Return of the Phoenix - 01

by Heath Stallcup

“Whatchu need?” Sanchez turned around to find Apollo standing there. Her first instinct was to look down, but she forced herself to keep her eyes UP at his face.

  “I forgot my soap,” she said, her voice sounding very small with all of the hissing of the shower.

  “Hold on. You can use mine,” Apollo said.

  He went back to where he had been showering and pulled his soap on a rope off the shower head and brought it back to her. She found herself checking out his ass as he walked off but when he turned back, she forced herself to look back up again. But it was so difficult to not sneak a peek. She could almost swear that he didn’t walk back, he swaggered. She averted her eyes, but she also made no effort to turn or cover herself either.

  When he approached, he said, “Here. It may smell a little manly, but it will wash the grime off of ya.”

  When she looked back at him, she was staring at his oh-so-wide chest. She took the soap from him by the rope. “Thank you.”

  “Just don’t drop it. God knows, I don’t trust none of these muthafuckers in here, and I’m a guy!” he hollered over his shoulder. That comment was the ice breaker that brought a few snickers from the other guys.

  TD finally turned around and with his best gay imitation said, “Only cuz you got buns of steel, Apollo. Mm-mm, wanna get me some of that!”

  Marshall lost it then and burst out laughing and Gus Tracy almost slipped from laughter when Apollo faked a swing at TD.

  “You know I don’t thwing that way, Jimmy!” Apollo said with a fake lisp.

  Dom laughed so hard he got soap in his eyes then blamed Jacobs for flinging soap. The grab-assing started and it went back to business as usual in the shower. Laughter and joking around.

  Sanchez relaxed a bit as she glanced around. For the most part, the guys were ignoring her, but every once in a while, they’d make an offhand comment or tease her about leaving girly stuff in the showers. She caught one or two checking her out, but she also expected that. At least none of them left with raging erections. Not that she would have minded that either, she did work really hard to earn her body. And to be honest, she did more than her fair share of checking them out, and she didn’t think she got caught.

  At least, she hoped she didn’t.

  But she didn’t drop the soap either.

  *****

  Jack tested his legs again and found the pain had lessened greatly. He could put more weight on them than he had before and even though the sweat was forming on his forehead, he was able to take his full weight. He knew he shouldn’t try to walk just yet. He didn’t want to risk re-breaking the knitting bones and he gently sat back on the edge of the bed. He let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and his stomach growled at him.

  “You’re getting stronger,” Nadia said from his open door.

  Jack didn’t look up. He hadn’t heard her approach his room this time, and he had been so focused on his pain and taking assessment of his injuries that he failed to notice her standing just inside the doorway. He had asked Rufus to leave the door open so that the breeze from the window could more easily flow through the room and carry the sea air through.

  “I’m feeling stronger,” Jack said. He finally turned to look at her. “Thanks to you.” He could almost swear that Nadia blushed slightly with his comment.

  He noticed that her eyes looked different. She wore makeup this time. Subtle, but there. Just a slight eye shadow to accentuate the aquamarines of her eyes. A very light blush. She had pulled her hair back into a complex braid that allowed more of her face to be seen. His eyes traced the shape of her ear, how the lobe attached delicately to her jaw, the angle of her neck, and around her neck was a crucifix of gold.

  “You wear a cross?” Jack asked.

  “Rufus gave it to me as a gift, many years ago,” Nadia said as she came in and sat with him.

  “I thought vampires and holy articles didn’t mix.”

  Nadia smiled almost bashfully. “A wives’ tale,” she said softly her eyes not meeting his. “Although, our legends say that a natural born vampire cannot be touched by such things lest they burn.”

  Jack simply nodded, still admiring the crucifix. “Well, either way, yours is lovely.” He caught himself and felt the need to elaborate. “I mean, I’m not a religious man, really. It’s just that yours is perfect for you. It’s not too

  froo-froo or too simple…it’s perfect,” he blurted out with a lopsided grin.

  “Froo-froo?”

  “Ehh, yeah. Well, froo-froo…you know? Like bling? Not too blingy?” Nadia shook her head at him. “Not too ornate? Too ‘over the top’?” he said, using his fingers to make air quotes. “Like the Pope wears.”

  “Ah!” Nadia’s eyes widen, “Now I understand froo-froo!”

  Jack chuckled. “Yeah, stick with me, kid, and I’ll teach you all kinds of useless words that will get you absolutely nowhere in life!”

  Nadia smiled back at him and Jack felt this familiar pain in his stomach. Like butterflies. He wasn’t sure that it was an entirely unpleasant feeling, but he also wasn’t sure that it was a welcome feeling either. After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally asked her, “Did you just drop by ‘cuz you missed me, or was there a purpose to your visit?”

  Nadia’s hands were busy twisting at the corner of her skirt and it was obvious that she was nervous. She finally spread her skirt out and patted it flat with her hands and sat up straighter. “Jack, I must ask you a few questions, please.”

  “Okay, here we go…” Jack figured this time would come. Interrogation time. He knew the whole ‘we are your hosts’, ‘you are free to go once you are healed’ thing was a load of shit! “If you bastards think I’m going to tell you anything about our operations or tactics, then you got another think coming.—”

  “No, Jack!” Nadia pleaded. “Jack, please!”

  “You sons-of-bitches think that because you help patch me up that I’m gonna just spill my guts to you out of what…a sense of gratitude?”

  “No! Jack, please, you misunderstand me, Jack!”

  “Bullshit! You think that I’m fucking stupid? You think you can just walk in here and bat your vampire eyes at me and I’m gonna go stupid and just start spilling secrets to you and…”

  “Jack! Stop it!” Nadia screamed. Rising to her feet, she took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Jack, it’s about your blood!”

  Jack finally stopped ranting and froze. He stared at her face, and she seemed frightened. That scared him more than anything else she could have said. Well, that and there were tears in her eyes. Can vampires cry? Or was this a trick? Many thoughts, half-thoughts, and blank thoughts ran through Jack’s mind all at once, but he did calm down. Something innate told him he needed to know what she knew. Or at least, what she suspected.

  “Okay, gal pal. You have my attention,” he said. “Spill it.”

  “I must ask you some questions please,” Nadia said, trying to calm herself as she sat back down. Her hands were shaking as she attempted to smooth her skirt again. A skirt that didn’t need smoothing, Jack noticed.

  “Okay, Nadia, ask your questions,” Jack said slowly and softly, trying more to help calm her than himself.

  “You told Rufus when you got here that your people had given you something that would prevent you from becoming vampire if you were bitten, yes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you know what this ‘something’ is?”

  “Sorry, sugar, I’m no doc,” Jack said honestly. He cracked a grin. “All I know is that it came in a needle along with a lot of other needles. Big needles. Some of them hurt, some didn’t.”

  Nadia turned away, thinking. When she turned back to him, she looked him in the eyes and asked, “Is there anything else that they give to you, Jack? Something that you take regularly?”

  “Yeah. All the time. We take supplements, vitamins, enhancement stuff. Things to make us stronger, faster, and keep our immune system beefed up.”

  He could se
e her eyes shifting as if reading a book or accessing parts of her memory. Then, her light bulb came on. Jack saw it and knew it as soon as she did. “The things they give you, was it bitter and dark in color?”

  “Actually, it’s in a capsule, but yes, it is dark,” he said. Her face fell when he didn’t admit it was bitter. “But you know one time, I had a capsule stick to my tongue, you know, because it wasn’t wet enough or something, and I guess it dissolved or melted before I could pry it loose and wash it down. Anyway, it was the most gawdawful-tasting crap I ever had in my mouth.” Her face lit up. “Seriously, it was horrible tasting. I thought maybe somebody took a dump in one of those little pill thingies, but then I was like, ‘who could take such a tiny dump?’ and then I was like, ‘well maybe a leprechaun’ or something ‘cuz it really tasted like shit…”

  “No, Jack! This is such wonderful news!” Nadia jumped up and hugged him. “Would you be sure of the taste again if you tasted it?” she asked.

  “The leprechaun shit?” Jack asked. “Just kidding.” He smiled. “I mean, yeah. I’d know it. It’s pretty hard to forget.”

  “Good!” she said, reaching her hand into a bag tied to her belt and pulling out a pinch of some powder she had in there. “Open your mouth!”

  “What?!” Jack started backing up on the bed. “What do you mean open my mou—” Nadia shoved her fingers into Jack’s mouth and released the powder. What followed can best be described as a human imitation of a lawn sprinkler. Jack turning his head from side to side spitting as he went. Pft, pft, pft, pft, pft, pft, long turn, long spit, pft, pft, pft, pft, pft, pft! “What the hell did you do that for?!”

  “I needed to know. Is this the same thing that your people are giving you?” she asked.

  “Water! Please, I gotta get this taste out of my mouth!” Jack reached for the pitcher beside the bed and bypassed the glass, drinking straight from the pitcher. “Oh my God. I think a leprechaun shit in my mouth again.”

  “So it is the same?” Nadia asked, obviously excited.

  “Why would you do that?” Jack asked? “That wasn’t even nice. I wouldn’t shove powdered leprechaun shit into your mouth when you weren’t expecting it.”

  “Oh, but you were expecting it!” Nadia got up and sat next to him, practically bouncing on the bed. She took the water pitcher from him and looked him in the eye. She took a deep breath and then sighed. “Jack. We need to have a very long talk.”

  “Hopefully about something better than leprechaun excrement?”

  Her smile almost broke his heart. She almost seemed sad.

  “Jack, we only have days until the next full moon. There is little time.”

  11

  Matt and Laura approached the cell where Evan sat patiently in the darkness. He sat in a classic yoga lotus position, but far enough back in the darkness that any guards who may have happened by would not easily see him. Not that the guards ever really checked on him. He had been sent here to starve to death and his bars were coated in silver. The only time anybody ever came was if Laura came down to cry, or if Matt came down and stayed just out of what he thought was eyeshot and whispered, “I’m sorry.” Or if, like the other day, when the squad got new recruits. But this day, both Matt and Laura came down, and it appeared official.

  “Why aren’t you dead?” Matt asked.

  “Good day to you, too, Colonel Mitchell,” Evan replied without opening his eyes. “You are looking well.”

  “I know why you are looking so well. Laura told me. But why didn’t you die while you were down here?” he asked again.

  “Colonel, need I remind you, I’m already dead?” Evan replied. This time he opened his eyes. “My body may shrivel, but it can’t die any more than it already has.”

  “Wanna bet?” Matt asked dryly.

  This time Evan looked up at him and raised his eyebrows. He cracked a smile. “Touché, colonel.” Dr. Peters stood up and stretched his neck. It made the classic cracking noise and he sighed. “Did you come to finally let me out so I can get back to work, sir?”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Matt said. Laura stayed in the background, standing at attention. She refused to show any emotion but her heart was pounding so hard, she knew that both men could hear it. “Evan, I don’t know how anybody…” Matt paused, he just couldn’t find words strong enough to convey the thoughts he was thinking, the thoughts he felt in his gut. “I don’t know how anyone could endure what you’ve had to endure and not be holding such a grudge that they wouldn’t go on a killing rampage.” Matt was shaking his head. “If it were me, not only would I say anything, or do anything to get out from behind those bars, I would promise the moon and stars, then I would kill every last bastard that put me there.”

  Evan lowered his eyes a moment. He nodded his head as he considered the colonel’s words. “I suppose I could see your point, sir,” he said. “But you’re not a vampire. You still think in terms of a ‘lifetime’ whereas I think in terms of ‘eternity’. And eternity is a long time. What’s a few years of hunger out of an eternity?” Evan stepped closer to the bars. “Besides, it wasn’t you or your people who really put me in here, now was it?” He shook his head. “No. We both know that it was Leslie Franklin and his people who did it.”

  Matt nodded his agreement and started to say something, but Evan cut him off, “We don’t know why. We don’t know to what purpose, or to what design, but we do know he had a reason. The good Senator doesn’t take a leak without a reason for it. Am I right?”

  Matt cracked a smile. He knew what Evan wanted to say, but held back because Laura was standing next to him. “You are correct. He gives slimy politicians a bad name.”

  “Then I would suggest that whether you let me out or not, you find out what the senator is up to. Quickly. Because the time that was wasted with me down here turning into vampire jerky is time we won’t get back.”

  Matt turned to Laura and nodded. She hit a button on the side of the wall and the door slid open. Evan didn’t move. Matt and Laura walked in and opened a backpack. Laura pulled out a lab coat and a change of clothes for Evan and she handed Matt a bag. The bag held the cremated remains taken from a mortuary of unclaimed human remains. “Let’s get you out of here and back to doing what you do best,” she said as she handed Evan the clothes.

  “We have to make it look like you didn’t survive being down here, though,” Matt added.

  Laura picked out a can of self-tanner from the bag and had Evan spread-eagle against the wall. “This is supposed to be the best there is on the market,” she said as she began to spray his skin. “Let’s hope it works well with dead skin, too.”

  “Please, please, please, let it be copper and not orange,” Evan muttered.

  “Why, Doc, I never would have taken you for the egotistical type.” Matt grinned.

  “Not egotistical, colonel,” he replied. “Survivalist. Unfortunately, in my case, a bad tan job could be my undoing.”

  “Or if it’s too dark, you might have to learn to talk with an Indian accent,” Laura quipped.

  “There’s plenty of 7-11s that need night managers,” Matt tossed in.

  “Oh, please. Let’s just all have a hearty laugh at the vampire’s expense!” Evan groaned.

  “I really don’t know why you’re bitching. You’re getting a spray tan from a pretty girl. I’m stuffing your years old underwear and prison garb with human ashes to fake your death. I think you owe me a bottle of scotch.”

  “I think you owe me three years back pay, plus pain and suffering,” Evan shot back.

  “I think you boys need to stop griping and focus on the task at hand,” Laura scolded both.

  “Yes, mom,” Matt replied with a grin.

  Laura finished applying the spray tan as evenly as she could. She picked the most realistic, light colored bronze she could find and even snuck into the morgue and tested it on the leg of a cadaver to see if it would work on dead flesh. It seemed to work well and she hoped there wasn’t anythi
ng ‘special’ about vampire skin that would cause a reaction and so far, there wasn’t one. She had picked a fast drying tanner because she feared time would be against them, but Evan assured her that nobody ever came down there. Still, when both the CO and the XO were missing at the same time, somebody was bound to come looking.

  Once Evan was dressed and the death scene prepared, they left as quietly as they could. Laura took Evan back to her office and cut his hair in a military buzz cut. He showered and presented himself as Dr. Peter Evans. Not the most ingenious of aliases, but all agreed that when he was deeply focused on a project, it would be difficult for him to remember that his name was supposed to John Muckenfuch if somebody were to yell it from across the lab. However, if they yelled either his first or last name, he would pick up on it and his attention would be turned. The only people they really had to worry about were the Oversight Committee, namely Senator Franklin, and since they rarely if ever came to the base, it shouldn’t be a problem. Evan was just happy to get his lab out of mothballs and back into operation and get back into his work. He had plenty of time to think while incarcerated, and he had many theories he wanted to put to the drawing board and then to prototype so the field agents could test them.

  “It’s still risky,” Matt said, the ice in his glass tinkling in his hand.

  “I’m willing to risk it,” Laura said flatly. They both stood at the rail outside the administrative offices overlooking the lab and R&D areas. They could see Evan diligently setting his lab back up and pulling his research back out of the lockers, taking up right where he left off.

  “I don’t like the idea of you getting out of date blood from the clinic. Somebody will put two and two together,” he said.

  “If I’m caught, I’ll explain that it’s for his research.”

  “That much blood?” He gave her a look of disbelief.

  Laura turned to him. She was going to argue, but she knew she didn’t have one. She turned back to the rail and studied him. She knew she had to do something, but what could she do? “It’s better than nothing. And we can’t get animals anymore.” She said. “I won’t let him starve again.”