Zero by R. E. Carr

Author:R. E. Carr [Carr, R. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-13T07:00:00+00:00

22

Paige rubbed her eyes as she stared at the array of paper now taped on the walls of Lorcan’s Nashville bunker. Kyle and Gail sat with Javier and Kayleigh, sketching and arguing back and forth in between sharing screens. Finally, the din grew so loud that Paige let out a mighty bark. She blinked as even the bloodsuckers fell quiet.

“The short, short version, please,” Paige growled. “You guys have been at this for three days, and all I see are confused scribbles and take-out containers.”

Kyle and Gail stepped over to the wall of paper. Gail motioned to Javier who fired up the projector. Toy got excited for a moment as she saw the opening credits for The Notebook start, but it was quickly quashed as Javier figured out the inputs.

“The fate of vampires and werewolves, reduced to a PowerPoint presentation,” Toy sighed. The female werewolf crew nodded in agreement.

“OK, quick background just to get everyone on the same page,” Gail said in a surprisingly corporate voice. The slide read “The Pendragon Family” behind her. A clip art of a little wizard with a long beard and a pointy hat danced across the screen. Brows were raised all around.

“So, this is the best representation we could get of Merlin without paying for an image,” Gail said. The figure moved to the top of the screen. “Merlin had four kids each by different vampires.”

“He always was a slut,” Javier added from the peanut gallery. More clip art – clearly from a Dungeons and Dragons themed pack moved to take their places under Merlin. The first one made Steve and Georgia giggle, as a stern looking warrior all in black scowled at them - then came a thief girl in a hood, a red-headed barbarian, followed by a dark-skinned, sultry enchantress. Little animated name cards popped up with “Brynjulf”, “Su Min”, “Arthur”, and “Meenakshi”.

“Kayleigh, did you do this?” Paige growled.

The redhead smiled innocently. “I needed something to do while my program does the heavy lifting,” she sighed. Paige made a move-along gesture.

“Each of Merlin’s kids had a special gift, but two of them – Su Min and Arthur – were considered exceptionally gifted; so, in an act of Egyptian-mythology-level incestuous inspiration, Merlin actually bred two of his kids together,” Kyle added. A chorus of “Eww” echoed in the room.

“Arthur and Morgana, right?” Georgia added. “I’m guessing Su Min had a million names like every other vampire out there - and that produced Mordred.”

“Ten points to Gryffindor,” Kyle said. He winced as Paige glared at him. “Yes, they made Mordred, but something went wrong and Mordred’s human host didn’t die. He became an Undying - and the rest is history, or mythology . . . however you want to put it.”

“From all the notes we could decipher, both Arthur and Mordred shared the ability to enter a state of cryptobiosis,” Gail added. She gauged the blank stares in the room and continued, “… which means they secrete a type of disordered protein mixed with

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