by Melody Raven
He wasn’t wearing the military fatigues of so many of the other soldiers, so Dante couldn’t tell what agency he represented, and Samuel hadn’t offered.
Not that it mattered. He’d never see him again after tonight. Dante shrugged. “I’ll figure it out before sunrise.”
“We’re not close to being done. I still haven’t confirmed that you are who you say you are.”
“And you’re not going to. I covered my tracks well enough. If my people found out I was aiding the human resistance, I’d be dead in seconds. But I’ve given you the dates; your inside source fed you information and I told you what that information was. If that isn’t enough, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“The only reason you weren’t killed on the spot is because Tela vouched for you.”
At this point, the humans had to have some trust in him. He wasn’t surrounded by fifty armed guards, so that was something. Or maybe it was just showing how low the humans’ resources were. They were trying to restore order to an entire city. With all these tall buildings, there were a lot places for a scared Vopura to nest. Best to not focus on the ones not actively trying to kill them.
“Where is Tela now?”
“She and John are safe with us,” said a new voice.
Dante looked over his shoulder to see a vampire next to Samuel. He frowned. He’d seen this one earlier. Right after John had killed Mikel. One of the locals. The vampires who were there before.
“Hey, you can’t be here,” said Samuel, even though he didn’t move.
Smart man. Without backup, there wouldn’t be much he could do.
“I’m here for Dante. We have a lot to talk about.”
Dante glanced out the window once more and looked over the ruins of the city he had helped rule over for the past few months. His own were being hunted down like dogs, and Cora could be anywhere. He didn’t have time for any of this diplomatic bullshit. He let out a deep sigh. “Let’s get this over with.”
Alyssa had a problem. She could manipulate the public to believe almost anything. She was good at her job. Damn good.
But this particular task was on a whole other level. This job was attempting to change the course of history. If she couldn’t pull off what she was trying to do, General Wesley was going to make sure that she was the one who paid the price.
So she threw herself into the task in front of her. For hours, she worked harder than she ever had in her life. Right now, it was all a numbers game. One giant to-do list she had to tackle piece by piece.
First of all, she booted up fake sites on all the darkest, deepest corners of the internet. Sure, she would hit up some of the big boards soon, but conspiracy theories always started at the bottom. She planted a few seeds here and there, using fake accounts to accuse the government of being behind the siege and yelling “COVER-UP” wherever she could. A government experiment gone wrong wasn’t all that plausible, but it seemed a hell of a lot more likely than vampires. Luckily, she wasn’t the only one putting that theory out there. A few of the foil hats were already going in that direction, so she made sure those posts got more visibility.
After singling out a few of the more credible-looking profiles, she set up a bot farm to give those real profiles some love. She started running a program that, at random intervals every hour, would give the posts she wanted to promote a hundred upvotes. That would make sure they stayed at the top of the pages and the mysterious internet algorithms would work in their favor.
But that was only half of her task. She had to make sure the alternative—in this case, the truth—was far too ridiculous. So she worked on setting up other fake accounts. These were to add comments on any posts that supported the idea of vampires actually existing. The trick was to fill those replies with so much crazy fervor and enthusiasm that they would automatically discredit themselves.
And the third prong of her approach, the hardest, was that she had to discredit the actual evidence. And there was a lot of it.
Even though internet had been cut off from the city, people still had cell phones and electronics galore. There were so many videos being released to every video service online. It would be impossible to discredit every one.
But luckily she had help. Outsourcing help. Using a few different dummy accounts, she got busy hiring technicians overseas. She sent out a list of about a hundred videos that an army of technicians would waste no time pointing out every single thing in those videos that could possibly be done digitally. Luckily, movies had advanced so far these days that CGI was a household term. The simplest solution was usually the correct one, and that was going to work in her favor. Because vampires sure as hell were not the simplest solution.
It was two in the afternoon when she pushed her laptop away from her. She was so sick of looking at computer screens. Her eyes were burning and her head was aching. She still had an overflowing to-do list with hundreds of items she needed to check off her spreadsheet, but for the moment she felt on top of things. Which was good, because if she didn’t eat, her stomach was going to revolt. She let her head fall back against the computer chair and looked around at the workroom.
It was a nice place that the army had “procured” for her. The house was on the outskirts of the city, and from the looks of the deserted houses they’d passed on the way, every home in the neighborhood had probably been worth over seven figures.
This house had two levels, and the military had set up this computer lab throughout two bedrooms upstairs. That would keep any curious passersby who were still in the habit of looting from seeing the massive computer setup too easily.
The bottom windows had been boarded up, but none of the glass was actually broken. It seemed to have avoided some of the worst looting. Joshua had left her a handgun and a few boxes of ammunition, even though he’d warned her they wouldn’t do much against a real vampire. Apparently her best bet was to stay inside past dark just in case.
She hoped the vampires had spread out far and wide by now. It wouldn’t make catching them easier, but it sure as hell would make her feel better to know they weren’t wandering around looking for a meal at night.
She pushed away from her desk and walked slowly out of the room and down the hall, taking time to stretch her stiff muscles. It was good she was taking a break now. This time of the year, it would get dark early and she needed to do any supply runs as soon as possible. The creaking stairs gave the old Victorian home a little bit too much character for her taste. The downstairs was decorated in dated floral wallpaper and lace curtains. She was going to guess whoever lived here was well over Social Security age. Joshua had assured her that the homeowners weren’t going to come back to try to claim the house anytime soon, and that gave her a sinking feeling about what might’ve happened to them.
Living in a dead person’s house while vampires could be lurking anywhere—this wasn’t creepy at all.
It was times like this she was grateful she lived in an apartment. That way, if there was ever trouble or danger, she could just scream and she always knew somebody was around. This whole place was isolated. There were a few survivors who stuck it out, but as soon as the wall came down, they’d booked it, all too relieved to be out of this prison. Considering she was doing a covert job, with the mass amount of electronics pulling surges of electricity, an apartment building would never work. But she was allowed to have wishful thoughts.
She got to the kitchen and pulled a glass out of the pantry before filling it with tap water. The brown rusty water that came out let her know exactly how long it had been since this house had been lived in. Joshua told her the water was safe to drink, but considering her current job, she was in no mood to trust the government. Time for that supply run.
On the counter was the set of car keys Joshua had left for her and the envelope full of money. A big ol’ manila envelope full of money. Figured the government would pay her in cash. That way no one could trace it. But hey, this job might kill her. So she really wouldn’t feel bad when she didn�
�t pay taxes.
This was just a retainer. She knew that if she kept this conspiracy going, there’d be a lot more for her next month, too.
If she was smart, she could make this one-month payment last all year. She grabbed the bulging, thick envelope and plucked a few hundreds out. Then she took half the cash and tucked it in one of the dark corners of the top shelf in the kitchen and brought the other half upstairs with her. She couldn’t bring all the computer equipment with her, but most of it she didn’t care about. It was all supplied by the government and they were probably tracking every electronic motion she made. But her laptop? That baby was not going to leave her side. If there were still looters around, she wasn’t going to give them anything she could prevent.
She stared at the gun on one of the desks in the computer room. She wasn’t a fan of the dangerous things, but she couldn’t afford to be too idealistic. The handgun was in a sturdy holster. She gently removed it and fiddled around until she found the magazine release. Even as the magazine fell into her hand, she made sure she never pointed the gun at herself or any of the computers. Sure enough, the magazine was fully loaded. She loaded the magazine back in the gun and put it back in the holster.
The thick holster was designed to clip onto a belt, but Alyssa didn’t want to advertise that she was carrying. She would rather not use the gun. Her normal defense strategy was to appear small and weak until all the threats went away. And then she could attack with her mighty computer.
She didn’t know the rules of this mini apocalypse, and she was going to play it safe as long as possible. She tucked the gun into her computer bag but kept it unzipped in case she needed to get easy access. From there, she went back downstairs and into the garage. The home was so old that the garage had to be a later addition that blended seamlessly with the rest of the house. After climbing inside the very new-looking Ford Explorer, she hit the little button to raise the garage door and took a deep breath.
She’d been out at night yesterday, but it felt so much safer with Joshua and the military crawling all around. Here, on the outskirts, she had no idea what she’d find. But it wasn’t as if she were going to be out long. Joshua had pointed out where the grocery store was on the way in. Just half a mile down the road. As soon as she was out of the subdivision, she turned right and it would be right there.
Nothing to be scared of. No creatures waiting to jump out of her from the shadows.
She thought again of the vampire she met the night before. Well, “met” was an overstatement. He hardly introduced himself. What would’ve happened if Joshua hadn’t come by? What if he decided he was hungry and had taken a bite? To take revenge on the humans for foiling their master invasion plan?
Hell, she should write all of her fears into an online post. It would sound crazy enough for no one to believe.
That vampire was long gone, though. And hopefully anybody who saw her would think she was small potatoes and move on. Unthreatening. The best way to be. Taking a deep breath, she threw the car in reverse and headed to the grocery store.
The subdivision seemed normal enough, but the store had undeniable signs of the war that had just waged here. The windows had been smashed in long ago. The big sheets of plywood that now protected the store from the elements were foreboding, even in the daylight as shoppers walked past with their carts full of groceries. The normal supply chain wasn’t exactly back in effect, but the army had supplied a number of dry goods and water. Everything was strewn about and on pallets, so it made for a quick shopping trip. She stuck to necessities: water, apples, peanut butter, then eggs, milk, and some snack foods. She wasn’t going to be making any gourmet meals on this job. But the less she spent, the more she’d save. Which was good because the food prices here were sky-high. She would think with the military supplying them, the grocery store could cool it on the inflation, but she wasn’t about to call the manager and raise a fuss about it. Better to keep a low profile and to play nice. After she loaded up the car, she let out a sigh of relief. Boom. Supply run done.
She could go for a change of clothes, but didn’t think retail stores were open. She didn’t want to push her luck on the daylight. Besides, she had a mountain of work to do still. Hopefully she could get back, have a bite to eat, and take a quick power nap before plowing through another night.
She was just a few houses down from her safe house when she saw the first sign of life in the subdivision. A group of men were huddled around something in one of the front yards. Alyssa knew she should just keep driving, but curiosity caused her to take her foot off the gas so she could roll by slowly. The next few seconds were a blur. One of the four men poured liquid on a lump on the grass. She couldn’t see what it was because it was covered by a blanket.
Before she could figure out what they were dousing, another man lit a match. He dropped it on the lump and a ball of fire shot up from the fabric. Alyssa thought it was weird, but that’s not what made her stop the SUV.
What made her stop was when something under the blanket started to move.
Alyssa immediately slammed on the brakes and was bombarded with her own racing thoughts. She could keep driving. Nobody would ever know. This wasn’t her fight. It wasn’t her problem.
How could she just leave? Something had moved. Something alive. She’d seen enough animal cruelty videos to know the depths that men could sink to.
Fuck. The word raced through her mind on an endless loop as she reached into her open computer bag and pulled out the very thing she had never wanted to use. By then, the adrenaline was pumping fast and hard through her veins and she embraced it.
She let that surge of strength, bravery, and stupidity lead her. She got out of the car and pulled the gun out of the holster. “Back off!” she screamed as she pointed her gun wildly at the group of men. She wasn’t exactly a crack shot. It had been years since she’d been to the gun range. There were four guys there and maybe twelve bullets in the magazine. Why hadn’t she counted? That was good information to know!
“Back off!” she repeated. Four guys, twelve bullets, she thought again. Maybe. The math wasn’t terrible, but she also wasn’t a good shot. She would just have to pretend like she’d come across a bear in the woods. Make herself seem big and scary and hopefully they just went away. Odd, because big and scary was the exact opposite of her normal existence. She did all of her threatening from behind a computer screen.
One of the guys turned and saw the gun. She knew the exact moment he saw it as his entire body went tense and he physically jumped back. His buddies noticed his change. They tensed for a fight, and she doubled down on her bravado.
“Go!” she screamed, trying not to look at the ground. The smell of smoke wafted over to her, making her eyes burn, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. She’d get them away as quick as possible. So she did the quickest and fastest thing she could do to scare them. She aimed the gun away from the men and toward the ground. What was she supposed to do? If she shot one of them in the leg, then they couldn’t run. The exact opposite of what she wanted. So the ground it was, she thought as she pulled the trigger.
That moment might have been the most terrifying second of her life. She wasn’t ignorant. There were so many variables someone was supposed to think of before actually firing a weapon. Was there anybody else around? Do the people really deserve to be shot at? And worst of all, she’d fired a warning shot, which was never supposed to happen.
But as ill-advised as it was, it worked. The men turned and booked it, disappearing around the corner of the nearest house. She finally looked down to what was burning, pulling the still smoking blanket away. Instead of some poor injured cat or dog like she’d been expecting, a girl lay on the grass, screaming. A young girl, maybe ten, maybe seven. Alyssa didn’t really do kids. Even though the blanket was gone, she still seemed to be burning, her skin blistering and peeling right before Alyssa’s eyes as she continued screaming in pain. It was only when she saw the fangs through the girl’s screams that Alyss
a realized what was happening.
The men had set a vampire on fire.
Alyssa went on autopilot. She knew this was a vampire, and obviously it was dangerous, but it was just a kid. She didn’t have a maternal bone in her body, but something in her head had her unzipping her sweatshirt and throwing it unceremoniously on top of the poor thing. Her screams immediately died down to a small whimper as Alyssa tried to cover as much of her as possible from the sun. She was still holding the gun in her right hand and glanced around once more for any sign of the men. “Fuck.” And then she mentally cursed again when she realized she shouldn’t be cursing in front of a kid. It was a vampire kid, though. She must’ve heard language like that before, right?
She was officially out of her depth. She should call Joshua. The military had to have something set up to handle stray vampires. She sure as hell wasn’t equipped to deal with this.
The vampire whimpered and curled into the fetal position on the ground, trying to get as much skin under the cover of the sweatshirt as possible.
She couldn’t just leave her here. Who knew if those men would be back with their own weapons soon?
She cursed under her breath again as she leaned in close to the girl. “I’m going to pick you up. It’s probably going to hurt. Please don’t kill me.”
She debated putting the gun in the back of her pants, like she’d seen so many others do on TV and in the movies, but she doubted the elastic was strong enough to hold the heavy gun, and she really didn’t want to point it anywhere near her body, even if it was just for a moment. So instead, she kept it carefully in her hands, her finger off the trigger, as she worked one arm under the girl’s legs and one behind her back. She was so small and light that it was easy to pick her up. Vampire or not, she couldn’t imagine what had made those men do this. Why did they want to bring so much pain to this tiny creature?
She pushed herself up. Even though the girl was so small, Alyssa almost fell backward as she got used to the awkward weight. As soon as she was steady, she ran for the car. The girl let out a loud moan, and she could hear the snap, crackle, and sizzle of the sun hitting other parts of her skin. Shit, this had to be painful. Luckily, the sun was getting lower in the sky, so once she was close enough to the Explorer, the shadow of the vehicle was enough to protect the small vampire. Alyssa set the girl down just long enough to pull the door open and then moved to help her inside. But in the blink of an eye, the girl was in the backseat. She’d moved so fast that Alyssa hadn’t even registered it. It was a stark reminder that this wasn’t a human child. But at the same time, it was a relief that she was healthy enough to move on her own.
