by Bianca D’Arc
“Indirectly,” Jeff allowed.
“Special Forces, then. Maybe black ops?” Sam fished for information, but he wasn’t going to get much more out of Jeff and Marlon. They had oaths to keep, and nobody in this room would hear more about them before they had a chance to speak with Maya. Sam chuckled. “It’s okay. I understand. But you might want to consider just how the Navy settled on calling their Spec Ops warriors SEALs.” He looked deliberately at his cousin then walked off, still chuckling.
“Do you think he meant…” Jeff asked the unfinished question that was now rattling around in Marlon’s head, too.
“I think we’re going to have a lot to think about over the next few days,” Marlon replied. “Though, it does make an odd sort of sense. Some of those early SEALs—the frogmen of those early Underwater Demolition Teams—were wizards underwater. It’s just possible they had some kind of supernatural advantage, isn’t it? Now that we know for sure that selkies, and the rest of these people, actually exist.”
“Definitely something to ponder,” Jeff agreed as they resumed their gentle stalk. Their progress was interrupted, once again. This time by Nick Balam and Mark Pepard.
“Thanks for helping,” Nick said, as they all shook hands. “We’re going to do a final check of the first floor. We don’t want to leave any evidence, if it can be helped.”
Marlon saw the sense in that. Much as he wanted to talk to Maya right this minute, duty had to come first.
“Do you need our help?” Marlon asked, trying not to let his dislike for the idea sound in his voice.
“No,” Mark answered right away. “Nick and I have it covered, but if you could just stay here and watch over the ladies for a few minutes, we’d be grateful.”
“Not that they can’t handle themselves,” Nick put in, “but more protection is always better than less, and you two have more than proven yourselves here tonight.” Nick clapped Marlon on the back, and he tried not to stagger. Nick was a big brute with a powerful slug.
“Happy to help,” Jeff answered for them both.
With that, Nick and Mark took themselves off to check over the rest of the ground floor. Marlon and Jeff had already cleared it, but maybe there was something these…shifters…could sense that regular folk couldn’t. In all likelihood, there was. For cripes sake, they were half-animal, so their noses had to be a lot better than plain old human noses.
Finally, there was nothing standing between them and Maya. Except the rest of the women, of course. They had taken over a couch along one wall of the large chamber. Kaitlyn was sitting with Shelly and Sullivan while Maya stood, almost in a guard position.
Right about then, Marlon noticed the man that had been chasing Maya around the pool, lying unconscious in a nearby chair. Marlon nudged Jeff, who saw immediately what he’d seen.
“What happened to him?” Jeff asked the group of women, pointing to the stranger, drooling on the chair arm.
“We didn’t have anything to tie him up, so I hit him on the head,” Sullivan admitted.
“For a beautiful movie star, she sure can handle herself,” Jeff observed silently.
“She’s married to Nick Balam. She can probably handle just about anything,” Marlon mused as he pulled some large zip ties from one of his many pockets. “These will do the trick,” he said, brandishing the plastic cuffs they often used for just this purpose when they were on missions in the field.
“Oh, good. Thanks,” Sullivan said, her tone relieved.
Marlon bent over the unconscious prisoner while Jeff guarded his back. Just in case the man wasn’t as unconscious as they thought. He felt a presence on his other side and looked up to see Maya had come over, as well. She was watching as he tightened the cuffs around the prisoner’s wrists and ankles. He also did a quick search, relieving the man of any weapons he could find.
Maya caught her breath when a silver dagger appeared in Marlon’s hand. She also took an involuntary step back. Marlon couldn’t really figure out why. The dagger didn’t look sharp. Hell, it looked like a museum piece. Some kind of antique or something.
“What is it?” he asked her gently.
“It’s silver,” she said, as if that should explain everything.
“I don’t follow,” Marlon admitted. “This isn’t really a weapon. It’s more like an heirloom or something you’d find in a display case. Why is he carrying it into battle? Some kind of good luck charm?”
“A very deadly charm against some of us,” Hiram put in, watching intently from across the room. He didn’t seem eager to get any closer to the silver dagger. Marlon took note of everyone’s behavior, unsure what he was dealing with but wanting to learn more.
It was Shelly that filled in some of the blanks from where she sat on the couch. “Silver is poison to many magical folk,” she said quietly. “It can drive vampires mad, or so I’ve been told.” She looked over at Hiram. The ancient nodded.
“It is poison to us,” he admitted. “More lethal than almost anything else. It is also poisonous to shifters, in large enough quantities. Ever heard the one about shooting a werewolf with a silver bullet?” Hiram’s tone was ironic but also tinged with tension. He definitely didn’t like that silver dagger being in the same room with him.
“No way,” Jeff said. “You mean silver bullets are a real thing?”
“Don’t ever try to shoot a shifter with conventional ammunition,” Maya advised. “It only annoys us. I mean, it hurts, but it doesn’t do much to stop us unless you get very lucky with a well-placed shot. However, if you use silver, well… That’s a different story. Not only are you shooting us, but you’re poisoning us at the same time. It really hurts, from what Johnny has told me, and it doesn’t heal unless every last bit of silver is removed. That’s why hollow points with pulverized silver in the tips are almost one hundred percent deadly unless you can treat the wound magically to remove every last speck of silver.”
Marlon didn’t really believe shifters could be shot with impunity unless the bullet contained silver. It just seemed…improbable. Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Hiram spoke again.
“I’ve been shot many times in my long years, with everything from lead musket balls to conventional hollow points,” Hiram admitted. “It doesn’t do anything other than inconvenience me a little,” he insisted. “Oh, if the bullet happens to hit something important and I lose a lot of blood, it can be dangerous—particularly to anyone around me at the time—but it’s not fatal unless I can’t get a chance to feed and replenish.”
Marlon didn’t want to examine too closely what the man meant by feed. After all, they all seemed in agreement that he was an actual vampire. And here, Marlon had thought the night couldn’t get any weirder.
“So, let me get this straight.” Jeff, bless him, was going to put his foot in it. Marlon could see it coming but was powerless to stop it. “You’re a vampire, right? And Maya and Kaitlyn and the other guys are shifters. So, silver is no good for any of you. What about you two?” Jeff pointed to Sullivan and Shelly. “You were doing something during the fight, too, but I’m not sure what it was.”
“Magic,” Sullivan answered with a big grin, as if she was teasing, but Marlon got the distinct impression she wasn’t teasing.
“Magic is real,” Marlon stated the obvious as he rose from his crouch by the prisoner. The man was secured and definitely unconscious. Marlon had taken a moment to check.
“Now you’re getting it,” Hiram said, as if Marlon was slow. Maybe he was. Tonight had been an eye opener in so many ways. It was a lot to take in.
“And you’re all good guys,” Jeff kept going when he should’ve quit while he was ahead.
Hiram took one step closer, his expression solemn. “I swear, on my honor, at this point in history, I am fully on the side of Light. We have a common enemy, whether you know it or not. After this, I suppose you two will be brought in on the secret we have all lived with for so very long.”
“Secret?” Jeff prodded
, but Hiram shook his head.
“It’s getting late for me. The sun will be up soon, and I need to seek my rest for the day,” he said, reminding them very starkly about his unique situation.
“Do you need some help?” Maya asked. “Your staff is still—”
“No problem,” Hiram cut her off. “Admiral Morrow is returning. He’ll sort out everything, but for now, I have to go. Stay here, Maya, and help Morrow and your…friends.” With an obvious nod to the only two non-magical humans in the room, the vampire fled.
“Was he running from the dagger?” Jeff asked his partner silently.
“Not sure,” Marlon replied. “Maybe the sun?”
“Yeah, could be that, too. Though, it’s not that close to dawn, yet. This is freaky. Vampires. Shapeshifters. Elementals and magic. It’s like we just stepped into a fairytale.”
“A fairytale with a whole lot of violence,” Marlon reminded his partner.
Maya was looking at them strangely, so Marlon pocketed the dagger and took up a guard position beside the prisoner. They really needed to have the talk Hiram had suggested, but there was no time, right now. Especially not when Morrow entered the room, wearing only those black boxer-briefs he’d had on before. He was completely dry, in no need of any of the remaining towels.
Shelly spoke before Morrow could. “Show him the dagger, Marlon,” she said, standing and coming closer. “Admiral, you need to see this.”
Marlon took the dagger out of his pocket and held it out on his palm, figuring none of these folks would want to handle it, if it really was poison to them. Morrow came over to look, and Shelly reached out, not touching the metal but letting her hand hover over it for a moment as she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, the dagger was glowing with red symbols.
“Silver doesn’t really bother me,” she said to Marlon, “but this thing is steeped in evil, and for that reason, I really don’t want to touch it. Are you okay holding it?”
Marlon shrugged. “I don’t feel anything,” he reported.
“Good. Your heart must be pure. Anyone with even the slightest evil in their hearts would be influenced by the ancient malevolence of this artifact,” Morrow told them. “I found similar blades on every one of the combatants. I think the sorceress was using them to funnel her magic both to and from her minions. I haven’t seen that technique before. It indicates a high level of preparation. I believe we just went up against an elite Venifucus strike force.”
“They’re not going to be happy with the outcome,” Shelly mused, a little smile of satisfaction lifting one side of her mouth.
“Definitely not,” Morrow agreed, also grinning. Then, he turned to Marlon and Jeff. “I think we can now fathom why the underworld characters who were originally slated to be here called off at the last minute. They were probably warned off by their allies that the strike team was headed her for Hiram.” Morrow speculated.
“Or you, sir,” Jeff noted. “They looked pretty interested in taking you out.”
Morrow tilted his head as if considering. “I was only protecting Kaitlyn. I assumed she was the initial target, but…” He trailed off, probably not wanting to insult the young woman by questioning her value to the enemy.
“I came downstairs because I couldn’t sleep,” Kaitlyn admitted. “Something was buzzing at the back of my mind all day and I thought a swim might clear my head. Then, one of them stepped out of the bushes by the pool and called me by name. He said to one of his teammates that they could use me to get to Sam.” Her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. “That’s when you jumped off your balcony and came to my rescue.” Her gaze went to Admiral Morrow.
“Jumped off his balcony?” Marlon sent to Jeff.
“We’ve seen weirder shit tonight. If Katy says it happened, I have no more doubts,” Jeff replied.
“So, were they after Sam? Or you, sir? Or Hiram?” Marlon asked the admiral, cutting to the point.
“Hard to say,” Morrow admitted.
“Perhaps all three,” Maya spoke up. “Maybe they came here to take out whoever they could get. There were a number of high value targets that are actively working against their goals. Hiram, the admiral, Sam, Mark and Nick are all well-known, and well-funded enemies of evil.”
“We clumped too many juicy targets together,” Morrow said, nodding slowly. “We thought we could get good intel on our enemies from this tournament, so a lot of power players showed up here. The jaguars and Kinkaid were here to check each other out. Hiram probably came for the same reason. I was here to gather intel, as were you two,” he nodded toward Jeff and Marlon. “Maybe our enemies thought it was a good opportunity to take some of us out of the game permanently.
“It makes sense,” Shelly said.
“I know Nick said something to Mark about his concerns for security, but they thought they had it covered,” Sully put in.
“Adding myself to the guest list probably made the opportunity to get so many of us in one place, too attractive to miss,” Morrow said, frowning.
“Maybe so, sir,” Marlon felt the need to point out, “but it also meant you were here to help defend. If fewer of the good guys had been present, that strike force might have prevailed. As it is, there were enough defenders to defeat them.”
Morrow nodded slowly. “Good point.” He shook his head and seemed to refocus his thoughts. “I’ve called in a Delta team. They’ll be here in about ten minutes. I want you to meet them and fill them in on the non-magical occurrences here tonight. They’ve got an engineering squad. I want you to get them working on the lights and the air handlers. Get their medics to check the gas that was piped in through the vents. The delivery system should probably still be up on the roof by the big a/c units. Then, I want you to make sure they take over any dedicated surveillance circuits. You know how best to use them to be certain we’ve done our job. Make sure they take custody of any surveillance recording media and route it to my desk at the Pentagon, for my eyes only.” Morrow was in full-on admiral mode now, issuing orders even as he headed for the door. “I’m going to get dressed. Have the team leader come up to my room as soon as he gets his men to work. I have a few other calls to make.”
“How did he even make the call to get Delta on their way?” Jeff wanted to know.
“After all the strange shit we’ve seen tonight, that’s the only thing that’s bothering you?” Marlon teased his partner. “For all we know, he had a cell phone stashed in the bushes.”
“And hang on to that dagger for now. I’ll have some specialists arriving shortly after Delta, to take possession of the bodies, the prisoner, and the artifacts. You can give it to them when they get here.” And with that final directive, the admiral vanished out the door.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Marlon and Jeff didn’t get a chance to have that discussion with Maya before the Delta team arrived. Luckily, the commanding officer was someone they knew, and they were able to implement the admiral’s commands with little difficulty. Within a few minutes, the lights had come back on all over the mansion, and the commandos had secured the surveillance system and found the knockout gas canisters that had been set on a timer, still on the roof where the admiral had suggested.
Marlon had gone with the Delta commander to the security center of the building, helping to identify cameras and their corresponding rooms. He’d double checked that the rooms belonging to all of the folks who had done battle tonight were not transmitting or recording in any way. Then, he took a quick stroll through the remaining feeds and highlighted the ones to watch for the Delta crew.
“I just sent the commander up to Morrow,” Marlon reported silently.
“We’re on our way to the penthouse to check on Hiram. Maya insisted, once the backup team arrived,” Jeff explained.
“Who’s on the backup team? Anybody we know?” Marlon asked.
“You’re going to be surprised,” Jeff told his partner. “They’re not regular military. Not anymore, at least.”
&
nbsp; “Who?” Marlon demanded.
“Remember Major Moore?” Jeff asked. “Spec Ops legend. Supposedly retired to some mountaintop in Wyoming a few years back?”
“No shit.”
“I just saw him, and he hasn’t changed a bit. Says he just happened to be in the neighborhood with a few of his men,” Jeff told Marlon. “Fully armed and kitted out for a small war, they were.”
“Something tells me that sly old admiral had them on standby the whole time,” Marlon mused.
“Wouldn’t surprise me a bit,” Jeff agreed. “Go give Moore the dagger. They already have the prisoner. Then, come on up to Hiram’s. If we end up elsewhere, I’ll let you know.”
Marlon agreed and went to finish those tasks while Jeff accompanied Maya up the stairs. Dawn hadn’t yet arrived, but it wasn’t far off now.
When they got to the door of the penthouse suite, Maya tapped out a code on the doorframe, as before. This time, Hiram himself opened the door and greeted them.
“I know you said you could handle things,” Maya said gently, “but Admiral Morrow wanted us to make sure you were okay up here. With all your staff down for who knows how long, we could stay and guard your sleep,” she offered.
Hiram seemed to be considering her offer. “Where’s your third?”
“Just dropping off that dagger with some old acquaintances, then he’ll be along,” Jeff assured the older—much, much, much older—man.
“Who did Morrow have standing ready for cleanup?” Hiram apparently knew a lot more about how the admiral operated than Jeff and Marlon did.
“Do you know of a Major Moore? Retired Spec Ops?”
Hiram chuckled. “There’s nothing retired about Moore and his men.” Hiram opened the door wider and gestured for them to enter. “This is good, actually. I can be certain those artifacts will be disposed of in the safest possible manner, and you three could be of service to me by watching over my staff as they come out from under the effects of the gas. You’ll see I’ve already moved them all back to their assigned rooms and tucked them in. They should start to wake in a couple of hours, I think. It would be best if you were here to explain things. I’d hate for any of them to panic. Not that it’s in their nature, but if I’m unavailable…” He let the sentence trail off then looked directly at Maya. “And they already know you. If I give you a written note, in my own hand, that should be enough to waylay any suspicions. Also, you could have one of Moore’s people debrief my security chief, Spencer, if that can be arranged. They are former comrades, and he’ll trust Moore and his men before anyone else.”
