New Day Rising, page 31
Junior took a deep breath, swallowed hard and turned the handle. Sound blasted the stairwell and reverberated loudly down his ear canal. With his face pressed against the slight crack in the door, Junior looked at the scene like a scanner memorializing a photo. As if doing a protective sweep, he looked from top to bottom, and then his back stiffened.
The door cracked open a little further until he could see inside with both eyes. It hadn’t been a vantage point problem. He continued to open the door until he was standing unshielded in the doorway.
Nope. He hadn’t been hallucinating. The place was completely empty.
Junior gave the signal and his crew filed in behind him. Like the world’s worst conga line, they pushed in cautiously. The loud dance music pulsated through their bodies as they moved, making even the blood in their bodies
pulsate to the fast beat. When they’d confirmed that not a single living person, under the most generous of definitions, was present, they split up.
The first thing Junior did was turn off the infernal electronica before the extreme decibels made his ears bleed. As soon as the music stopped, Junior could think again.
They moved through the sprawling industrial bar looking for any signs of a booby trap or clues as to where the vampires had gone, careful not to touch the glasses stained red by the blood they very recently contained.
Junior slipped into what looked like a bare office. Nothing but a desk and a chair. A ledger lay open, but it only contained a log of the alcohol supply. He reached out and touched the light bulb hanging from the rafter of the dark room. It was still warm.
The rest of his crew was standing in the middle of the bar, their masks off, exposing red, sweaty faces.
“Someone must have tipped them off,” one of them opined. The others nodded approvingly of his deduction.
“But who?” Junior asked rhetorically. “They couldn’t have known we were coming.” His eyes darted longingly at the small fridge containing beer.
What he wouldn’t give for some relief from his sweltering suit.
“Maybe they saw us? They could’ve had a lookout,” another one of the crew suggested.
“We didn’t see anyone leaving from either entrance or the roof access.
There’s no other way out. There isn’t even a basement,” he replied in frustrated bewilderment.
“Welp,” the tallest of them said as he gave Junior a smack to the arm.
“At least we’re not the ones that have to tell Bobby he fucked this up,” he
said with a belly laugh before heading back to the service door they’d come in from.
“I didn’t fuck up,” he protested like a petulant child.
“It don’t matter,” the tall one continued. “Boss put you at the head of the recon mission, and now you’re gonna have to explain why the rest of the team is all dressed up with nowhere to go but back to HQ.”
As Junior resisted the urge to throw a tantrum, the rest of the team followed the other one to the door.
Above his head, the rat he’d kicked ran silently across the rafter to an uncovered wire leading from the building to an exterior light outside. Three rats of equally impressive size joined him, and after chittering amongst themselves as if deciding who was going to draw the short straw, one of them stood and chewed on the wiring, causing the light outside to flicker and die. He shook his head as he released the severed wire.
The biggest rat bolted toward the unfortunate soul who’d cut the line and began grooming him until he recovered from the electrical shock. The rats filed into a hole in the wall and scurried back to the roof.
The rats arrived with the hunters.
“This building should be condemned,” one of them commented when she noticed the rat infestation on the roof.
The words caught Junior’s attention and he turned back for a moment, his eyes fixed on the rodents. After a moment of staring, he followed the rest of his team down the fire escape.
“You ever noticed any owls in the city before?” Junior asked as he climbed into the back of the black cargo van. His eyes were trained on the great horned owl that had taken flight from a lone tree just as they piled into the van.
“Oh yeah,” one of them replied. “My girlfriend is a big bird watcher.
They’re all over the place. They’re making an urban resurgence, she says,”
he explained, taking a seat on the bench opposite Junior, his back resting along the wall of the cargo van.
“Listen to this guy, a regular Jack Hanna over here,” another one said with a playful shove.
Junior drowned them out, his mind still troubled by the strangeness of the evening. Nothing about this mission sat right with him, even at inception. “What the hell was that?” he asked, his frayed nerves overreacting to a loud, clanging sound against the van.
“Relax,” the driver called over his shoulder. “Just hit a rock or something,” he explained while getting on the road that would lead them out of the city and back to their compound.
* * *
“We’re in,” Alethia announced to the silent occupants of the oversized SUV
as soon as the little dot on her tablet turned green.
“I like owls,” Adrian replied, his eyes turned to the sky as the bird flew off into the distance.
“There’s an access road parallel to the one they’re on. It leads due north along the Hudson River,” she explained as she studied her electronic map, ignoring the owl comment.
Without another word, Adrian gripped the steering wheel with his newly minted bionic hand and set out on the path, keeping a mile behind the hunters on the parallel road.
“Follow the leader then, chaps,” she said into her walkie talkie.
Behind them, with varying distances between them, dozens of vehicles joined the staggered, low-profile caravan. Three semi-trucks joined in more obvious fashion. Their parcel delivery service signage was plenty of cover.
“I wonder how Lucy managed to obtain those,” she mused to herself.
Adrian did not reply. She decided he was still pondering his love for owls, and she fell into silence too. All her best quips were wasted on him anyway. She’d never met such a literal person in her life. Her own thoughts jumped back to Scarlett, leading the decoy team into and out of the bar with timed precision.
Can’t believe they’re too stupid to realize it wasn’t even the right place, she thought, feeling hopeful that maybe they were dim enough to beat in spite of all their deadly toys.
* * *
“Why do I get the impression you’re having a bit too much fun,” Lucía said as she glanced at Erin, her gaze fixed on the red taillights several miles ahead.
Erin grinned before stealing her own glance at the woman to her right.
Even as they barreled toward danger, it was so easy to get lost in the depth of her honey eyes. To be distracted by the smoothness of her tan skin. Even in her simple, black, long-sleeved shirt and black yoga pants, she was as elegant as she was deadly.
“What are you thinking?” Lucía asked, her head cocked to one side.
“Just getting my head in the game,” she replied abruptly, unable to put an end to her newfound fixation on sports metaphors.
“Are you nervous?” she asked, leaning over the armrest, her changed expression reflecting her surprise at having misinterpreted her intensity.
Erin hesitated, her eyes darting up at the rearview mirror and then back to the road. “What if this is a bad idea?” she asked, suddenly doubting the plan she’d insisted they carry out.
Lucía shook her head before reaching over to take her hands in hers.
“You were right,” she confirmed. “We have numbers at our advantage. The best way to utilize that with minimal casualties is to take them by surprise when they’re least likely to be armed and prepared for a fight,” she said with a squeeze to show her sincerity. “They are trained for covert missions on unsuspecting targets. A full-scale battle when they’re on their heels is unlikely to be something they’ve prepared for,” she continued with the utmost confidence. “It will be our best chance to catch them with their impenetrable pants down.”
Erin nodded. It had seemed like a solid idea. Lure them out and follow them back to their nest, but now with real lives hanging in the balance, she wasn’t sure. Maybe if they continued to wait, they’d come up with something better. Something less risky. Lucía had spent lifetimes as an accomplished diplomat; maybe she’d be able to work something out.
They’d been amenable to negotiation in the past.
“My love.” Lucía broke her runaway train of thought. “We are well equipped and have some of the most seasoned warriors on our side. We’re not walking into certain death.”
“We might not be, but not everyone is as lucky as we are. It’s not like the Telumnee handed out special powers to everybody,” she said with a sour
expression on her face.
“Is that what’s really bothering you? Are you still feeling guilty?” she asked, her eyes soft and sympathetic to her self-imposed plight.
Erin didn’t reply, but her skin flushed deep red.
“The best thing we can do is use our gifts to fight for the others,” she said with conviction. “We can protect them, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Erin nodded again. “You’re pretty good at pep talks, you know,” she said with a smile as her heart lifted.
“I’m even better at post-battle festivities,” she said with a devilish grin as she leaned over and kissed her cheek, then her jaw, then her neck.
Erin’s mind floated away from her worries. “Are you seriously putting the moves on me right now?” she murmured, fighting to keep her eyes open as Lucía’s teeth and lips assaulted the sensitive skin near her clavicle.
“What can I say?” she grinned, her fangs scraping against Erin’s goosebump-covered skin. “Nothing like the heat of battle to make one feel alive,” she said, her voice a rumbling low growl.
“So,” Erin started weakly, “what you’re saying is. . .” She gasped at the pressure of Lucía’s fangs on her neck. “Fighting for your life makes you hot,” she finished, her words barely audible as Lucía’s tongue formed a warm, wet line up her neck before biting the tender flesh beneath her ear.
“Precisely,” she replied, her hand pushing down the stretchy fabric of Erin’s black leggings.
“This is terribly wrong, you know that, right?” She managed to complete her sentence just before Lucía’s fingers infiltrated her underwear.
“So very wrong,” she agreed in a throaty whisper, her fingers sliding delicately inside Erin, as if unconcerned with the dangers that lay ahead.
* * *
“Take exit ten and head west over the river,” Alethia’s voice blared in Erin’s ear after they’d been driving for over an hour. A few minutes later they arrived at the exit and pulled off the highway.
“Witch Hill Road? Really?” Erin asked rhetorically. “That’s a little obvious.”
“I don’t believe they’re known for artistic flair,” Lucía replied.
A decently populated town gave way to a series of lonely country roads and, much later, an expansive forest in the distance.
“It’s hard to believe we’re only a few hours outside the city,” Erin said as she looked up at the sky heavy with stars. “Doesn’t it make you want to live out in the country under open sky like this?”
Lucía looked up at the canopy of stars, full constellations visible thanks to a moonless night and the complete absence of city lights. “Not in the slightest,” she said after a long thoughtful pause.
Erin gave her a playful shove before Alethia’s voice was in her earpiece again.
“Lorries won’t be able to get much further on these roads,” she said, referencing the eighteen-wheelers. “When you reach the fork in the road, bear right. We’ll meet there and continue on foot,” she added before signing off.
“I’ve never heard her be more serious,” Erin commented on Alethia’s lack of sass or humor.
“Clandestine missions with life or death stakes are probably the only things she doesn’t need a front for,” she reasoned, chuckling.
“A front?” she echoed, unsure of Lucía’s meaning. If there was anyone that appeared to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, it was that enviably tall British redhead.
“We all wear our own kinds of masks to get through life. Hers is to be a lovable scamp with a smart mouth,” she replied, leaving Erin wondering what kind of person Alethia was hiding under a mask like that.
Following the more specific directions, Erin pulled off the dirt road and onto what she guessed was a drover’s road for herding livestock. It wasn’t a good omen, she decided as she swerved around the potholes and uneven terrain as best she could.
“The trucks will have a hell of a time getting through this,” she commented as she pulled her pickup truck up to the SUV Adrian and Alethia had been in.
Erin opened the tailgate and pulled out half a dozen black crates. She fished out a set of protective gear for both herself and Lucía before dressing in the heavy plated leather armor Alethia had procured for all of them.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to look like an S&M enthusiast,” she said, the thick, heavy leather covering every inch of her skin but her face. The separate pieces protected her well when assembled while leaving room for her body to move.
“I like it,” Adrian opined, his enormous frame looking even more imposing in the gear.
“It really does suit you, darling,” Alethia commented, her fiery red mane in stark contrast to her black clothes. “Perhaps you missed your calling as an undertaker or executioner,” she quipped.
“And there it is,” Erin muttered to herself with a playful roll of her eyes.
A pack of wolves arrived, covered mostly in the same kind of gear the vampires were wearing, but altered to fit their shifted form and to allow for even more range of movement.
Erin spotted Charlie, not by her white and gray fur, but by her size and position in front of an incredibly large group of wolves. After a hundred, Erin lost count. Behind her, several more Alphas stepped forward, their respective seas of fur at their backs.
“Tigers?” Erin whispered to herself as an ambush, much larger than any she’d ever seen in the zoo, joined the wolves, their apparent leader the only one wearing only partial gear covering nothing but his neck and underbelly.
When Erin was sure she’d seen it all, a sleuth of ten armored bears made themselves visible. Behind them, there were more weres, but Erin couldn’t make them out behind the wall of bears. It was incredible that so many living things could assemble without making hardly any noise.
Erin swallowed hard. She was happy not to be on the wrong side of this motley crew. Not that Lucía’s legions of deadly vampires weren’t terrifying, but there was nothing scarier than a pissed off bear.
Charlie padded up to her, with who she guessed was Bo just behind her, and nuzzled her hand in greeting. Erin returned the gesture by instinctively dropping to her knees and nuzzling the wolf with her face. She was about to greet Bo in the same fashion when three birds of prey flew above her head and landed in a tree just behind Alethia.
An owl and two falcons flew off the branch, and before they hit the ground, they’d changed into two men and a woman. All three were naked, but none of them appeared outwardly concerned with that fact. Erin averted her eyes before realizing she was the only one displaying any shyness, and
she forced herself to look at them by staring at the middle of their foreheads.
“What have you learned?” Lucía asked quietly, stepping forward from the sea of vampires.
“Eight klicks northwest is their base,” the woman, who had been the owl, replied. “Four main buildings,” she continued curtly. Erin guessed were-owls weren’t the excessively fun sort. “The largest is the barracks.
This is where the soldiers wait,” she said before providing the exact location for the building. “Smallest building is where their leader nests. He is there with the ones we followed. They have not removed their gear.”
As the were-owl continued her rundown, explaining that the last two buildings were empty or nearly empty at the moment. Erin tried to extend her consciousness far enough to reach the hunters, but the distance was too great.
“Erin.” Cari’s voice rang in her mind so loudly that she jumped from being startled. Mercifully, for the sake of her ego, everyone around her was too engrossed in the were-owl’s measured words to notice.
“Cari?” she replied with her thoughts, unsure if it worked that way.
“I’ve been trying to communicate with you,” she said impatiently, as if it was Erin’s fault she was ignoring her calls. Erin began to protest that she didn’t even know they could communicate this way, but decided time was too limited for whining.
“I’m sorry,” she replied simply.
“We are in the big semi-truck,” Cari explained.
Erin understood that to mean her family was with her, pooling their powers. She hoped Ozzie hadn’t talked his way into joining the fight, but she didn’t want to know if he had.
“I need you to be careful,” she started.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be safe,” Erin assured her. “We have this gear—”
“No,” Cari interrupted. “I’m not talking about your body. You must be careful what you draw on tonight,” she explained cryptically. “Remain in control or you might exert your power indiscriminately. Do you understand me?” she asked, an uncomfortable urgency in her voice.
“Yes, of course,” she stammered in her mind. “I would never hurt anyone who didn’t—”
“In the heat of the moment,” she interrupted again, “it’s very hard to see what you’re doing. That’s true with all weapons, both physical and metaphysical. Do you understand? You are your only limitation. Remember that,” she added ominously before the connection was broken.
“Alright,” Lucía turned to the group, her focus on the various leaders of each subgroup. “Weres, split yourselves in half. Half go to the barracks. The other group split up and check the smaller buildings, and keep an eye out for any strays or patrols,” she ordered, her comfort at being in charge of such a massive group was awe-inspiring. “Alethia and Adrian, lead a third of the contingent to the armory. Put those darts and tricks out of commission,” she added with a sneer. “Another third will disable the vehicles, and the final third will come with us,” she finished, looking at Erin. “We’re going to pay Bobby a personal visit.”
