Forbidden Days (The Firsts) (35 page)

Jake looked at Bas.  Bas put his hand on his second’s shoulder.  “It’s alright.  Koen, we’re not going in to battle.  We want to find out who the rogue is who is killing our people.  If we spook him, if he takes off, he’ll be in the wind and that much more dangerous.  So, thank you, but my team can handle it.”

“He’s a threat to my daughter.  I want to do this.  All you need is me.”

“But we’re just doing recon,”  Jake said.

“Little vampire, I can
do
recon.”  Koen had made up his mind.  He was going to the b and b.  

Bas shrugged his shoulders.  “Okay, Jake, just you two.  Do it as carefully as you can.”

Koen followed Jake out of the compound on sleek motorcycles built, as much as possible, for stealth riding.  The engines were quieter than most and let them slide down the street in front of Alvin’s b and b headquarters.  Koen waited with Jake beneath some trees, hidden from normal eyes.  They knew that wasn’t the case with the residents, but  they really didn’t care enough to try harder at concealment.  If they didn’t know they were being watched, they were bigger idiots than Bas’s people had already decided they were.

Koen laughed.

“Is that your great enemy?”  He asked as Shanks came out the door, killing a huge bag of potato chips and pitching the empty bag on the ground.

“No, but he’s the one Bas wants.  He’s killed some good people, a few of them vampire.”

“Okay, I’ll kill him.”  Koen started to raise his hand, and Jake put his out to stop him.

“No, we’re recon only.  Bas wants to know who is behind this.  It isn’t Shanks.  He doesn’t want the leader to escape to kill again some other time.  We all want to know why.”

“Yeah, me, too.  To my knowledge, there has never been a vampire coup.  This one is doomed, of course, because you have Eillia and me here.  We’ll win it for you.”

“I appreciate that.  We don’t want to kill the compels or blood-bonds, though.  Just the vampires.”

Koen scowled.  “Picky.  Alright, you just guide me to whatever you want to happen and I will make sure it does.  Look, I can take them all out here, right now, and save you all the trouble.  I’m not risking my daughter just to satisfy her little vampires need to protect some humans.”  He rolled his eyes when he saw Jake hesitate over his statement.  “I’m not saying they’re not valuable.  I’m just saying they might have to be collateral damage.  Family comes first, always.  You know that.”

Jake nodded.  Still, he wasn’t on board with wholesale slaughter.  “I agree, on theory.   But…”

Koen lowered his head and captured Jake’s attention.  “Maybe this will help.  I can override any compulsions.  So, I’ll just send them out to you.  How does that sound?”  Jake considered the idea.  Koen looked him in the eye.  “I’m not asking permission.”

Oh.  Jake nodded.  He was still cautious about this huge ancient powerful vampire that he knew was one of the fathers of all vampires…and he wasn’t about to countermand him.

Koen got off his bike.  “Stay here.  When they come out, they’ll be under my compulsion to go home.  If you can help them, okay.  If not, they’ll figure it out anyway.”  He moved forward and entered the house. Jake waited for an explosion of sound, but it never happened.  No gunfire, no screaming.  About five minutes later, several male humans began to wander from the house.  Then several partially dressed women.   They were as confused as any compel right after the event.  He hesitated to go to them…there was a chance this could be a trap.   He wondered if Koen was as unbreakable as he thought he was.

But then he heard some odd sounds…like nothing he’d ever heard before.  There were perhaps a good thirty men now outside the house, still wandering, but some had teamed up into little groups.  Jake decided to leave them to suss this out alone.  His concern was for Koen, now. 
Was
he okay?  Or had Shanks and his boss had a surprise waiting for him?  He had his cell dialed in to let the household know that their recon had turned into a search and destroy, when Koen strolled out of the house.

Jake scanned the property and saw no movement at all.  As Koen got back on his bike, Jake looked at him expectedly.  Koen looked back, and then did a double take.

“Oh, you want details.  Twenty new vampires inside, completely under Sire control.  They answered me, though, when I asked their goal.  They said they were to kill every vampire in the stronghold.  Any moving thing, actually.  I can’t override that.  No survivors.  Their only order beyond that was to bring Bas and his girlfriend to him alive, if possible.  That’s my daughter.  I had to remove them, sorry.  Your rogue vampire.  He wasn’t inside.  So, he’s still a threat.  He dies the second I see him.  Just an FYI.”

Jake knew Bas would have no problems with that.  So, if only the instigator had been present.  Had they known they were coming?  They couldn’t have.  Could they?  Jake began to consider possibilities.  He trusted his entire staff.  But there were always chances for breaches.  He’d have to work this out.  Right now, they needed to get back, report in, probably get a reprimand.  At least no humans were harmed.  It did seem like the first bloods could help keep the damage lower.  Jake glanced at Koen.  He had to admit, he
was
impressive.

Shanks had a huge smile on his face.  They’d come, but they hadn’t gotten much.  He wondered, though, who the big one was who walked into the enemy camp with no weapons and no backup.  That surprised him.  He’d known they found Alvin’s b and b, and expected either an attack or surveillance force, but that big vampire…he didn’t know what was happening there.  Maybe he just had enormous vampire balls.  Maybe he thought he was invincible.  Maybe he didn’t believe Shanks had enough army to oppose him.   And the army he’d left behind as a welcoming party…no, they hadn’t been enough.  The others, who were housed six miles down the road in a small cabin lodge hidden in the woods…that force could do some damage.

He’d moved everyone yesterday night on Alvin’s orders.  They were ready, though.   When the sun dropped next, they would go.  And afterward, he was on a red eye out of there to Dubai.  Time to forget this place and party.

Distractions were in place.  Alvin could read Shanks like a large print book.  He’d been helpful and compliant in the beginning…eager, even.  But now he was just a tiny vampire with delusions of godhood.  He’d go down with the rest of them.  What he did
not
know, was that Alvin had different plans for the real attack.  He knew his shitty little weak army was doomed…he wasn’t new to this vampire world.  He’d been around long enough to know how powerful Bas and the other older vampires were.  Plus, the attack would happen during the day…before the expected attack.   Alvin licked his blood covered fingers.  They’d never see it coming.

The team was camped outside of the target zone two miles north.  The client wanted them no closer, for some reason, until the mission was engaged.  Okay.  They were extremely well paid for this one…that bought unqualified orders observed to the letter.

Daniel watched the sky darken on their last night on this rise, cedar trees all around in making magnificent canopies, along with oddly twisted Arbutus evergreens.  The guys had brought in some nice rations and a good supply of beer and whiskey.  But it burned his ass to sit here isolated for three days.  Still, the money was impossibly too good to turn down.  The mission…very few details.  He didn’t like it, but that was the nature of a merc’s life.  Any principle you might have has to be shut off…you do the job…period.

This one was not only a great payday…it was off the charts intense.  Complete destruction of a large house and outbuildings.  Stealth attack.  He’d been assured little to no resistance.  He hated the daylight hours specification, but he’d been warned of much greater resistance if he didn’t comply.  It was mandatory…mid morning on the sixth day of the month.  Roger.  Mission will be accomplished to the client’s specs.  He chugged his remaining whiskey.  Get some rest tonight.  Make sure the guys did the same.

He pushed the tent flap back and crawled out.  Half his team was around a fire, covered by a black tarp to hide from aerial surveillance.  The others were doing final check on weaponry.  His research and recon had shown the target to be very well fortified and  protected.  But it was almost impossible to defend from an attack of this level.  The bombardment would be multilevel, and the weaponry outstanding.   Once the local forces were eliminated, snipers would move into place to take out anyone leaving the buildings after the bombardment began.  Javelins, shoulder launched missiles, would tear through anything.  Then the snipers with military issue rapid fire automatic M249’s would take out survivors.

He was to leave multiple teams in place through the night outfitted with those highly efficient rifles and infrared night vision eye wear to intercept anyone who might be leaving concealed tunnels beneath the house after dark.  This was the part that freaked him out.  The client was insistent…anyone found leaving the facility at night was to be fatally shot…and then beheaded.  He was to take photos of every beheaded individual…with a million dollar bonus for every nighttime survivor they decapitated.

“Gitz….we’re finished.  Everything is ready.  All weaponry is loaded, all mags filled…canisters checked…decap tools…”  His second in command told him.

Daniel’s team referred to him by the first syllable of his last name, as they did with many of the men.  It created a closeness, a camaraderie his teams had built…needed…for the work they had to do.   It was gruesome, tasteless, hideous work.  Some of them, it bothered, others couldn’t give a shit less.  He himself had done the job for over ten years now.  Made him a very, very rich man.  He knew, though, after this one…he’d be set for life…he was leaving the job.  He couldn’t do it anymore.  He’d lost the ability to remain impartial, uninvolved in the fate of his targets.  He’d accepted this job only to fund not only his own escape from the life, but ten of his men who had families and wanted out.   They were like brothers to him…it was the last kind thing he would do for them.  And then they would move on with their lives and never see each other again.

“Okay.  Let everyone know.  We rendezvous with support at seven am.  They can party until midnight.  Then they need to get their beauty sleep.  I’ll see you at six.”

“Joining us, Gitz?” another soldier asked him, handing him a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“Not tonight.  Paperwork.  Price of being the boss.”

There was no paperwork.  It’s just that he couldn’t party with the guys like in the old days.  He opened the bottle of whiskey and drew long and hard.  His eyes squeezed hard.  Yeah.  He was done.  One last job.  He’d do it right, go out strong.  But he’d be in Bali by Monday next week.  Let the dreams stop.  Try to live down the nagging guilt that had crept in over the past few years.  This job…it shredded your soul…if you had one.  Daniel hadn’t thought he did when he was a young hard body with a big gun and the ego of a god.  He’d been wrong.

It was a formidable compound.  Isolated, well defended,  high walls, security cameras.   But they weren’t expecting forces as great as Daniel’s teams who excelled at this type of thing.  Sadly, and he knew this, many of the guys
enjoyed
the kill.  He’d hired them only for this mission, which had required resources vastly beyond any normal job.  The target was almost impenetrable.  Almost.  Anyplace can be compromised by forces who are well prepared, well-armed, and motivated with no concern for anyone’s safely, including their own.  These guys lived on the high adrenaline rush.  Many of them would die by it too.

Jack Daniels was a good friend.   He kept the bottle with him as he went out the back of his tent and walked away from the noise and laughter of the young soldiers who were eager to get to it the next day.  Between the high tree tops, a perfect sky glinted at him…brilliant sparkling stars on a pitch black canvas, sprinkled heavily like salt spilled on velvet.  They were greater than these small lives playing out here on this tiny planet.  They were here long before he was, and would be here long after he was gone.   He felt irrelevant.  That was good.  He was.  Another deep swig of JD and he knew it was enough.  He had a job to do, one last time, and needed a clear head.  His tent waited in the darkness for him to try…
try
to sleep.

Night ended too soon, and Park had to kiss her father goodnight for a third time.   She wondered if it were possible to split your cheeks from smiling too much.  Surrounded for the first time in her life by people who loved her, and who she loved as much, with a child coming soon, she had the life she never, never dared to dream.

Eillia pushed past Koen to kiss her, too.

“My dear, tomorrow we will work on your talents.  Your pregnancy should actually enhance your psychic gifts.  I’m excited to see what you can do with your telekinesis when you really focus on it.”

“I’m so glad I have you to teach me.  When…when
it
happened when I was with my mother, it terrified me.  I think it terrified
her
.”   Eillia was becoming the mother, sister, friend she had never had.

“She needs her rest, everyone.  We’ll see you at breakfast.”  Bas took her hand and started to lead her out.

Park turned to look at her new family collected around the lounge area.  Burne and Zach, who were arguing in a corner about the winner of a silly video game, Dez snapping off the television and giving them all a curt hand signal as she went off to rest.  Hamid, collecting Eillia’s cell so they could do the same, coming up behind her and kissing her on the neck.  Such a beautiful history of love.  She imagined herself and Bas doing the same centuries down the line and felt her head spin at the idea.

And the big aggressive vampire who’d been alive forever, who turned out to be one of the most gentle people in her brutal life, who loved her unconditionally, because they belonged to each other.  A kitten in the body of a lion.  She smiled at them all and then turned to take Bas’s hand, and indeed saw herself doing that over and over for eternity.