Death of Darkness

by Dianne Duvall

  Chris jumped when Seth, David, Zach, and Jared burst into his office. A foul epithet springing from his lips, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster.

  Seth raised his hands. “It’s us. I apologize for startling you.” Since Chris couldn’t see the ghosts, he had no idea Yuri and Cat had called a meeting.

  Seth caught a whisper of movement behind him.

  Chris leaned to one side, his shoulders relaxing. “It’s okay, Kate.”

  Seth turned around and looked past David. His eyebrows flew up.

  Kate stood in the doorway, aiming an automatic rifle at them. The tension in her features eased as she nodded and backed out of sight.

  Seth’s admiration for her went up several notches. Kate really knew how to take care of business.

  “What’s up?” Chris asked.

  “In the boardroom.” Seth crossed to the door, opened it, and strode inside.

  Yuri and Cat were already there, waiting for them. David entered behind him, then Zach and Jared.

  Chris grabbed his laptop and jogged inside. “Is this everyone?”

  “For now, yes.”

  He closed the door. “What’s up?” Chris set his laptop on the long, sleek table.

  Though no one outside this room could hear what took place within, Chris had a microphone in his office and speakers in here that allowed them to listen to what took place in the rest of the building.

  “Can you give us silence?” Seth asked. He wanted no distractions.

  Chris crossed to the light switches beside the door and flicked one. Quiet enveloped them. As soon as Chris returned to stand beside him, Seth clasped his shoulder and motioned to Yuri and Cat.

  Chris’s eyes widened. “Yuri?”

  Seth sent the couple an expectant look. “He and Catherine have something to tell us.”

  Yuri nodded. “We know where they are.”

  “Who?” Chris asked.

  “Everyone Gershom took.” Yuri stared at Seth. “When we left you, we ended up in David’s home. The humans and gifted ones inside were all unconscious. The immortals were missing. Leah, Ami, and the children were, too. David was down outside. And all was quiet. Then Gershom suddenly appeared next to David. He stood there for a moment, as though listening or seeking a scent. Seconds later, he raced down the driveway. We followed him to see where the hell he was going and saw him catch up to Ethan. Even though he was badly injured, Ethan put up a good fight. But Gershom defeated him. When he teleported away with Ethan and the children, we followed him and…” He glanced at Cat.

  Both spoke together. “We know where they are.”

  Emotion inundated Seth. “Do they all still live?” he asked, voice hoarse.

  “Yes.”

  Seth’s legs damn near buckled he was so relieved. “Where?”

  “Are they all right?” Zach blurted.

  Cat nodded. “They’ve been drugged but are starting to regain consciousness.”

  David moved to stand beside Seth. “And the children?”

  Cat bit her lip. “They’re unharmed, but they’re terrified.”

  “And angry,” Yuri added. “They’re afraid of the bad men, but at the same time want their mommies and daddies and are pissed that they can’t see them.”

  “Where are they?” Seth asked, his stomach burning.

  Yuri looked at Chris. “Can you show me a map of Texas?”

  Zach frowned. “They’re in Texas?”

  Chris opened his laptop, typed some keys, and a map appeared on the screen.

  Yuri moved toward the table and studied the map. “It took us a while to figure out where we were after we followed him. It’s hard to get our bearings when we follow someone who teleports because you don’t exactly see scenery rushing past you as you go,” he muttered. “And neither one of us was familiar with the area. But it’s right about there. Can you zoom in?”

  Chris tapped some keys and peered at the image. “I’m not seeing any structures or buildings. Just trees.”

  “It’s there,” Yuri said with certainty. “And it’s military.”

  “You’re sure?” Seth pressed.

  “Yes.”

  “Shit,” Chris spat. “What the hell is it with Texas and secret military bases?”

  Jared spoke. “It’s a big damned state. You can hide a lot in it.”

  Seth drew out his phone and dialed a number.

  “Yes?”

  “General Lane,” he said without preamble, “we require your immediate assistance. Are you at home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m on my way.” Seth glanced at Chris. “Turn off the alarm.”

  Chris spoke into the walkie at his shoulder.

  Seth teleported to the interior of General Lane’s house. “I’m downstairs, General,” he called.

  Rustling sounded on the second floor. Heather’s father hurried down the steps, garbed in hastily donned military fatigues. His short hair was a little disheveled. Silver beard stubble coated his cheeks and chin. “What is it?”

  “Gershom has taken Heather and a number of other immortals as well as my daughter and granddaughter.” He didn’t mention Leah, fearing that would lead to questions he didn’t have time to answer. “My source tells me they’re being held in a military facility in Texas, but it doesn’t show up on Reordon’s maps.”

  Alarm and anger entered the general’s features. “He took Heather? Ethan, too?”

  “Yes. Will you help us?”

  “Absolutely.” He ducked into his home office, then returned carrying a briefcase. “Let’s go.”

  Seth gripped his shoulder and teleported back to Chris’s boardroom.

  General Lane glanced around. His eyes widened when they lit upon David. “Are you okay?”

  Drying blood coated one side of David’s face as well as his head where he was missing dreadlocks. His clothing bore numerous tears and was stained with more blood, both his own and Gershom’s.

  David nodded.

  Though Seth had been shot in the head, too, his exit wounds were on the back of his head and must be fairly well concealed by his hair, because they drew no comment. Seth caught Zach’s eye. “Start bringing in reinforcements.” He looked at Jared. “You, too. All elders with gifts that will aid us.”

  Both men teleported away.

  General Lane moved to stand beside Chris and leaned down to examine the map on the laptop’s screen.

  Chris pointed. “The base where they’re being held is somewhere in this area, but nothing shows up on the map.”

  The general swore. “It’s there. Whatever you do, don’t have your connections look into it. They’ll raise too many red flags.”

  “You’re familiar with it?” Seth asked.

  General Lane nodded. “It’s military. And it’s as classified as the base the vampires attacked the night Heather met Ethan. When we lost that base, this one was repurposed to take its place.”

  Seth’s concern deepened. “They do bioweapons research there?”

  “Yes. That’s why it’s not on the map. If no one knows about it, no one can infiltrate it and walk out with shit we really don’t want them to get their hands on.”

  Chris snorted. “And civilians won’t complain about a bioweapons lab being too close for comfort?”

  “That, too,” the general admitted.

  Zach and Jared popped in and out, escorting Immortal Guardian elders from around the globe. Every warrior wore hunting garb.

  Seth glanced around and spotted Catherine. “Where’s Yuri?”

  “He went back to the base to keep an eye on Gershom. I stayed behind to answer any question you might have.”

  “Is the base heavily guarded?”

  “Yes.”

  General Lane—unable to see her—answered, “Yes,” believing the question had been directed at him.

  Chris straightened. “Are all personnel military?”

  The general shook his hea
d. “The guards are mercenary. After what happened at the other base, they decided to contract out security this time.”

  “Why?” Seth pressed.

  More and more immortals began to fill the large room and crowded around the table to listen.

  “Should shit hit the fan,” General Lane said, “civilians are less likely to care about the loss of mercenary lives than they are about the loss of American soldiers. The former often doesn’t even make the news.”

  Seth studied the trees where the base was hidden. “Have you ever been to this facility?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you sketch the layout for us?”

  “I can try.” He seemed doubtful though.

  Catherine stepped forward. “I can do it.”

  Seth regarded her with surprise. “You can?” When the general started to answer, Seth held up a hand and kept his gaze on Catherine.

  “Yes,” she responded confidently. “I can’t hold a pencil, but if you place an iPad on the table, I can run my finger across the screen and produce an image. I’ve been practicing on Marcus’s.”

  Seth looked at Chris. “Get me an iPad. The largest you have.” Seth’s knowledge of modern technology was limited, so he wasn’t even sure if iPads came in multiple sizes.

  Chris left the room. A moment later, he returned with paper, a pencil, and a flat electronic object that was about the same size as his laptop. It was silver on one side and black on the other. He set it on the table, dark-side up, then handed the general paper and pencil.

  General Lane bent and began to sketch.

  Chris looked up at Seth as he turned on the iPad. “What do you want me to look up?”

  Seth clasped his shoulder so Chris could see Catherine as she stepped up beside him.

  Catherine motioned to the device. “Open a drawing app for me, please.”

  Chris did so, then pushed the device closer to her.

  Catherine bent over it. Her brow furrowing with concentration, she touched a fingertip to the screen and began to move it. A black mark appeared that soon extended and turned into the outline of a building.

  Gasps sounded.

  “What the hell?” one immortal murmured.

  “A spirit is doing it,” another whispered. “A woman.”

  All crowded closer to watch.

  General Lane didn’t even look up, concentrating hard on his own drawing, knowing his daughter’s life might depend upon his getting it right.

  The size of the device and the effort it took Catherine to draw in such a way limited the amount of detail she could provide, but Seth thought she did an admirable job.

  “There’s only one entrance?” he asked, leaning closer.

  “Yes. Here.”

  General Lane looked over and gaped. He slid his drawing over, placing it beside Catherine’s. The two were almost identical, only Catherine had done a better job of marking the interior rooms and hallways. “How did you do that?” he asked Seth.

  “I didn’t. Two spirits are helping us. Catherine, where are the immortals being held?”

  She drew an X on a room in the center of the building. “Here.”

  “All of them?”

  “We believe so.”

  “The children, too?”

  “No. The children are being held here.” She drew two small x’s on a room right next to the one that contained the immortals.

  “There are children being held prisoner, too?” Mattheus asked.

  “Yes,” Seth answered. “Two toddlers. A girl and a boy. Both are gifted ones adopted by immortal couples.” Only the immortals stationed in North Carolina knew the truth about Adira, the only child ever to be fathered by an Immortal Guardian. The North Carolina contingent was also the only group to know the truth of Ami’s origins—that she had come to them from another planet. “Where are Ami and Leah?”

  “They’re being held with the immortals,” Cat said.

  Seth noticed no one asked who Leah was. Word of his relationship with her had traveled fast. He pointed to the two rooms and told those present who couldn’t see Catherine, “Ami, Leah, and the immortals are being held here. The children are being held here.”

  The general studied the map. “The larger room with the immortals was used for prisoner detention before the place was repurposed. Guards will be stationed here, here, here, and here. Here, too. There will be checkpoints here and here. Two more over here. This area will be more heavily guarded. You won’t be able to access it without security codes and key cards. But you’ll want to avoid that anyway because that’s where the bioweapons research takes place.”

  “All right.” Seth straightened.

  General Lane did, too, and held up a hand. “There’s something else. Because of what happened at the other bases—both the first in which bioweapons research took place and the second that housed prisoners who posed high threats to national security—extra measures have been taken at this one. They wanted to ensure that if the base was attacked, no one could get their hands on the viruses and other bioweapons contained there or free the prisoners held there before they could be transferred to their new prison.”

  Seth frowned. “What kind of measures?”

  “The best way I can describe it is fail-safes or booby traps. The place is riddled with them. If it looks like there’s been a breach of the base, an alarm will sound and the traps will automatically be activated.”

  “Do you know what and where these traps are?”

  “No.”

  Chris frowned. “If we kill the alarm, will it deactivate the traps?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  Nodding, Seth stepped back and addressed the room as a whole. “All right. We don’t have time to strategize. I want to strike now before Gershom leaves or has time to kill those he has taken. Chris, can you cut communications to and from the base so personnel can’t call for help?”

  “Yeah. I’ll block landlines, cell phones, sat phones, and fuck up their internet connection. I’ll also have my people redirect any satellites aimed at that location.” Chris drew out a cell phone and started placing calls.

  General Lane’s lips tightened, but he voiced no objection.

  “Zach, Jared, and I will teleport you all directly into the building here,” Seth continued. “While we—along with David—search for Gershom, I want the rest of you to focus on taking out the guards and ensuring no one leaves. Telepaths, if you encounter any worth saving, knock them unconscious. We’ll sort them out later. Everyone else dies. Understood? Leave no man alive to carry tales.”

  “Understood,” they chorused.

  “If I should fall—”

  Instant protests erupted.

  Seth held up a hand. “If I should fall in battle, help David, Zach, and Jared take out Gershom and rescue those he’s taken. You have five minutes to visit the armory on sublevel one to load up on extra weapons.”

  A wave of black surged toward the door. As soon as they flung it open, noise filtered in.

  Amidst the rumble of their retreat, the hubbub created by the network beefing up security, and the medical personnel working hard to aid the injured Seconds, distant roars of rage arose, accompanied by loud crashes.

  Cliff.

  Seth looked at Zach. “Give me a minute.” He teleported to the living room of Emma’s home in the country.

  Reclining on the sofa in a T-shirt and yoga pants, she shrieked and leapt to her feet at his abrupt appearance.

  Seth held up his hands. “Forgive me for startling you. You’re needed at the network.”

  Fear filled her features as she hurried toward him, not even pausing to don shoes.

  Clasping her shoulder, he teleported her to Cliff’s apartment at network headquarters.

  The place looked like a tornado had struck it. Overturned furniture—some splintered into small pieces—cluttered the place and formed drifts and dunes. Shards of glass littered the floor and glittered like diamonds amongst the remains of a coffee table.

 
Seth spun toward the door and found the source of the thumps and crashes.

  Cliff bellowed with rage as he hammered away at the wall with one of the metal coffee table legs. Sweat gleamed on his brown arms, left bare by his T-shirt. White powder clung to the perspiration and speckled his dreadlocks. He had knocked out a large chunk of drywall beside the door and was doing a damned good job of breaking up the heavy concrete it covered. But he would never make it through the titanium reinforcement beneath.

  “Let me out!” he roared over and over again. “Let me out!” The other words he shouted were so distorted by rage that Seth couldn’t decipher them. A quick examination of the vampire’s chaotic thoughts, however, confirmed that Cliff knew Bastien and Melanie had been taken and wanted desperately to help save them.

  “Cliff?” Emma said softly. Her heart pounded loudly in the silence that fell.

  Cliff spun around so quickly he nearly fell over. His brilliant amber eyes sparked with madness as he regarded them. For one gut-wrenching moment, Seth could discern no recognition in his features. Then Cliff’s gaze focused on Emma and his hold on the table leg loosened.

  His breath coming in jagged gasps, he stared at them while he fought to subdue the voices in his head that urged him to attack.

  Confident that Cliff wouldn’t hurt the woman he loved, Seth looked down at Emma. “Calm him. We need his help.” An instant later, he grabbed Cliff and teleported all three of them to the boardroom.

  The door was closed once more. Chris spoke rapidly into his cell phone. When he saw them, he paused, darted Cliff a concerned look, then addressed Seth. “I have Scott Henderson on the line.” Scott headed the Midwest division of the network and presided over the headquarters located in Texas. “He’ll have special-ops teams en route in two minutes. My own team is assembling in the hangar.”

  “Excellent.”

  General Lane eyed Cliff warily, then added, “My team is on standby if you need them.” General Lane’s team consisted of half a dozen soldiers who were so loyal they would follow him into hell and back without voicing a single complaint. About a year and a half ago, all six men had extended that loyalty to include Seth after he had healed one soldier’s little girl, who had been dying of cancer.