by John Conroe
Chapter 29
The latest Marvel comic book-turned-movie was better than I thought it would be the action intense and the effects world class.
“I like the assassin chick,” Benson commented to our odd group as we left the theatre and started down West 54th street. My decision to go to the movies had been, oddly enough, matched by the better part of the daytime security group – right down to the choice of movie. Mr. Deckert had said something about Arkady wanting most of the human staff out of Citadel while so many older vampires were around. The fact that the squad of ex-special forces type had ‘felt’ like going with me to see an action flick would have seemed odd, but I knew my position as Tanya’s Chosen sort of required Arkady to provide me with security, despite my abilities.
Deckert snorted at Benson’s comment about the beautiful, curvy character in the movie. “You want assassin chicks then just look at Citadel – the place is currently crawling with them.”
“Yeah but they’re all cold blooded. Who wants to snuggle with that? The one in the movie has warm skin,” the burly ex-army soldier said. The others stiffened and he realized what he said.
“Oops, my bad. Sorry Chris, I wasn’t talking about Lady T,” he apologized.
“No problem. I actually know what you mean, but I think it’s the reptilian stares that get me. The older the vampire the less they act human. It’s really creepy,” I said.
“You know you might have hit it on the head,” Hedges agreed, slugging Benson on the shoulder.
“Tanya acts just like a human…for the most part,” he finished.
“I wish I had a suit of powered armor like the one in the movie,” Stevens said in an obvious attempt to change the topic.
“They can’t be that far off,” I said. “Maybe not the flying part, but powered armor has been a concept for decades. You just know that DARPA or some other agency is looking into it.”
“Be useful against vamps and weres,” Stevens said.
“Would it Chris?” Deckert asked. The others all perked up, interested in my answer.
“Well it would have to help, at least against the younger ones. I’m not sure how much good it would do against the older ones – they’re just too fast,” I said.
“Hosokowa’s pretty fast huh?” Hedges asked.
“Like freaking greased lightning,” I muttered, then looked up. “You guys all heard about that huh?”
“Are you kidding? Arkady was first shocked almost speechless then couldn’t stop crowing about the Young Queen’s Chosen handing the Duelist his first loss,” Benson said in a rush.
“I’m not sure I’d call it a loss. I got a few good shots in though.”
“Yeah, more of a draw, although he was wounded and you were just hungry,” Deckert commented.
“Speaking of hungry, let’s grab a bite to eat….my treat,” I said, pointing to an Irish pub looking place just across 54th street from where we were walking. The daytime crew might not have my metabolism, but they were all big, athletic guys and the thought of food with the possibility of beer on the side had their immediate attention.
Being as it was early afternoon during the workweek the place wasn’t too crowded. The pretty Irish hostess found us a table, got us seated and handed out menus in short order. She did it all while skillfully handling the automatic banter that a bunch of high testosterone types get when around attractive women.
“I think she’s seen through your blarney Stevens,” Deckert said with a grin.
“Hell, I’ve barely gotten started,” Stevens replied.
Our waiter appeared, asking about drinks, and Deckert agreed that his crew could handle a round of Guinness. I’m not sure that they were on official duty anyway, but his sense of professionalism demanded that they stay sober. Me, I could drink a keg of the stuff and not get drunk, the alcohol burning up way too fast.
“Dude, I’m guessing the hostess is seeing someone?” Stevens asked, trying for some field intell.
“Yeah – me,” the waiter answered as he headed toward the bar to get our drinks.
“Crash and burn,” Benson commented without looking up from his menu.
“Nah, that’s almost ideal,” Stevens replied, looking unconcerned as he waved at the hostess who had glanced our way.
“How so? Hedges asked.
“Workplace romances almost always fall apart and she’ll need consolation,” Stevens said with a sly grin. “Till then I’ll just have to find something else to occupy my time,” he said as a mixed group of twenty-somethings were shown to the table across from ours, his eyes locked on two very attractive girls in stylish clothes. The hostess noticed him staring at them and just shook her head. I figured Stevens wasn’t the first player to cross her path.
I excused myself and headed to the bathroom to take a leak. Business complete I paused just outside the restrooms to look over the restaurant. It was long and narrow, with a built in, leather clad bench against one wall that ran parallel to the tables, and the long polished bar on the other wall. I heard the lady’s room door open behind me, my senses automatically locked on to a young female exiting the restroom. Without turning to look, I slid to one side to let her go by.
“Sorry, just looking the place over,” I said, in explanation. Green eyes glanced at me, then did a startled double-take at the sight of my eyes.
“First time here?” she asked after finding her voice.
“Yup, how’s the food?”
“The fish and chips are very authentic and the chicken pot pie is really good,” she answered before brushing brown hair behind one ear and heading to the table of young professionals where Stevens was hitting on two of her friends.
I sat down just before the waiter plunked my pint of Guinness at my spot. He broke out his order pad and started with the formidable Mr. Deckert, who ordered three appetizers for the table and a sea scallop entrée for himself. When it came my turn, I ordered both the fish and chips and the chicken pot pie. The waiter blinked a few times at my double order but no one else at the table batted an eye.
The Guinness was tasty and I relaxed a bit, listening to the guys debate the powers of the super heroes in the movie while simultaneously sniping comments at Stevens about the girls he was trying to pick up. The movie and the restaurant were a slice of normalcy after three months Roving and the last few days of hyper intense vampire drama. The Darkkin politics were only going to get worse in the near future and I sensed real concern from my mate.
“Who do you favor in the Elder race,” Deckert asked quietly. Every conversation at our table stopped as the attention turned to my answer.
“You’ve been a part of that world longer than I have. I don’t know that I have any great insights,” I said, noticing that our suddenly quiet table had caught the attention of at least a few of our neighbors’ one table over.
Deckert snorted. “Son, your place in that world was set in motion before you were born…hell, before your mother was born! In case it’s missed your attention, most of Citadel rotates around your girl and to a greater degree than you know—you!”
At some level or another I understood what he was saying, but it wasn’t a concept I was comfortable with and not anything I took for granted.
“I don’t know much about any of them, and the only one I’ve crossed paths with was Mausya, but I have a feeling she might be the lead horse in that race,” I said, staring into my beer.
“Be real careful around her, hell, around all of them, but her in particular,” I cautioned the table, then noticed that Stevens’ two targets of opportunity were both watching our byplay as was the pretty green-eyed girl I had met by the restrooms.
The others noticed me noticing the attention from the other table and being special ops types they immediately changed behavior to cover the seriousness. A change of topic was in order and I had been meaning to ask Deckert a question.
“How’s your daughter?” I asked.
He looked down at his beer, swirling the rich, dark liquid arou
nd. “The test results came back as leukemia,” he said, his voice bleak.
“That’s what Dr. Singh thought. Listen, Tanya told him to use however much of her blood or even mine as he thought necessary to treat it,” I said, remembering a recent conversation. I had been recovering from my bout with Hokosawa when the good Doctor had updated my vampire on the health of her human security chief’s ten-year old daughter.
Deckert froze at my words, then looked slowly back up at me. All pretense of pretending to hold normal conversations halted at our table. “She said that?”
“Yeah, and Singh is certain that will be the end of that. He said that regular vampire blood has a great track record for curing leukemia and Tanya’s ought to pretty much devastate it. He’s intrigued by the idea of using mine, but whichever he uses the disease is pretty much gonna be history.”
His eyes held an intense light in them as he processed my words. Deckert doesn’t normally show much emotion, but he fairly vibrated with it at the moment.
“I thought that Tanya’s blood was off limits to everyone but you?” Benson asked, flicking his eyes at his boss then back to me.
“It goes to whoever she decides it goes to. She’s decided that Brianne needs to grow up and provide her father with grandchildren to train in the arts of mayhem,” I said as lightly as possible.
“Do you know..er..when?” Deckert asked, quietly.
“Well, Doc Singh already has a vial of each of our blood so I would guess the very next time he visits her,” I said.
“Tonight – he’s set to check up on her tonight,” Deckert said, his voice sounding a little odd.
The table was quiet for a moment, then one of the girls Stevens had been talking to leaned back in her chair and whispered in his ear.
“Ah we’ve been invited to a party…some new artist opening or something,” Stevens said, faltering.
Everyone looked at me. I shrugged. “You guys should check it out. I gotta get back to the big C, see what trouble I can get into.”
“Artist parties aren’t your thing?” Hedges asked.
“Parties aren’t my thing. I..ah, don’t go to parties, pretty much as rule. Never been to an artist party,” I said.
“But you’ve been to a party right?” Hedges asked.
“Sure, I go to Toni’s birthday parties every year and back when I was with the Squad I went to some after work parties.”
“I ain’t talking no kids party. I’m talking about adult, alcohol served, loud music, women everywhere parties,” he clarified.
“Maybe one or two during college, but they’ve never been a good idea for me. Getting drunk was an invitation to die, loud music hurt my ears and getting close to girls was an invitation for them to die.”
“You should check this one out,” Benson said.
“Alcohol doesn’t affect me anymore, loud music really hurts my ears now, and I’ve got Tanya,” I said with a shrug.
“Dude, it’s kind of sad that you never went to parties. If you went now, the chicks would be all over you!” Stevens said.
“Didn’t you hear him? He’s got Tanya!” Deckert said to Stevens who had always been real unclear on the concept of monogamy.
The waiter showed up with a tray load of food and the table went quiet as everyone dug in.
***
Citadel was swarming with activity when we got back.
“What’s going on?” I asked the security vampires at the door.
“One of our techs got bit. Senka is pissed off like I’ve never seen her. They want you there like yesterday,” he replied, waving to another of Arkady’s guys to give me a ride in a golf cart.
“Who got bit?” I asked, a hollow feeling in my stomach.
He didn’t answer till I was in the cart and it had started forward. “Your buddy…Chet!”
The golf cart shot forward, careening down the long hallways at breakneck speed, taking me away before I could fully process what he had said.
“Is he alive?” I asked my driver, who was sitting as far over on his side of the seat as he could get from me.
“I think so, but I don’t know any other details,” he said, nervously.
I shut up and let him drive, worrying about my friend, while the three minute drive seemed to take hours.
Chapter 30
The security guy dropped me off at a dead end hallway. Four of Senka’s Guardian-trained vampires in full armor and weapons were standing guard at the entrance to the little side passage.
One of them pointed behind him without saying a word or changing expression, so I kept my mouth shut and walked down the short corridor to the corner where it doglegged right and ended.
Senka, her giant seven-foot bodyguard, Ondrej, Tanya and a visibly sleepy looking Lydia were studying the empty end of the hall. A plastic ballpoint pen and a small puddle of blood were the only sign that something had happened here.
All four turned to look at me and I started to ask what had happened when the vision hit.
I have two types of visions; one that is almost precognitive – always showing an impending demon attack and the other is what I think of as a forensic vision – laying out a series of images that almost always depict a recent supernatural attack of some type.
This vision was the forensic kind and Tanya picked up enough through our link to snatch a clipboard and pen from an attending vampire and hand them both to me.
“Is he alive?” I asked while my right hand sketched out the first of three scenes.
“Chester is alive and healing,” Senka said, in a voice of arctic cold. “Singh is attending and assures me that he will survive, especially after my Gift to him.”
The older vampires attached much meaning when one of them donated a small dose of their own blood to heal a human or younger vampire. The Gift of blood was a sign of how highly an older vampire valued the recipient.
I looked around the hall while my right hand continued sketching on its own. There were no security cameras in this part of the hallway, so the attack hadn’t been recorded.
“Any video from the main hall?” I asked.
“Two, wearing hooded shirts – no faces,” the giant Ondrej rumbled.
“Wait – didn’t Arkady assign a couple of guys to watch over Chet?” I asked, still drawing.
“We found them staked in a supply closet,” Lydia answered.
“Dead?” I asked.
“No, just a pointy piece of wood through the heart. They’re healing now,” Tanya explained.
Staking a vampire will render it unconscious and vulnerable, but you pretty much have to either rip the heart out or decapitate it to kill it.
I looked down at the clipboard as the others crowded behind me to look over my shoulder. Three separate pictures were appearing under the blurring movement of my pen. The first showed Chet being shoved against the wall by two vampires in dark hoodies, his face terrified. The second scene showed one vampire’s face as he appeared to question Chet, the second Darkkin still hidden. The third showed the questioner biting Chet’s throat while the previously hidden one turned to look back at the main corridor, exposing his full face.
“This is accurate?” Senka asked, her cultured voice reflecting disbelief.
“Extremely,” Tanya answered, carefully studying the pictures as my hand finished its work and stopped moving.
“I think it’s an offshoot of the visions I have gotten my whole life – the ones that show me demon attacks. These only occur with recent supernatural attacks and only if the scene of the crime is fairly…fresh,” I explained. “I can’t force the demonic ones but I have some ability to push these CSI type sketches.”
Senka studied the sketch then turned to Ondrej. “I want these two – now! See that all our people get copies of this.”
Lydia leaned over the Elder’s shoulder and snapped a picture of the sketch with her iPhone, then typed for a rapid second.
“Done! Every member of your line now has this sketch,” the little vamp said. My iPh
one buzzed in my pocket as did Tanya’s and Ondrej’s. The giant looked from his the photo on his phone to the little vampire and snorted. He started to comment and then his hand vibrated as his phone buzzed again.
“Arkady has them under observation,” he reported in heavily accented English.
Senka looked from him to Lydia and then to Tanya and me, shook her head once then smiled a cold, grim smile. “Have them observed to see who they interact with for the next two hours, then grab them. The Conclave convenes in three hours. I want to remind the participants of what it means to be an Elder – especially an Elder who has people as talented as I do.”