by Aliya DalRae
Having had enough, Martin glared at Oz, who, for a Vampire on Vampahol, looked incredibly uninterested. Maybe it was to save Martin from the blonde octopus, as any good friend would do, or perhaps he had his own reasons. Whatever the case, Oz pushed his chair back, effectively detaching his own pair of remoras and sending them off to reattach to some other shark in the pool.
“I’m bored,” Oz said loudly, and Kyte reluctantly let his little fish go as well. “Let’s hit Buzz’s, see how the other half is living tonight.” He toned it down a little and added, “Maybe we’ll find some Shifters who want to party paranormal style.”
Martin didn’t hesitate. He dug the keys out of his pocket and the three headed out to the Hummer. It was a clear night, the sky filled with stars and the moon just past full. That meant the wolves and Shifters would be coming down from their full-moon high, so Martin understood Oz’s logic.
Personally, after the run in with Rolland, he’d much rather go home, but he couldn’t leave his boys stranded. Plus, knowing how they acted on Vampahol, they would definitely need a babysitter if they were going to mingle with the Shifters. Hanging out with humans was dangerous enough, but Shifters on a full moon hangover? They were going to need him for sure.
Martin still kicked himself for leaving the Compound with that rotgut Vampahol in his system. With no one to run interference for him, it was no wonder he ended up in some random skank’s bed. Never again. He’d stick with the lager, thank you very much, more than happy to be for them what they’d failed to be for him.
They’d parked the Hummer in the new library parking lot a couple blocks south of Good Times, and as they returned to the vehicle, Martin got the feeling they were being watched. He scanned the area but saw nothing until they passed the alley next to the dry cleaner. Frank, the homeless man Martin had befriended when Uli Fuhrmann first came to town, stuck his head out.
“Psst. Marty,” he whispered, and Martin stopped to talk to him.
“What’s up?”
“Strangeness in the air,” he said. “Lights on. Lights off.” He clapped his hands together and danced a little jig, singing the ditty a few times more. “Lights on. Lights off.” Then he sobered. “Be careful, Marty. It’s evil itself, I swear it.”
“Martin, let’s go.” Oz and Kyte leaned against the Hummer, impatiently waiting for the guy with the keys.
Martin glanced back at Frank, but the old guy had disappeared into the shadows near the back of the alley.
“Come on, Martin. Hurry up. We’re burning moonlight.”
Martin put Frank and his bizarre behavior out of his mind and jogged across the street to join the others.
The attack came out of nowhere. One minute he was thumbing the unlock button on the key fob, the next he was on the ground. He opened his eyes, at least he thought he did, but all the lights in the parking lot had exploded and he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Kurai Senshi.
“Oz, Kyte! Where are you?”
Neither answered and the sounds of fighting filled the night. He shook the cobwebs from his brain and scrambled to his feet. Once upright, he found his center, took several deep breaths and searched the area with his other senses.
It sounded like three people engaged in hand to hand. Two against one? Maybe. But there was no way the two were Oz and Kyte. They weren’t among the Soldiers getting the hang of blind fighting, and besides, they were soused. There was no way they could be part of the sounds Martin heard. That was serious back and forth combat, not a one-sided ass kicking.
He found the Hummer and felt his way along the side. When his foot caught something soft, he bent down and found one of his friends on the ground unconscious, Oz by the feel of the leather jacket. He could only assume Kyte was in the same condition on the other side of the vehicle.
He stepped over Oz and continued to the front of the car. Something heavy slammed into the hood of the Hummer and he heard a body crumple to the ground as he stepped back out of the way. When he felt another body flying toward him, he pressed himself against the car and tried to assess whether it was friend or foe who landed several feet from the rear of the vehicle.
“Get your friends and go.” The words were whispered, the voice low and menacing, but Martin didn’t have to be told twice. He fobbed the locks again, opened the back door and heaved Oz onto the seat. Using the vehicle for guidance, he circled to the other side. Kyte groaned, giving away his location, and Martin helped him to his feet.
“What the fuck, dude.”
“Quiet,” he hissed. “Just get in the car.”
He helped Kyte into the front and felt his way to the driver’s side where he cranked things up. With nothing more than a vague memory of the entrance’s location and an unreasonable belief in “the Force”, he tore off out of the parking lot. All the while, he prayed to any gods who might listen that he didn’t kill anyone before the lights came back on.
The Kurai Senshi were no longer an intangible threat. They were here, in Fallen Cross, and they’d attacked unprovoked. If it hadn’t been for that other person back there, the three Soldiers would have been toast.
Which stood to question, if the Kurai Senshi were attacking them, who had attacked the Kurai Senshi. And how?
Chapter Thirty
“G
et your friends and go.”
Merlin hissed the words into Martin’s ear, hoping Viper was right and that the Soldier would be able to function well enough in the dark to get Oz and Kyte out of there. He didn’t have time to see if Martin obeyed. The Kurai Senshi he fought were young and fresh, and too much time had passed since he’d last had to fight one of them, let alone two.
They’d appeared out of nowhere.
Against Tas’s advice, Merlin decided that no harm would come from him taking a trip into town, doing a little patrolling, seeing what he might be missing, or if it were something he’d like to do. Everything went according to plan. He found his way into Fallen Cross without crashing the Hummer, parked in a mostly empty parking lot, and he patrolled. He walked the streets, searched the dark alleys and darker shadows for anything that might fall into their purview.
He found a couple of ferals stalking an unsuspecting human down a side street and warned them off with a flash of fang. Watching them run away from him, knowing him for a Legion Warrior, gave him a rush of power that he never experienced sitting in the Tech Lab in front of a bunch of computer equipment. It was exciting and raw, and he understood why others chose this life, to become a Soldier responsible for protecting humans and Vampires alike.
He walked into Good Times and the bar was buzzing with human activity, drinking, dancing, all the things you would expect in such a place. From the patrol reports, he knew this was one of the spots ferals liked to hunt, and he understood why. It was a veritable smorgasbord, and the food was mostly incapacitated, easy prey and ripe for the picking. He scanned the area by the bar, then wandered through the building toward the dance floor.
That’s where he saw them. Martin and his two friends surrounded by human females. He knew they were off duty, so seeing them here shouldn’t have affected him. Perhaps the rock in the pit of his stomach had more to do with the blonde hanging on Martin’s arm than anything else. Oz and Kyte had their share of admirers as well, but that was different. Shouldn’t be, but it was. The only saving grace was the scowl on Martin’s face every time the woman leaned into him, touched him. Had he appeared to enjoy the attention, it would have been so much worse.
Oz stood up, and the girls untangled themselves from the Soldiers, moved on to another table. Martin blew out a breath and he and Kyte stood to go.
Merlin backed himself into a corner, out of sight, and let them pass before following them out the door. Martin had the keys in his hand, tossed them around his finger, looking so much happier than he had moments before, and the rock in Merlin’s belly melted into a puddle of relief.
He watched from the shelter of the club’s entrance as they crossed the street and
headed for the larger parking lot behind the new library. He felt like a stalker, had to remind himself that this had not been his intention when he came to town.
And yet, seeing Martin out with others, doing the day to day without knowing Merlin watched… it provided insight into the male that Merlin formerly lacked. He was one of the guys, a Soldier among Soldiers. One’s gaydar would be hard-pressed to go off upon watching him. To the rest of the world, those human women especially, he was masculinity personified and theirs for the taking. But Merlin knew the deeper, more intimate side of him, the side he kept hidden, the one that could be his for the asking, and it broke his heart.
Oz and Kyte were nearly to the Legion Hummer when the lights went out. Martin, having stopped to speak with someone in the alley, was a few yards behind. The streets were surprisingly empty of humans, most being inside Good Times or one of the other late-night establishments nearby, and so when the darkness enveloped them, the two Soldiers backed themselves against the vehicle and reached for their weapons. Weapons they never got the chance to use.
One of the Dark Warriors struck Martin from behind, knocking him to the ground on his way to attack Kyte. The other went straight for Oz.
Merlin struggled with what to do next. If he were to intervene, he might as well make an announcement to the Kurai Senshi. Here I am! Come and get me! But he couldn’t let any harm come to these Soldiers. To his Soldier.
Oz went down next, though his blocks were surprisingly accurate. Viper’s training must be paying off, because the Soldier fought as though he could see the punches as they were thrown at him. Of course, that was impossible, but either way, he was no match for the Dark Warrior. In no time, he lay crumpled near the Hummer’s rear tire. Kyte met a similar fate on the opposite side, leaving Martin, who seemed to have regained his bearings, to face off between the two superior fighters.
All of this transpired in the split second it took Merlin to decide. He had to do something, regardless of what it meant for him. If worse came to worst, he’d go back to his original plan and leave the Compound. But at least he’d leave it knowing these Soldiers were safe.
And so, for the first time in centuries outside of Viper’s lab, he called upon the Shade, upon the training that was as much a part of him as his hair or his eyes. He wrapped himself in the power of the night, and he stepped in front of Martin, blocking the punch that would have landed on his chiseled jaw.
The fight that ensued was like nothing he’d experienced in a millennium, and yet it came back to him as if it were yesterday, as if Kioshi still fought by his side. He landed every punch, his kicks were powerful and true, and he felt alive.
When the fighting fell close to Martin again, he hissed at him to take his friends and go, then all his attention returned to the two Kurai Senshi males. They were his people, like him they pulled their power from the light, drew it into the Shade through their eyes and used that energy to enhance their own strength. What they didn’t have was his righteous anger, or a thousand years of bottled up fury begging for release.
It burned through the cuffs he now wore at all times, searing his skin as the power erupted through the protection spells and filled him to near bursting. He didn’t know where he drew the light from, or how much of Fallen Cross went dark as he let the Shade aid his cause. All he knew was that these two had dared to threaten his people, and he wouldn’t let that stand.
When the Hummer was gone, he let it all out, took the two Dark Warriors to task. The fighting worked its way across the street, into an alley next to a dry cleaner.
An old man stood shaking in the dark, a bundle of what looked like all his worldly possessions clutched to his chest.
“I can’t see you,” he said, his voice shaking but his conviction firm. “I know you’re there though, and don’t think I won’t tell Marty about this.”
Frank. Martin’s homeless informant.
One of the Dark Warrior’s went for him, and Merlin threw himself in front of the human, took the blow that was meant for him. If anything happened to Frank, Martin would be devastated.
Merlin landed on the ground next to a dumpster. As he pushed himself to his feet, his hand landed upon something metal, long and heavy, a pipe or rod of some kind. He wrapped his fingers around it, and once again he put himself between the Dark Warrior and Frank. He swung the metal rod at the Warrior’s head, and felt the contact reverberate through his shoulder as a sound like iron hitting ripe melon filled his ears.
Blood spattered his face, but he ignored it. He twirled the rod in his hands like a bo staff and parried a strike from the other Dark Warrior, who had drawn a sword from the sheath on his back. The other male’s swing was off, knocked away by Merlin’s middle block. The staff became an extension of his arms, moving, spinning with lightning speed as the Dark Warrior did his best to dodge and block what Merlin threw at him.
Merlin flipped the bo around his neck then swept low in one swift movement that took the legs out from under the Dark Warrior and put him on his ass. He didn’t think, just reacted, and with a force drawn straight from the Shade, Merlin thrust the end of the metal rod through the Warrior’s chest. The male was still moving, so Merlin yanked the bo free and smashed the Dark Warrior in the head.
With his hold on the Shade, the alley remained dark to those not of his kind, but both Kurai Senshi were out for the count. Merlin turned to Frank, wrapped his hand around the old man’s upper arm. “Come with me, Frank. Leave the monsters in the dark where they belong.”
“How… how do you know my name?”
Merlin led him from the alley and down the street toward the park next to the fire station, but not without a struggle from the guy. He was surprisingly strong for a human his age. “I know your friend, Martin. Marty,” Merlin said. “I know he’d want you to be safe.”
The minute he heard Martin’s name, Frank calmed down. “Well, why dincha say that in the first place? Marty’s gonna wanna hear about them fellas in the alley. I couldn’t see a thing, but I know a monster when I hear one. Say, you were fightin’ ‘em, weren’t cha? Are you one of them whatchamacallits? Dragon slayers or somethin’?”
Merlin shook his head. As he forced the Shade away, the lights slowly blinked on around them. “I’m no dragon slayer,” he said. “I’m just a friend who doesn’t want to see you tangled up in things that could get you hurt.”
Frank blinked in the dim light and shrugged his bony shoulders. “Marty’s had me looking out for monsters quite a while now. I imagine if one was gonna get me, it’d have done it by now. Besides, Marty takes care of me. He doesn’t think I know it’s him, but I do. Don’t tell him, though. That boy’s got a streak of pride in him a mile long and twice as wide.”
Merlin held Frank’s rheumy eyes with his own. “I won’t say a word,” he promised, then proceeded to remove any memories of himself or the incident with the Kurai Senshi from the old man’s mind.
Chapter Thirty-One
“G
o left. Left!” Kyte shouted and Martin swerved, but he still couldn’t see a damned thing. Had he been wrong? Were those creatures in the dark not Kurai Senshi? Had he simply gone blind by some strange phenomena?
“Watch out! Christ, Martin, I know it’s dark, but it’s not that dark. Car!”
“I can’t see,” Martin muttered, following Kyte’s instructions as best he could, trying hard not to hit anything or kill anybody.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m blind,” he yelled.
“Bear right. Now stop. Stop!”
Martin swung the steering wheel right, then mashed down the brakes, bringing the Hummer to a screeching halt. He threw the gearshift into park and sat for a moment clutching the steering wheel as he struggled to catch his breath.
“Get out,” Kyte said. I can’t see much, but at least I know where the street is.”
Martin fell out of the driver’s side, felt his way around the front of the vehicle and into the passenger’s seat. He slammed the door
shut just as Kyte hit the gas and careened around a corner, then another.
“We’re on the main drag,” Kyte said.
Martin could barely hear the Soldier gasping for air over his own heartbeat and heavy breathing. Why the fuck was he still blind? They must be several miles away by now. Did the Kurai Senshi have the power to affect such distances? Viper hadn’t said.
“What the fuck happened back there?” Kyte swerved to miss something, and Martin was grateful in that moment that he couldn’t see.
“Had to be the Dark Warriors, don’t you think?” Martin said. “Had to be,” he muttered to himself.
“No shit, apple butter, but why would they attack us?”
“It’s what Viper’s been warning us about. He said the attack was imminent, right?”
“Yeah, but he left the impression the Compound was in danger, not the town. Not the patrols. Hell, we weren’t even on duty. How did they even know we were Legion?”
“Cause we’re bad ass?” Oz’s voice sounded weak and wheezy from the back seat, but Martin was grateful to hear it.
“You all right back there?” he asked.
“I think they punctured something,” he said. “Hurts to breathe.”
And just like that, the lights came on. They were nearly to the edge of town and a waning moon shone over the road leading into the country. As they crested the hill, a galaxy of stars burst above the tree line, joining their light with that of the moon to bathe a golden glow over the recently harvested fields.