Sanguine Series (Book 1): The Fall

by Chris Laughton

  He was lost in thought enough that he almost didn’t notice when his phone buzzed from within his pocket. Years ago, he had set his phone’s AI to watch for any video that might indicate he’d been revealed. It had helped him leave town before people asked too many questions several times in the past, and there was rarely a false positive; he had trained it in what to look for too well. He looked at the screen and saw it was a link to a video file. Mason glanced around the room to make sure nobody else could see his screen from where he was standing and muted the sound. He didn’t need to click it to know what it was, but he did anyway. Sure enough, there he was being hit by a car, and there he was, moments later walking away. Christ, they would even know which way he’d fled the scene. He cursed himself that he hadn’t thought to take a more circuitous route back to the hotel. At least his face had been too badly damaged in the video for him to be recognized. By rights, he should check out of his hotel, leave town, and never look back. This new client certainly wouldn’t mind if he decided to remote in for the rest of the job. It would save him any more awkwardness of Mason’s in-person visits.

  But what about Rebekah? He’d never felt so drawn to anyone before and he wanted to see where that went. It was a gamble, but at the earliest, it would take days for the government to ascertain what, if any, their interest should be in him, and mobilize anyone to try to find him. No, even if he decided to leave town, he was doing it after a movie tonight. If she didn’t show, then he’d be in the wind by morning. Of course, he’d rather deal with dodging any interested parties until this video blew over if it meant he got to see her again.

  12

  Trevor checked the slide on his weapon one more time. His entire team had pulled off the highway about a mile from the facility to re-check everything. Well everyone except Aidan. He was sleeping in the back of the van. Normally, they returned home after each nest and had time to take stock of their equipment, but things were moving fast on this mission. That Gabriel character had given them some great intel on one of Alexander’s compounds. Not just a nest, but an actual installation. Gabriel didn’t think Alexander would be there, but it didn’t matter. If this place was important to Alexander, then even if he wasn’t there, it might give them insight into just what he was planning, and that alone was a huge step forward. After Gabriel had given up the location they’d had to wait while their nearest scout verified the authenticity. During the intervening hours, Aidan had tried to chat up Gabriel about what exactly it was they had been working on at this installation. Not in an interrogatory way, just curiosity and killing time. Aidan had seemed genuinely surprised when Gabriel wasn’t interested in talking about it.

  They’d driven east into Utah, his men taking shifts at the wheel while everyone else got the kind of sleep in the back of the van that made you wake up feeling worse. It was hardly the perfect scenario with which to head towards a nest clearing. They were all low on ammo. It took a lot of bullets to bring down a vampire and even then, you needed to remove the head or expose them to sunlight to be sure they were dead. It wasn’t ideal to try to stretch one clearing’s worth of supplies into three, but if they didn’t act on this lead now, it may vanish. Heck, for all they knew, Alexander had a video feed at Gabriel’s compound and had already cleared everything out of this one. One by one, each of his men made eye contact with him, signaling that they were ready to go and loaded back into the van. Trevor got back in last, and pushed Aidan upright so he’d have room to sit. The Irishman opened his eyes slightly. “There already?”

  “Not quite,” Trevor replied.

  “Good,” and with that Aidan leaned back and was out like a light again. It was uncanny how the man just didn’t seem to respond to situations like he should. Trevor nodded to one of his men near the wall that separated the back of the van from the driver, and his man tapped the wall twice. The driver shifted the van into gear and pulled back onto the highway, taking a slow pace to reach their destination. It had taken a day to drive here, and Trevor honestly didn’t know what they were going to find. What he did know is that even though his men all had military - or at least militia - backgrounds, eating and sleeping in the back of a van with five other men was taxing. They were not going to be at their sharpest when they rolled in here, and Trevor hoped he wasn’t making a mistake. Dr. Westfield had advised against it, but ultimately left the call in Trevor’s hands, perhaps a bit impatient himself to actually make progress on finding Alexander. Trevor had been a part of The Project for eleven years now, but it had been going for much longer than that, and he couldn’t imagine how long Dr. Westfield had waited.

  The van turned off the highway onto a well-maintained dirt road. Ahead was a field that looked like it used to be farmland but now had fallen into disrepair. Near the road, was a water pumping station surrounded by rusted out chain-link fencing. A clever disguise, but the recent and multiple tire tracks backed up what both Gabriel had told them, and the scout had confirmed. This water pumping station was just a disguise for the entrance into something underground. Gabriel had said it was where Alexander kept a vampire that could see the future. No doubt another load of bullshit Alexander told his vampires to build his mystique and keep them in line, but Trevor had no doubt that it contained something valuable. You might keep a facility like this to bolster a lie, but you only used it if you actually had something to keep hidden.

  His team exited the van quickly and quietly, bringing the battering ram with them, and smashed in the lock on the door to the pumping station. Inside, it was just an empty 6’x6’ room save for a flat panel on the far wall. Aidan removed Gabriel’s eye from the pouch on the side of his pants and walked to the panel. It hadn’t required refrigeration for the ride here as vampiric body parts decayed much slower than human. “Let’s see what we can do about getting in ‘ere, eh?” He looked around expectantly at the team. “Get it? ‘See’?” He waved the eye around for effect. The rest of the team, either numb to Aidan’s antics at this point, or numb from the days-long excursion gave no response. Aidan shrugged and turned to hold the eye up to the panel. The panel emitted a green light that scanned over the eye and the entire platform began to lower. Aidan put the eye away and came to stand next to Trevor. “Mind if I take point, sir?”

  It still never sounded natural when Aidan referred to him as ‘sir’. Trevor took a slight step back and replied, “Not at all, Aidan. After you.” The rest of the men stepped to the side walls, making themselves as narrow, and difficult a target from the elevator doors as possible. Aidan stood at the front, dead center of the doors and raised his gun slightly, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. The platform shook slightly as it settled into position at the bottom of the lift. Aidan raised his rifle fully to his shoulder and looked down the sight as the doors reopened on a very drab hallway with two doors in the middle that led to either side and one door at the end of the hallway. Aidan waited a moment, expecting a bit more than the hum of a far-off generator to greet them. When no vampires emerged, and no shots were fired, Aidan stepped out of the elevator, gun still raised, and put his right arm up with a fist. The team waited in the elevator obediently, but Trevor moved forward to place himself in the doors and keep them from closing. Aidan took a few more steps forward, placed himself flat against the wall next to one of the doors in the middle, and carefully turned the knob, keeping a minimum of himself exposed to whatever lay on the other side. When he heard the click of the latch, he pushed the door slightly open and pulled his hand back. Still nothing. Aidan swung into position to fire into the room, sweeping his gun from side to side, before signaling the team to exit the elevator. He entered the room and the team exited the elevator, Trevor in front, taking up positions to cover the other two doors. Aidan emerged from the side room and kicked in the door for the other. He was getting frustrated. He emerged from the second side room quicker than the first.

  “Well maybe we’re fuckin’ early,” he growled and headed for the room at the end of the hallway. This is what Trevor had be
en worried about: that Alexander would’ve already emptied the place out and it would prove a dead-end. Aidan stopped a few steps away and sniffed the air. “Finally,” he said and aimed through the door. It was a solid wooden door, but Trevor had seen Aidan do this before. Aidan let off a few rounds aimed at precisely the same spot before charging at and smashing through the door. Trevor and the team rushed to follow. This room had several monitors on a desk that gave a view from behind of a woman sitting on the side of her bed, staring at a door. The only other features in the room were another door to the side, this one with a huge security bar and multiple locks to keep it closed, and a chair, where a vampire, gun at his side, was presently seated, with his hand placed under the three new bullet holes in his chest with a look of shock on his face. When he looked back up and saw Aidan and the team behind them, he tried to raise his gun, but Aidan shot him in the hand and moved quickly towards him, kicking the gun away. “Just you ‘ere? Your boss must really ‘ate you.”

  Two of the other team members moved forward and pulled plasticuffs from a pouch in their uniforms that they then used to restrain the vampire’s wrists and ankles to the chair. Trevor stepped into his line of sight and kneeled. “Listen, my friend here,” he pointed to Aidan, “is going to ask you some questions in a moment.” Aidan had slung his rifle over his shoulder, and opened the large pouch on the side of his pants, pulling out the rolled-up bag that contained his tools. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the bag unfurling onto the desk where all the tools, polished to be positively reflective could catch the light. Trevor had to admit, it really did make quite the first impression. “But you could do yourself a favor and show him how helpful you can be. Where are the keys to that door?” Behind him several of his team members had taken the security bar out of its bracket. The vampire was still wide-eyed with his mouth open, but he looked to his side pocket. Trevor reached in and pulled out a set of keys and tossed them to the men behind him. “Is she all that’s on the other side?” He pointed to the woman on the monitor. The vampire and Aidan both looked, and the vampire nodded. Aidan leaned in to get a closer look at the monitor, before looking back at the vampire in the chair. “Well now, you can wait. I need to meet the pretty lady.” He walked over to where one of the team members was using the keys to open the door. Aidan preened for a moment, pretending to straighten a tie he wasn’t wearing, before he sniffed the air again and his shoulders slumped. “Fuck, she’s a vampire too? If these arseholes are going to keep someone locked up, you’d think it was at least ‘uman,” he rambled as he walked back over to his tools. He extracted the first one, a long handle with a small blade at the end that curved almost into a complete circle. Aidan used it to pierce the tips of fingers and pull nails out from the back of them. He pointed the knife at the vampire. “Now I’m cranky.”

  Trevor looked at the two men guarding the now unlocked door and nodded as he rose and walked to the door. His men opened it as Aidan just watched on the monitor. As Trevor stepped into the room, he locked eyes with the beautiful – now that he could see her from the front, he could tell that she was indeed beautiful – woman seated at the edge of her bed. She was dressed in what resembled a hospital gown, albeit slightly more flattering and it didn’t open in the back. She had short brown hair that framed a round face, but it was her soulful brown eyes that really made her attractive. Had Trevor been so inclined, and had she not been a vampire, it might’ve been difficult for him to speak.

  “Ma’am, my name is Trevor Sanders. It would appear from all the locks on the door,” Trevor gestured to the door he’d just passed through, “that you’re no friend of these vampires, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume I don’t need to kill or restrain you. Can you tell me why they had you locked up?”

  The woman smiled. “My name is Maya. I’m locked up, because I can lead you to another one like him,” she said as she pointed to the wall, but Trevor knew Aidan was on the other side, right where she was pointing, watching this on the monitors. “Whether you kill me or not is up to you, but if not, I’m afraid that you actually should restrain me.” She held her hands out in front of her, waiting to be plasticuffed and smiled again.

  Trevor hadn’t heard him, but Aidan had entered the room behind him. “Another one like me? Sounds fun!” he said as he slapped Trevor on the back.

  13

  Rebekah was nestled into several blankets on her sister’s couch, reading a book. An old-fashioned paper book at that. Truth be told, she wasn’t really reading it, just scanning the words with her eyes, but there was something about the act that was comforting. It was a book her sister had held on to since they were kids. Rebekah thought she’d read it at one point, but couldn’t for the life of her remember a single detail from it. There was very little from her own childhood that she still owned.

  She was back in her sister’s apartment. Gwen had relented after Rebekah had spent a grand total of one night back on the street. She’d arrived the next morning to her sister at the dining room table with a very serious look on her face. “Louise asked where you were this morning.”

  “What’d you tell her?” Rebekah had asked as she hung her coat.

  “I told her you might be here later today,” Gwen responded. “I had to duck a question from my daughter.”

  “I didn’t ask you to do that. Where is she anyway?” Rebekah had not expected a fight with her sister today.

  “She’s with a sitter so we could talk,” Gwen said, still not making eye contact. Rebekah suddenly understood what this was: the ‘I can’t do this’ talk. Considering she hadn’t even done anything this time, it was a little surprising. She hadn’t even used since yesterday morning, which was probably her longest streak of sobriety since the last time her sister kicked her out a few years back. Her sister had moved since then, so it’s not like the two of them had made any memories in this place that Rebekah could appeal to.

  Rebekah reached for the coat she’d just hung. “Look, I can just go.”

  Gwen shook her head. “No, no, that’s not what I want. Sit down. You’re making me nervous just standing there.” She tried to muster a smile.

  Rebekah pulled up a chair somewhat hesitantly. “Alright, what do you want then?”

  Gwen took a deep breath. “I want you to move back in.”

  Rebekah had been blind-sided. ‘Move back in’ might have been overselling it, since it wasn’t like Rebekah had much to move, but still, she had thought it was going to take weeks to gain enough of her sister’s trust for her to be able to crash here. “Wow, I, uh-,”

  “But I don’t want to make the same mistake twice,” Gwen had cut her off. “How serious are you about getting clean?”

  “That’s a tough thing to quantify,” Rebekah had answered honestly, but Gwen’s look told her she better figure out how. “I haven’t used since yesterday,” she answered, again honestly. Gwen raised an eyebrow, so Rebekah elaborated. “Morning, yesterday morning.”

  Gwen forced a smile again. “Well, I guess you have to start somewhere. There’s one other thing: your date last night, it wasn’t… I mean, he wasn’t paying you, was he?”

  “Jesus, no! It was just a movie, and he was a perfect gentleman!” Rebekah realized she shouldn’t be offended by the question. She’d like to think she’d never resort to prostitution, but being good-looking and homeless had certainly emboldened a certain segment of men to ask.

  “So are you going to see him again?” Gwen was heading somewhere, but Rebekah was too distracted to notice.

  Now it was Rebekah’s turn to smile. “Yes. Tomorrow for lunch.”

  “A second date that quickly?” Gwen had that scolding tone in her voice.

  “Sort of a third,” Rebekah replied meekly. She recounted the story of her meeting Mason to her sister, and she’d been so distracted by reliving it that she hadn’t noticed the disapproving look on her sister’s face the entire time.

  “Have you considered that now may not be the best time for dating?” G
wen cautiously approached the subject.

  Rebekah was taken aback. She knew exactly what her sister meant, but jokingly looked at her watch. “What, 12:30?”

  “I just mean that maybe trying to build a new relationship isn’t the best choice while you’re trying to, you know, get clean.” At last Gwen made her point, and Rebekah realized she’d walked into an ambush.

  “You realize he’s the reason I want to get clean, right?” she said, feeling her anger rise.

  “And that’s great! And he can still be your motivation! I’m not saying you never see him again, just that you put things off until you’re in a better place. You know? Wouldn’t it be better if he was the reward at the end of getting sober?”

  “No,” Rebekah was somewhat at a loss for words. Her anger turned to guilt. She wanted to argue with her sister, but Gwen had a point. What Rebekah knew, and she didn’t, was that Rebekah hadn’t really gotten clean; she’d only started hiding it from her sister again.

  She didn’t have any compelling story about why she’d started using when she was a teenager. There was no friend who tricked her into it, or bad boy she’d been trying to impress. She’d just seen the world differently than Gwen since they were little. Where Gwen saw a world you’d have to do your best in to have any shot, Rebekah saw a world that wasn’t worth trying to make it in. Where Gwen had focused on the private school her parents had sent them to, Rebekah had used her affluent classmates to connect her to dealers. There were few drugs she hadn’t tried in her quest to escape reality, but heroin was the one that hooked her. Her parents had died in a botched home invasion while she and Gwen had been at school and the loss had only hastened Rebekah’s descent. She’d blown through her portion of the lump sum they had received from the estate, and not been as wise with it as Gwen. The meager monthly allowance they both still received from the trust, however, was enough to feed her habit, and some of the best logistics left in the world belonged to the drug trade, so supply was never an issue. There was a part of her, and Rebekah felt sick when she acknowledged it, that was thankful her parents hadn’t lived long enough to really see her hit rock bottom. It was an observation Gwen must have had as well, but even in their most heated arguments, had never brought it up.