Twilight Vendetta

by Maggie Shayne

  Emma nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “Still, it’s great to have it there. Talk about an underground railroad.”

  “It’s fantastic,” Bell said. “I can’t believe you traversed it all alone, Emma. Weren’t you scared?”

  “Not much scares me.” She slanted a look Devlin’s way as she said it, and he knew she was reminding him of that again, as well. “So, anyway, as long as we’re out here, can we go after my dad?”

  Devlin looked at the others.

  “No time like the present,” Bell said. He opened the backpack and started handing out cell phones.

  “Is all right wid me,” Tavia said. “Perhaps dere will be some crows in need of killing. I have a powerful tirst.”

  “Do you think you’ve figured out where they are, Emma?” Andrew asked.

  She nodded. “I think so. Hand me the map, will you?” Bellamy did, and then Emma knelt on the ground, unfolding the map and using her phone light to see by. “There’s a military depot where they used to store chemical weapons, right about here. It’s been shut down, abandoned, but interestingly, it’s blocked from Google Earth.”

  “And you can find it?” Devlin asked.

  She held up her phone, shining its light into his eyes. He squinted and held up a hand. “Sorry,” she said, turning the light off. “I’ve already got the approximate location programmed into the GPS.” Then she sighed. “And as soon as we get where we’re going, someone remind me to toss this phone onto an outbound semi or something and find myself a new one.”

  “She is wise, dis one,” Tavia said. “So, we go dere now?”

  “Yes, Tavia. We go dere now,” Devlin said.

  Tavia shot him an astounded look. “You are making joke of my accent?”

  His smile evaporated. “Sorry if I offended you.”

  “Offended? I am not offended, I am bewildered. Since when does our dark and dangerose leader make joke?” She shot a look at Emma, lifted her eyebrows, then nodded slowly. “It is good. We go.”

  They all started forward, but after a few steps, Devlin noticed Andrew lagging behind, tapping rapidly on the phone he’d been given.

  “Andrew?”

  The blond vampire lifted his head, smiled and pocketed the phone. “Trying to figure out what its number is so we can exchange digits,” he said. “In case we somehow get split up and need to get in touch.”

  “Every phone has every other phone’s number programmed in already, Andrew,” Emma said. “All you need to do is assign names to the numbers.”

  “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t see that. Gee, you really were busy today.”

  “And lonely,” she said, with a long look at Devlin.

  That look made his stomach knot up.

  Sheena was alone in her cell, had been alone from the beginning. On the first night, she’d been too groggy to notice much about what was happening around her, and she knew that was a result of whatever drug had been injected into her body. It had taken a long time for that to wear off, whatever it had been. But she’d been listening. She’d been paying attention. They had questions. She could hear the thoughts in their minds as clearly as if they were saying them aloud. She’d thought everyone could, until she’d spent time with the vampires on the ship, and with their human friends. The humans, apparently, didn’t hear the way she and Wolf did. The vampires did. They could speak to and hear each other, and sometimes they could hear human minds, but only if they listened hard. The humans didn’t seem to hear anything except words spoken from moving mouths. That must be such a handicap, to have to live that way.

  Whatever they gave to me is wearing off now, Wolf. Is it the same for you?

  He was somewhere nearby, but in a cell of his own.

  Yes, and I’m feeling stronger. And hungry.

  They brought me blood, earlier. Blood, in a bowl. They slid it through the bars. I can still smell its scent in the air. Like they think we’re vampires.

  They know what we are. They made us, after all. It’s torture, I think. Starving us, then offering us blood. Maybe they’re trying to change us or something.

  Someone’s coming now, she told him as she sensed the energy of a human drawing nearer. Let them think we’re still weak, Wolf. Show them nothing.

  She sat down in the corner of her cell, a much nicer cell than she’d occupied aboard the Anemone. It was larger, and there was a cot with a soft pad to lie on, a pillow and a blanket. If only they would feed her, she thought.

  Footsteps drew near, and the energy she’d been sensing sharpened into a recognizable pattern. Dr. Bouchard.

  Just as she thought it, the female human stepped into sight, wearing her ever-present white coat over her clothes.

  “Hello, Alpha F,” she said. “It’s been a long time.”

  Alpha F was what they had called her on the ship where she had spent her entire life. Wolf had been Alpha M. But she knew now that those were not names, but identification tags. Even dogs, she’d overheard the vampire Devlin say, had names.

  And then he’d called her Sheena. He said it was a proper name for a wild thing like her. And she’d known in that moment that he was different. Not an enemy to be killed, as she’d been raised to think all vampires were. He was...kind. She hadn’t even known that word until they had come. Or that such a thing as kindness existed.

  She didn’t respond to Dr. Bouchard, but envied her neatly combed yellow hair, all pulled back and bundled up in a tight knot. She hadn’t known her own hair could be other than a tangle of brown snarls and frizz until that human named Roxy had helped her to wash it and comb it.

  It was a mess again now.

  “You’ve been on quite an adventure, Alpha F. Do you know where the others are?”

  She knew everything. She could talk to them, just as she talked to Wolf when they were close. She could feel them, sense their emotions, no matter how far away they were. At least so far, she could. They’d never been so far apart before.

  The others were being well cared for by those vampires they were supposed to kill. She was not stupid. Dr. Bouchard, and those like her, were the enemy. They were the ones who needed killing.

  “Why are you pretending not to hear me? Did those vampires who stole you fill your head with lies?”

  “Hungry.” She growled the word, acting the part of the animal they thought she was. The animal they’d treated her as her entire life. She remained where she was, refusing to look the woman in the eye.

  Doctor Bouchard glanced down at the bowl of blood on the floor, closed her eyes and shook her head. Then she brought her wrist up near her mouth and spoke to it as if to another person. “Have the Alphas been fed since they’ve been here?”

  “We’ve given them blood. They refuse to eat,” said a voice that came from the device on her wrist.

  “That’s because they’re not vampires, you idiot. Do you have any idea how many millions we’d be out if we lost them? Unless you want them dead of starvation, get some food down here, pronto. Food you’d eat if you were hungry. Copy?”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Then she stood there waiting, tapping a pointy shoe that caught and reflected light. It was the same tan and pink color as her skin, with a heel in the back, not as tall as the ones on the shoes Rhiannon wore.

  They thought we ate blood, like vampires, she told Wolf. Doctor Bouchard is here. She’s told them to feed us now.

  Finally. What else is she saying?

  Asking about the others. I will tell her nothing.

  The food arrived. She felt a rush of joy from Wolf and knew that his had too, and as Bouchard shoved the tray through the opening, Sheena realized there was no spoon, no fork. She remembered how they had eaten before the vampires had taught them about silverware and table manners.

  Eat like before, Wolf. Don’t show them that we have changed in any way.

  That said, she grabbed the tray, retreated into a corner, and sat there, eating with her hands. There was chicken, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots mixed toget
her. She’d learned the names of the different kinds of foods from those who had freed her. Not from her captors. She’d learned nothing from them.

  Except that being shot in the chest hurt very badly.

  There was no wound in her chest now. There had been none there when she had awakened in the killers’ boat with a gasp so powerful it had nearly burst her open. So she supposed she had learned two things from her captors: that being shot in the chest hurt, and that it would not kill her.

  “Now that you’ve eaten, Alpha F, tell me what you know about the others. About the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas. Where are they?”

  She lifted her head, met Bouchard’s cold blue eyes, and licked her fingers one by one.

  “Do you know where they are?” the female asked.

  Sheena said nothing, just held that cold gaze a moment longer, then lowered her eyes to her plate, brought it to her face, and licked it clean.

  “You will not be fed again until you talk to me. Do you understand?”

  Sheena looked up slowly, lowering the plate from her face. “‘Do you have any idea how many millions we’d be out if we lost them?’” she said, and she said it exactly the way Doctor Bouchard had just said it, moments ago.

  Maybe too exactly, because Bouchard’s eyes widened, and she took a step back from the bars.

  Then the doctor calmed visibly. “You’re right. I can’t kill you. But I can make you suffer. You will tell me what you know, Alpha F, about the other Offspring, and about the vampires who took you from us. Believe me, I will hurt you, unless you tell me everything.”

  “‘Believe me, I will hurt you,’” she replied, again mimicking the Doctor. Then she hurled the tin plate. It hit the bars so hard it bent and the noisy impact made the doctor jump in fear.

  “Guards!” Bouchard shouted.

  Two humans came running all dressed in black, weapons in their arms. They were like the ones who’d shot her in the water. She’d heard the vampires call them crows.

  “I want her tranquilized and I want her in restraints in the exam room. Now.”

  One guard pointed his rifle at her and she flinched, recalling the pain of being shot with another one like it while trying to swim after Devlin at sea. It didn’t make the same cracking sound, though. More like a pffft! And when its ammunition hit her, it only pierced her skin and went no further. Her head began to swim. This again, she thought.

  Sheena, what’s happening to you? Wolf shouted inside her head.

  The sleeping arrow. They’ve shot me with it again. I made them angry.

  The five of them, four vampires and one mortal girl who wondered just how she’d got herself into this insane situation, crouched outside a compound that was trying very hard not to look like one. Emma was very close to Devlin, so close her side was brushing his as they peered out from the flimsy cover of a large sign that had LUPERNO WEAPONS DEPOT stenciled across its face. One side of the sign had come loose from its post and was touching the ground. The other side was still held upright.

  The night breeze was damp, and the air cool on her skin, but she was fairly certain her shivers were not due to the temperature.

  “According to the Internet, the military used to store chemical weapons here. It was closed down in the mid-seventies when northern California became a hotbed for the anti-war movement. Protestors made it impossible for the government to do business here, so they shut it down and moved everything to some new site in the Midwest.”

  “It has not been shut down at all,” Tavia said. “Dere are people inside.”

  “How many?” Emma asked, searching the other woman’s dark, expressive eyes.

  Tavia shrugged. “I cannot be certain. Many.”

  “Including Wolf and Sheena,” Devlin said. “I feel them.”

  “I wish I could feel my father.” Emma’s heart was knotted up in her chest and beating far too rapidly. She was sure Devlin and the others could feel that too.

  “Give me your cell phones,” Devlin said. And when they all complied, he shoved the lot of them into the hollowed out knot of a nearby willow tree. “We should check the perimeter, see what we’re facing,” Devlin said. “Bell, Andrew, Tavia, you go clockwise. Emma and I will go counterclockwise, until we meet at the other end. Be silent. All right?”

  Everyone nodded, though Andrew looked as if he would argue. He bit his lip, inclined his head, and he and Bell headed off toward the left.

  “I should go with you, Devlin,” Tavia said. “Two vampires on each team would be a better balance, don’t you tink?”

  Devlin met Tavia’s eyes, and Emma was sure he said something to her in that silent way vampires had of talking to each other. Whatever it was, it worked. Tavia gave a nearly imperceptible nod, turned, and jogged off after the other two.

  Emma wanted to ask Devlin what he’d said. Had it been about her? Obviously it was something he didn’t want her to hear. That chafed a little. Then again, she thought, she was still keeping secrets of her own.

  She kept thinking she should just tell him about her blog and the book it would become. Its purpose was to help his kind by educating her own. But she knew, deep down, he wouldn’t see it that way.

  “Come on,” he said. “Stay low and try to keep up.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  He nodded and she followed him from one bit of cover to another. They dashed from the broken sign to a piece of scrubby brush, and ducked behind it, then from that to a copse of stunted trees that were squat and broad. From behind those, they ran to a spot where three large barrels stood, two upright, and one lying on its side. They had been painted black with bright yellow stripes, and some sort of code on them. MX-207K. She had no idea what it meant, but didn’t like the looks of the ground around them. Everywhere else there was grass or weeds or brush. But around those barrels, the ground was brown and lifeless.

  She crouched low and whispered, “This can’t be good, Devlin. Let’s move on.”

  “The next bit of cover is fifty yards away.” He nodded at the distant hunk of metal that looked as if it belonged on a piece of heavy equipment. It was rusty and huge. Then he looked down toward the compound. “There’s a camera, concealed inside that battered old speaker up there. Do you see it?”

  She followed his gaze, spotted the speaker, but couldn’t see what might be hidden in its trumpet. “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “It’s aimed this way. I won’t show up on camera, but you will, so we’ll have to move faster than it can detect. That means–”

  “I get another piggy back ride?” she asked.

  He flashed her a quick, unguarded smile that he tried to subdue right away. Too late, though. She’d seen it. “Climb aboard,” he said, bending at the knees.

  She jumped onto his broad back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He smelled good. He felt good too. Under any other circumstances, she’d have been tempted to bury her nose in his hair and maybe run her lips over his earlobe, see if she could elicit a shiver from him. She hadn’t stopped reliving that dangerously passionate kiss all night long. Every time it replayed in her mind, tingles chased each other up and down her spine. She wanted more, and she knew from that kiss that he did too. He could deny it all he wanted but....

  But no, they were on a mission and her father’s life was at stake. Okay, that might be overstating it. DPI might be willing to brutally murder vampires on sight, but they weren’t in the business of executing humans, particularly not innocent scientists. At the very least, though, her father’s freedom was at stake.

  “Ready?” Devlin asked.

  “Ready.”

  He pushed upright and shot forward as she held on for dear life. They made it to the giant hunk of metal so fast she was dizzy when he stopped again. Then she slid off his back, and her knees tried to wobble a little. “Damn,” she said, pressing a hand to her forehead. “That was fast.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, fine. I’m just not used to that,
yet.” She had to catch her breath, made a mental note to turn her face away from the wind the next time he carried her like that so she could breathe. He’d been nowhere near that fast in the cave. After a couple of deep inhales, she eyed the hunk of metal, which she could now see was a box that would sit on the back of a flatbed truck. A container for carrying all those barrels of death around the country, she imagined.

  Shaking that thought off, she crept to where Devlin was, peering around the far side of the thing, looking down at the compound from this new angle. She could see more now. Three rectangular buildings of about the same size, and one very long, arch-shaped one.

  “That smallest structure,” Devlin said, pointing at something that didn’t resemble a building at all, but more like a multi-person restroom. Concrete blocks, a long and narrow shape, and a door on the narrow end nearest them. “There are people below it. That’s where all the activity and energy are coming from.”

  “Below it?”

  “They’re underground.”

  “How are we going to get in there?”

  “I don’t know yet.” He nodded toward the next bit of cover and said, “Are you ready?”

  She wrapped her arms around him from behind and buried her face against his neck, tasting his skin on her lips as she replied, “You bet I am.”

  Chapter Seven

  Tavia, Bellamy and Andrew were waiting for them when Emma and Devlin made their way to the rear of the compound. Emma imagined they’d moved a lot faster. As a mere mortal, she had probably slowed Devlin down.

  “There are three vacant buildings on this side,” Devlin said, “And one that’s not vacant at all, though the energies are coming from below ground.”

  “We didn’t get anything from the buildings on our side, Dev,” Bellamy said. “But there are some guards posted.”

  “I would not call dem guards. Dey are snipers,” Tavia added.