The keening had started again, snapping me out of my contemplative trance. A bloody tear slipped from the corner of one of Beth’s eyes, which I gently dabbed away with a tissue from my pocket. As I twisted in my chair to throw it in the wastepaper basket in the corner, I noticed Lexi leaning against the doorframe, watching me. Her appearance startled me, making my throw go wide. She smirked as she bent down to pick it up and drop it in the bin,
“Good shot, captain” she said quietly, moving into the room to sit down in the chair next to me, “no change, I guess?”
“No,” I sighed, “do you have any idea how long she could stay like this?”
“No. I’ve never heard of a vampire hanging on like this after the bond with their mate has been severed, maybe it’s because she’s a guard.”
She spoke in a breathy whisper, barely moving her lips.
“I’m sorry for getting so angry at you, Michael.” She turned to look at me then, green eyes intense as ever, “you didn’t deserve it.”
“Yes I did, I was making unfair judgements because I was feeling bad in myself,” I grimaced, “not a particularly charming personality trait huh?” I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes then looked back down at my hands where they were folded in my lap.
She smiled then, “I think everyone is allowed a few personality flaws… actually I think you have a lot less than most. And perfection would be boring anyway, so I wouldn’t worry.”
I chuckled and looked at her properly,
“Thanks”
“No worries,” she smiled at me again, no more than just a gentle curve of her lips, “go get some rest, anyway. You look knackered.” She waved me away and I stood, stretching as she settled back into her chair.
I paused in the doorway, hesitating for some reason that hadn’t quite made itself known to me. I turned slightly to look back at Lexi, who was watching me curiously,
“Um… let me know if anything changes,” I said, the comment feeling irritatingly unfulfilled,
“Of course” she replied.
Beth had been in this odd, comatose state for nearly three weeks with nothing changing except that she seemed to waste away a little more each day; her paper-white skin shrinking onto her bones, making her look gaunt and dead. A moaning corpse. I chuckled mirthlessly to myself as I realised that actually, she looked exactly like I’d always imagined a vampire was supposed to look. I wandered slowly back to my flat, taking a meandering, circuitous route through the compound. This was all residential once, these houses occupied by ordinary families, who had no idea of what was on the horizon. I had been thinking before that we were finally getting somewhere with the war, finally getting close to a breakthrough. But after the fiasco with Archer’s ‘game’, then the thralls, immediately followed by Ysabel’s death and Beth’s incapacity, it had all gone drastically downhill at a speed that had left my head whirling.
I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice the footsteps following me until they were only few feet away, stuttering from a trot to a walk. I swung round, one hand going automatically to my pistol and came face to face with Lexi, who put her hands in the air melodramatically,
“Don’t shoot!”
I relaxed my hand, but immediately my stomach churned, wondering why she had followed me.
“Has something happened? Why have you left Beth?”
She shuffled her feet a little, kicking at the ground with the toe of one of her beat up trainers,
“Uh, well you know what, she’s not going anywhere… and, well, things like this make you think don’t they? About life and death and time and stuff… I’ve sat with Beth for so long these last few weeks, chatting to her and just wondering what she would have said to Ysabel if she’d known what was going to happen, or what she’d say to me about… um…” she faltered, seeming to suddenly become aware that she was babbling, as usual.
“God I talk too much” she muttered, mostly to herself, then took two steps forward towards me, reaching up on tiptoe to press her lips hard against mine, slipping her hands into my hair. I didn’t react for a second, stunned, but then my arms came up of their own accord and I kissed her back, pulling her in tight to me as she looped her arms around my neck. We broke apart, lips staying mere millimetres from each other and she dropped back to the flat of her feet, pulling my head down into another brief kiss.
“I’ve wanted to do that since I first met you” she murmured against my mouth, before extricating herself from my grasp and backing away, biting her lower lip in an uncharacteristically shy smile.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, captain… sleep well”
She turned and jogged back in the direction that she had come from, a faint giggle audible over the sound of her feet. I stood in place for a moment, still a little stunned, but then a slow grin crossed my face and I turned back to continue homeward, in a better mood than I had been in weeks.
The next couple of days were… odd. The routine stayed the same; gym, inspection, drills, patrols, paperwork, sitting with Beth… but Lexi and I had lost the easy chatter that we’d had, in favour of slightly stilted conversations about inconsequential things, and a lot of nervous smiles. Mostly on my part. Talking to women, once my ridiculous male brain had acknowledged an attraction, was not my forte. Glen noticed, of course, and found the whole thing bloody hilarious, particularly when I told him that she had already kissed me.
“Just act normally, man! She clearly thought there was something about you worth kissing… I mean, god knows what, but…”
I flashed him a glare and he grinned merrily,
“Nah, you know, it’s cool. Keep acting like a 13 year old who just saw his first boob and maybe she’ll come to her senses and realise she should have picked me all along.”
“Bloody hell, Glen! Not helping.”
“Oh lord, come on.” He huffed, losing patience with me, “you’re 35. You’ve had plenty of girlfriends. Man up a bit!”
“Yes, and with every girlfriend I turned into an awkward, ridiculous mess, remember?”
“Only at first. Then your brain realised that they were only people and you were back to your usual suave self. I don’t know why you insist on putting them on a pedestal.” He shook his head, “treat it like an operation if you have to. Identify the target, formulate a plan of attack, and execute it.”
“Or I could just get really drunk.”
He looked at me incredulously for a second, before bursting out laughing,
“oh, man! Remember when we went to that club in Newcastle, and you were wasted…” he trailed off, collapsing into helpless giggles. I grinned, knowing exactly what he was talking about,
“I don’t think dancing topless on a podium would work on Lexi…”
Glen chuckled some more, a couple of tears slipping out of his eyes as he tried to control his mirth,
“Nah, but the geordies lapped it up! You nearly got eaten alive, it was amazing!”
I sobered a little,
“Those days were easy. No fucking vampires.”
“True dat.” He grimaced, “but all those fucking vampires… they should give you even more incentive to stop twatting about. If you like the girl, go and get her, because life is shorter than ever, my friend.”
I was watching reruns of stand-up comedians that evening when there was a sharp rap on the door, I sighed slightly and paused the TV, dragging myself up to answer it. Lexi stood there, a DVD in one hand and a cardboard bottle holder with six bottles of wine in it in the other. She held it up,
“I didn’t know what sort of wine you like, so I bought a selection.”
“But only one DVD?”
She held it up to me – Dracula. I burst out laughing and stepped aside, waving her through the door. She carried on talking as she made a beeline for the kitchen,
“Isn’t it the man who’s supposed to turn up, all romantic like?”
“Six bottles of wine from the commissary and an old vampire film is romantic?”
�
�Well,” she shrugged, “it’s a damn sight more romantic than what you did.”
I frowned, “I didn’t do anything…”
“Exactly,” she winked at me, “so, merlot, rioja, rose, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc or asti?”
“Um… rioja, please.”
She made an appreciative noise in her throat,
“Goood choice,” she grinned, “bottle opener?”
I pointed the drawer just in front of her, and she had the wine open and poured into two tumblers in no time. She muttered about my lack of wine glasses,
“If I’d known you didn’t have wine glasses, I’d have brought those too.”
“You don’t strike me as the type to be bothered about the type of glass you drink from. The first time we met, you swigged whiskey straight from the bottle, remember?”
“Well yeaa, but I’m trying to make an effort this evening. Tsk. I even dressed up.”
I raised my eyebrows sharply, and scanned her again quickly, wondering what I had missed… she was wearing jeans and a hoodie, as usual… she noticed my hesitation and smirked wickedly.
“Gotcha. Ha! You looked so scared for a second there.”
I huffed and grabbed the tumbler of wine she offered me,
“you can go off people, you know.”
“Mmhm, whatever.” She sauntered past me with a smile and flopped down on the sofa, taking a long sip of wine, “come on then. Let’s get this cinematic adventure moving!”
We laughed our way through the film, mocking every part of it and discussing what really should have happened. I watched Lexi surreptitiously as we started on the merlot, supremely glad that she had thought to bring alcohol and a film, which didn’t leave my awkwardness much room to take hold. I frowned a little as she laughed though, struck for a moment by how light hearted I felt in her presence, despite everything going on. She was definitely pretty, and her sparking, dark brown eyes were captivating to look into, but her zest for life was infectious and that was what made her incredibly attractive to me… that bright, bold aura. The credits rolled as I drained the last of my third glass of wine, a warm, pleasant tipsiness starting to take hold. Lexi flicked the DVD off and turned the TV onto a nondescript music channel, shifting on the sofa to face me.
“Sooo,” she started, “now what?”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
A slow smile spread across her face, her eyes darkening. She put her tumbler on the side table, then slid across the short distance between us and straddled my lap. I sucked in a sharp breath, taken by surprise as she settled against me.
“You, mostly.”
She smirked as my eyes went a little wide, and leaned into kiss me, long and slow, moving her hips subtly against mine until I pulled away, gasping a little. I let my head drop back against the sofa, swallowing hard and trying to make my mouth form a coherent sentence, only for her to lean in and kiss her way up my throat, slipping her hands under my tee shirt.
“OK!” I pushed her back gently, “woah, woah. Are you sure? This is…” I trailed off with a stutter as she dragged her nails lightly across my lower belly, “this is fast.” I finished, lamely.
She frowned at me, continuing to move her hands lightly over my stomach and chest,
“Of course I’m sure. What’s the point in taking it slowly when we might be dead tomorrow?”
“Huh…” I twisted my hips, lifting her around to lay her back against the sofa, “excellent point.”
She grinned, hooking her legs over mine, and I happily gave up trying to go slow.
Glen was infuriatingly cheerful the next morning when he turned up at his usual time, and Lexi answered the door. There was a lot of eyebrow waggling and nudges, until I threatened to put him on the graveyard shift, every night for the next month. He tutted at me with a shake of his head,
“I’m just happy you didn’t fuck it up.”
“I’m glad you have such faith in me,” I responded drily, “anything of interest happen overnight?”
“You mean outside of your bedroom?”
I glared at him,
“Ah chill out, old man. No, nothing happened.” He grimaced, “I was with Beth until about an hour ago but… needed a break. Nathan’s sitting with her at the moment.”
“That’s fine. We’ll go to the gym and then I’ll take over until I’m on duty.”
“I’ll sit with her after that, then.” Chimed in Lexi, “the patrols aren’t bringing back much at all; there’s actually not a whole lot for me to do at the moment.”
“You want to join me on guard duty this morning?” Glen asked,
“Yea, OK. Thanks.”
We all headed downstairs, Lexi peeled off to see what reports had come in during the night, after brushing her lips briefly against mine with a sweet smile, and Glen and I went for our work out.
We’d finished at the gym and were eating breakfast when Lexi came looking for us.
“They found something!”
I raised my eyebrows, waiting for her to elaborate,
“don’t leave us hanging then!”
“There’s a warehouse down by the river that’s had some feral activity around it, so the IGS has been keeping tabs on it. Apparently high generation ferals have been turning up with vans, unloading an unknown cargo and then disappearing again.”
Glen whistled,
“well well, I wonder what our friendly neighbourhood ferals are up to with that little game.”
“Shall we find out?” I grinned at him. “Lexi, can you go and check in with the IGS, make sure they’ve sent us everything they’ve got?”
“On it,” she said, handing me the sheet of paper and striding briskly out of the room.
“Come on,” I said to Glen, “there’s a couple of patrols out already, we’ll get one of them to go and take a look.”
We headed for the communications room at a brisk jog, the soldiers inside stood to attention as we entered,
“Captain, Lieutenant, what can I do for you?” the officer in charge addressed us as I waved the others back into their seats.
“Are the patrols still out?”
“Beta team got back about 15 minutes ago, Alpha is still out though, sir.”
“Excellent, get them on the radio.”
“Yes, sir.” He turned to the radio and spoke into the transmitter, “alpha team, this is command, come in.”
“Command, this is alpha.”
The soldier handed me the transmitter,
“Alpha, this is Captain Beck, I’ve got some new intel I need to you to check out. Higher gen feral activity around a warehouse; see if you can see what’s going on in there.” I fumbled the report Lexi had given me out of my pocket and gave them the address, “proceed with extreme caution and maintain radio contact at all times. Command out.”
“Yes, sir. Alpha team out.”
We sat listening to their reports as they checked in regularly, informing us of their progress. Lexi stuck her head in the door to tell us that there was no more information.
“Thanks, Lex. Can you relieve Nathan now, please? He was on duty all night, he’ll probably want to get some sleep.”
“Sure,” she said and disappeared again.
“Command, this is Alpha. We’ve got eyes on the target. No movement. Would you like us to move in closer?”
“Is there any sign of vans, or other large vehicles, around the target?”
“Negative, sir.”
I looked briefly to Glen, he shrugged,
“you know as much as I do. If it seems quiet, then they may as well take a closer look, though.”
“Agreed.” I turned back to the radio, “take a closer look, Alpha. Maintain extreme caution.”
“Roger that, command. Moving in.”
We waited, again, but not for long this time.
“All quiet, command, no sign of activity. We’re entering the building.”
“Acknowledged.”
Another few minutes of silence.
“Uh… command?” the soldier sounded shaken, and Glen and sat up, staring intently at the radio, “we need to get a team out here asap. The main room is filled with, what I think are vampires. They are all impaled through the chest, and they’re having their blood drained.”
The radio crackled loudly as he was speaking.
“I’m sorry, Alpha team,” the communication soldier spoke into the radio, “can you repeat that?”
The patrol leader did so, patiently, but then cut himself off and swore,
“We’ve found Ysabel d’Avinho! I repeat, we’ve found Ysabel d’Avinho. She’s in a bad way, but… appears to be alive.”
I grabbed for the radio,
“Alpha team! Confirm that last transmission. Are you absolutely sure that it’s her?”
“Confirmed. It’s definitely her –” the soldier shouted suddenly and there was a burst of gunfire before the radio went silent.
“Shit.” Glen swore next to me, and we waited with bated breath for the radio to crackle again.
“Command, this is alpha team. We were attacked by four ferals. All ferals are dead, but so are two of our men. Three others are seriously injured. Request immediate evac.”
“It’s on its way, Alpha.” I turned to the communications soldier, “get an evac there, now. And inform Captain Wheeler of the development.”
With that, Glen and I took off.
We crashed through the door into Beth’s room, startling Lexi out of a doze so rudely that she nearly jumped out of the chair she was sat on. She snapped to full attention almost immediately, sensing the urgency of the situation. Taking one look at our tense faces her own face fell, anticipating bad news,
“What’s happened?” she asked tersely,
“She’s alive!” said Glen quickly, beating me to it. Moving to Beth’s side, I grabbed her shoulder and shook it roughly, provoking a scandalised gasp from Lexi.
“Beth! You need to snap out of it, now. Ysabel is alive, do you hear me? Alive.”
Beth’s prone body didn’t twitch beyond its now familiar and ever present quivering, but immediately the oppressive atmosphere in the room lifted slightly. I had spent so much time in here that I barely noticed it anymore, but now I felt like I could suddenly breathe again. Abruptly, Beth’s eyes snapped closed and her body stopped shaking, tensing up instead so that all her limbs went rigid. A breath escaped her with a word riding on it,
The Guard Page 24
