The Savage Dawn (The Vampire World Saga Book 3)
Page 24
Patrick and Ed took turns at the squat rack, trying to outdo each other both in terms of weight lifted and insults hurled.
Wesley was on the sparring mat with Beau, each of them wearing boxing gloves and headgear. While Beau wasn’t officially on the team, CB had given him a provisional status while Chuck recovered from his injuries.
On the other side of the room, Owl sweated her way through a set of shoulder presses. Chuck pedaled his exercise bike, his arm still in a sling.
Alex stepped into the facility and took all this in. It was great to see her team working out, but it only reminded her that she wouldn’t be able to join them today. She had another mission.
Ed did a double take when he saw her. “Whoa, Captain, you look good!”
She grimaced. Exactly the type of response she’d been hoping to avoid. CB had insisted she dress up today. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. Tomorrow these heels will be in the closet where they belong, and I’ll be back in my combat boots.”
She heard a grunt from the corner of the workout area and let out a laugh at what she saw there.
CB stood behind a bench in full dress attire. And below him, Brian McElroy was doing a set of bench presses.
Alex sauntered over, a wide smile on her face.
“One more, Brian, you got this,” CB barked.
Brian let out a massive grunt as he lifted the barbell and its modest set of plates, finally getting them all the way up.
Alex waited in silence while CB helped him guide the bar back onto the rack. Only then did she speak. “Brian McElroy. I’m impressed! When did you start pumping iron?”
Brian’s face reddened when he saw her. “Oh, hey Alex.” He glanced at the clock. “About thirty minutes ago. I sort of made a promise to CB. I said if we made it through the Fleming thing, I’d start taking care of myself. I procrastinated for two weeks, but a deal’s a deal.”
“Good for you,” Alex said. “You ready to go, CB?”
CB nodded grimly. Clearly he wasn’t looking forward to this any more than she was. “Polls open in thirty minutes. We better get moving.”
They started to leave the gym, but at the last moment, Alex turned back. “Hey Brian, you want to meet me at Tankards tonight?”
He tilted his head in surprise. “Sure. What for?”
“A date,” she said with a smile.
“Oh!” He suddenly sat up a bit straighter. “Yeah, a date. Let’s do it.”
“Seven o’clock. Don’t be late.” With that, she turned and followed CB out the door.
“You just made his year,” CB said with a chuckle.
“Good. Maybe he can make my night. I haven’t seen much action lately.”
CB sighed. “Please don’t break him. We need his help to put this ship back together.”
“No promises, but I’ll try to be gentle.” She paused. “Speaking of putting the ship back together, how’s Jessica?”
“Good. Excellent, actually. I saw her last night.”
“I’m really glad you two found each other, CB,” she said.
He smiled. “So am I.”
They walked in silence through Sparrow’s Ridge. They’d almost reached the edge of the Hub when Alex spoke again.
“So, we save the city, and our reward is going to more boring meetings?”
“I’m not thrilled about it either. But try to remember it’s supposed to be an honor.”
The two weeks since Fleming’s death had gone by in a blur of activity. General Craig had taken control of the city, and his first goal had been to re-establish peace. Through a combination of surveillance footage, eyewitness accounts, and even a video message from Firefly, they’d been able to convince most of Fleming’s followers of the truth of Resettlement and what Fleming had done to the City Council.
Surprisingly, Sarah had been one of the keys to making that happen. She’d given an interview that had been broadcast citywide, in which she’d explained the details of exactly how the council bombing had gone down, and how Fleming had lost his mind in his final days. Everyone knew she was doing it to save her own skin, but at least she was doing it.
Today was Election Day. General Craig had pushed to get the elections set up quickly, and he was even running for a city council spot himself, albeit reluctantly. And he’d invited CB and Alex to the Hub to help him oversee the voting process to ensure everything went smoothly. In reality, that meant spending the day in a boardroom with a bunch of politicians as they argued and waited for the election results to roll in. It wasn’t a task Alex was looking forward to, but she knew it was important.
“You know,” CB said, “maybe you should run for office next time around. Everybody in New Haven seems to love you these days.”
“Ha. No thanks. The storm drains under Denver were scummy enough. I don’t need to wade into politics.”
As they reached the door to the council building, Alex paused. “CB, hang on a second. There’s something I need to say.”
CB stopped. “Okay, now I’m worried. You’re not moving to Agartha, are you?”
She laughed. “No, nothing like that. I just wanted to say thank you. You believed in me when no else did. You gave me my shot and let me join the GMT. Then you let me stay on the team when you probably should have kicked me off. Then you let me lead.”
CB looked at her for a long moment before answering. “All I did was give you a chance. You took it, and you gave this city your all. If not for you, a lot more people would be dead. You’re the fiercest warrior and the most dedicated person I’ve ever met. I’m proud to be your friend.”
Alex blinked back the tears that sprang to her eyes.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” CB continued. “Fleming stripped this ship to the bones, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to get our systems safe and stable again. The GMT is going to be making frequent trips to the surface in the next few months. But today the city gets to decide its own fate.”
Alex pulled open the double doors and took a deep breath. “Okay, CB. Let’s see what happens next.”
The two of them walked side by side through the doors and into New Haven’s future.
Authors’ Note
Dear reader,
Thanks so much for reading these books.
As of this writing, we’ve been working on the Vampire World Saga for about two years. It seems like we discover new things about Alex and her world with just about every new chapter we write.
It’s pretty cool how stories can evolve. In our original outline, Firefly was meant to be the big bad of book three. Things didn’t turn out that way. Alex kept wanting to give Firefly a chance, and—as flawed as he is—he refused to give in fully to the dark side. His unexpected resilience made this book so much better.
Our goal with this third novel was to make it like the exciting last half hour of a movie: all action, adventure, and emotional payoffs. We hope you enjoyed the ride.
So what’s next?
As you can probably guess from the ending, we’re not done with The Vampire World Saga. True Resettlement is coming. But first, we need to see how civilization fell. There are more than a few surprises in that tale and, as Jaden said, it may hold the key to Resettlement.
If you’d like us to drop you a line when the new book comes out, add your name to the New Haven Crew, our readers email list. You’ll be among the first to know when we have a new book out. We’re also planning a prequel short story that is going to be a New Haven Crew exclusive. Click here to join the list.
Once again, thank you for reading The Savage Dawn!
Best,
P.T. Hylton and Jonathan Benecke
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