“Then what do you want from me?” Tori demanded. “Am I supposed to give you a hug and tell you everything’s going to be rainbows and unicorns from now on? Is that how this is supposed to go? What do you want?!”
Two looked down at the ground and then back up at Tori. She could feel tears on her cheeks now, and she brushed them aside with one hand.
“I want you to be safe. I want you to be free. Even if it means I can’t be your friend anymore, I want you to be able to live your own life, however you want to live it.”
“What if I want to live my life by hunting down vampires and murdering them?” Tori cried. “What if that’s what I was made to do?”
“Then fucking do it!” Two shouted back. She lunged forward, forgetting the chain on her ankle, and very nearly fell flat on her face. She regained her balance and glared at Tori. “Do it! But don’t do it for these people who’ve done nothing but lie to you at every step. Do it for you!”
Tori was quiet for a time, staring at Two, her jaw clenched tight. Two looked back, refusing to break eye contact. If the time for her death had come, she would go to it standing as tall as her five-foot-two frame would allow.
“The attack’s at midnight,” she said. “There’s about three hundred and fifty of them, mostly Ay’Araf and Burilgi. Theroen and I are supposed to open the garage doors, but they’ll break their way in if they have to. Either we finish this or we lose the war and scatter. One way or the other, it ends tonight.”
Tori took in a deep breath, held it, and let it out.
“Then I guess we don’t have much time,” she said, and she unsheathed her swords. She strode forward, and Two found herself grasping for something to say and finding nothing. All of her attention was focused on those twin blades.
Tori brought the sword in her right hand up above her head, and Two felt an overwhelming urge to leap backward. Then a voice – she was not sure whether it was her own – spoke at the back of her mind.
Show her you believe, the voice said, and Two clenched her teeth, stiffened her back and stood straight up, staring Tori in the eye. You’re not going to kill me, she thought.
Meeting her gaze, Tori brought the blade down in a slashing motion so powerful it shrieked as it cut through the air. Two recognized the sound from her time training with Jakob and knew that the weapon was moving with such speed and force that it could easily cut through bone. If the blow was aimed at her head or neck, she was going to die.
But it wasn’t, and she had known it wasn’t from the moment that her friend had begun her swing. Instead, the blade sliced through the air at her side and came down against the chain that was latched to her ankle. There was an ear-splitting noise as one of the links shattered, and Two felt shrapnel pass by her face, but she kept her eyes on Tori. The former vampire turned to look at her.
“I thought for sure you’d flinch,” she said, and she gave a savage grin.
“What, and give you the satisfaction?” Two asked, amazed to find that she was smiling as well. “Not a fucking chance.”
“If you ladies are … about … done!” Theroen snarled, and on the last word he kicked his bound leg forward with all of his strength. The chain held, but the loop through which it was attached to the shackle did not. The piece of metal snapped at its welded joints and flew away, bouncing off the nearby cell wall and falling to the floor with a clatter.
“Holy shit …” Tori muttered.
Two laughed a little. “I was wondering when he was going to do that.”
“It took all of my willpower not to do it when Tori went at you with that blade,” Theroen said. “Now, I do not know about the rest of you, but I have had about all I can take of this cell. If you do not mind, Tori, we have a set of loading bay doors to open. I trust from your actions that you have at least determined which side is in the right?”
“I don’t give a shit about your sides,” Tori said, her grim demeanor now reasserting itself. “It turns out that the man for whom I’ve been killing all this time is the one who ordered my parents’ execution. I’m going to cut his throat, and I’m going to pull his whole fucking organization down around his head.”
“I support this plan,” Theroen told her, and Tori gave him a scoffing laugh.
“I don’t care. I know what you’re expecting … you came to save me and you want me to thank you for that, but I never asked to be saved. I don’t want your help. I can do this myself.”
“Tori, come on,” Two said, and Tori whirled on her.
“What, Two, do you think everything’s settled between us? It wasn’t your people who killed my parents, so it’s just fine that you left me there to go crazy alone?”
“Nothing about what I did was fine,” Two said. “What do you mean, ‘go crazy’?”
“There’s still something inside me that needs to hunt. Abraham’s blood gave that to me, or brought it out of me … I don’t know which. Just because he died and I turned back into something that looks like a human doesn’t mean it’s gone. It’s still there, and every day that went by after you left, it got a little bit stronger. The craving got worse and worse until it started to get hard to stand.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I tried to kill it with booze and sex and cigarettes. I tried everything I could think of to keep from remembering how it felt to bring down my prey and feel their blood splash all over me. Nothing worked, and it was eating me alive. That’s why I left my parents there. I had to get out …. It seemed like the whole house was collapsing in on me. That’s why I wasn’t there to protect them. That’s why they’re dead.”
“Oh, Tori …” Two began, but she stopped, not knowing how to apologize for what she’d done without having known she was doing it.
“I know you want this to be a wonderful reunion,” Tori said. “I know you want everything to be like it was before, and there’s a part of me that wants that too … but there’s another part of me that’s still so fucking angry at you for leaving. You unleashed this … this thing on the world, and then you just took off. I needed help and you weren’t there. Who else was I supposed to turn to? When Charles came and told me about the Children, he offered me not just a chance for revenge but the chance to feed that thing inside of me. How could I tell him no?”
Two shook her head. “I wouldn’t have said ‘no’ either. Tori, I didn’t know that you were going through all of this, but I’m sorry. I’d take it back if I could, but I can’t. All I can tell you is that I’m not the person I was when all of this started.”
“That makes two of us,” Tori muttered, glancing down at the blades in her hands.
“You said you want to tear down everything the Emperor has built,” Theroen said. “You want to put an end to this whole corrupt society of zealots. Is that true? Is that what you want?”
“Yes,” Tori told him.
“Then help us do it,” Theroen said. “There are three hundred and fifty vampires amassing outside this building right now. We have but to open the floodgates and they will come pouring forth. Help us get to the top floor and open those doors, and you have my word that we will help you take the battle directly to the Emperor.”
Thomas spoke for the first time since Tori’s return. “There are good people in this place, Captain. Good people who are going to die if you let those things in here.”
“‘Things,’ Thomas?” Two asked. “Do you really still believe that bullshit? Is that what I am to you? What about Naomi? Just things?”
Thomas wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Doesn’t change my point.”
“There were good people at the Ay’Araf club,” Theroen said, his voice measured. There was no judgment in his eyes. If anything, Two thought she saw pity there. “There were good people at the cathedral your Emperor ordered burned to the ground. Many of those who were shot or stabbed or blown to bits never took a single human life, and more than one of them were champions for peace and understanding.”
“So what then, an eye for an eye?” Thomas asked. “My friends h
ave to die because your friends did?”
“They could retreat,” Theroen said. “Tell me, if we gave them the chance to surrender, would they take it? Would you have taken it, if even six months ago Naomi had come to you with outstretched arms and an offer of peace?”
Thomas looked away, frowning. “I have no fuckin’ idea.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tori said, and with three swift strides she had reached Thomas’s side. Before he could say anything she had brought her blade down, and the chain that had been attached to Thomas’s ankle split apart. He was left staring at Tori in surprise.
“If you want to alert them, then go do it,” she told him. “I don’t care. The best chance your friends have is to realize the tide has turned. If they have any sense in their heads, they’ll get the fuck out of Dodge while they can. I’ll carve my way through every single person that stands between me and the Emperor, and you know it.”
“They’ll blow this place before you ever get close to him,” Thomas said, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“They need time to set the charges,” Tori replied. “The whole system is built so it can’t be rigged quickly, to prevent any one person from blowing the whole place up. They didn’t want someone getting suicidal and deciding to take the whole crew with him.”
“We do not want to give them that time,” Theroen said.
“We’re not going to,” Tori replied.
“Thomas … come with us,” Two said, and at this he glanced over at her.
“What did you say?”
“Come with us. These people don’t want you and they don’t care about you. They think you’re a traitor because you haven’t managed to stomp out every last part of your humanity. I know that you haven’t. You’re a good man and I don’t want Naomi to lose you. She cares about you very much.”
“What the fuck would she want with me? I’m the enemy and she’s known that for years, apparently, so she spent those years making me weak. She played me like a fuckin’ Stradivarius.”
Two laughed. “That’s what you think? God … boys are dumb.”
“Two, we have to go,” Theroen said. “Thomas must decide his own path.”
“All right,” Two said. “Tori, how close are we to midnight?”
Tori glanced down at the digital watch on her left wrist. “Eight minutes.”
“That enough time to get to the warehouse?”
“If you stop the bonding session and hurry the fuck up, yes,” Tori growled. Two rolled her eyes and glanced once more at Thomas.
“Last chance,” she said.
“You really think …?” Thomas began, and then he stopped himself, shrugging. “Fuck it, I’m in. The Emperor’s a lying, murdering piece of shit and I don’t want to play for his team anymore. If I come with you, at least I have a chance. Maybe I can even talk some sense into anyone we meet.”
“We are missing our weapons,” Theroen said.
“They’re in a locker by the front desk,” Tori replied. “We can get those cuffs off your ankles, too.”
“What about the guards?” Two asked.
“You mean the guards who tried to call up to the colonel when I decided to come back to the cell?” The tone of Tori’s voice told them everything they needed to know. Two blew air out through her pursed lips and nodded.
“Let’s do this,” she said.
* * *
If Thomas had hoped to talk with the first soldier they met, Tori didn’t give him the chance. Moving up the stairwell from the third sublevel, where the cells were, they had encountered a man holding an assault rifle out in front of him.
“Hey, stop right … holy shit, Captain Perr—” he began, and Tori leapt forward, stabbing one blade through the man’s trachea. The second she drove deep into his breastplate, just left of center, piercing his heart. As he slumped forward, she stepped back and removed her blades, and the soldier’s body tumbled down the stairs past the others.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Thomas muttered, and Tori glanced back at him.
“I made it quick,” she said. “I doubt there was much pain.”
“No, yeah, that’s terrific,” Thomas said, his distaste evident. “Just keep going, would you? Shit.”
Tori turned and led them again up the stairs, and Two was glad when they made it to the top, reaching the security door near which Theroen had earlier killed the guard. The man’s blood was still there, splashed on the concrete wall. She wondered for a moment if anyone had found his body in the men’s bathroom, or if it was still sitting there in the stall, a ghastly surprise waiting for the morning shift. She forced this image away and followed Tori through the door.
“Garage is down that way,” Tori said, pointing. “There may be people there. They’ll try to sound the alarm.”
“It would be best if they were prevented from doing so,” Theroen said.
“Well, no shit,” Tori replied, nonplussed. “That’s why I’m telling you this. The switch is on the far left, near the offices, which will be empty at this time of night. Anyone who’s there will be working on the floor, fixing vehicles or whatever.”
“I’ll guard the alarm,” Thomas said. He had equipped himself with a firearm taken from one of the cellblock guards.
“That fills me with confidence …” Tori said, and Thomas glared at her.
“I said I was in, right, Captain? I’m in. There’s going to be killing in there and I don’t want any fuckin’ part of it, so I’ll guard the alarm. If anyone comes toward it, I’ll stop them. I’m sure you’ve seen my combat marks … ain’t no one in there who’s going to be able to outfight me, even if I am half starved.”
“Fine,” Tori said, and she glanced again at her watch. “Four minutes. They won’t have firearms, so we should be able to keep it quiet. Once we’ve marked the hostiles, split off and engage. I can take two or three if I have to, and—”
“Tori, stop,” Two said. “We’re not soldiers, but we know what we’re doing. Just go. We’ll follow your lead.”
Tori glanced at her, and smiled, and for a moment there was something between them like friendship. Two’s heart welled up at this, but as quickly as it had come, Tori shoved it away.
“Stay close,” she said, and without further hesitation she began to run toward the far end of the hallway. Two followed, with Theroen right behind her. Thomas brought up the rear.
Tori kicked her foot out as they reached the entrance. Two had no idea if the door was locked, but it didn’t matter; the force of the former vampire’s speed and weight and strength blew the door off two of its three hinges, and it swung drunkenly inward. Two heard cries of surprise from inside and felt an almost overwhelming sadness rush through her. These were people – not monsters but just confused, misguided people – and she was going to have to kill them.
Please let tonight be the last time, she thought, though she didn’t know to whom the request was directed. I don’t ever want to do this again.
Then it was too late to think. They were engaging the enemy, and she was happy to let training and instinct take over. Tori had broken right, intercepting two people who had been racing toward the alarm. Two glanced in that direction, saw Thomas heading for it, and wondered if he was about to betray them. There was no time to worry about it; a man in green combat fatigues was charging at her, holding a massive wrench above his head with both hands.
Two was no longer the untrained girl who had confronted Abraham, nor even the fit but inexperienced fighter who had battled Aros’s horde of Burilgi. She had spent the past two and a half years training with perhaps the best Ay’Araf warrior in the Western Hemisphere, and this human – trained soldier though he might be – was no match for her.
Operating on instinct, which had always served her well but which under Jakob’s tutelage had been honed to a fine edge, she ducked down and leaned sideways, sticking her foot out to trip the man even as her blade bit into his abdomen, loosing his intestines on the concrete floor. He made a grunting noise of surp
rise as he fell forward on top of his own innards, and Two, who had no interest in torturing anyone, stood and turned, burying her sword deep in his skull. If the man had suffered, it hadn’t lasted long. He was dead by the time she removed her weapon and turned back to the fight.
Theroen had made similar short work of his foe, another man, taller and more muscular than Two’s heavyset opponent. That soldier was now lying on his back in a pool of his own blood, missing an arm and writhing in agony. He tried to sit up, and Two watched as Theroen delivered the killing blow. Behind him, she could see that Tori was finishing off the second of her two opponents. The fight had only lasted a few seconds, and they had cut down their enemies with barely a sound.
“That was good,” Tori said, stepping back up to the two of them. “Wasn’t sure you actually knew how to use those things.”
“I’ve been training,” Two told her. She glanced over at Thomas, who had left his post at the alarm switch and was making his way toward the group, trying not to look at the dead soldiers on the ground.
“Guess that’s done,” he said.
“Do you know how to open these, Tori?” Theroen asked, gesturing to his left. The entire west wall of the facility was lined with massive garage doors, each large enough to allow easy entrance to a tractor-trailer.
“I don’t think we can do them all at once,” Tori said, and she began to walk in that direction. The others followed.
“Well, even if someone tries to stop us, at least we can get a few of them open,” Two said.
“Right,” Tori replied, stopping at the first door. “I think this is it.”
There was a large yellow box attached to the wall, an electrical pipe rising up from it, and two large, black buttons on its face. Tori pressed the top one in and waited, but nothing happened.
“Never had to work this shift, Captain?” Thomas asked, a small smile on his face, and Tori glanced over at him.
“My education was a bit different than the rest of yours,” she conceded, and Thomas nodded.
“They turn off the main breaker at night. Hang on.” He stepped over toward a large, grey panel and flipped it open. There was a snapping sound as he flipped the appropriate circuit breaker and returned. “Try now.”
The II AM Trilogy Collection Page 110