Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2)(78)

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 take it. They’re trying to transplant it.”

“Whatever—can they do it?”

“I should think not,” Lamb says. “If they could, they’d be ruling the world.”

“Magicians have magic,” Simon argues. “And they don’t rule the world.” You can tell as he says it that he’s not sure it’s true. I’m not sure it’s true. What do we know of the world?

The World of Mages is a regional clique.

Watford is an isolationist boarding school.

My parents wouldn’t even let me use the Internet.

“Magicians live in fear of being discovered,” Lamb says. “The Next Blood live in fear of nothing.”





PENELOPE


We drive through the night. Past miles and miles of barren land. I don’t understand this part of America. The heat, the sand, the small towns. Why would you live somewhere that seemed to be doing its best to tell you to go away?

None of us feel like talking. We can’t really strategize. Not without outing Baz as a mage, anyway. He and I keep exchanging significant looks, but I’m not sure what we’re telling each other.

Even Shepard has run out of small talk. He tried to draw Lamb into a conversation when we first set out, but Lamb ignored him, and now I think Shepard has fallen asleep—two feet away from a vampire!

I suppose I’ve done that loads of times.

I wish Simon would go for a kip. He really needed this fight to start three hours ago. I can tell he doesn’t know what to do with himself; he won’t stop huffing and fidgeting. And he refused to let me put his wings away, so they’re crowded against the side of the car and the roof.

This is the moment—these are the hours—when I would normally come up with a plan. And I’m trying. There’s no blackboard, but I’ve got two columns sketched out in my head: What We Know and What We Don’t.

What do we know in this scenario? (I can practically hear Agatha say, “Nothing.”)

1. That vampires have Agatha.

1b. Vampires with ambition.

And what don’t we know? Well, that column is endless.…

1.??Whether Lamb knows what he’s talking about.

2.??Whether we can trust him.

3.??Whether Agatha is okay.

4.??How to get her out.

I’ve come up with thirty-four additional spells for killing vampires. But all the really good ones would kill Baz, too.

I’m far less concerned about sparing Lamb and his friends. Really, if we live through this, we should take out Las Vegas next. Maybe that would redeem us with the Coven. “Yes, we broke every rule in the Book. But we also de-vampired the American West.”