Yet, his entire life was never normal. How could it be, as he wasn't even really human? At least Spiderman could claim the title of human. No, that title was denied him. Could he have children, he wondered, as he looked over at Heather. She smiled at him, then closed her hand around his as it rested on his leg. He would like that. Children, hopefully with Heather. After all, he was alive, not dead. So maybe, in some ways, he was still human, unlike all the undead Vampires he always read about. That being said, maybe there were a lot of things that were different about him from the legendary killers.
"You two sure about this? There's still time to turn around." Bobby said once again. Thankfully he had only expressed his opinion a couple of times during the trip. It would have become annoying fast if he did it more than that. Brian watched as Heather shook her head. Her golden hair swung back and forth as she did so. He didn't bother to answer, as the plan was his to begin with.
The old trucker just shook his head as he continued to drive. The crux of Brian's plan was a simple one. They needed firepower if they were going to take on who knew how many agents. He couldn't risk letting some of them getting a lucky round off and taking him down when they went to the old Warrens place. That left very little choices, except one, which he felt was poetic justice.
"Here we are." Bobby said, as he pulled the big truck up and parked it in front of the local police station. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
Brian shook his head "No, I'm good. Just stay low, I'll be back out soon." Brian climbed out of the cab and jumped down to the pavement. "Oh yeah, Heather, you might want to stay down until I fix everything here." She nodded and slid down in her seat as Brian slammed the door. It was early evening still as he walked up to the buildings double glass doors. He didn't see any point in stealth, it should be just a simple thing to do. Walk into the local cop shop, and walk back out with his own private army.
"Can I help you?" An older officer with sergeant stripes asked, as he sat behind the front desk. Brian smiled at him and looked right into the man's eyes. Thankfully he was giving Brian his complete attention.
"I need you to help me." Brian said in a simple clear understandable voice. The man's face softened from the professional expression it held before.
"Yes, sir. How can I help you?"
"What's your name?" Brian asked, looking at his name tag.
"Rodriguez." The sergeant smiled at him.
"I mean your first name."
"Alex."
"Okay, Alex. Who's in charge here?"
"Me and the lieutenant are currently on shift."
Brian looked behind him trying to count how many people were in the building, but thanks to all the cubicles it made it impossible to count heads. "Where is he?"
"I would think he's in his office." The man said.
"Alright, Alex, please escort me to him."
The sergeant nodded and walked around to the locked door that prevented Brian from walking deeper into the building. Moments later he followed the old sergeant through the maze of cubicles. Each time they would pass an officer he would stop them, and look into their eyes and tell them to help him. By the time they made it to the lieutenant's office, Brian guessed he had most of the place following him. If anyone asked what was going on, they were sent up to him, and one more person soon joined in with the procession.
The thick old wooden door to the lieutenant’s office was closed when they arrived. Otherwise, the old man inside would have seen the crowd of officers heading there. Sergeant Rodriguez opened the door without knocking, and Brian walked right in like he owned the place.
"Who are you?" The lieutenant asked, pulling his glasses off and looking up from the paperwork he was doing. Brian didn't waste any time at all. He walked right up to him and locked eyes with the lieutenant, which was actually somewhat difficult, as the man was trying to see what was going on outside his door when he realized how many people were standing outside it. "What the hell's going on here?" He raised his voice and started to stand just as Brian told him to help him.
Brian watched as all the tension left his face as well and a smile replaced his frown as he looked at Brian.
"How many officers are on duty now?” Brian asked him.
"I'm not sure. " The older man said. "We're currently on shift change."
Well, that would explain why so many officers were here, and why a lot of them had been filling out paperwork. He turned around and counted at least twelve, if he included the sergeant and lieutenant.
"Alright." Brian looked at the lieutenant. This is what I want you to do. I need you to armor up and get ready for an assault on a known terrorist facility."
"Do we need to call for state backup?” The lieutenant asked.
"What's your name?" Brian asked.
"Lieutenant Mason, but you can call me Tom, sir."
"Alright, Tom, we're going to do this ourselves. I want you to bring every on-duty officer back to the station and in here to see me. Every one else get armored up."
Tom started barking orders. "You heard the man! Get moving!" The group dispersed quickly.
Within forty minutes, all on-duty personnel had been called back and were now arming up thanks to Brian's suggestion ability. He couldn't help but wonder why more vampires didn't do this in the books he had read in the past. One problem he hadn't anticipated manifested as time went by. He knew that suggesting all these people in the day would put a drain on him, but what he didn't know was that it seemed to be a constant drain on him. As if every one of the officers was slowly draining him of his strength to maintain their obedience. Once again this was something new and he was now grateful he had eaten that extra bag.
Tom knocked on Brian's open door, which had so recently been his. "We're ready, sir."
Brian nodded and took note of the helmet and body armor the man was wearing.
"Alright, load up every car or form of transport we got Tom. I need you to escort us to my house first." The man nodded and barked some orders. Brian instructed the man where they were going and what they were escorting, and the officer just nodded smiling and never questioned him at all. Before he climbed back into Bobby's cab, he took a portable police radio to keep in contact with Tom.
"Alright, fire this rig up, we're off to my house."
"How the hell did you arrange this?" Bobby asked as he fired up his truck.
"I told you, I'm a vampire."
"Yeah, yeah, aren't you hilarious." The trucker grumbled.
"You did it, Brian!" Heather was practically jumping up and down next to him. She stopped when she saw the pained look on his face as he rubbed his temples. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing I can't handle," he said, but he could tell she wasn't happy with the answer. The convoy got under way with three cruisers leading. A patty wagon followed behind them. His next part of the plan had to be executed quickly and hopefully without incident. He needed to get back to his home and pick up one of his mothers family heirlooms. He was sure they had at least some silverware in the house, but he wasn't sure if it was real or plated. He decided he would be better off taking an old hair needle that had been in his family for years according to his mom. It was supposed to be made of silver, so he hoped that it would do the trick. Still, just in case, he would take a few forks as well.
"Tom," Brian spoke into the radio. "Begin plan A."
"Roger that." Tom responded.
"Shouldn't that have been commence operation A?" Bobby asked.
Brian just shrugged. He didn't know the exact lingo, and did it even matter? They were all going to do exactly as he told them. Brian had Bobby pull over as they neared his block. The patty wagon passed by them and followed after three cruisers as they turned out of sight. Minutes later, the radio crackled again, informing him the area was secure.
The area around his house did look secure, as the truck pulled outside his home. Across the street was a large SUV. Four agents had their faces down on the ground while several officers stood over t
heir handcuff forms. Three more stood at Brian's front door standing on each side waiting for the command to enter, while several more were standing in the yard with shotguns watching the neighborhood for trouble. He assumed there were officers in his backyard, as well.
"Alright Tom, head in."
He heard Tom give the order, and he watched as an officer used Brian's key in his door. Seconds later, the team disappeared into the house.
"First level clear." Came a voice over the radio.
"Hold your positions." Brian quickly said into the radio. "Heather, I want you and Bobby to stay right here. Be ready to run if anything bad happens. Do you hear me, Bobby?"
The trucker nodded, but said, "I can help."
"I know that, and in this instance you're going to keep Heather safe." A sudden pain shot through Brian's head, and he grabbed his temples and moaned.
"What is it?" Heather began to panic, "what's happening?"
"Augh," was his best answer. "This is seriously taxing me. Now, stay here." He said as he jumped down and ran for his house, pushing aside the fatigue he was starting to feel. Tom met him as he entered the house.
"All secure, do you want us to advance?"
Brian could see the other team from the backyard standing further in the house.
"Clear the upstairs." Brian commanded.
Tom gave the orders and the two teams slowly moved up the stairway in twos. Ten minutes later the all clear order came. Brian ran upstairs and quickly located his mothers heirloom, before heading back downstairs and grabbing some of her forks. Then, he had the basement secured and recovered several cereal boxes containing IVs. As the convoy got under way, heading out to the Warrens, Brian downed an IV. The pain and fatigue left the moment the blood touched his lips, and he noticed Bobby and Heather staring at him as he finished the blood off.
"Shouldn't you be keeping your eyes on the road?" he asked. Bobby averted his eyes and began to look out on the road again, but Heather continued to stare at him, and by her expression, he could tell she seemed a bit disgusted.
"What? You know I'm a vampire."
"Did you kill someone for that?” She pointed at the now empty IV. Brian shook his head as he threw it out his now rolled down window.
"My aunt brings this for me from a blood bank."
"The one in town?" She asked still not sounding happy.
"I guess?" He shrugged, feeling much better as the blood flowed throughout his body.
"Brian, I've donated there."
"So?"
"So you may have eaten my blood." He wasn't sure how to respond to that, in fact he really didn't see what the problem was. When he didn't respond, she shook her head, sat back in her seat, and crossed her arms. Bobby just kept looking forward, and Brian thought he had a bit of a wild look to his face.
"Calm down, Bobby, there's nothing to be freaking out about." Brian said, reaching across the cab and patting the truckers' arm.
"That's easy for you to say. You're not riding with a vampire." Bobby turned and looked at him, pale-faced. He didn't need his driver jumping ship at the moment, but he also hated suggesting him again. He really liked the idea of Bobby being there because he wanted to be, so he decided to hold off on whammying him again, in the hope that he could reason with him.
"Bobby, I'm no different than the day you first picked me up. There's nothing to be scared of.”
The old trucker nodded his head as if he were listening to what Brian was saying. He really felt he was getting through to the old guy until the man abruptly spoke up again.
"So, are you going to kill me?" There was a wildness in his eyes that Brian hadn't seen before. A fear like a trapped animal would have. It was right then that he realized if Bobby had ever really been here willingly, that was now gone. Somehow watching Brian consume that bag of blood had woken something in the man's heart, and it wasn't pretty. Brian knew what he had to do, but it didn't make it any easier. The man he wanted to count a friend was actually a poor, frightened man that he had suggested into helping him.
"Bobby."
"Yeah," the trucker looked over at him. Brian didn't pause. Why should he? He had already suggested a host of men against their wills tonight. Many of them wouldn't survive the encounter with the Annunaki. This man might be one of the ones that didn't. He was no different from the rest, and he need him. He needed him to protect Heather and to take her from danger if the plan didn't work.
"You're going to help me" He said to him as he locked eyes with him. The fearful expression melted away from him and was replaced with a calm serious one.
"Well, of course I am! What in blazes did you think I was going to do?"
Brian sat back in his seat. A shred of his humanity withered away inside him, as the trucker's attitude changed. A piece of him he doubted he'd ever get back. He could see Heather staring at him from the corner of his eye, and he wondered what she was thinking at that moment. Did she realize the price he was paying to help? Did anyone ever give him a choice in all this?
Chapter 19
The old Warren place looked about the same that it had through his traveling eyes. The only real difference that he could see was the fact that there were a lot more shrubs and weeds dotting what used to be its yard. One would have thought that whatever branch of the government that used it could have at least afforded some sort of lawn maintenance. Tom had briefed him on his plan and how they were going to secure the first level. Brian told him he didn't think that the top level was being used at all, but Tom insisted that it should be cleared before heading down into the basement.
Seems a little pointless to me. Brian thought. Whatever was going on was happening down inside the basement. Not upstairs, in fact, he had been up there several times in his traveling form, and in none of those instances had he seen anyone or anything in the upper levels of the old wreck. He guessed they didn't use it simply because it kept the illusion of the old place being deserted. He was about to tell the Lieutenant to focus more on the basement but at the last second decided not to. Better safe than sorry. After all, one would think that the police would know their job better than a seventeen year-old boy.
A command went out, and Brian watched as the teams headed through the broken chain-link fence in teams of three. The lead group went in, paused and knelt down, scanning the area. Moments later, they waved their hands, and the next three moved in past them to the front of the building.
"Damnedest thing." Bobby said as he walked up next to Brian.
"What's that?" Brian turned to look at the old trucker.
"Thought we were running from these guys," Bobby spit, before continuing. "And here we are working with them against those guys in the suits."
Brian nodded. "Things change, I guess."
Heather walked up to the two from the big rig that was parked a little ways behind them with the cruisers and patty wagon. "So it looks like they're going in." She pointed as the first team went in through the front door. Brian assumed that the team that had gone around to the back was entering simultaneously out of sight from them.
"Aha."
"Brian." Heather began. I really should go with you. After all I want to be there when you find my parents."
"We've already been over this Heather, it's just too dangerous."
Heather shook her head. "I don't think so. With all these police how can it be?"
Brian heard the radio announce that the first floor was clear. A slight throbbing behind his eyes became noticeable once again. He decided he needed to have another IV before he headed in with his teams. This time, however, he was going to do it out of sight. He didn't need Bobby freaking out again, or worse Tom or one of the officers losing it after watching him.
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