by Tina Folsom
For the first time since the fight started, Wesley started to panic. Terrified that something bad had happened to Virginia, Wes ran through the fighting adversaries, dodging accidental blows and jumping over dead bodies.
Then a familiar scream made him spin to the left. There, on the other side of the Toyota, Virginia was fighting two demons, one of them the demon cop. She was trying to shield Deirdre from them, but was close to losing the fight.
“Zane! Amaury! Anybody! Virginia needs help. Behind the white Toyota!” Wes cried out for help, already charging toward the scene. Before he reached it, another demon hit him from the side, and he slammed onto the wet asphalt. He lost his dagger on impact and snapped his head to the side. Frantic, he reached for it, managing to grip the handle, but the demon was already upon him, his dagger aimed at Wesley’s chest.
“Fuck!”
Before the dagger could reach its mark, two hands with razor-sharp claws wrapped around the demons neck, slicing through it and ripping the head clear off. Green blood rained down on Wesley, blinding him for an instant.
“You’re welcome,” Zane said with an almost smile and helped him up.
Knowing Zane, this kind of fight was right up his alley.
“Virginia?” Wes managed to say, still out of breath, and turned his head in the direction of the Toyota.
Amaury and John were charging toward the two women. But two more demons had joined the fight, and now the faux cop was backing away from the vampires, dragging Deirdre with him, while leaving his demons to fight off Virginia and the vampires. Virginia tried to follow, but the demons were preventing her from going after Deirdre. She couldn’t get past them.
“Fuck!” Wesley hissed.
He couldn’t let Deirdre fall into the demons’ hands. She knew everything about the Stealth Guardians, and eventually torture would make her spill her secrets.
Wesley raced around the other side of the car and chased after the demon cop and the struggling Deirdre. He reached them just as the demon cast a vortex. Desperately, Wesley jumped toward them and managed to push Deirdre to the side. The demon lost his grip on her, and she tumbled to the ground.
The demon cast a quick look past Wesley, and judging by the expression on his face, he knew he’d lost the battle. He jumped into the vortex.
“Not so fast, buddy!” Wes lunged after him, and the vortex engulfed him.
Darkness surrounded him, but his hands found purchase: he’d caught the demon’s leg and ripped him backward, making him stumble.
Together they fell, fighting, punching, kicking.
Wes concentrated on his witch powers and pushed against the demon, kicking him off. But the demon wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t relent.
“Fucking witch! I’ll teach you to mind your own fucking business!”
Suddenly pain like piercing shards of glass assaulted his head. Wes pressed his hands against his head to prevent it from exploding, as the demon’s thoughts penetrated his mind like daggers. The pain was blinding, excruciating.
Images and words swirled together in a vicious mental attack as the demon sought to overpower him. As the pain grew, he sensed a dagger coming closer, knew it was the end. But instead of feeling the blade pierce his flesh, he heard an explosive clattering sound as it hit something hard. The weapon shattered, splitting into two parts, the blade and the hilt.
Everything was turning around Wesley. He was tumbling, grasping blindly at thin air. Trying to hold on to something.
“Wesley, don’t leave me!”
The voice wasn’t the demon’s.
“Virginia…”
A hand gripped his shoulder, then another one hooked under his armpit. Suddenly and forcefully, he was yanked backward. For an instant, there was a flash of light.
Then everything went dark. Silent.
35
Aided by John, Virginia finally managed to pull Wesley from the demon’s vortex. The moment his body was free of the swirling fog and dark mist, the force of her action made her stumble backward and lose her footing on the wet ground. Quickly she found her balance and looked at Wesley who was sprawled on the muddy shoulder of the road. Blood was seeping from a head wound, and his eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving.
“Oh no! Wesley, no!”
Had she been too late?
Panicked, she scrambled toward him, fear pushing tears into her eyes. She gripped his shoulders. “Please, Wesley, don’t leave me! You can’t do this to me!”
Next to her, John reached over and laid his hand on Wesley’s chest, then sat back on his heels.
“Virginia, he’s alive.”
She snapped her head to him, but through her tears she could barely see him. “His head, he’s bleeding.”
“That’s a strange wound.”
“What do you mean?”
John shrugged. “Don’t know. Just looks weird, almost as if it came from the inside.” Then he stopped himself and shook his head. “I’ll make it stop. Trust me.” John bent over Wesley’s head and brought his mouth to the open wound.
Virginia shrieked and ripped him back. “No!”
John snatched her hand and held her immobile. “Listen to me: I’ll close his wound with my saliva. It’ll stop the bleeding.”
Shaking, she locked eyes with John. Slowly she nodded. She had to trust him.
John brought his mouth to Wesley’s head and licked over the wound, licking up the blood that oozed from it. Then he pulled back. When he looked back at her, she noticed his fangs. They’d extended to full length and were peeking from his lips.
She gasped at the sight, but forced herself to relax, and looked at Wesley instead.
“He’s still bleeding,” John said, concern evident in his voice. “I need to give him vampire blood to heal.”
“Won’t that turn him into a vampire?”
“No. His heartbeat is strong. He’d have to be at the point of death to be turned.” John lifted his wrist to his lips and pricked the skin with his fangs. “Hold his mouth open.”
She followed John’s instructions and watched him drip blood into Wesley’s mouth. For a moment nothing happened, but then she saw Wesley, still unconscious, swallow.
“He’ll be fine,” John said calmly.
Virginia was about to let out a sigh of relief, when a scream sounded behind her. She whirled around and to her horror saw a badly wounded demon lunge for her, dagger glinting in his hand. In her crouched position, she couldn’t move fast enough, could only raise her arms to ward off the worst.
But before the demon’s dagger could reach her heart, a woman threw herself between her and her attacker. Deirdre. It had been her scream that had warned Virginia. Now Deirdre screamed again, this time in pain. The demon’s dagger had hit her in the chest. Virginia caught her and stared at the demon. His green eyes flickered with hatred. Virginia reached for her own dagger, but never got the chance to use it.
From behind the demon the bald vampire, Zane, appeared and gripped the demon’s head, twisted it so hard that a snapping sound could be heard, then yanked it in the opposite direction, before using his sharp claws to slice the head right off the demon’s neck.
Green blood spurted everywhere. Zane nodded at her as if to acknowledge Virginia’s unspoken thanks. There was no time for words now.
“Deirdre, stay with me,” Virginia urged the former council member who now lay in her arms, bleeding profusely from a chest wound.
A gurgling sound came from her. Her eyes were open, but the light seemed to dim in them.
“No, Deirdre, you can’t die.” Tears shot into Virginia’s eyes. Deirdre had saved her life. She couldn’t let her die. Desperately, she pressed her hand over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but the sticky red liquid kept flowing. “Please, Deirdre.” She met the dying woman’s gaze.
“Never wanted to hurt anybody…” Deirdre murmured.
“Don’t talk now. We’ll get you a doctor.” Or a vampire to heal her.
“Too late… Watch over Cine
ad… keep him safe…”
“Deirdre, no you can’t leave us.” She looked up at Zane. “Help her. Heal her.”
The vampire crouched down. “She’s dying. She can’t be healed. She can only be turned.”
Virginia felt a hand on her shoulder and snapped her head to the side.
John looked at her. “I’ll do it, if that’s what you want. I’ll make her a vampire.”
Virginia stared back down at Deirdre. Her eyes were starting to close.
“So tired,” she murmured, almost inaudibly.
“Do it, John. I won’t let anybody else die on my watch ever again.” Too many had died in the past because of her mistakes. “Save her.”
“I’ll hold her,” Zane offered and gently took Deirdre from Virginia’s arms. Then he motioned to Wesley. “Stay with Wes.”
Virginia moved to Wesley’s side, taking his hand, and looked to where the battle had taken place. The fighting had stopped. Demon bodies were strewn over the entire street. Streaks of green blood painted the ground, making it look like fresh grass. At least two dozen vampires were busy checking the demon bodies, making sure they were really dead, while others were loading bodies into their truck.
There was red blood among the green, too. Some of her rescuers had been injured. She searched for the wounded, and found a few of them sitting by the side of the street, gulping down bottles of red liquid, while a beautiful woman with long dark hair and a doctor’s bag tended to them.
“That’s Maya,” Haven said. She looked up. He was walking toward her. “She’s our in-house doctor.”
Haven crouched down next to Wesley, opposite her.
“He jumped after the demon. They fought in the vortex,” she said to Haven.
“He’ll be alright.” Haven ran his hand over Wesley’s head, where the wound was already closing.
“John gave him his blood.”
Haven nodded. “It’s healing him. He’ll be as good as new.” Haven chuckled unexpectedly. “He’s probably just playing unconscious so he won’t have to help with the cleanup.”
Virginia met Haven’s eyes, and despite the lighthearted words, she saw worry in them. “I don’t know how to thank you all. You and your colleagues have done more than I ever expected.”
He smiled and glanced at his brother. “Family is everything to us.” He lifted his hand to wave at somebody.
Virginia looked over her shoulder. Samson was heading toward them. There were green and red blood splatters on his jacket, but he appeared uninjured.
Virginia rose and stretched her hand out to him. “Thank you, Samson. You saved our lives. Without your people we wouldn’t have made it.”
Samson shook her hand and glanced past her. “Is Wes alright?”
“He’s good,” Haven said. “We’ll have Maya check him out at HQ.”
Samson nodded, then swung his gaze back to Virginia. “Sorry that it took us so long to get here. There were a couple of accidents on the freeway due to the rain, one right at the exit ramp. The hybrids’ car got stuck there, so we had to send them ahead on motorcycles. Together with Luther.”
“That was Luther? In that dark suit? But it was still daylight when he got here.”
“It’s a special Kevlar suit they use at the vampire prison. It shields him from the sun,” Samson explained. Then he motioned to where John and Zane were taking care of Deirdre. “That’s the human you were tracking?”
Virginia nodded.
“Since you saved her, I’m assuming she wasn’t a traitor?”
“They used her. She didn’t know. At the destruction of our council compound, the demons got hold of a council member’s cell phone and used it to send her a message. She thought it was from the council member—her brother. She was leading them straight to his compound without knowing it.” Virginia swallowed hard. “The cell phones; we don’t know how many more names and numbers the demons have. I have to call the Baltimore compound.”
Samson nodded. “Let me know what else you need, okay?”
“Thank you.” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and pressed the only number that was programmed into it.
It rang once, then the call was answered. “Virginia, it’s Logan.”
“Listen carefully, I need you to act quickly.” She hoped it wasn’t already too late. “The council members’ cell phones have been compromised. That’s how they got to Deirdre. They used Cinead’s cell phone to send her a message. She was on her way to his compound in Northern California.”
“Fuck!” Logan cursed. “Is he okay?”
“I think so. But I haven’t been able to confirm it. It’s too risky to go there now. We were able to intercept Deirdre before she got anywhere close to his compound, but the demons attacked.”
“Shit! What happened?”
“I’ll fill you in later. But I need you to do something right now. The cell phones. The demons who attacked the council compound got a hold of Cinead’s. We have to assume that they may also have the other members’ phones. Any number that was programmed into those devices is compromised. They need to be disconnected. You need to contact every compound and have them set up new secure lines for everybody affected. Can you do that?”
“We’ll get right on it.”
“Is my line safe?”
“It probably is, but we can’t be a hundred percent sure. Is there another number we can reach you at?”
She glanced at Samson, who nodded immediately. “Samson, the owner of Scanguards, will give you a secure number in a minute. I’ll be at Scanguards headquarters within an hour. Once our communication lines are secure again, I need to talk to Cinead and the other council members. Thanks, Logan.”
She handed the phone to Samson and turned to look back at Wesley. Haven was lifting him up.
“Where are you taking him?”
“We’ll transport him back to HQ in one of the vans.” He motioned to the large vans parked behind the demons’ truck.
“And the cars? We can’t leave them here and block the street. The police—”
“It’s in hand,” Haven interrupted. “Our guys will drive the cars back the HQ.”
“Okay.” Her gaze drifted to Deirdre. John and Zane were lifting her up and carrying her away. Her heart constricted. Deirdre had sacrificed her life for Virginia’s.
“We’ll know soon if the turning is taking,” Haven said as if he sensed her unspoken question.
She looked at him. “I hope she’ll forgive me when she wakes up.”
“Forgive you?”
“Deirdre hated… uh hates, vampires. She, like so many of us, believed that there was no honor, no good in them.” She dropped her lids, ashamed that she had made those assumptions without knowing all the facts, without even meeting a vampire face to face. “We didn’t know any better.”
“She’ll find out very soon that we’re not so different from your kind. We fight for those we love just as fiercely as you do.” Haven looked down at his brother as he carried him toward the van. “No matter what species they are, witch, vampire, human, or Stealth Guardian. Love connects us.”
Hope spread in her chest. “It makes us family.”
36
Zoltan cursed. “Vampires!”
He slammed the door to his private chamber, furious at this latest failure. How had the Stealth Guardians been able to enlist the help of vampires? Those bloodsuckers didn’t ally themselves with anybody. They kept to themselves, didn’t even look out for each other as a species. And now suddenly they were coming to the guardians’ aid?
“What the fuck!”
Still dressed in the uniform of the police officer he’d first fed off, then killed to take his car, Zoltan began to undress. He tossed the blood-and-mud-stained clothes in a corner. So much for his foolproof plan! Everything had worked perfectly at first. The human woman had followed the text message without questioning it, her concern for the sender evident in her reply. He’d expected a few Stealth Guardians to show up and had prepared for it, bri
nging an abundance of demons with him to crush any attempt at foiling his well-planned operation.
But his demons had been no match for the unexpected appearance of the vampires. Vampires who, despite their lack of weapons forged in the Dark Days, had been able to inflict mortal wounds using their speed, their fangs, and their claws.
He’d had to watch as several of his subjects’ heads were ripped from their bodies. One vampire had even gone so far as to tear their hearts out, tossing the demon to the side like a ragdoll. Although the demons had fought valiantly, they had been unable to inflict any lethal wounds. The only metal that could kill a vampire was silver, and none of the weapons from the Dark Days were forged of it. Even Zoltan had been unable to kill a single bloodsucker. It appeared he would need to procure new weapons for his men, now that they had to fight two very different enemies.
And then that witch! He’d had the gall to jump into the vortex with him. But Zoltan had shown him and unleashed a barrage of mind blasts at his enemy. It should have turned his brain to mush immediately, but the witch had been strong, too strong, and somebody had helped him. Pulled him out just before Zoltan had been able to conjure up more of his power to destroy the witch once and for all.
But this wouldn’t be their last encounter. Now that he knew what kinds of allies the Stealth Guardians had managed to enlist, he would be better prepared for the next fight. Brute force wasn’t going to cut it any longer. He needed to find another way to get at the Stealth Guardians. Get at them from the inside.
~ ~ ~
A dull pain made Wesley groan and sit up suddenly. Sterile lights gleamed around him, hurting his eyes. It took a second or two for his eyes to adjust and for him to realize where he was: in Scanguards’ onsite medical center, a small wing at HQ with exam rooms, an operating theater, a lab, an x-ray room, and a large refrigerated vault with blood and medication for a variety of illnesses, most of which were meant for human staff members.