“Sounds like a fairy tale.”
“Some of us know that things in fairy tales have proven to be quite real, don’t we?” He folded his hands in front of himself. “If you wish to talk inside, we can. I won’t make you turn over any of your weapons.”
“And why is that?” Distrusting, I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Because Justin Greaves was one of my best men,” he said simply. “It was…well, we lost a good man when he left us. I feel I owe him that courtesy.”
Lost him. I wanted to laugh at that, but didn’t. “Nothing I have to say is secret—or at least it won’t be after much longer. Out here is fine.” And I really didn’t want to walk back into that silver dome again anyway.
“Very well.” He spread out his hands. “I’m all ears.”
During the drive, I’d concocted a plausible tale to pass on to Banner—one that wouldn’t give up the secrets Amund had shared with me, nor break any confidences.
It was a tight line I had to walk, but it seemed like that was all I did lately.
When I finished, Brendan was staring at me with inscrutable eyes, arms crossed over his chest. At first, he said nothing, simply bowed his head and turned everything over in his head.
“Your source…can you perhaps reveal their name?”
My source was Amund. Shaking my head, I said, “No.”
“I figured as much. And if I were to legally compel you?” He stared me down.
“To what purpose?” I lifted a shoulder. “I’d call in an Assembly lawyer and explain the circumstances to her, and she’d vouch that sharing any more than I have would likely make matters worse, not better. Plus you’d waste valuable time. You’d have to bring in an agency lawyer. The lawyers who work for you are compensated by taxpayers who hate Banner anyway. The lawyers who work for the Pack and the Clan are happily and well compensated and will trounce any argument you bring up. Do you want any of that trouble?”
His lips twitched at that. “No.” He flapped a hand at me. “You should go. I imagine if this…anomaly you have described does happen, you have things you should do to prepare.”
As I went to climb into my car, Brendan asked, “Shall I have Chavez return your weapons?”
“Just send them via courier.” I wasn’t going back in there.
⸸
It wasn’t that much later when I fell asleep in the wide soft bed I shared with Damon.
He’d come in some time after me.
I sensed rather than heard him and when he threw an arm around my waist to pull me closer, it managed to rouse me a little.
He kissed my forehead and whispered, “Go back to sleep.”
I did and the next thing I knew, I was speeding down a highway somewhere in New Mexico.
I had no idea how I knew it was New Mexico. I hadn’t travelled anywhere past Missouri, although I wanted to. Part of me suspected if I did, I’d be tempted to never come back east.
The road I traveled was unending.
I was looking for something.
But I didn’t know what.
The car spun out of control but before I could scream, it stopped and I looked out of the window into the eyes of my grandmother.
Fanis had stopped the car.
She’d just grabbed it with both hands and stopped it, and now she glared at me through the windshield with that condescending, superior smile.
“Do you think you stopped anything?”
I glared at her through the glass, shaking.
“Do you?”
At my stubborn refusal, she launched herself at me like some movie villain and drove her hands through the glass, dragging me out. The broken edges cut at me and I had to bite my cheek to keep from making a sound.
I wasn’t going to give her a response.
It had been a long time since she had hurt me.
But that was a lesson I hadn’t forgotten. I couldn’t give her a response.
“Precious child. Do you think you’ve stopped anything by telling your darling monster friends what is to come?” She leaned and pressed her lips to my cheek, but it wasn’t a kiss. She licked the blood away. “All you did was lengthen their demise, and ensure they’d suffer and fear their death that much longer.”
She went to lick the blood once more and I tore away from her, emboldened either by terror or rage. I ended up falling, but I didn’t land on the ground or the road.
We weren’t on the car anymore, but inside mine and Damon’s rooms.
As I shoved upright, Fanis looked around.
“So this is how you live now. Rutting with an animal.”
“Better than living like one, the way I lived with you.”
Her eyes glittered. “You showed little more intelligence than an animal. What was I to do, waste my resources on a hopeless cause?”
“Heaven forbid you actually care for the offspring of the daughter you sent off to die.”
She flinched as that arrow struck home.
“Soon,” she said in a soft and lilting voice. “Very soon, Kitasa, I will be at your back and I’ll bring you down. I’ll make good on the promises I made myself when you stole my beloved’s blade.”
“What…this blade?” Dreams never reflected reality. Not for me. The blade appeared in my hand, but it was like it slowly formed, the metal coalescing in my hand, its glow spreading out and stopping just short of Fanis and when she moved closer, the glow shrank away.
“This is the blade you think I stole?” I swung her between us lazily, the silver flashing far too bright. “If it’s yours, then call it, old woman.”
Her mouth twisted.
She stretched out a hand.
There was a press on my mind, horrible and heavy and dark.
Somebody screamed.
But it wasn’t me.
The dream folded in on itself and I jerked upright, panting, chilled.
And on my lap, lay my blade.
“You ‘kay?” Damon murmured, voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah.”
But I didn’t fool him.
A moment later, he lifted his head and eyed me through bleary, tired eyes. “What’s…”
The glow caught his eyes.
“Taken to sleeping with your security blanket, kitten?” he asked, sounding much more alert.
He sat up as I reached out and laid a hand on the grip of my sword.
“I was dreaming about her again,” I said softly. “I called my blade in my dream and I woke up and it was here.”
He didn’t ask who the her was.
Instead, he pulled me into his lap.
Tucking his chin into the hollow of my shoulder, he said, “She won’t hurt you. She won’t take you from me. I’ll rip out her heart and eat it in front of her dying eyes before I let that happen.”
“Gross.” With a weak laugh, I turned my face into his and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I love you.”
His warmth finally penetrated the knot of cold deep inside and I closed my eyes, sliding back into sleep.
But it wasn’t easy.
It wasn’t peaceful.
⸸
The phone emitted an ear-piercing shriek, jerking both Damon and me from a restless sleep.
“What the ever-loving fuck?”
His snarled growl echoed my irritation, but while he was confused, I was resigned. I’d been waiting for this on some level.
Reaching out, I grabbed my phone and silenced the emergency ring before it could blare again and deafen us.
Then, I threw my forearm over my eyes and drew in a deep breath. I’d known this would happen. Even before I’d gone to Banner, I’d known it. If I’d put any level of belief into Amund’s words, then this outcome was the only one that made sense.
Still, that didn’t make taking it in any easier.
I’d been granted a specific sort of authority by the Assembly. Such authority, such protections didn’t come without strings. The Assembly was giving those strings a hard, demanding jerk now.
Me,
and several hundred other licensed personnel.
The message didn’t give anything specific, but that was standard. This was just a wake-up call…literally.
“What the hell was that?” Damon asked, his voice clearer now.
“The Assembly.” Eying the read-out, I skimmed it quickly, then passed the phone to him before climbing out of bed.
I had maybe ten minutes before the assignment came in.
“What the hell does this mean? You’re on official assignment from the Assembly?” His growl grew even thicker, more disgusted. “You don’t answer to them.”
I didn’t look at him as I withdrew clothes from the dresser.
“The nice thing about being in a pack, Damon? You’ve got protections. People who apply to the Assembly for a specific sort of status—even if it’s just the right to be able to work with the sort of license I have—we don’t have those. I was barely recognized as worth having the right to work behind a bar before I applied for my status with the Assembly.” I turned then, meeting his eyes. “I received it and now I work, own my business…all that jazz. I pay my dues every year and in return, they offer some… protections. But that means when they call me in? I have to answer.”
I didn’t wait for a response as I headed into the shower.
It was a fair exchange, I’d always figured.
I still did, in general. Plenty of people like me—those who didn’t have any sort of faction who would claim them—were still able to have some sort of standing and protection within the Assembly, able to make a living. We were couriers, hired swords, hired witches…there were any number of skillsets that fell into that gray area and all sorts of jobs that got filled.
All we had to do was be willing to answer a certain call when it went out.
I’d only been called to serve two other times.
I had a feeling this would make those other two jobs seem like sweet dreams.
Damon caught up with me in the bathroom. As I climbed into the shower, he stripped naked and joined me.
“I don’t have time for some slow morning sex.” Giving him a dark look, I ducked under the spray to wet my hair.
“Okay.”
He caught me up in his arms and kissed me. “We won’t be slow.”
I almost told him I didn’t even have time for fast, but some part of me needed to feel him, cling to him. It wasn’t because of the summons from the Assembly, either.
As he boosted me up, I curled my arms around his neck and bit him. “Hurry.”
“Baby girl…” It was a low, rough growl that danced across my skin and left me shivering. He came inside me and I cried out, clenching around him.
It was fast, desperate…urgent.
⸸
My phone was ringing when I stepped out of the shower.
Still dripping wet, I put it on audio to answer.
“Colbana.”
“Your services are required. Immediately. Details will be sent to your phone within the next ten minutes. Come prepared to take down vampires,” an electronic voice droned on. “Be prepared to spend an extended amount of time on the job. You’ll be compensated at the standard contracted fee.”
“Lovely,” I murmured, ice spreading through me and replacing the heat I’d gained from the shower and Damon’s touch. “I’m going to get my ass kicked and I’m going to get paid shit.”
He came up behind me, wrapping me in a heated towel first, then in his arms.
“Orders are to kill on sight any vampire showing signs of bloodlust or going feral. Do not attempt to capture. Do not attempt to detain. Vampires are lost to bloodlust and are to be eliminated. If there are any questions about the vampire’s stability, kill on sight. There will be no sanctions.”
“Shit,” Damon said softly.
The faint disbelief in his voice didn’t do anything to make me feel better.
The phone call ended and we looked at each other.
“You said Amund had taken action with his younger vamps.”
Nodding, I grabbed a towel and rubbed at my wet hair.
“I don’t think this is just Amund.”
He used the towel he’d wrapped around me to dry my back, keeping it brisk, almost professional, even. After a few more seconds, he stepped away and let me take the towel and I took over the job. “They didn’t mention a particular house. If it was a particular house…”
“That might mean nothing.” Or it could mean everything. “You ever heard of anything like this, old man?”
The age difference between us would have been more of an issue had we been human. I wasn’t even thirty and he was in his forties. He didn’t look it. Of course, I probably looked like I was barely old enough to drink legally.
We’d both live a lifespan far longer than the typical human, but I still had fun teasing him about the age difference.
Normally.
But now I’d feel better if he’d tell me his extra twenty years or so had given him a glimpse of something like this.
All he said was, “As far as I’m concerned, it should always be open season on blood-suckers, Kit.”
“But…”
He hesitated for a long moment, then finally said, “But as far as I know, the Assembly never called for something like this. Not here, not in any other territory I’ve ever been in. They just called for open season on vampires. You heard that last bit—if there is any doubt about the bloodsucker’s stability…” He shook his head. “I hate vamps as a rule—too many of them lose any connection to their sanity, their humanity. Makes them little more than monsters. But they’ve…maintained. Should be no reason for an en-masse shoot-on-sight. If Amund had taken care of the weaker vampires in his line, then what’s behind this?”
I didn’t have an answer.
Chapter Fifteen
The last time I’d receive a missive—such banal, polite term for an official summons from the Assembly—it had involved a small pack of wolves who had come in from Alabama. They’d decided that adhering to the rules of society was something that only applied to humans.
They weren’t human.
Therefore, they could do whatever they wanted.
That included feasting on said humans.
I’d only been a part of the Assembly for about two years at the time and I didn’t think I’d ever stop seeing all that blood.
The sad part is that I was wrong.
I did stop seeing it.
Those bloodied nightmares were replaced by ones filled with my own screams.
Still, I haven’t forgotten that job. Years have passed and while I no longer had nightmares about that last missive, I still remembered certain things in excruciating detail.
And I hadn’t even been in on the kill. I’d been doing clean-up and rescue.
Missives, in general, were bad, bad news. One that involved a kill-on-sight for an entire faction of NHs? I hadn’t even heard of that.
“I’m sending Doyle with you,” Damon said softly.
“The Assembly can’t compel the Lair or the Pack to help.” It was something of a sore spot, truth be told. The previous Alpha hadn’t allowed her people to step up to help with the feral wolves I’d been sent to hunt last time.
While her actions had been derided by the rest of the NH community, she’d just laughed. She wasn’t bothered by petty concerns, after all.
“I’m not feeling compelled.” The way Damon said it made it clear he planned on sending Doyle whether I liked it or not.
And I wasn’t about to turn down help, although Doyle was green, even greener than I’d been that first time.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
He jerked a shoulder. “Hey, I can’t be compelled… right?”
But something about the way he looked at me made it clear he wasn’t going to stand on the sidelines, unlike the previous Alpha.
I reached up and touched his cheek.
“Be careful,” I said softly.
He closed his hand around my wrist.
; “I could say the same to you.”
⸸
“Shit.”
Doyle breathed out slowly as we came to a stop. I didn’t pull into the parking lot. It was easier to just pull up halfway onto the curb and leave the vehicle there. There wasn’t exactly street parking, but there weren’t going to be any cops coming through here looking for a car to ticket.
I had to hop out of the damn thing too.
On my way out of the parking lot I’d been stowing my ride lately, Scott had stopped me and handed me a pair of keys. Without blinking an eye, Scott had said he’d just received word from the Alpha. Damon would be pleased if I’d take a more suitable mode of transportation. I had no idea what they had deemed was unsuitable about my ride.
But then again, the massive truck they’d put me in hadn’t bottomed out when I’d had to pull up on the curb to park.
Joining Doyle on the sidewalk, I followed his line of sight. The grim reality had already settled in for me. Knowing I’d be getting updates while we were on the move, I’d put on the rarely worn headset and linked it to my phone. It also had a setting that plugged it into Banner’s dispatch system and I’d been listening in for the past ten minutes.
Banner was already on the ground. It had come as little surprise to hear Agent Brendan’s voice on the feed several times.
One of their men had been injured and might not make it.
Banner wouldn’t be happy about that.
“We’re going in there,” Doyle said slowly, eying the mostly empty holes in the building that had once boasted gleaming sheets of ebony glass. The windows had been broken and I could smell blood, thick and coppery, in the air.
If it was strong enough for me to smell all the way over here, I didn’t want to think about how many bodies had been ripped open—or apart.
And there were still people inside.
“Another group is joining us,” I said, checking the time. My watch lit up as I tapped the screen and I calculated. “Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”
Haunted Blade (Colbana Files Book 6) Page 14