Alliances (Guardians of White Light, #1) (19 page)

“I have my ways.”

The General shifted his weight. “This is not my initiative.”

“But you’re aware of it. You’re the head of the STR.”

“Of course I know. But the government will never authorize the destruction of it.”

“Then do it without their authorization. Accidents happen,” Jenna chimed in.

“I can’t help you.”

“Then Silas lives,” Mathias said, glaring hard at him. “The monster who killed Liana.”

“If this Liquid Death is launched into the general population, vampires will rise up. All of them. The peaceful ones too. The ones who coexist with humans and respect your laws. They will annihilate your kind to survive. Armageddon will be on your doorstep. It is not the solution you think it is,” Alna interjected.

“You don’t know that.”

“I’ve seen it as clear as day.”

“You’re a witch?”

“Outside of the Sorceress, her power is second to none,” Mathias explained.

The General craned his neck to look at the sky. “You did this?”

She nodded.

“You’ve broken a dozen laws.”

Alna’s eyes flashed at him, a bright blue light that warned him that her power was within easy reach, right at the surface. “I don’t abide by human laws. Besides, we do what we must,” she said. “Isn’t that right, General?”

The General was taken aback. It was as though her eyes were boring right through his, searching the depth of his soul. Was she reading him? Her pointed question seemed to indicate just that.

“Alna, stand down. We are not enemies here,” Mathias said.

She looked away and folded her arms, a reluctant compliance.

The General turned his attention back to Mathias. “So, the Liquid Death for Silas?”

“That’s right.”

The General rubbed the stubble on his chin, deep in thought.

“What is it?” Mathias asked, seeing doubt in his eyes.

“One thing doesn’t add up.”

“What?”

“He murdered my daughter. Your wife. If you knew you could take him out, why didn’t you do it then? I can only deduce one thing; you couldn’t and you still can’t. He’s too strong, his army too vast. You come to me claiming that you can so that you get what you want from this and walk away.”

“That’s not why I didn’t kill him before,” Mathias murmured.

“You’re trying to play me.”

“I went after him...right...
after
...when I found her. It was a mistake. My actions risked war at a time when the balance was stable. Back then it was a reckless decision going after him. But now, war is already on our doorstep and Silas is coming for humankind.”

“He has an army.”

“So do we.”

The General looked at him.

“Eternus,” Mathias responded.

“Eternus is a myth.”

Mathias grinned. “I happen to know different.”

“What proof do you have that they’re nothing more than an old wives’ tale?”

“Oh, they’re real,” Jenna said, knowing that the General would take her word at face value, rather than Mathias’, just because of what she was—human. It was clear he was a speciest.

“You’ve seen them?”

“I’ve
killed
some of them.”

Mathias glared at her. It bothered him that she sounded so proud of killing his men.

“I was their leader for centuries,” Mathias added.

The General was amused. “She killed your men and now you’re working together?”

“Unlikely alliances are needed when going up against a mutual enemy like Silas.
Personal
grudges become less important.”

They locked eyes for a few moments, each sizing the other up. And then the General leaned forward, clasping his hands together on the table. “The lab you know about is the only one in existence, I guarantee you that. There are two scientists and six lab technicians. All research and formulas concerning the manufacture of Liquid Death are on the premises. No one is permitted to take the research off-site. You want to destroy the drug; all you need to do is take down this one facility.”

Mathias nodded.

“The walls are impenetrable.”

“That won’t be an issue,” Mathias said, gesturing to Alna.

The General nodded. “All right. But you will also need the correct security codes to destroy the electronic records of the formula.”

“I assume you have these?”

“Yes, but I can’t give them to you.” Before Mathias could protest, he cut in. “I will physically need to be there. Fingerprint scanner,” he explained. He lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. “This operation will have to be covert. I could be court marshaled if anyone found out I'm involved.”

“Okay.”

“That means you can’t walk in as you are now. You draw too much attention.” He eyed each of them in turn. Alna’s highly revealing shimmering silver outfit. Jenna’s rough and tumble huntress look. And…Mathias…well, the epitome of modern vampire stereotype. Warriors out of time and place.

“Light-weight tactical gear?” Mathias suggested.

“I’ll make it happen,” the General said.

He crossed to a filing cabinet at the back of the room and rummaged around in the top drawer before continuing, “
Tomorrow
night. I have some clean-up to do tonight thanks to our friends, Immortalia.”

“All right,” Mathias agreed.

The General handed him a card. Mathias moved to take it from him, but the General didn’t let go.
Make up your mind.
With some effort, the General relinquished the card. “Call this number. This guy owns a hotel nearby. Mention my name and he’ll give you three rooms for the night. Just to be clear, this is not a favor for
you
. It’s for her. Human women like the comfort of a hot shower and a clean bed every now and then.”

Mathias eyed Jenna. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it before, but her clothes were stained with mud and blood. Most of it he knew was from their
liaison
in the cave earlier. Her hair was disheveled and she looked tired and uncomfortable in her own skin. The General was right.

“Thanks,” he forced himself to say.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Mathias rapped firmly on the door. They’d arrived at the hotel a couple of hours ago. He’d spent that time going over the blueprints and maps of the research lab and its surrounding area in preparation for tomorrow night’s mission. Alna and Jenna had retired to their own rooms on the same floor. It was the penthouse floor of the building and it had to be one of the swankiest places he had stayed at in a long while. General Clark obviously had a lot of pull. Every other room on the floor was vacant. And he wasn’t sure if it had been that way prior to the General's call and the dropping of his name, or whether the guests had been
encouraged
to move elsewhere. Either way, he was happy. He wasn’t much of a people person and it wasn’t just the vampire in him. He never had been. He liked quiet.

Finally, Alna opened the door. His words caught in his throat.

“Just the reaction I was hoping for,” she said with a sly smile. “Come in.” She stepped aside so he could enter. She shut the door behind him and watched him check out her hotel room.

“How did you—where did you get all this?”

The room was a mess. Clothes, make-up, jewelry and trinkets were draped over chairs, piled on the bed, and scattered across the lushly carpeted floor. He looked her over again. A skin tight black leather dress clung to her body, its corset bodice pushing her already ample breasts into the forefront. The slit up her left thigh left little to the imagination, a spectacle that she purposely drew attention to with her thigh-high black leather boots.

“You’re going out like that?”

She chuckled. “Mathias, you’re still so old-fashioned.”

“You look like…never mind.”

“Like what?” She stepped into his space and forced him to look at her.

Don’t make me say it.
He looked away and stepped back.

“You’ve never been one to keep quiet,” she pressed.

“Like a harlot,” he said, shaking his head with disapproval.

She laughed.
Harlot?
He really had been cut off from the world. “Exactly what I was going for.”

“Alna—”

“We can’t do anything until tomorrow night. That means we have tonight off. I’ve decided to spend it with some
company
. It’s been a while…time to sow some of those wild oats.”

“What about your skin?” he asked, pointing to the prominent black veins all over her body. How did she plan on explaining those to humans?

She winked at him and then swept her hand over her body in one fluid motion. Mathias watched with surprise as the veins disappeared.

“Just a temporary illusion. It should last until morning, just like the rest of this,” she said, gesturing to the clothes littering the room.

“Just—” he began, but stopped short as he realized how ridiculous what he was about to say would sound. “Right. You don’t need to be careful.
They
do.”

She pressed her hands to his chest and eased him backwards towards the door. “Time for you to go. I don’t need a chaperone.”

“Fine, fine,” Mathias said, holding up his hands with resignation.

“It seems that it is you who needs a chaperone, sweetheart.”

“Alna—”

“A cave, Mathias?” she said, grimacing at the very thought of it.

“It wasn’t planned.”

“You’d better rectify that.”

“What?”

“Well, unless she's just another
Gabriella
to you.”

“What? How do you know about that?”

She smiled.
You know very well.

“Stop reading me, Alna!”

“I can’t help it. Your thoughts scream at me. The Hunter destabilizes your meditative ability to control your thoughts and emotions. Even Liana didn’t have that power over you.”

He shook his head dismissively.

“Okay, then I am wrong.”
Impossible.

“We’re at war! We need to maintain our focus on the mission at hand!” he yelled, becoming agitated by a discussion that he hadn’t wanted to have with her—or anyone—in the first place. He was a warrior, a strategist and a leader. He wasn’t good at…
women.
And there wasn’t time for it, especially not with the threat at their backs.

She resumed pushing him towards the door. “Take a night off,” she insisted, her eyes boring into his, trying to get through to him. She knew that if anyone could, it was her. She saw a brief flicker of understanding in his eyes, which he quickly tried to conceal from her.
Always the stubborn one.
He couldn’t accept that he had misjudged a situation as much as he had in the cave with Jenna. But Alna knew that she was wearing him down and he would come to accept it very soon.

“Don’t come to this room again tonight. I see now how out of touch you are with
women
, so just in case: the screams your vampire hearing might pick up on will be screams of ecstasy and—”

Mathias stood outside, rolling his eyes at her. Before she could finish her sentence he shut the door in her face.

Alna chuckled and resumed getting ready.

***

Jenna wrapped the fuzzy white hotel bathrobe around her torso and climbed into the queen bed.
Oh yes. Luxury.
The beige cotton sheets were unbelievably soft and clean. She pulled them up to her chest and then reached for the duvet. She felt the down feathers inside, scrunching them between her fingers. She purred peacefully and laid her head down on the most comfortable pillows she had ever felt beneath her head. She was going to sleep well tonight.

She had just closed her eyes when she heard a distinct knock at the door.
Dammit.
Reluctantly she threw the sheets aside and climbed out of bed. Her slayer instincts screamed a warning:
Watch your back.
She grabbed a stake out of her duffel bag on the mahogany desk and readied it in her left hand. With her other she cautiously opened the door a sliver.

She felt him before she saw him.
Mathias.
Her left hand relaxed and the stake lowered. She stepped aside and let him in. He shut the door and leaned against it awkwardly.

Say something. Anything
. He cleared his throat. “Jenna,” he managed. Anything to end the excruciating silence that had followed him into the room. He saw the stake in her hand; “Working on your defense?” he asked in as light-hearted a tone as he could manage. He wasn’t one for small talk.

“Just a precaution,” she said, returning the stake to her bag.