by D. R. Rosier
Gene took a seat, and they started their talk. I just kept a blank face, and stared at my opposites. Nothing really happened either, it all went down as Stuart expected it to. Tad wasn’t even all that annoying to me, since we couldn’t talk. Nothing was really decided of course, but the mayor promised to discuss some of the things they went over with the city council.
I did catch Gene looking at me with annoyance a few times, but it was probably because he couldn’t recognize my race, I hoped the mystery annoyed him. I really didn’t have anything against vampires though, I was just bored. Lisa had told me my scent wasn’t recognizable as siren and dragon, but something unique. At least, for a vampire’s nose it was. I couldn’t imagine there’d be another reason for him to look at me that way…
Chapter Seven
“How was your day?”
We were at home, and my vampire was cooking for me again. She insisted it wasn’t all about the taste of my blood, and I did believe Lisa loved me, but I wasn’t sure if I bought it. Then again, she was a fantastic cook, and I loved her, so hardly begrudged her making my blood more pleasing to her palette.
Lisa shrugged, “Not too bad, got our mark. Yours?”
“Boring. Do you know a council vampire named Gene? He seemed a bit… entitled?”
Lisa snorted, “Dickish you mean? Yeah, he’s one of the smaller players on the council, which is probably why he’s hoofing it around to talk to humans, but he’s been there since the beginning. Why?”
I laughed, “Dickish works too. Hopefully we’re back together tomorrow, I wasn’t cut out for politics, and it isn’t the job I want to do. Why? He kept giving me annoyed looks, I think it’s because he didn’t know what I was.”
Lisa frowned, “Maybe. It shouldn’t be a problem though, you just need to avoid other sirens, and dragons.”
I grunted in agreement, snuck up behind and wrapped my arms around her, and then nuzzled her hair.
“I’m moving into your room.”
Lisa pushed back against me, “You are?” she asked with a pleased lilt.
It seemed almost silly, we were already living together as roommates and lovers, and most nights we ended up in her room anyway, but it was still a step forward, wasn’t it? An… official acknowledgement of what we’ve become. I belonged to my crazy little vampire. She was my best friend, and lover. I didn’t have all that many friends. She was the only woman who I didn’t set on edge, and although most men liked me because of what I was, that wasn’t true friendship.
Sirens were solitary beings for that very reason, and true love was rare.
“That’s my evil plan,” I kissed the side of her neck, and then backed off. I always wanted her, but she was cooking me dinner.
Lisa sighed, “Such a slut.”
I laughed, “Love you too.”
She grinned at me, “I bought you a surprise today, you’ll have to wait to find out what it is.”
I found out later that night, that the surprise involved silk rope, and various toys. It was a very good night…
The phone rang on the drive into the office the next morning. Caller I.D. showed me it was work, which was a little bit of a surprise.
“Hello?”
Pricilla replied, “One moment.”
A few seconds later Brent said, “Where are you?”
I exchanged a look with Lisa.
I replied, “We’re on the way in, what’s going on?”
Brent answered, “I’m sending a file to your phone. There’s a mage elf named Jarnis, a terrorist. He believes supernatural beings should be in charge of the world, not humans.”
I rolled my eyes. Elves were usually arrogant, but not insane. Humans were squishy and weak, except there were billions of them, and they had weapons. It was something that happened on occasion, luckily there weren’t that many supernatural terrorists. Problem was, it would set off a bunch of anti-supernatural rhetoric in human groups, who thought we were all evil.
“Alright, what did he do, and what do you need?”
Brent said, “He’s been on a wanted list for a long time, and he just showed up here in Dallas. Right now, he’s holding several hundred human hostages in the lobby of a high-rise building, and they’re under his sway with magic. He’s making demands that the mayor surrender the city to him, and he’s already executed one of them by sending them out and forcing them to commit suicide before the police and cameras.”
“That’s nuts.”
Brent grunted, “Take him down, permanently. He’s been convicted in another state.”
“Why us? I mean we’ll do it of course, but can’t a SWAT team take him out?”
Trained humans shouldn’t have trouble taking out one elf during a crisis situation. We usually got involved for skips or escaped criminals, because the humans couldn’t afford to send out a whole SWAT team loaded for bear every time, but in a hostage situation they probably had every cop on duty in the city on this. Probably the local FBI office as well.
Brent said, “They’re reporting he took over the buildings wards somehow, no human can get close to the perimeter of the building without being zapped. They already tried to send a team in and it didn’t go well.”
I frowned, “And you think the wards won’t attack one of us?”
Brent replied, “That’s what you’re going to find out.”
I replied, “Right, so get through mage wards without magic, and take out an elf who has control over a few hundred human shields to hide behind, and is probably faster on his feet than both of us, and has magic. Piece of cake boss.”
Brent ground his teeth, and I winked over at Lisa who was trying not to laugh. I couldn’t help it, I might not be a bitch anymore, but teasing the boss was one of my favorite past times. Still, it was all true enough, this could go bad in so many different ways. Fighting a mage wasn’t nearly as bad as fighting an entrenched mage that knew we or someone like us had to be coming.
Brent said, “Get it done, read the files I sent.”
I looked at Lisa and sighed, “He hung up.”
She giggled, “Can’t imagine why.”
I opened the data file on my phone app, and gave Lisa the address.
Lisa bit her lip, “That building has a coffee shop, bank, restaurant, and convenience shop in the lobby.”
“Well, that explains how he got so many hostages so early in the morning. Plus, they won’t have to make demands for food.”
Lisa snorted, “Right, but what if…”
“Oh shit.”
Lisa asked, “What?”
I sighed, “Brent did those wards.”
That wasn’t good. My side of Walker security was fine, we didn’t have any serious competitors for executions or tracking skips in the city, but I knew the ward side of the business was in trouble. Especially with our boyfriend’s latest breakthroughs in wards, Harold was a genius and doing things no one else was in that field. The fact that Brent’s wards have a vulnerability like that can’t be good for his prospects.
“What if what?” I asked.
Lisa said, “Either he’s really nuts, or the whole turn over the city thing could be a smokescreen. Maybe he’s really there to rob the bank.”
“Does that change our approach?”
Though I didn’t really have a plan yet, except of course, to go in there and put an iron bullet in his brain pan. Preferably before he could kill all the hostages. If he really had them be-spelled, he could order them all to kill themselves at once.
Lisa shrugged, “Only in our estimate of him. Either he’s bugfuck nuts, or clever.”
“Let’s assume he’s clever then. Avoid the front entrance? According to the files there’s a delivery entrance in the back, or we can ingress from the roof.”
The building had a bullet proof glass face, he’d be able to see us coming from the front.
Lisa said, “Back entrance might be trapped, but if we came in on the roof the wards would tell him, and he’d have way too much reaction time by the time we re
ached the lobby.”
I frowned, “Right. Let’s see what the officers on site knows, they might have camera access, or may be able to tell us something useful.”
This kind of thing wasn’t something we’d really done before, I was a little nervous at the idea of being responsible for rescuing several hundred hostages.
She pulled over at least two blocks away.
“No way I’m parking close, personal car.”
I laughed, and we got out. I strapped the sword to my back, and verified my load out, then we jogged the couple of blocks. The officer on the perimeter widened his eyes at our approach, but thankfully didn’t panic. We showed our IDs and were passed through quickly to a large police van.
When we walked up inside I got a surprise.
“Hi Dan. What’s going on in there?”
Dan Grimes was a Marshall we met last week, his partner Halley Nichols was there as well, but I didn’t even acknowledge her. Not to be rude, it was just better that way.
Dan smiled at me, which made Halley clench her teeth. I wondered if they still had a thing or not.
“It isn’t good. We don’t have eyes, he took out all the cameras with little fireballs.”
I sighed, and exchanged a glace with Lisa. Well, stopping had been a waste of time.
“Alright, we’re going to ingress at the loading dock for the restaurant. Assuming the ward lets us in there that is.”
Lisa nodded, “We’ll hit him hard and fast, and hope for the best, unless the mayor wants to turn over the city?”
Dan snorted, “Good luck. I’ll try and distract him with a call, but I doubt it will be effective, he’ll feel it when you hit the wards.”
I nodded in agreement, this was going to be a pain in the ass. I wondered if Dan was the reason we were here, I mean, did he specifically request us?
We went back outside and ran around the outside of the building. The back door was metal in a cement frame, and there was a door buzzer. Lisa took out some lock picks, and had the door opened in seconds, score one for vampire dexterity.
The wards felt wrong and like going through molasses. I felt violated, though it still wasn’t nearly as bad as the wards that Harold had on his house, he had some serious enemies. Pretty much every mage that made wards for a living.
We raced through the restaurant in a moment, there was no point in trying for stealth, speed was our only advantage at this point. He had to know we’d made it inside the building. I pulled out my gun as I took in the lobby, he had several hundred people standing in front of the glass, they all looked like they were in a trance, but there was no sign of him. That couldn’t be good. I concentrated on my magic, and heard the elf’s song, maybe Lisa had been right about him.
“Bank.”
Lisa moved that way and I followed at top speed. I was stronger than Lisa, but she was still much faster, even with my speed boost from being so well fed with energy as a siren the last week. I fell a little behind as we raced through the lobby and into the bank, and headed straight for the open vault.
She drew her sword and raced in, and then cried out in pain and fell to the ground before the elf.
I lifted my gun, and pointed it at the elf’s head, it would be a tricky shot with humans standing in front of him, but he was very tall, and I had a clear shot at his forehead. Then I felt the wards swat me down like a fly, and it was me screaming on the floor.
Jarnis laughed, and then walked between his humans into the open. Several humans were loading money into their clothes, what was his plan? Let them go, and get the money from them later? Maybe he was crazy. Then again maybe not, it was doubtful the authorities would search the hostages at the end of all this.
“The wards belong to me now, and only I’m authorized to commit violence right now.”
Right, wards could be set up to stop violent citizens, our badges were keyed to wards, or most wards, to allow us to do our jobs. He must have twisted or taken out that part.
Fucking elves.
He lifted his hand and muttered a few words, and he was suddenly holding a fireball. I managed to roll when he threw it, even though my muscles felt like jelly. I clenched my jaw against the pain, and then started to sing a few notes of confusion. The pain grew worse, but a confused look came over his face, and several of the humans started to shake their heads. Maybe I’d confused him enough that he lost a grip on the spells he’d cast.
I concentrated harder, felt stronger, and his eyes widened as I pulled a throwing dagger from my sleeve and flicked it at him. He dodged to the side, so it got him in the shoulder instead of the throat, and he screamed in anger and pain.
I felt the wards power weaken further, maybe whatever he’d done wasn’t permanent, and between the singing I was doing, and the pain in his shoulder, he couldn’t hold it. Either way, I lifted my gun and shot him twice in the chest as he dove behind a counter.
I stopped singing when his song died.
“You’re glowing blue.”
I looked at Lisa in confusion.
“Elemental magic, you fought off the wards.”
I shook my head, “I thought he lost control over them.”
Maybe he’d been looking at me in shock because I’d been glowing, as well as the song I mean.
Lisa shook her head, “I still can’t do anything violent, I feel the wards strangling me if I even think about it. What he did to the people was temporary, but the ward change was permanent.”
I frowned, and then looked down at myself. I was still glowing blue.
What the fuck?
Lisa said, “Stop if you can, I think your water magic is shielding you with a raw aura of power. You don’t want the humans seeing it, and they’re coming out of their daze.”
I frowned, if that was the case, what else could I do with water magic? It wasn’t like I could go out and find a water dragon mentor. I’d have to figure it out the hard way, like I’d figured out my siren magic. I tried to relax, and as the glow went away I felt the wards again. It was invasive, my body felt molested, and not in a good way. I shook my head and put away my weapon, which seemed to help.
“Any idea what that’s about?”
Lisa shrugged, “Dragons are very resistant to the magic of mages. You’re lucky all the cameras are knocked out. We’ll talk about it later.”
I nodded, and looked around, all the humans looked confused. I pulled Lisa back up to her feet, and we went into the lobby.
“Can I have your attention!”
The humans looked over.
“The Elf that did this is gone, and you’re all safe, except he’s twisted the wards. I don’t think it would be a good idea for any of you to try leaving, until we can fix the outer ward barrier.”
I’d no idea what it would do to them. Maybe nothing. I pulled out my phone, and called Brent.
Pricilla answered, “Walker security.”
“Cilla, I need to talk to Brent.”
She sighed nastily, and the line went silent. A moment later Brent answered.
“Jarnis is dead boss, but we’re not sure what will happen if we let the humans leave the building.”
Brent said, “I’ve got two ward specialists headed your way already. Can you tell me anything?”
I replied, “Besides the external barrier, he messed with the protection protocols. Our ward keys were ignored, but I managed to take him down before the wards took me down.”
I felt a twinge of guilt at the lie, but I really didn’t want Theo finding out that my dragon was waking up, and Brent had given him oaths. I was positive anything Brent learned about me, Theo would know as well. Theo told me last week he’d spared me because my dragon was weak and inviable, I’d like to think my own father wouldn’t kill me now that that’s changed, and there was certainly a chance that was true, but I couldn’t depend on it.
Brent said, “Alright, just hold tight for their arrival.”
“Will do.”
I hung up and looked over at Lisa, “I could use a co
ffee.”
She snorted, and we headed over to the lobby’s coffee shop…
It took about an hour, the mages Brent sent over had to disassemble the wards before the humans could leave, and we stayed to watch their backs since they’d be vulnerable during the process. Something about today was bugging me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
It took another half hour to debrief the Marshalls, and then we headed for the exit when we were finally released. I really wasn’t looking forward to the paperwork. We made it outside and turned in the direction of Lisa’s car and started to walk, when I felt my shoulder blades itch. I didn’t examine the feeling, I just grabbed Lisa and dove to the ground, and then rolled over to a car.
The sharp retort of a sniper’s rifle reached us, and the bullet hit the concrete wall of the building. It was a moment later when the reason for my feeling finally reached my conscious mind.
“Vampire, roof across the street.”
My subconscious mind must have picked up his song, and knew that there was no reason for a vampire to be hanging about on a rooftop. That still shouldn’t have set off a huge alert in my mind, it couldn’t have just been a curiosity thing, people did like to watch drama. I felt like I was missing something. I was also very pissed off, based on where I felt the vampire, and the angles involved, his shot would have hit Lisa if I’d been just a second slower.
Lisa jumped up, and I was on her tail as we ran across the street into an apartment building, and we flew up the stairs toward the roof. She was wicked fast, and I wasn’t so shabby, but it still took a few moments to run up six flights of stairs, and then go up to the roof access door.
She ran out onto the roof, and the vampire was packing away his sniper rifle. He looked up in panic, and then abandoned the rifle and ran across the roof. Not nearly fast enough, Lisa took him down in a tackle before he’d made it fifteen feet.
Her voice was hard, “Who sent you?”
He said, “I don’t know, I was contacted electronically, no names. I assume one of the council, but I truly don’t know.”