Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell Page 0,81

we’ve been here thirty-six hours, and now we’re Team Vampire? Maybe we should summon a few demons and get their help, too.

I have rescued bloody everyone I know, including Baz, again and again, and I never teamed up with the enemy to do it. (Unless you count Baz. There, at the end. I mean…)

This isn’t how you rescue someone!

We’ve been here thirty-six hours, and apparently Baz doesn’t hate vampires anymore. Now, apparently, he trusts some. At least one, apparently. “King” of the vampires—does that include Baz now? Is that what he is? A loyal subject?

You can’t just trust the first handsome vampire you meet!

I mean …

This isn’t how we do this.

This isn’t how it’s done.

I’ll be damned if I follow a vampire into the desert!

I mean …

PENELOPE

We leave after dark. Lamb tries to split us between two rugged-looking four-by-fours, but Simon and I refuse to be separated. Me, quietly. Simon, less so.

Simon doesn’t want to get in any of the cars. He wants to ride above us, like a winged escort. Lamb won’t have it. “I said ‘under the radar,’ mage. Not literally through it.”

Finally, to accommodate us, Lamb borrows an even larger vehicle from one of the other sharply dressed vampires. Baz shoves Simon into the back seat and climbs in after him. Shepard volunteers to ride up front with Lamb. I take the middle row.

It’s startling when you leave Las Vegas, the transition from bright lights to black sky.

We’ll get to the NowNext facility around dawn, Lamb says. I’m trying to visualize it. “If we’re sneaking up on their facility, wouldn’t we have better luck at night?”

“They would have an advantage at night,” Lamb says. “Enhanced senses.”

“But wouldn’t your lot have that same advantage?”

Lamb is dismissive. “My friends and I have kept ourselves alive through centuries of daylight—we’ll be fine. Besides, we’re trying to tip the scales in your favour, young mage. You’re the ones leading the charge.”

“Why are we leading the charge?” Simon demands. (If we weren’t leading the charge, he’d demand to know why not.)

“Because you have magic wands,” Lamb snaps.

We’ve already been through this, back in the hotel room:

The Vampire King is offering us intelligence and support. There’s a fleet of four-by-fours following us into the desert. At least fifty vampires. They’ll deliver us to NowNext’s back door. But Lamb says we’ll have to use magic to break into the facility and make the first strike. “If we could have quashed the Next Blood with brute force, we would have done so already.”

“Tell us more about the building,” Simon says. “What sort of defences do they have? Is it a home? A barracks?”

Lamb keeps his eyes on the road. “It’s a laboratory.”

BAZ

All right. Well. We knew it was bad.

That doesn’t affect our odds. If anything, it helps. Better a lab than a fortress.

I’ve got spells ready. For getting in and staying low. “Open sesame.” “Little pig, little pig.” “Now you see it, now you don’t.”

I know Lamb expects us to fight these other vampires, and I’d like to—I’d like to end them—but Snow’s right: The only thing we have to do is find Agatha. I’ve got spells for that, too. “Show me the way.” “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” … (That’s what Fiona used when the numpties had me.)

I may not be a very good vampire, but I’m an excellent magician. First in our class. And Bunce would have been first in our class had she stayed in school. And Simon, even a powered-down Simon, is no one you’d want to meet in a dark alley. Or a bright hallway.

I believe we can do this. I believe Lamb believes we can do this. Why would he bring a small army of his own vampires if he didn’t think this was a fight we could win?

“So we sneak in first…” I say. I’m in the back seat, so I have to shout to be heard over the air-con.

“Not you,” Lamb says. His voice carries. “The magicians.” He means Simon and Penny.

“But there are only two of them.”

Lamb scoffs. “One mage murdered every vampire in Lancashire.”

“Beatrix Potter,” Bunce supplies.

“Have you been to this facility yourself?” I ask, ignoring her.

“No. They know my face too well. And, besides, only their top-ranked members visit the laboratory. But we know of it. We’ve been monitoring … the situation.”

“Can they do it?” Simon asks.

“Do what?” Lamb replies. “Keep us out?”

Simon hunches forward. “Can they take someone’s magic?”

Lamb looks irritated, like Simon hasn’t been paying attention. “They aren’t trying to