by E. M. Moore
Christian knew I was bluffing. He gave a tiny shake of his head. “Don’t. They’d be stupid not to take you, and I’m sure they were planning on doing so whether you signed up for it or not.”
“Well, that’s not true. We had a choice. Don’t make everything I told Soren to get him to talk a lie.”
His forehead wrinkled. “That’s what you told Soren to give Dumont up?”
I nodded, my lips pealing apart with a genuine smile. “It’s true. In his world, he has no choices. He made that abundantly clear. At least here we do. Sometimes you wouldn’t understand just how much that actually helps, to have some control of your own life.”
“I doubt Nicolai would agree with you on that.”
My shoulders deflated. “Are he and Gregor fighting again?”
“More like continuing the fight. I’m not sure it ever stopped.”
I could see both points of view. Nicolai wanting to do something, but Gregor not ready to let his son risk himself. “What do you think, Christian? Do you think your father should let Nicolai do what he wants?”
His lips thinned. “Asking me that is like asking me if I think you should go out on this mission. My heart tells me no, but my brain says yes.”
A gust of wind from in between two buildings came up and tracked hair across my face. I wrangled it down and placed it behind my ear again. “I suppose that’s true enough. Where are the rest of you anyway? I’m not allowed to leave The Fort.”
His lips teased upward. “In your room. We wanted to make sure we saw you before you left. Since we weren’t sure when that was happening, we decided we’d just show up when all the trainees were at the meeting and—”
“Kidnap me?” I asked.
“Now that you mention it. Yep.”
We walked through the main entrance and down the hall, the smells of breakfast still lingering in the common room and reaching out either way. Sure enough, when we got to my door, it was unlocked and we walked right in. Connor was laid out on my bed, Stephan in my desk chair, and Nicolai leaning against the wall. Christian and I walked in and each of them looked at me expectantly. I blew out a breath. “Well, I don’t know anything yet. I signed the deployment sheet, of course, but I don’t know anything besides that. They say we have to stick around on campus while they figure out who goes where and then I imagine we’re going to be leaving soon after that. I know Lex and T.J. stayed up the rest of the morning to come up with a plan. They just needed the bodies.”
“You’re crazy,” Connor said. He dropped his head and shook it while looking out past his toes. “But I love you, Princess.” He sat up and Christian and I also took a seat on the edge of the bed. “We kind of figured you wouldn’t know anything so we thought it would be a good idea to have a movie day.”
“A movie day?” I asked, looking at Stephan who looked as unhappy as I thought he would be. Out of everyone, he worried the most about me. Not because he cared about me more or because he thought I couldn’t handle it, but because he was directly involved in the healing process. It took a toll on him, and he saw what it did to the injured, too. I wished there was some way I could erase his agitation.
Connor sprang from the bed and opened the closet. Inside was a TV/DVD combo. He pulled it out and placed it on the dresser. “Your new TV,” he said, showing it off like Vanna White.
“What? You guys did this for me?”
“Connor’s idea,” Nic said. He looked at me, his face grim.
Connor busied himself with putting in the movie and then took up his place on the bed. We scooted back to use the wall as a back rest while Stephan wheeled the chair over to get a better view. Nic dropped down to sit on the floor in front of me, my feet just barely grazing his shoulders. “What did you guys get?”
“Something awesome,” Connor replied. He tilted his head toward the desk. Leaning against the wall, I saw the cover for Wonder Woman. He smiled from ear-to-ear after I grinned. “We thought our wonder woman would like to see some superhero action before she goes off to fight the bad guys.”
My heart soared. They all looked at me with smiles on their faces. They really felt that way about me, didn’t they? That was amazing. I smacked a kiss on Connor’s cheek and then held Christian’s hand as we relaxed back to take our mind off what was in the very near future. Of course I wanted to go fight for them, but that didn’t mean I particularly liked the idea of being away from them. It was hard every time all of us had to part, I just knew we were doing it for a damn good reason. We had the rest of our lives to stick near each other, and if I went out and did this, we were securing that future so it was so close we could practically reach out and touch it.
We didn’t get but a half hour into the movie when my cell phone rang. Connor paused the movie wordlessly as I pulled my cell phone out and checked the screen. ‘Rajyvik’ stared back at me and I quickly swiped the phone to answer. Samuel, short and sweet as he always was, said, “Meet in the parking lot in ten. You’re being deployed to Calcutta with Team One.” Before I could even respond, he hung up the phone.
I opened my mouth to tell the guys the good news, but Nicolai grabbed my foot. “We already heard, Ri.” He pointed to his ear. “Vampire hearing, remember?”
“You can hear all my phone calls?”
Connor laughed. “Like that should be a problem. You only talk to us.”
That was true. I sprung up from the bed and went to the closet to pull out my black duffel bag. In it, I threw in a couple changes of clothes, sealed it up, and spun around to look at them. “I guess it’s that time.”
Stephan was the first to open his arms so I went into them. He squeezed me, whispering in my hair, then kissing the top of my head before I moved to Connor. He kissed my forehead, gave me a wink and then moved me to Nicolai. He curled his arms around me and hugged me to his chest. He smelled like fresh sheets and I sniffed deeper to try and memorize it. Christian was next. He cupped my cheek and kissed me softly on the lips.
They didn’t follow me when I left the room. I hurried down the corridor, not looking back. Though it killed me to do it, I was doing what I needed. For us, I kept reminding myself. For us.
I pulled the duffel bag up higher on my shoulder as I exited out the back. Spotting a dark black SUV, I ran toward it. Matthews, T.J., and Lex were already in the vehicle, but just getting there was another figure. A muscle pulled in my lower stomach when I recognized who it was. Zeke. He shook hands with the rest of the team and then threw his duffel bag in the back of the vehicle.
I’d stopped mid-stride on my way there. Feeling a douse of cold hit me, I moved forward, shaking my head. It didn’t matter who else was there. This was what I had to do. The rest of them greeted me and I threw my bag in the back with Zeke’s. When I went to get in, T.J. stopped me. “Is this going to be a problem?” His eyes moved toward the other side of the vehicle where Zeke was just getting in. “Samuel said you guys have a history.”
“If it’s a problem, it’s not mine,” I told him honestly. Zeke had always been the one to start things with me. I just hoped he wouldn’t let his personal feelings interfere with the mission. He’d shown earlier that he could be trusted so maybe he wouldn’t. We’d just have to sit back and see.
“Great. Welcome to Team One.”
Chapter Fourteen
My mind drifted as we made our way to the riverside city. The place I once called home when home was a shitty apartment, two physically demanding jobs, and early morning jogs so I could tire myself out just to sleep. I couldn’t imagine a better place to have Dumont’s safe house. Returning here only served as another reminder of what I was fighting for. Would I have wanted to fight as much if I were fighting for just my place to sleep and thoughtless, unrewarding jobs? Never. It was all about the home I’d found in the most inauspicious of places—a fantasy world some might even call it. But it was real, so real.
While we drove, we talked tactics. Other teams were also on the way to Calcutta. Team Two was scouting out the safe house from
the description Soren gave me. Team Three was setting up with tech so we’d have digital eyes and ears as well as our own and those around us. The mission was to charge in there, abscond Dumont, and bring him back as our prisoner so he could be tried for his crimes. Gregor was out for blood when it came to him so though our orders were to keep him alive, he probably wouldn’t last much longer than that.
Radio calls came in from the other groups on an hourly basis. The scout team had been sent out as soon as possible so they were already in Calcutta, searching for the exact location. I couldn’t get an exact address out of Soren, but I was pretty sure I knew what building he was talking about. All that team needed to do was confirm that there was vampire activity in the area, then we could come in, bust the doors open and leave with our captive. In my head, it was as easy as that. By tonight, we’d finally have the threat neutralized. Dumont would be nothing but a memory. Everything in my world could return back to normal, including classes at The Fort, graduation, and the princes.
I held on to that thought until we arrived in Calcutta and pulled up next to one of the abandoned warehouses just one block away from the river. Lex herded us upstairs to reconvene with the tech team. I wasn’t surprised to see that Matthews knew all of them pretty well, but I also saw Evan. We greeted one another briefly and then had to sit back and wait for the scout team. They’d noticed some activity a few blocks down and were checking it out. Word around the vacant, musty room was that this was the likeliest location for Dumont. Vampire activity, and there were mysterious human disappearances in this area for the past week.
“Two to one. Two to one,” a staticky walkie talkie cackled.
Lex picked hers up. “One here. What’s your determination?”
“We have the green light. Vamp spotted. Best possible entrance through the South wall window. I repeat, best possible entrance through the South wall window. Do you have eyes?”
Evan punched a few buttons on the keyboard and the screen lit up. The picture was grainy with a green hue, but in it, you could see the side of another abandoned factory. “We have eyes. First floor entry near the alleyway?”
“Copy that. There doesn’t seem to be much activity on the first level, same for other levels, but we did see one enter.”
I caught Lex’s eye. “Soren did say he would go underground.” She nodded once, and tipped her chin toward the tech team’s leader. “Can we get a schematic of that building? Do we have an entrance for a basement or any clue as to where they might have put one?”
The tech team’s leader shouted out different orders to his guards. Evan was the only trainee, and I couldn’t help but think that Connor would also be good at this. The chances of injury were low. If Connor wanted to, it might be something Gregor would consider rather than what Nicolai wanted to do, which was do exactly what I was doing, be right in the line of fire. He would be far safer back here in a secure location.
It took a few minutes, but a guard with dark hair had pulled up the building’s plans and Lex and the rest of us from Team One stood over his shoulder to take a look. Sure enough, there was a basement entrance in the far corner of the building. Lex’s finger hovered over the screen. “We’ll enter here at the window. Cross to the back of the room, exit out that door and then head for the stairwell that will take us to the basement entrance.” She turned and faced us. “The quieter the better. Once we’re tipped off, we don’t have the upperhand anymore and Dumont is as good as gone. He’s tricky and there’s a reason why he’s been around so long. Everyone be safe, play it smart.”
She nodded toward the tech leader who gave his people instructions on how to suit us up including mic’s and a flashlight/video camera monitor combo that strapped around our head. After that, we stopped back at the SUV and grabbed our gear. Each of us took a fair amount of stakes, knives, and other weapons and then we continued on foot to the building, making sure we hid in the shadows to conceal ourselves as much as possible. We knew Dumont’s crew would be short-staffed, but it was likely he’d still have the basic security forces out making sure he wouldn’t be a target.
A block away, Lex stopped and we all huddled around her. “Matthews, I want you in the rear. T.J. and I will take the front with Zeke and Stuart in the middle. Do it just as we talked about in the car ride up. Nothing’s changed except we now have the location.” She held up three fingers and then counted down silently on them until she made a fist. T.J. went first, his hand at the stake on his belt with the other out in front of him, poised for attack.
Zeke and I moved forward, following them until Lex was at the window. The earpiece in my ear went off. “Team One, we have you in our sights. First floor is clear. Proceed.”
At this, T.J. hiked Lex into the air to reach the bottom sill where she pulled herself up and over. T.J. went next, then Zeke. Matthews gave me a little push to get started and then he was up after me. Soon, we were boots on the ground in Dumont’s safe house. Old filing cabinets were turned over everywhere with crisp sheets of paper strewed around the floor. In one corner sat an unused desk with one lamp on it. A rat crawled over it, smelling the surface for any hint of its next meal. As soundless as we could, we moved through the room. The whole time my heart was in my throat and I felt like I barely breathed. My chest started to ache, but I took a steadying breath and told myself to relax before moving into the hall toward the exit to the basement.
Lex whispered into her mic. “Moving down. Clear until now.”
I blinked, in awe of her. Nothing like this had ever been planned out in the history of the vampire world, at least not to this extent. The fact that she took charge and planned all this was extraordinary. When we got out of this, I’d have to make sure I told her so. In reality, it should’ve been her getting the Medal of Valor, not me.
They crept forward and I fell in line behind Zeke. The door to the basement creaked and the five of us paused before moving forward again. If anybody had heard that, they’d probably be on their way to check it out. Swiftly now, T.J. raced down the steps, his feet hitting the cement sounding nothing but light scuffling that could’ve easily been an animal. Closer and closer we moved until we were at the bottom door. “In three,” Lex said. “Three, two…” T.J. stompkicked the door. It busted open, swinging on the hinges until it slammed against the wall.
We all moved forward, stakes at the ready in our hands only to come up short. In the middle of the room was a vampire. One, lone vampire. He sat in a chair like a king in front of his congregation as we all fanned out on either side of Lex, gazing at the darkened corners of the room for any threat. It quickly became apparent that there was no one in the room but him. He smirked, clearly delighted by our surprise quickly followed up by our disappointment. “He said you would come. As you can see, he’s not here. Pity that you should come all this way for nothing.”
T.J. started to move forward, but Lex held her hand out. “Why has he left you here?”
He smiled, his teeth razor sharp. “To prove a point. He will have his way. He will always be one step ahead, and you will always be one step behind. Dumont is the oldest vampire living. He knows all, sees all. He won’t be kept in the shadows anymore. He will reign as the leader of all vampires. In his rightful place.”
Anger surged through me. I’d been so close to living the way I wanted, in getting everything I never knew I wanted. And here we were, thwarted again. It did always feel like we were a step behind. Out of reach of Lex, I strode forward this time, my stake poised for a kill shot. “Where is he?”
“I’ve lived a long life. I would love nothing more than to die saving my master. In fact…” The vampire pulled his jacket apart. My legs immediately felt like iron weights, cementing me to the floor. I’d seen enough movies to know what he had strapped to his chest. A bomb. A straight up bomb. “I’d already planned on it. You’ll get nothing from me, I’m afraid. As soon as this goes off, Dumont will know Soren gave him up. Loyalty is everything to Dumont.”
“Step back, Ariana,” T.J
shouted.
“Retreat!” Lex said. “Bomb. Fall back, fall back.”
I heard the echoes of Team Two and Team Three responding, but none of it registered in my brain. Paralyzed with fear, the emotion did as it had always done, frozen me in time with no way out. I thought I’d cleansed myself of that. I thought I’d conquered fear by going through guardian training, of taking control of my life, but the thing was, maybe you weren’t supposed to conquer fear. Maybe it would always win over you. I was a fool to think otherwise.
“Move, Ariana!”
Images of my mother popped into my head one-by-one, passing through like a camera roll speeding by. Then, it was the princes’ turn. All four of them smiling, caring, embracing me as if I was an outsider looking on. Before I could even think it, my hand flicked out and the stake spiraled through the air, catching the rogue vamp in the throat. His eyes bugged out of his head, his fingers clawing upward as if he could save himself, and well, he actually could if he had some blood. The bomb was in the way of a chest shot, but it had to be done. If there was any way I could stop that thing from going off, I had to try. It wasn’t just us that I was worried about. It was about the countless homeless people that used these factories to survive in. It was about the other two teams that had risked their lives to be here as well. Sure, there wasn’t anyone else in this building but us right now, but what about the one next door, and the one after that? They didn’t deserve to get caught up in this fight.