by J. P. Rice
The entire situation made me uncomfortable and I regretted having gone along for the mission. However, if I hadn’t been there, the lawyer could have gotten away and Jonathan would have no idea where the portal was located.
Glenda looked up from her phone. “So are we having a slumber party at my house again?”
I smirked and shook my head. “No. I’m going home to spend time with the family. Don’t get too drunk and don’t go too far. I’ll be picking you up around 4 a.m. Make sure you are ready to go then.”
“When am I not ready?” she asked in a tone that insinuated I was an idiot.
“Answer your phone.” I pointed at her cell sitting on the table.
I planned to go home, spend a few hours with Burn and Dante, catch a quick nap and get on the road for Philly.
Chapter 17
I pulled up to the private hangar at Pittsburgh International Airport with a giant smile plastered to my face. If Jonathan wanted to bring his goons along, well then, game on. Jonathan, Del Rubio, Roman and Timson were waiting just inside the hangar. Glenda wasn’t aware of the situation, and I felt bad about it. I had to remain alert in case she got angry and attacked me.
Glenda raised her eyes from her phone, peered through the windshield, and said, “Hell no. Are you fucking kidding me?”
That was a more subdued reaction than I had anticipated. I assured her, “Don’t worry. They won’t do a thing to you.”
“Fuck what they are going to do to me. It’s what I’m going to do to them. Those fuckers.” She grabbed the door handle and went to open her door.
I held my hand up, giving her the stop sign. “Relax for just one second. You’re getting paid a lot of money. You can trash talk these guys as much as you desire, but you should carry out the job. I have a plan with you in mind here. Don’t doubt me.”
“Yeah, whatever, motherfucker.” She slapped my hand away, kicked open the door with her stompin’ boots and stepped out of the vehicle.
I grabbed my bag off the backseat and got out. Jonathan smiled. That was unexpected.
Jonathan approached us, and said, “You’ve decided to turn her over to us.”
I shook my head, my smile fading. “No. Not by a long shot. She’s coming with us on this trip. She’s the best bet to keep these twerps alive on this venture.”
All three vampires tried to talk over each other in objection of Glenda joining us. I spoke over them, “Oh, you guys remember her. She was the one filling you with bullets.”
Jonathan’s face turned purple, his lips pursed in anger. “This is an absolute outrage.”
Glenda retorted, “Chill out, Bella Lugosi, before you die of old age.”
Jonathan’s eyebrows rose up to the middle of his wrinkled forehead. His eyes were filled with rage and bulging from their sockets. The vampire buttoned his purple suit jacket calmly and walked purposefully toward Glenda.
I jumped between them. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we set up some rules?” Nobody really seemed very receptive to my idea, but I went on anyway. “Glenda. You will show Jonathan respect.”
Glenda immediately responded, “The fuck I will.”
I put my open hands up. “Let me finish. You can make fun of these jagoffs over here, but Jonathan is off limits. His position demands respect in Pittsburgh.” I turned to the vampires’ leader. “Jonathan. You will start doing some business with Glenda again, provided she can give you the best prices.”
He scoffed at the idea, “This is absurd. You want me to treat her with respect and do business with this crook. She strong-armed the people at the blood banks, so she could play middle man and make money off us for doing nothing. Why do business with a person like that?”
Glenda looked around me, and yelled, “And what do you do with the blood you sell to the other houses? I know vampires from every house. I know what you pay, and I know what you charge the other houses. Do you want me to go into specific numbers in front of your fuckwits over here?” She used three fingers to point at Jonathan’s underlings.
A streak of alarm lit up Jonathan’s eyes. He spoke in a panicked tone, “No. Shut your big mouth for a second. I suppose there may be a chance that we can work together again, although I might need you to sign a contract.”
“Contract?” Glenda asked.
Jonathan moved me to the side so that he could make eye contact with Glenda. “Yes. A contract stipulating that you will do no further harm to any of my men or my precious house. You will also need to apologize to me for the property damage at my house.”
Glenda avoided eye contact wisely and peered around the hangar. “Do you have anything large and phallically shaped lying around? Cuz if so, you can sit on it.”
I jumped back in between them before something broke out. “Okay. Let’s relax for a moment here. Glenda. He’s only asking you to apologize for the property damage, not shooting these clowns.”
Jonathan objected, “No. The members of the Purple House are my property. They belong to me and I pledged to protect them. That is why it doesn’t sit well with me when someone riddles their bodies with bullets. Capiche?”
So Jonathan was going mob boss now. I turned to Glenda, “I still think it’s the same thing. Just apologize and you can open the business pipeline again. And you’re apologizing to Jonathan, not these stains. Jonathan is a good guy. Just say a few words, and we can relieve a lot of unnecessary tension in Pittsburgh.”
Glenda exhaled through her nose and after ten seconds, I thought she’d never stop. She stood up on her tiptoes and looked at Jonathan, then turned away smartly avoiding eye contact with the vampire who could read minds. It was best not to give him an open gateway.
She bounced up and down looking around the hangar at nobody in particular. “I guess...” she said and mumbled a few unintelligible words.
Jonathan cupped his ear and turned to the side like Hulk Hogan working the crowd. “I’m sorry. Did you say something? You trailed off mightily toward the end.”
Glenda bounced up and down on her feet, almost working herself up for the apology. “I said. I’m ssrury.”
“Is that a word that just came out of your mouth? It sounded like you took Larry and Susy and mashed the names together. Or threw them in a blender. Is that what you just did?” Jonathan’s smirk told me he was having fun with this.
Glenda’s face started to redden, and I didn’t want her to snap. I said, “Glenda. Just say it quickly and we can be done with this spectacle.”
Glenda rolled her eyes. As she shook her head, she spoke in a monotone, void of any emotion. “I’m sorry I fucked up your house and shot these sorry assholes in the process.”
Jonathan pushed me aside again. “Apology accepted.”
Perfect. A backhanded apology. Both sides had won. Glenda had got to keep her edge by slamming the vampire underlings and Jonathan had received the apology a person of his stature deserved and needed to maintain his reputation. Now we could move on.
Chapter 18
The private jet coasted through the clouds en route to Philadelphia. Jonathan, Roman, Timson, Del Rubio, Glenda and I sat around a nice marble table with a rough sketch of the vampires’ house and surroundings. The vampires were all dressed in suits and wore sunglasses with thick lenses. Glenda was wearing camouflage pants and her leather coat.
I felt a bit naked without my skintight protection suit that had been blessed by the Celtic Gods. It didn’t fit right with the suit I was wearing and would have slowed me down in a chase.
Jonathan announced, “They live right in the middle of the city, those crazy bastards.” He pointed to a rectangle on the paper. “Mike and Glenda, you will be posted up on top of this building. We know people who work inside the building that can get you on the roof. We have planted sniper rifles with suppressors up there, so they won’t know where the shots are coming from. If it comes down to that. Hopefully, it won’t.”
Acting as a sniper on a rooftop, I felt even safer without my bullet-stopping
suit.
Jonathan took a sip of his red beverage, and continued, “Roman will be in the getaway car up the street here. The three of us will walk up this entranceway to get to their compound.”
I asked, “Why do they have a compound in the middle of the city?”
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. “They bought an old hotel building and use it for their base of operation. There is a chain-linked fence on either side of the entrance way. Once we go in, we can’t just run back out. There are tennis courts on one side and a rose garden on the other. They set it up so this is the only way a stranger can enter the building.”
We hit some turbulence and the plane shifted around, making me a bit uncomfortable. I wiped my sweaty hands on my pant legs.
Jonathan went on, “We should be able to walk right in the front door without issue as per the Hospitality Accords. If they even stall us out for more than a minute, we’ll know something is wrong.”
I asked, “Do they have an intercom system in the building?”
Jonathan nodded. “I would assume so.”
I had an idea. “I could cast a listening spell to tap into the communications device. I’m not positive it will work, but it might help to avoid an ambush.”
“That’s a great idea. If you can do that from the roof, I’ll wear a Bluetooth earpiece and you can let me know what they are saying.” Jonathan took another drink of his beverage, washed it around and swallowed. “If things do go south, we can easily take out the guards outside the building. Mike and Glenda, you will need to watch the entrance door. If anyone pokes their head out, fire away.”
Jonathan laid out the entire plan full of contingency actions. He knew as well as I that things never went according to plan. This was another role I wasn’t used to. I wasn’t the greatest shot even though my friend Dan Dougherty had been taking me to the Guys Run Armory for some target practice. We’d never practiced with sniper rifles, though.
The short flight touched down at Philadelphia International Airport. We got off the plane and into a black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows. At a quick glance, I assumed this vehicle was bullet proof too.
Roman drove toward the city with Jonathan in the passenger’s seat and the rest of us in the back.
I sat in the way-back with Glenda and the butterflies tried to escape my churning stomach. I had to be careful. All the men working for the Larimores should be vampires, which meant I could kill them with impunity. I could not take out any innocent humans. The fact that this was in the middle of the city meant I had to be super careful.
The Celtic Gods had stressed that rule when they had appointed me as the magical guardian of Pittsburgh. A human who used dark magic or was a threat to my life was fair game, but everyone else was off limits. I’d gotten special permission in the past when I knew a job could get messy but would ultimately be for the greater benefit of the whole.
We hit the city and cruised by Lincoln Financial Field, heading south. Rolling by the towering structures scraping the sky, it looked a little like Pittsburgh. Different, but similar. Most people on the sidewalks were wearing suits or some sort of Eagles, Flyers or Phillies gear, whether it be a jacket or winter hat. They loved their sports teams.
“It’s just two blocks up here,” Jonathan announced, pointing straight ahead. “There is the compound.” He tapped his window.
I leaned in front of Glenda and turned to the right. Holy shit. That was certainly a compound. The building wasn’t tall, but it stretched out along most of the block. It had a Victorian look to it with a raised clock tower in the middle of the building.
Jonathan put his hand behind the driver’s seat and pointed out the back window. “That black building right over there is where you’ll be stationed. We will get you access to the roof, then wait for you to get set up. Then we will make our entrance.”
Roman parked the car on the side of the road and the rest of us jumped out into a chilly Philly afternoon.
Chapter 19
I pulled out the tripod stand and set up the sniper rifle. Glenda was already set up and lying on her belly, looking through the scope. She said, “There’s five guards outside the building.”
I conjured up a small speaker to work in conjunction with my listening spell. My phone was sitting in the chest pocket of my jacket with Jonathan on the other end. I plucked it out, and said, “Jonathan. We’re set up now. There are five guards in the entrance way. My listening spell hasn’t taken effect yet.”
Jonathan’s voice came through the phone, “Okay. I’m exiting the building now. I’ll wait on the sidewalk for a minute, but I can’t wait much longer than that.”
“I understand. You don’t want to look shady.” I attached the Bluetooth headphone and shoved the phone into my pocket.
The spell still hadn’t yielded any results, but time was up. Looking through a pair of binoculars, I watched the vampires from the Purple House cross the street and head for the gated entrance way. Why wasn’t this spell working?
Jonathan walked up to the first guard at the entrance and slid a small card through the chain linked fence. The man looked at it for an excruciating period of time and handed it back to Jonathan. A gated door opened toward the street and the vampires from Pittsburgh scurried inside.
I heard a crackle in the air. A spark of magic. Then it sounded like interference on a record player. A voice sounded from my conjured speaker.
A gruff man’s voice said, “It’s a small, unexpected group from Pittsburgh. They have to be here for the portal.”
Oh shit. They were onto Jonathan.
The voice continued, “Do not let them in. I repeat, do not let them in. Stall them until we can get the portal out of here. Then kill them.”
I spoke into the Bluetooth, “Jonathan. We’ve got problems. They know you are here for the portal. They’re going to try to kill you guys.”
Jonathan didn’t respond as I’d expected since he was standing in front of the first guard. I dropped to my belly and lay down behind my gun. I closed one eye and put the other one up to the scope. Watching Jonathan through the scope felt too dangerous with a nervous trigger finger, so I grabbed the binoculars again.
Glenda didn’t have this problem and kept watch through her scope. I wondered what Jonathan would do now. There wasn’t a plethora of choices on the table.
I didn’t have to wait long.
Two more men rushed out through the front door of the complex. By the time I looked back at Jonathan, his fist was springing forward and smashing into the closest guard’s skull. The guard’s head exploded like a red piñata, landing on the gray walkway.
The other guards acted quickly, pulling pistols out of their hip holsters. Del Rubio and Timson charged ahead of their leader and attacked the guards.
Jonathan moved left and right like a flash, streaking from one side of the entranceway to the other. It almost looked like stop motion. One of the guards charged at Jonathan, who simply held his ground. This guard didn’t have a gun, but he appeared to be a tower of power, tall and thick.
The big guard threw a slow, looping hook that Jonathan ducked easily. As he rose back up, Jonathan unleashed an uppercut that connected under the man’s chin. The shot unhinged the man’s jaw and the bottom half of his mouth dangled grotesquely.
The dazed man stood in place as Jonathan extracted his long ivory claws. He turned an open palm to the sky and jammed two claws into the guard’s eyes. Keeping his claws inside the man’s head, Jonathan jumped in the air, pressed his left shoulder into the man’s chest and rolled over the tall man’s shoulder, landing behind him.
With one quick yank, he broke the man’s neck. I couldn’t hear it, but I felt it in my bones. Watching the action, I’d nearly forgotten I had a job to do and put my eye to the gun scope. The Pittsburgh and Philly vampires were so intermingled that I couldn’t get off a safe shot.
The quick, unnatural moves of the vampires made it even more difficult.
Glenda said, “Door. They’re comin
g out the door.”
She fired and as I adjusted my sights for the door, I saw a man drop. Boom. Another vampire charging out the door fell in a heap. Boom. The next man bit the dust. Glenda was good.
Two men busted out the entrance. Glenda said, “I’ll take the right.” Boom. Her man dropped.
I exhaled and put the crosshairs on the man’s chest. Boom. The guard’s chest exploded and he fell on his face. After that kill, the men stopped pouring out the entrance door to help the other guards. When I focused on Jonathan again, he had jumped behind one of the guards and was in the process of breaking his neck.
Then gunshots on the street level broke out. The obvious concern hit me. Cops. We had suppressors, but if the cops figured out where the bullets were coming from, we were fucked. Now that the loud gunshots were erupting on the street, the cops were certain to check it out.
I turned to the right. “Glenda. We can’t get trapped up here. The cops are certainly on the way so maybe we should split.”
I was starting to go cross-eyed, so I pulled my head back from the scope. I noticed a man running across the tennis courts, off to the side of the entrance way. He was carrying a duffle bag, but he was struggling to get across the courts, which indicated it was heavy. The fucking portal.
I said, “Glenda, look. Is he running away with the portal?”
“Looks that way to me. You want me to light him up?” Glenda asked, her eye still close to the scope.
“No. At least, not yet.” I spoke into the Bluetooth, “Jonathan. There is a guy with what we think is the portal, trying to escape across the tennis courts.”
Jonathan’s voice came through choppy, out of breath. “Kind of busy staying alive.”
I knew he wasn’t referencing the Bee Gees and I worried that the portal was going to get away.