Forbidden Days (The Firsts) (36 page)

144

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

The sun was partway up the sky now, bright behind light clouds.  Daniel counted off timing to the first explosion.  Seconds now…   And they started, the first rocket, a Javelin missile, fired off, the resulting explosive impact the cue for multiple firings…one on top of another, all sides of the building at once.   It would punch through anything.  The few people who came out were shot, effectively and quickly, as per client instructions.

He glanced down, looking at the solid earth as it rocked from the damage, wondering if he would end up under it before the coming night was out.  It would be well deserved, if it happened.  His guilt was deep, his culpability wide, but he wanted a chance to get out and maybe atone for the life that, while he hadn’t chose it, he had accepted for far more years than his tattered soul could take.  He closed his eyes and wished he wasn’t here, and didn’t have to do this.  But he’d accepted this job, had people who depended on it.  It was going to happen whether he did it or not.  This way, at least, he’d make sure as few as possible suffered.

His second let him know all rockets were fired, the building was torched, but only a few people had escaped to be shot and killed without hesitation as ordered by Daniel.  His outside forces had already dispensed with the household’s own security, who had fought valiantly, well skilled, but the merc’s superior numbers, superior firepower, and element of surprise had skewed the battle in their favor.  Daniel’s team had suffered losses, too…four of his men killed.  Not unexpected…he’d been warned the place was well guarded.  For that reason, this had seemed a fitting swan-song to his career.  Now all his men had to do was wait until morning arrived again, take out anyone else that moved through the night.  Easy enough.  By now, all his men had eyes on the household, night vision goggles nearby for after dark, and orders to miss no one.  Six of the men had sharp axes and were to await the call to behead anyone coming from the property from dusk to dawn.  He’d been assured that multiple blasts from the automatic weapon would take them down (really, you think?), but they had only about twenty or so minutes to get down there and take the head.  It was a sick order, but Daniel assumed it was some kind of vengeance.  It wasn’t his job to question the client.

It was a long day.  The house continued to burn and they let it.  After a few hours, it was a pile of smoldering rubble encased by the stone skeleton.  All Daniels men had to do was keep their eyes on the search for movement.  There was a little griping, some raucous laughter he had to stop, but mostly, the teams settled in and did their jobs.  Only two more people tried to sneak out during the evening.  They didn’t make it, of course.

The sun seemed to linger, as if it were playing a sad joke on the tired, bored mercenaries stationed all around the ruined house.  Daniel kept his place, his eyes relentless on the property, but his mind wandered some.  For just a second he let himself wonder who had lived here.  The compound was heavily guarded, so he assumed they were no angels.  Probably illegal activity…drug related likely.  It never mattered, except for the small piece of his honor that had held on through too many dishonorable acts.  That tiny bit demanded he account for his actions, but he squashed it like an insect every time.  For some reason, today, on this last betrayal to his better self, he couldn’t squash back that latent sense of honor.  Today, he hoped like hell that whoever was inside that burning house deserved the fate.

Finally, the darkness dropped, the sky went black, and in the remote landscape, only a half full moon provided any light at all.  He and his team were outfitted with night vision goggles now and still heavily armed.  About fifteen minutes after total darkness arrived, from the center of the remains of the house, heavy debris was tossed aside as if there were bulldozers under it.  Suddenly, four figures moving quickly from beneath the rubble, seemed to move quicker than was possible, like a DVD on fast forward.  Barrages came faster and from all directions.  One of the figures fell, but two others moved out of sight before they possibly could.   One other figure returned to the fallen man and leaned over it, picked it up and moved outrageously quickly considering it was carrying another person.

Daniel saw the muzzles light up, multiple blasts from those M249’s raining down on the two, and they went down as bullets pummeled into the bodies relentlessly.   He moved toward them after the gunfire ceased as he saw one of the ax wielders’ arriving.  The green hued man lifted the ax and brought it down on one of the figures sprawled on the ground, severing the head from the body in two blows.  He came up to them as he started on the second one.  His eyes burned as he saw the most stunning woman he’d ever seen lying twisted on the ground bathed in weak light as one of his other men held a lamp on her.

“Damn,” the young ax wielder said, the ax dangling easily from his hand.  “What a fucking shame.  What a waste of fine woman flesh.  Well.  Too fucking late now anyway.”   Her body was riddled with holes, and although there had to be a hundred strikes on her, her face was untouched.   Daniel moved closer and leaned down, touched her cheek softly with his ungloved hand.

The man with the ax came up behind him.  “You want me to get her now?”

Daniel’s stomach turned. 
No, no, he couldn’t do this.  This…this brutal senseless
act…and not her, not…this…

He stood up and took the ax.  “No, we’re done with this.”

“But our orders…”

“I’m changing them.  She’s dead, the others will be, too.  We will have satisfied our mission.  Just kill anyone else that comes out.  No more beheading.  We’re mercenaries, not monsters.”  He leaned back over and brushed the deep blue-black hair back from the perfect pale face. When he stood, he looked back at his men, collected around him, watching his every movement.

“Return to your positions.  Make sure everyone knows the new parameters.”  Then he leaned over and picked up the dead woman in his arms and walked out of the circle of light, disappearing into the darkness.

He had no idea what he would do with her.  Bury her somewhere pretty here in these woods.  She weighed next to nothing.  He carried her to his SUV and laid her lifeless body in the backseat.  Illuminated by the car’s overhead light, he could see her wounds had stopped bleeding.  Unusual, considering how devastating her wounds were.  She couldn’t have survived the massive gunshots, but for some odd reason, he felt compelled to feel for a pulse in her throat.  He sighed.  No.  God, she
was
incredible.  He couldn’t imagine someone so stunning could be evil.

Daniel closed the door and snorted.   Like
he
was the best judge of
any
person’s life.   Well, at least he could see to it that she had a nice final resting place.  He contacted his second.

“I’m going off mission.  Will you see to it that the rest of the mission is carried out?  Just…no more fucking beheadings.  Thanks, Butch.  I’ll see you back at camp.”

He laid the woman down gently on the grass beneath a huge evergreen that seemed to be holding the moon up on its tip.  The night was stunning, the scattered moonlight just enough to illuminate the ground it could reach through the high canopy of leaves.  It illuminated the features of the woman he’d just rescued from what he now realized was a cruel act.  Before, he’d justified the clients request by admitting the person was already dead…how did it matter what happened to the remains?   But looking at her lovely face that seemed only to sleep, he knew it for the heinous act it was…that’s why he stopped it.  At least he kept her from being desecrated.  He found he couldn’t look away, didn’t
want
to.    Pulling her into his lap, he held her in death…and wished she weren’t and that he could hold her then.  Suddenly, he laughed.  What a maudlin son of a bitch he was turning into. 

Just bury her and get on with it
, the man he’d been for over ten years told him. 
Hold her as long as you need to
, the man he was turning into said.   He didn’t have to choose which voice he would listen to…he’d made that decision when he’d stopped the macabre acts.  He held her a little longer as he caressed her face and told her how sorry he was.  A shovel stood silently leaning against the tree, waiting to be called to duty.

144

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Koen was furious.  He’d never seen anything so heinous.  An attack on his race…ones who bore his blood or the blood of his ancestors and brothers…viciously attacked by one who received life from the same precious blood.  This had
never
happened in all his centuries.  That one…that vampire…would die very painfully soon.  He surveyed the destruction.  The smoking remains of Bas’s magnificent home.  The dead strewn everywhere.   Mostly human, but one vampire casualty.  He stood over the body, knelt to touch the hair on the separated head.  Eillia, his dearest friend, missing…the love of her life, Hamid, lying here, torn apart, dead for always.   Vampires did not come back from this.   A fatal injury for one who’d walked this earth longer than anyone else other than the true first bloods.

His eyes scanned the scene.  Bas’s men were dead, certainly, but so were all the mercenaries left near this compound.   Koen and Bas had taken them without even one bullet being fired.   Bas was fast…none of them had seen him coming.  They died without a whimper.  Koen was faster.  He slew them almost wholesale.   When the two powerful vampires finally met back in the center of the mess, covered with human blood, they looked like the ultimate Halloween nightmare.   Bas had gone down to tell the others still hidden safely in the underground safe room,  that they needed to come up.

Koen lifted his head and tried desperately to locate Eillia.  He couldn’t feel her, couldn’t sense her at all.  The only way that could be was if she was dead.   He didn’t know why he couldn’t find her body, but he knew she had to be dead.  Permanently, if they took her head…and he assumed from this mess they would.  His anger and pain came back intensely from the last time he lost someone he loved…his companion for a century, who was killed nine years ago by one of the very few humans who knew about their race.  Right now, he had to secure the area for his daughter and this new rag-tag family she was building.   He started the run, vampire-speed, and checked out the three sixty from their position for about a mile.  There was no other human or vampire being in the area.    He’d kept his mind searching for any sense of Eillia the entire time, but still nothing.  He would grieve for her when the time came.  First, he’d leave no possibility untouched searching for her after he made sure Park was away from here and safe.

Bas brought up the survivors, slowly climbing from the cleared rubble of the house above the safe room.  Park looked so shaken, he went to her.

“Oh, God…” she said.  “Bas…your home…”

“It’s nothing.  I can rebuild.”

“Of course…it’s just that…it was so lovely.”

Koen looked at the mud covered, blood splattered group of vampires, and the few remaining humans who managed to survive the fiery attack.  He addressed them quietly.  “We need to go.  Now.  I don’t know if a second wave has been planned, but I know they want us…badly.  We’ll take Eillia’s plane.  I have them waiting for us now.   There’s nothing here to salvage.  Let’s go.”

Everyone nodded, still shell-shocked, and trying to deal with the assault.    Park looked around.

“Where’s Eillia?   And Hamid?”

Bas and Koen exchanged glances.  Neither wanted to be the one to tell her.  But she read them both instantly.  “Oh no…  Oh, god, no…  Poor Hamid.  Koen, we have to find Eillia.  We can’t leave her here.  I’ll come with you.”

“NO!!”   Simultaneously, Bas and Koen forbid it.

Bas moved forward, and took her hands in his.  “We need you safe before we can search for Eillia.  You and the child…you matter above anything else right now.  Once you’re away from this madman, we’ll search for her.”  He paused.  Park, you know she’s likely dead, don’t you.   Koen can’t feel her.   Can you?”

Park closed her eyes and cleared her mind, reached for the woman she had bonded deeply with so recently.  Her mind traveled through air and distance, desperate to touch Eillia’s.   Bas was right.  She couldn’t feel her.  Tears sprung up under her tightly closed lids.   Eillia was supposed to be immortal…she’d been alive almost as long as civilization…she’d seen it with her.  Now, after meeting Park, she might be dead.  She had to wonder…was she some kind of cosmic jinx?  Bas pulled her into his arms.  He could read what she was feeling.  So could her father, but he let Bas take this.

“It’s not your fault.  Shanks and his Sire are responsible.  I swear to you, to all of you…they’ll die horribly by my hands.”

Koen snorted.  “Not until I have my shot.  And I won’t leave enough to survive a light wind, I promise you.  We have to go.”

Jake looked at Bas.

“I’m going to be staying to help in the search.  He killed my staff.  I need to see him die.”

Vaz nodded.  “Yeah, me too.  I want a piece of this piece of shit.”

Bas shook his head.  “No, guys, I appreciate your need to be here, but I need you to protect my family.  Please, I want you on that plane.  I don’t know if there’s anything else to come.  Koen and I can handle what’s left back here.”

Park looked around to see if everyone else was there.  Anyone who was in the safe room was present.   She looked again.

“So…  No one’s seen Eugene?”    He hadn’t been in the shelter, but she’d hoped he was okay.

“We found him.  Eugene didn’t make it.  I’m sorry, Park, I know you two had developed a special relationship.”

She nodded and followed her father…and just let the tears fall silently.  Bas stayed behind her to sandwich her between them just in case the unknown asshole had any other surprises planned.  At the risk of sounding like a bad action flick, he thought to himself;  this was personal, now.  Deeply so.  He just had to get his family safe first, then nothing would stop him from finding the dead-vampire-walking.