by Martha Woods
“And now they’re back,” Vincent said, “You didn’t wipe all of them out, so now they’ve come back to claim what they think is their property. Or… for all we know, what is their property.”
“Look, I’m not gonna claim that what we did was always clean, or pretty, or even right. We’ve been there for two hundred years and been led by a lot of different people, some are bound to be worse than others, but when I say that these guys were absolutely nothing but trouble you’ve got to understand that I’m saying that even with all the bad shit that we did in perspective.” He went to raise his hand for another drink before thinking better of it. “The elder of theirs that we killed… he’d raised more than a few of those shifters himself. It wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t make us feel good, but he had to go. But even with all that… I can understand why those that are left want to kill us so bad, I would want to do the same if I was in their position.”
“But still,” I said, “Do you think that they would be so desperate to kill you that they would… team up with a hunter of all people? I don’t know how your people handle outsiders on the best of days, but even the most open minded of paranormals wouldn’t have even thought once about welcoming someone like him into their midst, even for the chance of revenge.”
“Honestly?” He said, shrugging his shoulders heavily with a sigh, “I have no idea what could have happened, it doesn’t just look like an alliance of convenience or anything like that… the way that they’ve been fighting, they look out for each other. I saw him save more than one of them, and they did the same for him, there is genuine care in how they hold each other now. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that they’re almost treating him like family.”
That was a troubling prospect, and I suppose an ironic one as well. Here I was trying to get paranormals and humans to see eye to eye, and lo and behold some of them have actually done it of their own accord! I just hadn’t anticipated that some would use those new connections to wage even more war, to shed even more blood, that their goal in uniting wasn’t to make the world a better place, but to make it a worse one. I’ve gotta say, after the last few years that I’ve had I think I’m just about done with irony completely.
“How close behind your people are they?” I asked, pulling out the state map from my pocket and spreading it across the table. “Point where you are, and then point where they are.”
“Hmm…” He thought to himself, smoothing his finger across an invisible path from his state to ours. “I’d say, and you probably have a decent idea on where we are now anyway, but we’re probably twenty miles north of here, making camp when I checked in with them about an hour ago. They’ve been hot on our tail the whole while, so I’d wager that they’re also making camp about fifty away, we had to push ourselves pretty hard to get that lead, but it won’t last long.”
“No, and soon enough both your groups will be in the city won’t they?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling heavily and thinking our options over. “I can’t just turn you away, not when you’re so close and the stakes are so high. You can come into the city limits, but you’ll have to stay there until I can get a proper answer from the rest of the alliance. Just because I’m going to let you in doesn’t mean I want to get all of us involved in a war right away.”
“Thank you, thank you!” He said, grinning widely and standing up. “I’ve got to go tell them, the sooner that we can move into a better position the sooner we can start working on a defense. I don’t think that they’ll want to cause too much destruction trying to get to us, not with that hunter with them, but it probably won’t stop them if things go bad.”
“Just… make sure that they all know not to bring a fight into the city until I say that they can, the second that happens I’ll make sure that you move on and take your problems with you, understood?”
“Understood.” He nodded. “Has anyone told you that you have an incredible aura to you?”
Damon smirked. “Don’t try it.”
“Ok, thank you for your help.” He shuffled out of the bar, leaving a half empty glass and a handful of bills behind. I’m not even certain it was enough to cover the drinks.
“Well, that was interesting…” Damon rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs. “What… do we do now?”
“I’m going to have to go to Joseph about all of this, he’s probably exhausted from reaching out to everyone else but… whatever, I’m tired too he can get over it.” Resting my cheek against my palm, I drew a circle in the water from the glasses. “To be honest, I was expecting that something like this was going to come sooner or later. I’d just hoped that maybe we could have a little more peace before that, you know? But no, you get a few months and then it’s right back into war, who cares about what you want?”
“I don’t want to make you feel worse,” Vincent said, taking the seat that Anthony had been using only recently, “But this is kind of how paranormals live. We’re always on the move, always looking for that moment of peace and having it snatched away from us when we least expect it. What you’re doing right now is trying to work towards making sure that someday, all of us can have a place to belong where we don’t have to worry about that.”
“Yeah?” I asked, “And how many people through history have tried that?”
“A few,” He said, smiling gently, “But I have a good feeling about this one.”
At least that made one of us, but I couldn’t fault him for his optimism. I was trying hard not to be a cynic, I really was, but sometimes a situation just comes along and really just slugs you in the stomach as hard as it possibly can. But maybe this wasn’t such a bad opportunity, I’d always wanted to help people after all, I’d just forgotten how hard it could be sometimes. Still, at least I could be reasonably sure of who the good guys were in this situation, at the very least I could keep them at arm’s length until I’m sure that they’re on the level, and if they aren’t then I’m not afraid to force them away if I have to. I fought hard to have what we have now, I’m not going to give that up anytime soon.
“Right,” I said, standing up and nodding to the both of them with the best smile I could manage, “Let’s go and see if Joseph will help all of us out, shall we?”
* * *
“My, how bold,” Joseph groaned, rubbing his tired eyes and searching blindly for his bottle of aspirin. I hadn’t considered that vampires could even get headaches, though I suppose this was still a learning process after all, wasn’t it? Not just for me, but for Damon as well.
“Can you tell me… why it is that you’re getting us involved in other people’s conflicts so soon?” He asked, “Not judging, just genuinely curious. I would have thought that you would want to have at least a year where you can more or less relax.”
“Kind of hard to do with all the responsibilities that you gave me,” I said, “But I probably would have done something like this sooner or later. I think I’m just determined to never not be busy, you know?”
“That is something that I’m very familiar with my dear…” Popping one of the pills into his mouth and slipping down into his chair, he breathed a sigh of relief, “I’ve got to say, a few hundred years having to deal with headaches as bad as I get makes me consider these a godsend.”
“I keep a bottle in my pocket wherever I go, old job used to give me a lot of headaches.” Taking my seat across from him, I poured myself a drink and exhaled heavily, “What do you think we should do Joseph? I know that you said that you trust my judgement, but I’m still so new to this. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that I’m too… optimistic about people sometimes, what if they’re really the bad guys in this situation?”
“What if they are?” He asked, clearly not expecting an answer, “But what if they aren’t? Are you really prepared to take that chance, knowing what it would mean for them?”
“I… no, I don’t think I am.” And that was the really annoying thing, I couldn’t just… say no, could I? I always
had to be the one to help other people, I wasn’t even a cop anymore I could just… refuse. But in the end, that’s not the kind of person that I am, I’m the kind of person who always has to involve myself in other people’s business no matter how dirty. It was annoying enough when it was just me who was affected, that was the entire point of being a cop, but now that I wasn’t and I had other people depending on me… sometimes I wonder if I’m really up for all of this.
“Don’t make that face.”
I looked up at Joseph, his expression a mix of annoyance and that insufferable knowing. “What face? I’m not making any faces.”
“Yes you are, you’re making that face that you make whenever you’re second guessing yourself. For someone so miraculous you do that an awful lot, have I ever told you that?”
“Well what else am I supposed to feel about all this? I’m coming to you for answers and all I’m getting is… well, the usual I get from you. Which normally I like and everything, it’s relaxing, but this is really serious!”
“I know it’s serious, and believe me everyone else who would deign themselves to care would say that it was serious as well, which is why I need to stress to you how important it is that you stop doubting yourself and trust that you’re going to make the right decision. We’ll follow you either way, and believe me when I say that no matter how bad you screw up we all will have worked under worse leaders in our time, you’re not going to be the worst even if you try.”
“That can’t possibly be true…” I looked around at the others, screwing my brows together at the suppressed pain on their faces. “Really?”
“Trust me Amy,” Vincent said, nodding at Damon in some mutual understanding, “It’s a marvel that we’re alive sometimes.”
“When I first started out my leader shot me.” Damon rubbed his shoulder, the sight of one scar that I’d always asked about but never quite gotten a straight answer on. I guess that was more from embarrassment than any particular pain from the memory. “Long as you don’t start shooting fourteen-year olds I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“It’s both comforting and concerning that your previous leaders have been so incompetent, but if that’s what I’ve got to measure up against…” I nodded to myself, looking around the room at the portraits of countless vampires, both long gone and still here, if not physically at the moment. I imagine that Joseph is working to rectify that last point however, soon enough I’m sure the walls will be crawling with unlife once more. “Alright then, if you trust me… then I have no choice but to trust me too huh?”
“No choice at all,” Joseph said, “So what will you have us do Amy?”
Placing my hands flat on the table in front of me, I took the moment to consider all of our options and all the variables that were known to me. If it was just one hunter, an extremely skilled one but just one, we would still need to bring the hunters along with us just in case. It would be all well and good for the vampires or the werewolves to show up as backup, but for all we knew he had spent the last ten years teaching the shifters how to efficiently kill every paranormal that he’d ever met, the way that Anthony had spoken of them I was inclined to believe that something like that had at least been attempted, if not succeeded.
We may have an advantage in being inside a large, occupied city, an all-out attack by the shifters could very well result in a lot of collateral damage and attention, and I was tempted to believe that he may have tried to drill that habit out of them as soon as possible. If we could pull them back a little deeper into the city we could maybe force a stalemate, maybe open negotiations while we keep any more blood from being spilt than had already been spilt on their way here. I’m not naive, I know that’s a pretty big ask, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep it in mind as a possible outcome. First things first though, I would have to meet with these brothers and try to discern what kind of leaders they were, Anthony had professed their competence but… the fact that they were normally so itching for a fight wasn’t exactly endearing them to me given the current situation.
“Joseph, do you think you could organize some of the vampires to stand as night guards where we’re going to put the shifters for the time being?”
“Of course, I’m sure there are at least a few that need some level of small punishment, that will do nicely.” He held his hand out towards me, letting his eyes fall shut as the aspirin finally took the edge off his headache. “What of the witches? Should I handle them as well?”
“No, I can get Cara to talk to them, she’s been wanting to get more involved in something that isn’t just more paperwork for a while. She’ll love it.” Humming to myself, I snapped my fingers in realization. “I can get Tariq to organize some of the werewolves as well, they’re fond of him, they’ll do more or less whatever he asks. They wouldn’t have joined the alliance at all if it wasn’t for him.”
“Obviously I can talk to the hunters,” Damon said, “You’ll need some people to watch during the daytime, and that can’t be me anymore so…”
That now familiar melancholy flashed over his features for a split second before it vanished again, replaced with the certainty of someone that had figured out their purpose for the time being.
“It won’t be a problem, I’m sure at least some of them will say yes.”
“What about you Vincent?” I asked, “What do you want to do?”
“Me?” He shrugged, looking between all of us with a smirk. “Seems that everything is already being taken care of, I can probably just relax.”
“You can go with Amy when she meets with the shifters,” Joseph said, “I’ll send you a message with an address to send them to, there will be a good number of us waiting there just in case things go south and the two of you need some backup.”
“Oh?” I said, “I thought you were trusting my judgement?”
“Of course I am Amy,” He replied with a knowing grin, “But I know you fairly well by now, whoever it is that you’re going to meet isn’t exactly high on your list of trustworthy people right now. If things go badly, well… let’s just say that I would be upset if anything happened to you.”
“You really do care,” I laughed, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his hand, “Thank you Joseph, it makes me feel better knowing that I have you in my corner.”
“Always my dear, now you go on and handle what it is that you need to handle, then get some rest. I’ll have one of our agents deliver a message to the shifters telling them where to meet tonight, that will give you… fourteen hours to prepare at this point, and you do not want to negotiate on two hours of sleep, believe me.”
“Noted,” I said, standing and looking over at Damon, “Are you going to be alright to handle everything?”
“I’m not going to run off, don’t worry Amy. This is important, I’m not gonna leave you guys out to dry on this. Whatever is going on with me… I can put it on hold until the rest of this is over, yeah?” Stepping closer to me, he pressed a kiss to my cheek and rested his forehead against mine. “I promise, we’ll actually talk about all of this when we get the chance, I’m not going to let myself screw up everything good.”
“I know,” I said, “I know. We’ll handle everything later, you just be careful now ok?”
“I’m always careful,” He laughed, the movement exposing the slightest skin of his chest, marred with some of the scars that had been the cause of his death in the first place. If the resulting grimace and sheepish backing away were any indication, he realized the mistake. “Well, I’ve got a lot of things to take care of, better go take care of them!”
Damon vanished in the blink of an eye, the slight shift of the curtains the only evidence that he’d even been here to begin with. Joseph laughed at the spectacle, “You have very strange taste in men Amy, I trust that I’ve told you that before?”
“Oh yeah, you’ve told me that before.” I smiled, taking Vincent’s hand and starting our way to the exit. “They’ve told me more than once too.”
Chapt
er 4
If I was to do everything properly I would need to be sure to let everyone in on what the plan actually was, though I wasn’t exactly happy to be ringing up my friends at four in the morning to ask them to come down to the office, the exact place that they’d been only a few hours before just so that I could talk to them face to face. It was stupid really, why couldn’t I just tell Cara and Tariq what they needed to know over the phone? They were grownups, of course they would understand, but there was Joseph’s influence getting to me again, of course I had to make a big ceremony over giving responsibility to someone who had wanted it for so long.
I suppose I can’t really be annoyed over that, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the look on Cara’s face when I tell her the news, I can’t decide if I want her to blush or scream or both, whatever it is that she does is bound to be spectacular.
“Come on, I know it’s early but you’ve gotta pick up…” I’d been staring at my phone for the better part of ten minutes, call after call being place but all of them going through to her voicemail. She always was a deep sleeper on the occasions that she decided that she was actually going to sleep, so this wasn’t really much of a surprise. What was a surprise was the revelation that apparently Tariq shared that trait with her, which may be a slight mistake when it came to who I had chosen to be my aids in this new business of… whatever it was that we were doing.
In fact I was almost ready to give up, my thumb hovering over the end call button when I heard a click and the barest of breaths, exhaustion ringing clear through the line without a single word needing to be said or visual needing to be seen. It was enough to make me feel bad at the very least.
“Wuh… hello?”
Yep, that was Cara, as tired and adorable as ever. “Hey Cara, I’m so sorry to wake you up at four in the morning, but would you be able to grab Tariq and meet me at the office? I have something pretty important that I need to tell you two about, but it needs to be in person.”
