The Unmasking (Dhampyre the Hunter Book 1)

by David Burkhead

  Within a few more minutes I was asleep.

  My eyes jerked open at the sick feeling in the back of my head. Vampire. I rolled out of bed and grabbed the gun from the nightstand. I looked across at the other bed in the room. Tanner. Fast asleep. I debated a moment with myself whether to wake her or not and decided on not.

  This was not good. What chance would bring a vampire within the range of my sense? They wouldn't know exactly where I was but they'd know that a dhampyre was in the area. And that meant that they would be searching this area soon, looking for me and for those with me. We were running out of time faster than I liked.

  A quick glance at the clock showed that we only had about an hour before sunrise, not enough time for the vampires to conduct any serious search and they'd know it. The next night, however...

  Normally a vampire coming within range like this would not bother me, but these vampires had been working together in ways most unlike the undead. I had a feeling that come sunset, vampires would be swarming this area trying to find me.

  I put those thoughts aside and padded to the door. It opened with only a faint click. A short hallway led me to the front room. I crouched low at the corner of the front window and pushed the blackout curtain aside with just a nudge of the barrel of the gun.

  I could see deserted streetlight-lit roadway through the small gap between curtain and window frame. Deserted. A moment later, a car turned onto the street from the nearest corner. Its headlights illuminated the front of the house as they swept past. A moment later the car passed the house and was gone.

  I still felt the itch of nearby vampire. Then, a few minutes later, the sensation was gone. I stood up.

  The footsteps in the hallway alerted me.

  "Dani?"

  I looked back. I saw Ware feeling his way along the hallway, one hand sliding along the wall, the other holding his own sidearm at a low ready position. A shoulder holster hung loosely on his bare torso, not fully secured.

  "Yeah. It's me."

  "Anything wrong?"

  "Vampire nearby. It's gone now."

  "You sure?"

  I nodded then, remembering that Ware probably could not see me in the darkness, I spoke aloud. "I'd feel it if it were still close."

  Ware's hand slid in a circle on the wall until they found the light switch. "Lights?"

  "Go ahead."

  I shielded my eyes before Ware flipped the switch. Ware holstered his gun. His eyes flicked down for a bare instant before his eyes locked on mine. I cast my own glance downward at myself. I had grabbed a gun, but no clothes. Panties and a camisole. Yeah, Ware had gotten an eyeful. There was, however, no amusement in his face when I looked back at him.

  "They can feel you too, right?"

  "Afraid so. They'll know a dhampyre is in the area and will figure it's me. We need to move fast."

  I glanced back at the window. Although there was no way to be certain, I would bet my last stake that car had held one of the vampires.

  They knew where I was, close enough, and they would be coming.

  We needed to find them and find them fast.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Tommy set his laptop down onto the kitchen table. The rest of the team crowded around.

  "This is the building where the vampires held your source," Tommy said. "I got satellite pictures, out of date but they might help, street-view images and—" He tapped the screen and floor plan filled the screen. "—drawings from the Planning Department."

  Reid looked down at the screen, then frowned up at Tommy. "How did you get this?"

  Tommy grinned.

  "Tommy?" Ware scowled at Tommy.

  Tommy held up his hands. "Hey, if they don't want to be cracked, they shouldn't make their security so weak."

  Ware placed a hand over his face.

  Tanner shook her head. "Great. Just great."

  Although Reid said nothing, I could see rising anger in his expression. I could not read Blake's face.

  Tommy held his hands up. "Hey, I promise to only use my powers for good."

  Ware rolled his eyes. "So, what have we got?"

  "We've got an abandoned office park," Tommy said. "Beyond that, hey, it's not my job. I'm just the computer guy."

  "Mary?" I looked through the doorway to where Mary sat curled up on a chair in the front room. "Can you come here, please?"

  She whispered a few short sentences. I presumed she was having a debate with one of her voices, then stood and approached.

  "What can I do for you?"

  I waved down at the computer. "Can you point out which of the offices they had you in?"

  She looked down at the floor plan and shook her head.

  "Tommy," I said. "Pull up the street view?"

  His fingers danced on the keyboard and a moment later an image of the front of the building appeared.

  Before Mary could say anything, Ware's phone rang.

  "One moment." He removed the phone from his pocket and answered while leaving the room.

  "Mary?" I said again.

  Mary nodded.

  "This one." Mary pointed at the screen.

  "Second from the north end," Blake said, breaking his silence. "It would fit." He shook his head. "We've been looking for a meth supplier out of that neighborhood. If these vampires or whatever they are have been hooking up with Twenty-First Street, maybe they're doing both from one address. This could be it."

  Tanner rapped on the table. "I don't suppose there's any chance we can get a warrant, is there?"

  "I wish," Blake said.

  I shook my head. "I don't."

  Tanner sneered. "Following the law too good for you?"

  I sighed. "You get a warrant and this becomes a big raid. Who all would be involved? SWAT? Vice? DEA? In any case a lot of people who don't know what they're up against. No, this has to be done quietly, with just us."

  "The six of us against a dozen vampires plus whatever thugs they've got working for them?" Reid shook his head.

  "Five," Tommy said.

  "What?" Reid looked confused.

  "I'm not a cop. I'm just a computer guy. I'm not going anywhere near there."

  Reid waved a hand in front of his face as though brushing aside the idea. "Five then."

  "If we do it in daytime, just the thugs," I said. "The vampires will be sleeping. If there are any there."

  Reid nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

  "Let's wait for..."

  Ware walked back into the room.

  "I swear, I am going to strangle every single member of the city council." Ware shoved his phone back into his pocket. "I mean it."

  "Oh?"

  "They're having another damn press conference tonight, timed to interrupt folks at their dinner. And they want me there for more questions and answers about the case."

  I flashed him a quick smile. "Well, maybe we'll have something for them by then."

  "Paydirt," I said as we neared the industrial park. That familiar buzz had started in the back of my head.

  Ware looked across at me.

  "There's at least one vampire out there. Looks like we got lucky."

  "What?" Reid asked from the back seat.

  "I can feel when a vampire is near. I can't tell distance or anything like that but if there's one in the area, then the most likely place is right where we're headed."

  Ware pulled into the parking lot at the backside of the empty industrial office building.

  "Car." Reid pointed at the parked vehicle near the end of the building.

  "Noted," Ware said. He held a radio to his mouth. "Janice, you and Blake ready?"

  "Ready and waiting," Tanner's tinny voice came from the tiny speaker.

  The plan was simple. Tanner and Blake would watch the front of the building and catch any of the vampires' servants who fled that way. Reid, Ware, and I would break into the back.

  According to the floor plans, about half the space was dedicated to a large warehouse space. From Mary's description,
it was where the girls had been held, raped, and fed on. A corridor ran down the rest of the space with offices breaking off to either side.

  Ware stopped and I opened the door. Ware and Reid each exited through their own doors.

  "You hear that?" Ware said.

  "Kind of quiet but generator is my guess." I let my gaze sweep from one end of the lot to another. "I don't see it, though."

  "Inside," Reid suggested, "to keep it hidden? Would explain the quiet."

  Ware closed his door. "You guys ready?"

  I nodded and looked over to Reid. His face was blank, unreadable. Game face, I guessed. He nodded.

  Ware opened the trunk and removed a dynamic entry tool, a short battering ram. He started for the personnel door, next to the large overhead door of the suite. I put a hand on his arm.

  Ware paused and looked at me. I placed a hand on one of the grips of the ram. "Allow me."

  Ware thought for a moment, then nodded. I took the ram from him and approached the door.

  Weight matters in using a tool like this, but strength and speed matters too and those I had in spades.

  At the door I looked at first Ware, then Reid, eliciting a final nod from each of them. They each had their guns out, Ware at low ready and Reid at high ready.

  I took a deep breath, swinging the ram back. I blew out the breath in an explosion as I whipped the ram forward, hitting just between the doorknob and deadbolt lock. The door burst open inward. I dropped back, letting Ware pass me while I dropped the ram behind me. I entered behind Ware before Reid had even moved, my own gun coming out and forward to the high ready position that came more naturally from the shoulder holster draw.

  Daylight spilling through the open door provided a dim illumination.

  The brush of displaced air told me that Reid had followed close on my heels. I dropped to a crouch and pivoted to the right.

  "Clear front," Ware called.

  I let my own eyes sweep the right side of the warehouse. Nobody visible.

  "Clear right," I snapped out.

  "Clear left," came Reid's voice, clear and professional.

  I stood, shifting from high ready to my preferred low ready. Inside the warehouse, the sound of the generator was much louder than it had been from outside. A moment's search showed me where the generator sat in the corner of the warehouse. A pipe ran up from the exhaust to the roof. Despite this attempt to vent the fumes outside, the warehouse stank of burned diesel.

  Several mattresses lay on the floor in the center of the room. My nose twitched at the smell of sex and stale blood that even the diesel odor could not mask.

  I crouched next to one of the mattresses. The bloodstains were still red. Not too old then. Probably from the very "party" Mary had described.

  "I think Mary was a very lucky woman," I said. "I don't think the vampires left the others alive. Dammit."

  I fought down the anger and frustration. Something had changed in me since I'd begun working with Ware. I had always been content to kill vampires. A killer, that's what I was. But Ware brought out something else, a protector. Maybe it was just by example since he wore his duty to protect the people of this city from its criminal element like armor.

  "No sign of the vampire," I said.

  A clang drew my attention before I could say anything else. My head turned, almost of its own accord in the direction of the sound, toward the door that led to the office part of the suite.

  "I've got point," I snapped out. "Reid left. Ware right. One. Two. Three. That order."

  "Got it," Ware said.

  "Check," Reid said.

  I dashed across to the door, then paused for a moment to let Ware and Reid catch up.

  Internal door. Piece of cake.

  I lunged forward, lifting my foot and stomping forward in a kick. My full weight and strength hit the door, which splintered as it slammed open the wrong way.

  I saw someone in the hallway. He was reaching for something at his waist. I took a brief moment to consider. Had I been alone I would have fired and been done with it. But I was with police and FBI.

  "Freeze!" I shouted.

  The person, who I recognized now as a young man, spread his hands away from his waist.

  I shifted my gun to a left-handed grip and lashed out with my right, catching the man on the point of the chin with a right hook. He went down.

  "Target," Reid snapped facing through an open doorway.

  Two shots sounded. A moment of worry rose in me only for me to stomp it down ruthlessly.

  "Clear left," Reid called. "And...holy shit"

  "Ware?" As much as I wanted to look back, I kept my eyes forward.

  "I'm good. Clear right."

  "Then let's move. Same order."

  "You've gotta see..." Reid started.

  "Is it a target?" I snapped.

  "Coffin."

  I swore. What was a coffin doing here? Vampires sleeping away the day in coffins was another myth. Booby trap to catch unwary hunters maybe?

  "Leave it. Any targets?"

  "One moment." Reid moved away from behind me.

  "Reid?"

  "Checking. One moment."

  "Whatever you do, do not touch the coffin."

  "Yes, mommy. Let me finish my sweep."

  "Clear left," Reid's voice came a few seconds later.

  "Then let's move."

  Another door crossed the hallway about halfway between where I stood and the front of the building. Before that door there were two more doors on the left, one on the right.

  "Ready?" I said.

  "One moment," Ware said. "Say again, Tanner?" Silence for a moment. "Got it. Cuff 'em and stuff 'em." Another short pause. "Tanner reports three gang members broke out the front. They've got 'em on ice."

  "All right, let's move.

  The first room to the left was empty, as was the one to the right.

  I kicked in the door to the second room to the left and blinked at the sight before me. Moving on automatic, I stepped through to clear the door for the others.

  "Shit," Ware whispered.

  "You're telling me," Reid said.

  Racks of weapons filled the room. Handguns. Rifles. I picked up one of the rifles. Three position safety. Shit, fully automatic, a machine gun. And these weren't homemade knockoffs. Either there was a major gun smuggling operation going on, bringing illegal machine guns into the country or they'd knocked off a military armory. A moment's thought gave me the answer. Push. The vampires could influence somebody to simply hand them the guns and fake paperwork. More push to get the fake paperwork accepted and. I looked a bit farther into the room. Were those...Javelins? They were. Army anti-tank missiles.

  What did the vampires want with this kind of armament, I wondered. And how far up the chain did their influence go to keep this kind of armory quiet?

  I shook my head. "Worry about this later. Finish the sweep."

  I backed out of the room. If the floor plan of this place was accurate, the end doorway of the hall opened into a large conference room, then the front office areas.

  "Same order," I said and received quick acknowledgements from Reid and Ware.

  I kicked open the door and froze.

  The weapons room had been a surprise. This was a horror. Bodies littered the floor. I spotted several that were probably the prostitutes but most of the bodies were young men.

  "Twenty-First Street, I presume?" I shook my head.

  "God...damn," Reid said.

  "Shit. Just...shit."

  The room stank of urine and feces from sphincters that had cut loose on death. The blood was no more than a day old and the bodies had not yet begun to decay, or not much.

  "All right," I said. "First we complete our sweep and make sure there are no more threats. Then we deal with this."

  "Got it," Ware said.

  Reid merely whispered profanities under his breath. I presumed his acquiescence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The front offices were empt
y. The only living people in the front part of the unit had been the three captured by Tanner and Blake.

  Once we reached the front door after clearing the rest of the building, Ware gestured for Tanner and Blake to bring their prisoners inside.

  Tanner dragged one of the men by the arm. Blake shepherded the other two inside. Once inside, Tanner and Blake pushed their prisoners back into office chairs.

  "You got a warrant, Cop?"

  I looked over the man who had spoken. Skin the color of coffee just kissed with milk. Hair cropped short. Black T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and jeans with holes worn through them. High-top sneakers. Big, bulging arms and chest. He obviously lifted, but his legs were underdeveloped by comparison. All upper body work, no lower.

  I walked over to him. He started to rise but Blake shoved him back down into the chair. I looked from one to another of the three men then leaned close as though to whisper a secret.

  "I'm not a cop," I said in a conversational voice. I stood up and smiled. "You know what you're working for." I waved back in the direction of the slaughter in the conference room. "I'm a vampire hunter. I kill vampires...and those who work for them."

  While close I tried a Push, more of a nudge. My effort slid aside. The vampires had already used Push on this guy and I could no more break through theirs than they could break through mine, not in a direct contest of Push vs. Push. But there were ways...

  "Dani..." Ware started. I held up a hand.

  "The way I see it—" I continued to smile down at the punk in the chair. "—vampires may look human but they're not. They're predators. We're prey. From a certain perspective, that's not even evil, not any more than a lion is evil for killing and eating gazelles. But you?" I shook my head. "Much as it pains me to admit the connection, you're human. And yet, here you are, working with the vampires."

  I looked the man straight in the eye.

  "Fuck you, bitch." He spat but I easily avoided the wad of spittle.