Homecoming (28 page)

When the last of the ammunition had been pulled out of the shop the men began carting it around the corner of his house while Jay was held at gunpoint. “What about my wife?”

“She’ll be released as soon as we’re loaded and ready to go.”

Jay watched the man who diligently held the gun on him. As his associates carried the last of the ammunition away from the shop he slowly began backing away. Jay moved for the back door of the house and the man stepped in his way. “Not until we’ve left.”

“She’s my
wife
!”

“And you can wait fifteen more seconds.”

Jay waited until the man started moving again before taking off at a sprint for the back door. He never heard nor saw what hit him, but everything went black just before he hit the ground.

15

Rufus heard the cell phone vibrating in his desk drawer and quickly removed it. The text was short, simple and to the point. He slowly smiled at the idea of receiving a rather large package shortly.

“Good news, I take it?” Paul asked absently.

Rufus snapped back to the present and simply nodded. “Yes, it would seem so.” He quickly put the cell phone away and came back to the table he had been sitting at with Paul. “Where were we?”

“We were discussing Lilith and her ability to control demons.”

“And the dead,
oui
.”

“That was something I meant to ask. By ‘dead’, do you mean us? Or are we talking zombies or ghouls or…”

“It simply says ‘dead’. It does not specify.”

“Because I don’t feel dead, ya know.”

Rufus pushed the book aside. “You know as much as I do at this point, brother. It simply says, ‘dead’.”

“This is enough to make me want to hide in a bunker rather than try to deal with this.” Paul sat back and crossed his arms. “If there’s even a remote chance that she can control vampires, we don’t stand a chance.”

“This is once she is complete, brother. We hold the key to that never happening.” Rufus stood and poured a mix of blood into a large goblet. “Without the heart, she will never be complete.”

Paul accepted the goblet and waited while Rufus poured himself one then reclaimed his seat. “I don’t want to be a wet blanket here, brother, but how can we be certain that the heart you have is actually hers?”

Rufus paused and swirled the blood in the goblet. “We cannot.” Paul began to become distressed when Rufus held his hand up, stopping him. “I paid entirely too much money for it not to be real. We went through verified channels to claim it. I feel most certain that it is authentic.”

“Is there some kind of test? Maybe we should simply destroy it?”

“
Non.
It is Lilith’s heart. It cannot be destroyed. Removed?
Oui
. Sealed away for centuries,
oui.
Destroyed?
Non.
”

“Then let’s put it to the flame. If it’s destroyed then we know it isn’t real.” Paul was on his feet, his nervousness causing him to pace. “If it’s real, then no harm, no foul. If it’s not real, then we know we’re in trouble.”

Rufus shook his head. “I do not think that we should—”

“We
have
to know!” Paul’s breathing was rapid and his eyes were like a frightened animal’s. “We need to know if we truly have the key to stopping her or not.”

Rufus placed his goblet on the table and rose. “Very well. Let us test the heart. Then we shall both rest easy.”

“I’ll get a blow torch.”

*****

“Colonel, priority call,” a muffled voice called through his radio.

Mitchell was still fighting the anxious effects of his wolf’s expectations and the pull of the upcoming moon. The weight machines and steel plates just weren’t cutting it. He wiped the perspiration from his brow and grabbed his BDU shirt from the hook on the wall. Pulling his radio from his belt he called back that he’d take it in his office.

He took the stairs two at a time and nearly slammed the door behind him before he pulled the receiver from the cradle. “Mitchell.”

“Matt, this is Jay. We have a problem.”

Matt could hear the distress in the man’s voice and knew it took a lot to shake up the old tank soldier. “What’s wrong? Is Lisa okay?”

“We got hit tonight. A group of…I don’t know what to call them. Ninjas? They stole all the silver ammunition and the bullion.”

Matt walked over to the wall he shared with Tufo and beat on it, hoping his XO was in his office. “Okay, slow down and tell me exactly what happened.”

“I was coming in from the shop and these guys had Lisa hogtied and gagged. They were dressed in black tactical gear.”

“The same guys that have been watching your house?”

“If I had to guess, yeah.”

Mark tossed open Matt’s office door. “What the hell? You scared the piss out of Hank. Literally.” Matt held up a hand to stop him, then waved him in.

“I’m going to put you on speaker, Jay, hold on.” Matt studied the phone a moment before Mark reached over and mashed the correct button.

“We have you Jay. What’s going on?” Mark asked.

“We were robbed tonight, Major. A group of guys in tactical gear and automatic weapons hit us and took every round of silver ammo we had. And almost all of the bullion.”

“Almost all?” Matt sat at his desk and poured a cup of coffee, wishing it were scotch instead.

“I had a bit on the other side of the shop ready to melt for dipping your .30s. They didn’t think to look over there.”

“How many were there?” Mark leaned against the desk, raising his voice as he spoke.

“No idea, Major. Enough. They had two holding Lisa and five out back with me. I don’t know how many others there may have been.”

“Did you notice anything about them, Jay?” Matt studied Tufo as he spoke. “Anything that stood out? An accent, a tattoo, anything out of the ordinary?”

“Negative, Colonel. They wore balaclavas and all I could see were eyes. Every inch of them was covered in black.”

Mark shook his head. “Jay, what about their boots? Were they military issue or did you notice?”

“It was too dark and it happened too quick. To be honest, Major, I was scared to death for Lisa, and I just wasn’t thinking along those lines.”

“That’s okay, Jay. I’m going to send a couple of the techs from our clean-up crews to your place. They’ll be there first thing in the morning. They’ll go over everything with a fine tooth comb. If there’s a scrap of evidence, they’ll find it.”

“I read you, Colonel. We’ll confine ourselves to the rooms they weren’t in.”

Mark chimed in again, “Jay, I’m sorry this happened. I’m sure Lisa is wishing you’d never taken our contract.”

“Actually, Major, she’s wishing she’d had her weapon on her when they came through the front door. I keep telling her that they were wearing armor. Her pistol wouldn’t have done much good, but she’s pretty hard headed.”

“Copy that.” Tufo stifled a smile. “I can relate.”

“Jay, get me an inventory of what was lost. Or a close approximation. We’ll make sure you’re credited for it.”

“Colonel, I’m not so much worried about that as I am something I noticed when I stuck my head back into the shop.”

“What’s that?”

“They took the molds for making the silver bullets, too.”

*****

Laura collapsed in the rear seat of the plane, fatigue and the constant adrenaline rushes finally taking their toll. While she slept fitfully through the slight swaying and light turbulence of the trip, Jennifer and Mick sat up front silently. After what seemed forever, Mickey finally broke the noise that passed for the silence of the trip. “What will you do?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“If he’s the same one that attacked you? That kept you prisoner for all of those years?”

Jennifer gaped at him in surprise. “How could you know of that? I never said anything.”

Mick turned and stared out of the side window. Jennifer tugged at his arm, “How did you know?”

“Your father.”

It was her turn to stare out the side window. “How could you speak with him?”

“At first, he thought you were with me. He sent his men for me. They took me to him and he…asked me if I were hiding you.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “He ‘asked’ you?”

“Very vigorously.”

“Oh no…Mickey, I’m so sorry.” She reached for him, but he pulled away.

“I had no answer to give him. When the full moon came and went and there were no reports of you shifting…he found it in his heart to eventually release me.”

“You said
eventually
. What do you mean?”

“Four months.” Mickey continued to stare out the windows at the terrain. “He waited four months.”

“I wasn’t even in Belize. I had gone to America to see friends. Then I traveled. And then…”

“And then you were pursued. I know.”

“How? How did you find this out?”

He turned to her again and she couldn’t read his emotions through his sunglasses. “Your father told me. He hired investigators that followed your trail. They tracked you to where a girl matching your description was witnessed being chased by soldiers…” he trailed off, his voice cracking. Mick took a deep breath and continued. “I thought you were dead.”

“For all intents and purposes, I was.”

“What did they do to you?” his voice was barely a whisper, but it came through her headset clearly enough.

“They had me on ice. Literally. Frozen in a dreamlike state. I can’t explain it really.”

“And you’re willing to go back to these monsters?”

She shook her head and stared out the window again. “You can’t understand. Cats aren’t fated to their mates the way wolves are.”

“No, you’re right, we’re not. Thankfully we have the ability to choose.” The bite in his voice wasn’t missed.

“I wish I could choose.”

“You could.” He didn’t mean to sound desperate but he had only these straws to grasp at. “I could turn us around, we drop the human off at some airstrip in the middle of nowhere, I give her the satellite phone and we just point the plane in a random direction and go. Never look back. Who cares about Fated anything.”

She gave him a sad smile and scooted close enough to lay her head on his shoulder. “I wish I could.”

“You can. Simply
choose
not to meet this guy. Choose not to give it a try. What if you do? What if you gave it a shot and in a moment of weakness, you mate yourself to him forever? Then you’re stuck. Your life is literally tied to his.”

She inhaled deeply and let it out very slowly. How could she make him understand that the Fates don’t choose randomly? There was a reason for their choices. No Fated Mate had ever been unhappy in their mating. Ever. In the history of wolves. At least, not that she knew of. Some even had human marriage ceremonies so that they could ‘legally’ be husband and wife in whatever country they lived in. It was the dream of all wolves to one day find their fated one.

“What do you say, Squeak? I find an airport, we land, we dump the Amazon in back, and you and I fly off into the sunset.” He flashed her a winning smile.

Sadly, Jennifer shook her head. “I can’t, Mick.”

Her stared at her for a moment before finally nodding. “I knew you’d say that.”

*****

Apollo carried a small duffle bag with him as he walked out of the hangar. Nobody noticed his leaving. Nobody questioned what he was doing. Nobody asked what he carried. There were perks to being Team Leader for First Squad. Lots and lots of freedom to do whatever you wanted in your down time was one of them.

He strode purposefully to the end of the parking lot and tossed the bag into the back of his pewter H2 Hummer. Sliding in behind the wheel, he started the engine, opened the sunroof and turned up the radio. Taking a deep breath, he smiled to himself. “Freedom, baby.”

He pulled out of the parking lot like it was any other day and drove off the base, hoping to never have to look at the place again.

Apollo headed west on I-40 until he hit the downtown exit. Taking it, he navigated his way through town and back through Bricktown, past the baseball stadium, and to a somewhat remote McDonald’s across from Bass Pro Shops. Sheridan waited in the same dark minivan.

“Nothing like being inconspicuous.”

“Hey, man, these is my wheels. I ain’t leaving this behind. Especially if y’all gonna be burning the place to the ground.”

“Yeah, right.” Sheridan shook his head. “Just follow me.”

Apollo followed Sheridan to a rough part of town, then into an industrial area that appeared abandoned. They pulled to a tall chain link gate and Sheridan honked the horn of the minivan. A moment later, the gate began opening and both men drove through and around to the rear of the large industrial building. The rear doors were open and Sheridan pulled the minivan inside. Apollo pulled his sunglasses off as soon as they crossed the threshold so that his eyes could adjust to the gloom. He wasn’t expecting what he saw inside.

Vans were parked along one wall of the building and men in coveralls were working on all kinds of machinery. People hustled and bustled to get work done as Sheridan exited the minivan. “Welcome to the heart of chaos.”

“What the hell is this?”

“This is where we’re going to base our own little squadron attacks.” Sheridan used his cane and walked toward an office on the far side of the building. “Follow me, I’ll introduce you to some people.”

Apollo fell into step behind the slower man and studied the area. Men were working on filling O2 tanks with something while chemical labs were in full swing. A small smelter was in place and in the process of melting something down, the acrid smoke rising to the ceiling. Another man was hand loading ammunition at a workstation along the wall. One man was applying decals to the sides of the vans while another came in behind him and tried to purposely ‘age’ them by scuffing them and peeling corners and edges from the advertising.