Coalition of the Damned - 03 (10 page)

Tufo occasionally swatted at the Sprite as she buzzed around his head or flittered too close to his ear. “Damn, I wish she’d go away.”

“I think she has a crush on you, Gunny,” Jacobs teased.

“Oh, she has more than a crush,” Donnie agreed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark shot at him, annoyance more than evident in his voice.

“She thinks you belong to her now,” Donnie informed him. “Or, vice versa, I’m not exactly sure how that works.”

“Great,” Tufo muttered as they marched along. “I’m a pet to Tinkerbelle.”

As Lamb passed the Gunnery Sergeant he quietly said, “Maybe if you’re nice to her and learn a few tricks, she’ll give you a treat.” Mark shot him a hateful glare. “Maybe she’ll even rub your tummy,” he added with a snicker.

“Alright, knock it off,” Thompson barked. “We only have about five clicks to go, let’s try to do it a little quieter. We don’t want to scare the Greater Elves any more than we have to.”

“Oh, you’ll not scare us,” a voice to his left said.

Jack nearly jumped out of his skin. He neither smelled nor heard the elf as they approached his position and the man had been standing against a tree, nearly perfectly camouflaged. They all had to do a double take to notice him and he didn’t truly come into focus until he pushed away from the tree and his body lines separated from the foliage surrounding him. It was almost a chameleon effect as he moved and his skin changed color to something closer to human.

“You’re far too noisy to sneak up on us, that’s for sure.”

Each of the team members assessed the elf as he stepped toward them. At first glance, he appeared like a Native American with a loin cloth and long hair pulled back into a loose pony tail, except his hair was nearly snow white, his eyes a crystal blue and his skin almost glowed a golden color when he wasn’t camouflaged. He was nearly the height of a human at almost six feet tall and he carried a handmade spear and a bow with a quiver of arrows across his back. “I am Horith of the Greater Elves of the North,” he said, holding his right hand high and empty. He pointed behind the team with his spear, “That is my brother, Kalen.” Jack quickly turned and saw the mirror image of Horith standing on his other side against another large tree, appearing bored. The elf peered up from a knife he was sharpening and simply nodded. “We were about to start a ritual hunt when we heard you out here scaring away the game, so we thought we’d come and find out why you were stomping about in our woods.”

Before Jack could answer, Kalen stepped from his tree and stated his mind, his voice slightly deeper than Horith’s, but it was still clear that they were related, “You’re obviously not hunters, and it doesn’t appear that you’re here to camp.” He pointed to the automatic weapons they carried. “I don’t believe those are actually legal in this country, are they?”

Jack smiled at the two elves. “We’re military. And these?” He held up the carbine and showed it to them. “Are approved by the Canadian government for us to use. We’re actually Americans, but we have an agreement with this country.” Jack shook his head. “Look, fellas, we’re actually here to find your people.”

“I gathered as much.” Horith eyed Jack cautiously. “But I’m not so sure I want to be bringing you to my people. I hear stories of people like you. Tromping through the woods hoping for nothing better than to kill one of us.”

“And there’s not many of us left,” his brother added.

“We’re not here to kill anybody,” Jack tried to argue.

“Uh, Chief,” Tufo interrupted.

“Not now, Gunny,” Jack shot back through the side of his mouth.

“No, Chief.” Lamb said, nudging him. “We’re surrounded. And they don’t look happy.”

Jack turned and peered over his shoulder. All through the woods, around trees, up in branches, behind rocks, arrows were pointed at them, eyes peered from between leaves, spears jutted out of brush, and yet none of them had heard or smelled a thing.

“Look… Horith, was it? We came here to speak to your tribal chief or village elder or…hell, whoever it is that is in charge.”

“I imagine you did,” he said, looking slightly put off for having to waste his time with the human.

Tufo stepped up and stuck his hand out. “Mark Tufo, ex-Marine Gunnery Sergeant.” He stood there with his hand extended, waiting for the elf to take it. The elf looked at him with a puzzled look. Mark raised an eyebrow. “You extend
your
hand the same way, like this.” Mark waited and Jack watched until the elf finally extended a hand tentatively. Mark slowly grasped it and shook it. “This is how we make a ‘formal introduction’ when we haven’t met somebody before and mean them no harm,” Mark said.

“Now, I know this may look a little… ‘off’ to you. A bunch of military men marching through your hunting ground carrying guns and when we find you, we just say, ‘take us to your leader’, but the truth of the matter is, there is a huge shit-storm coming. Like
end of the world
HUGE, and we are trying to reach out to all the different…people that we know of to see if they can offer any kind of help in dealing with this thing.” Mark never broke eye contact with the light-haired elf. Finally, he turned and, with a sweep of his arm, he indicated all of the other elves. “The evil that is coming will affect ALL of you!” he shouted. He turned back to Horith. “Now, if you guys aren’t up to helping us defend against this thing…fine. We’ll turn around and go home. But if you are? Then we could really use your help. And all of this posturing isn’t going to get either of us what we need any faster.” He studied the elf’s face and couldn’t read a thing.

Jack leaned forward and whispered, “You were doing pretty good there until the very end. I think you may have blown it, buddy.”

“Thanks for the critique,” Mark whispered back.

Horith nodded to the elves in the woods and they stepped out, lowering their weapons. “Come, let us speak of this great evil.” He turned and began walking in the direction the team was originally headed. “Many of our elders have had visions of a darkness falling on all the lands. I believe maybe this is the evil you speak of.”

Jack fell into step alongside Horith, with Kalen behind him. “I would bet money on it.” Jack said. “I’ve spoken to a few people with the gift of sight and they all have been seeing something like what you’re telling me about.”

“Do you know what this darkness is?” Horith asked.

“A vampire. A very powerful vampire with an army behind him large enough to destroy anything that gets in his way,” Jack said.

Horith paused and stared at him. “You
do
realize that vampires crave Elven blood, yes?”

“Yes. Elf and faerie blood does pretty weird things to va
mpires from what I understand.”

Horith continued along a path that only he could truly see, but he agreed, “Vampires are evil creatures.”

“For the most part, yeah, they are.” Jack couldn’t help but think of Thorn and Dr. Peters. Although they were technically vampires, he couldn’t bring himself to actually think of them as ‘evil’. “But there are a few that aren’t so bad,” he muttered.

Horith shot him a strange look that he couldn’t quite read. “There is no such thing. ALL vampires are bad,” Horith stated. “If I had the power to remove them all from creation, I would.”

Jack simply nodded. Better not to piss off the elf. At least not until they were truly allies.

7

Dominic actually slept a bit, but his sleep was fitful. The images that the dark vampire injected into his mind kept coming back to haunt him and he’d wake from his slumber in a cold sweat on the verge of a scream. He’d jerk awake and realize that the images weren’t real, weren’t his own, fight to recognize where he was, then relax again and fight to calm himself. He’d eventually fall back asleep and start the cycle all over again. The room was completely dark save for the small oil lamp that had been lit and turned very low, acting as little more than a nightlight. At one time, he went into the lavatory and washed his face, relieved himself, drank from the tap and then crawled back to the mattress to try to sleep again.

When the door opened again, Dom barely registered who entered, but they brought food and drink into the room and set it on the table next to the lamp. Later, long after it had cooled and he had tired of trying to sleep, he picked through it and ate what he could then laid back on the mattress and simply thought of how best to deal with his situation.

When left alone with nothing but your thoughts and the countless horrifying images of a madman, time drags its feet. He didn’t know if he had been in the room for days or hours. But when the door opened again and the dark vampire entered, he almost welcomed the company.

Almost.

“Are you feeling rested, Dominic?” he asked as he entered and shut the door behind him.

“As rested as I can be with the crap you shoved in my head.” Dom held his arm over his eyes, as if he could prevent the images from drilling back into his mind.

“Good. I had hoped that you would be more cooperative after a meal and a good day’s sleep.”

“How long have I been in here?”

“Oh, I am not sure an exact time. Perhaps, nine or ten hours,” the vampire replied.

Dom moaned. It had felt like days. He grunted as he sat up. “If this is some new form of torture, I think it’s working,” he moaned, his body still aching from the beating.

“Torture? I think not. Food and rest are not torture.”

“Shoving those images into anybody’s head and then loc
king them up alone to deal with them over and over and over again, yeah, that’s torture.” Dom finally forced himself to look at the vampire.

“You are a big boy. I believe you can handle it.” He replied. “Besides, it is nothing compared to what is about to happen to the rest of the world. And you, my dear Dominic, will have a front row seat for the event.”

“Joy,” Dom deadpanned.

“You are ready to cooperate now, yes?”

“I’ve already told you everything I know.”

“Somehow I doubt this,” the vampire replied. “I need to know details.”

“About?”

“Everything.”

“Okay. Well, my mom’s name was Ethel. My dad’s name was Charlie,” Dom began. “I grew up on this street in Jersey where everybody knew everybody, ya know? Mr. Angelo used to let us play baseball in his backyard and Mrs. Angelo used to make the
best
apple pie every fall. Oh, my God, you should have tasted—”

“ENOUGH!” the vampire growled. “You know what I am speaking of, Mr. DeGiacomo, and toying with me can only bring you more pain.”

Dom eyed the vampire and debated messing with him further. “Dude, you’re going to need to be more specific. You told me ‘everything’ so that’s what I was doing.” Dom gave him a defeated look.

The dark vampire opened a door and motioned in two of his underlings. They brought in two wooden chairs and set them near the small table then left without saying a word. The dark vampire sat at the table and motioned for Dom to join him. Dom made a slow move to get up and dragged himself to the chair. When he sat down he hung his head. “Okay, dude. You ask, I answer,” he groaned. “What do you want to know?”

“Let us begin with the squad itself. I want names and weaknesses.”

“Weaknesses?” Dom asked, not truly understanding.

“Yes. Weaknesses. Do any of them have a love interest? Family? Very good friends?”

“What the fuck does that matter?” Dom sat up straighter and glared at the vampire. It was one thing to threaten the entire world, but to attempt to target an operator’s family? That was just dirty play.

“Just answer the question.”

“Then, no. None of them have family, love interests or—”

“You forget that I can taste your lies, Mr. DeGiacomo,” the vampire hissed at him. “Let us try again.” He stared at Dom whose jaw was clenched so tight that he feared his teeth might actually break. “Do any of them have family?”

Dom was so angry that he was shaking, but he could feel the vampire
pulling
the answer from him. “Y-yes.”

The vampire nodded. “Very good.” The bastard actually smiled at him. “Do any of them have a ‘love interest’?”

Dom’s entire body shook and he could feel his muscles cramping as he fought not to tell him, but the answer spilled out of him against his will yet again, “Y-yes.”

“Excellent.” The vampire clapped his hands together. “Isn’t this fun?!” he exclaimed.

“Go fuck yourself you crazy son of a bitch!” Dom spat, realizing that he couldn’t even move his hands now.

“Oh, Mr. DeGiacomo, we have many more questions to go. It will be much easier on you if you do not struggle.”

“And I liked you better when you were suicidal,” Dom moaned.

*****

Laura Youngblood scrambled with the daily reports then checked in with the duty officers, she signed off on the call logs then double checked for any initial reports. The daily grind was starting to wear on her and she was really wishing that Mitchell would hurry up and dump the visiting General and pick up some of the slack. She was stopping to slam her fourth cup of coffee when she saw Mitchell and McAfee drop into the training area. She stood above the area on the catwalk outside their offices and observed as Mitchell escorted the man through the different training areas. She was about to turn and leave when she felt a presence behind her. She glanced behind her and saw Rufus Thorn standing slightly behind her, observing the two men as she had been.

“Who is this?” he inquired.

“That is General McAfee. He’s in charge of the base we need. From what Matt tells me, he needed convincing that vampires are real and that the threat is valid enough before he’ll sign off on letting us have Groom Lake.”

Thorn watched the two men stoically. After a few moments he turned to Laura and excused himself. “I have things to pr
epare before Viktor returns. If you will excuse me.” He silently slipped past her and disappeared down the hallway. She only watched for a moment more before slipping away herself and sneaking to Evan’s lab. Her duties could wait for a few more moments while she recharged her emotional batteries.

She found Evan diligently working on one of his projects and his attention focused solely on the tasks at hand as she snuck up the steps to his work station. She picked up an electronic component and eyed it curiously. “Looks like this square peg needs to fit in that round hole,” she commented, not really kno
wing what she was talking about.

She watched him jump slightly, obviously startled out of his deep thoughts. “You scared me,” he said sheepishly.

“Boo, you big bad vampire,” she teased.

He set the soldering iron down that he was holding and took off his goggles. “Well, I probably would have smelled you co
ming if it weren’t for the smoke from the solder.”

She feigned shock at his comment. “I’ll have you know that I shower quite regularly!” as she fake punched him in the arm.

Evan almost panicked. “No! I meant, I would smell your
perfume
!” he backtracked. “I mean, I could probably also smell your scent, if I tried hard enough, but…” he stopped himself and then glanced away. “I’m just burying myself deeper, aren’t I?”

She stifled a grin. “Oh, yes you are. Much deeper,” she teased again.

Evan plopped into his chair and threw his arms up in surrender. “Leave it to me. If there’s a way to stick my foot in my mouth, I’ll find it,” he said. “And with fangs like these, once that foot is in there, it’s a bitch to get it back out.” He gave her an impish smile.

Laura sidled up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I think I can find it
deep down inside
to forgive you,” she purred.

“You can?” he asked hopefully. “And you won’t have to use me for my body to do it?”

“Oh, a gentleman never reminds a lady of such events,” she whispered in his ear causing a tremor to rock him through his chest. If Evan didn’t know better, he’d think that his heart was trying to beat so that it could SKIP a beat.

“My apologies, miss,” he whispered back. “I guess I’m a bit rusty on the ways of treating a lady.”

Laura lowered herself so that her mouth hovered right above his and her lips barely brushed his own as she spoke. He could feel the heat of her breath against his cold flesh as her words slipped from her. “I think we can take the time to refresh your memory, young man.”

He swallowed hard and leaned ever so slightly forward, a
llowing his lips to slightly brush hers. “It might take a while…I’m
very rusty.
”

She fought the urge to smile at their playful teasing. “I’m sure we can get you…UN-rusted.” Her lips brushed his and her tongue slipped out and tasted his lips for a brief moment. He i
nhaled sharply and she felt his arms wrap around her middle, slowly pulling her to his lap. She lowered herself so that she was sitting in his lap facing him. “Why, Dr. Peters, are you about to take advantage of me?” she asked in her best little girl voice.

“I certainly hope so,” Evan said softly.

Their mouths finally found each other and his fangs slowly descended as they kissed. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but rather than push her away and beg her forgiveness this time, he pulled her closer and she gently probed his mouth with her tongue. She slipped her tongue between his fangs, avoiding the sharp tips, excitement coursing through her veins knowing the added danger of what was in his kiss. She felt his excitement grow not just in his mouth and she wiggled her hips to add to both of their pleasure.

Evan brought his hands up her back and pulled the pencil she had used to hold her long dark hair up and allowed it to ca
scade down her back. Her ran his fingers through the silky strands and felt her heart race in her chest as her excitement grew. Finally she pulled back and sucked in a deep breath. “Oh, wow.”

Her breaths came in deep pants and she stared intently at his mouth, his eyes, the angle of his jaw. “Tell me you love me,” she whispered.

“I love you,” he obliged as he pulled her back to him and kissed her again.

From the other side of the area Hank and Maria exited the gym, covered in sweat, practice swords in hand. They spotted Laura and Evan in their lover’s embrace. Hank quickly grabbed Maria’s arm and held a finger to his mouth to silence her.

He whispered to her, “Even the soulless need love.” And they quietly exited back the way they came. They could go the long way around to the showers.

*****

Nadia stared at her grandfather with teary eyes, confusion muddying her thoughts. “Why do you say such things, grandfather?” she finally managed. “Please, if you will not help us, then do not try to deter us.”

Natashia sat upright on the couch and stared intently at Maxwell, studying his body language. She could not smell a lie upon him, and yet…

“Young pup, hear me,” Maxwell’s deep voice felt like smooth silk as it flowed from him. “I am Claudius Maximus Veranus.” His eyes penetrated her as he spoke and Nadia felt the urge to drop to one knee before him, but she could not explain why.

“My liege,” Natashia whispered as she fell from the couch to the floor.

Maxwell sighed at her, “Tasha, get up. I’m still your father-in-law.” But she lay on the ground, quivering.

“I don’t understand, grandfather. You said that he was dead,” Nadia said. “But now you say that you are he…you speak in circles.”

Maxwell led her to the couch across from where Natashia lay prostrate on the floor. He sat with Nadia and tried to explain. “Little pup, Claudius Veranus is a name long since dead,” he began. “So, in essence, the man is as well. I gave up the name because the myth…or, the legend had grown so large over time that wolves the world over thought of me as a god or, rather, something larger than life.” He looked her square in the eye. “Do I appear to be a god to you?”

Nadia pulled back and studied him. “No,” she replied ho
nestly. “A confused old man, perhaps, but not a god.”

Maxwell was taken aback by her honesty, but he suddenly burst into laughter. “I like this pup, Tasha! She speaks her thoughts exactly as she thinks them!” He continued to laugh for a moment longer then grasped Nadia’s hand. “Oh, little pup, you are a breath of fresh air. What I wouldn’t have given to have had you around here all these years.”

“Perhaps if you had made yourself available, I could have been,” she said rather sharply.