Another ripple of whispers went through the crowd and Evan held up his hand for silence. “I want written reports submitted on everything that happened from the moment you were attacked. How many vampires were killed, descriptions, and most important, if any got away. I’m sending a very small crew of snipers out tomorrow. We’ll meet back here when they come in and hopefully, we’ll have a better gauge of what we are up against. In the meantime, I’m requesting that no one leave the facilities, day or night, and the same goes for your family members. I’ve already sent word to the daytime staff that we’ve had a bomb threat and they are to stay home until I send word that it is safe.”
Evan pulled his phone out of his pocket and read a message. His face seemed to relax and his eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “He’s stable,” Evan choked. “Andre’s been stabilized! He’s going to pull through this!” A thunder of applause, cheers and relieved sobs echoed through the room. Lucy wiped away her own tears and blinked several times. “Now, you’re all dismissed except the following people: Miles, Johnny, Lucy, and Hugh.”
Lucy was shocked to hear her name. The other three were the best snipers that Evan had and she assumed they would be discussing tomorrow night’s plan. Lucy wasn’t even allowed to touch a gun at that point, with very good reason. She remained seated until everyone had filed out and then stood up slowly, wincing as her muscles protested, and limped to join the huddle around Evan’s desk.
To Lucy’s surprise, Evan rounded the desk and caught her in a huge bear hug. “Lucy,” he whispered, tears flowing freely now that they were in a small, intimate group. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Evan released her and smiled. “He would have died if it weren’t for you.”
Lucy sniffed and blinked several times before smiling back at Evan. “I’m just glad it helped.”
Evan’s jaw dropped. “What the?”
“Oh, yeah,” Lucy blushed. She had momentarily forgotten about her asymmetrical fangs. The other three men turned to look at her with curiosity. She opened her mouth and smiled widely.
“Whoa, Luce!” Miles shouted. Hugh actually flinched.
“Oh Lucy,” Johnny affected a terrible Cuban accent, “you got some esplainin’ to do.”
“Like I haven’t heard that one a thousand times,” Lucy said sarcastically. “Dara said it’s fixable.”
Evan shook his head in amazement. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? Now, about tomorrow night. We’re going to focus our attentions close to home. Nothing street level. The three of you,” Evan indicated the three men, “will handle the shooting. Lucy, you and I are going to be their eyes. If Lance’s injuries aren’t too bad I’ll ask him to come along, so we can cover more ground.”
Lance hadn’t been in the meeting, Lucy noticed.
“Nothing serious,” Evan noticed the look of distress that everyone wore, probably thinking as Lucy had been, that Lance was in similar condition to Andre. “One of the heftier sumnabitches collapsed into him. We’re hoping knee surgery isn’t in order. Either way, we’ll meet back here tomorrow night at eleven and I’ll pass out assignments. You’re free to go. Don’t forget to email me your reports, but get some rest, all of you.”
Lucy turned to leave, but hesitated and looked back at Evan. “You’ll keep me up to date on Andre?”
Evan smiled warmly. “You’ll get every update I do, Lucy.”
Lona was waiting for them in the hallway when they reached residential. Johnny and Hugh exited for their own quarters as Lona approached. “Dara told me what you did, Lucy. Thank you.” Her eyes were red and puffy, and she wore the same worried expression Lucy had seen on Evan earlier.
“It was nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done.”
“I didn’t get the full story,” Miles said, “but I can make a wild guess. You donated blood, didn’t you?”
Lucy nodded. “He’s lucky, apparently, I can donate to him and Evan, but not the rest of you,” she said with an apologetic look. “If I knew I could pass on my abilities, I’d donate to the whole team. But normal blood type rules evidently still apply to vampire blood.”
“It’s okay, Lucy, but that was a damned good bit of luck. I’m not going to lie, at one point I thought he had died on me in the van.” Miles stifled a yawn. “I know I need sleep, but I can’t even think about it right now, so I might as well get that report done.”
“I’m coming with you,” Lucy said. “I need to write my report as well and I want to know what happened to you guys. Something about this isn’t clicking with me.”
“I’m coming too,” Lona added. “All night I’ve heard nothing but snippets of conversation and rumors and I want to know what’s going on.”
“Alright,” Miles conceded. “I’ll go grab coffee for all of us and meet you in our quarters. Everywhere else is going to be too crowded for conversation.”
Settled in Miles and Lona’s living suite with a mug of fresh coffee, Lucy recollected her evening to Miles, including everything Hugh told her about his attack.
“Interesting that you would both find an easy target headed in opposite directions right before you were ambushed.” Miles looked thoughtful for a moment. “More interesting is the fact that your story sounds exactly like what happened to Andre and me tonight.”
“You were separated too?”
“Yeah, but something didn’t seem right from the beginning. We were down in our usual territory by Louie two. I hate that damned boneyard. You would think that after decades of vampires disappearing in there, they might learn to stay away, but no, we net an average of three bastards a night. We spend the rest of the time chasing street gangs and Goth kids from the suburbs out of there so they don’t become midnight snacks.
“I was up on the wall out back and Andre was by the main entrance. He signaled that he had spotted one just as I sent him the same message. We followed, took care of business pretty easily, and bam, we were both cornered. Same layout, female leader, clearly an ES, and male lackeys. I had plenty of weapons and didn’t struggle too much, there were only five of them total. Andre had eight on him. He ran out of weapons and went toe to toe with the leader. She was dead when I got there, but Andre was down. She’d sliced him up pretty bad and stabbed him in the back. She missed the heart, but he lost a lot of blood and went into shock before we reached the van.”
Lona shuddered. Lucy looked like she was going to be sick. “Thirteen vampires, twelve men and one woman, who was clearly the leader. It was the same for the others wasn’t it?” Lucy frowned. “But none of them were split up.”
“Daughters of Darkness?” Lona whispered.
Lucy furrowed her brow. “Wasn’t that a movie about Countess Bathory?”
“Also an ES cult,” Miles explained, “and yes, they got their name from that movie as something of a veiled homage to the Countess, who was known for bathing in the blood of virgins. These women defined themselves as vampire witches and formed covens, one woman with twelve male acolytes, rumored to perform voodoo ceremonies that were more out of horror films than history.”
“I always thought that story was just an urban legend, but now I wonder if she was a vampire too,” Lucy mused.
“There’s no way of knowing for sure,” Miles shrugged, “but this group, we thought we had gotten rid of them a while back. They were a nasty bunch that preyed on young girls, virgins, presumably, for use in their rituals. I can only hope that we truly put an end to them tonight. They weren’t easy to hunt, seeing as they captured their victims in broad daylight from schools and playgrounds. Half the child abductions in the late nineties were their doing and a lot of girls were killed before we even got word of their existence. How they found out about us is anyone’s guess.”
“Why the witch routine?” Lucy asked. “I thought the genetically modified vampires were atheistic science types?”
“Mods have a very rigid and very patriarchal system of self-government. The women don’t seem to hold much power, so some of them started the Daughters in defiance
of vampire law,” Miles explained.
“Think of it as the opposite of the daughter of conservative Christians who goes out and gets a satanic tattoo and dates the lead singer in a punk band,” Lona added. “Witches, mysticism, and paganism were pretty popular in the nineties, and this was a pretty young group at the time. They did it to set themselves apart, in their own sadistic way.”
“There’s just one thing that’s bothering me and I’m not sure I want to find out if I’m right.” Lucy looked at Miles and Lona with serious worry. “Vampires, religious or not, for centuries have been committing atrocities against humans for the sole purpose of gaining power and longevity. All of us were lured into attack by what would appear to be suicidal vampires. Is it possible-” Lucy broke off and swallowed back the bile that was threatening to issue forth. “Is it possible that they weren’t vampires?”
“It is,” Miles said slowly, “which is why I’ve asked for the autopsy reports on all of the bodies collected tonight. But I don’t think they were. The Daughters are also known for drug use, lots of it. I’m convinced that the bait was vampire, but that all were on some sort of psychotropic drug that made them susceptible to the influence of the coven leaders. The guy I followed was pretty slow to react.”
“Not mine, in fact, he tried to run off, but ended up cornering himself. Maybe his drugs were wearing off. But Miles, isn’t that kind of the same thing? I mean, sure, they’re vampires, probably locals that this group is using, but I’m not comfortable with the idea that I killed someone who had no idea what he was doing.” Lucy raked her hand nervously through her hair. She knew that their work was for the greater good, but she still had to remind herself of this fact nightly, and every doubt, no matter how slight, would send her back to square one. Instead, she tried to focus on the information Miles gave her. “Did anyone report that the ES chick tried to bite them?”
“I don’t know.” Miles frowned. “But now that you mention it, the one that attacked us had a knife and her claws. She never tried to bite Andre.”
“Same here. They haven’t just infiltrated our communications, they know about us, about our blood. I think Evan suspected as much, that’s why I don’t have a file.”
Miles looked stunned, but impressed. “Lucy, you’re a damned genius. I’m passing that on to Evan right now. This leak, whoever they are, might have been on the inside a lot longer than we suspected.”
“Glad I can be of assistance, sorry if I’m not exactly comforted by this fact.” Lucy slumped in her chair and drank the last of her coffee, which was now cold. “I guess I’m too worn out for this to have any effect on me.” She gestured to her empty cup. “I’m going to bed. I’ll write my report when I get up, rather, after I have normal teeth.”
Chapter 17
“How’re you feeling, Lucy?”
“Faaan-tastic!” Lucy giggled.
Abe shook his head. “Well, it looks like the nitrous oxide is working just fine. We’ll have the crown off in just a second.”
An x-ray had revealed that Lucy’s canine teeth were actually crowns and her left canine was stuck behind the one that remained intact. Lucy had a vague recollection of her mother taking her to the dentist as a child because her adult teeth hadn’t grown in after her baby teeth fell out.
“There we go!” Abe was holding the crown in the jaws of a pair of surgical pliers. Lucy blinked. She hadn’t realized he had even started. “And there’s the other fang. Let’s get you sobered up.” Abe turned off the flow of gas and handed Lucy a mirror. Sure enough, she had a matched set of fangs. She ran her tongue over the points.
“Rawr!” She giggled again then stopped with a comical look. “I’m still a little high, aren’t I?”
Abe laughed. “A bit, it will wear off in a minute. Now, let’s see if we can get them to retract. Take a deep breath, in through the mouth, out through the nose.”
Lucy did this a few times and looked in the mirror. “Um, fangs, I still have them.”
“I know,” Abe affirmed, “but I’ll bet your head is a little clearer. Push your tongue against your gums, between the fangs, close your mouth and suck in lightly.”
Sure enough, the effects of the nitrous had dissipated. Lucy did as she was told and felt a strange tingle. She looked in the mirror. Her canines were slightly sharper than before, but back to their normal size. “Thank god!” she exclaimed. “Will they come out again?”
“You can trigger them the same way. But now we’re going to do a test to see if you react to the smell of blood.”
Lucy made a face. “Is that normal?”
“It sure is.” Dara had slipped into the room while Lucy was studying her fangs. “Even regular vampires, like myself, have fangs, but most don’t generally get into situations where they’re triggered.”
Abe opened a refrigerated cabinet and retrieved a small box and pulled a vial from it. “I know this is going to sound strange, but this is blood and I want you to smell it.”
“What is strange anymore?” Lucy shrugged and leaned towards the vial, inhaling deeply. “Your blood?” She asked. Abe looked surprised.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. But how did you know that?”
“I’m not sure.” Lucy frowned, disconcerted by this new and very odd talent. “But look, no fangs. That should make you happy!”
“Indeed,” Abe chuckled. “How about this one?”
Lucy sniffed. “Evan?”
Abe was amazed. “Unbelievable. How about this one?”
Lucy sniffed and frowned. “You tricked me! I was going to say Dara, it seemed logical, but you figured that out, didn’t you? I don’t know this one, but I’m getting an impression that it’s a mod.”
“I cannot believe this!” Abe exclaimed with fascination. “Yes, and you are right, I didn’t want you to guess based on assumption and yes, that’s a sample of a mod’s blood. Dara, am I missing something here?”
Dara shook her head. “I’m just as amazed as you are. I can distinguish certain peoples blood, but only if I’ve scented them before.”
Abe continued to produce vials, all of which Lucy correctly identified as Lona, Ida, Miles, Mike, and Dara. Finally, he pulled the last vial out. Lucy sniffed and felt an odd tingling behind her teeth.
“That’s…not good.” She looked up at Abe in alarm. Her fangs had descended fully. “Andre? It’s no secret he pisses me off all the time, but I don’t want to kill him! Or do I?”
Abe shook his head dismissively. “It’s not what you think, Lucy. I know Andre gets under your skin, but I don’t think you’re going to feel compelled to drink his blood.”
Dara smiled warmly. “Quite the contrary, I had the same reaction to Evan’s blood. It’s an emotional response.”
“What? I don’t…that’s…no!” Lucy stammered, a heated flush rising on her cheeks.
Dara chuckled. “I’m not trying to insinuate anything, Lucy, you can relax. Allow me to go into professional mode for a moment. Since you met, Andre’s evoked a strong emotional response from you. Frustration, certainly, and yes, probably anger at times. But I’d make a guess that, like all of us, you were pretty shaken up last night. Couple the stress of Evan partnering the two of you with Andre’s attack and I’m guessing you might be feeling something, perhaps guilt or relief, I don’t know, but it’s probably a pretty strong emotion.”
Lucy grimaced. “Way to make me feel good, Doc.” She sighed heavily. “Miles told me what happened. Andre ended up in the same situation I was in last night, we both ran out of weapons. I think I’m more stunned than anything else that I’m still alive and he, well, almost didn’t make it.”
“What you’re feeling is completely normal,” Dara assured her. “In the course of your work together he may become injured, which might cause your fangs to descend, but you have nothing to fear, you won’t feel compelled to attack him or anything like that.”
“I promised myself that if he survived, I would try to be nicer, so knowing I’m not going to go all vampire helps. Notice
I only said try.” She smiled slightly. “How is he, anyway?”
“Thanks to you, he’s actually as good as new and very mad at me right now,” Abe replied.
“Mad?” Lucy frowned. “At you? Why?”
“I’m not releasing him until tomorrow, and even then he’s confined to his room for twenty-four hours.”
“But you said he’s fine?” Lucy was confused.
“He is, but no one is supposed to know that,” Abe explained. “Think about it, Lucy. Only a select few people know about your abilities, but everyone knows, or will know soon, that you donated blood to save him. Everyone heard the Code One. He’s lucky Evan cleared the entrance before he was brought in because if anyone had seen his injuries, I would have kept him in hiding for a month at least. As it is, I’m wracking my brain to come up with a plausible miracle that doesn’t involve exposing the one secret we still have.”
Lucy hadn’t thought of that. “Well, still he shouldn’t be mad at you, you saved his life.”
“With your help,” Abe reminded her.
“Yep,” Lucy laughed wickedly, “and I can’t wait to remind him of that next time he has something to yell at me about.”
“Lucy, check the guy at the south again, someone’s headed his way.”
Lucy adjusted the focus on the binoculars she was wearing and scanned the street below. She was on the eleventh floor deck that ran the length of EJC’s main building. This level was normally used as a patio for breaks and lunches by the normal staff, but at that moment, it provided a closer view of the streets surrounding them. Lucy, along with Evan, Miles, Hugh, and Johnny, were dressed in black and hidden by the spotlights that were pointed downward, one floor below them.
“Just a drug deal, a human drug deal, looks like pot. Want to call the cops?”
“Don’t bother,” Evan replied. “I’d rather not put them in any unnecessary danger tonight.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 18
