13 - Avengers by Brian Lumley

Author:Brian Lumley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horror, Vampires, Fiction
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2007-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Several rooms and many walls away from Liz and Jake, Ben Trask was preparing for bed. As he left the bathroom and entered the bedroom, Millie sat up straight in bed and said, “Ben, there’s something I’d like to tell you—a situation—but first you must promise not to do anything about it.”

He looked at her a little suspiciously, cocked his head on one side and growled, “It’s been a hell of a long day, Millie. Can’t it wait?”

“Yes, but if it waits until tomorrow you’ll be mad at me.”

“No I won’t,” he answered. “Not unless it’s earth-shattering, in which case you’d have told me already. But okay, since you insist, I won’t do anything about it. What is it?”

“Jake’s back,” she said, then bit her lip as Trask came to an abrupt halt beside the bed.

He took a long moment to think about what she’d said, then asked her, “Where, back?”

“He’s here at the HQ, with Liz,” Millie answered. “I mean, you know, he’s with Liz.”

Again Trask thought about it, and slowly got into bed. But in a little while: “Good!” he rasped, making it sound anything but good.

“Really?” Millie seemed delighted, perhaps cautiously skeptical, certainly surprised: a mixture of all these things.

“Yes, really.” Trask put the light out, then folded her in his arms. “Because she needs him in order to…in order to be whole, I suppose. The way I need you. And I need him—we need him—because he’s the Necroscope. So if Liz has got him, I’ve got him. But on the other hand, I still think Harry could have made a better choice. And the same goes for Liz.”

He felt Millie stiffen in his arms. “What?” she said. “But we know Harry’s reason now: unfinished business, Luigi Castellano and his organization, those vampires we knew nothing about who were survivors of Harry’s lost years. Jake and Harry, they shared the same agenda, which made Jake the obvious choice! As for Liz: you can’t blame her for being attracted to Jake. He’s a very attractive man.”

“He’s a bloody obstinate man!” said Trask. “He thinks only of himself, and right from the start he’s been a loose cannon. But now…well, now he’s our cannon.”

Millie snorted and pushed apart from him. “And is that it? Is that how you see it? Just another ace card up your sleeve?” Before he could answer she broke their unspoken rule, searched his mind and saw the truth, which was integral to Trask as his blood and bones. And:

“So that’s it!” she said. “Now that we’re together Liz has taken over my kid sister role. And nobody—not even the Necroscope—is good enough for your kid sister!”

“Huh!” Trask grunted. Then shrugged and said, “Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m being overprotective. But one thing’s for sure: if Liz were really my kid sister, you wouldn’t catch me playing at peeping Tom when she was entertaining a guest in her room!”

Millie crept back into his arms and said, “Me neither, but their shields were down, and

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