Breach (The Blood Bargain) (26 page)

Getting from the shopping center to the high rise had taken most of the night, through alleyways mostly. Candice had done the majority of the clearing for us, a blonde blur head of the group leaving a trail of ripped limbs and putrid puddles in her wake. Even with her efforts I had to put my short blade to skull three times thus far due to the sheer volume of the dead in the area. Twice in the stairwell of this building and once by the trash bins in the alley outback. The dull concurrent moans amplified the closer we got to our target. A perpetual sound that even the most complacent survivor could not dismiss as white noise. There was something about it that no matter how many times you heard that wail, it still grazed your spine. Once we were inside the concrete walls of our launch point it dissipated with each flight of stairs, the sound replaced
with distant memories of the last flashlight guided stairwell endeavor and the death that followed. I saw it in Ben's eyes as well every time I looked behind me; his lips pursed, brow furrowed, knuckles white around his axe hold. Fortunately for us, this up bound trek yielded no casualties, just a quiet hallway and empty offices high above the ground. Made sense to me, who wanted to report to work while the world burned?

We took position on the fifth floor of the building across from the hospital. Directly across from us the lights were on in the building, shadows of the living moved about behind drawn curtains. Not many, but just enough to validate some of China's direction thus far. Good thing,
Rylie was almost overly eager to cut her loose in the harshest interpretation imaginable. When we first opened the door to this office I had been mesmerized by it. A building illuminated in the black void, a beacon of what we had once been. Such a simple thing to marvel upon really, yet...I had dropped my bow and stood there, eyes wide before the monolith. I would have been embarrassed had my other companions not been equally enthralled.

"Will you look at that."
Rylie had whispered.

"No wonder there are so many dead beneath, damn building is a giant bug zapper without the kill effect." Ethan had muttered.

And that was that, all of us left to our own internal brooding while work began on executing our intricate entrance strategy. Laid out on top of the receptionist's high counter, I took some downtime while Rylie worked, the chill of the hard marble feeling wonderful on my back. Honestly, as much as I hated to admit it, those five flights of stairs had been rough on my thighs. I didn't want a break, I needed it.

By now it was maybe four o'clock in the morning, Candice was getting
ancy. Pacing back and forth while Rylie meticulously cut out a pane of glass from the floor to ceiling windows. The glass cutter he used had a bent handle and rust on the blade. Ten years of light water damage from the seasons taking its toll on its usefulness. The shopping center like many other buildings had a roof cave in and severe internal leaking from lack of maintenance. Puddles and soft spots riddled the floors, a sore symptom of the building we were currently in as well. The blue-gray carpeting reeked of mold, the essence of mildew permeated the very air in an invisible fog that assaulted our senses. This suite had previously been some sort of financial advisory office. Wall graphics challenged us to prepare for retirement, smiling couples waved in front of boats, others gave thumbs up in front of vineyards.

"Hey
scav...can I ask you a question?"  Ben was talking through a mouth full of jerky.

"No."  Her dirty blonde hair fell in her face as she turned her head to the side, not that she could do anything about it with her hands bound.

"Its about the heads."

"I said no."

"What's with them heads?"  Gnashing her teeth, China tried to turn further from him but there was no where to go.  Ben leaned in, pushing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.  Inches from her face he spoke softly, but even at a low decibel I could hear every word. "Your little freaky Christmas tree back in whatever you called it falls."

"...just a deterrent." 

"From?"  He tore another bite off of his ration.

She gave him a wide flirty smile, leaning forward. For a split second I saw Ben's eyes light up, undoubtedly he had started playing out some scene in his head of sneaking off with the wild girl while
Rylie worked on mission objectives.   "Being capable of freaky shit like that," she purred at him, "keeps guys like you off of girls like me." China spit right in his face.  "Pig."

With a laugh he wiped off his cheek with the back of
his palm, then leaned down smearing her saliva across the front of her shirt.  Muttering something about triple S under his breath as he walked over to Ethan.  Who quickly nodded in agreement.

I caught her eye for a second, long enough to send her an obvious look of disapproval.

Ben swaggered over to me, flipping through dusty brochures that had been meticulously arranged in a plastic display.

"Taking the time to consider your 401 selections Ben?" I asked, stretching my left leg out, rolling my ankle around in tiny circles. The tight fit of my boot limited the range but a stretch was still a stretch that brought relief to my tendons.

"Yeah I figured I'd up my contributions by two percent, check out by the time I'm thirty five and get a nice piece of beachfront property." The grin was a deception born out of routine, his lackluster gaze and flat tone conveyed no real merriment. Still I played on, with little else to kill the time it seemed the only proper option.

"Not me." I declared, raising my other leg for the same routine. "I'm going to pull out all my investments and go double or nothing at roulette."

He whistled high tone to low. "Oooo...high roller."

"You know it."

"I don't see how you two can joke around at a time like this." Ethan hissed, unfolding his arms long enough to re-tuck his already tucked hair behind his ears. Since we got in position he had been broodingly statuesque; his feet planted just on the edge of the flashlights beam, gaze focused solely on the thick mob in the street far below. In the thin moonlight the threat was virtually impossible to discern. Outlines of the dead lost in the darkness that enveloped everything except the hospital complex.

Ben shrugged."Have to keep light and loose dude, eat drink and be merry-"

"-for tomorrow we die." China muttered. We had found some zip cuffs in the security office of the department store. Rylie insisted on binding her, had even threatened a gag twice that I overheard.

"Just as long as
its not today." Ethan huffed, shifting his weight from his left leg to his right. I closed my eyes, focusing on taking deep even breaths. My ears picked up Ethan quietly asking Rylie if he needed any help for the fifth time.

Unlike the others I was not dreading what lay before us, rather I met it with anticipation boring on excitement. A madness in itself, but I could not shake the steady hum that resonated under my skin. It was a homecoming, a feeling of pending completion that defied logical explanation. Feeling light headed I focused on the buzz, laying my head back on the cold marble countertop someone had probably paid a small fortune for. With my eyes closed my mind painted a picture of a familiar face upon the endless black abyss; high cheekbones set under ice blue eyes, soft full lips that masked brilliant white teeth, thick black hair cut to accentuate a strong
jawline. His smile lazy and relaxed. Not the deadly creature I had seen in darkened streets, but the one who laughed with me. Cared for me.

Dimitri
.

A sickly sweet taste crossing my tongue, my heart beat pounding in my ears with a curious echo. Somewhere across the blackened night my severed limb waited for reattachment. Soon I would be whole, for only with him did I have purpose. I could almost smell him, hear his deep velvet voice calling to me within my own thoughts. Crying out in-

Agony. The pine scent of his skin dissipated, all I could smell was blood. A copper taste that would not leave my mouth. Perspiration coated my brow, dripping down the small of my back. Opening my eyes I wiped at my forehead, finding the liquid thicker, darker. Blood. Blood everywhere, my blood. Oh god...no. I couldn't waste it. He needs it. He needs me. I must go to him. Now I have to. Have to-

No.
Its not real. Rule your own mind.
Whatever aspects of my consciousness that remained property of Evelyn Younger cut through my laments, severing the thrall state I had willingly driven myself deeper into. Dimitri-more accurately whatever bond he had created when he tricked me into drinking his blood-was an addiction, one I desperately wished to succumb to. Yet I could not. Not now nor ever. I would not be a hollowed soul.

"Got it. Hold that."
Rylie announced loudly, pulling me from my thoughts. He indeed did have it, triumphantly holding up the large pane by handled suction cups stuck to the glass. Cold gusts of howling wind invaded through the hole we had created.

Ethan pulled the hook and cable out of the duffle. "Ready Candice?"

The wicked smile on her face was better than any verbal response she could have given. I watched in awe as she took the hook from Ethan and jumped out the window.

No, it wasn't a jump. It was as though she flew. Long blonde hair billowed behind her dark clothed form across the four lane road below as though it were nothing but a tiny puddle to hop over. For a fleeting moment I was stricken with envy. It seemed like only yesterday I was bed ridden and cane addled. An invalid incapable of caring for myself. To be able to soar like that was simple awe inspiring.

"Will you look at that!" Ben exclaimed. "She did it."

"Line's secure."
Rylie announced, tugging on his end.

"Who's first?" He tied the unsecured end of the line around the large U shaped desk in the room under the theory that it was too big to be pulled out of the window and appeared bolted to the floor anyway.

"No volunteers?"

"I'd go first but you'll have to untie me." China
commented sourly.

"You know what that is a damned good idea."
Rylie drawled kneeling down in front of her. With his pocket knife he cut her plastic bindings, never breaking eye contact with our prisoner. "If you die, its no skin off my nose." The scav glared at him, rubbing at the red ligature marks that lingered on her tiny pale wrists.

Ethan handed her the hook and harness combo, a big industrial clasp that fit around the wire that extended into the woven black material that clasped together to supposedly prevent the wearers demise. We'd had no problem picking up enough of the kits, the mountain climbing section of the sporting goods store had surprisingly been overlooked when the place had been pillaged.

Anxious trepidations flowed through us as we observed her struggle with the harness through to the successful clip of the hook to the line. No remorse was generated from our lack of assistance, she was an outsider to us. Despite her agreement to be of aid in our endeavor, the scav may as well have been the embodiment of influenza. A foreign element in our fully functional cell. The scav did not hesitate in her plunge out of the fifth story window. It was not a sign of fearlessness despite all her previous posturing. As much as she tried to hide it there were glimmers of terror hidden under that steel gaze. No, hers was a challenge. Actions taken to spite death rather than avoid it.