by Unknown
She was right. We could deal with any other issues in the morning, as we’d both had enough of that day.
Not that our peace would last long.
CHAPTER 11
Home is where the pain is
I spent the next three days simultaneously avoiding Irenae, because quite frankly I was sick of being hit, and getting people in Ops to look out for certain bits of information for me. I’d found out the numbers of staff and hardware at the Banbury base, and mentally estimated what it would take to defeat their force.
In all honesty, it wouldn’t take much. Banbury was a smaller base than ours, and I can see why we needed to send troops over there.
But now I had a problem. Either way, any deaths that occur there were now on my hands, but if my hunch was wrong they would die needlessly. Which was why I had people in Ops who would find out the numbers of any force that attacked, so I could offer some proof to my suspicions.
What terrified me the most, however, was that if I was wrong, if those people die because of suspicions and nothing else, I stood to lose everything - my position, my home...my lover.
I had no illusions, if I failed in this then Corvi would probably let Irenae put me down, and frankly I would welcome it if it meant being without her.
She already knew something was up. She could feel it whenever we were near, and she always tried to get me to talk about it. I just couldn’t tell her what I suspected without anything to back it up, because as twisted as her sister had become, she was still Corvi’s last surviving family. It would probably destroy her.
Then the news came in - the Banbury base, levelled. There were apparently a handful of survivors, who we had sent out rescue teams for, but ultimately that base no longer existed.
The blood of two hundred men and women, mortal and vampire alike, was now on my hands.
Corvi and I got to the Ops room, where teams were already looking into the attack, trying to pinpoint where the attacks were coming from and arranging salvage operations.
Irenae was already there, and I could feel her hate-filled gaze settle on me the minute I entered.
Someone handed Corvi a report on the incident, and I could see her expression sour as she looked it over. Casualties. Personnel and equipment loss reports. The names of those still MIA, and those who survived.
While she was looking that over, a young female officer of Omega Company approached me and handed me my own reports.
“It’s the information you wanted us to track, sir,” she said quietly, and I could tell she had lost someone close to her there. Shit.
Which meant I was responsible for that too, and she knew it.
“Thank you, Claire. And...I’m sorry for your loss.”
She just nodded and turned away from me, saying everything that was needed on the subject.
I looked over the notes that had been made, the satellite imagery we’d acquired, and for what it was worth it confirmed my fears.
The force sent against that base was far too big to deal with that base alone. Any group with the kind of information they would have had would not be so wasteful with their forces. They had to have known there would be a larger force there, and I denied them that victory.
Yeah. A real comfort to Claire, and the loved ones of those who died, I’m sure.
“So, talk to me, people,” Corvi said to the room at large. “What do we know for sure?”
“The force came in from the north, ma’am,” someone announced. “Still trying to isolate where from.”
“Work harder, I want that information yesterday,” she answered sternly, ignoring the affirmative “ma’am” the soldier sent back. “There’s every chance these bastards are going to try for us next, and I want to get the jump on them.”
“We’ve received word from the rescue crews, milady,” another woman announced from the communications desk. “They’ve found another twenty-three survivors, including the command staff.”
There was a muted cheer at that. No matter how much we lost, finding more survivors was still a good thing.
But then, Irenae spoke.
“Also, I think we can safely assume we have found another traitor in our midst.”
No. The foolish woman couldn’t possibly think that was going to work.
“What?!” Corvi snapped, bolting upright. “Who?!”
Irenae remained silent, glaring straight at me, and Corvi growled at her sister.
“Okay Irri, now you really are taking this vengeance thing a little too far!”
“Oh really? Mister Black, would you care to explain why you personally countermanded my order, that would have sent a third of our own troops in support of the Banbury base?”
I could feel Corvi’s emotion’s shift just then, her defence of me crumbling and being replaced with cold wrath.
“What?” She hissed, her expression one of barely-suppressed rage.
I fought back the urge to beg her to listen to me. I was a Sentinel now, I did not beg. Instead, I resorted to the evidence I now had in my hand, and my confidence that what I had done was right.
“Certainly, Irenae,” I said, dropping any pretence of respect, and injecting my voice with more confidence than I felt.
“It’s Lady Delacore, to you,” she spat back at me, and I looked her straight in the eye.
“All respect for you died the minute you pistol-whipped me for no reason.”
I heard the low, collective gasp that went around the room. May as well undermine her authority while I’m at it, I thought. Then I threw my clipboard onto the table before the two women.
“Look at the numbers. They sent a force three times larger than any force they had sent before. They had to know how many people we had at each base, given the position Maria held before she fled. That force is vastly oversized for taking down a base like Banbury - but it would also have swamped our reinforcements.”
I let the words hang for a moment, before continuing.
“Banbury would have died anyway. But so would a third of our own troops...leaving us exposed when the hunters finally turned to us.”
Irenae’s expression of smug satisfaction faded as she realised I’d caught her plan. And I carried on.
“If Irenae gave the order to send the troops out there, as she just admitted, then there are two possibilities. One, that she was being cautious, wanting to offer our support to our comrades. Or two, that she knew exactly what was going to happen, and sent our men and women out there to die as a prelude to an attack here.”
Even Corvina couldn’t deny the logic there. I lacked enough proof to nail Irenae’s proverbial backside to the proverbial wall, but I had cast doubt on her and her authority.
And Corvina just got one more reason not to trust her sister, as evidenced by the cold glare she turned on Irenae.
“Mister Black, if you could wait outside,” she said softly, never taking her eyes from her sister.
I knew better than to argue.
“At once, milady.”
I only prayed that the simmering wrath echoing down our link was no longer aimed at me.
I straightened up ten minutes later, as Corvi swept out of the Ops room in a hurried stride. As she approached me she grabbed me roughly by my t-shirt, pulled me round the corner-
-and slapped me.
Hard.
I’ve been slapped before, but never by a vampire. It was like being...well, it felt pretty close to getting pistol-whipped, actually.
I looked at her, stunned and hurt that she would raise a hand to me at all.
Then she did it again.
“You idiot,” she scolded, her tone heavy with anger...but I could feel
the pain she felt down our link, as well. “You had no right to keep your suspicions from me. You had no right to imply my sister was a traitor in front of everyone, irrespective of how suspicious her actions were, and you had no right to act like a monumental shit just then!”
“I-” I started, then closed my mouth. There was no point defending myself when she was right. I nodded instead, lowering my head in shame.
“You’re right. Forgive me, my lady, for my shameful actions. If you wish to...not see me anymore-”
“Don’t be so bloody melodramatic,” she said, a small trace of her humour lurking behind the seriousness of the words. “We’re bound, you moron, we can’t just ‘split up’ like some petty mortal dalliance. You can apologise formally later on. Privately.” She turned on her heel and strode off, back to whatever other business she had.
“Do you not want me to apologise publicly?” I shouted to her.
“Not the way you’re apologising,” she called back, and sent me a warm message of love down the link, simultaneously taking some of the pain from my cheek.
I shook my head. I could tell her and Lev were getting along - she was becoming more like my friend all the time.
I’d had some business to take care of - our estates team were apparently having difficulty finding me a decent place to set up in, but I had an idea of my own to pass them. Although I hadn’t seen much of it when I was last there, I thought the abandoned base at Upper Heyford would be an ideal spot for me. I intended to get them to check it out, do whatever they had to do to assess its suitability. I could make that a very pleasant little base of my own.
After that brief meeting had been taken care of, I hit the gym for a workout, during which Lev challenged me to another sparring match.
“Show me what you’ve learned,” she’d told me seriously, and it was clear she was after a Sentinel-style sparring match.
I was glad to put my newfound skills to the test against her.
It was bizarre, but when Lev and I set foot in the sparring ring, other people who had been training stopped to watch. Possibly because of the whole teacher-pupil thing, everyone likes to see the pupil beat their mentor - happens all the time in movies, after all - or maybe it was because they didn’t often get to watch a Sentinel sparring match. Either way, we had an audience.
I dismissed them from my mind, focussing only on Lev. We both wore a loose black vest and standard-issue combats for this, along with solid military-style boots. I was quite comfortable in fighting in almost any clothing by now, and my combat boots were virtually a part of me.
I stood left-side on to her, arms loose by my sides. I could hear Lev click her tongue in disapproval, a sentiment echoed by a slow shake of her head. She had always trained me to stand ready for any attack.
Obviously, she had never sparred with Kalin before, because he taught me how to be ready without looking ready.
Lev dropped into her combat stance, remaining light on her feet and keeping her hands up in front of her in a loose but ready defence. I simply stood, and stared.
She cocked her head at that, then surged forward using all the speed I knew a vampire could possess.
I caught her roundhouse kick with my left hand, keeping a tight hold on her ankle as I pivoted around my shoulder and drove my right elbow into her face. As her head snapped back I pulled on her ankle slightly, dragging her off balance and putting her on the floor with a cheer from our audience.
I ignored them as I readied myself for her next attack, most likely a form of tackle as she rose from the floor.
I had been half right. She attacked she rose from the floor alright, driving a fist into my gut with the force of a mid-speed car-crash. As she made an attempt at following through with an uppercut, I managed to block the blow and caught her wrist, pulling her close to drive my knee into the side of her head.
She rolled to the side, finally getting herself upright and standing side-on to me, just as I had earlier. I returned to my own casual ready position, watching her intently. You take your eye off a vampire in a fight, you’ll lose either the eye, the fight or both.
“Damn it, D, you picked up some moves while I was gone!” she called to me, and I ignored the comment. She charged again almost immediately after she’d spoken, and I dropped the instant she moved. I slammed my shoulder into her stomach, her momentum causing me to stagger and preventing my follow-through. She rolled herself over my back, attempting to blindside me, but I straightened up, prepared for the move, and caught her wrist with my left hand and drove a reciprocal punch to her eye. Without pausing I slammed my knee into her right side twice before aiming a kick to the side of her knee. With my grip still on her wrist she couldn’t evade enough, and the blow put her on one knee. A final, downward-driving punch put her back on the floor, and I kneeled on her back.
“Yield, Snow White?” I growled, pulling her head up with a hand under her chin.
“Tey’ahdoch iyenn,” she managed, and I let her go at last as I stood up.
“That’s quite a compliment,” I told her, offering her my hand to help her up, oblivious to the cheers from our gathered audience.
“How so?” called a familiar - and cherished - voice, and I turned to see Corvi approaching the sparring ring. Despite the smile she wore, I could sense the concern she truly felt...although there was something more there.
“’Tey’ahd’ is to yield,” Lev explained, probing her injuries to make sure they were healing properly. I think I may have cracked a couple of her ribs, and maybe even fractured her eye-socket, but at least she would heal promptly. “However, ‘Tey’ahdoch iyenn’ is to yield to a superior warrior. There’s nothing more I could teach him now,” she added with a smile, and I blushed at the compliment.
“What’s up hon?” I asked of Corvi, stepping out of the ring and testing my knuckles. They hurt like hell.
As I approached her, I realised what else it was I felt from her - fear.
“I’ve received word from the Countess,” she told me quietly, looking up at me with that same fear reflected in her eyes. “She wants to see you.”
I’d forgotten how short she was without heels on, but that momentary thought was eclipsed by the enormity of what she had told me.
The Countess, head of The Order and someone with whom I wanted a few choice words, had summoned me. I understood why Corvi was afraid.
“About time,” I told her. “I’ve been wanting to talk to her for a while now.”
“No, you don’t understand, Sythan’en,” she protested, a hand against my chest. “She is not someone with whom you can just start an argument. You think Irenae dislikes cockiness?” I remembered the fact all too well. The bruising on my cheek still hadn’t gone down. “Well, the Countess is worse. She is ancient, callous and calculating. There is no limit to who or what she would be willing to sacrifice in pursuit of her goals. I beg of you, my love, do not give her cause to harm you - I’ve seen you wounded far too often lately. Just please...come home to me, safely.”
I could feel her fear like a physical thing, and I mentally promised her to be careful as I pulled her into my arms.
Despite that, I still had a few things to say to this ‘seer’ of ours.
I’d been ordered to fly out the following day, and so I stood at the helipad, at 8 a.m on a morning that was cold and overcast. I was trying not to itch at the fresh bite marks on my right wrist. At least I had been able to spend the night with Corvi again.
I watched with suppressed apprehension as my transport settled onto the reinforced plate that served as the landing site for our aircraft, and for a moment drank in the sight of the vehicle before me.
Although not particularly fierce-looking, nor all that deadly, the V-22 Osprey
was still a beautiful aircraft. Sleek, streamlined and stylish, it looked in even better in black, and they were a rare sight indeed.
Despite their tactical value - they were capable of vertical take-off and landing, like helicopters, but with the kind of speed in forward flight more usually seen in fixed-wing aircraft, due to the rather unique rotating engines - a combination of minor technical hitches and expense had seen the United States government dither over whether or not to use them. Like several other things, it took the US Marine Corps adopting it to make their government see sense, and it was eventually pressed into full service. However, The Order was more than willing to take them, and so we had a fully-operational fleet of these unique aircraft long before anyone else.
At that time, all I cared about was how comfortable the ride was, because I was intent on getting a some rest on the flight, even though the flight to Germany was barely two hours long.
Quite how our central base ended up being on the small stretch of coastline in Germany, I had no idea, but that was where The Countess commanded us from.
And that, for all my sins or virtues, was where I was bound.
The fortress was immense.
By all accounts, it was built at our Lady’s insistence, for a reason that even now she had never disclosed. Personally, the vast construct, with its medieval-style battlements and immense towers, looked like it was just the woman’s ego gone mad. Not that I’d ever tell her that.
The moment I stepped off the aircraft - which had been very comfortable, in actual fact - I was met by a pair of vampires in the all-black combat suits used by Sentinels. They both carried MG4KE machine-guns, with 100-round drum magazines. They clearly meant business.
“Mister Black, you are to follow us,” one of them drawled, as if unused to using so many syllables in a single sentence.