by P. T. Hylton
CB’s answer was almost a growl. “Councilman Fleming is currently heading up all government functions. That means he’s our commander of operations.” He turned away from Chuck and looked at the rest of the group, clearly wanting to move on from the question. “What else?”
“Chances of hostile encounters down there?” Hope asked.
“It’ll be daylight. That said, a vampire broke my arm in the middle of the day. I’ve seen plenty worse than that happen too. We’ll have to be ready for anything.” He scanned their faces before continuing. “Look, I can tell you’re a little freaked out, and I don’t blame you. Things on New Haven haven’t exactly been normal lately. Now we’re asking you to go save a team shot down by an unknown enemy.” He paused a moment. “I can’t promise you things will go smoothly down there, but I can tell you this. You are the right people for this mission. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. You’ve never been to the surface before, but you’ve trained your asses off to get this far. If you’re committed to the GMT, I promise I will be committed to you, too. The Ground Mission Team has been through this before. I lost a team, the whole damn lot of them. We rebuilt from scratch and built that group into the best fighting unit New Haven had ever seen.”
He motioned to the aerial map.
“I believe our GMT brothers and sisters are alive down there. But even if they’re not, the GMT is alive and well in this room. Now, gear up. We leave in seven hours.”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” Jaden asked. “We’re vampires. The defenders of Agartha are the last one hundred true vampires, and we’re going to save humanity.”
For a long moment, Alex couldn’t move. She could barely think, aware only of Jaden’s words echoing around in her skull like a bullet.
Two words in particular: We’re vampires.
With each reverberation of the statement, another image flashed in her mind. Ancient humans, running in fear as vampires—vampires like Jaden!—hunted them down and slaughtered them. The people of New Haven, confined to a prison in the sky because of the bloodthirsty bastards. Drew, being dragged up a wall of ice, and the gut-wrenching crack as a vampire snapped his neck.
And Simmons. This last memory came back so strong, it was almost like she was experiencing that horrific moment again. The man she loved trying to fly up to her, then vampires swarming all over him, dragging him down into the darkness.
“I can see you need a moment,” Jaden said, a bemused smile on his face.
The control room they were standing in seemed different suddenly. Everything around her took on a new and ominous aura. The monitors showed areas around the city. Why? So that the vampires could watch them? And what about the man sitting in front of the monitors? What about all the humans in the city? Where they just livestock? Sacks of blood waiting for the vampires to feed on them?
Owl must have sensed the tension rising in Alex, because she looked pointedly at her and gave her head the slightest of shakes.
“Listen to your friend,” Jaden said. “Look, I get it. You’ve been training for years to kill vampires.”
“Yes,” Alex said. Her voice sounded distant in her own ears.
“And how’s that going for you?” He took a step forward. “Maybe it’s time you consider―”
Alex’s pistol was in her hand before she even realized she’d drawn it. “That’s close enough.”
“Alex, don’t,” Owl said.
“It’s okay,” Jaden said, his smile even wider than before. “This is…interesting.”
“Interesting?” Alex asked, not hiding the annoyance in her voice. “Is that what you call it?”
“Yes. I sometimes forget that humans have such a limited capacity to deal with the unexpected.”
Alex wasn’t sure what to make of that. Something about the way this vampire talked made her feel like she was a child being addressed by an elderly relative. It wasn’t condescending, exactly. More like he found her entertaining.
Owl’s gaze flickered past Alex, and Alex realized someone must have entered the control room through the door behind her.
Then something slammed into her, and she was knocked to the ground. She lay sprawled on the floor for only a moment.
In an instant, she was back on her feet, spinning toward her attacker. It was one of the other vampires she’d seen with Jaden at the doors of the city.
She raised her pistol, but the vampire was already in motion. He moved so fast, her eyes had trouble tracking him. One moment he was standing across the room from her, and the next he stood directly in front of her. The gun twisted in her hand, and suddenly he was holding it.
She blinked hard, trying to process what had just happened. Struggling to control her temper, she considered the situation. She and Owl were trapped in a room with two vampires, one of whom had just attacked her.
She didn’t know if she could take out these vampires, but she was definitely losing the fight with her temper.
“It’s okay, Robert,” Jaden said with a chuckle. “We were just talking.”
The other vampire frowned. “She was pointing a gun at you. I wasn’t about to let her shoot you. You get cranky when you get shot, and none of us want to deal with that tonight.”
The conversation was the only opening Alex needed. Taking half a step forward, she drove her knee into Robert’s groin. As he doubled over in pain, she stepped back, giving herself enough space to draw her sword.
This was over, Alex knew. A millisecond from now there would be one less vampire in the world.
She swung her sword, bringing it down on Robert’s neck. Only, instead of the steel sinking into flesh, it whooshed through empty air. Before she processed the fact that she had somehow missed a target two feet in front of her, something powerful slammed into the blade near the hilt, and her sword went clattering to the floor.
Robert grabbed her wrist with a firm hand and snarled.
“Alex, calm down,” Jaden said. “You’re not in any danger here.”
She struggled to control her breathing. If she was going to have any chance of taking Robert down, she needed to adjust her strategy.
“Not that this isn’t entertaining,” Jaden said, “but you have to realize you can’t win a fight against a vampire.”
“I can’t?” Alex asked. “I’ve left a pretty big pile of vampire corpses that would disagree with you.”
“That may be, but those were not―”
Alex spun, twisting and pulling away from Robert until he was left holding her coat. She almost smiled. He’d fallen for the same trick twice. Robert might have been fast as all hell, but if she got Jaden talking, she could catch him off guard. She knew this nugget of information was important. Against enemies like these, any advantage was a precious commodity.
Jaden crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, clearly enjoying this.
Owl drew her weapon and held it in a two-handed grip, as if not sure where to point it.
Robert paused for just a moment, looking at Alex dumbly with the jacket in hand. Then he reached out and grabbed her by the wrist once again. This time, his eyes widened as his hand began to smoke, and he drew in a quick breath before pulling it way.
Jaden stared in surprise at her silver chain mail suit. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting that. “Fascinating.”
She lunged at Robert, throwing a flurry of punches, aiming for his face. The punches wouldn’t be enough to take him down, she knew, but maybe she could keep him off balance long enough to get her sword back.
Each blow met only air. The vampire moved so quickly, she barely knew where to aim her jabs. Still, she kept attacking. As long as he was on defense, he couldn’t be on offense. If she just kept going at him maybe she could―
“Enough,” Robert said firmly.
Alex didn’t see the punch, but she certainly felt its impact. His fist slammed into her stomach, and the air rushed out of her. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath.
She watched through watery eyes as Jaden turne
d to Owl. “Would you please lower your weapon?” He nodded toward the man at the control desk, who was watching all this with wide eyes. “Anthony is very much human, and a bullet will kill him. If your friend wants to throw a temper tantrum, fine, but if you shoot Anthony, I may get cranky.”
Temper tantrum? That made Alex even angrier than before.
She struggled to her feet, regaining her breath a little more with each gasp.
Owl wavered, looking back and forth between Robert, Jaden, and Alex. After a moment, she lowered her weapon.
“Thank you, Owl,” Jaden said. “Nice to see cooler heads can prevail. Now that we’re through with that nonsense, we can talk like civilized people.”
Owl sighed. “You clearly don’t know Alex very well.”
Alex lashed out with her leg, knocking Robert’s feet from under him.
He barely touched the ground before he popped back up. Grabbing her by the throat, he lifted her two feet off the ground. A few tendrils of smoke drifted from where the bottom of his hand touched the chain mail, but he ignored it.
Alex beat at his arms and hands, squirming to get out of his grip, but to no avail.
Robert’s eyes glowed red as he glared up at Alex.
Jaden turned to Owl. “She’s not going to stop, is she?”
“Alex, calm down. I don’t think he is our enemy!” Owl yelled.
Alex didn’t pay any attention to Owl’s advice. Instead, she pressed the chain mail covering her arms against Robert’s hand, causing it to smoke even more.
Jaden shook his head sadly. “All right, then. Sorry about this in advance, Alex. Robert, put her out.”
With the flick of a wrist, Robert sent her flying across the room. She slammed against the wall, sank to the floor, and the world went dark.
2
After the briefing with the GMT recruits, Brian followed CB to the hangar. Neither man spoke as they walked, both wanting to make sure they were out of earshot of the recruits before they had their conversation.
When they reached the hangar, CB led him aboard the backup ship. It was of a similar design to the away ship the GMT usually used, but not as well maintained. For years, this ship had gotten the second-best parts and the second-most attention. It also hadn’t had Owl obsessing over every inch of it the way, like the main away ship had.
“You know what Owl’s going to say when she sees us pull up in this pathetic thing?” CB had his hands on his hips, and he cast a disdainful eye at the cargo hold as they stepped aboard. “She’s going to laugh her ass off. And that’s before she sees a team of green recruits pile off and start mucking around in the snow.”
Most of the gear for the mission had already been loaded aboard by Brian’s team, and once the crew received their personal gear, there would be nothing left to do but wait for the ship to be in the correct position for the flight to the surface.
Brian felt a twinge of envy as he thought of the recruits heading down to search for the team. Not that he had any desire to set foot on the surface. He’d lived his entire life in the sky, and he had no intention of changing that now. Nor did he have any desire to fight the vampires who lived there. Whatever it was inside the members of the GMT that caused them to get excited at the thought of deadly combat and life-threatening adventures, Brian didn’t have it. He preferred the intellectual thrill of a clean, new design and the knowledge that his work was saving lives.
He sighed as he looked around the ship. “It may not be as sleek as the main ship, but it’ll get them to their destination and back. I have no doubt about that.”
CB just nodded absently. It was clear that his mind was on other things.
Brian waited a moment, and then he asked the question he’d been waiting to ask since they walked out the briefing room door. “Captain, what’s the real plan?”
CB turned and looked at him, a confused expression on his face. “What do you mean?”
For a moment, Brian wasn’t sure how to respond. “The plan. I heard what you told the recruits, but what are we actually going to do, here?”
“I still don’t understand. The plan is the plan. The recruits are going dirtside to bring our team home.”
“Okay, yeah, I get that. But what are we going to do about Fleming?”
CB just looked away.
Brian didn’t know the details of CB’s conversation with Fleming, or why exactly they’d been released from their jail cell in the Hub. All he knew was that CB had been taken away by some guards to have a discussion with Fleming, and thirty minutes later Brian had been released from his cell. He hadn’t asked CB for the details. He hadn’t needed to, because he trusted the captain. He trusted that whatever trick he’d pulled to get them out of there had been rooted in the knowledge that they would move against Fleming
But for the first time, it occurred to Brian that that might not be the case. A sickening realization came to him, and shocked anger quickly followed. “CB, tell me you didn’t make a deal with Fleming.”
“I did what I had to do,” the captain replied, his voice void of emotion. “My only objective was giving us a shot at saving our team. We’ll figure out everything else later.”
Brian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Fleming blew up the Council. He’s got General Craig locked up in the Hub! We have the best weapons in New Haven and a team of recruits trained to use them. They might be green, but they’d follow you into hell. You know they would. So, what are you thinking?”
CB took a step toward Brian, and his voice was almost a snarl when he answered. “You want to know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking, Alex. I’m thinking, Drew. And Owl. And Wesley. And Jessica. I’m thinking about the nuclear reactor down there, and the parts that can keep this ship afloat. I’m thinking about my team—my friends—down on the surface, in the darkness. Best-case scenario, they’re huddled inside NORAD, desperately hoping they’ll make it through until morning. That’s what I’m thinking about, McElroy. The rest of the world can go straight to hell.”
Brian drew a deep breath before continuing. “Look, I’m not saying we don’t go after the team. I’m just saying―”
“I know perfectly well what you’re saying. You’ve got a fantasy of us storming the Hub, guns blazing, and throwing Fleming into a cell. Reclaiming New Haven for the good guys. Only it wouldn’t go like that. We take up arms against the Hub, we better be strapped in for a long fight. How many badges will side with us? How many with them? How long before the civilians start taking sides and picking up weapons?”
“I don’t have all the answers.”
“You damn well better. If you’re going to start a civil war on this ship, you better have counted the cost.” CB turned away and stared into the depths of the ship for a long moment before continuing. “Look, I get it. I’m just as pissed off about what that bastard did as you are. But our first priority has to be getting our team back. That’s our responsibility. You know damn well that if you and I were trapped on the surface, Alex would be doing anything she possibly could to get down there to search for us.”
Brian had to admit the captain had a point there.
CB continued, “Besides, look at the practical side of it. If we want to have any chance of taking back this ship, we need our best people. And right now, our best people are down there, waiting for us to come grab them. That’s our first priority. We’ll figure out everything else when we get back.”
Brian nodded slowly. What CB was saying made sense. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t argue with the logic.
“So, are you onboard?” CB asked. “I need your head in this thing one hundred percent. We’re running a dangerous mission to the surface with a bunch of recruits who’ve never set foot off New Haven. It’s going to be tough enough without having to worry about whether you’re second-guessing me. Can I count on you?”
Brian paused for only a moment before he answered, “You can count on me, Captain.”
He didn’t like the fact that CB seemed to be ignoring the h
arsh realities of the GMT’s situation, and he definitely didn’t like that they were taking orders from the man who’d killed the rest of the City Council. But he’d go along with it. He’d trust CB. For now.
The first thing Alex saw when she opened her eyes was Wesley. He was lying on a bed across the room from her, and he was out cold.
For a long moment, she had absolutely no idea where she was. Everything looked unfamiliar. She had the sudden, nonsensical idea that she’d made a terrible mistake and slept with Wesley. But then, why was he in another bed?
It all came rushing back in an instant. The crash. The vampires in the snow. The hidden city in the mountain. Jaden…
She sat up with a start. Jaden! The city of vampires.
A hand touched her shoulder, and she almost lashed out. A familiar voice spoke before she could.
“Relax, Alex. You’re safe.”
It was Owl. Alex turned and saw the rest of her team gathered around her. Not just Owl, but also Firefly and Jessica.
As her head began to clear, she turned back to Owl. “I’m safe, huh? That’s exactly what Jaden said, before his buddy threw me against the wall.”
“You think you had it bad?” Firefly asked with a grin. “I’m going to have to live with the knowledge that I missed watching you get your ass kicked. Anyone ever tell you that you suck at making new friends?”
“It’s been brought up.” She put a hand to the back of her throbbing head.
“You got a nasty lump,” Owl explained, “but no permanent damage. Luckily, it was just your brain, and you weren’t using that anyway.”
Alex flopped back onto her pillow, and the room seemed to spin. She squeezed her eyes shut until it passed. “So, you guys are good with being trapped in a city with a hundred vampires?”
“Not good at all,” Firefly said. “But what’s the alternative? Besides, if they wanted us dead, they could have just left us outside in the snow. Or they could have killed us in that hallway the moment we walked in. Instead, they patched up our boy.” He nodded toward Wesley. “They saved his leg, not to mention his life.”
