Blade of Darkness

by Dianne Duvall

  Zach vanished.

  Heather swung on Chris. “What did you do?” she demanded. “Why is my father in danger?”

  “It wasn’t Chris,” Seth murmured. “It was me.”

  Uncertainty filled her features.

  Chris nodded. “Seth thought Dana was right about being a likely target of Gershom. So he took measures to ensure we would be able to find her if Gershom got his hands on her.”

  Aidan retook his seat, hope rising. “What kind of measures?”

  Chris nodded at Melanie. “He mind-controlled Melanie and had her plant a tracker under Dana’s skin when she took blood and tissue samples for her research.”

  Melanie’s eyebrows shot up. “He did? I did?”

  David spoke. “We both believed you would agree to help us if we asked, but had we done so, we would’ve had to erase the memory of our conversation afterward.”

  She nodded. “Of course I would’ve agreed to it.”

  Bastien frowned. “Did the mind control harm Melanie?”

  David shook his head. “Because Roland transformed her, Melanie’s regenerative capabilities are as strong as an elder’s. So the damage done was minor enough for the virus to heal. We wouldn’t have proceeded otherwise.”

  Aidan looked at Chris. “Were you able to track Dana after she was taken?”

  “Yes.” Chris opened his laptop, then motioned to a large-screen television or monitor that hung on one wall.

  The screen lit up with a satellite image that depicted a fairly large building surrounded by forest.

  “Dana is being held in a building located in West Texas,” Chris told them.

  “Texas?” a few repeated.

  Aidan shared their surprise. Almost all of their troubles in recent years had originated in North Carolina. “What is it? It doesn’t look like a mercenary compound.” Aidan saw nothing in the satellite image to indicate that this building was part of a private military company. No training fields. No barracks. No helicopter landing pad. No runways for transport planes. No hangars housing tanks or other combat vehicles.

  The building looked civilian in nature.

  “As far as we can tell, there is just the one building.” Chris tapped some keys on the laptop. The image on the monitor shifted from color to shades of gray and became a little less distinct. “My contacts were able to get me keyhole satellite images. The one you’re seeing now is infrared. White indicates heat.”

  And there were a lot of glowing white bodies in that building.

  The video abruptly zoomed in on one wing of the building. “We think Dana is here.” He highlighted a room with four figures. “And that these other rooms”—he zoomed out and pointed to many more groups of four—“contain the other missing gifted ones.”

  Roland frowned. “That doesn’t look like a hundred gifted ones to me.”

  “No,” Chris acknowledged. “We’re hoping the building has an underground floor the satellite image doesn’t show that houses the rest, like the network.”

  Heather motioned to the image. “You think it’s military?”

  Aidan glanced at her. “Why would you say that?” It looked like a regular building to him.

  “Because my dad just called Zach. And he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t think his life was in danger.” She glared at Chris.

  Chris showed no remorse. “It’s hard to see because there are so many damned trees, but some of the images my contacts sent indicate that the building’s perimeter is being guarded by men wearing military uniforms.”

  “Couldn’t they be mercenaries?” Aidan asked.

  Chris shook his head. “In the hours since I traced Dana to this location, my team has been unable to unearth any information on it. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it doesn’t exist. No construction permits were ever issued. No record of land ownership exists. The power and sewer companies have no record of it. It doesn’t even show up on Google fucking Maps. Private military companies aren’t shy. They don’t hide their shit. They brag about it. Because they know the more badass they appear, the more clients will hire them and pay top billing.” He motioned to the map. “But this place? Nothing.”

  “Shit,” Sheldon muttered. “This isn’t a fucking Area 51 kind of place, is it?”

  Chris shook his head. “I don’t know what the hell it is. That’s why I called General Lane.”

  Zach reappeared, General Nathan Lane at his side.

  “Dad!” Heather leapt up and ran over to embrace her father.

  The tight expression on General Lane’s face morphed into one of relief. “Heather.” He hugged her tight. When she stepped back, he gave her a quick visual scan. “You’re okay? Reordon said you’d been—”

  “I’m okay,” she assured him.

  The shoulders of his decorated uniform dipped a bit as he let out a long breath. “And Ethan? He’s good, too?”

  Biting her lip, she shook her head. New tears welled in her eyes. “Seth is still trying to heal him.”

  General Lane wrapped his arms around her once more and searched the room for Seth.

  Seth’s eyes remained closed as he concentrated on his task.

  Chris caught the general’s attention. “What did you find out?”

  Sheldon rose and grabbed one of the extra chairs that had been pushed aside, then rolled it up to the table next to Heather’s. Heather thanked him as she and her father seated themselves beside Aidan.

  “You were right. It’s military,” General Lane confirmed. “But it’s off-the-books classified. And I mean it’s so far off the books that I don’t have the clearance needed to check it out. I called in some favors—”

  “Dad!” Heather blurted in dismay.

  He rested a hand on her arm. “I was damned careful when I did my digging but still ended up acquiring several shadows in under an hour.”

  Heather covered his hand with hers. “What happened?”

  He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement. “Zach happened. It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a hell of a lot since you stumbled into the Immortal Guardians’ world.”

  All eyes went to Zach as he took a seat at David’s elbow.

  Zach shrugged. “The military is doing what we’ve always assumed they would do if they ever found out about gifted ones. They’re all aflutter over how the men and women Gershom hand delivered to them could be used as weapons against the enemy.”

  “What enemy?” Aidan asked, perplexed.

  “Any enemy,” Zach replied. “They’re holding the gifted ones there.” He motioned to the screen.

  “All of them?” Chris asked.

  “I didn’t see a specific number, but that’s what it looked like in their minds. Right now, they’re doing everything they can to determine the full extent of each gifted one’s talent and researching ways they can utilize it.”

  Heather shook her head. “Against their will? How can they do that? They can’t make the captives use their gifts.”

  Zach sent her a dark smile. “Oh, but they can. They’re already coming up with creative ways to force cooperation, including using the deaths of the gifted ones who attempted to escape and a few more whose gifts they deemed useless as examples to motivate any who would rather not live out the rest of their lives as lab rats and trained monkeys.”

  Heather swore. “You were right, Dad. That’s exactly what you said they’d do if they ever found out I’m telepathic.”

  “There’s more,” her father said.

  Zach nodded. “Gershom dropped the word alien into a few sentences while conferring with one of the higher-ups.”

  General Lane huffed a laugh. “Can you believe it? A couple of them actually think the gifted ones may be extraterrestrials who are members of some sort of sleeper cell that is quietly infiltrating our society.”

  A few Immortal Guardians slid surreptitious glances Ami’s way.

  General Lane, as well as most of the Seconds present, wasn’t aware that there was an ext
raterrestrial in their midst right now. The only one on the planet, in fact. Ami had been ruthlessly tortured by scientists contracted by the military for six months before Seth and David had found and rescued her.

  Her face darkened.

  Marcus wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to his side.

  Sheldon looked back and forth between Zach and General Lane. “So this place really is like Area 51?” When the general nodded, Sheldon’s face seemed to lose a bit of color.

  Aidan studied the young Second. “What is Area 51?”

  Sheldon shifted uncomfortably. “It’s supposedly a military base that investigated UFO crashes and shit. Namely the Roswell crash in 1947.”

  Aidan didn’t like the way Sheldon avoided his gaze. “Investigated them how? What did they do there?”

  Tracy cleared her throat. “It’s all just speculation really. Rumors circulated on the internet by UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists, and—”

  “What did they do there?” Aidan pressed. “What did they do that you don’t want me to know about?”

  Darnell responded when no one else would. “Among other things, according to rumor they performed alien autopsies.”

  Aidan clenched his hands into fists. Autopsies? “Are you saying that while we’re all sitting here with our thumbs up our arses, those bloody bastards could be killing Dana and cutting her up?”

  Chris caught Aidan’s attention. “I don’t believe so. There was no evidence that the gifted ones we found dead had been opened up or dissected. The only marks we found on the bodies aside from the bullet wounds were needle marks on their arms where blood had been drawn.”

  Aidan tried to find reassurance in his words but couldn’t.

  Zach broke the hush that engulfed them. “I read the minds of the men who followed General Lane and erased all memories of his snooping. Their orders were to kill him and to stage his death so it would appear to have been an accident.”

  Epithets filled the room.

  “Did you kill them?” Heather ground out.

  Zach’s lips turned up in a faint smile. “No. I didn’t want to do anything that might draw both the military’s and Gershom’s attention. I also erased the memories of the men who objected to your father’s inquiries, the men who sent the assassins after him, as well as everyone your father spoke with today so Gershom won’t know we’re on to him.”

  Aidan looked from Zach to General Lane to Chris. “So Gershom is working with the military now?”

  “Apparently,” Chris confirmed.

  Lisette shifted. “Do they know what he is?”

  Zach draped an arm across her shoulders. “I don’t think so. Only two of the men I encountered had actually seen Gershom in person. And Gershom was wearing a uniform in their memories.”

  General Lane nodded. “Zach showed me. They think Gershom is a four-star general like me.”

  Aidan looked at the figures in the building on the wall monitor. “He’s mind-controlling them all?” That was a hell of a feat. There were a lot of bodies in that building.

  Chris grunted. “He only has to mind-control the higher-ups at the facility, those who give the orders.”

  General Lane nodded. “If the highest-ranking officers say Gershom is a general and treat him as such, the lower ranks will believe it and behave accordingly.”

  Chris typed something on his laptop. “I had my contacts do a thermal scan of the building as well.”

  The image on the large wall monitor changed, the shades of gray filling with vibrant color.

  The humans and gifted ones who had previously been white turned bright red.

  “If you’ll notice,” Chris said, “there are no greenish-yellow figures in the building.”

  “So no vampires,” Aidan murmured. Vampires’ body temperatures tended to run a bit cooler than that of mortals.

  “No vampires,” Chris confirmed. “So I think it’s safe to assume they haven’t gotten their hands on the virus yet.”

  Zach’s head dipped in a slow nod. “That’s good news. At least Dana won’t have to contend with vampires.”

  “No,” Aidan retorted. “She’ll just have dozens of military men who are armed out the arse.”

  Zach waved his hand in dismissal. “I’m not worried about them. Dana can handle them.”

  Aidan regarded him with disbelief. “How? She isn’t immortal, Zach. Violence was never a part of her world until I entered it. She’s had no combat training. No martial arts. She’s never even taken a self-defense course.”

  “Nevertheless,” Zach persisted, “she can handle them.”

  Lisette eyed Zach suspiciously. “Why are you so sure Dana can hold her own against military men? You’ve barely spoken with her.”

  He met her gaze, then shifted in his seat. “Just a lucky guess?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Zach…”

  Aidan watched the two, not knowing what to think. He had believed at first that Zach was just trying to put his mind at ease. But now that Lisette was drilling him with her gaze, Zach looked like a schoolboy whose teacher had just caught him dropping a lizard down the back of a girl’s dress.

  “Fine,” Zach grumbled. “There’s a slight chance that I might have mind-controlled Dana. A little bit.”

  Aidan’s breath caught.

  Lisette’s face darkened with disapproval. “Zach!”

  “I said might,” he reminded her.

  Alarm rose once more. Dana was mortal. Mind-controlling her would cause brain damage that her body—lacking the aid of the vampiric virus—could not heal. “How slight a chance?” he demanded.

  Zach glanced at Lisette, then reluctantly met Aidan’s eyes. “Gargantuan.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Aidan swore.

  “Damn it, Zach,” Seth growled behind Aidan.

  “What?” Zach protested, all innocence. “I did it for Aidan.”

  Dozens of skeptical looks stabbed him.

  “Okay, okay. I did it for Lisette. Ethan is important to her. Aidan is important to Ethan. And we all know how much Dana means to Aidan.” He looked down at his wife. “So by the transitive property, I did it for you. This is your fault.”

  When Lisette opened her mouth to rebut, David held up a hand. “What exactly did you do, Zach?”

  He shrugged. “Like Seth, I thought Dana remained a prime target for Gershom and decided to take steps that I believed would protect her to some extent.”

  Aidan drew in a breath to start shouting as outrage rose within him like lava.

  Zach stopped him with a look. “I knew she had lived a typically sheltered mortal life and, without her 9mm, wouldn’t know how to defend herself, so…” He frowned. “How can I explain this? I basically planted a how-to-kick-ass manual in her head.”

  Blank stares.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Aidan demanded.

  “It means,” Zach told him, “that when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, she now knows how to do everything I can do. Everything that doesn’t require gifts, that is.”

  Stunned silence.

  Sheldon’s lips turned up in a big grin. “That is so cool! It’s just like with Neo in The Matrix.”

  Aidan shook his head. “I don’t know what the hell The Matrix is, but this is not cool. She’s mortal, Zach. Mind control causes brain damage her body can’t heal without the virus.”

  Chris grunted. “You weren’t so concerned about that when you mind-controlled my people here at the network.”

  Aidan slammed his fist down on the table, nearly exploding with fury. “Would you fucking let that drop?” he roared. “The mind control I performed on the guards here took less than a minute. They suffered no more damage than they would have drinking and partying on a Friday night.” He turned on Zach. “How long did it take you to plant all that information in Dana’s mind?”

  Zach glanced over Aidan’s shoulder at Seth. “Quite a while, actually.”

  This just got worse and worse by the minute. “
How much damage did it do? Were you even able to heal it?”

  “Did you notice any difference in her behavior?” Zach asked in lieu of answering.

  Bastien clamped a hand on Aidan’s arm when Aidan would have risen.

  David looked at Zach. “When did you do this, Zach?”

  “Yesterday,” Zach said, “while everyone was sleeping at your place. I stayed awake to keep an eye out for Gershom and thought I would take advantage of the opportunity and give Dana the know-how she’d need to survive whatever came.” He met Aidan’s irate gaze. “Did you notice any difference in her?”

  He hadn’t. He hadn’t noticed any difference at all. “No.”

  Zach nodded. “There was damage when I finished, but I healed most of it.”

  “Most?” Aidan repeated. “Not all?”

  Zach shook his head. “I couldn’t get it all. The damage that remains is similar to that one would have after a concussion. And I feel confident the virus will heal it when she transforms.”

  Numbness began to seep in. Gershom had Dana and Dana had brain damage.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Zach said.

  “I doubt you do.”

  “I don’t have to read your thoughts to know what they contain. I know you’re now worried on two fronts, and I regret adding to your concern. You may think it was ruthless or irresponsible or however you choose to label it, but if you could just look at it without emotion clouding your judgment, you will see that this is a good thing. Dana is now armed with knowledge and skills that will enable her to defeat those guarding her should they try to harm her. She could even make an escape.”

  Aidan shook his head. “The other gifted ones who tried to escape were killed.”

  “But Dana won’t be. She’s now like those rough-and-tough marines or SEAL team soldiers in the movies Lisette and Tracy love so much. You know, the ones who go in against all odds, disarm dozens of armed combatants that grossly outnumber them, kick ass, and emerge with only a few scratches. Dana can now, with no forethought, disarm a man twice her size. If there is anything in the room with her that can be used as a weapon, she will find it.”

  Aidan supposed he could take some comfort in that.