Alex couldn't believe they would do this to themselves. Sid had laid out the process: The bite was poison, so poisonous it could kill you, so powerful it could save the dead. If you died and the spinal cord was intact-and you hadn't had embalming fluid interrupt the vampirism process-you were in the clear, ready to go, come on back and bite some people.

But it did things to you. It made you colder, it ate away at the part of your brain that gave you empathy, the better to be a killing machine. But who would want this for themselves? "I asked, how could you do this?" Alex repeated.

"Do what?"

Part of Alex's question was borne of sheer need to keep them engaged before they decided to rip him apart. He was trapped in a van with a pair of vampires, newborn or no.

The van turned a corner. Oh, and they were taking him somewhere, so if they didn't rip him apart now, what they were headed for couldn't be good. He had an idea, though. Chances are they were going straight down to the Scholomance, and he had escaped from that place once, and once was enough. Think. Get out. How?

But the question was also borne of a horror-the person he was looking at, Bill Merrill, wasn't supposed to be dead. His brother, Steven, wasn't supposed to be dead. This wasn't how it worked; you didn't just wake up one day and decide to commit suicide by vampire.

"Bill, you're a jerk. You're the biggest freaking jerk I've ever met. Ever, and I have some experience. But one thing I know is that jerks look out for themselves. And you've thrown it all away!"

"That's interesting," said Bill. "That you would suddenly care so much about me. That's really sweet."

Steven raised a hand. "I haven't thrown anything away."

Bill leaned forward, his pale face glistening in the dim moonlight that shot through the darkened windows. "Let me ask you something. What do you know about any of it? You don't know jack. I've been going to school with you for a month and a half, and I don't think you've ever asked a thing about me."

Oh dear Lord, I've hurt Bill Merrill's feelings. The very idea was absurd. "You made my life miserable!" Alex cried.

Steven raised a hand.

"Him too," Alex said. "So don't give me that c.r.a.p about how much you were secretly hoping I was going to pull you both aside and trade baseball cards with you."

"I'm just saying that you don't know a d.a.m.n thing," Bill responded. The smile had gone away. "It's easy for you, isn't it? Three Americans, the three of us, and, buddy, you have some behavioral issues, but I see you, and it's easy. You got this way, this walk, this smarm, this confidence. Everybody likes you," he said, licking the l hard against razor-sharp teeth. "Not like us."

Alex was flabbergasted. "I'm not going to make you feel better about yourself, you maniac; you are a freaking vampire now."

"Listen, buddy," Bill said. "I got one thing in this world. One thing. And that's him." Steven pursed his lips in acknowledgment. Bill went on, "There wasn't gonna be anything left after he was gone. Do you get that? Is that even possible for you to understand?"

"I . . ." Alex was trying to get a handle on this suddenly confessional Bill. "Bill, you were alive. People die in accidents. You have parents, they-"

"They NEVER CAME," Bill shouted. "Steven was in the hospital and they couldn't be bothered to come. They wouldn't even take my calls. Not. One. Word."

"But you were transferred out," Alex said.

"That was our new family," Bill said. "They made us an offer. It was an offer Steven needed. But it was one I wanted."

"Oh, man." Alex shook his head. "You poor fool, this life isn't gonna be what you think. You're gonna have to kill. You're gonna leave everything you've ever known behind."

The window to the front of the van shot open and a female voice said, "Somehow I think they can handle that."

Sound of wheels on gravel. The van was slowing and Alex instantly rose, jumping once more for the rear door. But Bill grabbed him and held his arms behind his back.

As the van came to a stop, the driver removed her hat. Alex saw Elle look back through the grating. "Put him out."

Steven came from nowhere with a fierce punch to the side of Alex's head, and all went dark.

Chapter 27.

"One freaking drop," came the voice from the haze. He blinked his eyes and felt the sting of his contact lenses, swiveling them around. His head was singing like crazy, and the voice of Elle boomed in it and reverberated with the concussive echo of Steven's blow. Vampire could throw a sucker punch.

"One . . . freaking . . . drop!" came the voice again, screaming this time, and he shook fully awake, aware that she was screaming in his ear before he saw her there.

"Oh, Elle, you'll be the death of me," Alex said, so close that he could smell the strange mixture of death and mint that vampires all seemed to have for breath. He looked past her and saw a giant cloth wall stretching up endlessly, a sheet. He'd spent so much time surrounded by sheets lately, but this was an industrial kind, probably made of heavy wool and wax.

His arms were above his head, Alex realized, and he looked up to see that they were tied together with rope. The rope extended up to some sort of hinged boom or crane, fifteen feet above his head. Then he looked down.

He was twenty feet off the ground, his feet barely touching an iron beam. Below, he saw a wooden pier, and black water lapping against it. The water extended a hundred yards across to another pier.

He was in a boatyard of some kind, for building and fixing boats and rolling them back out onto the lake. Down below, on the dock, the Merrill brothers waited, watching as Elle continued haranguing him from her perch on the iron beam next to him.

She had gotten rid of the leather coat and was wearing Scholomance whites, with tight leggings and little white leather boots, and a tight wrap around her body that ended in a pulled-back hood. "If you hadn't shed that one drop, we'd be done by now."

"What are you talking about?" he asked honestly.

"I'm talking about Claire," Elle said. "It was all supposed to happen that night. She'd be back to lead us-to lead me. And I was ready for that."

Alex blinked against the sweat on his brow, feeling some of it stream into his eyes. He blinked as it swished around, threatening to unseat his contacts. "The skull-headed lady?"

"The new queen is not a skull-headed lady," Elle said, eyes blazing. "That was just her way in. And she needed blood. And she got some-from you. And then, you little insect, you got away before she could finish."

Alex lost his footing for a second and sank with the rope before finding it again. Yes, okay. He had it now. That night at the Villa Diodati, Icemaker had cut him, briefly. The cut on his neck that had taken a few weeks to heal. "Elle, I have no idea what you're talking about. Icemaker barely cut me."

"One drop," she repeated.

It was possible. He thought back, forcing himself back to the night in the cellar, the skeletal form behind the veil. Icemaker had lifted him up with one strong arm and put a sharp fingernail to his neck, hissing, "She needs more blood." And he'd cut. And then Paul had arrived.

Hey, Paul, now would be a good time.

"Blood is blood, isn't it?" Alex said. "Right?" But of course not. Or else Elle wouldn't be this bonkers about it.

"Oh, I'm afraid not," Elle said. "Once you were part of the sacrifice it had to be you that finished it. I had to haul the queen back to the Scholomance myself and hide her away like a doll because she wasn't done yet."

"Ahhhh," Alex said, staring into her insane eyes. "That's what you wanted my blood for. That's why you sent the Glimmerhook, to suck it up."

"As long as you died it was supposed to be fine. The Scholomance would have been happy, and I would have your blood."

Alex looked around. "I don't see any resurrected queens here. Well, there're the Merrills."

"Hey!" Bill shouted.

"You're gonna love working with him," Alex said to Elle.

"I'm not taking you down to her," Elle said. "The administration won't allow it; they've completely lost interest in resurrecting Claire."

This was what Sangster had heard about the Scholomance. The project for Claire had been canceled. Because they didn't have the blood they needed, and they'd moved on.

"Maybe she's not a queen, Elle," said Alex with a hint of desperation. He glanced at Elle's stance. Maybe he could kick her. But she was firmly rooted and it would have to be a perfect shot. "I mean, Claire was just a girl that Icemaker wanted to rule with. She wasn't that special."

"Liar!" she screamed.

Alex studied her face, the blue blood within raging underneath the skin at her forehead. "What do you care? You're a psychopath by nature and she's not a queen."

"Where'd you learn that, from a book? What do you know about Claire?"

"I actually get this secondhand, but there's a guy who knows everything about it all and if you cut me down, I can go get him."

"No, I'll just take the blood," she said. She drew a dagger from her belt.

Alex eyed the blade, long and silver, like the ones she had given to the girls in the woods. She spun it in her fingers and he watched the muscles in her alabaster forearm ripple.

This is bad. Ask the questions.

What's going on?

I'm tied up. She's gonna cut me.

What do you have?

I have myself.

He kicked out at her and Elle zipped away, then slashed out, slicing through the cloth of his tuxedo and sending three ridiculously expensive pearl b.u.t.tons into the deep.

"Hey! Shouldn't you be out trying to catch Montrose again? I thought you and Ultravox were busy with that."

"Montrose?" She snorted. "You think we brought in a player like Ultravox over Chatterbox? You morons really are full of yourselves. You can snoop all you want, Alex. You can't keep up with us. Ultravox has bigger fish to fry."

"But-" Alex said, realizing he sounded completely taken aback. Get that under control, think, think.

Stickiness as blood began to ooze from the shallow cut. G.o.d, that stung. He worked his hands and felt the icy tingle of them going numb. Bigger fish to fry. Because he's an a.s.sa.s.sin. He's still here and he's got bigger fish, bigger than scientists. Bigger like politicians.

"The ball," Alex spat, suddenly realizing it. The ball would be full of visiting dignitaries, all on a boat with their teenage children-many of whom had already been programmed to kill. "He's here to stop the treaty, the information treaty."

"And you missed it." Elle clicked her tongue.

"But why do vampires care about an information-sharing treaty?"

"Oh, Al, I swear when people start talking about treaties I want to shave my own head with a cheese grater," Elle said. "Now where were we?"

Alex tried to stall her. "You gonna spill nine pints all over the dock?"

Her nostrils flared for a moment as she caught the scent of his blood. Her eyes took on a sensuous look and she spun the knife again. "Nope."

"You can't waste it."

"Bring out the bowl," called Elle.

Down below, the Merrills pulled the blanket off a stand that looked like a generator, but now he saw was a rolling table with an enormous white collecting bowl.

"Ah, another bird feeder." They rolled the bowl down the dock, a couple of vampiric Vanna Whites, the lovely a.s.sistants of Elle the vampire. They brought it to a stop below him and worked together to line it up. They seemed to take a moment disagreeing over where it would be perfectly plumb.

Not good. Dammit, what do you have?

"Merrills!"

They looked at him, satisfied with the placement of the bowl. "I think that's it," said Bill.

Think. Steven was injured. n.o.body came.

"Seriously, you couldn't get through on the phone? That sucks," Alex said.

"People are bound to disappoint," Bill said evenly.

Alex looked at Elle. "You guys sent the withdrawal papers?"

"We take care of our own," Elle said.

"And so how did you block Bill's calls?"

Elle blinked. "What?"

"It's a lie, Bill," Alex cried. "You listening?"

"Shut up. Come on, boss, let's drain this guy."

"Oh my G.o.d, you're such a chump," Alex said, nearly delirious, as Elle tried to decide whether to cut him open from stem to stern or start with a throat cut. "Bill, get real, your parents didn't abandon you. She blocked your calls. She wanted a couple of simpleminded Igors she could boss around and you fit the pattern."

Steven looked up and spoke, finally. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I saw a care package for you from your parents stuffed into the garbage at the hospital," Alex rasped as Elle brought the knife close.

"That's it," Elle said, bringing the dagger back for the swing.

"She made sure you wouldn't get it so you'd do this," Alex shouted.

Down came the knife. Alex closed his eyes.

Something heavy landed on the beam. It was Bill, pus.h.i.+ng Alex to the side. Alex swung wild into the air on the boom, spinning.