01_-_The_Alchemyst

CHAPTER NINETEEN
Scathach stood by the door to Sophie’s room and regarded the twins
with her grass green eyes. “Get some rest,” she said, repeating Flamel’s
advice. “Stay in your rooms,” she added. “You may hear strange sounds from
outside—just ignore them. You are completely safe so long as you remain
within these walls.”
“What sort of sounds?” Josh asked. His imagination was working
overtime, and he was beginning to regret all those hours he’d spent playing
Doom and Quake, scaring himself silly.
Scathach took a moment to consider. “Screams, maybe. Animal howls.
Oh, and laughter.” She smiled. “And believe me, you don’t want to find out
what’s laughing,” she said, and added, without a trace of irony, “Sleep tight.”
Josh Newman waited until Scathach had rounded the end of the corridor
before turning to his sister. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Sophie chewed her bottom lip hard enough to leave the impression of
her two front teeth in the flesh, and then nodded. “I’ve been thinking the same
thing.”
“I think we’re in some pretty serious danger,” Josh said urgently.
Sophie nodded again. Events had moved so fast that afternoon that she’d
barely had time to catch her breath. One moment she’d been working in the
coffee shop, the next they were racing across San Francisco in the company
of a man who claimed to be a six-hundred-year-old alchemyst and a girl who
looked no older than herself and yet who Flamel swore was a two-and-ahalf-thousand-year-old
female warrior. And a vampire. “I keep looking for
the hidden cameras,” she muttered, glancing around the room.
“Cameras?” Josh looked startled. He immediately picked up on his
twin’s thoughts. “You mean like Candid Camera?” He looked uncomfortable