“You’re a very beautiful woman.” He stuck his hands in the back of his jean’s pockets. “You can’t tell me, in all of your long life, you haven’t come across men you’ve desired or rather who’ve desired you?”
“Of course I have, Samuel. What kind of a question is that?”
“Did you have the same reaction to them you just had with me?”
That gave her pause. She hungered after the depressed and she had sensed great sexual desire from others for her, but never once did she want to feed off their desire. Not even the artist she’d lived with; it’d always been just depression she sought out. Samuel’s desire seemed different, stronger, alluring. It called to her like nothing else ever had. Interestingly enough, not even her need for depression. Perhaps because he himself wasn’t exactly human and she told him so. “I think maybe it’s because you’re different.”
“Yeah. Or maybe it’s just me you truly desire.”
“I’m not willing to take the risk. Are you?”
Before he could respond, the doorbell rang. “We’ll talk about this later.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “There’s nothing to talk about, Samuel. This is over.”
“Do you still need to go and feed?” he asked.
She almost said yes, anything to get away, but she easily read the sadness emanating off him at not being able to satisfy her. As well as the thought, she might seek another. “No,” she said softly, unable to hurt him.
“My desire fulfilled you?” Hope laced through his voice.
“Yes.” She refused to say more, but from the grin on his face and the spike in his pleasure, he liked the idea of filling her. Best of all, he no longer feared her. But sadness remained. His or hers, it didn’t matter. This only proved they could never be together.
Unaware of her dark thoughts, he kissed her cheek, whispering against her skin, “And you know what, the well sure as hell didn’t run dry.” He adjusted his jeans before continuing past her to answer the door.
On shaky legs, she made her way back to the sofa just in time for his friends to come into the room.
Devlin raised eyebrows expressed mild surprise when he saw her.
Ray grinned and headed in her direction to sit beside her.
Samuel grabbed his arm and pointed him toward the empty chair next to Devlin. Then, he sat next to her and leaned forward, his hair in disarray like he’d just rolled out of bed. Or been rolling around on the floor.
Thalya had no idea what she looked like but judging from the grin still on Ray’s face, like she’d been rolling right around with Samuel. If she felt emotion, she would have groaned in embarrassment.
“What’s up?” Devlin asked, breaking her spiraling thoughts.
“We’ve just had a really interesting conversation with two soulless who run a nightclub in the city.”
“Which one?” Ray asked. There had been other low key clubs and restaurants they’d run across from time to time, owned or frequented by soulless. Some they had to shut down.
“It’s called Hallow Souls.”
“You’re kidding,” Ray replied.
“’Fraid not. But these guys appear to be more like Thalya here and run the club with rules. No kills allowed. So for now, we leave the place alone.”
“Can we go in and check the place out?” Ray asked.
“No. Off limits until I say otherwise. I don’t want any of our hot-headed hunters anywhere near the place unless they have proof the soulless in there are killing people,” Samuel ordered.
“Okay. Whatever you say, boss. So, what did you find out?” Ray asked.
“There’s going to be a gathering of the soulless tomorrow night, down by the docks. A meeting of those who don’t mind taking blood and killing their victims. There’s one man who’s supposedly organizing them, a guy from Russia. Planning a huge strike that something tells me will make the Twin Towers seem like child’s play.”
“What!” Devlin exclaimed his eyes narrowing as he stared at Samuel. “So, it’s what we’ve suspected.”
“Yes.” Samuel nodded. “This olden has been showing them how much more satisfaction the soulless can get if they work together. All working up to something big.”
“Damn!” Ray exclaimed. “Did these guys say exactly what was being planned?”
“No, they don’t know. They just knew about the meeting tomorrow night where presumably that information will be revealed.”
“Well, what are you planning on doing about this meeting?” Devlin asked.
Samuel stared at him then Ray before replying, “Why…I plan on attending,”
“Not alone,” Ray said, leaning forward.
Samuel grinned.
Thalya picked up amusement from Ray. Yes, he’d love a good fight.
Then Samuel replied, “No. Not alone. Devlin, how many of your people do you think you can get down here by tomorrow before sunset?”
Devlin frowned for a minute. “Three that I can guarantee. Maybe five.”
“That’ll have to do. Ray, I need you to call our hunters and tell them we’re making a hit. I’ll give you the address of the warehouse. So, we’ll have to get there before sunset to set ourselves up. We should be able to round up about thirty hunters.”
“How many soulless are we talking about?” Devlin asked.
Samuel frowned. “Unclear, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll need as many of us as we can get.”
“Not to mention, they’ve got to come fully loaded,” Ray piped in.
“You know bullets don’t work against my kind,” Thalya stated.
“It won’t kill you, but it will slow you down,” Samuel said.
“Yeah, long enough for us to use some good old fashioned honed steel to take a head,” Devlin added.
Ray stood and gave him a high-five, before sitting back down.
“Present company excluded of course,” Devlin said to Thalya.
Ray nodded in agreement.
“You know, boss, one thing we can do to maybe lower the numbers on their side and raise the odds on ours is just wait until they’re all in the building and then blow the place the hell up,” Ray suggested.
Thalya frowned. “No, we can’t. The building is too close to other buildings, so it wouldn’t just be the warehouse blowing up, but the other buildings around it. Who knows if anyone might be inside.”
“Good point, babe.”
The grin Samuel sent her way had her body tingling again.
“Hmm,” Devlin said, stroking his chin. “But what we can do is cause an implosion, bring the building literally down on top of their heads. If I remember those warehouses have lots of steel, so we might be able to take some of them out with what I have in mind, then come in and take care of the rest.”
“Do we have time to set something like that up? The meeting is tomorrow night,” Samuel asked.
“Maybe. I’ll keep it simple.”
“The problem is we want enough falling on them to at least knock them out but not necessarily bring the roof down on their heads,” Samuel said. “That won’t kill them and would only hamper our ability to get to them.”
Devlin frowned. “I’ll give it some thought, but I’ll need to see the place to know for sure what I can do.”
“What are you? Some sort of explosive’s expert?” Ray joked.
“You could say that.”
“Cool.” Ray turned his attention to Thalya. “What about you? Are you coming with us?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Good.” Then, he grinned again. “We are going to kick some bloodsucker ass. Ah, present company exempt, of course.”
She inclined her head in his direction. “Of course. Not that you could.”
“Why don’t we get there about four,” Samuel interjected, grinning. “It should give us plenty of time to organize. I’ll do a look-see at the place in the morning and figure out where best for us to meet and place the men.”
“One last thing. We still haven’t found Chris,” Devlin
informed him. “No sign of him. I spoke to a contact in LA and things are not looking good there. Some of the soulless my people in Quebec were watching have migrated to LA, and he thinks some of the hunters there might have crossed the line.”
Samuel lips thinned into a hard line. “Damn, you could be right. It needs to be looked into. Do you think after we’re done taking care of the situation here, you can get to LA and see what’s going on? I need someone I can trust there. Chris can take care of himself and when he does show up, I think he needs watching. I do not want LA hunters going off on killing sprees. If it comes to a power play you have my full support.”
“With those soulless we’d been watching now in the States, things are quiet in Quebec. We’re well organized so yes, I can take a look into things in LA. And I’d be counting on your support,” Devlin said. “If you want me to reorganize the LA group I’m going to need it. But first things first, let’s take care of business here. I think I’d like to take a drive by this warehouse right now. That’ll save time and I can get what I need in the morning.”
“An excellent idea,” Thalya agreed. “Let’s go over there now.”
“Now it is,” Samuel agreed.
Chapter Fourteen
Ray planned to drive over with Devlin.
Samuel let them leave first. He wanted a moment alone with Thalya. He still didn’t like the idea of her coming with them tomorrow night. She didn’t seem to enjoy confrontation, but she wanted to help. Besides, they might need her. Aside from himself, her strength surpassed any of the other hunters and as an olden, more than a match for the other soulless. Her presence could help save the lives of some of his men and women.
They also needed to talk. When he’d seen her fangs earlier, he’d been shocked. At first. He never thought he’d be turned on by a bloodsucker. But fangs or not, he still wanted her. He didn’t like the idea of her feeding off anyone else’s emotions. If his desire for her filled her, then she could damn well feed off him. They’d have to work on the whole biting his neck and taking his blood thing. The thought, surprisingly, was not as repugnant as it should have been. She already felt like a part of him. A part he feared he very much needed.
In the hundreds of years he’d been alive, he’d never felt this way about a woman. He didn’t plan on walking away, not this time and he damn sure wasn’t going to let her walk away from him.
After picking up her jacket, he handed it to her. When she reached to take it, he caught her wrist and pulled her to him. Damn, the air left his lungs. His own personal angel on earth. “Just so we’re clear. You and I are not done.” Holding her by the nape of her neck, he kissed her. This time, he tried to suck out her life essence and take it into himself for safe keeping, binding her to him. Then an odd thing happened. He felt a tingling in his soul as if something inside him awakened and reached out for her. He pulled back.
Surprisingly, unlike his dream, he felt no fear, only a sense of rightness. “Yeah. Later,” he whispered against her lush lips. “We’ll finish this later. Come on.”
“Don’t I have a say here?” she asked.
“No.” He brushed his thumb across her plump lips and she kissed his fingers. He groaned as a rush of pleasure coursed through his body. A feeling he could get very used too. Taking her hand, he led her out of the house and to his garage. His bike stood on one side and a four door black Ford hybrid took up the rest of the room.
“Are we taking the bike?” she asked.
“Not to this neighborhood. That’s what the Ford’s for, it attracts less attention and it’s usually the car I use when I hunt.”
It took a little more than half-an hour for them to make it to the docks. They parked a few blocks away from the warehouse—no trouble getting a parking space in this part of town—and approached it on foot. It didn’t take them long to see they were not alone. There were two cars parked in front of the building. Neither belonged to Ray.
Samuel spotted Devlin and Ray in the doorway of the building next door and they approached them. “You two circle around to the back to see if you can find a way in from there.” Both men were well trained and knew how to block soulless from reading them. “Thalya and I’ll try to get to the roof from this building, just in case there’s someone posted on the roof next door. If not, then we’ll cross over to the other one. We’ll meet on the inside.” He couldn’t see or sense anyone outside, but just to be sure.
Making it to the roof next door didn’t pose a problem. When no one appeared to be on the adjoining roof, they jumped over and found a way inside through an unlocked roof access door. The short stairwell on the other side looked deserted and at the bottom of the stairs, they came to an unmarked door.
Samuel couldn’t sense anyone on the other side but turned the knob and slowly pushed it open. A narrow open walkway lay before him, wide enough to walk single file across. A black plastic meshed safety railing ran from one end of the walkway to the other, about waist high and would provide them some cover. Like a cat, he got down on all fours and crawled out onto the walkway, Thalya following him. He kept going until he reached the middle of the narrow platform, about fifteen feet above the ground floor. At the end of the platform, they spied another door labeled maintenance room. He didn’t try to crawl over there to check it out. There were people in the warehouse. Staying low, he peered through the holes in the mesh.
Two men with dark short-cropped hair and another larger man, built like a linebacker with long brown hair were seated around a table directly beneath them. Soulless, but Samuel didn’t recognize any of them. Boxes stacked against most of the walls piled about chest high surrounded them. Two small loading type machines were parked at the other end of the warehouse. He could see Devlin and Ray hidden behind one of the loaders, but they were too far away to hear the conversation taking place at the table. Especially, with human ears.
He and Thalya had no such limitation. They heard every word and it chilled him to the bone.
The meeting appeared just about over, but then four other men came in. All human. They approached and conferred with the three males already there. The men shook hands then got up to leave, all except the humans. The three soulless exited through the front entrance of the warehouse. Bloodsuckers sometimes enthralled humans to work for them, while some did it for the money and or out of fear. These four appeared to be of the money variety. They were too aware and alert to be enthralled. The enthralled usually had limited capacity. These men were obviously meant to guard the place the rest of the night and maybe into the daylight hours.
A tall thin black man sent two of the men outside to sit watch; he appeared to be in charge. He told one to pull the cars a few spots down the street. Another, he sent in the direction of the back door.
Devlin and Ray had to scramble to get out of the way to avoid being seen.
The others remained seated at the table. One carried a bag he placed in front of himself, withdrawing two thermoses and a couple of bottles of water. Clearly settling in. Samuel had to get a look at whatever those boxes held without killing the men below or letting them know they’d ever been there.
He glanced at Thalya, and pointed at the two men below them.
She made a cutting motion with her finger across her neck.
He shook his head in the negative. Then, he stood and jumped down behind them.
Thalya landed at his side. The men never realized they had company. Thalya touched one man on his temple and put him to sleep, leaving him slumped over the table but still sitting in his chair.
Samuel did the same to the taller black man. He signaled Ray and Devlin to his side. “We’ve got to hurry. I don’t know when those other two will be back to change places, but they’re obviously the guards.”
“But what are they guarding?” Ray asked.
Samuel glanced around. “Whatever is in those boxes.”
Ray raised the heads of one of the men. “Are they human?”
“Yeah,” Devlin said. “These guys are, but the on
es that left earlier are soulless.”
“True,” Samuel confirmed, glancing at Devlin, wondering how the younger man could be so sure but having a suspicion about him. He’d wait to talk to him about it.
“Did you hear what those jokers were saying?” Ray asked. “We were too far away.”
“Yes, and it’s worse than I thought,” Samuel replied, troubled. “We’re going to have to move fast. Tomorrow night’s not going to be soon enough.” He walked over to one of the boxes and pried it open with his hand. First pulling out the packing materials, he found on top, then reaching further inside he came up with a weapon resembling something created for a science fiction movie. Only used for real.
“What is it?” Thalya asked approaching him.
“Lasers,” Samuel said, turning the gun around to examine it. “It can take down anything in the air. They plan on distributing these to soulless on the ground at key flight paths around the world and simultaneously taking planes down.”
“Oh, my God!” Devlin whispered.
“Yeah.”
“The utter panic and fear this would cause would be unprecedented,” Samuel said, putting the gun back in the box.
“And there are at least a hundred boxes like this here,” Ray stated.
“One person can take out quite a few planes in the air with just one shot,” Devlin noted.
“But I don’t understand,” Ray said. “I thought the soulless had some aversion to guns or something.” He glanced at Thalya for confirmation.
“We do. I’ve never known one to use one. Merely touching a gun doesn’t hurt us.” She shrugged. “Personally, I just don’t like guns.” She walked over to the box and took the weapon out. “This isn’t all metal. The casting is mostly metal but the explosive within isn’t. Maybe that’s why they don’t have a problem using it.”
“Or maybe,” Devlin interjected, “It’s because if they use a gun, they can’t feed off their victims. And they could also have human helpers.”
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