Hard Days Night (The Firsts Book 8) (27 page)

“Done, Boss.
  See, Cheeto knows what he’s doing.  It’s just that fucking vampire, who saw that coming.”

Claude said nothing since he
saw that coming
and, even warned, Cheeto had still failed.

“Just, call me when you have her,” Claude finally said and the phone call ended.

Cheeto slipped his cell phone into his pocket and whistled while he walked back to his car.  It was going to be okay.

IN LONDON

Claude dialed Lamont.  When Lamont answered, agitated as usual,
Claude sighed and continued.

“My man in the U.S. has a little gift for us.  He’s
securing a woman that the big new vampire from Tasmania seems to have feelings for.  We’ve discovered that with a simple threat to their loved ones, they comply without problem to whatever we ask of them.  We may yet be able to influence a first blood to convert us.”

“Wonderful.  How soon will she be here?”

“My associate is still in procurement, but expects to have her secured by tonight.  You want her brought here?”

“I do, and as soon as possible.  In fact, I’m restless tonight. I think I’ll head to the facility to get some work done.”

“Fine,” Claude responded.  “I will keep you in the loop on the girl’s capture and transport.”

“I know that you will.”

Lamont left the conversation, leaving Claude staring at the screen of his phone.  Damn, that man was arrogant! 
I
know you will
.  It wasn’t a statement of confidence in Claude but a demand that he knew better than to fail. 

If this idea came to fruition, if they were both made vampire someday
, and more powerful because of that, Claude anticipated a battle to the death in that future between himself and the intolerable Lamont. 
Someone
had to be king.

On the street outside of Claude’s apartment in the highest building on the street, David, Taggert, and Xavier arrived in their
borrowed
car.  Their plan was simple, designed by Xavier.  Go in, blow the shit out of Claude, and go home.  No discourse, no delay, kill the motherfucker and get back to normal life without the looming threat of these assholes.

Xavier considered himself a simple man.  Complications had no place in his life.  Point one, Claude
was the enemy, had killed a lot of people and posed a significant threat to his race.  Point two, he dies. 
See? Simple?

At his side, David, quiet, agreed wholeheartedly. He had been held
for three decades and tortured into insanity by Lamont’s organization, and while Claude hadn’t been part of it, he was the next generation that would continue the torture. He had no sentimentality or mercy at this point for anyone involved with the SRS on Claude and Lamont’s level.  Find the enemy, kill the enemy. 
Yeah, it worked for
him.

Using air displacement to travel much faster than any human ever could, both men were up the stairs and outside of Claude’s apartment within seconds.
  Taggert would lag by quite a few minutes, but they didn’t want him there when they found Claude at first.  Just in case there was gunfire, Taggert was safer coming in after they entered the place.

“It’s quiet.  I can’t even hear him breathe,” Xavier said.

“You could hear that, even out here?  Maybe he isn’t inside, then.”

“Only one way to fully determine that.”
  Xavier, with all of the finesse he was famous for, splintered the entry door, and disappeared into the room. David, with a crooked smile, followed.  Rough, but he kind of liked Xavier’s style.  The huge vampire was results-oriented and that, too, worked for David.

After a quick search of the six generously sized rooms, it was clear that Claude was not in the apartment.

“He couldn’t have known we were coming,” David commented, as Taggert, breathing hard, entered the shattered doorway.

“No, unless…” 
Taggert’s expression was troubled.  “Unless he knew we were here when we
got
here.”   He scanned the room, his eyes landing on a desktop computer set into an elaborate wall unit and walked over to turn on the monitor.

Six divided views showed camera images, one clearly showing the three men now standing in the center of this
room.  Another camera angle faced the hallway outside of the door. 

Xavier rolled his eyes. “Fuck.  When do we get a break?”

“When we play as dirty as they are. They’re smart, I’ll give them that. They outsmart us every time.  I didn’t expect cameras at their residences, but I guess I underestimated their paranoia.”  Taggert shoved the monitor back and it tipped over.

David nodded. 
“Yeah, Eillia said once that they were the kings of surprise, and I guess they are.  We are just not used to thinking like soldiers.”

“Well, I am.  I should have anticipated this.  Not only did he get away, but now we don’t have surprise on our side.”

Xavier’s hand landed hard on Taggert’s shoulder, nearly shoving him to his knees.  “But we’ve got power and magics on our side.  We’ll get the motherfuckers, don’t worry, little human.”

Taggert had adjusted to the vampires, but this new one, aggressive and loud, spooked him.  He rubbed his shoulder and neck as he stepped closer to David.

“I’ll go back to the SRS and see if I can find out where he is.  When I do, I’ll text you and we can finish this mission.”

Xavier slammed a
fist down on a thick wood sofa table and broke it into two equal halves.  “Aye, do that.  David and I will be waitin’ in that restaurant we just came from.”

Taggert stared at Xavier for a few moments longer,
then flipped his phone out as he walked through the open doorway.

Across town, Eillia, Koen, and Ahmose walked up to the house that Taggert had told her was currently owned by Lamont.  It was a three story brownstone in a high-rent area, and while she figured there would be camera surveillance, she didn’t care right now.  Later, they’d take care of any video problems.  Right now, Lamont was the only concern.

Eillia spelled any openings to the house.

“Now, he won’t be able to leave. If he’s inside, we have him.”

Koen stared at her before they crossed the street.  “I’m using Xavier’s methods, you understand?”

Eillia nodded.  “I do and you will hear no request for mercy from me.  We kill him.  Well,
you
do.  I hate that man beyond belief for what he has done and what he would continue to do if we did not stop him.  But you are better suited to the task. Ahmose, I assume you’re okay with this?”

“Completely.
  I am the one who ended Windari last year when it was necessary.  I did not enjoy taking her life, but I stood on Mother Earth and when the judgment was rendered, I could not ask any of my brothers or sisters to do what I had proclaimed must be done.  I performed the task with respect.”  He paused, then finished his thought.

“I think it pleased her that it was I who ended her life.  That still disturbs me.”

“I can’t imagine something like that. You’re a strong leader, Ahmose.”

“My people mean everything to me. I would give them my life without question.  I can tell
, you would do the same.”

“Yes, yes, great leader,” Koen said, with typical Koen impatience and humor.  “But we need to get this done.  Later, if you like, you two can continue the mutual admiration society.”

While there was no chance of escape with Eillia’s magic sealing the house, if Lamont was in the house, Koen just wanted this finished.

“I’m sorry, Koen, you’re right.  Let’s go.”

While Koen did not destroy the door as Xavier had done, he did break off the handle as he crushed it and shoved the door in.  Eillia swept through first, her empathic skill reading the lower rooms quickly.

“He’s not here.  Let’s try the next story.”

She couldn’t read him?
  Koen thought,
fuck this isn’t
going to go our way again, I know it
. 

And it didn’t.  After checking all three levels, the house was empty.  Ahmose found a panic room on the second level, but
no one was inside.

At that moment, the silence was sliced by the low tones of
Eillia’s cell phone.

She answered instantly, and heard
Taggert’s pleasant voice. If she wasn’t mated, she would have used the term sexy, but Daniel would not have liked her thinking about him like that.  She’d told him that she never thought of any other man sexually, and he knew that, but his vampire nature, hot red blood, still found that possessive streak he couldn’t deny.

“Taggert.
  Please tell me you were successful.”

“I’m afraid I can’t.  Claude wasn’t home.  More accurately, if he
was
home, he knew we were here, had an escape route, and got the fuck out of there.  You?”

“My target wasn’t home at all.  I can feel a sense of him, and it’s distant.  He hasn’t been here for at least an hour.  I’m inclined to speculate he was just absent, not aware that we were after him tonight.”

“I agree.  There’s no way they knew we were coming for them.  It’s just that the surveillance here was unexpected.  I don’t know what the fuck went wrong there.  All of my recon shows both men in their residences every night long before now.  Something must have happened to draw Lamont away.  Fuck the timing!”

“Indeed.  Okay, let’s meet and regroup. 
The café?”

“Yeah.
  Xavier’s already mentioned it.  We’re on our way.”

Ending the call, Eillia turned to the two men beside her.

“Sorry, Koen, bloodshed will have to wait.”

Koen looked around the townhouse.  “I’m going to stay and check this place out first,
then I’ll join you guys.”

Ahmose began to move toward the second story.
“I will remain, too.  Perhaps something will lead us to him.” 

Eillia nodded to her dedicated team.  “All right, but call me if anything happens, if he comes back, if you find anything at all.”

Koen waved a hand to her absentmindedly as he perused a hand-written book that had been lying on a tabletop in the foyer.  “It’s Lamont’s.  Fuck, he keeps a diary.  Well, this should be interesting reading.” 

He tucked it into his coat pocket and glanced up at Eillia.  “Go on, meet the team, I’ll call, I promise.”

With raised eyebrows, because she knew he wouldn’t, Eillia hurried out of the house and headed back downtown.

IN L.A.

After killing a decaffeinated cup of coffee, Mal dressed and went to her door.  The last minute check for her gun, properly holstered, and her badge, stopped her at the door for a moment, but as she started to pull it open, she paused, her hand just above the handle.

When she opened the door, she would be face-to-face with Tommy’s apartment door, and her heart pounded.

No way around it, she just had to accept the pain that would come, and it would, and walk past to get to the station so she could avenge his murder.

Swallowing hard, she turned the knob and pulled, closed her eyes, then opened them to see the door across the hall in its usual closed position.  Everything looked so normal, even though it wasn’t.  She imagined Tommy’s wife, who she knew wouldn’t have stayed there last night, and how much pain she was in right now.

Life sure beat the fuck out of you sometimes, didn’t it?

It was
Mal’s job at a time like this to get justice for those that fell when life took a wrong turn, like Luka and Tommy.  She wouldn’t fail.  It wasn’t even an option here if she were going to beat the same nasty fate at the hands of the same creature.  Her own life, and her child’s, lay in her success in killing Canzone.

Life beat the fuck out of you, but you couldn’t let that destroy you.  Even beaten, you had to rise back up and go on with that life, against all odds.  That was the path she trod now.   Her choices boiled down to the simplest ones in her life.

Kill the man before he killed her, and find her little piece of heaven.  Raise this beautiful child, happy and safe.  Simple.

When she walked into the station, heads turned sharply.

“Detective, what the hell are you doing here?”

Captain Kordalis yelled across the big room and every head turned towards him.

Mal started towards him.  “We have to talk.”