The Fall of the Hotel Dumort (The Bane Chronicles 7)

"Magnus . . ."

Her voice was thick. Smears of blood covered Camille's face, her arms, her silver-blond hair. She held one hand against a wall for support as she moved toward him in a series of heavy, toddler-like steps.

Magnus approached her slowly. As soon as he got close enough, she gave up the effort of standing and fell forward. He caught her halfway to the ground.

"I knew you'd come," she said.

"What have you done, Camille?"

"I was looking for you. . . . Dolly said you were . . . you were here."

Magnus gently lowered her to the ground.

"Camille . . . do you know what's happened? Do you know what you did?"

The smell coming from her was nauseating. Magnus breathed sharply through his nose to steady himself. Camille's eyes were rolling back into her head. He gave her a shake.

"You need to listen to me," he said. "Try to stay awake. You need to summon all of them."

"I don't know where they are. . . . They're everywhere. It's so dark. It's our night, Magnus. For my little ones. For us."

"You must have grave dirt," Magnus said.

This got a loose nod.

"Okay. We get the grave dirt. You use it to summon them. Where is the grave dirt?"

"In the vault."

"And where is the vault?"

"Green-Wood . . . Cemetery. Brooklyn . . ."

Magnus stood and began to draw the runes. When he was finished and the Portal began to open, he picked Camille up from the ground and held on to her tightly.

"Think of it now," he said. "Get it clearly in your mind. The vault."

Considering Camille's state, this was a risky proposition. Holding her closer, feeling the blood on her clothing seep through his shirt . . . Magnus stepped through.

There were trees here. Trees and a bit of moonlight cutting through the cloudy night sky. Absolutely no people, no voices. Just the distant rumble of the stuck traffic. And hundreds of white slabs jutting up from the ground.

Magnus and Camille were standing in front of a mausoleum that resembled a folly--the front piece of a tiny colonnaded temple. It was built directly into the side of a low hill.

Magnus looked down and saw that Camille had found the strength to wrap her slender arms around him. She was shuddering a bit.

"Camille?"

She tipped her head upward. She was crying. Camille did not cry. Even under these circumstances, Magnus was moved. He still wanted to console her, wanted to take the time to tell her everything would be all right. But all he could say was, "Do you have the key?"

She shook her head. There hadn't been much chance of that. Magnus put his hand on the lock securing the wide metal doors, closed his eyes, and concentrated until he felt the light click under his fingertips.

The vault was about eight-foot square and was made of concrete. The walls were lined with wooden shelves, floor to ceiling. And those shelves were filled with small glass vials of earth. The vials varied quite a bit--some were thick green, or yellow blown glass with visible bubbles. There were thinner bottles, some extremely small bottles, a few tiny brown bottles. The oldest ones were stopped up with corks. Some had glass stoppers. The newest had screw-on caps. The age was also seen in the layers of dust, the grime, the amount of webbing running between them. In the back, you wouldn't have been able to lift some of the bottles from the shelves, so thick was the accumulated residue. There was a history of New York vampirism here that would probably have interested many, that was probably worth studying. . . .

Magnus put out his hands, and with one great blast of blue light, all the vials burst at once. There was a great cough of dirt and glass powder.

"Where will they go?" he asked Camille.

"The Dumont."

"Of course," Magnus said. "Them and everyone else. We're going there, and you're going to do as I say. We need to make this right, Camille. You have to try. Do you understand?"

She nodded once.

This time Magnus was in control of the Portal. They emerged on 116th Street, in the middle of what appeared to be a full-scale riot. There were fires here. The echoes of screams and breaking glass went from one end of the street to the other. No one took any notice of the fact that Magnus and Camille were suddenly in their midst. It was too dark, and far too crazy. The heat was much worse in this area, and Magnus felt his entire body dripping with sweat.

There were two vans parked directly in front of the Dumont, and an unmistakable crowd of werewolves was already gathered. They had baseball bats and chains. That was all that was visible. There were undoubtedly some containers of holy water. There was already plenty of fire around.

Magnus pulled Camille down behind the cover of a parked Cadillac that had already had all its windows smashed. He reached around inside and popped open the door.

"Get in," he said to Camille. "And stay down. They're after you. Let me go and talk to them."

Even as Magnus was making his way around the car, Camille found the strength to crawl across the glass-strewn front seat and was falling out through the driver's side door. When Magnus tried to get her back inside, she pushed him away.

"Get out of the way, Magnus. It's me they want."

"They'll kill you, Camille."

But she had been seen. The werewolves crossed the street, bats at the ready. Camille held up a hand. Several vampires had just arrived in front of the hotel. Several others had already fought, and several others were lying, still, on the sidewalk. A few more were being restrained.

"Go in

side the hotel," she ordered.

"Camille--they'll burn us," one said. "Look at them. Look at what's happening."

Camille looked to Magnus, and he understood. She was leaving this to him.

"Get inside," she said again. "That is not a request."

One by one over the course of the next hours, every vampire in New York--no matter what condition they were in--appeared on the steps of the Dumont. Camille, leaning against the doors for support, ordered them inside. They passed through the phalanx of werewolves with their bats and chains, looking wary. It was almost dawn when the last groups appeared.

Lincoln arrived at the same time.

"Some are missing," Camille said as he got out of his car.

"Some are dead," Lincoln replied. "You have Magnus to thank that more aren't dead."

Camille nodded once, then went inside the hotel and shut the doors.

"And now?" Lincoln said.

"You can't cure them without their consent--but you can dry them out. They stay locked in there until they are clean," Magnus said.

"And if this doesn't work?"

Magnus looked at the broken-down facade of the Dumont. Someone, he noticed, had changed the n to an r. Dumort. Hotel of the dead.

"Let's see what happens," Magnus said.

For three days, Magnus kept the wards on the Dumont. He went by several times a day. Werewolves patrolled the perimeter all hours, making sure no one got out. On the third day, just after sunset, Magnus released the ward on the front door and went inside, and sealed it again behind him.

Clearly there had been an organizing principle at work inside the hotel. The vampires who had not been affected by the drug were littered throughout the lobby and on the balconies and steps. They were mostly sleeping. The werewolves now permitted them to rise and leave.

With Lincoln and his aides by his side, Magnus retraced the steps he had taken almost fifty years before, to the ballroom of the Dumont. Once again the doors were sealed--this time with a chain.

"Get the cutters from the van," Lincoln said.

There was a truly terrible smell coming from under the door.

Please, Magnus thought. Be empty.

Of course the ballroom would not be empty. It was a silly wish that all the events of the last three days simply hadn't happened. Because in the end nothing is worse than seeing the fall of one you loved. It was somehow worse than losing a love. It made everything seem questionable. It made the past bitter and confused.