by Melody Raven
“Without you, we would’ve gotten the girl. If we got the girl back in the first place, daddy monster wouldn’t know where she was. Without you, daddy monster couldn’t have gotten in touch with Park. Without you, Park wouldn’t have just played me for a goddamn fool.”
Alyssa nodded. “I see. The problem here is that you’re mad at Park, not me. So, you should really let me go, and then deal with Park.” Besides, if it weren’t for her, Cora would be dead, so he wouldn’t have her anyway. She had a feeling Wesley wouldn’t appreciate the difference.
“Oh no, honey. I’ve got a lot of problems and Park is just one of them. I know what you think. That I’m some kind of big bad. You think I just want to hurt all the little children. But you’re not seeing who the monsters really are here.”
Alyssa glanced at the guns currently pointing in her direction. “Trust me, I have one hell of a view from where I’m standing.”
“Now you’re an ignorant, spineless, worthless servant of them. You personally aren’t dangerous, but the actions you take can be devastating. I’m not playing checkers here, honey—I’m playing chess. If you don’t watch your opponent well enough, even a pawn can capture a queen. Now I’m going to capture their pawn to get myself a king.”
Alyssa let out a bark of laughter. “You’re trying to use me to get to Dante? Are you crazy? One, he couldn’t care less about me. Two, he’s not exactly afraid of your little guns.”
Wesley cocked his head and stared at her inquisitively. “You think I’m using you as bait to get your boyfriend? I know he doesn’t care about you. Their kind are incapable of it. They came here to dominate and destroy. To murder and maim. Do you have any idea how many men, my men, have been buried since those demons came here? How many can’t be buried because their bodies have never been recovered? Trust me, I know exactly how little you mean to him. This isn’t a war we’re going to win through interrogations and hand-to-hand combat. I know our strengths don’t lie there. But what we do have is technology. When I have my guy get the goodies off your phone and your computer, I’ll be able to see how they fight back against one or two nukes.”
Dante liked Joshua Park. Joshua Park had helped him. He had to keep on repeating that fact to himself over and over and over again as he refrained from slamming Joshua into the nearest wall. “You’re not going to help?”
“I told you! There’s nothing I can do. I can’t mobilize an army to go against one of our own. Not for a civilian.”
“You hired her! So she’s not a civilian!”
Park looked around cautiously, to verify that they were alone. “I said I couldn’t help you. I never said I couldn’t help you in an unofficial capacity. There’s a car on its way. The ETA is five minutes. I recommend you get in that car when it arrives.”
“I don’t have time to wait,” he snapped.
“Yes you do,” shot back Joshua, not seemingly intimidated by Dante at all. “I read your file. You’re not some lovestruck teenager. You’re a goddamn general. Speed is never a good substitute for planning and strategy, and you know that. You might be all-powerful and strong, but Alyssa isn’t. All it’s going to take is one well-placed bullet and she’s gone. I don’t know what the two of you have going on, but remember she was my friend first. I have a vested interest in her safety. For the love of God, you’re going to have to trust me.”
“Is Alyssa going to be okay?” asked Cora softly. She stood in the entryway, staring at their exchange with wide, scared eyes.
Both Joshua and Dante looked over to her and Dante let out a deep sigh. “She will be,” said Dante tightly. “Let’s get ready to go. Our ride is going to be here in five minutes.”
He didn’t know why the hell he was bothering to wait for any car to show up, but when Park announced that his ride had arrived, it all made sense.
The door of the UV-protected van slid open and he saw Talon waving him in. “Come on, sunshine. Before we get a tan.”
Park might not be able to help, but he had called in the most capable team he knew.
Vampires.
Dante reached his hand out for Cora and she quickly grabbed it. He didn’t want to have to drag her into any more danger, but he wasn’t about to be separated from one of the girls he loved again.
He ran at full speed to the van, limiting the sun exposure to only a few seconds. Even though he was able to brake as he hit the metal, the van still shifted roughly as he hit. “Gardenside Inn,” he said as soon as he’d stopped. “We need to go to the Gardenside Inn.”
Talon look skeptically over to where Dante was holding Cora tightly. “You sure you want to bring your kid?”
“I left Alyssa alone and look what happened. I’m not going to lose any one of the girls I love again.”
Talent shrugged and pulled the van door shut. “Whatever you say, man. You better remember that I’m no babysitter. That’s Stefan’s job.”
“Hey!” yelled Stefan from where he sat in the driver’s seat.
“Cora is no baby,” said Dante.
Cora squeezed him tighter. “Do you mean it?”
“Of course I mean it. You’re already stronger than any mortal here. They’re morons to hurt you, but they’re smart to be afraid of you. You got fire in your blood.”
“Not that. You love me?”
“Of course I love you. That’s not even a question.”
“I didn’t think you ever wanted me around.”
Dante hated having this conversation where others could hear, but he hated the fact that his daughter was questioning this even more. “All I’ve ever wanted is you. You’re the only thing that made the past few years bearable. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know....” Damn it, he couldn’t be having this conversation. Not in public, and not ever. Cora was his daughter. He didn’t have to tell her he loved her. She should just know.
“You love Alyssa too?”
“Alyssa barely tolerates me,” he said quickly.
“If you love her, you should tell her. That’s what they do in the TV shows.”
“This isn’t a TV show, baby.”
“But it made me happy. Don’t you think it would make her happy too?”
Now, that was up for debate. Instead of answering Cora’s innocent questions, he turned his focus to Talon. “What did Park tell you?”
“He didn’t say much. Mostly that your girlfriend was in trouble and you’re about to fly off the fucking handle.”
Dante wanted to know what flying off the handle meant, but he used context to assume it wasn’t a good thing. “I need to get back to her. We’re bonded.”
Talon narrowed his eyes. “Bonded?”
Dante felt as if he were going insane. “Bonded. We exchanged blood.”
Talon still looked confused. “I don’t think we have that here, man. Are you saying you just like her a lot, or have an actual supernatural bond?”
For fuck’s sake. “A bond! I can’t breathe without her. I can’t be away from her. I can’t get her out of my head.”
“It sounds like you just have a crush. What happens if one of you dies? Do you both croak?”
Dante glared and let out a threatening growl.
Talon immediately raised his hands up. “Hey. I’m just wondering how big of a deal it would be if we lost her.”
“It would be a big deal,” he bit out, using every bit of self-control he had left to keep himself from attacking Talon. “Pretend it’s someone you care about,” he forced out. He couldn’t attack Talon. Talon was helping him. So instead he would have to find some way to get through. “Someone you can’t imagine never seeing again. Never hearing again. Never touching again.”
Talon just shook his head as he reached in his jacket and pulled out an odd gun-shaped item. “Simmer down there, Romeo. I’ve got your back.” He lifted up the edge of his shirt and pointed the silver chrome contraption at his stomach and pulled the trigger, wincing as he did.
“What the hell is that?”
“Experimental drug. You know those bullets you
got shot up with? The poison ones? Well, the humans aren’t the only ones with new toys.”
For a toy, that didn’t look very fun. “What does it do?”
“Some kind of fancy UV blocker. It’s supposed to let me walk in the sun. Figure it’s our best bet of getting to your girl, right?”
“Give it to me then.”
Talon tucked the gun in his jacket, noticeably ignoring Dante. “Experimental,” he repeated. “If this stuff kills me, at least it will just be me and not the both of us, right?”
Dante didn’t know whether that should make him feel grateful or upset. Hell, right now everything made him upset. “Why would you do that? You don’t even like Alyssa.”
“You’re one of us. We protect our own.”
“I’m not one of you, though.”
Talon snorted. “You keep telling yourself that.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s not like we’re best friends. The Night Watch would rather have you as a friend than an enemy.”
Oddly enough, that comforted Dante. It was honest and a motivation he could understand.
“You can’t be serious. If you nuke a nest of vampires, you’ll kill like five vampires and a million humans.”
Wesley scoffed. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. We’re not going to do anything drastic without carefully considering the options.”
“This shouldn’t be an option! Not unless the vampires are off on an isolated island with no people around!”
Wesley frowned and slowly moved toward her. If she thought she could’ve gotten anywhere, she would’ve retreated from him, but considering she was still surrounded by guys with guns, she knew it was pointless.
She might be powerless, but at least that powerlessness could be mistaken for bravery.
Wesley stopped about a foot away from her. Still much too close for comfort and letting her know just how little he cared about her personal space. “Be careful, little girl. After what you’ve done, you’re nothing more than a traitor to me. Do you want to know what my guys do to traitors?”
“Give them due process in court.”
“Due process is a privilege.”
It was a right, but she wasn’t going to say that out loud. She wished he would leave her alone and get to searching her laptop. She knew there was nothing on there that could help him, and the longer she stalled him, the greater the chance that Dante would get back before she found out what Wesley’s version of due process was.
Damn it, she picked a career where she would never have to talk to anyone in person just so she wouldn’t have to deal with assholes like this. “They’re not all bad! Dante is super sensitive. He’s basically a teddy bear,” she lied. But she knew the stupider she sounded, the more likely Wesley would get pissed off. And a pissed-off general was a distracted general. Assuming he didn’t have her shot.
Well, maybe this plan wasn’t the best idea.
“Whatever the bloodsucker has you believing, you’re wrong. This isn’t a book for thirteen-year-olds to swoon over and draw hearts on.”
“Dante and I have something special. He’s different than the others. I’m not just a blood bag to him. We’re partners.”
“I should let you live,” said Wesley suddenly. “You don’t know what I’d give to see the look on your face as your beloved rips out your throat.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. They’re not killers like you say. They’re protectors. All he’s been doing since we met is trying to keep his daughter safe. And yeah, some of the ways he goes about protecting her are unorthodox, but it’s all driven from love. Maybe back where he came from, he had to do some shady things to keep Cora safe, but he’s only been on Earth for a few months and already he’s adapted so much. He’s loyal, strong, and really fucking handsome to boot. He’s the most unique, interesting person I’ve ever met, and there’s not one ounce of him that’s boring.”
She quickly realized that her lies to distract Wesley had morphed into something else. “I know you’re probably going to kill me before you leave here. I’m not stupid. I know you’re not actually operating within your orders, and the more witnesses to see your bullshit, the more screwed you’re going to be. But I want you to know that if you do kill me, you’ll be a murderer. Not a soldier. Not some freedom fighter. A murderer. With, admittedly, a few exceptions, I have been working with the US government this whole time, and I’m not going to pretend I was doing something wrong by loving Dante.” Loving? Working! She’d meant to say “working with Dante.” She blinked at the Freudian slip. Love? She barely knew the guy. It was crazy.
“Hand over your computer,” said Wesley, obviously not in the mood to deal with her self-realizations right now.
She wasn’t about to hand him over anything. She pointed at the desk on the side of the room where her laptop was charging. This whole time she’d been carrying it around, hoping it would help her at some point. But she supposed that was going to work in her favor. The only thing sketchy she’d done was track Wesley’s movements. He wouldn’t find anything useful there.
He motioned toward one of the guys holding a gun. “Rogers, take a look.” Unfortunately, then he had time to turn his attention back to her. “You keep on assuming I’m some sort of monster. Remember, I’m a monster hunter.”
“A monster hunter who kidnaps little girls?”
“Did I kill the kid? Did I torture and interrogate her? No.”
“The only reason you didn’t kill or interrogate her immediately was because you had no facilities to do so. You were just waiting until you had a place you could take her to rip her apart and study her. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Rogers was click-clacking away on her keyboard and Wesley let out a frustrated sigh. She was successfully annoying him, but still wasn’t sure how happy she should be about that.
He crossed over to the blinds and ripped them open, letting bright sunlight pour into the hotel room. “You see that?” he demanded. “That’s the sun. Your demon lover isn’t going to be able to set foot in here. If you have any hope of getting out of this alive, you should know now that it’s never going to happen.”
Well, at least her plan to annoy him to distraction was working. Unfortunately, his little display of sunshine was having the desired effect of sinking her hopes for a quick rescue. But hey, she was going to stick with this annoying train until it stopped working. She opened her mouth but shut it abruptly. Something outside the window caught her attention. A little flying drone hovering just outside.
Wesley saw her focus shift and turned around, also staring in shock at the little thing.
“Hey Wesley,” she said with false confidence. “Looks like you’re finally going to get what’s coming to you.”
“That’s not military,” he said quickly. He stepped closer, as though trying to stare through whatever camera was surely on the drone to see who was trying to spy on him.
And that’s when Alyssa saw the van. She was just able to jump out of the way as it rammed straight to the window.
Dante launched himself forward, throwing himself through the windshield and against the wall of the motel room. He wasn’t sure what hurt more: the glass breaking into a thousand pieces against his skin, or the sunlight that touched him briefly. Fuck, he should’ve made Talon give him that stupid drug.
He’d been fast, but he had no chance to recover before gunfire broke out. He used his vampire speed to dart away from the wall, not allowing himself to become paralyzed again. By the time he left here, he was going to have both of his girls, damn it.
He slammed himself into the man, pushing them both into the bathroom. Before the man could even try to re-aim his weapon, Dante slammed his head into the mirror hard enough to hear a resounding crack. He didn’t stop to see whether the man was dead or not. He sure as hell wasn’t getting up anytime soon.
By the time he left the bathroom, Talon had taken care of the other two gunman, but Alyssa was gone. She couldn’t be far.
Dante went
to the hallway and looked both ways. He didn’t see any sign of where she would’ve gone, but he knew she wouldn’t have gone far willingly. Wesley must have her.
“Where is she?” croaked out Talon.
Dante glanced over and saw the vampire hunched over, holding his stomach. He didn’t smell any blood coming from the man. Maybe the drug really was having negative effects.
It was a problem for him to deal with later. “I don’t know.” He took a deep breath, and although he could still catch faint traces of her scent, the smell of debris, gunpowder, blood, and adrenaline mixed in and made the scent impossible to follow.
He let his eyes close and focused on Alyssa. He saw her bright-pink hair, her shining smile, and deep blue eyes. He allowed himself to wholly focus on that image, and his eyes popped open. “This way,” he said as he led Talon down the hallway.
“Do you smell her?” asked Talon, his voice sounding just as pained as before.
“No, but she’s here.”
“A hunch?”
“Shut up,” snapped Dante as he stopped. They were close to the end of the hall. If Wesley had left the building, they could be getting in a car right now and driving off.
But they weren’t. She was close. He knew. Every sense he had was screaming at him that she was near. He closed his eyes once more and brought her image up again, drawing that same focus until, with utter certainty, he turned to his left and kicked in the door.
Alyssa was full of mixed emotions as Dante stormed into the stairwell. Relief that he was here, even though it was broad daylight. Terror that there was just one door between them and that bright sun.
And pain. Because as soon as Dante kicked in the door, Wesley had shoved a knife into her side. It took her a moment to figure out what happened. Yes, she’d known Wesley had a knife when he’d pulled her out of the room. Yes, she’d known he was for sure crazy enough to use it. But when the knife actually pushed into her, it seemed to happen in slow motion.
The stages of grief involved denial, anger, and then came the pain. She would’ve collapsed if Wesley didn’t have a beefy arm wrapped around her neck holding her up.