It doesn’t take long for Queenie to reach me. “You!” she cries. “You’re not one of my children.” She stares at me, as I try to come to terms with the fact that she considers these corpses family. That may explain a lot. “Why…you’re…” Horrified recognition washes over her face. “The girl from the club!” She looks over at Jareth, who is now also standing above me, peering down with a surprised look on his face. “What is the meaning of this?” she demands.
Jareth ignores her, choosing to address me instead. “Well, well, if it isn’t the mere mortal,” he says. “You really can get in everywhere, can’t you?” Hmm. Do I actually hear a thread of admiration in his voice?
“What is she doing here?” Queenie screeches, with no admiration whatsoever.
He chuckles softly. “I can promise you, dearest, as always I haven’t the slightest clue as to Miss McDonald’s motivations.”
I stifle a chuckle. Queenie stares down at me with venom in her eyes. She opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by a sudden squeal two rows up. “Ew!” Spider cries, leaping from her seat. “Watch the drool, dude!” She wipes her arm on the seat cushion, a grossed-out look on her face. Great. I guess we’re both busted now.
Queenie marches up to Spider, grabbing her roughly by the arm and dragging her back to Jareth. The vampire gives her a critical once-over. “There’s another one of you?” he asks derisively. “I guess at least this one’s not a triplet.”
“See?” Spider mutters. “I told you we look nothing alike.”
“Look, can we talk to you?” I ask Jareth, figuring we might as well come clean. Well, as clean as possible with puke running down my shirt and Spider’s arm caked in zombie goop. I glance over at Queenie. “Alone?”
“You know, anything you have to say to my boyfriend—” Queenie starts. Jeez. She really is like in third grade, isn’t she? Luckily Jareth cuts her off.
“It’s okay, darling,” he assures her, reaching out to kiss her on her cheek. How much effort must he be making to be so sweet to someone so nasty? “You stay here and take care of the children,” he says. “I’ll take care of our little stowaways in the back.”
Queenie reluctantly agrees, though she doesn’t look like she likes it. As she walks down the aisle, we follow Jareth to the back of the plane, through an ornate-looking wooden door and into a second cabin. Unlike the standard setup of the front cabin, back here is a luxurious sitting area, draped in crimson and black with a bar stocked with bottles of blood. Totally Air Vampire chic.
Spider surveys the scene, letting out a low whistle. “Toto, I don’t think we’re flying Southwest anymore.”
Jareth closes the door behind us, then turns, his face expectant. “So,” he says in a smooth voice. “To what do I owe this dubious honor?”
“Um, the crap tables were calling and we hate flying coach?” Spider, to her credit, tries. But Jareth just rolls his eyes at her, then turns to me.
I snort. “No offense, dude, but you’re the one with the plane full of zombies,” I remind him. “Maybe you’re the one who needs to start explaining.”
“That is none of your business.”
“Actually,” I correct him. “It kind of is. I mean, have you ever seen Night of the Living Dead? It’s one of the few horror flicks where not even a virgin, sober white chick survives at the end.”
“So, what? You think twelve zombies will bring about the apocalypse?”
“Twelve zombies, no. But once Pyrus gets his hands on Queenie out there, he’s going to raise a few more. Like an entire army’s worth. Meaning we can pretty much kiss that whole happily-ever-after-for-the-human-race fantasy good-bye.”
“I don’t know what you’ve heard,” Jareth replies. “But I can assure you, this has nothing to do with your precious human race. We are only using them to go after Slayer Inc. And they more than deserve what’s coming to them.”
“Slayer Inc.?” Spider cuts in, in an indignant voice. Uh-oh. “What did Slayer Inc. ever do to you?”
Jareth whirls around to face her, his eyes practically bulging from his head. Oh dear.
“Excuse me?” he demands in a tight voice.
Spider lets out a small eep and backs away quickly. “Um, I mean, just for conversation’s sake,” she stammers. “Not like I like them or, you know, work for them or anything.”
“Actually Jareth’s got a pretty decent reason to hate Slayer Inc.,” I butt in quickly, before she can make herself sound even more suspicious. “At least the old Slayer Inc. They killed his family, back in the day. Because his brother and sister were child vampires.”
Jareth thankfully abandons Spider, turning his attention back to me. “How do you know that?” he demands, his eyes filled with suspicion. “How do you know about my family?”
“It doesn’t matter. The point is, that was the old Slayer Inc. Today’s organization would never do something like that.”
“But they did.” The vampire crosses his arms over his chest. “Two nights ago. Remember? They sent Bertha after Lucifent because he was a child vampire. In fact, you and your sister were the ones to warn us in the first place.”
Sigh. “Yeah,” I admit. “Our bad. Turns out they actually had a really good reason to take him out.”