Jax sat back and took a sip of his inordinately pricey Scotch. “Sure you don’t want a taste?”
Glen shook his head. “Certainly turning a blind eye to drinking the blood of humans, even if they’re essentially unharmed, is questionable. Looking the other way in exchange for that one thing that might tip the balance our way in this war? I want to say no, but I can’t. Because I agree with you. I’ve run the numbers myself. Humanity is well on its way toward extinction. If something doesn’t break our way soon…”
“If something doesn’t change soon, somebody who’s a little smarter and open-minded is going to figure it out. Or multiple photos of deadheads will start turning up.”
Glen nodded. “Agree. And, when that happens, there’ll be…”
“Chaos, bedlam, and pandemonium.”
“Exactly. Although at least people might start staying in after dark while we try to exterminate.”
“Exterminate!” Kell barked out a laugh.
“Here’s what I’m thinking.” Glen looked at Falcon as if he was considering what he was going to say next and receiving telepathic counsel before making a final determination. Still looking at Falcon, he said, “How about a trial? We’ll work out the particulars of how to utilize the asset.” He glanced at Jax. “That’s you.”
Jax nodded, in full agreement that he was a very fine asset in fact.
Glen went on. “We need to figure out how it works, if it works, and so on. If, after a month or so of addressing and ironing out problems that arise, it seems like a productive and manageable partnership, we might take you up on your offer to recruit others. Expansion would be the logical step. Whatever misgivings I might have, we can’t afford to pass up an opportunity with this kind of potential return.”
Falcon wasn’t sure if Glen was asking for his opinion or not, but the Sovereign was looking his way, so he took that to mean that it was a conversation. Since he happened to concur with every point that had been made, he simply nodded to Glen.
To Jax he said, “One condition. Up front.”
“Yeah?” Jax asked.
“Stay away from my girl.”
“The cute and curvalicious bounty who was in here the other night.” Jax chuckled. “You sure she knows she’s yours?”
Falcon’s jaw tightened. “If she doesn’t, she will soon enough.”
Jax held up his hands. “I accept your condition. At this point in time the world is still full of lovely ripe and juicy fruit just begging to be…”
“Okay. Enough,” said Glen. “Don’t make this harder. Right now my gray area is reaching toward black. It wouldn’t take much to send my conscience into def con.”
Jax, who liked to talk with his hands, put them down under the table, fell silent, and smiled a charming smile that showed no teeth. “Excellent. You’re setting boundaries and I respect them. You wish me to refrain from hinting that the pleasure derived from the blood of a female of prime child-birthing age is…”
“If that’s your idea of respecting a boundary, I hear tires screeching to a halt.”
“Point taken. Conversation about… such things, is hereby curtailed.”
“Good. So I’d like to hear your vision of how this partnership would work.”
“Okay. Give me a way to communicate with the patrols. Tell me where they’re going to be when. I’ll do a whirlwind tour and let them know where they can find deadheads. If you can catch them before they make a vampire out of some poor unsuspecting bloke, or a meal out of some poor unsuspecting babe, I will help the lucky escapees to forget what they saw, thereby protecting your identities and their sanity.”
Glen nodded. “You make it sound simple.”
“Only because I’m not the one who has to try to explain it to Knights of the Order of the Black Swan en masse. That would be you. Good luck.”
“I can’t invite you into our facility. That would require a level of trust that, well, if that happened it would be extraordinary.”
“Understand.”
“I’ll call everybody together and explain things. Some of them have already been talking about you. They know something’s up. They call you Jazz Man.”
“I know. Falcon told me.”
“I’ll tell them to look for you. If you always dress like this, and wear sunglasses, they’ll recognize you. As far as communication goes, I’ll give you a phone that’s preprogrammed with the knights and their respective teams. I can provide their patrol routes daily or weekly. However you want it.”
“How about nightly? Text it to me before it gets dark.”
“If you sleep in a lead-lined coffin, your phone battery will be dead when you wake up.”
Jax looked at Glen like he was being fitted for a fuchsia strightjacket. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
Glen smiled. “Yeah. Sort of. So when do you want to get started?”
“How about tonight?”
“I have to call an assembly and get everybody on board. Tomorrow night at eleven Falcon will meet you at the same place where you first revealed yourself. He’ll introduce you to the rest of his team and give you a phone.” Jax nodded. “If you’re ever in doubt about anything, mine is the number you want to call. Any hour of the day or night.”
“Any hour. Doesn’t sound like much of a life.”
“Not for you to say, Mr. Kell.”
“Truer words… Call me Jax.”
“Okay.”
On the way to the whisterport, Falcon said, “Getting the nerve up to tell you the story was nothing compared to facing the entire gathering in The Chamber to say, ‘Guess what?’ I don’t envy you.”
“Well, they’ll sit still for it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’m the Sovereign. They’re not.”
After a few more steps, Falcon said, “You sound more like Rev Farthing every day.”
Glen continued to look straight ahead, but his mouth spread into a smile of its own accord. “Makes sense. I learned from the best, didn’t I?
CHAPTER TEN
At one o’clock the next day, Falcon swaggered into the Operations Office and felt a thrill rush through him when Gretchen looked up and smiled. Not the same professional can-I-help-you smile she gave everybody who came through the door. Falcon would be hard pressed to give an analysis of the difference. It was just brighter, more personal somehow.
“Hey,” he said.
By the time he got to the counter she was already waiting there. “Hey,” she said.
“I just got up.”
“Um. Good morning?”
He smiled. “I’m going to get a coffee and a croissant. Maybe sit down in the Solarium for a couple of minutes.” He looked around the office. “I was thinking maybe you could put out the closed sign? Just for a little bit. I’ll tell you what happened last night. With the, ah, vampire.”
“I’m here by myself, but when Breax gets here…” As if on cue the trainee came through the door and had the audacity to smirk at Falcon.
Little shit.
“Well, what do you know? He’s here. Breax,” she said as she lifted the section of counter that was hinged and walked through.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m going to the Solarium for a few minutes. If there’s anything urgent, come get me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Falcon glared at Breax, which caused the trainee to straighten up and think about the fact that challenging a knight was playing with fire. He held up a two-fingered peace sign, which would have drawn a laugh from a less stoic knight. Falcon kept his face blank, but gave the boy a nod, the message being, “Okay for now, but watch it!”
When they reached the barista, the woman at the cash register handed Falcon a sack with his warm croissant inside.
“You want anything?”
Gretchen’s eyes traveled up to the board. “I don’t know. I’ve been watching my diet.”
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, his breath making her knees a little rubbery. “If it
wouldn’t cause a spectacle, I’d explore your very perfect curves right here, right now and show you just how much you don’t need to be on a diet. I’m not one of those guys who thinks recently released prisoner of war is a good look on a woman. Get what you want.”
While he was whispering in Gretchen’s ear, the woman behind the cash register was watching the reaction on her face along with the building flush. She clearly found it amusing.
When he stood straight, she looked up at him, feeling a little breathless. This was a new bold and sexy side of Falcon she hadn’t seen before. And she liked it. She decided that perhaps she owed that vampire a, well, she didn’t know what you get a vampire. Flowers? Knicks tickets? A vial of blood with a ribbon around it?
“And what will you have with that?” asked the fresh-mouthed barista.
“Mocha Chappo with two squirts of caramel,” Gretchen replied without hesitation.
Falcon clearly loved her response. His smile was so sardonically beautiful, she found herself wishing they had a first date out of the way so she could feel justified in exploring his sexy notions further without feeling like she’d crossed the slut county line.
They got their coffees and walked over to a table in a far corner next to the Courtpark. They sat down across from each other at one of the window tables for two. Falcon said, “Have I told you how good you look in red?”
Gretchen didn’t know whether to take the twinkle in his eyes as teasing empty flattery or not. Looking down, she took the lid off her coffee and blew across the top to cool it a little. Watching her lips purse took the smile right off his face and replaced it with a shuttered look that said he wasn’t teasing about liking her in red or any other color when she pursed her lips that way.
When she looked back up, she was surprised by the change. She quickly did a mental backtrack and figured out why his demeanor had transformed from playful to lustful. She was thinking that, if what she was seeing was a preview of lovemaking with Falcon, she might not be able to hold out until a second or third date.
Respectability isn’t everything.
While both Falcon and Gretchen were caught up in their own private thoughts, they never saw Wakey coming until he pulled up a chair from another table and sat between them.
“Hey, you two. What’s going on here? Staring into each other’s eyes, huh? Ah, young love.”
Falcon gave Wakey a look that would have shrunk the genitals of a lesser man, but Wakey just laughed.
“We were trying to have a private conversation.” Falcon tried to sound unperturbed and dismissive. He knew that if Wakey realized he was creating a serious annoyance, he wouldn’t leave.
“It did look kind of private, but it definitely wasn’t a conversation.” He looked between the two of them. “That requires actual talking.”
He took his lips in both hands and began manipulating his mouth while making unintelligible sounds. The best part was that he knew he was embarrassing his partner past reason by behaving like a ten-year-old in front of a woman who Falcon was clearly into.
Gretchen chuckled.
Falcon fumed. “Do not encourage that.”
She reached over, tore away a corner of his croissant and put it in her mouth with a wink. He went slack jawed watching her chew and thinking that Gretchen stealing food from him would go on his list of five sexiest things he’d ever seen.
“Don’t you have someplace else to do? It’s a big facility. Lots of people to annoy.” Falcon took a bite of his ham and cheesy breakfast.
“Yeah, but it’s more fun to do it to you.” Wakey punctuated that with a broad and unabashed smile.
Falcon glared while pulling out a five dollar bill. “Okay.” He put the bill on the table. “What’ll it take?”
Wakey looked shocked. “You wound me!”
Gretchen grabbed the five dollar bill off the table. “We’re not buying him off. I have a better idea.”
“What?” Falcon and Wakey both asked in unison. Falcon cut his eyes at Wakey and gave him a look that had graduated to a promise of definite retribution.
“You know, Wakenmann,” she began, “you guys really forget just how much you rely on the Operations Office for all kinds of things. I won’t go so far as to say that you take me for granted, but you get my drift.
“Thing is, the work I do is extremely detail oriented. Just the tiniest little lapse of concentration can create a doozy of an error. Money can go to somebody else’s account. Travel arrangements can be made missing a leg and leaving somebody dressed and packed for Hawaii stranded in the middle of a North Dakota winter on a Sunday morning when all the stores are closed. Do I need to go on?”
Wakey was still smiling, but he gave Gretchen a little nod. “Well played, ma’am. I’ve just remembered something I need to be doing elsewhere.”
“Sorry you have to go so soon.” She smiled wickedly.
He put the chair back where he got it and walked away, but he turned to give Gretchen a thumbs up walking backwards where Falcon couldn’t see him. She glanced at him, but smothered a response.
“So. What happened?” she asked.
“The vampire got a private room in the back of that bar. Looked like a wine cellar.”
He told her everything that happened including the fact that Kell had recognized Aelsong even with the excellent disguise and asked for her autograph.
“Glen has sent a text that every knight attached to J.U. has to be in The Chamber in,” he looked at his watch, “twenty minutes.” He smiled at Gretchen. “And you already know what they don’t.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
“I told the vampire I’d work with him on the condition that he stays away from you.”
Gretchen looked surprised. “Me? In particular?”
“Yes. You. In particular.”
“Well,” she smiled, “maybe I can go back to sleeping with the light off then.”
Falcon’s smile fell. “Is that a joke? Or did it scare you that bad?”
“It’s not a joke,” she said. “I haven’t been able to shake seeing those fangs. To tell you the truth I haven’t slept well, even with the light on.”
“I have to patrol tonight.”
“I know.”
“But tomorrow night I could stay at your place. Keep the bogeyman away.”
“Is this foreplay banter? Or are you serious?”
“Perfectly serious. I’ll even stay on the couch. After all, if the Operations Director isn’t at her best, all kinds of details can slip through the cracks. And nobody wants to be standing on the tarmac in Fargo in early February wearing a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops on a Sunday morning when the stores are all closed.”
She laughed. “Exactly right. Don’t forget it, and spread the word. I am all powerful.”
He leaned over the table, putting his face inches from hers. “You are. At least you have a strange power over me.”
She didn’t know him well enough to know if he was feeding her lines or not. “Falcon…”
Ram clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past. He gave Gretchen a nod before telling Falcon, “Ten minutes until the great community gasp.”
Falcon nodded. “Right behind you.” He looked at Gretchen. “Can I walk you back?”
“Well, yeah. Especially since it’s on your way.”
When they reached the O.O. door, Falcon said, “Think about whether or not you’d like me to stay over tomorrow night. We could have a slumber party.”
His lopsided grin was so engaging that she didn’t stand a chance when he threw it her way. Somehow she managed to say, “I have a date before sleepover policy. I have this weird aberration. I need to like a person before…” The pause lengthened while she tried to decide how to finish that sentence.
He nodded. “I get it. So be thinking about where you’d like to go. What you’d like to do. On our date I mean.”
She shook her head. “Nothing doing. Part of the test is masterminding the date.”
“It’s a test?�
�� He looked a little worried.
She laughed. “Surprise me. Now go on. You’re going to be late.”
“Well, it’s not like I don’t know what the meeting is about.” He smiled.
She shook her head and made a shooing motion. “Later.” But when he left, she realized she was smiling like a fool. Like a giddy adolescent.
Ram wasn’t far off when he predicted a collective community gasp. The news was stunning. How could The Order, with all its resources, psychic, mystic, and otherwise, not know about this variation on vampire?
Murmurs rippled through the typically disciplined assembly. Glen didn’t go into every detail of Kell’s biography. He used the need-to-know approach, describing the vampire’s unique skills, and how they could help turn things around.
There weren’t many questions. The one that seemed to rise to the surface fastest concerned Kell’s motivation. Everybody wanted to know why, after all these centuries, would he want to help Black Swan rid the world of its secret scourge?
Kell’s explanation seemed plausible. He was basically saying that it was in the interest of him and his kind to help exterminate the deadheads because they weren’t just poaching on the Get’s hunting territory anymore. They were threatening to extinguish the very people the Get needed to sustain themselves.
While every knight present had his own doubts and reservations, they all had to agree that the potential benefit was worth the risk.
“Take out your phones and program this contact. Jax. That’s J. A. X. Tonight at the beginning of patrol, he will be given a phone with your names, your team assignment and, of course, your number. He’ll also be given a map showing the scope of patrols so that he’ll know who to call if he sees anything.
“You’ve all heard rumors about his looks. He has dark blond hair, wears dark suits, dark shirts, and sunglasses. Yes. He wears sunglasses at night.
“At this point, his job is not to engage, but to inform. If we know what we’re facing when we start into the dark places, we stand a better chance of survival. With his help, I expect to see vampire mortality rise while knight fatalities fall. To that end, give Kell your respect and cooperation. That’s an order.
FALCON: Resistance (KBS Next Generation Book 1) Page 14