Darkest Before The Dawn (The Second Dark Ages Book 3)

by Michael Anderle

  —

  The security guard was standard-sized. Which was to say huge, Noah thought, looking up at him. The scar on the guard’s face just missed his left eye and ended up somewhere under his brown hair. “We are here to meet our boss,” Noah responded to the guard’s question. “His name is William, but he goes by Duke.”

  “Not here,” the man responded. He was looking at Noah’s two compatriots with their eyes flicking everywhere.

  “Of course he is.” Noah slipped the man some gold and a note. “Let’s make sure I have the right address, ok?”

  The man’s eyes narrowed and he reached out to grab Noah’s wrist. In a second Noah twisted his hand, grabbing the guard’s wrist and pulling him forward, then slamming his left fist into the guard’s stomach.

  His eyes bulged in pain, then rolled up a second later when Beatrice whipped out with a nightstick and popped him in the back of the head.

  The guard dropped to the floor.

  Noah looked at Keith. “What?” Keith asked. “Did I miss something here?”

  Noah shook his head. “Pick him up and place him back in his booth,” he said as he stepped over the huge man’s back. “You have the extra strength, so use it.”

  Keith looked to Beatrice. “What did I do?” he asked as he reached down to grab the guard under his arms.

  “You could have helped a little,” she replied and stepped around him as well. Seconds later, four more team members swept into view and helped Keith move the guard out of the way.

  “You take rearguard now.” Keith’s friend Tommy slapped him on the back as they left the little shack in the hallway. This was the least-used entrance into the rich area of the Sewers. The wealthy called it something else, but as far as everyone else was concerned, it was just the nicer part of the same place.

  Kind of how you might expect hell to be. Nowhere in hell would be nice, but perhaps certain areas might be less hot.

  At least, one could hope.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Sewers, Frankfurt, Germany

  The seven humans used their enhanced speed to rush down the tunnels. Noah had purchased plans to allow them to use some tunnels that were for infrastructure and stay out of the main hallways. Less chance of problems, they hoped.

  It took the team three minutes to traverse to the Duke’s residence in Frankfurt. One could hope that either the Duke or the new vampire would be here.

  Noah was hoping to bag them both. His team had been notified of Thomas and his team’s demise the day before.

  He held up his hand. The team slowed down and stopped by a door, pipes all around them. Noah pointed through the door. “On the other side is a hallway. It goes both right and left. Right is back the way we came in, and to the left is the entrance to the living quarters the Duke has here.”

  “We know where his exit is?” Keith asked.

  “Nope,” Noah answered. “According to the plans, he would have to dig through fifty feet of rock to make a way to get out. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and he might have started on it, but he seems to be the arrogant type and will probably believe he can just kill us.”

  “Don’t they all?” Beatrice asked, and the guys chuckled.

  “Oh no, humans!” Keith sing-songed in a high voice. “Whatever shall I do with myself?” He changed his voice to a lower pitch. “I shall kill you all!” The chuckles continued for a moment.

  Noah paused, then continued. “Ok, we open this door, team one comes with me, we set the charge. We blow the door and go in. Second team sets up our defense. All shares are equal.”

  Noah might be a bastard—hell, he himself would admit he was a bastard—but he was also a team player, and those who protected your back door were just as important as those who rushed the door.

  “Go!” he yelled. Beatrice yanked the door open and Noah slipped through.

  —

  “My, my, my.” Michael heard a vase crash to the floor. “Hope that wasn’t priceless,” he murmured as he looked around a bedroom. Akio chuckled in the other room.

  The three had found the back entrance to William’s place nicely decorated with skeletons and other stuff that was just smelly and gross. He had made sure that anyone looking around would become another decoration that said, “Stay away.”

  Michael took them through as Myst and followed the rough tunnel into William’s apartment, bypassing, Michael was sure, plenty of traps that would stop interested parties from figuring out where the tunnel led.

  He doubted any who had helped build the tunnel were still alive. Well, he supposed they could be alive, just changed into vampires.

  The bedroom was particularly opulent, with rich tapestries hanging from the walls and a bed so massive that Michael wasn’t sure how they had brought it this far underground.

  “Sabine?” he called. A moment later he heard her boots clop-clop-clopping down the hallway.

  She stuck her head into the room. “You called?”

  Michael nodded. “Would you be so kind as to leave some of the furniture? We aren’t going to burn this one to the ground, and those who come later might enjoy what are,” he pointed to the tapestries, “undoubtedly priceless historical artifacts.”

  “Sorry about that.” She blushed. “I didn’t actually mean to break that vase. I was scared by my own damn reflection and jumped.”

  Michael stared at her a moment. “You’re kidding, right?”

  She shook her head.

  “Michael!” Akio called. “I believe we are going to have company.”

  Michael stepped around Sabine, who moved aside to let him pass. He walked down the small hallway into a much larger room. Akio was pointing down the hall with his right hand; his left was pointing to his head.

  Michael released his senses too, and he focused in the same area Akio was pointing to. Soon Michael was shaking his head. “Well…hell.”

  Michael started walking down the hallway. “I’ll be right back.”

  Sabine looked at Akio. “Is he taking them on all by himself?”

  Akio shrugged. “He is the ArchAngel,” he told her. “There was a reason that whole groups of the UnknownWorld would move to other cities if he was coming to town.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” she asked, and Akio turned and shook his head.

  “You were blessed to meet Michael after he spent time with Bethany Anne.” He turned back to the hallway that dogged right before going to the front entrance. “The old Michael would not have thought twice about killing first and not bothering to ask questions later. The new Michael will at least ask questions.”

  “What questions?” Sabine made sure her pistols were loose in their holsters. “I didn’t hear him ask any questions.”

  “Up here.” Akio touched his head. “He reads their minds and figures out what they are planning and what type of people they are.”

  “And what type are they?” Sabine asked. “You read them too, right?

  Akio’s answer was short and to the point.

  “Dead.”

  —

  Noah loved this part of a takedown. His senses were heightened, his speed enhanced, and his ability to dish out pain could damn near cause him to orgasm.

  I AM THE ONE…

  Noah, his feet driving forward, the door at the end of the ten-foot-wide hallway clearly in his sights, twisted to look behind him to see who was yelling at them.

  I AM THE DARK MESSIAH…

  Noah noted that his team had made it into the hall. Two right behind him, and the rest looking both ways.

  MY NAME IS MICHAEL…

  Noah put up his hand, fist clenched. “FORM UP!” he yelled and stopped running.

  AND I AM DEATH, the voice finished.

  “Welcome to hell.” A male’s voice caused Noah to turn around.

  In front of the door was a man in a long coat with a black leather hat on his head. His eyes glowed red and the coat was pulled back to show two pistols in holsters on his hips.

  Noah was
lifting his rifle when the man drew his pistol and shot Keith, who was next to him. Noah’s round blew a small hole in the door.

  But the vampire was gone.

  “What the hell?” Noah spun, noticing the look of shock in Keith’s blind, staring eyes, half his skull blown out the back.

  Remember those you killed? The voice was back in their brains. Remember the ones you put on tables so you could bleed them dry?

  “They were monsters, just like you!” Noah called. “Everyone pull together, back to back. He can’t…”

  Beatrice’s scream turned to gurgles. Noah caught just a hint of a hand appearing out of thin air, nails four-inches long. They sliced across her neck, her arterial blood spraying out as she collapsed to the ground.

  That’s two down.

  “Come out here and fight like a man!” Bensen screamed.

  But you say I’m a monster. Since when do monsters fight like men?

  “You say you…Argffhf.” Bensen, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him, had been lifted into the air, and the vampire was using his clawed hand to strangle him. Three guns fired simultaneously, but all they hit was Bensen.

  The vampire was gone.

  Three.

  Noah considered whether he needed to cut his losses.

  “Four, Five, Six,” a voice called. With each word, another of his team was cut down by pistol shots coming from behind him.

  Noah whipped back to the door and fired. He wasn’t sure if the vampire was solid or stopping them from seeing him in their minds or what.

  He just felt like he needed to fire his weapon.

  —

  Sabine bit a fingernail. “Seems like a lot of gunshots.” She looked at Akio, who was reading a magazine. She bent down to see what he was reading; the front of the magazine had a car on the cover.

  “Yes,” Akio agreed with her comment on the bullets. “It says here the new Tellyson SP-600 aerodynamic antigrav car has room for six and a sixty-five kilometer range this year.”

  Several shots blasted the wall in the hallway, having come through the front door. Sabine looked at the damage, then at Akio still reading the magazine, then back to the damage. “They are blowing a hole in the door.”

  “Mmmm hmmm,” Akio replied and turned the magazine in her direction, pointing to a picture of the inside of the aircar. “I do rather like this dark burgundy color for the leather. What do you think?”

  “Oohhh,” Sabine stepped closer and leaned in. “That is pretty.” She looked at him. “You really aren’t worried about Michael?”

  Akio blinked twice before asking, “Are you?”

  Sabine glanced at the wall and the holes that had been produced by the bullets a moment before. She shrugged. “If you aren’t, why should I be?”

  “That is correct.” He took the magazine back and flipped the page. “Besides, he is having too much fun.”

  “Should we be doing something?” She gazed around the suite.

  “For Michael?” Akio asked.

  She turned back to him. “No, to see if we can find something to figure out where the Duke went.”

  Akio put down the magazine. “Yes, I suppose so. Michael isn’t going to leave any for me to play with,” He paused for a moment, then added, “I believe Jacqueline would add, ‘the greedy bastard.’”

  Sabine smiled, shaking her head, and walked away from the front door, ignoring the sounds of fighting.

  —

  Are you good and finished? The voice dripped malicious humor into Noah’s mind. His gun was not responding, the action having locked open on the empty magazine as he squeezed the trigger.

  Noah dropped the weapon and yanked a ten-inch silver-laced blade out of his holster, then moved backward until he was against the wall directly opposite Keith’s body. “Bring it! I’m not scared.”

  “Who wants you to be scared, Noah?” the man asked him, his voice carefully neutral when he appeared close to the door that Noah and his team had used to get into the hallway.

  “Certainly not me.” The man walked toward Noah. “How about we go tit-for-tat, hmm?” He stepped over Benson’s body. “You strike once, I strike once, and see what happens?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Noah licked his lips. “How about I kill you a final time?”

  Noah, his reaction time increased with vampire blood, barely registered the movement as his arm twitched and thrust the knife blade out.

  When time caught up, the man was smiling. Noah’s blade was stuck through his shirt into his stomach. “The thing about living over a thousand years, Noah,” he whispered, pinning Noah’s knife hand to him, not allowing him to pull it out or move at all, “is that you learn how to handle pain. Real pain, not the stubbing-your-toe kind.” Noah looked at the man’s face. His teeth were growing sharp, eyes blazing red. “Can you handle pain, Noah?”

  Noah felt his whole chest explode in agony and looked down. The vampire had punched into his chest, cracking his ribs and sternum in the center, right to his heart. “Now, you might have been able to heal using vampire blood.” Michael looked down at the mess of Noah’s chest. “Well, probably not. However,” Michael pulled Noah’s hand and knife out of himself, turned the blade, and, using Noah’s own hand, shoved it into Noah’s stomach. “I think I’ll use your energy to heal myself.”

  Noah’s voice squeaked; he could feel the life being sucked out of him. Energy…the energy he needed to try and fix his own body.

  Soon Michael stepped back and allowed the emaciated corpse to fall to the ground. He turned and started walking toward the door of the suite. “May your sins stay on you until you stand in judgment,” Michael pronounced and pushed the suite’s door open, then closed it gently.

  Seven dead bodies littered the hall behind him.

  —

  “Did you find anything?” Michael asked as he strode into the room Sabine was searching. “I only ask because I’m sure the security guards are on their way. I doubt they will want a friendly conversation.”

  “Are they a problem?” Sabine asked, looking up from the drawer she was rifling through.

  “No, but I’d rather not kill innocents.”

  Sabine shrugged and shut the desk drawer. “This place looks like a plant. It only shows the stuff he was doing as a businessman. It has nothing like the plans we saw in his chalet.”

  Akio walked into the room. “Hai.” He nodded. “I have found the same; nothing but business papers.”

  Michael looked around. “We need to visit England. Perhaps the group that is attacking William has ideas. We will ask them.” He looked at Akio. “I think you will have some fun.”

  Five minutes later a group of security guards kicked in the door to the suite and quickly searched it, guns drawn, expecting to find more dead bodies.

  All they found was a secret passageway leading somewhere. The captain in charge detailed two guards to carefully follow it and report back.

  Many minutes later, one of the guards came rushing back into the hallway, excited. He pointed over his shoulder back toward the suite. “You guys are not going to believe what is on the other end of that trap-filled passageway…”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Below the Kurobe Dam, Toyama Prefecture, Japan

  Three Pods hovered deep underwater just above a concrete protrusion.

  “You must be right above it. Let me take you to the side,” Eve’s voice told them over the comm.

  Mark had already released his harness and pressed his nose against the glass. “It’s a bit murky down here, but I think I can see the break point.”

  Jacqueline sat firmly in her seat monitoring her breathing. “How do we know we’re safe down here?” she asked. “I mean, if we leave the Pod, aren’t we going to be crushed by the weight of the water?”

  Mark tried to look upward out the front of the Pod. “Nah,” he said, despite not being able to actually see how far down they were. “I think we’d need to be much deeper for that to be an issue.”

&n
bsp; Jacqueline wasn’t entirely convinced, but she knew why she was here and she wasn’t going to start being a chicken now. She’d made her decision when she sat next to her father’s makeshift grave after he’d saved her. She was going to make her life mean something. And that meant being courageous.

  “Ok,” Eve confirmed. “The trackers in the Pods put you right at the location we talked about. You’re good to go, Mark.”

  Mark glanced back at Jacqueline, a slight hint of childish glee in his eyes at the prospect of what he was about to do.

  “Be careful,” she warned him. “And make sure you don’t go activating the charges until you’re back in here,” she added, undoing her own harness and wrapping him in her arms before releasing him to his task.

  Mark shrugged her warning off. “It’s ok. I’ll be right back.” He stopped. “Although… With the Pod filled with water, I wonder if that will impede its movement away from the explosion.”

  Jacqueline looked at him intensely. “I thought you had already done these calculations,” she said, exasperated at his lack of rigor.

  Mark pursed his lips. “I had. Approximately. But I’d rounded things up, and hadn’t quite factored in the range of the remote for the charges.” He thought for a moment. “Best we have a head start before we hit the button.”

  Jacqueline rolled her eyes.

  “Also,” he added, “let’s tilt the Pod forward to conserve as much air as possible.”

  Jacqueline relayed the suggestion to Eve via the communicator, and the Pod tipped forward, forcing them to balance themselves on the outer frame of the see-through door.

  “You ready?” He checked.

  Jacqueline nodded, suddenly anxious again, and held onto the sides of the bench seat.

  Mark hit the button to open the door and water started gushing in. Jacqueline instinctively scrambled to not get wet, but then remembered that most of the Pod was going to be submerged before they were done.

  In fact, she was going to be going out there as soon as this first phase was complete. She dropped her feet back down and gasped as the coldness of the water met the outside of her suit before the suit corrected for the temperature differential. A moment later the water was up to her chest, and she was feeling quite comfortable.