Then my attention is riveted by the screeches of a girl who is very, very pissed off. A Night Watchman appears holding Hursch’s squirming daughter.
“Let me go!” Lila shouts.
Lila and I have never been close. After I became the delegate, she went out of her way to make my life miserable at schooclass="underline" painting my locker red, starting rumors that I was sleeping with vampires, making me out to be the enemy. Ironic that her father was the true enemy.
I don’t know if she was in on Daddy’s little secret; it’s hard to imagine she wasn’t.
“Do you know who I am?” she cries.
But the Night Watchman doesn’t speak, simply moves her toward another waiting car and throws her into the back with a little excessive force. Lila scrambles to the door, but it shuts in her face. And I can’t help but notice that the Night Watchman who put Lila in her place is wearing red, six-inch heels.
But as much as I’d love to watch Lila be taken off to the Agency, something amazing catches my eye. The unthinkable, and the thing I’d always hoped for, the thing my parents dreamed of: the vampires and humans begin shaking hands, begin laughing, begin patting each other’s backs. A job well done.
And it was.
I get the mission report from Jeff: twenty-four Day Walkers slain. On our side: four killed.
“Vampire or human?” I ask.
“What does it matter?” Jeff responds. He’s right, what does it matter? They fought together, they wielded stakes against the enemy just the same, they protected one another. What does it matter whether they bore fangs or not?
“Go get some rest,” Jeff says. “Tomorrow night, we tell everyone, and they better be prepared.”
I don’t take Jeff’s advice. I’m too excited to rest, not to mention there’s a party. It feels weird rejoicing, as we’re celebrating a victory hard won, but we’re also celebrating the end to the attacks on Denver.
The party takes place in a safe house for Night Watchmen—an old, abandoned apartment building. At least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. But inside, things take a strange turn once we find the right door on the fifth floor. Labeled 504, it opens with a secret knock, and inside I can see the renovation work that’s been done.
All the adjacent apartments are connected, the walls between them knocked down long ago, creating a continuous ten-bedroom, ten-kitchen, ten-bathroom apartment. Much of the space has been refurbished, designed for storage of equipment and giant maps of the city, where the Night Watchmen can plan their surgical strikes. And of course all the windows are boarded up tight, all the doors except for one nailed shut and renailed again.
“You guys made it,” says a Night Watchman, shrouded in his black balaclava. He waves us in and shuts the door behind us.
“Great job tonight,” Victor says immediately, shaking the man’s hand.
“It couldn’t have been done without that intelligence,” the Watchman admits.
I stare at the two hands in a firm grip. I see so much possibility within that bond. Does anyone else? Is this just a party or the beginning of something, a Greater World Order that counters Sin’s perverse dreams?
In the mega-apartment are about thirty people, half Watchmen, half vampires. The Watchmen are in their customary outfits, their identities forever concealed, even from their friends and allies. But their masks are lifted partway up so that they can sip cold beers. The Lessers are dressed in black jeans and T-shirts, but their faces are uncovered. They talk with the Night Watchmen, both groups perfectly intermingling. I get goose bumps watching them laughing and raising glasses, giving cheers.
“Dawn, over here.”
I look at the corner of the room and see a Night Watchman, mask entirely covering his face, leaning against the wall. Even if I didn’t recognize Michael’s voice and stance, I’d know it was him because of the person standing beside him.
“Tegan!”
She grins. “Surprise.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
She holds up her hands. “Don’t worry. I don’t know where here is. Michael made me wear a hood on the way over.”
“Figured you’d want to see her,” he says, giving me a very quick hug that seems to solidify what we are now. Friends. He then shakes Victor’s hand. “Thanks for the intelligence tonight. This was a real big grab for us.”
“You’re very welcome,” Victor says. “Though I had little to do with it. Dawn was the one who broke Eris.”
“Really?”
“Surprised?” I ask.
“No,” Michael says, and I see the corners of his mask move as he smiles. “I’m not surprised at all.”
The room begins to grow quiet. The vampires have realized who is in their midst—their lord. They move silently toward him, surround him, giving a clear message that they will protect him at any cost.
The group is divided again. The vampires in the center, the Night Watchmen around its edge. The camaraderie I witnessed at Hursch’s was just an illusion, a moment of victory that wasn’t as grand as I thought.
“I appreciate the loyalty, but I don’t need protection here, Anita,” Victor says. “As a matter of fact—”
He moves beyond the circle, then turns and holds his hand out to me. I place mine in it and step up to stand beside him.
“Night Watchmen,” he begins, “you hide your faces, you keep your identities secret because you fear retaliation from vampires. But Dawn Montgomery has always dreamed of a world where vampires and humans live together. Tonight is the start.
“Just as I don’t need protection from you, so you no longer need protection from us. Remove your masks, walk proudly among your citizens, let them see who guards their back, who watches over them. I am not my father. I will not hunt you for protecting the precious citizens of Denver from any who would hurt them. Those who fought beside you tonight are not the enemy. Reveal yourselves to us so we can recognize our allies.”
I tighten my fingers around Victor’s. Everyone is so still, so quiet. Someone steps in front of Victor. I know who it is before he removes his balaclava. Michael.
He holds out his hand to Victor. They shake. Then he begins moving among the other vampires, shaking their hands, thanking them.
Another Night Watchman steps up and removes his balaclava. I try not to show my surprise. Sampson. I know him from school. As a bookworm, a geek, a kid that other students made fun of. I wonder how long he’s been risking his life for those who never appreciated him. He shakes Victor’s hand, then mine, giving me a shy smile.
“Thank you, Sampson,” I say.
He nods before moving on to be embraced by the vampires.
Two more Watchmen step forward. Then three, then six, and it’s obvious that many are as surprised as I am to see who they’ve been fighting beside. How unfair that they’ve had to hide, even from each other.
When everyone is revealed, I spot Anita in a corner and . . . and is that a Night Watchman hitting on her? And is she blushing?
Victor slides his arm around me. “As I said, it’s only a start.”
“But it’s a start.” I meet his gaze. “I wish the Vampire Council could have seen this.”
“You can tell them all about it when we return to New Vampiria after we defeat Sin.”
“I wish we had a way to know how things are going with Richard.”
“He’ll send someone back with news when he has some. It’ll be another couple of nights before they get to Los Angeles.”
“Long nights.”
“Hey, you two,” Tegan says, interrupting us. “That was awesome. I had no idea some of these guys were Night Watchmen.”
I grin. “Yeah, me either.”