“I expect so.” Kell was matter of fact. “If I said no, were you going to offer a vein?” He smiled.
“No. I was going to offer synthetic blood.”
Jax looked interested. He leaned in a little. “Synthetic blood?”
“Yeah. We have some.”
“No kidding.”
“Why would I kid about blood?”
“You’re right. It’s not a joking matter. If I think I’m in danger of weakening before I regain my ability to court an occasional tryst, I might be begging for something less authentic.”
Falcon nodded. “Just let me know. We owe you at least that.”
The vampire and the vampire hunter chatted amiably about all manner of things not related to Falcon’s line of work. Jax could talk intelligently about anything that interested Falcon from cars to movies. They fell into a natural conversational rhythm as friends often do.
Jax glanced at his watch. “I have to start lookout in a few minutes, but harkening back to what you said, about being three. I might have a solution.”
“What‘s that?”
“I could maybe stand in for Chorszak until he’s on his feet again.”
Falcon couldn’t have been caught any more off guard. That was probably the last thing he’d expected to hear. He blinked dumbly for half a minute before he drew wits together enough to say, “You’re far more valuable being the search part of search and destroy.”
Jax smiled. “Why thank you, Falcon. I’m taking that as high praise.”
“As you should.”
Jax bowed his head ever so slightly. “It so happens that another of my kind is here. He stays across the river. Mostly. I asked him if he’d be interested in helping and he indicated that he would.”
“What makes you think he’s trustworthy?”
Jax shrugged. “Same as me. It’s in his personal interest to insure the endurance of humanity. Life is a powerful motivation.”
Falcon felt his head nodding absently before he realized that he’d been nodding. “I don’t know. We’ve had a hard enough time getting the knights to accept working with you. It might be too soon to bring in somebody else. But the offer. I don’t want you to think it’s unappreciated. Especially after what happened last night.”
Waving his hand in a gesture that was universally understood as forget-about-it, Jax said, “I get it. Offer’s open if you change your mind.”
“Thanks.” Jax rose to go. “Be careful out there.”
The next noon Falcon got his coffee and croissant and took it to the infirmary. He swung through the doors and barely stopped at the nurses’ station. “He up?”
The duty nurse said, “He’s watching game shows.”
Falcon smirked and kept going.
He pushed Spaz’s door open to hear him yelling out an answer to some game question.
“That yelling can’t be good for your head.”
“Hey,” Spaz said, sounding chipper even though he looked pale as death. “You brought me breakfast?”
Falcon laughed. “Hel no. This is for me. You can get your own.”
“Wow. Just wow.” He pointed the remote at the TV and turned down the volume.
“Don’t let me stop you from winning a new washer and dryer.” Falcon sat down and started unwrapping his croissant.
“Funny. What did the doc say about me? Am I going to live or should I be getting my loose ends tied up?”
“You have loose ends?” Falcon said as he took a bite. “Oh. You mean split ends. He said you have split ends and you need to get them trimmed up.”
“What’s the matter with you? I’m the funny one.”
Falcon laughed. “Not anymore. If you’re out of the picture, somebody has to take up the burden of comic relief.”
Spaz blinked. “And I thought I was irreplaceable.”
“Nope. I’ve already got your replacement lined up. If you’re not back to work in a week, we’re going to keep him and, yeah, I’m going to be the funny one.”
Spaz reached for the nurses’ button.
“Yes?” A female voice sounded on the speaker near his head.
“Bring security. There’s a knight in my room threatening me and retarding my recovery. He needs to be escorted from the building.”
“Sir Chorszak, I’m warning you for the last time. If you continue to be the little boy who cried wolf, we’re going to be forced to disconnect your call button.” And with that, she hung up.
“Ugh!” Spaz said. “Did you hear that? Can you believe the impertinence?”
“You know, they have work to do.”
“What do they have to do besides sit there on their sometimes attractive asses hoping I’ll call and ask for something?” Falcon laughed. “If you’re going to stay and be an annoyance, eating yummy smelling stuff in front of me and everything, the least you can do is tell me what the doc said.”
“He hasn’t talked to you?”
“Yes, but you know how they are. He says I’m going to be fine and can probably go back to work in a week. But you know how they are. That’s what he would say even if it was terminal.”
Falcon laughed harder. “Terminal? Have you always been this dramatic?”
Spaz raised his eyebrows at Kris as if to say, “Have we met?”
“Never mind. That was a dumb question. It’s not terminal. You have a mild concussion. They’re keeping you here for another night purely as a precaution. Then you’re going to be confined to J.U., required to take it easy for a few days. No big deal.”
“No big deal?!?” Spaz had a bruise on the side of his face, but it was nothing compared to the dark purple on the arm that was exposed by the sleeveless hospital gown. “You call the indignity of being forced to wear this glorified apron no big deal?”
“Gotta give the nurses a perk every now and then. Sneaking peeks at prime asses like yours is the only reason they do this job.”
“Fuck you.”
Falcon shook his head and chuckled. “You seen your partner?”
Spaz got serious. “Yeah. He was here earlier. Said he had an appointment downstairs. I guess you talked him into seeing our resident brain mechanic.”
“Didn’t take much persuasion. He knows he screwed up. I believe he’s sorry.”
“Sin’s alright. One night he’d just seen one too many dead girls and it screwed with his head is all.”
“There’s a really good chance he’ll adapt to a little attitude adjustment, but there’s also a slight chance he won’t come back from this.”
“I don’t accept that, brother. He’s solid. You’ll see.”
Falcon wasn’t at all convinced, but he didn’t want Spaz worried when he needed to rest, and there wasn’t a thing he could do to affect the outcome. It would play itself out.
So he smiled, “Okay. You’re probably right.”
Wakey, Sin, and Falcon were summoned to Glen’s office at two.
Glen was on bluetooth, but waved them in when he saw them in the outer office. He ended the call and said, “It’s not news that we’re down a man. It’s also not news that we were barely limping along before U Team.”
Falcon and Wakey glanced at each other and then nodded at Glen silently.
“What do you want to do, boss?” Falcon said.
Glen gave Falcon a ghost of a smile before saying, “Rev has been floating, but he’s spoken for. So guess what? That leaves me.”
“You?” Sin said with a tinge too much astonishment.
“Yes, me, Sir Harvest. It may have escaped your notice, but I did serve as an active duty knight for five years, which is four years longer than you.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir, “ Sin said.
Glen still looked put out in spite of Sin’s backward scramble. “Like it or not, I’m going to be your partner tonight, Sir Harvest.”
“Yes, sir. It will be an honor.”
“Stow it. Smooching me up isn’t the answer.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. You’re di
smissed.”
Wakey and Sin turned away, but Falcon made no move to leave.
“Um,” he said.
“Um?” Glen asked. “You have the finest education available anywhere on the globe and you’re speaking to me in monosyllables without meaning?” As soon as he’d said it, he realized he’d just channeled Sol, which seemed to be happening more and more. Maybe the Sovereign job had its own spirit that possessed whoever had the title.
“What I mean to say is that, there might be another alternative, but it’s extremely unorthodox.”
Glen motioned to the chair in front of his desk. Falcon sat down simply because he didn’t have a good reason to say no, but Sin and Wakey remained standing behind him.
“The, ah, vampire, Jax…”
“Yes. Come on, Falcon. I order you to speak.”
“He says there’s another, ah, vampire like him in town. One who might be interested in cooperating because Black Swan and the vampire have a mutual goal. Keep the humans alive. Make the deadheads deader,” he explained. “Jax said that his friend could take over the area patrol and he could stand in for Spa… Chorszak until he’s well.”
Sin and Wakey looked at each other. Glen’s face remained perfectly passive. Nothing moved except for an occasional blink of his eyes.
At length he said, “We’re just desperate enough to consider it. The final say is yours. K Team’s.”
Falcon looked behind him. “Wakey could pair up with Sin temporarily. I can work with Jax if I need to.”
“No,” Sin said. The room was quiet while Falcon and Wakenmann waited for him to list the reasons why he would never work with Jax and would call anybody who would crazy. Then he said, “I’ll partner with him until Spaz is on his feet.”
Falcon raised his eyebrows while secretly vowing to give Monq his due as the genius he always claimed to be, and chanced a WTF glance at Wakey.
“Does Jax vouch for this other vampire?” Glen asked.
“I didn’t ask him that specifically. We could call him,” Falcon answered.
Glen pulled up his contact info. “I’ll call him myself.” He dialed Jax and put him on speaker.
“It’s Jax.”
“I have K Team in my office saying you’ve offered to expand our coop. Sooner than expected, but life happens.”
“Falcon told you.”
“Yes. This other vampire…”
“Vladislav. Well, these days he goes by Vlad.”
Wakey rolled his eyes as Glen said drily, “A vampire named Vlad. Of course.”
“Thought we’d get that out of the way early. A lot of people have unfortunate names. I would have changed mine, but he’s too proud. Comes from a good family. Blah. Blah. Blah.”
“Right. What I’m asking is if you’re personally vouching for him?”
“I know he has the same motive for preserving the human race that I do. If they die, we die, if you know what I mean. It’s pretty easy to predict behavior when it’s rooted in self-interest.”
“Yes. I see what you mean. Well,” Glen looked up at Falcon, who nodded encouragement, “in that case, thank you for the assist. Will you need another phone for, ah, Vlad?”
“Will that be a problem?”
“No. Have him meet up with you at the top of K Team’s patrol tonight. They’ll be first out. Meet them at 39th and 7th at nine o’clock.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want to discuss remuneration?”
“Not really. Like I told you before, I’m not in it for money.”
“Then let me thank you on behalf of the Black Swan accounting team.”
Jax laughed and ended the call.
Glen took in a deep breath and let it out. Inwardly he was thrilled at the new development. Not one, but two creatures who’d volunteered to be hounds for Black Swan, pinpointing exactly where and when to find the cursed souls who’d been infected. “Just when you think you’ve already seen all the strange stuff.” He ran a hand across his hair. “You heard the arrangements. Check in with me before you leave, and pick up another phone.” Glen leaned to the side and yelled for the duty trainee. “Salvadore!”
They heard a chair turning over just before the kid rushed in. “Yes, sir?”
“In two hours you’re going to go get a phone from Monq and bring it to me. Then you’re going to personally take the number to that phone and see to it that it’s programmed with every single knight’s contacts. You’re also going to tell them that, if they get a call from that number, they are to answer it and proceed to the location given. Do you have all that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good.” Salvadore seemed to understand that ‘very good’ was code for being dismissed. He disappeared as quickly as he’d arrived. “Well, what are the three of you doing? Loitering?”
All three of them raised their eyebrows to their hairlines. “Loitering?” Wakey risked a quiet chuckle, but seeing that Glen was looking at him, he straightened. “No, sir. We certainly are not loitering. We were just on our way out.”
“Close the door behind you,” Glen said as he was calling Monq to order a new phone with team-finding app installed and ready to go. He also wanted to find out how quickly Monq’s plans to exterminate the occupants of the Brooklyn theater nest were coming to fruition.
When Glen finished talking to Monq, he sat back and smiled. Edinburgh was sending a crew to facilitate cleaning out the deadhead community Jax had found. They were already on the way, landing that very night. There was a good chance it would be done the following day when they’d settled down for a nap.
Glen was thinking that the tide might be turning and that he might be taking his wife on that trip to France she was always asking about. He’d like to stay in bed with Rosie for a week. Just Rosie, room service, and lots and lots of sleep.
The knights accepted the idea of a second vampire better than Glen had expected. He believed that was partly due to the new policy of not entering a building without airbot clearance.
Vlad assisted with the takedown of nine deadheads on his first night. While he didn’t seem eager to wade into the fray and come within reach of a fight, he was more than happy to ferret out deadheads for knights.
When K Team stopped for a mid-night snack, Jax took a break and located Vlad. He showed up at the Thai place where they were eating toward the end of their meal and said Vlad was getting off on pointing out biters.
When he slid onto a chair next to Sin, Sir Harvest said, “You hungry? We’ve still got fifteen minutes before we need to get back out there.”
“I’ll get something when we’re done,” he said.
From all indications Jax and Harvest had gotten along pretty well. Falcon’s respect for Jax’s ability to win people over was growing. His hope that Sin was going to line out and rally was growing as well. There was no doubt he’d turned things around and no doubt that spending time with Jax had helped him get over the prejudice that had been blinding him to the good that could come from working with the newly discovered vampire.
Spending hours together as a pair with nothing to do but talk, they’d both learned a lot about each other. They learned that they both began life as farm boys.
“A farm boy named Harvest,” Jax had grinned.
“Yeah,” Sin said. “Fitting.”
Because it was one of the first nippy nights, Sin asked, “Are you bothered by the cold?”
“No.” Jax grinned. “I grew up in northern England. Near York. You ever been there?”
Sin shook his head. “Why do you think the immortals never told us about you?”
Jax had shrugged. “Maybe they did tell somebody and decided to keep the info high up on a need-to-know basis. I don’t know. Maybe they thought it was our business to tell and that, if we wanted to remain unknown to you, they wouldn’t interfere so long as we weren’t doing harm.”
“You really believe you don’t do harm, don’t you?”
“We don’t do harm,” Jax said.
“You
seduce women and take their blood!”
Jax sighed. “Is your problem about the seduction or the blood?”
“Well…” he paused to think about it, then said, “Both, I guess.”
“Both. Alright. Let’s hash it out. First, we don’t take as much blood as people routinely give at the doctor’s office for tests. Not enough to be missed. At all. No orange juice required afterward.
“Second, when was the last time you objected to seduction in general?” Sin frowned at that. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. You don’t really care about the sex.”
“It’s just…”
“What?” Jax puffed out his chest and did an amazing impression of a Jersey accent. “Those vampire are taking our women!”
He laughed until Sinclair gave in and laughed at himself.
“How did you, ah, become a vampire?”
Jax gave a rueful smile. “That’s a story for another time. Maybe. I’ll tell you this though. She was a redhead with emerald green eyes. I knew her for less than a day, but after six hundred years, she still makes my heart go pitter patter when I think about her. Even after all this time.”
“Sounds like love.”
“It does. Doesn’t it? Her name was Ever.”
“Was she your first?”
Jax laughed. “In so many ways. So. Why did you become a knight?”
“It’s pretty much the usual second son story.”
“Take it from an old man, Sir Harvest. There’s no such thing as a usual story. Even the most boring people are unique puzzles with billions of sense memories and bits of experience that, when put together, makes them unique.”
“Way too deep for patrol talk.”
“Really? I would have thought this would be the ideal time for arguing the big questions. ‘Why are we here?’ ‘Do we have a soul?’ ‘Will I get laid tonight?’”
Sin laughed. “You know. You’re not what I expected.”
“Judging by your tone, I’m going to take that to mean you like me better than you thought you would.”
Sin nodded. “Yeah. It’s true.”
The next day, when Sin arrived at the infirmary to see Spaz, Janelle, the duty nurse, said, “Too late, Sir Harvest. Your partner is back in his own pad.” She looked at the physician’s assistant sitting next to her and said, “I hate to say it, but I might actually miss that music. He blasted it out like he was a DJ.”
FALCON: Resistance (KBS Next Generation Book 1) Page 21