by Justin Sloan
Robin turned on this vampire and was about to yell, but controlled herself, remembering that the strange vampire wasn’t far off. “Did you even stop to think that this could be the vampire they were sending the others after, from New York? That maybe she’s still alive, that the hit failed, and that this somehow ties into her coming after us for what we did?”
The others all stared at her, horrified.
“Shit, no,” the lead vampire admitted. “We have to get back. Now.”
Robin gave him an annoyed raise of her eyebrows, but he was already moving, passing the command on to the others. With another look back toward Chicago, she saw several silhouettes moving across the land, headed toward the city.
If this was the female devil they all spoke about, Robin couldn’t let her win. Winning meant Robin’s death, because she was one of these assassins now, effectively.
And if she died, that meant never finding out what had happened to her family, and, if they were still alive, not saving them.
Nobody was going to stand between her and her family. Not even this all-powerful bitch from hell.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Chicago
The lights had grown dim outside of Chicago, but the city was speckled with light pouring out from windows. It wasn’t quite like Old Manhattan, given the lack of tall billboards and police pods, and the only sort of transit Valerie could spot was an old track that ran above their heads. She wasn’t even sure it still worked, as the night was largely silent.
Valerie was impressed with the cleanliness of it all. She supposed that had to do with TH and his military ways. Contrasted with Commander Strake and his attitude of not caring, as long as he had order, she could see why that would be the case.
A gentle breeze blew from the northeast, carrying with it the scent of the trees they had trekked through to get here. She was so glad that was finally over.
Garcia led the way, waving off a couple of police who eyed the strangers and stood guard outside of one of the mostly intact skyscrapers.
“You’ll get more of that,” Garcia said, motioning them into an alley behind the building, so they would be off of the main road. “These people have seen enough of the outside world to know that it isn’t all sunshine and lollipops.”
“But you have lollipops?” Sandra asked.
He glanced at her like she was stupid. “What? No, I don’t even know what that means. It’s just a saying.”
“God, when bringing wine and cheese over, I hadn’t even thought about lollipops,” Sandra muttered to herself.
Valerie couldn’t help but chuckle at the disappointment in Sandra’s voice. Whatever the hell a lollipop was must have been very special.
Soon they came out behind a small building that looked to be a bar, judging by the large bottles and scent of beer. Several tall buildings rose up on the other side of a plaza, and Garcia pointed to them.
“The one on the left,” he said. “That’s where this outsider is staying. We’ve seen at least one, though two others have visited. They didn’t stay long, and while they were here, there was arguing and a chair thrown from the window up top. It nearly took someone out.
“And security into there?” Valerie asked.
“This is where it gets complicated. Those boys are ours, not his. The FDG keeps the external peace, and you’re external, so we trust you won’t be harming them or we have a problem.”
Sandra scoffed. “Do you really want a problem with a day-walking vampire who can take on your whole army by herself?”
The sergeant turned and glared, but Valerie waved them both off. “Enough. The target is there, you say?”
Garcia nodded, not taking his glare from Sandra, who stood her own and glared back.
“Okay, while you two bat eyelashes and we test Diego’s tolerance, I’m going to go ahead and kill this bastard.”
She spun on her heels to go, but Sandra finally looked to her and said, “Wait.”
“I’d rather not.”
“We came all this way. What do you want us to do?”
Valerie cocked her head in thought, then nodded and said, “Cover me. If you see reinforcements coming, hold them off. If there’s chaos, try to keep your people off me, Sergeant, and if I come running with attackers on my tail, snipe the hell out of them.”
“You want us to just wait out here, basically?” Diego asked.
“It’ll be cleaner this way. In and out.”
Sandra furrowed her brow. “Fine, but… just try to keep him alive. He might know where others are.”
“Dammit, why do you have to spoil my fun?” Valerie frowned, looking back up at the building. “Okay, so no killing guards, and no killing the target. This will make for a fun little excursion.”
“When we first met, you weren’t super into killing,” Diego said. “Just get back into that mindset.”
Garcia laughed. “A vampire not into killing? Now I have something to tell the grandkids someday.”
“Actually, I’d still rather not take a life if the punishment isn’t earned. The problem is that a lot of people have earned it.”
“And you get to judge them? Why?”
“Have you heard of Michael?”
He frowned. “The Archangel?”
“The Dark Messiah returned. He granted me the power and authority, and I intend to use both, as appropriate.”
“I don’t know anything about this Dark Messiah, but I’ll say this. One thing I’ve learned here with the colonel, life is precious. Don’t take it lightly.”
“Don’t take life lightly, or don’t take a life lightly?”
“Both.”
She nodded. “I won’t argue with that.”
With a final nod and quick discussion to ensure everyone knew the plan, Valerie replaced her jacket with the sergeant’s, though it was clearly too big, and then she placed his cap on her head. It gave her the look of one of them, almost. Then she turned to the building and started walking.
Along the way, she had to pull down her hat so that the heavy winds didn’t blow it away, and she paused at the second building as if sheltering herself from the wind. In truth, she was assessing the guards at the building’s base.
The plan had been to go up into the second building over and make it across from there, but now that she was standing here, she thought this might be easier than they had first thought.
Why kill anyone, when she could just as easily walk past them?
She took a small sip from one of her vials of blood and felt the boost to get her topped up. Garcia and the others hadn’t accounted for her speed, since there was no way they could understand it.
She walked forward, casually, but keeping to the shadows, and then double-timed it before breaking into a vampire-speed sprint. The wind blew at that moment, or maybe it was a reaction to her speed, but either way the guards braced themselves against the chill and had no idea she had entered.
Inside was what had once been a grand reception area, but now appeared to be set up for more necessary operations. An image flashed in her mind of her reaching the rooftop of Enforcer HQ, only to find out she was too late. That wasn’t about to happen here.
In and out, that was her mission here, so she turned to the stairs, ready to bound up them three or four at a time, when a hearty laugh sounded nearby.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large man with a portly belly come walking around a corner, five guards in tow. He was smiling, and just started to turn her way when she ducked out of sight behind a desk.
“Just bring the pod around front,” he told one of his guards. “They gave me an hour, I’ve already taken two.”
“Had to get yours,” one of the other guys said, and the big one laughed again.
“Ain’t that the truth. Shit, the women in New York trailed far behind what you have here in Chicago.”
“You’d think we import them, but nope. Mostly homegrown goodness.”
“That’s not what I hear,” the large man said, who
Valerie was starting to suspect was the CEO she’d come after. “Everyone knows about the slavers.”
“We don’t partake.”
Valerie inched forward to have a better look. The group hovered around the door. Could the FDG have any idea this was going on under their very noses? She doubted it very much. Not TH, not with the way he ran his team, or how she expected anyway.
Then again, hadn’t he or Garcia said something about keeping the place safe externally? She knew that the CEO didn’t appear to be a threat on his own, but to let him and, presumably, the other two come and go seemed like a pretty big red flag to her.
The CEO grunted as a pod pulled up out front. It looked like one from Old Manhattan, black with reflective windows. When the doors opened, the CEO’s guards moved out first, securing the area, and then he made his way out.
What to do? Valerie leaned forward, her mind racing. Sometimes she wished she could move her thoughts in vampire speed just like her legs, but it didn’t work that way. She had planned to retrieve him, bind him, and carry him out of there. Damn, she bit her lip in frustration. Now that she thought about it, that wasn’t much of a plan to begin with! She blamed her exhaustion from the long journey. TH and the others didn’t care, as long as she didn’t cause trouble or needless death, so… she might as well just take him.
Not wanting to waste any more time, she charged forward, pushing out with fear, hard. People in the building shrieked and a loud thump sounded from the floor above, and even the guards fell back, looking to the sky and then all around.
The CEO stumbled, but he was already at the pod and, before Valerie could reach him, he entered. She jumped in and was inside the pod a moment later, grabbing hold of him.
His eyes went wide and he shouted, “Go, go, go!”
The driver glanced back and his eyes went wide too, but Valerie kept hold of the man’s collar. Suddenly she was thrown back as the pod lurched forward, then they were pulling away from the building, and the large man was struggling.
Of course, he was no match for her, but it was kind of annoying.
“Are you one of the CEOs of Old Manhattan?” Valerie shouted. “One of the Three Amigos?”
His eyes went wide, and he fell back into the seat as the pod settled.
The driver glanced back, confused, totally lost for what to do here.
“Pull over, there!” she said, indicating the bar where she knew her friends would be hiding nearby. They would have seen her jumping into the pod, she imagined. Unless they were still looking for her to stick with the original plan. “Not in the front, in the alley on the far side.”
The guy looked about to protest, so she flashed red in her eyes.
“You’re the she-devil,” the CEO muttered, and then, to her surprise, he started to cry. It wasn’t just a simple tear down the cheek sort of cry either, it was straight up bawling, his jowls shaking and blubber moving like a hippo caught in a net.
“The hell’s he doing?” she asked the driver, who just looked between her and the CEO in utter bewilderment, then turned back to swerve and narrowly avoid the building before them.
Valerie squatted opposite the CEO and allowed her eyes to return to normal. She wasn’t pushing fear anymore, because he was already about to piss himself.
“Your name?” she demanded. “Which one of them are you?”
“Don’t, please don’t hurt me,” he pleaded.
“Give me a name, and we’ll see.”
“Ian, Ian Monzon.”
“And the others?”
He whimpered, but said, “Dmitri Cross and Alex Manning.”
“Not their names, where are they?”
The pod came to a rest and Valerie adjusted to glance back and ensure they weren’t followed. So far, a peaceful night.
Ian was staring at her, the look in his eyes going from craven to insane man one moment to the next.
With a grunt, the insane man part won out and he lunged, saliva dripping down his chins and meaty hands reaching for her.
She rolled her eyes and slapped him, hard, so that he fell back into his seat and whimpered again. When he looked back up, it was clear he had lost the fight. Or was it something more than courage and cowardice?
“You’re a schizo,” she said, amazed. “I’ve heard talk of people like you, but… wow. My first real, live schizo.”
“FUCK YOU!” Ian said, and she raised a hand to slap him again.
He pulled back, legs up and arms around his knees.
“If I can?” the driver said, turned around to watch. “He doesn’t follow the exact patterns of a schizo, so, I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate. Insane is more like it.”
Valerie nodded to the driver without turning her head, then considered the fat man before her. “Okay, well I can’t very well execute an insane man, can I?”
She glanced back to the driver, who shrugged.
“I mean, justice is a bit murky on the subject, isn’t it?” She held her chin in deep thought.
“I’ll show you to them,” Ian said. “You let me live, throw me in your prisons or whatever you need to do, but let me live, and I swear you’ll have your justice.” He leaned forward now, the tears still there, but a pure psycho dick-head look in his eyes. “I’ve always hated those rat-fucks anyway. Let me be the one that sticks ‘em with the pointy end. Ooh, that’d be fun.”
“You will be in restraints, that’s for damn sure. And you…” She had turned to the driver, but noticed three shadows appear on the building wall nearby. “Open the doors.”
The driver did as he was told, and a moment later Garcia and the other two were peeking out from the side of a building. Valerie beckoned them over, so they ran, stopping at the opened door to look inside.
“Well that worked out,” Garcia said. “Got him and one of their pods.”
She nodded. “I’m going to have his driver take me to the other two amigos. If he takes me to the wrong spot, this orca dies.”
Garcia looked at the CEO, unsure. He looked like he was about to protest, when Sandra moaned and leaned against the pod, head down, and gagged.
Diego was at her side in an instant, one hand on the small of her back, the other holding her hair away from her face.
Noticing Valerie’s concerned expression, Garcia said, “It’s not the first time,” and nodded back to the alley with a hand wave in front of his nose.
Sandra glanced up, biting her lip, and her eyes flitted over to Diego.
“She’s going to be okay,” Diego said.
“Wait…” Valerie looked between the two, and then her eyes went wide as realization dawned. “You have to be shitting me. Why’d you agree to come on this trip?”
“What?”
“You jackass.” Valerie pointed at Sandra. “She’s pregnant! Right? I mean, could you be?”
Sandra looked up with wide, scared eyes, but then smiled. “I… I don’t know. But I’ve been wondering ever since leaving Ohio.”
“Dammit, Ohio.”
“It would’ve had to have happened before that,” Diego said, blushing. “But after we left, for sure. Had I even the slightest suspicion, there’d be no way we would’ve come on this mission.”
Valerie beamed, looking at her two friends, almost forgetting about the mission at hand until Garcia cleared his throat.
“Huge congrats to everyone involved,” the sergeant said. “But here’s the thing, we still have this tub o’lard to deal with, and his two compatriots.”
“Damn, you’re right.” Valerie considered the situation, then said, “You three, get him somewhere where his people can’t find him, and get his hands tied. I don’t want the crazy side of him taking over and orchestrating some sort of escape.”
“The FDG taking this guy prisoner?” Garcia’s left eye twitched. “That could be trouble.”
“Don’t worry,” Valerie said. “With what I’m about to do? There won’t be anyone left to bring trouble.”
“Then we have a deal,” Garcia said
. “But if TH has a problem with it, I’m pointing at you.”
“I have no problem with that.” She pulled the CEO from the vehicle, took some ties from Garcia and applied restraints, then shoved him over to Garcia. Turning to Sandra, she gave her a hug. “I couldn’t be happier for you. Be careful, rest, got it?”
Sandra nodded. “And you… be careful.”
“Have I ever had a reason to worry?” Valerie asked.
“Yes. And this time you’re going up against two dangerous men, and, from what we understand, a training ground for Forsaken assassins. That doesn’t sound like a situation you should be taking lightly.”
“Well, when you say it like that. Fine, yes, I’ll be careful.” She accepted her sword back, then strapped on her pistol. She turned to Diego. “You got her?”
“Always have, always will.” Diego winked, wrapping his arm back around Sandra. “Oh, and keep the pod, we might need it for our trip home.”
“The driver’s not one of theirs,” Garcia said, nodding to the driver. “Or, he wasn’t.”
“Still isn’t,” the driver said. “Just doing the job appointed to me.”
“Good.” Valerie climbed back into the pod, careful with her sword as she did so. “You’re with me for now, until this mission’s over.” She let her eyes flash red. “I find out you left me or did anything to remotely piss me off, we’ll have a problem.”
The driver nodded.
“Val,” Sandra said, with a small wave. “Kick their asses.”
“Every last one of them,” Valerie said with a laugh that, for a moment, made her wonder if she might have more in common with this CEO guy than she wanted to admit. But no, she thought as the door closed and the pod lifted off. She was just giddy with the thought that, finally, this situation with the CEOs was coming to a close.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Black Plague HQ
Robin and the others stood at the ready, knowing it was coming, but not sure when. She and Brad had made it back in time to warn Giuseppe, who in turn had warned his superiors. Now they were formed up, ready for war. The plan was to march into Chicago like they had planned, but knowing that a powerful vampire and at least a couple Weres would be up against them meant the CEOs had insisted they be armed to the teeth.