by C. L. Quinn
“I think I can make it work again. Just…”
Park stared at the engine that had gone dead. Like Eillia had taught her, she cleared her mind and focused on her desire. Start the engine, start the engine, start the engine. She felt her mind move from her body and travel to the damaged engine. She moved around it and seemed to instinctively know that the explosion had damaged a certain part that she was able to repair with her mind. Telekinesis, Eillia had said, but she knew it was more than that. Somehow she knew intuitively what the engine needed and was able to implement the repair. Her head began to ache, but she stayed on task. Moments passed before she felt herself pull away and went back into herself. Almost as if something had, in actuality, sucked her back. Vaz was holding her, keeping her from falling over. She pressed her head with both hands. Tried to speak but couldn’t. The pilot twisted back around and watched her struggle to open her eyes and speak.
“Is…it…” She moaned. “Um….is it…working?”
“It is, mademoiselle! It works! Merci! Merci! Are you okay?”
“Fine. Fine. I’ll be fine. Well, get us home, Philippe.”
“Oui, oui, certainement.”
She turned and Vaz helped her back through the plane and to her seat next to Burne. Vaz gave everyone a look of relief.
“You won’t believe me if I tell you, but we’re okay.”
Burne settled Park back in her seat.
“Honey, are you alright?”
“Headache. Bad one. Used my…skills. To fix the engine.”
She opened her eyes. Burne moved closer.
“Sweetie, your eyes…they’re glowing.”
Zach leaned in. “Like Koens’s. Gold. Brilliant. It seems to happen when you exert your supernatural abilities.”
Park nodded…hurt too much to speak. She whispered to Burne. “Lie down.” Burne led her to the back of the plane, and laid a pair of seats back. “Here. I’ll get you a blanket.”
Keeping her eyes closed, Park realized that Koen was touching her mind. Vaguely aware he was asking if everything was okay, she sent back an affirmative, and then rolled over on her side and let exhaustion like she’d never known take her.
Daniel sat there way past any reasonable amount of time, but eventually, he set the body off him. And picked up the shovel. The intense physical labor of digging a deep hole was exactly what he needed right now. Mindless grunt work, try to empty his head and heart of all the bad decisions he’d made over his lifetime. The money from this job didn’t even matter anymore…he had more than enough to live well. This would be his last act of his old life. And the first of his new one. Her grave would be unmarked, but it would also be undisturbed. And although he didn’t know who else would mourn her, he would never forget her. That face that seemed to touch his withered soul…was burned in his mind for the rest of his days. A reminder…he would never really be able to move beyond his past…and he could never really atone for what he’d done. He dug deep and hard into the rich, hard soil. It wasn’t a bright future for him. That was okay. He didn’t deserve one.
When the hole was deep enough, he pulled off his flak jacket and wrapped it around her face, then laid her with great care into her final resting place. God, she fucking deserved better. But there wasn’t time. He did not want to risk the client finding out he took her, and then finding her to finish his gruesome plans. So he covered her quickly and then placed leaves and pine needles over the spot. He cleaned the area thoroughly so no one would realize it had been disturbed. Then he left quickly and did not look back.
Koen and Bas had searched everywhere they could. There was no sign or sense of Eillia. Koen had to accept…she was probably as dead as Hamid. His grief was deep…and if this had happened two days ago before he’d found his daughter, he would have wished to join her. He might have arranged for it. His huge hand landed on Bas’s shoulder.
“It’s been long enough. If she’d lived, I would have sensed her. She’s gone. I can’t believe the fucking rogue pulled it off. I’m sorry, vampire, for all your losses, too. I will stay with you until he is dead.”
“I appreciate that. He’s apparently more motivated and more clever than I allowed. He has to be found.”
“He will be. He killed vampires, and a first blood. That cannot and will not go unavenged. No act is too great, no distance too far to go to kill him. I cannot track him as I would Eillia. Your hybrid vampire blood is too weak for me to sense. There’ll be another way. We start with his babes.”
“I’m with you there.”
During the search, they’d found the mercenaries vehicles, so they took one of the dark windowed SUV’s and headed into town. It was nearing dawn, so Koen compelled the manager of a roadside hotel to give them the key to their storage basement, and they went underground to sleep off the daylight. Tonight the search would continue.
Daniel couldn’t reach any of his team. He’d been waiting at camp a good forty minutes after sunrise. No one answered their cells, no one showed up. What the hell? Eventually he got back in his car and started to head back to the target site when a lone black truck came back up the barely cleared lane. He got out and waited, and when the man got out of the truck, he recognized him as one of the recent hires.
“Hey, Gianni, isn’t it?” he said to the man.
The man scowled. “Yeah, surprised you remember.”
“Where is everyone? We were to rendezvous back here after daylight.”
“Yeah, I’m it.”
“I don’t understand,” Daniel said, his voice questioning.
“I’m it. All that’s left. Someone came out of the house and slaughtered your men. Lucky you left early.”
With his hand on his hip, near his nine mil, Daniel stepped back a little at the implied insult.
“Soldier, you work for me. Give me details on what happened.”
“I don’t work for you. You abandoned your post. I work for the client. Who I’ve advised about the situation.”
“Have you? And what have you advised him?”
“That you deferred his orders for your own. That you didn’t have the sack to do what needed to be done. You won’t be paid for this disaster.”
“I need those details. You’re serious when you say everyone’s dead?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s a fucking slaughter. No one survived.”
Daniel felt sick. “You did.”
“Yeah? So did you. I left because the client wanted me to. He says he may have some other work for me. He says I get part of your fee.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the money. I do give a fuck if your betrayal got those guys killed.”
“Client says that once you decided not to behead them, those guys didn’t have a chance. This is your fault. Sir.” That last word was spit out with venom.
And a few seconds later, as Daniel expected, the guy pulled his handgun and tried to take Daniel out. He didn’t have a chance, either. Daniel plugged him, watching him drop almost slow motion onto the rough ground.
He leaned over as the merc lay dying and said, “This has to end. It has to end here.” And he turned away, leaving him in the dust of the road and slowly got back into his vehicle.
As he reached the paved road that disappeared into the trees in both directions, he figured he wouldn’t live to see Bali. Karma. Fate. Whatever you called it. Sometimes justice found you, no matter where you ran. After returning to the site, and seeing the twisted ravaged remains of those he commanded, several he called friends, he knew this was as it was destined to be. He said his peace, as close to prayers as a man like him had any right to speak, then got back in the car. After sitting there for fifteen minutes staring out, he started it and turned right to go north, he realized what he was now running from was the consequences of his choices, his responsibility in so many deaths, and the image of a woman he would never know.
144
Chapter twenty five
Eillia’s jet landed without incident, much to the shock and joy of the pilot and his
copilot. Philippe had been a blood-bond of Eillia’s for a decade and he knew she was very powerful, but he had no idea one of her kind could do what the gorgeous redhead had done to save all their lives last night. He taxied the plane into their private hangar and shut down the engines.
“Marcus, could you let them know we have arrived, but that it is not safe to leave the building at this time. Show them to the waiting area, if you would.”
The copilot woke the passengers and led them out of the hangar, down some stairs, and into elegantly decorated rooms, a lounge area, a small kitchen, several small sleeping chambers arranged around the main room.
“Philippe says to tell you they are secure, and he will let you know when it is safe to leave.”
Cherise spoke to him in French to thank him and acknowledge the information. “Eillia is a thoughtful woman,” she said to the others. “Her guests could never
complain about her accommodations. If you are tired, just choose any bed. If you are hungry, I guarantee there’s a feast in the kitchen.” She closed her eyes and then opened them again. “So, I will be in the last room to the right if anyone needs me.” She moved gracefully, but quickly, across the floor and was gone behind a closed door.
No one was feeling hungry at the moment, so they all took either a bed or a couch, chair, even the floor, and rested. It was daylight, and they couldn’t help but feel drained. They’d arrived safely in spite of the sabotage to the plane and right now, they all said a little prayer that they still breathed.
Park wondered how things were going back in Vancouver as she fell deeply to sleep and didn’t open her eyes again for a very long time.
Alvin had been angry for a lot of years. It had nothing on how pissed he was now…since his obscenely paid mercenary that had been famous for results, had betrayed him. He didn’t see that coming. Well. Fuck. If you can’t even trust the bad guys to be bad… Best laid plans.
And they had been excellent plans. Bas or any of his vampire buddies had never discovered his subterfuge. He had been successful in the attack. Except that the beheadings hadn’t happened. Well, one… According to a text message he’d received after the attack had started stating that the man he’d hired, Daniel Gitzinger, had belayed his beheading order. The text asked for the client’s advice. To which he’d responded to get the hell out of there. He’d sent up some aerial surveillance this afternoon…there were a lot of dead men dressed in camouflage. They were his hires. Yep. The vampires were still alive.
He shook his head. Well, Bas was good to have been able to take them all with the level of weaponry he had provided. That actually really surprised him. Oh, well, anyway. Time to get out of Dodge. Live to fight another day. Rock and fucking roll. He knew Sebastian would be coming for him. His only grace…he was still a mystery to the vampires. No one yet had any idea who was behind these attacks. And they wouldn’t until he wanted them to. And he would…when it was time. Sebastian was one of the ones he wanted to know…so it was probably a good thing he made it through. This gave him another chance to get it right.
Still, had to get out of town for a while until things calmed down enough to regroup and re-plan. First, he had to kill the vampires he’d had Shanks make. And of course, Shanks himself. He’d moved them all to a large cabin isolated in the deep woods east of the compound. That’s where they were now, waiting for him to come and send them on their mission. Hmm. He’d swing by, wrap this up, and be off the continent by the next night.
Eillia woke suddenly, sharply aware something was horribly wrong. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t see. A crushing weight pressed her down, kept her from fully opening her eyes. There was something around her face. It smelled of earth and man and a little like whiskey. She gagged and tried to draw air and couldn’t. She knew she wouldn’t die…she couldn’t suffocate to death…but she could suffer from lack of oxygen. It was painful to not be able to breathe. So she pushed hard, her vampire strength kicking in. She felt the weight rolling aside and she tried to sit up, to move up, to crawl up…and finally made it…her hands reaching air first, her face next. She was outside, she could tell that, and she’d been buried beneath the ground. Thankfully, the cool air rushed into her burning lungs, filling her back up and staying the coughing jags she’d started. As soon as she could open her eyes, she realized it was day, and from the light level, likely early morning.
A large evergreen tree stood between her and the newborn sun, or she would have begun to burn, too. As it was, she searched around frantically, hoping to find somewhere to go that was safe. But it appeared she was in the middle of the woods, and exposed when the sun moved higher. She had no choice…she had to go back underground. She powered her way back, pulling dark dry soil over her, and used the garment that had been around her head to create a tunnel to allow air to filter down to her. The sun would crest on the opposite side and would not penetrate to touch her skin. She was breathing heavily once she finished her earth covering and air channel. Her head hurt enormously and her mind was fuzzy. What…how had she come to be here?
When it came to her moments later, her first thought was that she had been fatally shot many times. And that Hamid had been murdered forever. No wonder her head hurt…there was a fountain of tears pressing against her eyes waiting to pour out. Hamid…handsome, wonderful, her life partner…would never be with her again. She would never see his gorgeous face…never hear his infectious laugh, his deep timbered voice. Never. Never was a very long time for a vampire. She waited for the tears to come…and they didn’t. Her grief was too deep…tears would be useless and incomprehensibly small. Hamid was irreplaceable on earth. To her. For the rest of her eternity, he would be gone.
She lay there and had no choice but to let the pain take over, her body quaking, held against the warm earth, an empty hug until the sun slid down out of Vancouver’s sky. She cloaked herself from any prying minds reading her pain…she was alone…she would be alone in this until someday she could smile again. She knew that would be a very, very long time.
Koen awoke shaking. He’d had a dream…that Eillia needed him…that she was in pain…and he tried to find her. He stood and wandered around the dark basement, the only sounds were Bas’s soft breathing and a pipe tingling somewhere in the corner. She was…was she? He sent his mind out…she wasn’t there. It must have been only a dream…just a nightmare on top of this nightmare of a day. His sense told him there were several more hours before the daylight left. So he laid back down on the pile of cheap hotel comforters and tried to return to his rest. He thought of Park, and the joy of finding her. He thought of Eillia and the pain of losing her. Life did indeed fuck with you on its own terms, and that…that never changed. He rolled up on his side and willed himself to sleep again. He had important tasks tonight.
Shanks had waited as long as he was going to. The freaking weasel had dropped them off here and told them to wait. Told them he’d be back by the following night to begin final prep for the attack. Two nights had come and gone. They were as fucking ready as they ever would be, so where was the chipmunk guy? Shanks wanted this over so he could head out. He had plans to go to New York City tomorrow night…he would be on that flight. That’s where he would party for a few days before heading to Dubai. So Alvin had better be ready to pull the trigger on this little disaster tonight…because he was gone after that. He looked over the pitiful little weak assed forces they’d put together. The guys were playing soldier with each other, watching some tv, playing video games or messing with cell phones they weren’t allowed to use to call anyone with anymore. Yeah, everyone here would be dead by tonight anyway, if the attack happened.
He heard a car door slam, and he knew it had to be Alvin. This god forsaken cabin was in the middle of nowhere. Peeking out the curtain, he saw Alvin standing outside the rear of the Escalade. A security light illuminated the area quite well. He noticed Alvin glance at the cabin, his eyes sharp. Shanks pulled back and looked around the room at all the guys, then back out the window. T
here was something…he didn’t know what…maybe the way Alvin was holding himself…taller, more confident. A harder look on his face than he usually had. He pulled an automatic machine gun out of the back of the car, checked it for ammo, then glanced back at the cabin, his eyes squinted. Shanks had a really bad feeling about this. Yeah. He walked to the back of the cabin and opened the door.
“Gonna take a piss,” he said and booked out the door at vampire speed. He heard the machine gun rattling away seconds after he cleared the back door. He crested a high bluff, made a crazy wild leap over a culvert, moved out at what he thought might be his all time fastest speed…ever before and likely ever again. He paused briefly to catch his breath, whispered “fuck me,” and continued at top speed until he couldn’t run anymore. He had no idea where he was, but one thing he knew…he was still alive and no one else in that house was.
Koen and Bas searched for two days…the bastard rogue had left no real clues to his identity or whereabouts…or any future plans. He was like a ghost.
“He’s smart, if nothing else. He’s coming out of this ahead of us…and that isn’t easy. How can such a brutal son of a bitch evade us?” Bas finished clipping his holster to his belt.
Koen yawned. They’d just awakened after an exhausting night searching before they’d take a brief rest to rise early to do some internet research. “Brutality has its own brilliance. Some of the smartest people I’ve ever known are some of histories most notorious.”
With a shake of his head, Bas checked his final clips. ‘Well, we’re not accomplishing anything here now. I want to get to Park. Can we fly to France tonight?”
