by Janice Jones
“Why Romania? I mean, was somebody trying to be funny or something?” Xavier asked as he poured more beer in his glass. “They do know Stoker made that shit up, right? And right before Christmas, really?”
Xavier always looked like he was flexing, but he was just cut like nobody’s business. Warm brown skin and beautiful brown eyes, he took to weapons like a kid to candy.
“What,” Coop chuckled. “You got plans for the holiday? Playing Santy Claus at the Y?”
“No,” he smiled. “But, I do have a few ho, ho, hoes I’d like to get close to!”
Male laughter shook the glasses on the table and turned heads.
Kai and David bumped fists then emptied their glasses as well.
Even though they were not identical, they were a lot alike. As the demolitions team, Coop was always surprised at the ways they could completely destroy any target they were given.
“Well you’re gonna have to put that on hold if we end up escorting Stavros to Romania, sorry.”
“If,” Sebastian chimed in. “I thought it was a lock?”
“Not quite,” Coop sighed. “SecDef and the head of the Council are still working out the logistics for foreign soil. Since he actually carries a passport that says he’s a U.S citizen, we should call the shots. But King Biter says since he’s a vampire, he’s not really a citizen of any country but theirs. It’s a stupid argument if you ask me.”
“Whatever,” Kai sighed. “We have bigger problems than babysitting Stavros right now.”
“Yea, but they may be involved, so we have to get as close as we can,” Coop replied pouring another glass of beer.
“And, if they had anything to do with the deaths of our two operatives,” Xavier added, “we should be the ones to bring them in. And then there’s the matter of the Box missing.”
Sebastian downed his warm beer and stood up, wiping his mouth on the white napkin in his hand, his blue eyes giving off a radiant shine as he ran his fingers through his blond hair.
“While you gents argue over that, I’m going to go and thank the ladies properly.”
“Don’t take too long,” Coop said. “You’re on the clock, son. And no snacking between meals either.”
“Yea, yea, clock,” he mumbled as he walked away. “No snacks, got it, Dad!”
Chapter 9
She stopped to give her eyes time to adjust to the dim light of the alley and the scent of trash that replaced the burger odor from the shop across the street. Huddled around an old metal drum, figures, illuminated by the fire as it danced in the breeze and mesmerized by the flames, moved only slightly as she approached.
Upon closer inspection, the men passed around a bottle as their friendly conversation continued. The cleanest of them turned when she kicked a bottle in her path. He moved one step to his left to make room for her at the fire.
“What took you so long?” he smiled at her.
“Sorry. I had to see a friend about something,” she replied.
The bum she stood next to led the others away, but the tall man remained.
His tan jacket was clean and fit him perfectly. His fresh haircut, high and tight, and slightly gray at the temples didn’t give away his age, only his place of employment. The brass that hung from the front of his shirt was mostly hidden from view by the jacket. The U.S. Army pin on his collar sparkled by the fire light. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his khakis and the brown leather of his boots, worn from years of use, were not Army issue. She guessed he didn’t want to ruin a good shine standing in a cruddy alley.
“Care to elaborate?” he said.
“On? Oh . . . not really,” Alex answered.
“Okay, what’s new then?”
“Not much. Launch should be on time, for once.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” he grinned.
Alex shrugged as they continued to watch the dance of the flames.
“At the risk of sounding like a bad movie character,” he said. “We gotta stop meeting like this.”
They faced each other and his left brow went up slightly as he waited for a reply.
“It’s safer this way.”
“Yea, but my office is much more comfortable,” he chuckled.
“Good point,” she sighed, then turned back to the fire.
Scratching at his cheek, the man blinked a couple of times then he sighed. “Are you sleeping any better?”
“A little, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“It’s hard to tell,” she replied as her eyes scanned the alley and the men behind her. They were still sharing a bottle and talking amongst themselves. “Better is such a relative term when it comes to sleep, don’t you think?”
“Relative to what?” he replied.
“Is it better to sleep and have dreams about being killed by monsters,” Alex stated. “Or, not sleep at all and think about it anyway?”
He looked around to make sure no one heard what she said. The homeless men who lived in this alley were veterans and Captain Thomas Gilchrest did his best work down here. Doling out free mental health services and sometimes money for a safe place to sleep for the night, he got help from people like Alex.
“Most people have dreams about being chased, hunted. Usually it’s just your subconscious trying to work out something your conscious mind can’t,” he whispered. “I’m not sure why you’re making them monsters though.”
“Do you remember the first time we met?” she asked as he moved closer to her.
Her discomfort displayed itself almost immediately. She pushed her hands inside the kangaroo pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. Absently biting her lower lip, he knew she didn’t like to talk about that time.
“Yes, I remember,” he answered.
“What did you think?” she asked in a hushed tone. “Of me, I mean.”
“I thought how strange it was for a young woman to be in a military psych ward.”
“What did they tell you about me?”
“That you’d seen combat, but what kind and the details of your assignment were classified,” he answered. “I was just there to assess your ability to return to active duty.”
“You told them not to send me back,” she said as she faced him.
An easy calm suddenly replaced the tension she displayed earlier. Dr. Gilchrest took a step back, but kept eye contact with her. “Yes and I’d do it again. Combat was no place for you then.”
“Then where should I have been, doctor, in your professional opinion?”
He stepped back into her personal space expecting her to retreat, but she didn’t. Stupid of him to think that someone like her would be afraid of an almost retired Army psychiatrist carrying twenty pounds of extra weight his personal physician had told him to lose.
“In my professional opinion,” he said, then cleared his dry throat. “You should have been at a ‘kegger’ having your first drink of cheap beer, like every other twenty-one year old in America. You should have been falling in love, studying for finals, waking up hung over; anything but what you were ordered to do in that desert fifteen years ago.”
Alex dropped her head and closed her eyes. “Can’t change the past.” The fire crackled and popped as silence fell between them again. “I do appreciate you seeing me off the books, doc,” she said as her eyes opened and she backed away.
“Well it’s the least I could do after all the financial help your company has given this outreach program,” he smiled. “Not many people take the time to care about what happens when wars end. No one comes home the way they were when they left.”
“Don’t I know it,” she said, mostly under her breath. “I’m glad to help.”
“Am I helping you at all?” he asked as he followed her down the alley toward her car. “I really want to help you, Alex.”
“You are, I swear.”
“I don’t feel like I am because you won’t open up to me for some reason. You can trust me.”
“I’ve probably told you more than I should have. Too much information can be dangerous.”
“For who?”
“You,” she answered. She stopped at the curb, turned and held out an envelope stuffed with cash. “I’m headed to Vegas for a couple days, so I won’t get to see you next week.”
“That’s too much,” Dr. Gilchrest insisted.
“How do you know?” she smiled. “Besides, your funding is coming up for review. You might need this to keep you going till then.”
“How do you know so much about me?” he asked as he took the envelope. “Should I really be worried? About you, I mean.”
“No, you should worry about these guys. They depend on you, Dr. Gilchrest.”
“What about you?” she heard the doctor shout as she crossed the street to her car.
“What about me?”
He stepped up to the mailbox, leaned on it as his arms crossed over his chest.
“Who do you depend on?”
Alex opened the door, put one leg in and waved as she dropped down inside.
“Myself,” she yelled as she drove away.
Chapter 10
She took the darkest streets to her building on purpose. Covered in shadows, she could use them to draw the young man that was following her out. He dropped in behind her a few miles back. At first she thought it was just a coincidence. Maybe he was just going in her direction, but when his lips began to move, she knew he wasn’t just singing to his favorite tune. He had a receiver in his ear. When she focused, she could hear a low hum from the transmitter in the air. Funny how some things never change. Even with the kind of technology available to Strategic, all they could think of was to put a tail on her. Coop had to know she’d make him before he got too close. Didn’t he remember what Alex was capable of? She guessed he’d either forgotten or never really knew in the first place. Too bad for his errand boy.
The parking garage was quiet as Alex climbed from the car, pulling her bag with her.
She held her keys in her hand as she made her way toward the elevator. She pressed the button and waited for the steel box. Then, dropping the bag to the ground along with her keys, Alex forced her foot into his gut. He caught the right she threw and slammed an open palm into the center of her chest.
The elevator doors opened just in time. Falling through, Alex jumped out of the box just as the doors closed again. He ran and she gave chase.
At the top of the ten story structure, they stopped.
Moving cautiously, Alex could smell his fear in the air around them.
The young man found himself on the ground when Alex’s right fist connected with his squared jaw. Spitting out his own blood, he struggled to stand. Her elbow crashed against his cheek, before he could speak, spinning him around and slamming his back against the low wall around the roof.
It had taken so little effort to pluck him from the ground and hold him over the side of the building that she surprised herself. He couldn’t speak because her hand was wrapped around his neck.
The stranger’s icy blue eyes began to turn a pale pink as she cut off his air supply. Letting him go without a second thought, she turned away with a sigh.
Walking calmly toward the stairs she paused again.
Not giving a second thought to how she would dispose of the body, she was more worried that he wasn’t screaming on the way down.
Peering over the side, a few feet below her, he clung to the building, looking up and grinning like an idiot. Those blue orbs, glassy, but big, stared up
innocently.
Adjusting his grip on the building, he grunted, “Coop sent me.” As he inched closer to the top he blew out a hard breath. “You’re not gonna give me a hand?”
Alex planted her hands on the ledge and shook her head, “Nope.”
The young man slid one hand up and turned his head slightly. The black script letters of his tattoo, only visible at a certain light spectrum, jumped out at her.
“He just wants to talk to you.”
“I told him I’d think about it. Where is he?”
When he swung a muscular arm over the ledge, she backed away, “He’s waiting for us down the street.”
Once he dropped, safe again on solid ground, he leaned over and spit out more blood. He wiped his bloody fingertips gracefully on a handkerchief from his jacket pocket.
“Whatever’s going on is your problem, not mine.”
He followed her back to the elevator and pressed the button before she could.
“He said you’d be like that, but he told me to not take ‘no’ for answer,” he mumbled as the elevator made its way up.
“And, what do you think you can do to change my mind,” she asked, spinning around.
“Well, I could beg, but that won’t be pretty,” he grinned sweetly. “It’s just one drink and some conversation, that’s all.”
Back at her car, Alex tossed the bag in the trunk and waited for him to get in.
“So,” she said without looking at him. “Where to?”
His blue eyes locked on hers again. When he grinned, his pearly white teeth were just visible behind rosy lips and perfect cheekbones. “Not far from here.”
Her phone buzzed. She popped it in the holder and pressed the speaker function.
“Guess who!”
“You mother . . .”
Sebastian found it hard to focus with her anger all around the small space. From the passenger seat he couldn’t get away from the scent.
“I’ve been called worse,” they heard Coop sigh. “Anyway, we’re in a nice little bar about a mile from where you are. See ya in a few?”
“I got kicked out, remember? Call Ben,” Alex groaned with a quick glance at Sebastian.
Coop pushed out a long sigh and this time they heard someone ask if they could really trust her. Sebastian could smell the spike in her temperature at that remark and it scared him.
“You took the easy way out and he’s not answering. You heard from him lately?”
“Nope,” Alex replied. “He’s probably avoiding you too come to think of it.”
Sebastian smiled as he buckled up. “Lucky us,” he said with a low laugh.
Coop’s laugh brought a frown to her pretty face. Sebastian placed his hands on his knees and waited for further instructions. He also made sure to turn his head so she could see it. Poised just over the large vein in his neck, that tattoo made him an official member of the Trackers even if he was a vampire. And by the way her heartbeat changed, she didn’t like that at all.
“Sebastian can get you here safely,” he heard Coop say. “Don’t let the handsome face fool ya though!”
When the line went silent, she shot the phone the finger then turned to him.
Warm, like a blanket, her scent wrapped around him. It felt good to be this close to her for some reason. Sebastian had to admit she was something of a loose cannon, but he liked that. Like the moment when he crossed over, dark and frightening, Sebastian was almost disappointed she didn’t seem to like him or the situation.
_______________
Just like him to pick a crappy biker bar, Alex thought as they eased into the makeshift parking lot. The light poles sat at odd angles that threw weird shadows everywhere.
They sat in the dark of the car with nothing but the sound of her breath to fill the awkward silence between them.
“Um . . . we should get inside,” Sebastian said. “He just wants to talk, that’s all.”
“Just so you know,” Alex replied as she opened the door. “I’m gonna finish what I started with you earlier if this goes sideways. Are we clear?”
“You really should try decaf,” he replied, then slammed the car door with her. “Look,
my orders were to bring you here and to let you know your status has been upgraded, so . . .”
“My status was no contact. What changed?”
“You’ll have to ask Coop,” he sighed. “He’s in command.”
“Coop,” Alex laughed this time. “How many asses did he have to kiss to get that job?”
Sebastian shrugged as he led the way to the front entrance. “He’s always been a Team Commander.”
Alex stepped into his personal space and took a deep breath. He smelled good. Nice expensive cologne and that fresh out the dryer smell to his clothes. “No, he hasn’t.”
Chapter 11
Her vampire escort waved and shook hands like he was politician. She felt like she should know these people, but no one looked familiar until his face came into view.
At the pool table, Jesse Cooper hardly looked like the brash young Navy Seal Lieutenant she met all those years ago. If not for the Navy tattoo and brilliant smile of his, he’d be a stranger too. The yellow nine banked, then disappeared in the pocket in the far corner. The eight followed shortly thereafter and the guy Coop just beat slapped a hundred in his outstretched palm and cursed.
“Thanks,” Coop smiled as he waved with the new bill. His companions clapped and hooted as the man disappeared into the crowd. “Not bad for an old man, huh?”
Sebastian stepped up to the table and jerked his thumb in Alex’s direction.
Coop’s hazel eyes peered over one broad shoulder and danced when he saw her. That was another thing she remembered about Jesse Cooper—animated facial expressions highlighted by beautiful hazel eyes.
“Ay dios mio,” he harped with a shake of his head. “Damn girl, you . . . you look like hell!” They all laughed as he took her chin in his hand and examined the bruise with one eye. She pulled her face away and stood perfectly still as he walked around her slowly.