"I cannot explain," Six said. "But I am still on your side. Please, no matter what happens, remember that."
"What happened?" Ying asked. "This is not you, Six."
"Goodbye," she said. "Tell the others for me."
Six ended the call and tossed the phone back to its owner. She could hear sirens, and flagged down the hotel manager one more time.
"Guard this man," she said, pointing to the terrorist still writhing on the ground. "Step on his wrists or knees if he gives you any trouble. Do it anyway, for fun. The police will be here in a moment."
"Y-yes," stammered the man. Six and Joseph ran. A police cruiser careened around the corner just as they walked through the revolving doors. Six tugged on Joseph's hand and made him slow to a walk, which they did—very quickly—in the opposite direction. The flow of the crowd made it easy to get lost. A lot of people were leaving the hotel.
"You found something else," she said to him, jostled on all sides by strangers. Her sense of hearing threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to subdue the sounds crashing in her eardrum, and much to her surprise, they subsided to something resembling normal. She wished her heart rate would do the same.
"Him," Joseph said shortly. "I found him."
He stopped walking. Six bumped against his side. His hand tightened and she followed his gaze to a man and woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at them. Eye contact was startling; Six felt those two sharp gazes reverberate down to her gut, and she knew without being told that they were vampires. Human shells, hollow cores. Just like her, if she was not careful. If the poison began to move again.
"I wish I had my dagger," Joseph muttered. "I should have kept a spare at the house."
"We will get you a new one after this," Six replied, and that brought a brief smile to his face.
"You and I," he said softly. "What a team."
"Yes," she said. "I like it."
The vampires moved close. Six and Joseph waited. The crowd parted around them all like water.
"Hello, sister," said the woman. "Hello hello."
"We have a message," said the man. "You should come with us to hear it."
"Really, we're guides," added the woman.
"I think you know who sent us." The man pointed. "It's a short walk."
Joseph and Six did not look at each other. They were already inside each other's heads. And they both knew what they had to do.
They followed the vampires down the long, gently curving street, walking away from the Bund. Sirens filled the city, a wail occasionally interrupted by the shot and blast of firecrackers. The sound made her jumpy, though she tried to hide it. Joseph knew, though. He felt the same.
They were led to an office building that was still fairly new. All glass and steel. There was a security desk, but no one manning it. The woman keyed in a code, the elevator dinged, and the four of them crowded into the small space—vampires on one side, Joseph and Six on the other. She still had the gun she had taken from the guard. Its weight was comfortable beneath her shirt.
"We were sorry to hear that Chenglei passed on," said the man to Joseph. "He was a very good person."
"He had dirty feet," Six said. The vampires frowned. Joseph coughed, holding his hand over his mouth.
The woman gave Six a piercing look. "You are almost one of us now. I think you will like it, if you give it a chance."
Six. said nothing. Engaging in that debate would be a waste of time.
The elevators doors opened. The vampires stepped out first, Joseph and Six following behind. His voice rumbled into a low chant. The creatures froze—and then, movements jerky, stepped back into the elevator. The woman snarled, but she pushed a button. The door slid closed.
"That will not keep them away very long," said Six.
"Long enough," Joseph replied.
"A parlor trick, and quite useless," said another voice. Six and Joseph looked up. A blond man walked out of a nearby office. His Chinese had an English accent, and he was tall and clean-cut, clad in a navy suit with a lilac tie. He was followed by three individuals who were, quite clearly, vampires. One of them, however, also wore a suit. His skin was swarthy, his features more of the south, perhaps from Indonesia. He gave her a straight, hard look, and Six felt, from Joseph's mind, the realization that this individual was one of the terror cell's ringleaders. A planner.
"Ah," said the other man. "So you finally see your vampire connection."
"That still doesn't explain why they would want men like us," Joseph replied.
"Control and information," said the vampire. "There was a woman we needed to speak to, but she was too well guarded. She had very private information about how to access certain facilities where she was planning New Year parties. Simple, really. And I knew of your skills. If it makes you feel better, we were going to kill you afterwards."