Crisis Alert (Divine Justice, 3)

by Mary Abshire

  The passenger door flew open. A stocky man with brown hair on his head and face hopped from the truck. Relief swam through Zale. He recognized him before he opened the back door to the cab. He’d trained the werewolf thirty years ago.

  “Get in,” Trevor said.

  Zale darted to get his jeans. He gripped them with his teeth and then dragged them down the alley.

  The demon rolled onto his side. He attempted to grab Zale, but missed as Zale rushed past him.

  Trevor dashed toward Zale at the same time. He snatched the pants from Zale’s mouth. “Really? You couldn’t leave without this?”

  Zale yelped before he jogged past him. He leaped into the cab. Trevor tossed his jeans onto the seat before slamming the door. The driver took off the second Trevor sat.

  “You were right,” the driver said.

  Zale stood on the floorboard and couldn’t see him with the seat blocking his view.

  “Told you I heard a wolf,” Trevor said. “You owe me twenty dollars.”

  The truck turned sharply and Zale fell backward. Too tired and achy to get up, he remained on the floor. Since he didn’t have time to waste if they planned to drive back to headquarters at the pyramids, he began to shift.

  His body burned from his snout to his ass. The ache in his head magnified. The pulse in his skull made it difficult for him to think. He closed his eyes as power flowed through him in waves. His hair receded. His bones popped and stretched. Every inch of his skin felt wet.

  The men in the front seats spoke, but Zale only heard garbled words while he transformed. The two minutes to change seemed like forever. When the car stopped moving, Zale opened his eyes. He twisted and snatched his pants.

  “Welcome back,” Trevor said.

  Zale hurried to remove the radio from the pocket. “Take me to the Divine Syndicate.”

  “In case you hadn’t heard, they just got their asses handed to them,” the driver said.

  Zale turned on the radio and cranked up the volume. “Get me back there now, please.” His tone sounded urgent.

  Holding the radio, he listened for Anna or for anything to indicate she hadn’t been destroyed. He heard only silence.

  “Are you okay?” Trevor asked.

  Sweat ran into Zale’s eyes. He wiped his forehead and pushed his damp hair back from his face. The woman he longed for like no other had been captured. No, he wasn’t okay.

  To make matters worse, he felt sick and exhausted. The pounding in his skull wouldn’t stop. He needed to rest, if only for a little bit.

  He lowered the radio and laid sideways on the backseat. “The office is a block from the Capitol. Please take me there. Everyone’s survival is at stake.”

  In the grand scheme of things, he hadn’t lied. One woman couldn’t save mankind, but she sure as hell played a vital role.

  “Shit, Zale, you look ready to pass out. You need a doctor,” Trevor said.

  “No!” He snapped and a sledgehammer hit his head, or so it felt like it. “I’ll be okay. It’s the gas. I breathed too much of it. I just need a few minutes to rest. Wake me up when we get there. Okay?”

  Trevor disappeared from between the seats. “You heard him. Head toward the Capitol.”

  Zale closed his eyes. He couldn’t think straight, but he knew he had to save Anna. If he was going to be of any use he had to rest first and get rid of the pain in his skull. He prayed for strength for himself and Anna before he passed out.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Smacks on the side of her cheek brought Anna from the darkness.

  “Wake up,” a man said.

  A harsher slap to her face stung and her ear started ringing. She lifted her heavy eyelids. The man standing before her had short red hair. Freckles spotted his face. He stood shorter than the average man and wore a green short-sleeved button down over beige pants. His dark eyes matched the night sky from behind him. Having seen his picture before, she recognized him.

  “That’s better. We need to have a small chat,” Rodney said.

  She brushed her feet over a cold surface to stand. Her entire body ached when she placed her weight on her legs and feet. The pressure on her wrists and shoulders lessened. She tried to move her arms. Metal rubbed against her wrists and scraped something above her. Looking up, each of her wrists had been bound separately by chains to a large pipe in the unfinished ceiling.

  “You can try to get away, but you’ll only hurt yourself more,” Rodney said.

  She believed him. Pain pulsed through her from the multiple shots she’d taken. The blood loss had weakened her. She doubted she could break the pipe since she had so little strength. Her efforts would do more harm than good to her dehydrated body.

  She chilled from a light brush of air as a man walked past her. She lowered her gaze and discovered her clothes had been removed except for her underwear and bra. Dark dried blood covered the parts of her body she could see. The smell of the coppery fluid clung to her. Thirsting for the vital substance needed to sustain her existence, she licked her cracked lips and her tongue bumped into her lowered canines.

  Rodney crossed his arms. “Need a drink?”

  A shuffling sound beside her stole her attention. Stripped of everything but his boxers, Kurt hung from restraints too. Dried blood caked his body.

  “Look at the bright side, Anna, you’re not alone,” Rodney said.

  She quickly scanned their surroundings. Gaps where windows should be took up half the walls to the left and in front of her. The glass frames leaned against walls as if someone were going install windows soon. Lights outside appeared distant and lower, indicating they were several stories up. None of the buildings outside looked familiar to her. The drywall hadn’t been primed along one wall. Large tubs and painting supplies sat in the far corner close to where the second man stood. Other building materials had been left scattered around. The man who’d passed her had his hands in the pockets of his jeans while he stared outside through one of the wide gaps.

  “How do you know my name?” she asked.

  Rodney grinned. “You have been on Christopher’s mind for a very long time.”

  “Christopher?”

  “Please tell me you haven’t forgotten him.” Rodney twisted around, glanced at the man, and then returned his gaze to her. “I don’t think he’d like to hear that.”

  “I don’t know of any Christopher.”

  The only one she knew had to be dead since she’d injured him over a century ago. If by chance he had survived, his body would’ve died at some point.

  Rodney’s eyes widened and he lowered his arms. “Shame on you. How could you forget your old lover?”

  If her heart had been beating it would’ve stilled. “Christopher is dead.” At least she believed he was since most human bodies lasted less than one hundred years.

  “Are you certain of that? Did you see him die?”

  “No, but…”

  “You think because you’d beaten him to the point of death that he should’ve died?”

  “Yes. How do you know so much?”

  Footsteps shuffled behind Rodney as the man approached.

  Rodney shook his head. “Anna, you disappoint me and him.”

  The man with dark colored skin stopped next to Rodney. He stood taller than his redheaded friend. Short black curls covered his head. The mug shot she’d seen of Reggie showed him with a beard. Now, he had a goatee. Black eyes stared at her.

  “I’m sure he looks much different from the last time you saw Christopher,” Rodney said.

  “Hello Anna,” Reggie said with a crooked grin. “Good to see you again. It’s been a long time.”

  She instinctively tugged on the chains and they scraped over the pipe.

  “I’m not sure she’s happy to see you, Christopher,” Rodney said.

  Anger boiled within her. She didn’t want to believe the man she’d once loved had survived. It seemed too unreal, too impossible. Only a
master could…

  “You did it. You helped him switch bodies over the years. Didn’t you?” she asked.

  Rodney’s grin stretched. “Christopher and I go way back. I was there for him in the beginning when you refused him immortality time and time again.”

  “What?” she asked, surprised.

  “Matthew was my closest friend when we were together,” Reggie said. “Remember meeting him on the night of the Fourth of July? I think it had been 1894.”

  Anna recalled the memory. She and Christopher had been living together for nine years before he’d introduced her to Matthew, his friend from his job. The three of them were to watch the fireworks above the White River on the holiday. Matthew had arrived for introductions and then left. He’d claimed he had to care for his sick son. She’d never detected he was a demon. He’d spent maybe two minutes in her presence and he’d avoided eye contact the entire time.

  “I remember,” she said.

  “Matthew told me how I could live forever. He agreed to help me if I helped him,” Reggie said.

  “Did he convince you to sell your soul?” she asked.

  “It was a small price to pay,” Reggie said.

  “I knew you’d try to exorcise him,” Rodney said. “I couldn’t have that.”

  “All for the best,” Reggie said. “After you let me go, he helped me jump into another body. The human you’d beaten died a few days later. By the way, thank you for letting me walk away. It’s nice to finally say that to you.”

  She yanked on the chains and growled. Rage filled her. God help her, she wanted to kill the two. She wanted their blood on her hands. How many lives had they destroyed? How many demons had they brought over? She wanted to send the evil beasts to Hell once and for all to stop the madness.

  “I don’t think she’s happy to see you,” Rodney said.

  When the throb in her head became unbearable, she stopped pulling on her restraints. “I will send both of you back to Hell,” she said from behind her clenched teeth.

  “We’ll see about that,” Rodney snickered.

  Reggie withdrew his phone from one of his pockets. He held it up in front of him and then stepped back. Rodney moved aside while Reggie snapped a photo of her.

  “Why come for me? If you wanted to say thank you, you could’ve sent a card,” she said.

  Reggie took another picture before he lowered the cell. “Well, I did send a friend to collect you, but he never returned. You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to Tim, would you?”

  Tim had broken into her house before she’d arrived home. Her donor, Wesley, sensed Tim was going to hurt him, so he shot Tim. The non-possessed human died from his injury.

  “He’s dead,” she said. “How did you know where I lived?”

  “We tried to get the information from Bethany, but she didn’t seem to know your location,” Rodney said.

  “I knew we would never find your address from another vampire. And I was right. It took a while, but I found it. I sent Tim out the same night,” Reggie said with a smile.

  “While Reggie managed to obtain your address through his resources, Bethany proved useful in other ways. She told us about some important vampires and your partner, Glenn. Apparently they were good friends. His home had been easy to find.”

  “You sick bastards,” she said.

  “After Tim failed to report back to me and you didn’t return to your home, I had to think of another way to collect you,” Reggie said. “I figured you would show up to save Glenn. I wasn’t too surprised when our men were unsuccessful at capturing you. I told Rodney you were a fighter.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question. How did you find my home?” she asked in a snippy tone, irritated with them beating around the bush. She wanted an answer.

  “If you must know, I hired a few people to look at property records,” Reggie said. “I gave them an idea of what kind of property you liked. It took over a year of sifting through documents in the city’s basement and recorder’s office, but one of them finally found properties you owned over the last fifty years. You change your last name, but always keep Anna.”

  Stunned, she had no words to speak. The man who had once loved her had turned into a malicious beast. He’d spent over a year trying to find her address. She couldn’t think of enough hateful words to describe him.

  “I wasn’t sure we’d capture you tonight,” Rodney said. “We sent several demons out to get your attention. We had no idea if any had delivered the message or not.”

  “I knew someone would get the information to you,” Reggie said. “And I knew you would lead the agents in.”

  “We’d hoped to get more of you, but I’m guessing someone tipped you off to evacuate,” Rodney said.

  “So you planned the gathering in an effort to get me?” she asked.

  “Not just you,” Rodney said. “We’d hoped to take out a large portion of the Divine Syndicate. I’m disappointed we failed.”

  “I’m happy. I got what I wanted,” Reggie said.

  Anna shook her head in disbelief. “Why?”

  “I wanted this moment to be memorable. I wanted you to see how far we’ve come. The two of us have helped each other become stronger. Until I became a master, I found people for Matthew to use as hosts. Once I survived a century and became a master, we worked together and brought over twice as many brothers and sisters. We can finally achieve what we deserve. Maybe you won’t see when we rule, but I wanted you to know we will have our time and it’s coming soon. And I have you to thank for it all because you didn’t kill me.”

  “No,” she said. “No!” She ground her teeth and pulled on the chains.

  Regret burned within her. She didn’t want to believe she had caused so much bloodshed. But he was right. If she’d only killed him, the city wouldn’t be overrun with demons. Vampires, including Glenn, would still be walking the Earth. She hung her head low and prayed for forgiveness. She’d made a grave mistake by letting Christopher walk away that night. Somehow, she had to make amends.

  Reggie pointed his phone at Kurt.

  “Why the pictures?” Kurt asked. “You made your point with her.”

  Behind the masters, Anna noticed the color of the sky had lightened. Dawn was approaching.

  “We have plans for you and the Divine Syndicate,” Rodney said. “We’ll let them know we have you and see if they’ll negotiate with us. Don’t be offended if they don’t.”

  Anna prayed they wouldn’t. “So what then?”

  “Tonight we’ll have a chat. If one of you gives me the information I seek, I’ll let you go. And that is a promise,” Rodney said.

  “You’ll get nothing from us,” she snapped.

  The two demons grinned at each other.

  “We’ll see,” Rodney said as he stepped closer. “Until tonight, you’re going to hang out here.”

  Reggie chuckled. “Get it, hang out?”

  “I regret letting you live,” she said, glaring at him. She’d never hated someone so much. She wished he’d have a slow and painful death. Regardless of the fact he was a master, he’d sold his soul. The only way to send him to Hell was to kill the body he housed. And she craved to be the one to do it.

  “Look at the bright side,” Rodney said and outstretched his arms. “The sun will rise within the next twenty minutes and you’ll have a wonderful view all day long.”

  Kurt pulled on his chains. “You won’t get away with this. The DS will stop you.”

  “I think you’re mistaken. We’ve been planning this for a very long time. We will have our day,” Rodney said.

  “You won’t have your day, ever. The Divine Syndicate and Union of Justice will stop you,” she said.

  Rodney raked his gaze down her body. “I can see why he liked you. We’re going to have fun chatting tonight. I’ll have a few instruments with me too, in case you’re not up to talking.”

  “There’s nothing you can do that will
make me give information to you,” she said.

  Rodney gave a crooked grin. “We’ll see about that.”

  “She’s mine, remember?” Reggie asked.

  Rodney turned his attention to Reggie. “Of course she is. You can cut her up however you please.”

  Reggie smiled as he approached her. “I’ve waited a long time for this. I’m going to take my time and enjoy every minute of your screams and cries for me to stop.”

  She gathered what little bit of fluid she had and spit it at him. Unfortunately, not much blood splattered on him.

  Laughing, he wiped his face with his hand. “Have fun in the sun.”

  Reggie and Ronald started to walk around her. With the little strength she had, she lifted her legs and shoved them toward Reggie. He saw her coming and moved out of the way to miss her kick. His laugh sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard.

  “You’re right, she has spunk. She’ll be tough to break,” Rodney said.

  “I’ll do my best,” Reggie said.

  “I’m sure you will.”

  Their footsteps along with their heartbeats grew distant.

  Kurt grunted while he tried to get out of the restraints. Anna began tugging too. She’d hoped her bones would break so her hands could squeeze through, but the chains had been wrapped tight around her wrists and she lacked the strength to pull hard enough.

  The sky had lightened more. She twisted around to find more open windowless frames behind them. Plastic tarps lay on the ground in several areas. They had no curtains or barriers to offer any shade and the only wall was to their right. Although the sun wouldn’t destroy them, it would burn them and create excruciating pain.

  Anna had survived a few minutes in the daylight once. During the last outbreak, the team she’d been with had fought all night and ventured too far from home base. They’d had a vehicle, but it had run out of gas. They’d made it to a cemetery with vaults minutes after sunrise. The pain from the rays had been the most unbearable she’d ever felt.

  With the sun rising came the pressure to sleep. The throb in her head intensified as she resisted.