It wasn't.
Having seen that the office space was empty I made a quick decision that I knew was going to make Chris and Alpha extremely unhappy. As silently as possible, I opened the door and crept inside, smiling all the while as I could practically hear Chris begin to complain as he peered through the scope of his rifle.
***
“No, no, no!” Chris moaned as he watched Steve go through the door and close it behind him.
“What?” Alpha asked as he sat next to Chris with binoculars held up to his eyes. He had been scanning the surrounding area for any signs that Dimitri's people had been alerted to Steve's presence and wasn't watching Steve. That was Chris' job.
“Steve just went inside that second building,” Chris said with a certain amount of disgust in his voice. “He's out of my line of sight and being an idiot again.”
Alpha asked,” Can you track him?”
“No,” Chris said sarcastically, “and that would be because, as I mentioned, he moved out of my line of sight once he went inside the building.”
Alpha bristled, but chose to ignore Chris' insolent tone as he lowered the binoculars from his eyes, “Out of... Damn, what is he doing?”
Chris shook his head, “Gosh, I don't know. He didn't check with me before acting the fool.”
Alpha turned his head to Chris, who was still looking through the scope of his rifle, and said with eerie calm, “You know, if anyone else talked to me the way you do I would probably tear them in half with my bare hands.”
Chris didn't flinch or take his eye away from the scope's reticule for an instant as he replied with equal calm, “I seriously doubt it, but even if that's true, you wouldn't do that to me.”
“No?”
“Nah, you know you love me.”
“Excuse me?!?”
“Totally.”
Alpha could feel his hands clenching into fists and his arms tighten, ready to strike, “You are not only obnoxious, but delusional as well.”
“Nope, wrong on both counts.”
Alpha inclined his head, his anger tempered slightly by Chris' confidence, “You seem very sure of yourself.”
“Of course. You went through a hell of a lot of trouble to save me, despite being well aware of my colorful personality.”
Alpha sneered, “We all make mistakes.”
Chris chuckled at that, “Keep telling yourself that, but the truth is that Steve is basically my brother and you know it. That makes me family,” Chris looked away from the scope for an instant to raise one eyebrow at Alpha, “which would also make us family, even if you hadn't turned me into one of your kind when you saved my life.”
Alpha was silent as Chris went back to scanning the area, then he sighed and brought the binoculars up to his eyes, “You call me 'Daddy' even once, in conversation or in jest, and I swear I will rip your forked tongue out of your throat before stomping the rest of your head into the ground.”
Chris was smiling ridiculously at Alpha's words, but only said, “Understood.”
“Fine. Any sign of him?”
“No,” Chris' voice suddenly sounded deflated. “As long as he remains in there, he's on his own.”
***
As I moved through the office space toward the observation window I wondered how long I could leave Alpha and Chris alone in a high stress situation before Alpha tried to kill Chris. I'd have bet the “under” if the timeline were set at 30 minutes.
I stood to one side of the observation window and peered through to the space beyond, hoping that I would see Lei or get some indication of where she was being held. My breath caught in my chest as what I saw instantly brought back memories of the Pharmanetics corporation that Alpha, Chris and I had raided in Los Angeles more than two years ago.
The warehouse beyond the glass was simply a wide-open space that probably had been created to store multiple farm machines, and would have served well as an airplane hangar, given its expanse. Now, instead of machinery, there were scores of military cots arranged in long rows, and each with a human occupant of various ages and races, all of whom were tethered to an I.V. machine that branched out from a central line originating at a computer bank, in what served as the center of the room.
Memories of how we had liberated the people of my collective from similar captivity, when Dr. Whelan and the Pharmanetics corporation had assaulted and kidnapped as many of them as they could, flooded through me. Now Whelan was dead and Pharmanetics was out of business, but it seemed as if the horror that had been created for my people had survived.
I scanned the cots closest to me and tried to make out the faces of the people lying on them. I could see that their skin was pock marked and discolored by what appeared to be the early to middle deterioration points of Porphyria. I realized that these people weren't being drained of their blood supply as my people had been. Instead, this was how Dimitri was sustaining his people without a ready source of blood and, apparently, it wasn’t enough to help them recover full health... or perhaps that was the point? I couldn't be sure and I turned away from the window and shook my head at all of the new questions that began to run through my brain. Without realizing I had moved, I found myself working my way toward a second door that appeared as though it would open to the space beyond the observation window when my foot struck something in the shadows.
I looked down and yelped at the body that was lying on the floor in a pool of what looked like watered down blood. It was one of Dimitri's people, but not a pock-marked sufferer like those in the cots. This one was dressed all in black and looked perfectly healthy. No doubt the body was one of Dimitri's security people, one that was kept whole, healthy and fortified with blood as required, but what had killed him?
I grabbed one arm and noticed that the skin had cooled after death, indicating a significant amount of time had slipped by since the killing, and then I flipped the body over to find a gaping wound in the man's abdomen. Given the straightness of the cut he had clearly been killed by an edged weapon and thoughts of the battle between Alexei and Dimitri from earlier came to mind.
Then movement beyond the glass of the observation window caught my attention and I dropped to the floor, unable to avoid getting one pant leg saturated in the blood that had pooled there. I crawled over to get a better look through the window and instantly saw two men facing one another. Light glinted repeatedly from the objects they held in their hands and to my utter shock, I realized the smaller of the two men was Alexei and easily guessed that the much larger man was his uncle, Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaevich.
My mind raced as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. How the hell had Alexei found this place? Was he working with Dimitri and his uncle? Then I remembered Igor making a phone call after we found Pha at the farm…
“Damn,” I growled and was about to look for a way inside when, without warning, there was the sound of the door behind me opening. I turned to see a group of men pushing their way into the room, only to stop in shock at the sight of me in the far corner.
The first man to register that I was standing there just stared at me, surprised and unsure of what he was seeing, as my own brain desperately tried to sort out the best course of action. And then the pregnant pause ended and, Alexei and Nicholas now completely forgotten, I ran forward with the barrel of my shotgun raised toward the group of men as I started squeezing the trigger.
Chapter 37
The first man through the door had just opened his mouth to shout a warning when the blast from my shotgun slammed him back and into the collection of others who had just made their way past the door's threshold. I kept firing into the stack of bodies as I continued toward the door in the hopes of driving the remainder back into the open, where Chris could pick them off. My plan was proven successful as I saw Dimitri's people outside begin twisting wildly from the impact of Chris' bullets as he shot them down.
So much for the “being sneaky” plan. I turned to look back to the observation glass to see a multitude of bodi
es rising ominously from the cots they had been lying on, rip the I.V. cords from their arms and start running for the door.
“Shit!” I bolted from the door and ran for the next warehouse, hoping that I could get to it before Dimitri's people caught up with me. Maybe I could lock myself inside, and with a little more luck maybe find Lei in there as well. I looked to the tree line where I had left Chris and Alpha to see Alpha running toward me, with one of his wicked and gothic looking knives in each hand as he closed the distance between us. Dimitri's people began pouring out of the building and were charging after me. I managed to reach into my pockets and push fresh cartridges into the shotgun with seconds to spare before nearly colliding with one of Dimitri's security guards. The man had been walking a perimeter when he saw me and reached for his sidearm. I raised the shotgun and fired, but the spread went wide of him and tore several small holes in the side of the warehouse wall behind him. The guard abandoned the idea of drawing his weapon and dove to the ground. I kept running and managed to reach him, landing a solid kick against his head without breaking stride, and continued my run for the entry door that was now visible, and my goal.
I expected to hear, or worse, feel the impact of return fire but none came. A small comfort, as I turned my head to see the mass of Dimitri's people practically on top of me. Wild, rage filled eyes locked on me, then shifted to one side and went wide with fear as Alpha flew past me at a full sprint and barreled into the oncoming horde of Dimitri's people. Bodies bent or bounced as Alpha pushed his way farther and farther into the throng until I could no longer see him in the crowd, but I could clearly hear the sounds of battle. Screeches and high pitched wails cut through the silence of the surroundings, as Alpha went into his dance of death, whirling his blades as they cut through flesh and bone alike. One of Dimitri's people suddenly broke away from the crowd that was now fully concentrated on Alpha and headed straight for me. I raised my shotgun but, before he could reach me, his body was thrown to the side as if he had been hit by an invisible car and he fell limply on the ground with a bullet hole clearly visible in his temple.
I raised an acknowledging wave to Chris before I continued toward the final warehouse knowing that, despite Alpha's best efforts to occupy the mass of Dimitri's people, some of them were going to follow me as I ran for the next building. I turned a corner of the structure and found the ruin of a roll-up door and felt the elation as I remembered Pha recounting how Lei had destroyed such a door with a forklift. I also realized that moving for the opening would once again take me out of Chris’ line of sight, but I pumped harder with my legs, going faster and faster just to increase the distance between myself and any pursuers, scrambling for every additional extra second that I could devote to looking for Lei before I'd have to fight my way out again.
I leapt through the opening and landed on the concrete floor of the warehouse with my eyes darting around the darkened interior. I scanned the space as best I could as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, but immediately realized something was out of place and hanging from the ceiling above my head. I whipped my head around for a more complete understanding of what was above me, and the sight my eyes took in threatened to drop me where I stood.
Lei was hanging by her wrists and secured by chains a few feet off the floor. Her head dropped forward in what I prayed was just a sign of her being unconscious, and what was left of her clothes were, tattered, torn, and bloody, with all of her exposed skin blotched with purple bruises and covered in crusty, dried blood. Her hair covered her face, so I couldn't see if she were conscious or not, but she was as still as a corpse, with her body swaying slightly, as it dangled before me.
I wanted to scream, and likely would have, when a whir of something mechanical sounded and Lei’s body was swiftly lifted to the ceiling, swinging precariously overhead and a voice called out to me.
“Is this what you have been looking for Mr. Jacobs?”
Dimitri Lagos' voice echoed in the expanse of the warehouse while I simply stared up in a panic at Lei. As difficult as it was to quell my need to see if there were any signs of life in her after the violent ascension, I looked past her body and studied her bonds. The chain was secured to a hook that connected to the cable of a winch system, and the control of that winch was clearly in Dimitri's hands, but as I looked around the warehouse I could see no signs of the man.
I heard a snarl and the sound of footsteps behind me and realized my precious few seconds of time were up. I whirled and screamed out all of my frustration and concern at the first of Dimitri's people to come through the ruin of the roll-up door after me, and I pulled the trigger of the shotgun. The shot tore through the closest one and also sent two more who were trailing close behind him to the ground, but more and more pushed through the opening. I had a very surreal moment at this point where my head was screaming at me to turn, run and get some distance between the horde pushing through the door and the spot where I was standing, but my body wasn't listening. Instead I began to walk forward as I ratcheted another cartridge into the chamber, firing again and again and again. I kept firing until I had used all of the shells the shotgun contained and then felt the quiet click of the falling firing pin as I tried to squeeze off yet another round, that simply wasn't there.
Despite the pile of bodies I had created both inside and just outside the opening, more of Dimitri's people started to pour in, emboldened by the lack of explosive shotgun fire. I tossed the shotgun away and realized I was still screaming fiercely at the bodies as they funneled in. All of the hand-to-hand training from Alpha and his hunters, which had continually been given to me throughout my long life, came back to me in a wave of pure instinct and reflex as I charged into the horde. I struck the first one in the throat and reveled in the feeling of bone shifting and breaking under the blow of my hand. I spun and kicked at the knee of another and heard the “pop-crunch” of the joint, first dislocating and then breaking beneath my shoe, as its owner dropped from the intense pain. I spun back in the opposite direction and wrapped my arm around the throat of another man before spinning us both back into the man with the ruined knee. I launched a palm strike with my free hand at his nose and it connected with yet another satisfying crunch as blood erupted out of the man's tear ducts while I continued my thrust as if to push the nasal bone fragments into the man's brain. I don't know if I was totally successful at that, but he collapsed limply with all the fight, if not the life, taken out of him. Another quick pivot and reversal of my body weight sent the man I still held trapped with my arm into a spin, while my free hand secured his head and neck, the violence of this move quickly broke the man's neck and I felt the strength instantly drop out of the man's arms and body.
I jumped back a few steps and then charged in again, my arms and hands seemingly lashing out under their own power as my body moved gracefully through the throng, avoiding the reaching hands and dodging under or around the bodies that threatened to smother me with their numbers. Each time my fist, palm or elbow struck its target I felt something breaking in my opponent, and eventually I began to find myself with greater distance and more time between the attacks. The problem was that there was less room to maneuver with a shrinking ring made up of the bodies that now littered the floor. My concentration was suddenly split between offensive strikes and dodging the obstacles on the floor and, as soon as I took my first misstep, I felt a “pop” in my chest.
Everything stopped.
I stood as motionless as a mannequin, as did all of Dimitri's people as well. My arms fell limply to my sides as I looked down in confusion at myself and saw that something very small and shiny protruded from between my ribs on the left side. My pale blood had begun leaking out of me where the thing penetrated me and then ran in a small rivulet down its length. I visually followed the metal until my eyes registered the hand-guard of a sword, and behind that, an old, spotted and gnarled looking hand. My brain didn't want to comprehend what it was seeing and it made my eyes track further up the hand, past the arm, to a face.
There, set in a violent snarl, was the visage of Dimitri Lagos.
I frowned in confusion, and upon seeing my expression, Dimitri's lips curled into a smug smirk, before he twisted his sword blade sending my vision white with pain. Mercilessly he ripped the sword from my body and I fell flat to the ground, my arms too weak to break my fall as the concrete rose up and met my head with a crunch.
Chapter 38
Nicholas refused to take his eyes off Alexei, despite the battle that had begun in the adjacent room, and readied himself as he faced his nephew.
Alexei’s voice remained deathly calm, “I have to admit, I never thought I get this chance.”
Nicholas brandished his Shaska, swinging the sword in a horizontal cut to emphasize his words as he responded, “And what chance are you referring to exactly?”
“The chance that I could avenge your betrayal.”
The intense look on Nicholas’ face softened, “You know, then?”
Alexei only sighed, “I was there. How could I not know?”
Silence extended between the pair and, unwanted, the images of his uncle shooting, clubbing and stabbing Father Grigori to death, flashed behind Alexei’s eyes.
Alexei shook his head, “I was never one to understand politics or comprehend how such devious acts could be perpetrated in the pursuit of power.” Alexei mused, “It seems to me that only those who don’t understand the ultimate repsonsibility that power brings along with it could ever covet such a burden.”
Nicholas dropped his eyes and lowered his Shaska, “Our family was strong until your father took the throne.”
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