a chance of running into one of the bad ones.”

“Where are we going to go?” asks someone else. “After you lead us out of here, I mean. What will we do next?”

“Up to you,” states Raya too flippantly. “The streets of Las Vegas will not prove so helpful or sympathetic to your plight. I have no home or safe haven to offer outside of this place.” She eyes Kyle. “Do you know somewhere these mortals can go?”

He lifts his face from his brother’s shoulder, nods. “Yeah. Town in Arizona, some ways southeast of here.”

“And do you suppose this little town will have room for …” She performs a quick count. “… sixteen temporary citizens?”

“We’re not going,” blurts the guy with the scalpel, shaking his head. “I have family. 4 and I are heading to them after we get out of this place. Right, 4?”

The woman called 4 frowns. “But they’re in Texas.”

“So?”

She turns to him. “How in the hell are we gonna get all the way there? We have no money. No car. Nothing.” With a sigh, she turns to the others. “I think it’d be smarter to find a place to hide in the city until morning, somewhere public.”

“Why morning?” asks the sweaty, freckly guy.

The woman squints, annoyed that no one’s following her. “The vampires. Daylight. It’ll be safer to travel in the morning. They could hunt us all down if we leave now.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” grunts the big guy, puffing up. “Don’t know these people from Adam. Don’t trust some random town. Once we’re outta this place, I’m going straight to the cops.”

“You think the cops will believe a word you say?” counters 4. “For all we know, they’re bought and corrupted.”

“I’ll take it to the media, then,” he grunts. “I’m not staying silent. And I’m sure as fuck not waiting it out until morning. 1025’s fine, he’s breathing. Why aren’t we gone already?”

That’s when the person standing next to Raya snorts at the others, a guy with short black curls of hair, olive skin, and eyes that shimmer with passion as he faces them. “The fuck, guys? Where’d your courage go? Did you all forget who this is?” He peers down at Kaleb, takes his hand. “His name is Kaleb. He’s been my closest friend in this whole place, like a big brother to me, and you guys want to just ditch him? He was the only one who tried talking sense into us that night we tried to pull one over on the gods. And he turned out to be right. Now we really are getting outta here, and you’re just gonna toss Kaleb aside?”

The guy with the scalpel huffs. “I’m not tossing him aside, 987, you oversensitive baby, we’re just—”

“ Nico ,” he cuts him off. “My name is Nico . Your girlfriend has a name, too, and it isn’t ‘4’. We all have real names. Claim them back. Use them.” He turns to the bed. “I’m gonna make damned sure Kaleb gets home safely, that is my first priority. I’m gonna make sure my friend here gets better, gets back to laughing at my stupid jokes, that’s what I’m doing.”

“But your brother back in San Diego …” 4 starts.

“I’ll return to him soon. To the beach, the bakery … all of it.” His tone sounds more like he’s promising himself. “But not until I know Kaleb’s fine.”

Kyle gazes over the anxious faces in the room who haven’t spoken up. Then Doctor Mei. Raya. Indecision and skepticism hang heavily in the air. Tension lives in the eyeballs of every person surrounding the bed.

Kyle decides to open the invitation formally. “When we get out of here, you all have a choice. I’m not forcing any of you to come with me back to my town. I can’t guarantee your safety anyway, but … what I do know is that everyone there knows about the vampires, and I have a few amazing friends who are likely still working to protect us from them as we speak.” He gazes down at his brother, then finds himself fighting back yet another wave of tears. He still can’t believe Kaleb’s alive. “I’m taking my brother there with me. Raya, you’re welcome, too.”

“Thank you,” she says, sounding oddly surprised.

Kyle glances at Mei. “I don’t know if you plan to join us or not, but can you help me pack some medicine for my brother? Antibiotics? Anything he might need that I wouldn’t think of?”

Mei lifts a bag onto the foot of the bed. “One step ahead of you, cowboy.”

Suddenly the room trembles. Everyone fights an instinct to duck, eyes darting around, until the room quickly settles again.

Raya clears her throat. “Shall I politely lead the way out?”

“Yes,” says Kyle, “and quickly.”

Everyone is instantly on the move. Kyle scoops his brother into his arms, the doctor lifts the bag off the bed and swings it over an arm, and the whole group of just under twenty flee the room with haste. Raya, like a queen missing only a scepter and crown, proudly leads the way, her heels clicking on the ground as her black dress swishes grandly down the hall.

The House has since settled into a mundane state of being, with the illusionary elements only occasionally swelling into and drifting out of existence, like slowed breathing, tiredly, no longer flickering wildly. Perhaps it really is a sign of Markadian dying. His power, fading from the walls of the House itself.

Kyle won’t spend a second’s worth of sympathy on that evil man. “Good riddance,” he mutters under his breath, happy to be rid of him, to be rid of the House, to be free from everything and anything that has to do with this demented place.

It’s upon entering a narrow corridor that Kyle feels it.

His Reach flying ahead of him, like a dog freed, the leash slipping straight out of his hand.

It picks up the crashing of waves. An ocean twisted up by a raging hurricane of anxiety. Churning and tossing the waters any way nature pleases. Ships tumbling helplessly around in the sea. Captains shouting, wheels spinning, sails ripped to shreds.

Kyle recognizes that tumultuous ocean at once.

He stops at a fork in the hall. “We gotta go down here,” he says, pointing the other way.

Raya stops. “That leads into the hotel. If we go this way, we can move through the tunnels, which avoids contact with any of Markadian’s—”

“Elias is this way,” he says. “I can feel him.”

Raya blinks. “Who?”

“My boyfriend. Son of Madame Rose, owner of the—”

“I know who Madame Rose is. Wait. Are you saying your boyfriend is—?” She lets out a brief, annoyed sigh. “Of course. Tristan keeps so many fucking secrets to himself. He never told me. Oh.” She peers at Kyle curiously. “When I spoke Tristan’s name, your heart danced around it. And again when I repeated it just now. Should I not speak of him?”

Kyle looks away, ignores the question. “I think we should go through the hotel, not the tunnels. I want all of us caught on as many security cameras as possible.”

“Oh,” murmurs 4 thoughtfully, “smart.”

“I won’t let them cover this up,” says Kyle, “like they cover up the existence of this place, cover up my friend’s death … Brock’s death … cover up all their tracks and get away with everything.”

Now it’s Raya who is struck by a name. “Oh … Brock.”

Kyle feels something bitter stir to life inside her, a writhing pain threaded with betrayal. He can’t in any way explain how, but he knows at once that Tristan is involved. But why did the emotion make itself known at the mention of Brock’s name?

“Brock …?”

“Another time,” she decides, which further confuses Kyle. She gestures at him. “Let us proceed your way, then. Through the Scarlet Sands … all of us, a parade of escapees …”

“Do you know something about Brock?”

“Make haste,” she insists, taking the lead again as she heads down the other hall. “It does us no good slowing down when there are Ferals likely sniffing us out.”

The term throws Kyle as he catches up to her. “Ferals? You mean the full-blooded vampires?”

“Ferals, vampires … a thorn by any other name would prick as cruelly.”

“Shakespeare just leapt in his grave,” mutters Mei.

Nico comes up to Kyle’s side. “Now wait a sec here. What are these full-blooded vampires you guys are talking about?” He eyes Raya. “Aren’t you one of them?”

“What I am,” says Raya with grandeur, lifting her chin, “is nearly unrecognizable to what They are. They are evil incarnate, all of Them , with twice our strength and none of our humanity. And as long as I can still smell smoke and blood, we’re not safe.” She nods at the others behind her. “Watch your six, mortals. They are mighty, mighty fast … and terribly cunning.”

“Fuck me,” mumbles Nico under his breath.

It’s mere minutes later that the maze of hallways ends at a set of push-bar double doors. Kyle wastes no time shoving them right open. The transition from the House of Vegasyn to the Scarlet Sands is so subtle, Kyle can’t even distinguish which hallways belong to which as they beeline through them. Were the two so seamlessly attached this whole time?

“Who are you?” asks a uniformed employee rounding the corner and stopping short, his eyes wide. “Who are all of you?”

“Honored guests of Madame Rose,” answers Raya briskly, “and we are on our way out.”

“You can’t be back here. None of you—What’s that door?” he asks suddenly, cutting himself off, worked up. “I am down here a dozen times a day, I’ve never once seen that door.”

Raya sweeps by him, leans into his ear. “And if you even so much as step a foot through it, Madame Rose herself is gonna drink you like a milkshake and piss you out a window.”

With the employee left standing in the hall, stunned, the party of twenty-give-or-take head off, their shoes scuffing along the floor, all of them loud and heavy.

Kyle glances at her. “That was quite the imagery.”

“I guess Mance rubbed off on me,” she says bitterly.

“Who was that Mance guy? Some enemy of Markadian’s? What the hell did Tristan do to him back in that banquet hall?”

“He isn’t worth our breath.” Her eyes go dark. “ Not anymore .”

The group turn a corner, then empty through another set of unremarkable double doors into the back of a casino, the atmosphere changing abruptly, now full of digital chimes and music, the haze of smoky lighting like a veil over their eyes.

As they hurry along, Kyle feels a sudden surge of emotion at his back, then realizes how deeply the humans are affected by the environment. Not one of them believed they would finally break free from that place, and now they’re walking through a real-life casino, filled with real people—other human beings. Kyle picks up amazement. Tears. Overwhelming relief. Giddiness and explosive glee. Kyle’s heart swells, relishing in their joy secondhand.

The casino soon opens to the enormous, echoing lobby. Kyle’s eyes fall upon Elias standing at the reception desk. Elias notices him right away, too, and at once, they’re running toward each other. “Kyle!” he cries. “Are you okay? We’ve got to go. Now. Cade and Layna are—Wait, who’re …?” His eyes quickly take in the crowd around Kyle. “Who’re these people?” Then his eyes fall to the one in Kyle’s arms. “Who’s this?”

The question hits Kyle with so much more weight than he imagined it would. Elias doesn’t know a thing yet. “Survivors,” is all he can manage to say for an answer. “What’s going on?” Suddenly he picks up dread in Elias’s heart. “What happened to Cade and Layna? Did the vampires do something? Are they—”

“No, no, none of that. All the vampires left as soon as you did. It was eerie as fuck. Even Lazarus left after a … somewhat bitter scene with his brother. I’ll get to that later, that’s not our issue at all. Babe …” Elias grips him by the arms. “Cade and Layna, they finally figured it out. That book, they’ve made it work. The whole town, Kyle … they’re creating some kind of seal around it, a big fucking seal. They’re calling it a shrouding spell, I think. It’s like a barrier to keep anyone from finding us.”

Kyle doesn’t see the problem. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“That includes keeping us from finding it,” he finishes, “if we don’t get back there right the fuck now.”