Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead - By Jason Henderson Page 0,66

a walk, Alex,” said Ultravox. “There’s something you’ll want to do.”

Chapter 30

Minhi received her Montblanc from Paul and held on to it as she took his hand and they stepped down the rest of the stairs.

They began to dance as the announcements went on, and she watched the crowd. Her mom was on the side, talking to Mr. Otranto, and she was nodding in a way Minhi had seen before: It was the serene look of a woman hearing a pitch. There were stations around the ballroom where people gathered for fun or for paying a lot of money. Not far from the bar near a side door, there was a table where Ms. Daughtry was taking pledges for the rebuilding of Glenarvon. The punch bowl (for the students) was on the other side of the room where a representative from the upcoming Ministers’ Conference was working the same angle. Minhi’s mom would stop at one or the other soon, probably just to shut Otranto up.

The orchestra segued into calypso again. Javi and Vienna came into view over Paul’s shoulder, Vienna looking charming, smiling as any deb should, but not all the way to her eyes. “You have to admit, this is better than the cages down in the Scholomance,” Paul said.

Minhi laughed. They were swaying, dancing about as much as Paul could manage. “And I got a pen,” she said.

She dropped the pen into her tiny handbag before taking his hand again. That was better.

“What?” Paul asked, looking at her.

“Just . . . enjoying the music,” she said. The dancing was to go on for a few numbers and then there would be a switch; the hostess would announce that they should each dance with their parents, which was charming except that Minhi was there with her mom and she wasn’t sure if they could just sit it out or decide who should lead.

“Damn cell phone,” she said aloud, not intending to.

“Yeah,” Paul said as kindly as he could. He looked around. “You want me to get you some punch?”

She smiled. “Sure.”

Paul gallantly bowed and she curtsied, and he was off, showing some measure of relief. None of this felt quite right.

For a moment she did listen to the music, the rhythmic xylophones and bongos thrumming in her head. She turned around and looked at Ms. Daughtry, who smiled back and waved.

Behind Ms. Daughtry she saw a glint of metal on the floor, shimmering like a jewel in a mound of dark cloth. She waited for Paul and studied the ballroom banners for a moment.

She shot her eyes back to the glint.

Minhi found herself walking toward it and coming around the open doorway, staring at the jewel. Her heart began to thump against her chest as she knelt, reaching out to touch a soaking tuxedo jacket that had been tossed on the floor, water streaming around it.

It was Alex’s lapel pin.

Minhi stood up as the hostess started to announce the parental dance. She followed the stream of water with her eyes and began to run.

“You’ve done very well,” said Ultravox, who still wore a peasant shirt and casual pants, no slave to fashion. Down in the bowels of the ship, in a hold about the size of a two-car garage, the man’s voice echoed off metal walls as they strolled past pallets of cardboard and bins of glass and aluminum. They were walking through a hold where trash and recyclables would be processed, Alex dimly realized. Then the realization drifted away.

“You’re probably wondering why I don’t have an army,” Ultravox said. “The Scholomance is so obsessed with making its point with droves of soldiers, but I find a little bit of leadership can go a long way.”

The vampire was just behind Alex and to the side. Alex started to break free of the voice, when Ultravox said again, “No, you don’t want to raise your hands. You’re tired of all that. Look what it’s got you.”

They were approaching an open door at the end of the room. For a moment it looked strange and unfamiliar, and then Alex blinked and saw that it was a bunk, not full-size, but the kind you’d find on the train from Munich to Rome, decent enough to doze for a few hours after you’ve been walking all day. Ultravox’s voice went on, outside yet somehow inside his head.

“Alex, I told you before that this was as good as it’s going to get, but you’ve only made it worse. Isn’t that just terrible? You