Homecoming (37 page)

Pedro sent Jack a quick email to let him know that they were en route and requested that their ride and the boats be standing by upon their arrival. He hoped that Jack checked his email before they got there or they might have a long swim.

“Not sure what happened on that op, but the colonel was sweating. I’ve never seen the man sweat before,” Pedro commented.

Gus gave him a sidelong glance as the helicopter lifted from the ground. “You sure it wasn’t just hot in there?”

Pedro shook his head. “No, they all looked pretty frazzled.”

TD had settled in and was leaning against the bulkhead. “Frazzled. Now that sounds like a psychobabble term if I’ve ever heard one.”

Pedro kicked his feet out from under him. “You know what I mean. I think something on Third Squad’s op might have gone south.”

Gus sat forward and looked concerned. “Any losses?”

Pedro shook his head. “They didn’t say, but they weren’t running any helmet cams on the screens.”

Marshall grunted. “The op was over. They probably took them off.”

Pedro grunted. “Right. How often do you remove your helmet in the field?”

Marshall shrugged then thought about it. He suddenly opened his eyes. “The major didn’t say anything?”

Pedro shook his head, his headphones shaking loosely. “Nope. He just wished us luck.”

Jimmy looked to Gus who shrugged. “I don’t think they would have let us go if there had been anything serious.”

Jimmy sighed and settled back in for the flight. “I hope not.”

*****

Paul sat upright in his chair and sniffed the air. “Do you smell that, brother?”

Rufus was already up and to the door of his study. “Wait here. I’ll find out what’s going on.” He slipped out the door and went silently down the hall. He could hear multiple voices coming from the library and the light bouncing against the hallway wall sent a chill through his veins. When one of the occupants turned to the side and Rufus saw the silhouette, he froze.
Gargoyles! In his castle!

He forced himself to slowly withdraw back down the hallway until he heard Jack’s voice rise above the others, trying to get them all to settle down. Rufus paused and forced himself to calm. Slowly he approached the double doors leading to the library and pushed them open, making himself known.

Immediately, the smell of the elves hit him and he felt his mouth begin to water. To his credit, Rufus showed no emotion. Nor did he react when he saw the three very large gargoyles standing in his library. “Good evening.”

Jack quickly stepped between Rufus and the others. “Everybody, this is our benefactor. Mr. Rufus Thorn.” He watched the expression of the others and was satisfied that there would be no trouble here.

“Thank you for receiving us in your home, Mr. Thorn.” Grimlock bowed at the waist.

“We are here to assist, sir,” Horith added.

Rufus calmed nearly instantly and allowed Jack to escort him deeper within the library. “Thank you, gentlemen.” He noticed the gnomes sitting atop the table and Rufus immediately bowed to them. “Your presence honors me.”

Kissum stood and returned the bow. “We are the honored ones.”

Rufus took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Please forgive me. I wasn’t expecting you or I would have seen to your needs before your arrival.”

“That’s my fault,” Jack interjected. “I didn’t know that the elves or gnomes were coming. I thought that only a few gargoyles would be assisting in the operation.”

Rufus raised a brow at that announcement. “The ‘ace’ you mentioned?”

“Actually, no. The teams are on their way. Consider these guys
another
ace.” Jack couldn’t help but smile.

“Hmm,” Rufus excused himself, but asked for Jack to step out with him for a private word. Once in the hallway, Rufus narrowed his gaze. “I would very much appreciate it, if in the future you might give me foreknowledge before bringing a mortal enemy of vampires into my home,” his voice was a whisper, but the anger he felt could not be disguised.

Jack stepped back and gave Rufus a confused look. “Rufus? These guys are volunteering to come to our aid. To face the
Vampire Council
, not you.” Jack hooked a thumb over his shoulder, “The gargoyles are the air support I needed to get men on the roof. The others? They volunteered because they consider me family. They’re here to fight for you. They believe in the
Lamia Beastia’s
message.”

Rufus squared his shoulders and rolled his head across his neck trying to work the tension from it. “Very well, just please,
mon ami
, in the future, give me some kind of notice. It makes me a very bad host to have not prepared for them.”

Jack nodded. “Gotcha, no more surprises. Full disclosure.”

“Thank you.” Rufus turned and headed back to his study, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach.

*****

Laura’s body ached from the lack of rest, but her mind refused to shut down enough for her to get any sleep. She continued to watch Mick through narrowed eyes. Every now and then she would shift and reposition herself to get more comfortable and hoped that she gave the impression that she was asleep. So far, he’d sent no more messages, nor had he done anything else that seemed suspicious. She began to wonder if perhaps she might have just imagined the entire thing when she watched him lean over in the seat and study Jennifer. She was apparently asleep again.

Laura relaxed her eyes once more and could just make out him glancing at her as she breathed behind him. He continued to fly as though nothing was wrong, and Laura continued to watch him.

It took him another twenty minutes before his hand slipped down and she noticed that he was working the switch again. She felt like kicking herself for allowing him to literally get the slip on her. She had been lying right behind him and watching him and she still didn’t notice him doing it until he was nearly finished.

She didn’t even get a chance to figure out what he had sent before he pulled his hand back up and gripped the wheel again. It took everything she had not to simply sit up, grab his headphones and choke him with the chord. She even contemplated pulling him to the carpet and just asking him flat out, ‘who are you messaging?’ but if he didn’t deny it…then what? Would he get violent? Would he land at the nearest small field or flat road and boot her out of the plane?

She sat up and stared at him. She said nothing and made no covert moves. She waited. Boring holes into the back of his head with her eyes paid off. He turned and glanced at her. “Oh, you’re up.”

“Yeah, I have been. I couldn’t sleep since we left.” She couldn’t hide the tone in her voice so she didn’t try.

“Oh?” He shot her another quick glance. “Well, we still have a few more hours before we land.”

“I couldn’t sleep if I had to.” She continued to bore holes into the back of his head. He continued to ignore her.

Laura could feel the adrenaline flowing through her and couldn’t decide if she should confront him or not. She had just opened her mouth to accuse him when the light on the panel began lighting up in response. “Ah, your people are sending their coordinates.”

“My…what?” Laura’s brain couldn’t quite absorb what he was saying.

“I thought you both were asleep, so I messaged them using Morse code. They sent me coordinates to the closest private field and they got us permission to use it.” He gave her a lopsided grin and Laura suddenly felt sheepish. “The closer we can land to them the less of a car ride over very rough terrain.”

“Oh…” her voice trailed off as she suddenly felt even more foolish. “That was nice of you.”

“Nobody wants to sit in a plane this long and then have their butt bounced all over on a rough Brazilian dirt road.”

“No. I suppose not.” Suddenly, she felt very tired. “You know, I think I might try to catch a little sleep before we get there after all.”

“Okay. I’ll wake you if we crash.”

She smiled as she laid her head on the armrest again. “You do that.”

*****

“Feel any better?”

Little John looked up to see Spalding leaning against the doorway of his quarters. “I dunno. I guess.” He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I dunno. Maybe?” Spalding stepped inside and pulled the chair from the desk, spinning it around and sitting in it backward. “I can tell you that your squad mates feel a lot closer to ya.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” John smirked. “Do you want us to sit around a campfire now and sing
Kum-Ba-Yah
? Maybe hold hands, do some team building exercises?”

“The smart ass runs deep in this one,” Spalding teased.

“Sorry, boss, I’m just not a touchy feely type of person.”

Spalding ran a hand through his close cropped hair and nodded. “I understand. But getting the whole sister thing off your chest? That didn’t help any? Even a little?”

John sat on the edge of his bed and placed the book he was reading on the nightstand. “Honestly?” He considered the situation and nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I feel better knowing that they don’t feel like there are any secrets. They know what I’m thinking when I’m out there. But really? When you look at the big picture, it doesn’t really change anything does it?”

“I think it changes a lot. The guys have a better idea of where you’re coming from and what you’re dealing with.”

“No, I mean, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still going to do my job. Regardless of what private demons I may be dealing with, I would always do my job.” Little John sighed softly and stared down at Spalding. “They do realize that, don’t they?”

“I think they do. Heck, I’m sure they do. We all know that you’re a professional, John. That was never in question.” Spalding pulled a photo from his breast pocket. “This was her.”

“Her?” John took the photo and stared at the dark eyed beauty.

“Maria. The woman that was killed in the desert. She wormed her way into all of our hearts in one way or another.” Spalding remembered the hot blooded little Latina that could fight as well as any of the men on the squads. “To some of us, she was like a little sister. To others, she was a lover. To others, she was just a friend. But she was a friend that would kill to protect you and vice versa.”

“She’s pretty.” John handed the photo back.

“You can see how Apollo got so messed up over losing her then.”

John nodded, his mind trying to imagine loving someone who was in his line of work. “It must have been hell.”

“It wasn’t easy. For him or for us.” Spalding put the picture back into his pocket. “Losing her and Hank was like…well, it drove home just how quickly any of us can go.”

“You said you lost an entire team before?”

Spalding nodded and leaned back against the wall behind him. “Yeah, before she was brought on.” His mind raced back to the op in Texas that cost them nearly all of First Squad. “We had our best out in the field and they got ambushed by wolves. That was when we first discovered that natural-borns could shift at will. They attacked during the day.”

“Wow, a daylight attack. That’s ballsy.”

“And effective.” Spalding pushed off the wall and tried to get out of the negative mindset that reminiscing about loss pulled him into. “And it wasn’t just us. Almost every team across the globe got hit at the same time. They all lost people.”

“A global attack?” John’s eyes were wide. “That doesn’t seem possible.”

“Normally, no, but this was all being coordinated by a very bad dude. He was trying to bring on the vampire Armageddon and…” Spalding’s voice trailed off.

“What happened?” John was more than just curious now.

“Well, we obviously beat him.” Spalding stared at the floor. “We lost a lot of good people. And a lot of vampires volunteered to fight with us.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, the
Lamia Beastia
. The ones that feed off of animals. Anyway, that was what happened in the desert. The big bad ass forced his way through his own forces and got into our control room and that was where Hank and Maria got killed.”

“But you stopped him.”

“Yeah.” Spalding stood and turned for the door. “Too bad we weren’t allowed to kill the son-of-a-bitch.”

*****

Rachel watched from the upper levels as Damien worked around the clock gathering the necessary items to complete the ritual to revive her. She could feel the shreds of humanity slipping from her as each item was collected and brought to the warehouse. She felt the warmth that had wrapped itself around her earlier slip away and the cold grip of hate and anger slip back into her host’s heart. Whatever the previous spell was that had weakened her was rapidly fading as he cleansed the area and painted the pagan symbols upon the walls and floor with goat blood.

He placed the unlit black candles in their proper places and set up a silver bowl with herbs and incense. Everything was falling into place and the excitement within her grew as the time grew closer. She knew that only two critical pieces remained. The elder vampire to be sacrificed, and the blood of virgins to restore her physical form.