Hope is a funny thing. It can be totally unreasonable—bone dumb, in fact—and a part of it still clings to your brain. I remember as a kid hoping to find a light saber in my Christmas stocking. After reading my first Marvel Tales comic, I hoped that I might get bitten by a radioactive bug and receive the full range of superpowers you’d expect from such a miracle. You can bet all that hope came to nothing. But other times hope is dead-on. Like when you hope the winter will soon be over and it’s already late April. That’s the kind of hope you want to have. It’s less disappointing.
All the way home, I was thinking of Luna. I was hoping she’d be awake and that I could see her. And I was hoping that my hope wasn’t too unreasonable. When we reached the apartments, my first thought was to find her and head up the fire escape. Sadly, fate had other plans. The trouble started with our greeting in the backyard. My uncle was there in his ninja garb, Cobra Commander helmet and all. Mr. Entwistle clearly wasn’t expecting to see him.
“I thought you were at the hospital with Baddon?”
“I was. But I thought the greater threat was here, so I came back. I also wanted to know if you’d found Hyde.” Maximilian glanced over at us. If he noticed the purse Charlie was carrying, he said nothing. I was about to make a wisecrack about our failure to find my friend a decent set of matching high heels, but the look on his face told me it was best to shut up. He was looking at Maximilian intently, his pupils wide and his nostrils slowly flaring.
In some ways, vampires are closer to dogs than humans. Humans trust their eyes more than anything else. If I showed you a chunk of hot fudge, you’d think it was hot fudge, even if it smelled like strawberries. A dog wouldn’t be fooled. A strawberry is a strawberry because it smells like a strawberry. Charlie was sniffing the air as if he smelled a rat. You can bet that raised my blood pressure. He had good reason to despise my uncle—and if he figured out that Agent X was Maximilian, well then, I was sure episode one of Charlie Goes Homicidal was going to happen right there in the yard. I took a deep breath through my nose. The faint odor of hospital cleanser still clung to my uncle’s skin and clothes. No surprises there. He’d just delivered Detective Baddon to see his son. I casually walked past my friend and took hold of his elbow, spinning him toward the door. If it sounds like an aggressive move, it wasn’t. I was just trying to get him focused on something other than Maximilian.
“Come on, Charlie,” I said. “The sun will be up soon. Let’s get inside. Maybe the lovely Suki Abbott is awake.”
Charlie fell in step beside me, but kept his head turned and his eyes on my uncle. Mr. Entwistle was giving him a play-by-play of our evening.
“We’ll be inside if you need us,” I said.
The old vampire nodded, then continued his narrative. Charlie and I navigated the front hall, then stopped outside of Ophelia’s first-floor apartment.
“Something about that guy isn’t right,” Charlie said. “I don’t care what Entwistle says about trust. There was no reason for him to shoot me.”
I didn’t know the best response for this. Any answer would have prolonged a conversation I didn’t want to have, so I said nothing. I wanted to see Luna, and the sooner I checked in with Ophelia to make sure she knew we were safe, the sooner I could go knock on Luna’s window.
“You know,” Charlie said, “I’ve been thinking. If Hyde is a werewolf, and Mr. Entwistle is right, he needs to turn into someone huge.”
I wondered where Charlie was going with this.
“So. Look at Agent X. He’s could be a WWE wrestler.”
I must have looked incredulous. I’d never for a second considered it.
“And he was at the hospital, then left, just before Hyde showed up. And now he’s snooping around here and he’s supposed to be with Baddon.”
Could this be true - that my uncle was Mr. Hyde? I was dumbstruck. And Charlie didn’t know the half of it. Maximilian had been hunting a werewolf earlier this year. He might easily have been bitten. It would explain why he’d never seen Hyde. Why they were never around together.
Why hadn’t this occurred to me? I had to warn Mr. Entwistle. But how? He and my uncle were talking outside.
Charlie nudged me in the ribs. “What’s going on in that steel trap you call a brain?”
My steel trap was undecided. Was it really possible that my uncle could be trying to help us as a man and kill us as a monster? I tried to remember what I could from the movies. It seemed to me that the man rarely knew about the beast he turned into. Even if he did know, he could never remember what he’d done when he wasn’t human.
“Earth to Zack. You okay? You look like you just got tagged on the chin.”
I needed more time to think this through. “Maybe we should mention it to Ophelia.”
Charlie nodded, then we entered the first-floor apartment. Ophelia was pacing the room. She looked pale. I couldn’t tell if she was worried or furious.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Did you know anything about this?” Her voice was stern.
“About what?”
I looked at Charlie. His expression changed. It might have been guilt. It might have been nervousness. I couldn’t tell. I looked back at Ophelia, but had no idea what to say.
“Charlie?” she said.
“Hey, don’t look at me.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The girls are gone.” I sensed Ophelia was about to start a barrage of questions, but she didn’t say any more because Mr. Entwistle and Maximilian were coming through the front door, laughing. Her attention shifted to them.
Mr. Entwistle’s nose must have told him something was wrong because the humor disappeared from his face before he looked over. “What is it?”
“The girls have left,” Ophelia said. “I was in the basement. I heard them on the fire escape. By the time I realized they were leaving and got to the door, they were already taking off in their car. I had hoped they’d be back by now.”
Mr. Entwistle looked at me, then at Charlie. His pale blue eyes probed my friend’s face. “Tell us what you know.”
Charlie glanced at me. I expected him to look nervous. The old vampire was still staring at him. So was Ophelia. I would have melted under their gaze. But Charlie was used to being in trouble. He was simply irritated.
“Neither of them wants to go home,” he said. “They won’t be coming back here.”
I thought for a second Ophelia was going to attack him. “Charlie, you have no idea how thoughtless this is.”
“There wouldn’t be a problem if you hadn’t called Dr. Abbott.”
I hadn’t realized that Ophelia had placed the call. But looking back, it was the only thing that made sense. Luna was with me, and Suki wouldn’t have called her father, knowing he’d get angry.
“Every parent has the right to know their children are safe.”
My uncle stepped between them. “Where have they gone?”
As soon as he spoke, Charlie glared at him. I felt myself cringe.
I’d once compared Maximilian’s movements to those of a stone golem. Strength and purpose were in everything he did. He was still carrying his gun, the one that looked as if it had been stolen from a Klingon war chief. I wondered if Charlie was right. If my uncle was Hyde. He swung the gun up so that it was resting on his shoulder. His other arm was folded across his chest in a familiar pose.
“My guess is, they’ve gone to their cottage,” Ophelia said.
“They sold the cottage,” I told her. “They don’t own it anymore.”
She turned to Charlie. “Where are they?”
He wasn’t going to answer. I could see his pupils getting wider. His eyebrows knotted.
“Charlie,” Mr. Entwistle said, “we can deal with Dr. Abbott. We can’t deal with Hyde. Neither can the girls. We have to get them back. The sun will be up soon. There’s not much time.”
Charlie looked at the ground, then at me. I wish he’d told me Suki was planning to go. I could have asked Luna to talk her out of it. Perhaps she’d tried.
“They’re going to the lake.”
He must have meant Stony Lake, where Charlie’s cottage was.
“Where exactly?” Mr. Entwistle said.
“The camp.”
“You mean Camp Kawartha?” my uncle asked.
Charlie glanced at me, then said yes.
Ophelia had assumed her headache pose—fingers and thumb rubbing opposite sides of her forehead. She looked at Mr. Entwistle. “Can you go now? Is there time?”
He didn’t have an answer.
“I know the place,” Maximilian said. “I can’t go. I’m due at the hospital first thing, but you can take my car.”
At the sound of the word car, something happened in Charlie’s brain. You could see it. His face went from thoughtful, to certain, then to rage.
“This is crazy,” Mr. Entwistle said. The word crazy hung in the air like a challenge. Then Charlie attacked my uncle. I can only assume that he figured out who Agent X really was. Perhaps it was his tone of voice. Something in the way he moved. Or dressed. Or the mention of the word car. My uncle had a rocket on wheels. Last year, he’d taken Charlie and Luna hostage and driven them to Montreal in the trunk while I’d sat in the cockpit, totally oblivious.
Maximilian was caught completely by surprise. He turned just in time to have Charlie knock his gun away and slam him up against the far wall. I was already moving. I threw myself at Charlie, shoulder first, in what would have been a textbook tackle if he hadn’t ducked. I slipped over the top of him and hit the side of his head with my knee. To Charlie’s credit, he rolled with it and came up swinging. He was actually so angry, he’d forgotten about my uncle and was attacking me. I had to play the Artful Dodger for a few seconds until Mr. Entwistle jumped over and tied him up in a bear hug.
Charlie shouted the entire time. “I knew there was something about him. I knew it. I knew it!” He mixed a few swear words in for effect. His eyes were like two black pearls. Hell hath no fury like a demented vampire. I’m sure Shakespeare said that somewhere.
My uncle rose to his feet and pulled out a stun gun.
“There’s no need for that.” Ophelia was right beside him, her hand on his arm.
I felt like a lost tourist in a haunted house. My friend had finally snapped. Luna was gone. Hyde was still out there, and now we were fighting among ourselves.
My uncle started coughing. His helmet had been knocked loose, and he was spitting up blood.
“You okay?” I asked. “Can you breathe?”
He nodded, then started looking around. His eyes fell to the floor. Then he stumbled over to where his gun was lying and picked it up.
By this time, Mr. Entwistle had taken Charlie to the floor. “Control . . . deep breaths,” the old vampire was saying.
I don’t know if Charlie was listening, but it was hard to go ballistic with a 650-year-old vampire slowly choking you in a sleeper hold.
“What are you thinking?” Ophelia snapped. Her voice was schoolteacher angry.
Charlie couldn’t answer. It took most of his effort just to breathe. Mr. Entwistle slowly let go. My friend sucked in a few deep breaths and started rubbing at his neck. Then another cascade of profanity tumbled out of his mouth. He described my uncle’s character, his behavior, what he wanted to do to him, and just about anything else you could slap between two swear words. Or two hundred. If it had aired on the radio, it would have been one continuous beep. Then Charlie looked at me.
“You knew. You knew! It’s why he shot me in the hospital. You knew he was here the whole time and you didn’t say anything. If Luna was here, she’d murder you.”
He might have been right. I knew she blamed my uncle for that night. For what happened to her. And to her sister. I didn’t know what to say to Charlie. This was a disaster.
“Let go of me,” Charlie said. “You may trust this bozo, but I don’t. He’s a backstabbing turncoat. He betrayed all of us.”
“Actually, he’s more of a front stabber,” said Mr. Entwistle. “And if I can forgive him for blowing me up, you should be able to forgive him for trying to keep you alive.”
“That’s a bunch of baloney,” said Charlie. “He drugged us and turned us over to that freak. We should be dead. All of us.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be that way,” Maximilian said. “Vlad said he would accept you in the Underground. Swear you to secrecy. That way, you wouldn’t be killed for knowing about Zachary and his condition. Instead, you’d have the protection of the Coven, which Zachary and I were to join.”
My uncle turned to me, his face sad. And frustrated. “Vlad wanted to talk to you first, to see if you were ready to assume such an enormous responsibility. That was the arrangement I made with him. So you wouldn’t lose your only friends. But Vlad broke his word. I had no idea he’d try to kill anyone.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Charlie.
“That changes nothing. Not the present. Not the past. Nothing.” My uncle lowered his gun and looked around at all of us. His eyes settled on Mr. Entwistle. “I have to go to the hospital shortly. If you are serious and really want to get the girls, you can take my car.”
Blood was still at the sides of my uncle’s mouth. He suddenly looked gray. A kind of exhaustion had settled over his features. I’d never seen him this way. Vulnerable. Corpselike. He did things with such self-assurance, it was easy to forget he was dying of cancer.
“It’s all right,” Mr. Entwistle said. “There isn’t time. I’ll take the ambulance once the sun goes down.”
My uncle nodded. “I’m sorry about what happened. My loyalty is to my nephew. I have always kept his interests at heart.”
“And your own,” Charlie hissed.
“Believe that if it helps you. But I’m no good to anyone if I’m dead. Dealing with Vlad and joining the Coven—it seemed the best way at the time.” Maximilian’s eyes passed over all of us, then he turned to go.
“That’s it? After all he’s done, you’re just letting him go?” Charlie shouted at us.
My uncle stopped in the doorway. For a man who’d been attacked and vilified, he had remarkable composure. “What reason would I have for hurting you?”
We all waited.
Charlie stared at him. His mouth started to move, but nothing came out. A voice in my head told me I should write this down. It was the first time in my life I’d ever seen him speechless.
“You’re a one-man soap opera, Charlie,” Maximilian said, reaching for the door. “You’re lucky your friends are so patient.”
A second later the door closed.
“We can’t let him go,” Charlie said.
“Why not?” Ophelia asked.
“I think he’s Hyde,” Charlie said. “I think he’s the one we’ve been looking for.”
Mr. Entwistle looked at Ophelia. I could tell they both thought Charlie was right out to lunch. I understood his anger. He didn’t want Suki to go back to Newark. He wanted to make her a vampire so she could be one of us. That couldn’t happen if her father took her away. I felt so bad for him, I started talking and didn’t stop until I’d mentioned all the reasons my uncle might have been the Beast. His size. The year he’d spent hunting a werewolf. His sudden appearance in our lives—timed perfectly with Hyde’s. The fact that he’d never seen Hyde, and we never actually knew his whereabouts when Hyde was around. In the end, I’d convinced everyone, even myself.
Mr. Entwistle moved to the window and started peeking from under the blind. Ophelia sat down.
“Do you really think it’s possible?” she asked.
I didn’t know. But if it was true, it meant he knew where we were. He knew our defenses and how to get past them. And he knew Luna was unprotected at the camp.
Charlie rose to leave.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going to bed, buddy.” He said the last word like a curse.
I guess, like me, he just wanted this night to be over. I opened my mouth to say sorry but he cut me off.
“Don’t bother.”
Then he walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.