All three glanced up expectantly. Binocular-man said, “The dog-ones are returning. Those shots came from the biggest house.”
“Is that what happened to her?” Morgan nodded to the tree and tree-leaner.
“We don’t know what happened.”
“I’ll be back.” Morgan retraced her steps, passing where she had been working to where she had last seen Dustin.
When Morgan found Dustin, he wasn’t there. The body that housed him was, but Dustin hadn’t been himself for a long, long time. Morgan didn’t know this though. The Dustin she knew spoke with Dustin’s voice, laughed with Dustin’s laugh, winked Dustin’s wink but didn’t think Dustin’s thoughts. Morgan saw that Dustin was motionless and inflexible as Lita had been; leaning against a tree in mid-stretch. He lay with his back against the fallen log he had been using for cover, looking out in frozen contemplation of the sky.
This was bad. Morgan had been told The Authority had some state of the art weapons and she had seen what one of them had done to the woman who had happened upon them after they had chased her down the beach. Wait a minute! Where was she? Where was the stiff body they had pulled from the water?
Bursting into the clearing, the dog-ones trotted in; catching Morgan by such surprise she raised her gun and fired, barely recognizing them in time to shoot wide. They continued to approach, paying no attention to their close call and zeroing in on Dustin. They began sniff and paw him, apparently coming to terms with Dustin’s condition in their own way. The female appeared teary-eyed and sad, the male growled, already agitated, turning unsteadily toward Morgan and eying her gun.
“It wasn’t me. I found him just now. But the girl’s body has been taken and whoever has her did this. Find her! I will follow you.”
But before she finished her sentence they were gone, charging past her in a fury. Morgan went back to the others but not before noticing a trail of blood. Someone who’d recently gone down the trail was hurt. Maybe she could sort it out as she followed, but first Morgan felt the need to get everyone on the same page.
“Pack up, we’re leaving. Dustin is dead, just like Lita. Someone’s taken the girl’s body and I think we can still get it back. The dog-ones are on the trail. We need to take every trace of our visit with us including the bodies. I’ll follow after the pets and hopefully bring them back. Stow this gear and come after me. I can’t carry her and mind the dog-ones as well.”
“We’re locked and loaded. I can see each one of ‘em on the screen. They have taken out several of us. Let me return the fire please.” Her comrade said.
Morgan looked at the screen. A lighted outline of the great house was on the screen as was the heat signatures from the bodies of those within.
“Who gave you the authority to close things down? You’re not in charge.” Her team mate wasn’t understanding the situation,
“No one is in charge. Get it? And that’s the problem.” Morgan returned. “This was a secret mission from a secret group. Let’s erase our presence here, get home with the captive and with the rest of the world none the wiser. Do you want to wait around for this?” She pointed to a frozen comrade.
Night vision glasses now placed on her face, Morgan plunged after the canines into the hunt. On the inside lens two red blips showed the progress of her unnerving team members. She couldn’t travel the terrain as fast as they could but she gained on them because they would often stop to puzzle out a scent or travel down a side trail only to reverse directions when it proved unproductive. As Morgan proceeded she felt her gun as she clasped it in her hand. This brought her some comfort, but some of her teammates had been turned to hardcopies of themselves and that was almost scarier than getting hit with a bullet which was a sobering thought. She was going to get the body of the jogger back though. Dustin had placed great importance on it. With Dustin gone the mission was foundering badly. If they could get back to headquarters with the body of the jogger, “Misty,” Dustin had called her, the mission might still be viewed as a success. The dog-ones and the pistol she gripped would be a formidable assault.
6
John could hear them even if those hunting him down were attempting to be quiet. Carrying his daughter’s rigid body was a little strange. It had all of the weight but little of the dishrag softness he might have experienced if he had carried her draped over his shoulder. To move her as she was, seemed awkward and out of balance. He carried her more like a 2x4 than a sleeping babe held to his shoulder. John had a good lead but they would eventually be upon them. It wouldn’t be smart to leave the trail. His surest footing was on the path and his awkward load would more than likely become tangled. The beach was getting close and if he got to it he might have a better chance and the sooner the better. He didn’t want to lead those after him to Persephone and Millie. John didn’t know the trail as well as Misty had but he remembered that it came close to the open beach two or three times, though never really opening to it. Many had traveled its course and he wasn’t the first to notice the close proximity to the beach. Winding through a few trees, twenty strides or so would bring him to the sand, and there he might see the positions of his attackers instead of being launched upon from behind or pounced upon from behind a tree in the forest shadows.
--------
The dog-ones had taken off, hot on the trail of whoever had taken the jogger’s body and riddled the mission with bullets. Morgan was bravely going down the trail alone in hope of saving a mission she been enlisted to fill but wasn’t even privy to the parameters, the goals or what was at stake. She applied more speed to keep herself sharp and not let the self-doubt continue to creep in. Places that required more difficult navigation to get through, she enjoyed the most because it took all she had to negotiate. On a downward dip in the path she almost stumbled, and took several wild steps to keep from pitching over the drop and fall a depth that had serious injury written all over it. During those frantic lunges she passed someone leaning casually against a tree examining his fingernails as she zoomed by.
“Hi Morgan, slow down.” the man said.
But alas, it almost seemed that the surprise warning startled her so much she careened past the point of no return, launching herself beyond the hope of recovering her balance or desperately grabbing a tree branch to stop or slow the fall. Her drop seemed in slow motion but every gouge, scrape or scratch was both lightning fast and painfully slow. Morgan crashed and tumbled to a stop upon six inches of pine needles that had taken years to accumulate at that depth. The wind was knocked out of her and she couldn’t get a breath. Someone was coming to her, though, from the direction she’d fallen. She no longer had her gun. It had been lost during the fall.
“I’ve found your glasses Morgan,” said a calm voice. “Along the way I also found your gun. If you have any more on your person you’ll give them to me… now.”
Morgan was terrified for many reasons but at the moment she had no interest in anything else but finding her next breath.
“Listen to my voice Morgan. Don’t stand. Don’t struggle. Stay where you are right now and lay down. I’m going to rub your stomach. Just lie back and feel my hand on your tummy. He gently forced her to lie on her back and she felt his cool hand on her midsection.
When you feel me touch your ribs, blow outward. Try, even if it’s difficult. She couldn’t find her wind. Then the hand went over her belly button.
“Breathe in when I touch here.” His hand went back and forth between those two spots, slowly and rhythmically. Slowly she regained her respiration, and control returned along with her composure.
“Who are you?”
“I am Michael Ro`dan. I’m a vampire and this just isn’t your night.”
Morgan began to cry. “But my mom and my dad….”
“…gave up on you a few years ago and even then they loved you long after you gave up on them.”
“But I don’t want this.”
“You’ve been asking for a bloody end since your first purse snatching or the first things
you lifted from a store.”
“No, I didn’t. I…I…I’ll pay them back. I’ll make it up to them.”
“Morgan there are too many trespasses. You really died after you left your childhood. What with all the credit card thefts and home break-ins. You’re not even a shadow of your former self.”
Morgan attempted to stand but was held to the ground by Michael’s finger pressed to her chest. She regarded her chest, his finger and his eyes and began to sob again. “But I changed my ways…. Look, I work for The Authority.”
“Really? And whose authority might that be?”
Morgan was dumbstruck. As if she had never asked herself that simple question.
“You have been hunting down the last remnants of some very ancient beings, ancient and very special. Here since the world was young and tonight you took one of them down as she was innocently running a trail, bothering no one. This person has been like a daughter to me. You cannot bargain your way out of this but perhaps you can die for a good cause.”
Trembling, Morgan said, “But what gives you the right?
“I’m a vampire, Morgan. I take what I want.”
-------
The rest of the team, those not now frozen statues, were not inclined to follow Morgan’s instructions to make ready to go. Finding so many of the rest hideously posed was nearly incapacitating. And when they happened on Dustin, something just short of panic set in. No recognized leadership remained. There was no back-up plan and deaths of team members found in the same state as the young woman runner had given them plenty to think about and plenty to fear. The presence of the disturbing dog-ones as part of the team added to the rest and each of these contributed to the fracturing of the mission.
They hurriedly packed up and took what they could reasonably carry. What they couldn’t take was left behind. This wasn’t what Morgan had ordered but who was she to give orders? If it was all that important to The Authority, they could come here and dodge the freezing bullets while retrieving it. The mission was a failure, and if they were able to escape with their lives surely The Authority would think it better than having everyone from this endeavor dead.
Though it was risky, their hastily put together plan for retreat was to get to the parking lot and follow the main drive right on out to the road and then double time it back to their ride. Forget Morgan and her orders. Leave her and the dog-things to fend for themselves. She was stupid to go off alone anyhow.
The remnants of the team reconnoitered at the road and briefly redistributed their loads. They didn’t talk but went about their adjustments without eye contact. They knew things were screwed and headed for worse. Reconsidering their contributions to the situation would only slow them further. They held to the narrow highway until they found their off-road side-stop. Their vehicle was designed for rough terrain so they had made their own parking space, but there they encountered strangeness. The rest of their equipment, all of what they had been unable to carry, was neatly distributed next to the two vehicles. And the hard bodies left behind by the team were lying about the stacked equipment in ways that were calculated for a photo-shoot. They were posed. Baines, who had fallen against Morgan, had become frozen as he had bent over her. Remaining in that stance, he had been placed as if he were scaling the small mountain of equipment. Lita, with hand raised halfway to her shot-out eye, appeared as though she was gesturing in a discussion she was having with Dustin, who was seated but looking upward at her.
The scene was grizzly, the mood, chilling. Haunted looks appeared on every team member there. They were badly shaken. Then a barrage of dog barks from the shadows startled them so much that triggers were squeezed and guns went off far before they were aimed at anything. The gunfire lit up the night like lightning. In the end, only binocular man was left standing. He fired his entire clip before he released the trigger. In his stressed out state he had finished off the rest, starting accidentally but ending with a flourish leveling anyone still standing.
From out of the dark, his gun was taken from him.
“Man, you are a dangerous thing with a gun in your hand.” A dark shadow stood beside him. Where the hell was his flashlight? How easily seen was the jump his body made from the surprise voice from the darkness.
“You even fired on the house when you weren’t supposed to.”
“I hit one of them dog-ones too.” He offered, playing for time till he could figure what to do.
“That will teach them to watch their backs. Listen, let’s pack up. I’ll help you.”
While the gear was being stowed, binocular man tried to get a good look at this stranger who had come out the darkness to help him but it seemed he was always thwarted in his calculated attempts, so were his tries at obtaining a loaded weapon. He couldn’t even be sure who it was or even if it was one of the team.
The vehicles were stowed and when they were done they stood out in the road looking in to the shadows where the vehicles sat.
The voice in the darkness spoke again. “Thanks for your help. Let me ask you; have you ever wanted to live forever?”
Carefully and hopefully the binocular man said “yes”.
“Well I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.”
Hot breath and sharp teeth embraced his throat.
7
Perhaps it was coincidental but once his feet touched the sand the sounds of fast gaining pursuit seemed to fall off. If this was indeed true, it was a fortunate turn of events because John was winded and all together drained from his efforts in carrying Misty’s heavy unbending body through narrow pathways and entanglements from the jungle dense vegetation. Though he was free now from those challenges he could no longer move along with the sense of urgency of one being chased. John rebalanced his human cargo and now strode with a staggered walk across the loose dry sand to wetter and firmer ground nearer the water where his stride evened out. Even then John could no longer seek to elude his pursuers but only move along the shore in a stroll. Though he was out in the open, he liked his chances better than trekking through the woods. He’d fall back into the water if he had to as a last resort. Still he couldn’t shake the feeling of being in the cross hairs of someone’s aim from the wooded bluffs.
John looked for Persephone and Millie down the beach, but it was too dark or too far away to see them. He could however detect an approach from the bluff-side of the beach. It was Michael Ro`dan and he was carrying someone draped over his shoulder.
“What a strange sight we are, out here in the night.”
“Michael, I’m glad to see you. We weren’t sure when we would…if we would.” John was searching for words.
“I have seen through your eyes. I know what it is to look at Misty as a daughter.” Michael observed what John was carrying. “Can I help you with her?”
“You look like you have your hands full. Who is this?” John nodded to Michael’s load.
“Plan B,” the vampire answered coldly.
“I want to carry her but time is of the essence.” John nodded toward the gloomy bluffs, “…and those on our trail?”
“Others are out there but they are not concerned with us at the moment. I’ll see to them shortly. They don’t carry guns.
Persephone and Millie were found in the shallows near the beach. They sat among several boulders partially submerged in the evening’s gentle surf. Several of the rocks served as a natural breakwater, making the mild surf behind them even more serene. Persephone sat up when the men arrived. Millie remained prone as if floating on the water, eyes closed and body rolling limply with the water.
“I have brought our lovely Misty back to us. I do not hear her heartbeat or her laughter’s melody.” John tearfully lowered his daughter’s body into his wife’s loving arms and they both settled her into the shallow water.
“Misty is also here, husband, in these shallows.”
“What?” John felt the first stirrings of hope.
“We both felt her.” Persephone continued. “We both followed her
essence and we have both found her. She made it to the water and made her escape. Our daughter has been trying to keep herself together and luckily the lake has been calm. We have been collecting her in these calm waters. We need you out here too and Sanford is bringing Enos Lancaster. He was hit by one of these ice bullets and lived to tell about it. Maybe he can help.”
“I will see to the house.” Michael said. “All of them are coming, so it has been left unguarded. They’re just reaching the beach.”
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Enos, Sanford, Constance and reluctantly Cinnamon, whose reluctance to leave the house felt like she was abandoning her post as guardian of the Skye’s home and in particular their suite. Michael had not shown up there and Persephone had felt certain that if he were to appear it would be in their room. They could certainly use Mr. Ro`dan tonight. Sanford had reassured her that it was better to go to the beach with them rather than remain in the house alone. Cinnamon hadn’t needed much reassurance after her frightening encounter in John and Persephone’s suite and the recent happenings just outside the front door of the house with the strange looking people in the dark.
They exited the dark house and left in silence. Sanford led them off and Enos was at the back door. This was by suggestion of Enos who wanted to keep an eye on everyone as they moved forward. Through the yard, they walked along a path that led to the Lake Michigan shore. The beach and lake were visible from the house in certain areas during the daylight. But the tension made the trip a long trek in the darkness, although really it wasn’t much longer than a football field’s distance to the lake. Once there they had the lake on their left on their journey up the beach. After a minute or two’s walk, they began to faintly hear whining coming from the dark growth on the side of the bluff. The further they moved along the shore, the louder the sounds were, although one had to listen closely to hear anything at all.
The Blood In Between (The Safe Haven Trilogy Book 3) Page 4