Alex reached into his pocket for the flash-bang that might buy him a couple of seconds at least. He wasn’t so far out of the game that he didn’t still have few tricks up his sleeve. Instead, he felt something else. It gave him an idea. It was a long shot, but given Marcus’s long affiliation, it might work.
He saw a telltale pool of blood seeping from beneath a nearby door into the hallway. It was this or nothing. He didn’t have time to go opening all the doors. He kicked in the door.
Marcus looked up from where he hovered over the girl’s corpse. Gore covered his face and upper chest. Marcus snarled at him, fangs fully extended, and eyes bloodshot red.
Alex hoped his ploy would work. He needed to engage Marcus’s intellect and hoped that his Ancient constitution could give him enough control again. He’d fought Marcus before and that had been extremely unpleasant. Back then, neither of them had been trying to kill the other. He wasn’t clear how it would go down this time, but with his reserves already running low, he knew he’d lose to Marcus.
Alex pulled out the object he’d been grasping in his pocket. It was Aguirre’s silver cross. Now he was grateful Lopé had given it to him. He held it in front of him like some vampire hunter from a Hollywood film.
“Marcus! Gnothi seauton! Know Thyself!”
Marcus’s eyes shifted and focused on the cross. Then he shook his head as if to clear it, looked down, and saw the girl’s corpse. He recoiled from it in horror. Alex could see he was struggling to become himself again. Score one for Catholic guilt.
“Hey buddy, you can repent with Lopé later. The die is cast. Time to boogie.”
Marcus scrambled to his feet and rushed out of the door past Alex. He was moving with vampiric speed and it was all but impossible for Alex to keep up. He heard a sharp cry and bang come from up ahead.
By the time he reached the entrance to the foyer, the door was gone, knocked clear from its hinges. When Alex reached the stairs, he could see why. Yevgeny lay crumpled on the remains of the door, his body moving in jerking spasms and blood dripping from a ripped-out throat.
Alex jumped over him and moved onto the landing of the stairwell just in time to see Marcus leap over the railing of the second floor down onto the first. Alex had doubts as to whether he could make the jump himself. He was about find out. By the time he reached the second floor, the screams started. Marcus was probably using the remains of the blood frenzy to mow a vengeful path through the patrons.
He reached the second-floor railing, promised himself not to look down, and jumped.
He hit the floor hard, tucked and rolled instinctively, and got up on all fours. He almost dropped the phone. Luckily, everyone was looking away from him in the direction Marcus had gone. There were several bodies on the ground, blood flowing freely from numerous wounds. He couldn’t tell if they were saps or sangers and, honestly, he really didn’t care.
He scrambled to his feet and charged through the crowd, barreling people out of his way. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the UV flash-bang. The last thing he’d need right now was to be grabbed from behind by some overzealous youngblood. He’d drop them a parting shot.
He tossed the flash-bang over his shoulder and was almost at the entrance before he heard the sharp explosion and the accompanying shouts and screams.
Then he was out! He charged into the parking garage and saw Marcus already rushing up the ramp, chasing some of the security.
He tried to shout after him, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Marcus either ignored him or didn’t hear him.
There was still one security youngblood near the Explorer. Alex drew his pistol and emptied the magazine into the vampire. Only about half of the rounds struck home. The rest peppered the side of the car. They wouldn’t kill the vampire, but they’d put him out of the fight for long enough. He hoped.
Alex moved to the rear of the Explorer and sank his fingers into the door. He pulled hard. The whole vehicle threatened to move rather than let the door give. Finally, with a scream of tortured metal he managed to wrench open the back of the Explorer. He retrieved one of the shotguns. Vampires were beginning to stream out of the club’s entrance. Alex reached into the rear of the Explorer for shells. He slammed three into the shotgun but spilled the rest onto the floor. Alex fired off a shotgun blast in the general direction of the pursuing vampires. Then he raced up the ramp after Marcus and out into the night.
About a hundred yards ahead, judging from Marcus’s silhouette against the headlights of some cars, Marcus had stopped running. He still appeared ready to pounce. His head moved from side to side as if he awaited a decision. As Alex ran closer, he could see about ten vampires standing in front of the Town Cars that were the signature of their organization. They formed a cordon full of automatic weapons and laughed at Marcus. It looked like he and Alex weren’t going anywhere.
Alex’s chest heaved and he gasped to take in air. He finished out the run to come up even with Marcus.
“Ah … damn … it,” he managed to sputter out between breaths as he caught up.
“Alex, you’re doing it again,” Marcus said. He spoke slowly, as if it took some effort.
“Doing … what…?” Alex gasped.
“Breathing.”
Oh yeah.
It was a hard habit to break, and though for appearance’s sake and to smell things, Menkaure hadn’t tried to break it, strictly speaking, he didn’t need to do it. Alex mentally chided himself.
One of the youngblood security vampires taunted, “You almost made it. But the master had you figured.”
“Yeah, you are in for it now,” another laughed.
Marcus made a hand signal to Alex. This was going to go down badly for the youngbloods. They were about to find out what an angry Ancient could do. Alex still needed a second or two to form his strategy. He bent over and made a show of catching his breath. He stole a glance backward and could see dozens of shapes behind him in the night.
He quickly made up his mind. One thing was for sure. He would give himself the best possible chance of walking out of here. He knew Marcus wouldn’t be happy with his decision, but as far as he was concerned, life had just gotten very cheap.
He kept breathing hard, for show. He looked down, dialed the number of the Rubicon case into the phone with one hand, and secured his grip on the shotgun with the other. He hoped they were far enough away.
“You … guys … knew … I … was … bluffing?” He continued panting.
They all laughed. “Of course, man! You can’t actually believe you were going to get away?”
Alex looked up.
“Actually…” He pushed a number on the phone and lit up the night sky. Marcus bounded into the air and landed on two of the youngbloods before they could react. Alex hit the dirt and surprised himself by managing to get a shot off with the shotgun before the blast hit.
Then everything turned to chaos. The blast wave and roar knocked the other vampires off their feet and sent chunks of flaming debris everywhere.
The tremendous heat convinced Alex that he would burst into flames at any second. That was how it would end. He would fall to his ancient enemy, fire.
Then Marcus grabbed him and pulled him away.
Moments later, they were inside one of the Town Cars and speeding into the nighttime traffic.
Underfunded, undermanned, outgunned, and most certainly outmatched, but like it or not, they’d just reinstated a two-man version of an UMBRA special program.
37
9:50 P.M.
Alex’s neck felt hot and stung when he touched it. He couldn’t shake the last image he’d seen when he looked back. Dozens of vampires thrashing about, on fire and silhouetted against a roiling black column of glowing smoke, dust, and flaming debris. They had to be vampires; bleeders would not have survived the blast.
“Do you think we got him?”
Marcus didn’t answer him. He looked away from the road for a moment and his eyes burned with vampiric
fury.
“Hey. Are you back with us? Come on, talk to me.”
“Do you know what you’ve done? What we’ve done?” He’d never heard that tone of anguish in Marcus’s voice.
“I know. I also know if we didn’t get out of there to try and stop this asshole’s plans, every night to come would be worse than this one.”
“Stop it? How exactly are we supposed to do that?”
“We get everyone in on this. Cops, Aguirre’s people, the Order, everybody. We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
“I get it, this guy is an Ancient. He scared you in there. We were cocky and in over our heads. Now we get all your old friends. We gather up Zorzi and Constance and we hit these bastards…”
“You do not understand. We cannot contact anyone. They will kill anyone we contact. They will all have to disappear if they can. After tonight, everything will be different. At this point I am just hoping that our own people do not come after us as well.”
“These assholes will never see it coming. Hell, Zagesi has no clue who I am. And he’s worried, trust me. We have a window of opportunity here. We can hit them so hard they can’t recover. Stop that shit from getting on the street, and we stop this thing cold.”
“You do not understand, Menkaure. That was Lugal Zagesi, the mastermind behind the Confraternity of Admah. They have plans within plans within plans. We can trust no one. Anyone could be their pawn. When the Illuminati met their end, it was at the hands of the Confraternity.”
The word “Admah” sounded in Alex’s consciousness again.
“So how screwed are we?”
“Very.”
“Where do I know that name Admah from? It’s right on the tip of my tongue.”
“There were five. The Pentapolis: Zoar, Zeboiim, Admah, Gomorrah, Sodom.”
“The Cities of the Plain. Oh, fuck. How old is this guy?”
“The oldest.”
“Shit.” Alex’s gut was doing backflips. “Do you think he made it out?”
“I do not know.”
“What are the odds?”
“I, for one, would not have pondered your mystery for long. We can only hope he was so arrogant. But I think we must proceed on the assumption that Zagesi, at least, is still alive.”
“Yeah.”
“And if he is, he’ll have made contingency plans. He will want revenge. How much do you have set aside?”
“Enough,” Alex answered. “If I can get to the Caymans, I have quite a bit. From there, easy enough to disappear. That’s not going to happen though. Zagesi strikes me as the kind that holds a grudge. I’m not going to spend the remainder of my days looking over my shoulder for his lot and second-guessing whether or not I could have stopped a war.”
“It is too late for that, my friend.”
Alex didn’t respond. That didn’t sit well with him. If this Confraternity was so bad that it had Marcus running scared, maybe running was a good idea. But that would mean that the bad guys would win. And Alex didn’t like to lose, especially not to the likes of Zagesi and Lelith. He wanted blood and he wanted it possibly more than the vampire sitting next to him did.
“I say we don’t run. See, Zagesi miscalculated in there. He got to me. He pissed me off. And for the first time in years. I have someone else I want to take down other than Neithikret. I’m going to do this. We can call it a dry run for when I face her down.”
That brought Marcus out of whatever he’d been thinking. “This is probably a one-way trip.”
“How many times have I heard that before? We’re a long way from chasing crap calls, wouldn’t you say?”
Marcus smiled.
Alex explained, “You said they’ll be expecting us to make a run for it. So we don’t. We go up to Haley House. We roll up there like the old days, all or nothing. Sword and fire.”
“And what?”
“And we burn that fucking place to the ground with everyone in it. Aguirre pretty much told me they’re running out of there. He knows that’s where the tainted Hemo-Synth is coming from. We know Lelith’s in on it. Now if they got out of the club, where are they going to go to lick their wounds?”
“Make some sense. There are only two of us. Yes, between the two of us, we have done our share. But this is too much.”
Alex chuckled ironically. “Just like a Roman to want overwhelming odds before committing to action.”
Marcus snarled at him. “This is no time for joking. You will not goad me into a battle we cannot win. If we had help, and the element of surprise, maybe … but then it is still doubtful any of us would walk out again.”
“I feel like sending a very strong message that I shouldn’t be fucked with. I’d like to make it so expensive for them that they’d rather walk away.”
“It cannot be done.”
“We get help and get it done then!”
“I for one will not drag Constance, Aguirre, Zorzi, and the rest of our friends down with us. It will be all we can do to warn them and hope they get the messages and manage an escape.”
“An attack on Haley House could buy them the time they need then. I’m going to go up there, maybe not tonight, but I need to make sure they know they’ve made a grave mistake. I’d like to not go up there alone.”
“It is a death sentence, Menkaure. It might not mean much to you, but it matters to others.”
Alex had an idea so insane he nearly brushed it off immediately. It came back to nag at him. It might get them the help they needed. Or at the very least, some cannon fodder.
“You want to hear something crazy?”
“What else?”
“I can think of four people facing a death sentence right now who might want a chance to go down swinging, if you catch my meaning.”
Marcus gaped at him so long, Alex thought he was going to crash the car.
38
10:40 P.M.
Chaos ruled the night. There was widespread rioting everywhere. Several times Marcus had to take wide detours to avoid areas of confrontation. Several large fires raged out of control. Glare from the flames reflected off the low clouds hanging over the city, casting a hellish glow.
After a seeming eternity, they made it back to the Nocturn Affairs offices in South Miami Heights. Marcus hadn’t wanted to. He was sure the Confraternity would be watching. Alex wasn’t giving their enemies as much credit.
Alex ran into the motor pool at full tilt. There was only one officer on duty. Lopez. Good guy, he’d hurt his back and was on light duty. Alex hoped he wouldn’t ask too many questions.
“Hey Lopez, I’m gonna need a hunter truck.”
“We got thropes out there, too?”
“Uh, not that I know of, but that truck can be set up as a mobile HQ. We’re gonna need it.”
“Is it as bad as I’m hearing?”
“Worse.” Alex needed intel. He and Marcus were in the dark. “What have you heard?”
“Some terrorist blew up a blood club in Wynwood. There are hundreds of sangers and humans dead. Folks are saying it’s Abraham striking back for the attack this morning. They’re saying the real Abraham isn’t in custody. They’re lashing out at cops now, too. That’s what set off all this crap. The rest of the city took it as a signal to go bugnuts. EMS is spread too thin to respond to everything.”
Lopez tossed him the keys, and then looked over his shoulder.
“What happened to him?”
Alex whirled. Marcus was walking into the bay. He was on his phone. Who is he calling at a time like this? Gore still covered the lower half of his face and his chest. What the hell is he thinking?
“He caught a freaking brick to the face or something. Assholes are throwing shit at anyone around, especially cops.”
Marcus caught the clue and put one hand over his face as if trying to control a nosebleed. Vampires didn’t get nosebleeds, but Alex hoped Lopez didn’t know that.
Marcus got into the truck and Alex passed the keys to him
. He walked around to the other side.
He heard Lopez call out, “Hey, you guys take care of yourselves out there.”
Alex yelled back, “You bet your ass!”
Marcus started the truck and pulled out.
Alex waved at Lopez and then they were back out on the streets.
“Well, now our own people will be after us. I hope you are satisfied.”
“They’ll be after us anyway once they figure out where that bomb came from. Next stop, the Doral facility. There’s no going back now.”
“That is why I called it a ‘Rubicon,’ Menkaure.”
* * *
Lost in his own thoughts, Alex was surprised to realize they’d arrived at the Doral facility already. Marcus changed out of his blood-soaked clothes into a set of utility coveralls in the back of the truck.
Alex took a deep breath. “You ready for this?”
“No. There is a good chance we will not even get out of the building.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. We’ll use Trent. He thinks UMBRA might be back on because you and I are still working together. Why tell him different? We could hint this is an op, let him jump to his own conclusions.”
“Except no real op was this poorly planned or haphazardly executed.”
“São Paolo was this bad. We didn’t think we were walking out of there either, remember?”
“I remember,” Marcus said. “It gives me an idea. We protect the principals.” The phrase was from the UMBRA playbook.
“That wouldn’t have worked in São Paolo. But … we almost pulled it off in Singapore. There we didn’t have people that trusted us. You lead. Let’s hope they’re buying.”
They stepped out of the hunter truck and walked inside. The building looked deserted.
“We’re getting lucky,” Alex mumbled. Holding wasn’t going to be empty. He knew that.
They arrived in front of the desk sergeant. There was just him—a gray-haired old-timer—and an officer with his arm in a sling.
The old-timer spoke up before Alex or Marcus could say anything. “What the hell brings you two down here?”
Graveyard Shift Page 27