A section of the far wall opened into a whole other room. Zack set his vase down and headed for the inner room. There were more bookcases in here, and along the back wall was a sleek, modern desk and a massive computer setup. “How did you even find this?”
“Seamus interrogated me in the outer office on my first night. When I had the chance, I did some investigating.” Takashi went straight for a bookshelf closer to the desk. “You spend enough time doing what I do, you learn how people hide things.”
“I thought you were an ambassador,” Zack said.
“Ambassador is another name for spy in our world.” Takashi knelt down and took a binder off the shelf. “You should see this.”
Zack took the binder and flipped it open. The first page had a picture he’d uploaded to social media when he was still in high school, and the summary section had details about his life stretching back years. Each sentence added a drop of anxiety until he had trouble keeping his hands still as he continued to read. “He stalked me. He’sbeenstalking me.”
“Not just you,” Takashi said solemnly.
As Zack began to ask who else, he realized that the rows of in front of him were full of black binders like the one in his hands. Each shelf held over a dozen, and each bookcase could easily hold a hundred on one side alone. And there were eight other bookcases on this side of the room alone.
“Are they all … ‘potentials’?” Zack asked.
“They seem to be.”
“There must be thousands of names in here.” Zack wandered over to the other row of shelves. “These are different.”
“Journals stretching back centuries.”
Zack handed his binder off to Takashi and yanked one of the journals from the end of the bookcase. The entries were dated in 2018. He put it back, went to the lowest shelf, and pulled the last journal out. It ended in June of 2021.Six months ago. Where is the current one? Shit, don’t think too hard. Hurriedly, he put the journal back and went to the desk.
“We have to be careful not to leave a trace,” Takashi said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Zack replied noncommittally. The desk had a center drawer, and he opened it. Inside was his own journal and a smooth onyx leather journal identical to the one he’d just been reading. He pulled it out of the drawer and flipped to the back.
“You may not want to read that.”
“Oh, I fucking do.” Zack danced out of Takashi’s attempt to grab the journal from him. The benefit of being quicker than him meant he could keep one step ahead of Takashi while reading the page.
December 26th
As predicted, Zack is not thrilled that I am his sire, though I sense he may come around and realize what a blessing I have given him. He is strong-willed, stubborn in a way that I can’t help admiring when he’s not being contrary to me. Last night, he walked into the meeting and immediately pointed out the flaw in Penelope’s argument! Clearly when it comes to mattersof himself, he is insecure, but when it comes to information or relying upon instinct, he is a marvel. I can feel his mind at this very minute, working to dismiss that self-doubt which must have ruined his mortal life. He is thriving. I don’t believe I could have made a better choice for the launch of my new generation. It seems my fear that mortals these days were incapable of taking the true essence of what I could offer them was unfounded.
Anton’s choice for a distraction has proved ineffectual in capturing his interest. At least the boy is appetizing to look at. His dark hair is not quite the shade of Roger’s, but if I wished a proxy to take out my current frustrations, he would do. I shall have to see if my beloved has decided another purpose for this seed or if I might make use of him until the time comes to steal more from Grandmother.
The entry went on to complain about the meeting’s tedium and Seamus’s excitement at the prospect of taking Zack out for a night of slaughtering “the worst of the descendants,” but Zack barely absorbed those words.
He couldn’t let himself think too hard. He couldn’t risk letting Seamus hear what he had learned.
“You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” Takashi said as he took the journal from his hands. Quickly, he put it back in the drawer and shut it. “What did he have to say?”
“There’s a lot to unpack.” Zack shoved his hand through his hair. His gaze fell on the bookshelves of binders. He was the beginning of a new generation? What was that supposed to mean? Who the fuck would Seamus call “Grandmother”? “You told Katie that Seamus and Nell were sired from the samedemon. That was the word you used. Not vampire,demon.”
“That was what Nell referred to him as,” Takashi said.
“Makes sense,” Zack muttered. “Vampire is a relatively new word compared to Nell or Seamus. Hunters have a theory that the reason vampiric powers are so hard to predict is that the word is a shallow classification to lump creatures that only seem similar. It stands to reason that there might be one progenitor for vampires that had all their powers, but it’d be from beyond our reality. From a hell or maybe even something corrupted out of a heaven. Just, something not from here. Or maybe some force that is older than the Earth. Or maybe there are multiple vampire-like ancient beings that mixed with mortals and created the undead menaces we know. That we’re part of.”
“Zack, you’re speaking too quickly for me to understand most of those words,” Takashi said slowly.
No, he was saying them at his normal speed. Zack was panicking, and that was causing him to rely on his superior capability.Oh, fuck. How do I slow down?
If he could sense Takashi’s desire for calm, or if Takashi had a better understanding of how intensely his fear was spiraling out of his control, maybe he could help. Zack peeled the glove from his right and touched Takashi’s cheek.
Warmth spread from Takashi and coasted into Zack. It rolled upward, through his arm, and across his chest.
Takashi took a step back and blinked at him. “What was that?”
