by John Conroe
Faced with each wave of emotion, the beast sought shelter in its own cage, shuttering itself in and returning me to myself. The aural mono edges dissolved, leaving a tingling feeling on the skin of each hand.
No one said a word for a moment, while I came back to myself. Then Brett stepped forward.
“Dude! You’re a mess! Let’s get you cleaned up!”
The kid had balls. I looked down and had to agree. My torso and hands were spattered with blood, gore and bits of fur, and I could feel something hot and wet dripping through my hair and down the right side of my head.
He led me to a locker room, the crowd evaporating in front of us like water on an Arizona pavement. A dark cloud of self-loathing was creeping over me, and when I looked behind me at the bloody footprints I was leaving, I saw Stacia’s horror-stricken face, matched by her mother’s, next to the wide shocked eyes of Afina and Kelly. Well, so much for her little crush!
* * *
Brett sent someone up to the store for some Powerbars while I scrubbed myself raw in the shower. I wasn’t sorry for killing the Spawn members, but I detested myself for enjoying it so.
Forty minutes later, I was dressed and above ground, standing in the hiking supply section of the headquarters store. Brett had stayed near me the whole time, and now he straightened upright as his parents headed toward us. A pile of crumpled ration bar wrappers lay on the counter next to us, and the next victim, a squeeze tube of chocolate GU was just about finished. One of the store clerks was watching us from the corner of his eyes, a little shocked at my feeding frenzy. Brett’s calm, slightly amused presence kept the employees at bay.
“Chris, are you alright?” Afina asked as they drew closer. I got the impression she wasn’t asking about my physical health.
I nodded, swallowing the last of the GU, before answering.
“I’m okay. Just didn’t want to disturb the party any further,” I said.
Brock was frowning slightly, but he nodded at my words.
“Hey Brett, did you manage to place any bets?” I asked while opening the wrapper of a Cliff bar. The hiking stuff tastes alright, but it’s low in fat and I’m a huge fan of fat. Saturated, unsaturated, poly whatever, bring it on.
“Oh yeah! About that….I got about half of it bet,” he said while digging a wad of cash out of his pocket. “Here’s the part I couldn’t get to. Things went to hell kinda fast, but don’t worry, I’ll collect the … er ... rest of it,” he said.
I stuffed the cash in my pocket and finished off my energy bar.
“Yeah, that’s cool. You still interested in the farm up north?” I wasn’t at all sure he would be. Every were in the building was watching me like a rabid animal, but careful not to give offense. Ya know, ya chop three experienced adult weres into chunks the size of a kitchen garbage bag and people start to treat you different. Go figure.
“Hell yeah! Dad can we go up tomorrow?”
Brock paused before answering, his eyes flicking to me and then back to his son.
“Tomorrow looks bad, but maybe the day after. Excuse me a moment,” he said, moving off to speak with a threesome of weres leaving the luncheon. They watched me from the corner of their eyes as they spoke with their Alpha.
“Chris, please forgive my husband. Your … fight rather shocked him. I’ll admit that despite what Lydia and Gina have told me, even I wasn’t prepared for that!” she said, touching my arm as she spoke.
There is something oddly comforting about women who casually touch during conversations. Nothing sexual, just calming. Some men even can get away without it seeming effeminate, you know, the guy that gives you a manly shoulder smack. But with women it tends to be kind of grounding.
“Yeah, I’m actually more of a laugh at kids’ parties. Not so much the adult, fighting and bloodshed kinda of parties,” I replied, my tone trying for light.
She smiled and Brett snorted, so I must have gotten part of the tone right.
“Listen, I’m gonna get going. Brett, let me know when you want to go north. My schedule is pretty much wide open these days. Oh, and whatever my winnings are, take half and use it to get Stacia and her mother set up, okay?”
He nodded, and Afina crossed her arms and gave me a smile.
I stepped out the front doors, put my hands in my pockets and started to walk.
That’s when the helicopter swooped down overhead and the black SUV’s slammed into every intersection, men in black SWAT gear boiling out like ants.
Chapter 22
Duclair! It had her written all over it. My brain raced, multiple options flooding through it. I rejected almost all of them. They all had a common thread, federal agents injured or dead. A dozen green laser dots danced on my chest (green lasers are easier for the human eye to see, they’re all the rage with tactical types), and the Bell helicopter circling twenty-five feet over my head had a sharpshooter on each side, belted in, feet on the skids. I had heard the helicopter some time ago, but there is always a copter or two fluttering around the city, particularly Manhattan, so I hadn’t thought much about it.
Tac teams continued to swarm, but one large figure held a megaphone instead of a rifle.
“HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD, GORDON!” Adler’s voice boomed over the sirens and rotor wash.
I complied, slowly, struggling to control the beast inside. It was screaming for blood and death.
“KNEEL AND CROSS YOUR ANKLES!”
Footsteps pounded across the pavement at me from two separate directions, the battle schematic in my head showing two very large football player types charging my position from behind. I ignored them, wrestling myself, the cage door almost undone.
My face mashed into the pavement as a combined five hundred pounds slammed into and drove me down. I almost lost it then. Almost tore them apart. But by luck or chance, my face ended up looking back at the Lupine building, where people crowded the windows of the second-floor party room and the first floor store. I saw Brett, Brock, and Afina on the ground floor, and above them, Stacia, her mother, Kelly and young Bryce, all staring as the federal storm troopers took me into custody. That alone gave me the strength to close the cage and chain it shut.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in the federal building that housed the Department of Homeland Security, about fifteen stories up, locked in a standard federal issue interrogation room. Metal chair, metal table, big one-way mirror window, just like the movies. My arms were bound behind me with at least three flex-cuffs. The only addition to the room were the four tactical team members standing in each corner of the room, M4 rifles slung across their chests. Books, Splitter, Data and old Rattler himself, Agent Simmons.
They had searched my pockets, relieving me of my cell, cash, wallet and pocket knife (I still carry one, mostly out of habit, despite the mono-edge thing), but they completely missed the Tear of God necklace. My cell phone had been going crazy, even as they pulled it out.
“Whoa …would you look at her!!” Splitter said, showing the others the photo of Tanya that comes up when she calls me.
“Maybe when we’re done with you, we’ll go see her!” Simmons leered.
I laughed in his face.
They didn’t know it, but if I didn’t leave in the near future, she would come to them. My guess is that they wouldn’t enjoy it.
I knew I could leave at any time, but again I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Plus I was interested in where this was going. So I waited, amusing myself by sending aura bursts in ever expanding spheres to transmute the ammo in their guns. I couldn’t be sure, but there was a real solid chance that not a single gun on that floor would fire, and probably the floors above and below as well.
The door to the observation room behind the mirror opened and I heard voices through the wall.
“-he was actually kind of a letdown! Not a single squawk or problem when we took him,” Duclair’s voice said.
“Took him? Brianna, what have you done….oh no!” I hadn’t expected Inspector Rom
a’s voice. “Are you insane? I told you to ask him to come, not use a takedown!” he said, real worry in his voice.
“Inspector, much as I hate to admit it, Duclair did get him here without a scratch on her agents.” That voice was deep and gravelly, completely unfamiliar.
“How long ago did you grab him?” Roma asked, his voice urgent.
“About twenty-five, thirty minutes ago,” Duclair said.
“Chris, I’m sorry, this is so not my idea!” he said. The sonic picture in my head showed him looking at me through the glass as he said this.
“What are you doing? He can’t hear you, the microphone is off and these walls are sound…” Duclair was speaking when I interrupted.
“That’s okay, Inspector, it was classic Duclair,” I said staring right at his position behind the one-way mirror.
“Shut up clown!” Simmons said. He couldn’t hear the others in the observation booth.
“He heard you?” the deep unknown voice asked.
“Of course! General, if you’re not going to listen to anything I tell you about him and his…companions, then I would like to leave. Now!” Roma said.
“Settle down, Inspector. So he can hear us, what’s the issue?” the ‘general’ asked.
“How much time do we have, Chris?” Roma asked me instead of answering.
“It’s hard to tell, Inspector. I won’t know ’til she is closer. I don’t have her range. But she’s only half the problem,” I answered
“Oh no! The D.T.?” He was really scared now. D.T. was the team’s nickname for Okwari. I didn’t love the name, short for Damnedthing, which Okwari wasn’t anymore.
“Yeah, he’s getting impatient. I’ve been waiting for you guys to show up. A few minutes more and all Hell would have broken lose.”
“Inspector, what the hell are you two talking about?” the ‘general’ asked, getting impatient.
Simmons moved to smack me, but the intercom came before he could.
“Belay that, mister! He’s talking with us, now get back to your station!” the ‘general’s voice snapped.
Roma spoke as soon as the general was done.
“Sir, as soon as Brianna grabbed him, his…ah…girlfriend knew. She’ll be coming for him if we don’t let him call her. The more immediate problem is the elemental class entity that I told you about.”
“The bear thing or damn thing or what have you? And it’s broad daylight! How is the vampire girl gonna get here?” the general’s voice said.
“Sir, again, you need to listen to me about this stuff. The older ones can move about in daylight if they choose. She will come. But the D.T. will have long since destroyed the building and everyone in it if we don’t let Chris go. Speaking of which, Chris, why did you let yourself get nabbed?”
“Well, I figured we might as well get this out of the way. Although, honestly, I was expecting more of a job pitch than a snatch and grab. When that went down, I figured you would be taking me to some underground high security lab. I’m a little offended that this is all you think of me,” I said, waiving my arms around to indicate the room and guards. Pieces of plastic flex cuff fell around my suddenly free arms. I must be getting stronger, ‘cause the cuffs broke easier than I had expected.
Briana’s men started at my unbound arms and immediately pointed their useless carbines at me.
“Sir, if you want your men here to survive the next few moments, you’ll want to tell them to stand down. I’ve about had enough for one day,” I said.
The general paused for a moment, then spoke.
“Well sheeeeit! Agents! At ease!”
I heard the observation door open and then the door to my interrogation room opened. The man who came through was wearing street clothes, razor-creased khaki’s and a black turtleneck, but there was no mistaking that he was military. Salt and pepper buzz-cut hair, ramrod straight posture, and clear grey eyes that bore right into you. He was lean and whipcord tough, the endurance build of a Special Forces type. About my height but less muscle mass. Duclair and Roma followed after, each moving to a different side of the room.
“Gordon, I’m General Tobias Creek, and the D.O.A.A. is now under my command.”
His right hand shot out to shake mine and despite my disenchantment with both local and federal law enforcement leadership, I found myself shaking it in mild admiration.
“Now, explain!” he ordered.
I took that as a request for illumination of the overall situation.
“My mate or girlfriend, whichever you prefer, can track me pretty much anywhere in the city. She probably was already awake when Duclair threw her little SWAT party, but since it occurred right outside of Lupine Industries headquarters, I’m sure she had a phone call or two. She is most likely on her way. Okwari, on the other hand, is already here.”
“One thing at a time! How can the girl be out in daylight? She’s only twenty-three.”
“She was born a vampire. The only one ever. She’s more advanced than pretty much all of them except the Elders, at least one of whom will undoubtedly be with her,” I said.
“One of the three Elders is coming here?” he asked, his tone indicating someone was in trouble. My money was on Duclair.
“One of two Elders, Sir. Fedor died last year. But Senka is Tatiana’s grandmother in a very real sense of the word, and she will be with her.”
“What happened to Fedor?” he asked.
“He was the last person to kidnap me,” I said with a glare at Brianna. “Okwari crushed him into paste.”
I really didn’t need to add that detail, but I was getting a lot of perverse enjoyment out of educating the general.
“Okwari is the elemental bear thing?” he asked. Roma started to speak, but General Creek just waved him to be silent.
“Okwari is my name for him. I’m not really certain what he is. Twelve thousand years ago, he was the largest bear on the planet. He became something a great deal more. Personally, I think he’s the Great Spirit bear that Native Americans speak of in legends, but I don’t know.”
“He was a pet of the demons?” Creek asked. I had to give him kudos for the casual way he used ‘demons’.
“He was bound and enslaved about a thousand years ago, by demons, becoming a Damnedthing. I freed him last year so he is not damned anymore. He’s extremely ….attached to me. I’m trying to keep him from destroying the building, but he’s pretty stubborn about some things. Me being held captive tops the list,” I said with a shrug.
The general stared at me for a moment, then turned and pinned Brianna with his glare.
“So to recap, you could have gotten away or free, but you didn’t want to hurt anyone. Your girlfriend and one of the most dangerous vampires on the planet are coming here to get you. A demigod class entity that you freed from a millennium of slavery is here, now, getting ready to destroy everything in his path to free you?” he asked, never looking away from Duclair, who was frozen in place. Roma was white as a sheet. He at least, understood the enormity of what was coming.
“That’s pretty close, sir, although frankly, I think Tanya is even more dangerous than Senka. And Okwari is probably a lot more than demigod rank…..” I trailed off as he turned his glare on me.
“Just saying,” I finished with a shrug. “But that pretty well covers it … sir!”
I have a lifetime of conditioning to respect strong leaders, starting with my Gramps, and General Creek definitely fit the bill.
“Can you stop any of this?” he asked.
“I need my phone to call Tanya. Okwari will likely settle down as I leave.”
“Give him his phone,” Creek ordered.
I started to place the call, but suddenly, my ‘Tanya’ sense flared. I kept dialing.
“They’re here,” I said as I lifted the phone to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me,” I said, “I’m headed out now.”
The general nodded at my raised eyebrows and led the way to the elevators, ignor
ing the stares that we were getting from the busy agents on the rest of the floor.
“Better be quick!”
She meant that she wouldn’t wait long before she came for me.
The elevator doors closed as I spoke.
“Listen, wait right there, we’re in the elevator now.”
“Is Agent Duclair with you?”
I looked at Brianna as I answered.
“Yeah, she’s here!”
“Good, I want to explain some things to her!”
Then she hung up.
Everyone was looking at me, questions in their eyes.
“They’re in the lobby, and Tanya wants to talk to you,” I said directing the last to Duclair. “She’s pretty unhappy. Actually I don’t think I’ve ever heard that tone in her voice before.”
Hmm, now I was getting a little worried. I had hoped for a zero bloodshed outcome.
Chapter 23
The elevator opened into an eerily silent lobby. The main foyer of the federal building is quite large, in order to accommodate the metal detector that all visitors must go through. The design is open, with marble floors and high ceilings. The two main entrances funnel visitors to the security checkpoint, which looks just like the airport setups.
Tanya and Senka, as well as, Mr. Deckert, faced fifteen M4 armed men wearing military digital cammies. Seven uniformed security personnel watched, eyes wide. None of the federal people even turned our way. I understood, completely. My own eyes were locked on Tanya’s from the moment I stepped out. I hadn’t seen her in five days. The sight of her hit me hard, emotions flooding me from head to toe. Relief, guilt, love, lust and the strongest protective urge I’ve ever had. A single word popped into my head – Mine! In that brief nanosecond, the door was open, the beast was out and I froze, every threat catalogued, every person on the floor plugged into a combat schematic in my head. Instantly, I released an aural burst, a sphere of violet energy visible only to myself and Senka, that would disable every round of ammunition on the floor.
