“You take the others to the cave as fast as you can,” she told Emma. “I’m sending the Darketans and Sergius with you, but I’m staying behind to hold off anyone who comes after you.”
“You can’t do it alone,” Emma protested.
“I’ll do what I have to.” She waited for the Darketan woman and Damon to join them. “I don’t care what’s between you and Damon. Take care of him. He’s going to need your strength.”
“It is not what you seem to think, Alexia,” the Darketan woman said. “But I promise I’ll take good care of him. For you. Good luck.”
As she and the others set off at a jogging run, Sergius limping ahead of Emma’s rifle, Alexia quickly replaced the magazine in her rifle and arranged both her and Damon’s weapons within easy reach. She was straining to listen for nearby movement when something vibrated on her hip.
The communicator. She reached for it, her gaze still sweeping the surrounding landscape. The touch screen had come on, flashing red. Alexia pushed the recessed button on the side.
There were new words on the screen, but they were not from Aegis. As she read, she began to understand the full scope of what was happening, and how one man’s hatred might destroy them all.
Oh, Michael, she thought.
“Put the weapon down.”
Alexia emerged from her trance and looked up at the soldier in Aegis camouflage gear crouched a dozen meters away. Slowly she put the rifle down and locked her hands behind her head.
The soldier ran to her, keeping low to the ground, and patted her down. He removed the communicator, glanced at the blank screen and attached it to his belt.
“My name is Fox,” Alexia said. “Agent Alexia Fox. I need to speak to your commander immediately.”
The soldier looked at her through his tinted visor. “I think that can be arranged,” he replied.
Chapter 20
Damon opened his eyes. A face filled his cloudy vision, familiar even before he smelled her and heard her voice again.
“Damon,” Eirene murmured, resting her hand on his cheek.
He closed his eyes again. This couldn’t be real. Eirene was dead.
“I know it’s a shock to you, Damon,” she said softly. “They must have told you I was dead. I wish I could have gotten word to you, but until this happened I thought my remaining in San Francisco was more important than anything else, even though I knew you would suffer. I’m so sorry.”
Half of what she said made no sense to Damon, and the pain coursing through his body made it difficult to concentrate. “You were...in San Francisco?” he asked hoarsely.
“The Council sent me there. Not to die, Damon, but as part of an agreement with the Enclave government. It was supposed to be a gesture of goodwill. Allow Aegis to study a Darketan for a time, within strict limitations.” She stroked Damon’s damp forehead. “But the Council had another motive. I was supposed to spy on Aegis at the same time, collect information and escape. But I chose to stay. I’ve learned so much, Damon. About the dhampires, and—”
The moment she spoke the word dhampires, Damon was pushing himself up from the hard ground, the by-now familiar shadow-strength surging in nerve and muscle and bone. The bandages someone had wrapped around various parts of his body began to come loose.
“You must rest,” Eirene said, pushing him down again. “I promised to take care of you, and I won’t let you leave. You’ll have to walk through me to do it.”
Damon fell back. “Alexia,” he whispered.
“When I left her, she was fine.”
“Does she...know who you are?”
“Not my name. Did you speak of me to her?”
“Yes, but—”
“It was her choice to stay behind, Damon. To make sure all the humans would be safe. And because she loves you.”
“Let me go, Eirene.”
“I can’t.”
“The Expansionists... Sergius—”
“Disabled, and not likely to cause trouble for a while. Sergius is here in the caves, and so are the humans. I made sure no one would find us.”
Damon struggled to find the right words. “Aegis. The strike force...”
“They are in the area. I discovered what they planned just before they left the Enclave, and escaped in the hope that I could warn you and Alexia in time.”
“Warn...us?”
“I made myself so much a part of Aegis over the years that they became less careful about what they let me hear and observe. I knew about the colony, and that Alexia and Agent Carter were sent to observe it. But I also knew you had been told to meet them, and that both of you would be in the area when the strike force arrived.” She took his hand. “I know what they were sent to do, how Agent Carter lied to them so he could get them to help start a new war.”
Agent Carter. Michael.
“What lies?” Damon asked, fighting against the drowning weight of exhaustion threatening to plunge him back into darkness.
“He sent a message to Aegis claiming that the colony was being used as a laboratory to experiment on humans, alter their minds to make them completely obedient to Opiri. I knew that many in Aegis didn’t believe that could go on without their knowing about it, but there are certain parties in the Enclave government who want war as much as the Expansionists. They pressured the government to send the strike force to attack the colony and free the humans.”
Suddenly, out of the tangle of bizarre events over the past few days, the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. “The colony...” he said. “Theron wants peace. Equality for humans.”
“Then it’s worse than I thought,” Eirene murmured. “And they’re planning...” She broke off. “There’s nothing we can do now, Damon. You’re too weak. You could die if you try to move too soon.” She squeezed his hand tight. “Alexia is a brave woman. But she always was, even when I gave her my blood.”
“You...gave—”
“I have so much to tell you, but not until you and Alexia are together again. You are both unwittingly involved in an experiment approved by factions in San Francisco and Erebus. The truth has to come out, and I’m going to help make sure it does.”
Now nothing she said made sense. But one thing did, and it was all that mattered now. Alexia was in danger, and he had to save her.
Levering himself up on his elbows, Damon pushed Eirene aside. She tried to hold him back, but the shadow-thing inside him was taking over again—not mindless, not savage, but driven by a purpose that would not be denied. His wounds were far from completely healed, but he hardly felt the pain, and they couldn’t keep him from his objective, even though part of him knew that Eirene had reason to fear for his condition. He clambered to his feet, strode past the humans whose ghostly faces looked after him in astonishment, and found his way to the entrance of the caves.
“Damon!” Eirene called after him.
He forgot she had spoken the moment he stepped out into the night.
* * *
“It’s a lie,” Alexia said, crouching opposite the strike force commander under the cover of a dense stand of madrones. “The colony isn’t conducting any experiments. They want peace, and freedom for humans.”
The commander, his gray eyes unyielding, showed no sign of softening. “Where is Agent Carter?” he asked.
“I’ve already told you. He’s dead, killed by an Orlok. You have his communicator. He left me a message, and—”
“We can find no message,” the commander interrupted. “The communication Aegis received from Agent Carter claimed that your drugs had been taken by the Opiri, and you admit your patch has been removed.”
“Michael also told you I was left for dead by the same Opiri, Commander, and as you can see I’m very much alive.”
“Who were you waiting for when we found you, Agent Fox? Who are you protecting?”
“As I also told you, I’d already encountered hostile Nightsiders, presumably Expansionists operatives. I expected them to attack again, and—”
“Who took the patch, Agent Fox?”
“Michael did,” Alexia said, holding on to her anger by her trembling fingertips. “He admitted it in the message he left me, and sooner or later you’re going to figure out how to access it. Michael had his own reasons for wanting you here to destroy what Theron worked for and to provoke the Council into stopping you.”
“Because he wanted to take some personal revenge by fomenting open war between Erebus and the Enclave? You expect me to believe this of a seasoned, loyal operative, Agent Fox?”
“I couldn’t believe it myself, but—”
“You have no proof for your claims, Agent Fox. Since you’ve confessed to having disobeyed your own orders and contacted the colony, your loyalty to the Enclave is in question.”
“Do you think I went over to Erebus?” she asked, letting her scorn color her voice. “A vampire raped my mother. I have no love for them, and never will.”
“Then tell me where to find the Daysider who was sent to work with you.”
“I told you, he didn’t know anything more about the colony than I did.” Alexia chose her next words carefully, knowing she was withholding the truth of Damon’s original mission. “The Council was still investigating the settlement when he was given his assignment.”
“Your partner claimed that this Damon deliberately diverted you from your assignment, tried to kill him several times, stole your patch and left you—”
“—to die. I know. But we’re back to the fact that I’m alive, and telling you Damon didn’t do any of those things. If your mission was to ‘rescue’ the humans in the colony, you’re wasting time with this line of questioning.” She gave him a pointed look. “Do you think your presence here is going to go unnoticed much longer? Odds are that Erebus is already sending troops to meet you.”
“Because the colony has contacted the Citadel?”
“That’s not what I said. The colony has broken off from Erebus. Theron has founded a new philosophy that allows humans and Nightsiders to live as equals. If you go in there, guns blazing, you’ll destroy it, and probably end the Armistice, as well.”
The commander searched her eyes, his own flat and cold. “I was instructed to carry out a mission,” he said. “I am not here to negotiate. If experimentation on human beings is occurring in the target location, Erebus will have already broken the Armistice. We will do whatever is necessary to free the convicts and remove them from the area.”
“And if you’re wrong? Do you think the Council will just accept an apology for your ‘mistake’?”
“That is a matter for Aegis and the Mayor’s Office,” the commander said. “We have our orders, Agent Fox.”
Orders. Orders of the kind Alexia would once have followed without question.
“Let me go to Theron,” she pleaded. “Let me talk to him. I know he wants to talk to you, but the others won’t let him out if there’s a chance he’ll be slaughtered the second he steps outside the walls. Give me your word you’ll hold fire until I’ve brought him to you.”
“How do I know you won’t join him, Agent Fox?”
The man was clearly immune to reason, and Alexia knew she had no more time to argue with him. She hadn’t wanted to tell him that the humans were already outside the settlement, since there was a chance he might decide to attack the colony and kill everyone left inside the walls. Now she knew she had no choice.
“Listen to me,” she said. “The humans are no longer in the colony. They were evacuated hours ago. I can take you to them.”
“And lead us into an ambush?”
“I am on your side, Commander!”
For a few tense moments the commander was silent, and then he gave a hand signal to someone concealed in the brush. A soldier, his rifle trained on Alexia, emerged from cover.
“You will take Operator Willis to the human evacuees,” he said. “He has orders to shoot if he suspects deceit, or if you try to escape. Is that understood, Agent Fox?”
“It’s understood, as long as you give your word you won’t move on the colony before you receive confirmation that the humans are safe.”
“I am not authorized to give you my word, Agent Fox. I will act as I deem necessary. If you are still one of us, your only concern will be for the safety of our people.”
Alexia hadn’t expected him to say anything else, and she had never intended to take Operator Willis to the caves where they would find Damon and Eirene. The only thing she could do now was get Theron out of Eleutheria before the situation exploded.
“All right,” she said. She got to her feet under Operator Willis’s watchful eye, nodded to the commander, and then started off in the general direction of the caves. Willis, like most of the Special Forces, was human; if the strike force had dhampires with them, they would be acting as scouts on the lookout for Nightsider operatives or troops.
But that didn’t mean Willis would go down easy. He wore the standard infrared visor, and he’d be watching for the smallest false move on her part. She didn’t want to hurt him any more than was strictly necessary. It was going to take split-second timing.
“This way,” she said, gesturing for the man to follow her. He did, keeping his distance, and she could feel the eye of his rifle fixed relentlessly on the center of her back.
The instant before she turned to attack, she smelled the Opiri.
“They’re here!” she hissed. “Nightsiders! Get down!”
The soldier didn’t move, but he wasn’t stupid. Even without looking at him she knew he was listening, aware that she might be telling the truth.
The rattle of rapid gunfire came from the direction of the colony. Alexia spun and lunged for Willis’s rifle. He got off half a round before she shoved the weapon aside, but it was enough to tear off a good chunk of flesh from her upper right arm.
That wasn’t about to stop her. But Willis was good at his job. As she grappled with him, he pulled his combat knife and was about to plunge it into her side when some force of nature ripped Alexia away and held her suspended about a meter above the ground.
Damon, bare-chested and trailing bloodstained bandages like party streamers.
Alexia didn’t ask him why he was there, why he’d left the sanctuary of the caves and ignored the fact that he wasn’t in any shape to be rescuing anyone. She didn’t have the chance. He set her down on her feet and went straight for the soldier.
The man would be dead inside of five seconds if she didn’t do something.
Without another moment’s hesitation she leaped onto Damon’s back and wrapped her arms around his neck. His muscles, swollen with rage, tensed to fling her off.
“Damon!” she shouted in his ear. “He’s not the enemy!”
He froze, his hand around the soldier’s neck, teeth bared to bite and tear.
“We have to get Theron,” she said, pressing her face into his shoulder. “If there’s any chance of stopping what’s about to happen, we’re going to need him.”
He released his breath, his body loosening just enough for Alexia to know she’d reached him. He dropped the soldier and took a step back.
“Operator Willis,” Alexia said, keeping her tight hold on Damon, “you’d better get back to your commander and tell him Nightsiders are coming. I don’t know if they’re Council or Expansionists, but at this point it doesn’t really matter. If he has the sense to realize what a new war is going to do to all of us, he’d better sit tight and hold fire.” She grabbed the rifle she had taken from the soldier’s hand. “Move!”
A single glance at Damon’s savage expression convinced the soldier to do as she ordered. Running low to the ground, he melted into the brush.
Alexia moved in front of Damon and met his eyes, which were still nearly black with the darkness seething inside him.
“Are the others all right?” she asked.
He nodded and touched her face. “Alexia,” he rasped.
“I’m fine.” She looked him up and down, fighting an almost physical sickness at the sigh
t of his partially healed wounds. Someone had treated his injuries, but he hadn’t been thinking clearly enough to care that he looked like a madman.
More than a madman, she thought. Given what was going on, she doubted he’d be back to “normal” anytime soon. It wouldn’t do any good to send him back to the caves—she’d been foolish to think anyone could keep him there—and she was the only one who could hope to control his shadow-side.
“We’ve got to get through to Theron, Damon,” she said. “Maybe it won’t do any good, but he’s the symbol of everything decent in Eleutheria, and maybe we can get somebody to listen.”
“Yes,” Damon said.
“Let’s go.”
Together they ran southwest toward the colony, Damon moving much more slowly than usual but never faltering. There was another burst of gunfire somewhere ahead, but they didn’t slow down until they were just behind the last tree at the foot of the lowest hill descending into the valley.
They were too late. A dozen Nightsider Council troops, wearing black uniforms and armed to the teeth, had formed a barrier around the settlement’s front wall, facing outward across the valley. Even as Alexia watched, someone fired on them from the cover of a broad-trunked valley oak about three hundred meters to the southwest. The Nightsiders returned fire, and then silence fell again, as peaceful as the aftermath of a level-seven earthquake.
Whatever motive the Nightsiders had for defending the colony—whether it was because they actively meant to protect it or simply wanted to keep the Aegis soldiers away—the upshot was the same. The strike force wasn’t going to leave until they’d “rescued” the supposed human guinea pigs, and the Erebus troops would never let them get anywhere near the walls. Since the Council obviously knew something unusual was going on, it was only a matter of time before they sent a larger force to deal with the human incursion.
“We’ll have to try to get in from the back,” Alexia said in an undertone. “I’m sure they’ve got it guarded, too, but it’s the only chance we have.” She grabbed Damon’s hand. “Whatever happens, remember that you are still Damon. Use your shadow to protect, not to kill.”
Daysider (Nightsiders) Page 25
