“Know? Not much. Suspect? Well, I suspect that a greater demon crossed over in Central Park. I think it inhabits the form of an ex-government agent named Brianna DuClair. Those shoe prints look like a match for the ones in Central Park. I think it-she, whatever, opened this portal to call some helpers. If the tracks lead out of the Barrens and stop at a road, then I would suspect she loaded them into a van or truck or something,” I said.
“Explain,” he said.
I thought about that for a second or two, glancing at Tanya to catch her nod. Taking a deep breath, I turned back to him and explained. I told him about AIR and their kidnapping of Toni. I explained how DuClair had gone from DHS to AIR and then straight to Hell. And I described the murder scene around the Hellhole in Central Park. What I
didn’t
tell him was that Tanya and I had angelic backgrounds or that my crew was composed of four vampires, a werewolf, a were bear-wolf, and my own hybrid self.
“That sounds like only part of what must be a helluva story. What is she here for?” he asked when I finished.
“Specifically? I don’t know. In general? Mayhem and bloodshed.”
“Well, I hope she gets the hell out of my state in a hurry. No offense,” he said.
“None taken. But if you can look into any stolen vans or trucks, strange murders or disappearances, or odd sightings, that would be helpful. I have a feeling we’re gonna meet back up with DuClair and her friends in the near future,” I replied.
“Better you than me. Somehow, despite the model looks, your people seem well prepared to handle this shit,” he remarked.
“Major Leland, some of us were born for it.”
With the circle closed, we left the forensics people to collect their data and moved back to the vehicles. A black military-style Humvee had been added to the mix of cop cars, SWAT trucks, and coroner vans. Four men in black suits got out as soon as they saw us, looking every inch like federal intelligence agents.
“Chris Gordon—Agent Gulden, NSA. Come with us,” the lead agent said. Thirties, completely bald, six-one, one hundred eighty or so, dark eyes, serious demeanor. The other three were younger, two white, one black, all fit and serious.
“No,” I replied.
“That wasn’t a request,” Gulden stated, pinning me with his agent-man stare.
Behind us, I could just about feel the New Jersey troopers absorbing the confrontation.
“Well, just to be clear, Agent… my
no
was a general purpose refusal of requests, commands, orders, or directions.”
“Mr. Gordon, I’ve been authorized to use whatever means necessary to bring you in.”
“Have you been authorized to start a war, Agent Gulden?”
He stared at me for a moment, then made a twitching motion with his left hand where it rested against his leg. The gunshot wasn’t, therefore, much of a surprise.
Grim turned my body and caught the projectile out of the air at the same time that Arkady disappeared in a rush of wind. It was a shotgun-fired Taser round. Electricity coursed through my body, but it felt like a static shock. My young friend Declan is rather obsessed with Tasers. He sorta feeds off them, being a powerful Earth and Fire warlock. He explained to me once that Tasers don’t kick off much real voltage; instead, they tend to use a pulsed power technology that is highly disruptive to the human nervous system. My nervous system isn’t apparently all that human anymore. I held the dart up between thumb and index finger to Gulden.
“Did they tell you
anything
at all about us? Or just send you out naked?” I asked.
Arkady was coming back from the woods to my right, another dark-suited man struggling in vain against the hand at the back of his neck that held him dangling above the ground. A pump shotgun was in Arkady’s left hand.
Gulden and his three backups all reached for sidearms at the same time. We took them from them… mostly gently. Trenton, Tanya, Lydia, and myself. Trenton collected all four Sig .40s and began to strip out the magazines and chambered rounds. Arkady tossed the shotgun to Stacia and then casually tossed the sniper to the ground by Gulden’s feet.
Behind me, Major Leland cleared his throat. I turned.
“Sorry, Major. The federal government and I have been discussing our relationship. Apparently, Agent Gulden and his men were sent as a sort of message.”
“Actually, dear one, they were sent as sacrifices,” Tanya said. “Totally unprepared to enforce the orders they were given, eh Agent Gulden? You were told to bring in Chris Gordon by force if necessary?”
“That’s insulting. There’s only five of them,” Trenton said. “They would need like five hundred.”
“Gordon, you and your party just resisted federal agents and then assaulted them,” Leland noted. “I’m very grateful that you’ve solved our hellish problem here, but I can’t stand by and let you harm federal agents.”
“Major, we understand your predicament. But perhaps you could give us a moment to enlighten you a bit further. My Chris here is not inclined to harm law enforcement or US soldiers following orders. I’m a bit more medieval than that. It’s my nature. See, I and my three companions here are what you would call vampires,” she said, opening her mouth and displaying her fangs for all to see. Everyone froze, even the major.
“I drink blood to live, either the bagged blood bank kind or directly from my mate here,” she said, running a hand over my arm and shoulder as she walked around behind me. I’m not gonna lie: her touch sent shivers down my back—good shivers.
Everyone was watching her, eyes wide in either disbelief or well, more disbelief. Many of the troopers had their hands on their weapons, but no one had drawn them yet. Which was odd. Men and women trained for violence should have been reacting to the instinctive threat she represented. But they weren’t, which made me wonder a bit at the timbre of her voice. I usually found her voice fascinating at some level or another. The beautiful tones were one of the few things I remembered from my life before the sniper shot me in the head. Looking around now, it seemed she was using that voice to kind of mesmerize her audience.
“Ah, honey, should you be telling this… out loud… to everybody?” I asked. She put one finger over her lips, shushing me.
“I won’t tell you that my people aren’t dangerous because that would be a blatant lie. We are very, very dangerous. But we exist in sync with the human world and our society has strict rules that we enforce on our people with ruthless discipline. My Christian here is not a vampire. He is unique in all the world… a gift from God. You’ve seen him close the portal, Major. Fighting Hell and its minions are his reason for existence. He is, very literally, their complete opposite. Derive whatever meaning you want from that.”
She continued moving the whole time, now over by the big black Hummer. She studied the vehicle, hands on hips, expression critical.
“Chris, do we have any airborne watchers?” she asked me, suddenly. “I hear a buzzing.”
Startled at the thought, I let Grim take over, expanding my senses. A small object hovered a hundred feet up and fifty feet to our right. My left hand Called it, Pulling the object with a combination of vampire power and aura. It shot to my hand, despite all five rotors tilted away from me, spinning at full power. Black, to match the night, and about a foot in diameter, it was super quiet even up close. The big Zeiss lens swiveled back and forth to look between Tanya and myself.
“Oh good, a direct link to your bosses,” she said to Agent Gulden, moving over and snapping off all five rotor heads. She placed the immobile drone on top of the nearest trooper car, leaving it sitting where it could watch her show.
Walking back to the Hummer, she held out one hand to Arkady as she passed him. He pulled one of his swords, a much larger version of her blades. It was the same silvery color as the bracelets on her forearms, which meant it was three feet of tungsten carbide alloy.
“So where was I? Oh yeah. See Major Leland, the powers that be cannot abide that my Chosen walks the planet uncontrolled by their twisted wishes. We’ve already had several discussions about that. So they’re moving forward with their own plans. Agent Gulden and his men aren’t a large enough force to capture even a young vampire, let alone any of us, and certainly not Chris. But if they were to, say, piss him off, maybe he would lose control and hurt or even perhaps kill one or more of them. Maybe you and your troopers would feel compelled to join in and produce a proper little atrocity. Filmed in detail by the little flyer so that they could convince any reluctant parties that he had to be controlled or killed. But instead, we will just share some information with you and your people. And I think, in the interest of your own survival, you all should be sharing any videos or pictures you take with your widest social media networks. Because they won’t hesitate to murder all of you and blame it on us. That’s why I’m telling you this, which breaks the most important rules of
my
kind. I think perhaps it’s time that humans learned just what lurks in the dark.”
She was back at the Hummer’s side, only now she drew the sword up over her left shoulder, turning her body so that her right side was closest to the vehicle. Her arm blurred and a shower of sparks shot up from the lower frame where her sword strike hit. She swung underhand, cutting deep into the lower edge of the vehicle as if she were chopping a downed tree instead of hardened steel. She twisted and pulled till the heavy sword came free and did it again… and again. Studying the damage and giving herself a little nod, she switched targets, striking overhand on the corner of the roof, exactly between the two doors and directly above the cuts in the frame. The cabin of the Humvee was much less sturdy than the heavy frame and her blade sank to the height of the door handles. Satisfied, she moved around to the other side, struck the frame twice and the cabin once. Then she tossed the sword my way without looking to see me catch it and leapt straight up in the air… twenty-five or so feet in the air. Coming down in a rapid streak, she slammed into the roof of the Hummer directly in line with her cuts. The impact was loud—mother of all drums kinda loud.
It broke—in half, the frame splitting at the cuts, the roof crumpling, front and back lifting as the middle hit the ground. She jumped lightly down and surveyed her handiwork before strolling to the front and grabbing the heavy-duty brush bar. A slight squat and a press and she had the front end lifted over her own head, two tons of vehicle weight further folding it at its middle. The axle must have been a tough mother as her fold wasn’t perfect, but twisted slightly to one side. She shoved and the front wheels were now over the back, the cabin mostly compacted.
“Close enough. Questions?”
It was dead silent in the clearing. Then a woman, one of the CSI types, raised her hand, tentatively.
“Yes?”
“Ah, what did the car do?” the woman asked, honestly puzzled.
I laughed and Tanya smiled. The woman, now realizing her question might be funny, smiled tentatively.
“The car carried these brave agents to what was supposed to be their doom. These Hummers are also tough, so it gave its life to help convince you of the truth of my words. Any idiot can wear false fangs, but most would have difficulty compacting a heavy vehicle.”
“Ah, Miss… err… I never got your name,” Leland said.
“Tatiana Demidova, Major,” she answered.
“Ah, Tatiana, what did you mean about them killing us?”
My Grim side perked up. Something was heading our way—fast. My mental image came back up and expanded. A flying object was rocketing our way from the east. It was maybe five miles away and coming really fast, like five hundred miles an hour fast.
>
Kirby<
I called, eyes locked in the direction of the object. I’ve been told that my God’s Hawk friend had taken down aircraft before, in my earlier life. He did it again, appearing in open air a half mile from our position, directly in the path of the missile, which flew through his smoky form. The hyper whine of the engine cut off instantly and the missile plunged directly toward the earth, tearing through small pines, flipping end over end before smashing to a smoking stop a scant hundred yards from the crowd of cops, EMTs, and technicians.
It was scarred and charred, but the underlying color was white and the fins were orange. It looked like a torpedo.
“That, Major. That’s pretty much what I meant,” Tanya said even as I flashed across the distance to the missile and hit it with the biggest burst of aura I could manage.
Chapter 10
Whatever spell Tanya’s voice had cast was gone, the cops and techs all reacting at once—loudly. It was a mixture of shock, anger, and fear. Being as most were cops, it didn’t take long for the predominate emotion to be anger.
Leland was good, though, quickly grabbing back command and directing the response. A few people had been hit by flying pine splinters and he got the EMTs working on them. Then he approached me and the missile, a handful of his people in tow. The NSA agents were with them.
“You did something to it? To crash it? Right? Don’t tell me I’m crazy. I’m hoping you know how to disarm it?” Leland asked me.