Free Alex Van Helsing by Jason Henderson Page A

here,” Alex said seriously. “That’ll be it for me. I don’t want that. This is too much to turn my back on.”
    Sangster rose, tapped a key, and the screen went dark. Then he turned back to Alex with a serious look. “Alex, can you sense them?”
    Alex sat silently for a moment. “I think so. When they’re close. I felt it the other night in my room.”
    “At school?”
    “Yes, and then it—she—was there, outside my window. And…I felt it at Frayling, too.”
    Sangster was weighing something in his head.
    “You tired?”
    Alex had to admit he was.
    “Let’s go back to school. It’s going to be morning in a few hours.”
    They exited the boardroom and Armstrong and Carerras were down by the foyer in conversation.
    Sangster went to find a jacket and helmet for Alex. As Alex waited, he watched the other commandos going about their business, putting back their weapons, fooling around.
    Armstrong was talking to Carerras, who was puffing away at his pipe. “Still have no idea where they are,” Carerras was saying.
    “We might have found out tonight.”
    “Never can tell.”
    Sangster returned and handed Alex the helmet. “If you felt it the other night before it chased you at the school, then it’s worse than I thought,” he said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “They know you’re here.”

C HAPTER 9
    “Up and at ’em, hero,” Paul was saying. Alex lay in his makeshift bed, wincing against the light, as Paul and Sid moved about the room, the morning sun streaming in. He blinked awake.
    “What?”
    Paul was looking in the mirror at the bruise that shone bright blue on the side of his head. “You don’t want to miss breakfast this morning,” he said. “Everyone is going to be cheering after yesterday.”
    Alex was confused for a moment and then it all came flooding back. After the woods and the motorcycles and the vampires and the cave, he had completely forgotten that the evening had begun with the Secheron fight. Infact, he had almost gone back to the Merrills’ room after Sangster had dropped him off, wordlessly, at the gate.
    Alex moved like a zombie through washing up and putting in his contacts as Paul and Sid lingered near the door, ready to go down to the refectory.
    Sid was watching him. “You look terrible,” he said.
    “Maybe it’s the sleeping on the floor,” Paul said. “I can see if we can add more blankets.”
    “No, no.” Alex waved a hand, his mind still racing through everything he had seen. “No, it’s fine.” He splashed his face again. His eyes were a little sore, but he was getting better at putting his contacts in. He was thinking of the moment when the creatures had spotted him, as he crouched next to…next to Sid’s bike.
    He slapped his forehead in disgust. “The…” He turned around, reaching for his sneakers and jamming his feet into them. “You guys go on.”
    “What are you doing?” Paul stared.
    “I forgot—I wanted to go for a walk. You know…think,” he said awkwardly.
    “You wanted to… think ?” Paul repeated the words as though he had never heard them before. He pointed to the scratches on his face and neck. “People will be cheering. Look at my face! This is like a medal.”
    Alex smacked Paul on the shoulder as he ran out thedoor. “Enjoy it.”
    He raced down the stairs, past bleary-eyed students on their way to breakfast. Headmaster Otranto was coming in from outside and Alex nearly bumped into him, eliciting a short, disapproving look.
    Out the door, onto the path, through the gate, a steady pace to the road. He had forgotten Sid’s bike, left it in the woods halfway to Secheron. He was glad for the mistake—he wanted to go back into the woods. Unlike school, the woods were a clearer world, of hooded monsters and agents on motorcycles. Every inch of the area crawled with the kind of energy that he barely felt in his everyday school life. Out here there was energy with purpose. Heroes on a mission. Alex found himself thinking hard