“I’ll come back to you, Elaina. I always do. Remember?”
“But this time, I want to be with you.” She pounded his chest. “You left me before…”
He stroked the left side of her face. “You will be with me. You have my blood. A part of me. My life force. I’ll always be with you.”
Elaina swallowed and blinked away her tears, adamant about not letting one drop fall. He couldn’t see her this way, pitying herself because she couldn’t have her way.
She tore away from his grip and stormed off.
“Elaina…”
Ignoring his call, she retreated to a dark corner of the junkyard, seeking time to herself.
Chapter 17
“A candle making store, really?” Brandon exclaimed as they filed out of the van.
Elaina jumped down, and loose dirt lifted up with the wind and flew across her face. She pinned her hair back with her hand and looked at the quaint little store sitting in the middle of nowhere. The sign read: Gisselle’s Candle Making Shop. There was a gas station off to the right with moderate activity, so the place couldn’t have been as isolated as her first impressions told her.
But still…
Vicq checked his cell phone and flipped through some screens. “Yup, this is the place.”
The majority of the coven members stayed with the van as Vicq, Elaina, Brandon, and Melrose moved forward to the entrance of the store. As they approached, Elaina noticed that there was an innocent old woman sitting in a rocking chair with one hand on a walking cane. Once close up, she came to realize the candle making store resembled a home.
“Hello,” the woman greeted them but didn’t get up from her seat.
“We’re here to—”
“—I know what you’re here for. The door’s open.” She pointed the bottom end of the cane at the door.
Without another word, she picked up a pair of long needles from her lap and ignored them as she continued her knitting. A handgun was in her lap, along with the ball of yarn. Elaina realized that she wasn’t as innocent as she appeared.
Brandon opened the door and held it open. The sign outside wasn’t a lie. Hundreds of scented candles and other related decor lined the shelves. A guy came out from behind the counter.
“We’re here to see Ghost,” Vicq said.
“I’m Fred,” the guy said. “Come this way. Ghost has been expecting you.”
They were led into a back room where Fred lifted a door up from the floor. The quaint little candle making store had another purpose. They descended down into the basement and spilled out into an underground facility.
When they entered the room, three men were waiting for them. Shelves lined with handguns and other combat weapons surrounded them.
Vicq and Ghost—who Elaina recognized from Vicq’s blood memories—exchanged handshakes and a few sentences before everyone else was introduced. Then Ghost returned to his post behind a counter made of glass and swept his hand across the contents.
“My process is simple. I don’t ask questions. All the goods are untraceable. There are no refunds,” he said. He pointed to the left and right of the room where more combat gear and hunting rifles were on display. “You can have your choice of anything in here. Just don’t plan on cleaning me out. I have another appointment in a few hours.”
Elaina took a quick look at the inventory and almost wished she had robbed a couple of District facilities. Everything resembled common civilian weapons. If they raided District headquarters armed with the simple handguns lying around here, they’d end up massacred before they got past the front gates.
She glanced behind her at Vicq and shot him a questioning look. From the expression on his face, she could tell that he already knew what she was thinking.
His eyebrow raised in amused contempt.
“Is there a problem?” Ghost asked.
Before turning around to face him, Elaina attempted to wipe the disappointment from her expression.
“You see…” She rubbed the back of her neck and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I know you said you wouldn’t ask questions, but maybe if we explained to you a little about why we need these weapons you’d understand.”
“Trust me when I say, I really don’t want to know. The fewer memories in my blood, the better.” Ghost winked. “So, pretty lady, let’s be straightforward with each other. What seems to be the problem?”
Elaina walked up to the counter.
“We need more guns,” she said.
She dumped a suitcase full of money on the counter and popped the latch. The lid flipped open, revealing rows of cash.
“Big guns,” she added.
Ghost grinned widely. “Now you’re talking.” With a sweep of his hand to the left of him, he made a gesture to one of the men standing in the room. “Carlos…?”
Carlos activated a mechanism that raised a panel on the wall behind them. Less than a minute later, the entire wall slid open completely to reveal another hidden room of nothing but heavy artillery.
“Are these big enough for you?” Ghost asked.
She nodded. “I like what I see.”
“Careful. Everything in here is loaded,” Carlos said.
It took them under an hour to complete the entire transaction and then they were on the road again.
Chapter 18
“You can stay here as long as you need to,” Elaina’s dad exclaimed as he ushered them into a suite. “This is a double suite, as well…adjoining room to the left. Hopefully your other men have gotten settled in by now. No one will bother you. You’’ll have the entire right wing of the hotel to yourselves.”
“Thank you,” Vicq said.
“No, thank you for bringing my daughter to me.” He handed them the key. “Our Refuge isn’t far from here. My men and I will return early tonight and then we’ll meet up again to plan out the first attack.”
As Elaina began to sort through her bags near the queen-sized bed, her dad took Vicq aside and they spoke in low tones with each other. She caught wind of her name and turned around.
“Are you two really going to discuss me while I’m standing not even two feet away?” she asked.
“It’s about the mission,” her dad replied.
“What about it?”
“Are you planning to be there?”
She frowned. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
Vicq opened the door to the suite and motioned for her dad to step outside. “Let’s have a word in private about a few things.”
“Sure. I’ll be back, Elaina,” her dad said.
She wasn’t surprised that Vicq and her dad had developed a quick relationship. After all, they had more than her in common. As far as she knew, almost everyone here had a vested interest in taking down and exposing District 5. They had their goals to achieve and she had hers.
Once they were gone, Elaina closed the door to the adjoining suite, grabbed some fresh clothes from her bag, and headed to the shower.
Chapter 19
Mr. Smith went behind the bar of the hotel, which was currently unmanned, and poured himself a glass of brandy before joining Vicq at the far side of the lounge.
“I usually offer drinks and meals to my guests, but we’ve never had any vampires stay here,” Mr. Smith said.
“We’ll make do with what we can find,” Vicq replied. “When did you learn that not all of us were out to kill?”
Mr. Smith sighed, slouched his shoulders, and settled back in his chair. “My suspicions have always been in favor of vampires, but just like us humans, you have good guys and bad buys. It just so happens that bad vampires can do really bad things to really good people. And they have.”
“Truth.”
“My turn.” Mr. Smith took a swig of his drink. “How long have you been trying to take down the District, Vicq?”
“Since before my Maker and Master perished. I was a Superior who worked in the field, warning the Master of outside threats to the Court and to our people. Our focus was reduci
ng the rogue population until it was the rogues themselves who led us to District 5 and what was going on. While we were herding our rogues up, District 5 began capturing us…any vampire, not just the rogues.”
“And then District learned about your hierarchy and how vampires gain their strength.”
Vicq nodded. “Exactly. The weaker rogues were useless for many things, so they targeted Dresdan who’d already ascended within the Court.”
“Like yourself?”
“Yes, like me.”
“Has Elaina told you about her parentage?”
“Sí. It’s extremely difficult for mated vampires to keep that sort of information from each other.”
Mr. Smith’s head flinched back slightly. “What do you mean?”
“We share memories through the blood.”
“Oh.” His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“That comes as a surprise to you? Didn’t that organization teach you this stuff when you were working for them?”
“I wasn’t in that line of work. I didn’t hunt vampires like Elaina. I tracked people—human people—and things…and objects.”
“Right. Makes sense.”
“About this raid…” Mr. Smith started. An awkward moment of silence followed and he pulled at his sleeves and then straightened his collar. “Elaina’s transformation to vampire threw me for a loop.”
“She’s not just any vampire. She’s Dresdan. Strongest and most prevalent of the vampire species.”
“With Elaina being a Dresdan, I’m not sure I can convince her anymore that she needs to be protected now that she’s a District refugee. She was hard-headed growing up, and I suspect that determination and fiery spirit of hers has grown exponentially.”
“It has,” Vicq replied, nodding in agreement. He’d experienced firsthand how determined Elaina could be when she set her mind to something.
“I need your help to convince her. I witnessed your relationship with her and how well you communicate with each other, and I think you’re the only one that can stop her from following through with this raid.”
Vicq stiffened in his chair. “You want us to let this organization off the hook.”
Mr. Smith shook his head quickly. “No, no, no. Never. The goal of Refuge has always been to create a world where we can live without hiding in fear of being taken in by the District again. The price for betraying an organization like that is usually death.”
Vicq cringed as an image of District trackers following them halfway across the country to take Elaina in flooded his memories.
“Oh, don’t I know it,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t realize Elaina was in trouble. She was doing so well as a refugee out on her own.” Mr. Smith lowered his head.
“You were watching her?”
“Not always. She was so good at concealing herself. I was afraid that if I reconnected with her that the District would put two and two together and link us,” he replied. “Plus…I wasn’t ready to tell her about the secret I’d kept from her all those years. I wanted her to know me as Father…always.”
“She still calls you Dad, Mr. Smith,” Vicq reassured him. “Being a father is more than sharing genes or blood lineage. When I lost my father, both of parents really, my Maker was all I had.”
“Then you understand my need to make this right again. I have to do something about this. I have to fix this. I don’t want District 5 coming after her ever again. I don’t want her going near them ever again,” he said.
“So…you’re suggesting…?”
“That she stay here with the others while we take our teams out to infiltrate the District and seize what we can.”
Vicq swallowed and shook his head. “Elaina’s not going to go for that. I can tell you that right now.”
“Someone has to convince her. The one person she trusts more than anyone else…even me, unfortunately…is you.”
“That’s the thing.” Vicq threaded his fingers together on the table and leaned forward. “What you’re implying means breaking my promise to her. I told her I’d help her and that I’d be right there by her side when she returned to destruct District 5. If I don’t do this, I’m breaking my vow to her.”
“If we do this and she goes, it could mean her life. Would you keep your word to her if you knew she could be harmed, or worse, killed?”
“I won’t let anything happen to Elaina. I’ll be right there with her, and she’s stronger than you give her credit for,” Vicq replied.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Mr. Smith sighed in aggravation. “Maybe you need a little more convincing yourself.” He reached into his pocket, grabbed a small device, and spoke into it. “Michael!”
“I’m here,” a male replied.
“Vicq and I are in the lobby. I need to show him something.”
There was silence, and then a bit of static.
“Remember what we talked about?” Mr. Smith asked.
“Yeah. I’m on my way.”
About a minute passed before a young man walked into the hotel. It was the same man who had interrupted Vicq and his coven members out at the docks. He was the one who’d brought the note from Elaina’s father.
“You remember Michael, don’t you?” Mr. Smith asked.
“Yeah.”
The man pulled up a chair and took a seat at the table.
“Michael was orphaned as well as a result of D5’s treachery. Both of his parents were employed by the District. His dad was a vampire tracker. His mother was a nurse. Both died suspiciously while there, and Michael was only two at the time. Unlike Elaina, Michael grew up under D5’s supervision,” Mr. Smith said.
“How?” Vicq asked. “How could they own children?”
“There are many things you’ll never understand about D5, but just know that any contracts executed with them are legally binding for life. When Michael’s parents died, he had no living relatives. He didn’t become an orphan of the state; instead, he became D5’s property. And at D5, everyone is considered property, sort of like an asset. Your status and usefulness within the organization determines your worth and how fast you depreciate.”
“Are they harvesting organs?” Vicq inquired outright. His blood began to boil, and he tried to restrain himself from overreacting.
Mr. Smith nodded.
Raging horror clotted in his chest. Vicq turned to Michael. “Is this true?” he asked.
Michael nodded. “It’s true. It just depends on how you’re labeled. It’s all a matter of chance and circumstance, as well. Sometimes it depends on your DNA, your genes, or your blood type. If they can’t use you in the field or in business operations, then they use you for research, or vice versa. There are many divisions. Divisions that weren’t even approved by the US Government. What the public sees and what we know are two different things.”
Michael glanced at Mr. Smith as if trying to gain reassurance or approval to continue.
“Go ahead, Michael,” Mr. Smith said. “He’ll learn one way or another.”
“I was a bounty hunter before District 5 discovered something that changed everything. It all started with Elaina when they found out that her rare blood type contained the properties needed to complete some new testing. Throughout the years, District scientists had only been focused on the most dominant blood type of the human population. But that changed when Elaina’s blood was spilled alongside a Dresdan. That Dresdan was you, I believe.”
Vicq nodded. “I remember it like it was yesterday. They poisoned her and then tried to kill me.”
“The trackers took the blood evidence that they collected in to District scientists, who did some testing. That’s when they made the discovery about her. She wasn’t AB negative at all. D5 coined a new human blood type—Type S. Without a perfect match, the blood separates like oil and water. With a match between a human and a vampire, the blood fuses together and creates the vampire agent. When Elaina was born, she was born at a District owned hospital. Some of her earlier records indica
te that Elaina has one of the rarest blood types—AB negative—which is probably why placing her with adoptive parents wasn’t a concern. They were more focused on the dominant blood type. Yet, Mr. Smith has evidence from family doctors that Elaina’s blood type is unknown. Inconclusive.”
“And, of course, Sandra and I didn’t want to push the issue. We didn’t want the District involved in Elaina’s life any sooner than we’d agreed. Other than this mystery surrounding her blood type, Elaina was healthy,” Mr. Smith added.
“This discovery about how Elaina’s rare blood reacted to an ancient was somehow leaked throughout D5’s ranks, and rumors were spread that employees were being tested in droves for rare blood types. Nearly everyone was worried that their employment status would change and that they’d be transferred from the front lines to the back labs. And by that time, everyone knew that being a human lab rat was the worst fate within the District. No one came out alive. The sick went in because they knew they would die either way. They were fed garbage about dying in the name of research and lured to sign contracts for millions of dollars. Either way, the District began to search out unique blood types. The posters went out about Elaina being missing, and the District Heads sent out numerous teams, both bounty hunters and trackers, in search of Elaina. One team was lucky enough to find her, but failed to retrieve her.”
Vicq grimaced. “They killed her. That’s what they did.”
“The injection wasn’t meant for her. Someone on that team made a grave error.”
“Luckily, she had me in her system,” Vicq noted.
“I think your blood, or whatever she accepted from you is what ultimately kept her alive when she was human. No one could have survived all the poison she was subjected to,” Michael said.
“You have a lot of intel,” Vicq said.
“I grew up on the inside. I had no choice. The thing is that I’m just like Elaina. I wasn’t lying when I told you that back at the docks. I’m Type S, as well. When the information was leaked and right before I could be called in for testing, I sought out my D5 records. I found out some things that had me questioning why I’d been loyal to them all these years when they still wouldn’t give me a straight answer about what happened to my parents. I visited a clinic that same day to have some testing done. Sure enough, the results of my blood type came back inconclusive. I didn’t wait around long enough to find out what D5 would do to me. With the files I’d stolen from D5 in my possession, I got the hell out and joined Refuge. I won’t be with your crew tomorrow either. Because if anyone from D5 happens to get even a drop of my Type S blood, they’ll use it. And we all know, there will blood.”
Renegade (Shadow Realms): An Urban Fantasy Dragon Shifter Romance Page 37
