Renegade (Ministry of Paranormal Research & Defence)

by Chapman, Andrew

  “Okay,” I said, swallowing. “We might as well eat while we wait.”

  The diner was a low brick building with a metal roof and dusty windows. The car park was only paved in places, the rest was a mash-up of gravel and dirt, mostly cratered with potholes and stained with oil. The interior was little better. Harsh fluorescent lights illuminated scarred and scratched tables surrounded by equally battered booths. Several tatty and miss-matched stools stood against a big counter shiny with use and pocked with burns. Faded posters and framed prints lined the walls over the badly stained linoleum floor. Still, for all the shabbiness the place was scrupulously clean, and the smell was wonderful.

  We took a large booth and looked over the menu. After a few moments a skinny young waitress with thick blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail came over to take our orders.

  “Hi! How you folks doing?” she asked brightly.

  “We're doing just fine,” said Natasha with a bright smile.

  “What can I get you folks to drink?”

  We all ordered drinks and she scuttled off to get them while we looked at the menu.

  “Do you guys really call french fries 'chips' in England?” asked Terry.

  “Yes we do,” I replied. It was nice to leave the situation behind for a little while and talk about mundane things.

  “So what do you call chips?”

  “Crisps.”

  “And you call cookies 'biscuits', right?” said Aiden.

  I nodded.

  “So what do you call biscuits?” asked Natasha.

  I puzzled over that for a moment. Finally I had to admit defeat.

  “I don't even know what you guys call biscuits,” I said. “So I don't know what they might be in England.”

  “Well,” said Terry, “They do a great sausage and biscuit here. You'll see when mine arrives.”

  When the waitress came back I ordered a burger with a large portion of chips—sorry, french fries—and sat back, trying to relax. Aiden and Terry were having a spirited discussion about sports. Natasha was watching a TV mounted above the counter that was showing a news show. Try as I might I couldn't relax completely. Jack kept popping into my mind. He was nearby, he and our friends. We'd get a message back and then arrange to meet up somewhere safe. There would be a nice, happy reunion and then we'd find a way to get home. I kept having to stifle the desire to have Terry check whether we'd had a reply yet.

  The conversation stopped once the waitress brought our food. The hamburger was the biggest I'd ever seen and the pile of chips was daunting. Good job I was starving. Terry showed me a biscuit and I puzzled over it for a while. The closest comparison I could make was a scone and even that was wide of the mark.

  “Oh man, that sucks,” said Terry. “I always wanted to visit England but if they don't have sausage and biscuits I'd starve.”

  I couldn't see where the sausage came in. Each biscuit seemed to have a burger in the middle. Then I realized the burger must have been made of sausage meat. I shrugged and took a bite of my burger. It was fantastic and I tore into it eagerly.

  Lunch passed and it was nice, but I was feeling antsy. I wanted to get back to the team and—more importantly—I wanted to be with Jack and I wanted to get home.

  I suddenly realized I'd been staring off into the distance, lost in thought, and Kyle had asked me a question.

  “Pardon?” I said, shaking myself mentally.

  “I asked what you were thinking about,” he said. “You didn't hear what Terry said?”

  I shook my head.

  “You got a reply to your e-mail,” he said, holding out his phone.

  I took it and tapped the screen, my stomach turning over. I felt my mouth stretch into a wide grin as I read the message.

  Scrapper,

  Good to hear from you. Sure, everyone here looking forward to seeing you again. Give us a call.

  -J&A

  At the bottom was a phone number.

  “I take it that was your friends?” said Aiden.

  “Yeah,” I said, still grinning broadly. “It certainly was. Excuse me, I'm going outside to make a call.”

  I practically ran out of the door and around the corner before punching the number in.

  “Hello?” Anna's voice.

  “Anna!”

  “Scrapper! Where the hell have you been?” she replied with a delighted laugh.

  “I ran into some trouble.”

  “Serious?”

  “Nothing I couldn't handle. But the people who were driving me around lost interest all of a sudden. They left me all on my own so I hooked up with some new friends.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “Where are you guys?”

  “Well, we've gone up in the world again. We're at this nice hotel.”

  “Is everyone okay?” I asked.

  “Well, our Master and Commander hasn't shown up yet but you know what he's like. It's just a matter of time.”

  My heart sank. Jack wasn't with them? I understood Anna's reluctance to talk openly. I had no idea how secure mobile phone conversations were but it was best to be cautious. I chewed on my bottom lip for a few seconds.

  “I'll come to you,” I said. “We can wait for him together.”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  After Anna told me how to get to the hotel I hung up. I turned the corner to find everyone waiting for me.

  “Good news,” I said. “I got in touch with my friends. They're at a hotel.”

  “I'm sensing a 'but'?” said Kyle.

  “Jack's not with them,” I said. “Apparently they got split up and he hasn't reached the rendezvous point.”

  “You worried?” asked Aiden.

  “About Jack?” I asked. “Not hardly. I'd be worried about any vamps in the area but not him.”

  That wasn't entirely truthful. I was worried about Jack. Something must have prevented him from making the rendezvous.

  “That hotel's in Jones County,” said Natasha. “It's outside our jurisdiction.”

  “And?” said Aiden.

  “And nothing,” she replied. “I was just pointing it out.”

  “It's okay,” I said. “You've been great. You don't need to come with me.”

  “No way,” said Natasha. “You've been given pack protection. We stick with you until you're safe.”

  “You don't have to,” I objected.

  “Look,” said Kyle. “You're not going to win this argument so you might as well just give up now and save your dignity.”

  “But I couldn't put you in any more danger—”

  “But you didn't,” Kyle pointed out. “The vampires did.”

  I let out a sigh.

  “Okay,” I said. “But only until I get to my team, okay?”

  “No,” said Kyle. “Pack protection means until you voluntarily leave pack territory and are welcome in another pack's territory. There's no pack out that way so you're still our responsibility.”

  Kyle's response was smart. He'd made it a matter of responsibility and not risk. He reminded me of Liam at that point. Still, I had one last go.

  “You're not a pack member, Kyle,” I reminded him.

  “No, he's not, but I am,” said Aiden. “And lacking the presence of your mate or any member of your pack, as eldest pack male here I'm making the decision. No more discussion on the subject.”

  I felt my jaw drop in shock. I closed it and gave him a scowl.

  “Your pack still practices that medieval bullshit?” I asked incredulously.

  He suddenly gave me a sheepish smile.

  “No,” he replied. “But I was hoping that your pack did, though.”

  I threw my hands up in the air and growled, exasperated. Men!

  “Okay! Fine. You win. I'll put my new friends in harm's way so they can protect me when I don't need protecting.”

  “If you don't need protecting we won't be in harm's way, will we?” said Natasha with a smile.

  “You know what I meant ,” I replied sourly.


  We all got back in the vehicles and got back on the road. The journey to the hotel didn't take all that long. It was slightly annoying that we'd been so close all this time. As we pulled into the car park Aiden suddenly braked his truck and pulled into a parking spot near the rear of the lot. Kyle pulled in next to his truck as he was winding his window down.

  “We may have a problem,” he said quietly. “Up near the entrance.”

  I took a look. Next to a fine-looking limousine was a pair of white cars, powerful-looking. At first I thought they were police cars until I saw the writing down the side said 'KnightStar Security'.

  “KnightStar is a vampire company,” said Aiden. “Run by vampires for vampires.”

  A man in an odd red and black camouflage outfit came out of the hotel and opened the boot of the limo.

  “Should we bail?” asked Kyle.

  “No, we've come too far,” I replied. “Besides, I don't think these will be any problem for us. Wait here, okay?”

  I opened the door and stepped out.

  “Marie?” hissed Aiden. “Where are you going?”

  I waved him off and jogged across the car park towards the man. I sped up to a run. He must have heard me coming because he turned around and a shocked look came across his face. I threw myself at him, wrapped my arms around his neck, and gave him a fierce hug.

  There may have been quite some distance between us when we first saw him but Jason was one of my childhood friends and I'd recognize him from a mile off.

  “Marie!” he said happily. “Good to see you again.”

  “I hope that uniform and those cars are just a cover.”

  “Of course they are,” he said with his usual goofy grin.

  I stepped back to look at him, still amazed to see him here.

  “How did Jack persuade you to join up? And where did all of this KnightStar gear come from?”

  “Well, it was Liam who wanted me to come,” he said. “He told Jack I might be useful dealing with the local wolves.”

  “Naah, that was no problem,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder towards the Mustang and the truck, and my new friends who were cautiously climbing out of them. “They've been nothing but friendly to me.”

  Jason grinned as he shook hands all around and the introductions were made.

  “Jack make it back yet?” I asked.

  “No,” said Jason, suddenly serious. “But Loki and Steph went to see if he made it to the third rendezvous.”

  “Well, I'm glad to hear that. That was nice of Loki and Steph. Good old Loki and Steph. Jason?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Who are Loki and Steph?”

  He laughed.

  “I guess you do have some catching up to do. Come inside and we'll explain.”

  The team had set themselves up in a group of rooms on the third floor of the hotel.

  “So if you were supposed to liaise with the local wolves,” I asked Jason as we rode up in the lift, “how come you haven't yet?”

  “Well, that was our next step, actually,” he replied. “Once we learned you'd escaped from the vamps we were just getting ready to contact as many packs as we could find.”

  “Well that explains that,” I said.

  “And then you called and made it all irrelevant,” he finished as the doors slid open.

  The corridor was bewildering. The carpet had a design featuring interlocking stripes in brown on a dark brown background. The walls were a lighter brown and the doors were the brown of varnished wood. Brown seemed to feature heavily in the designer's palette. For all of its tactlessness it was clean and airy, but mostly brown.

  Jason led us down the corridor and used a card key to open a door. I had barely stepped through when Natasha and Aiden shoved past me. Both were growling, their lips pulled back from their teeth, muscles bunched. It took me a fraction of a second to assess the situation and figure out what had caused their reaction.

  Anna was standing on the other side of the room, her welcoming smile now a frozen grimace. John, meanwhile, had stepped in front of her, his hand darting inside his black jacket, pulling a pistol from a shoulder holster, and Cam had surged to his feet.

  “Everybody stop,” I said firmly.

  I'd forgotten to mention that Anna was a vampire and my new friends had reacted badly. It was understandable.

  “Aiden, Natasha, Kyle, Terry,” I said. “This is Anna. She's a friend of mine and a member of the team. She works for the Ministry. Everybody, these are my friends. They're members of the local pack and they've been helping me out.”

  John kept his hand on his pistol and his eyes on the newcomers.

  “Sorry, ma'am,” said Kyle. “We just weren't expecting that. Someone forgot to mention that you were... you know.”

  Anna smiled at him, not showing her teeth.

  “John, put the gun away,” I said. “Everything's okay.”

  John nodded and holstered his weapon.

  “Pretty brave,” said Aiden as he gave John a respectful nod, “getting between a werewolf and a vampire.”

  “Oh don't judge a book by it's cover,” said Cam. “This little guy'll fuck you up. And even if you got through him you'd have to get through me.”

  “If you got that far,” said Bolt from across the room.

  He hadn't been visible when we came in the door, but he was there, positioned so he could see the whole room, a submachine gun cradled in his arms.

  “Okay boys,” said Anna. “Calm down. You can impress your new buddies later.”

  “Yes, mother,” said Cam. John glared at him. “What? I can be cheeky and get away with it. She's not my wife.”

  “Never mind that. I notice not one of you has said hello to Marie yet.”

  She stepped forward and hugged me tight.

  “Welcome back, girl,” she said. “What the Hell happened to you?”

  I stepped back and gave her a long look.

  “I'd rather talk about how you managed to lose my man.”

  CHAPTER

  44

  “Who was the vampire who was with you?!”

  The vamp was screaming an inch from my face, as if volume was the reason I wasn't answering him. When I again did not reply he slapped me across the jaw with a gloved hand. My head rocked to one side with the blow and another burst of pain sped through my skull.

  “Who was she?!”

  Another slap, harder this time.

  I was in deep fucking shit. My broken arm had been given a crude splint by my captors but was now screeching in agony. Every breath sent sharp, stabbing pains through my torso. At least one broken rib, maybe more, I thought. I had been dragged from the ground and thrown in the back of a Humvee. One of the guards had gotten his jollies by giving me a good shoeing on the way to wherever we had ended up. He'd stomped on my back and shoulders as I lay on the floor of the vehicle. At least one blow had been serious, landing on my ribcage. Hence the feeling that I was trying to breathe ground glass. One day I hoped to meet that vamp guard again, preferably while holding a gun. Or maybe a knife.

  I had been driven to this new location and dragged into this otherwise pleasant conservatory, tied roughly to a folding metal chair, and then beaten. I've had better days. Two vamps, one yelling questions and punching, the other just punching. Initially it hadn't been too bad. The vamps administering my thrashing had quickly figured out that my blood was burning them as they beat it out of me. Then they put on gloves and got right back down to business.

  I was a complete mess. My right eye was swollen shut. Angry bruises decorated my forehead, cheeks and jawline. I'm pretty sure one of my molars was cracked. One nostril was blocked—probably with blood—and the other one whistled every time I tried to breathe through my nose. Blood and snot ran down my face. The pain was immediate and all encompassing and horribly urgent.

  I went through all of my counter-interrogation training from the regiment. I was having to keep a tight reign on my personality. In an interrogation, insults
and defiance bring death and pain. You don't play the big man, the hard man. You try your best to seem like a broken man, a nothing, a conquered and defeated enemy. The two vamps had been taking their bile out on me for just under an hour by the clock on the wall of the room just visible through the door I was facing. That's a rookie mistake. Rule one of interrogation is disorientation. And one of the most disorientating things you can do to a subject is to rob them of their sense of time. You want them thinking they've been here for an eternity.

  I didn't waste any time sneering at the mistake. I was simply counting. An hour sounded about right for me to resist. It was time to crack and start blubbing.

  “She's the mistress,” I choked out. “We were her security detail.”

  “What?!” screamed the talky vamp.

  “Security,” I repeated. “Bodyguards. Hired to protect her.”

  “Did a bang-up job, didn't ya cocksucker?” he sneered.

  I said nothing, playing the broken man.

  “We captured her and the rest of your stupid group.”

  Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. If they'd captured Anna then they'd had to have captured Bolt and Cam and Jason. And they would've had to kill John. And if they'd managed that lot they'd be a lot more dead than they currently looked to be. But I had to play along.

  “Is she alright?” I pleaded in a small voice.

  “Oh yeah, she's just fine,” he said with an overdone leer. “She sucks cock like a thousand-dollar whore on overtime.”

  See? Bullshit. Even with John and everyone else dead, the chances of walking away from raping Anna without getting your dick bitten in half were rather lower than no fucking chance. I surrounded myself with dangerous people for some very good reasons.

  I let my head fall forward until my chin was touching my chest.

  “Just a bodyguard,” I whispered. “Nothing to do with me.”

  “Fuck!” said the punchy vamp, disgust in his voice. “I thought these KnightStar punks were supposed to be something special. This one is a fucking pussy.”

  Yep, exactly. I'm a fucking pussy. Not worth bothering about.

  The blow came out of nowhere, slamming into the side of my head, sending me clattering to the floor. There was nothing fake about my scream of pain as I landed on my broken arm, nor about the stars that flashed across my vision when my ribs hit the ground. A boot drew back then slammed into my gut, forcing the air out of my lungs in a startled whoof.