Luke Irontree & the Last Vampire War (Books 8-10), page 70
“It is.” Tomorrow night, he’d see what he could do while protecting himself from his new power. Convenience was no reason to endanger his life and his mission. He grabbed her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing the palm of her hand. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
She smiled warmly at him, love filling her eyes. “How could I do any less when you took such good care of me after you found me and brought me back to your manor?”
“There’s no balance sheet between us, Roxiustana Surena.”
“I know, dōšagīh. But the fact is, I owe you my life. You challenged a god to save me.”
“It seemed a small thing to have you by my side. I’d go much farther to save you if I had to.” And he would. He’d challenged Mithras to save her from the deadly compulsion he’d placed on them, returning them to a status quo. But he’d kill a god if it meant saving her. And that’s what he planned to do. A god stood in the way of their happiness and the happiness of any human who wanted to live a life free of the exploitation of fanged predators.
The other humans he’d fought for were an abstract concept. Leaning in to Roxi and laying his head on her shoulder, he sighed in contentment and reached up to stroke her cheek. He’d do terrible things to protect their future together and let the rest of humanity reap the benefits of the results.
It may not be the most noble of goals, but a humanity that would never know why it was safer wouldn’t care one way or the other. They would survive, and he would love.
Chapter
Seven
After the initial overdose, they stuck to mostly regular methods of making examples of vampires—stakes and their anti-vampire ordnance. With Luke recovered and staying in Portland for a while, the pack was able to increase their reach with all the extra bodies he normally took with him on his away missions. The only thing keeping them from being at full strength was the people still out with wounds and injuries from their assault on the vampires’ fort.
And grief.
There was still too much of that going around for their lost packmates, friends, and family. Though visiting Pablo was a Herculean struggle, he forced himself to go every day, despite the continued cold shoulder Tony gave him.
Luke could barely stand seeing his friend so pale and frail as he lay motionless, his chest steadily rising and falling as a nearby machine beeped. But Pablo had saved Luke’s life with the friendship they’d built, and he would never abandon his friend no matter how uncomfortable, angry, and grief-stricken it made him. He had to dedicate some of his strength to talking to his unconscious friend. Then, when he returned home, he could be weak in Roxi’s arms. He didn’t know where he’d be without her and their love for each other.
The best he could do for his friend, since he couldn’t magically heal him, was to make sure the entity that had caused Pablo’s condition was never allowed to do it to anyone ever again.
In contrast, the visits with Delilah were more enjoyable and less emotionally arduous. As she healed, her mood improved. As she neared the point where she’d be medically cleared, she grew more excited to rejoin her friends on the street.
But night after night, Luke and his raiders grew no closer to finding a vampire who knew anything of substance. So they kept hunting, killing, and sending out survivors to spread the tale. However, it seemed like the pickings weren’t growing slimmer. The city practically pulsed with the undead.
Since they’d returned to hunting and clearing the city, Luke turned over the operation to Delilah who was now well enough for the light duty of desk work and managing their hunting. He was glad to have her back, though he wouldn’t be fully happy until she could return to the hunt with him. Though one added benefit of her recovery, beyond his own feelings, was Simone’s brightened mood. With Delilah out of the clinic, Simone was practically giddy.
“Look at him run!” Simone said, a wicked grin on her face as they watched their chosen “lucky” vampire sprint away from the house they’d just raided.
“They’re very good at running,” Roxi said, sounding disgruntled. “That seems like all they’re able to do.” She twisted her sword in the chest of a dead vampire that lay at her feet, stepping back as she yanked her sword free.
“Another gooey mess.” Luke stepped back as the vampire oozed into the carpet. He looked up and glanced around the room. “When was the last time we dusted a vampire?”
He waited, but no one seemed to have an answer as they looked back and forth at each other. Taking a moment for himself, he tried to pinpoint the last older fanger they’d dusted.
“Not since the first night back from the fort,” he concluded. “What are they playing at?”
“I don’t know.” Roxi shrugged. “But we’ve killed a lot of their senior vampires over the last couple years. Maybe those they have left are out of position trying to hold down their own territories with all the new vampire hunters your videos have unleashed.”
That seemed plausible, but for some reason it didn’t seem to sit right with Luke. The conclusion they’d come to was that the vampire hierarchy was bent on his destruction and had dedicated vast amounts of resources to it. That fort couldn’t have been cheap or easy to build out in the middle of nowhere. He had to wonder if they’d pulled back their older vampires to prepare for some other plot to take him out.
Luke opened his mouth to voice his concerns when Sam’s phone rang, and she raised a hand to forestall him.
“This is Sam.” Her eyes narrowed. “What? Slow down. Where?”
Luke, Roxi, and Simone stood quietly, watching Sam as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
“Right. We’ll get moving right away. Call me back in ten with an update.” Sam ended the call and shoved the phone back into her pocket. “We have to get moving ASAP. I’ll explain when we’re on the road.”
They all stared back at her.
“Move!” Sam led by example, dashing toward the front door.
Luke, adrenaline dumping into his system, went on high alert, bringing up the rear to make sure nothing jumped any of his people as they fled the house they’d just cleared.
Once they were buckled in, Sam gave Simone directions then waited until they were rolling.
Luke, tired of being patient, leaned forward, stretching the seatbelt until it clicked to hold him in place. “What’s going on, Sam?”
She twisted around in the front passenger’s seat to look back at him. “One of the teams is in trouble. They called in an emergency to Delilah.”
“Did she give you any details?” Roxi asked, setting a hand on Luke’s thigh.
“Not much beyond that. Just that they’d encountered heavily armed resistance. Delilah is trying to get more teams headed that way. Once she’s got that taken care of, she’ll try to gather more details.”
“Right.” He fidgeted with his fingers. “Where are we going?”
“It was the team on Mt. Tabor,” Sam replied, turning to give Simone the next round of directions.
“That’s an odd neighborhood up there. Not a lot of roads in or out, and the layout isn’t great either,” he said, sinking back into his seat. “I don’t like it. It’s probably a trap.”
Sam gave him a few tight nods. “Yeah, I don’t like it either. But what choice do we have? Let’s just hope the location doesn’t suck.”
Luke’s eyes flicked about as they drove deeper into Southeast Portland. Clenching his jaw, he forced himself to keep his lips tightly closed instead of telling Simone to speed up. They didn’t need to get pulled over on the way to a rescue mission. Once Sam’s phone rang again, he tensed up more, waiting to hear what the updated situation was.
“Right. Right. Text the address… It’s already waiting?” Sam nodded along to whatever Delilah was saying. “OK. Thanks, Dee.”
Holding up a hand to stop anyone from interrupting her, she punched in the address on the truck’s GPS then turned around. “Delilah has the teams converging at a spot on the south side of the hill, along with a backup team assembling on the north side of the hill.”
Luke had caught a brief glimpse of the location before the GPS had returned to showing their next turn. The house the team had disappeared at was in one of the worst possible locations—backed up against the rough hillside in a curved street that ran along the extinct volcano’s edge. He didn’t remember the on-the-ground layout of the street; it had been ages since he’d been there in person. He just remembered thick hedges and weird elevations on both sides of the street.
“Any updates on the situation?” Roxi asked.
“No. Nothing new. I have the address the team checked in at before they penetrated the house’s perimeter.”
Luke could barely hear the words coming out of their mouths. Since tapping into a new level of his powers, Portland had felt alive—or undead—with too many vampires. He was starting to get used to it, at least a little. It still made his skin crawl, but now at least it felt like a background sensation.
But as they neared Mt. Tabor, the sensation smacked him in the brain. Panting, he gripped his left wrist tightly but gasped when he’d pinched too tight.
“Luke, what’s wrong?” Roxi asked, gently rubbing his shoulder.
“Vampires. Too many.” He forced himself to take in a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds to collect himself. “The closer we get, the thicker the feel is.”
“What do you mean?” Sam’s brow furrowed. “Are your senses getting even more acute?”
“I don’t know.” He thought about it for a second. “I don’t think so. Let me see if I can put it into words… Since we came back from the fort, my range has increased drastically. When we’re moving through a neighborhood, I can feel the tug and pull when we approach vampires. I can feel them fade and recede into the background when we pass by them. There’s never a break or a moment when I’m not feeling vampires.”
He paused, narrowing his eyes while he looked for an analogy. “It’s like cell phone towers. You get more bars the closer you get, then the bars go away until you’re handed off to another tower. I’m still feeling that right now. But ahead. On Mt. Tabor, I’m sensing a massive dark cloud waiting for us. The closer we get, the nastier it feels.”
Rolling down the window, he poked his face toward the onrushing air and tried to breathe in the cool wind to keep his gorge from rising.
“Roxi, do you feel it?” Sam asked, her eyes flicking back and forth between the two hunters in the back seat.
“Luke’s description works. I can feel it too, but much weaker. I still get breaks in the sensation when we get far enough away from a vampire house. Right now”—she rolled her eyes up in contemplation—“I can feel a pressure at the back of my head. It’s almost like when the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end but you don’t know why? Something wicked that way sits.”
“It’s bad?” A ridge of worry formed in the middle of Sam’s forehead, running from her nose to her hairline.
“It’s bad,” Luke said. “Really bad.”
“What’s our count tonight on active teams? Do we have more backups we can call in?” Roxi asked.
Sam fished her phone out of her pocket. “I’ll call and tell her to activate everyone and call in our allies.”
Once Sam finished with Delilah, she called Holly so she could alert the pack’s other regional allies. Luke, now that he had his stomach under control, sat, leaning to the side so he could watch the GPS unit. They were nearly there.
“Looks like we’re the first ones here. What’s the plan?” Sam asked.
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. Not until we get a better idea of the situation.”
Soon enough, they’d get their first look. Simone parked along the street at the spot the GPS indicated.
Luke stared out of the front window, blinking rapidly, trying to clear his watering eyes. “It’s almost like a palpable stench.”
“Hey, Sam,” Roxi said. “Doesn’t it look a little too dark?”
Sam leaned forward, staring out the window. “Yeah. It’s hard to tell through the trees, but there are hardly any houselights on.”
He exhaled quickly. “I hate to ask this, but I need one of you to put your wolf skin on and see if you can sneak up there and get an idea of what awaits us.”
“I’ll go. My fur is darker,” Simone said, unbuckling before peeling her clothes off.
As soon as she was naked, she shifted into her full wolf form. Sam opened her door and slipped out, making room for Simone to jump to the ground. Next to Luke, Roxi opened the small sliding window in the back of the pickup and the canopy, then crawled in, her scale mail rustling.
Grumbling and cursing, she stopped about halfway in. “Luke. I need you to push me the rest of the way in.”
Luke’s mood lightened a little. “Are you stuck?”
“Ugh. Yes. I am. My hips are too wide. Now push me in.”
“They’re such lovely hips, though,” he replied with a smile.
“I know. I’ve caught you looking at them enough, but that’s beside the point. Push me in.”
“OK.” He surveyed the situation. “I think you’re going to need to twist your hips some so they’re angled a bit better. Let me see if I can help you raise the side closest to me.”
“Alright.”
Luke slid over, ducking his shoulder to wedge it under Roxi’s right hip, then pressed up, trying to keep his force directed to just the one side. As he turned his head to make room for Roxi’s hip, he caught Sam, a fist stuffed in her mouth as she choked on her own laughter, recording the scene on her cell phone. A grin raised one corner of Luke’s lip, and he winked at his friend.
With a grunt, Roxi slid into the bed of the pickup with a thump that shook the large pickup. “Sam. Delete the video.”
“What video?” Sam gasped out between chortles.
“The one I know you’re recording.”
“Fine. I’ll delete it.” Sam made eye contact with Luke and shook her head as she tried to clamp her lips shut over her broad grin. “Deleted.”
“Send it to me,” Luke mouthed.
Sam winked and nodded.
“Just remember, Samantha. I’m the one in the back with the shotguns.” To emphasize the point, Roxi poked the butt of one of their Winchester M12s into the cabin of the truck.
Luke grabbed it and set it out of the way so it wouldn’t be visible to any random passersby. Shifting in his seat so he could reach easier, he took the next shotgun and the one after that.
“Only three?” Luke asked.
“Figured we can sort out Simone’s when she gets back. Didn’t want to have to stash one or leave it in the front if she was going to stay a wolf.” Roxi poked her head back into the cabin, sticking her tongue out at Sam before disappearing again. A moment later, she shoved a wad of cloth through the window. Next came their ammo bandoliers and three satchels with additional reload.
Luke pushed the pile of trench coats and ammo out of the way and extended a hand toward the window. “Ready?”
“Yeah, Roxi. Why don’t you climb back through the window,” Sam encouraged, her phone in her hand, ready to lift and record at a moment’s notice.
“Fuck you, Sam. Come let me out the back.”
“I mean… We wouldn’t want anyone to see what we have in the back. Now would we?” Sam tried her best to make her tone as reasonable as possible but just couldn’t hide the jocularity just below the surface.
Roxi’s eyes narrowed, her glare serious. “Sam. You’re a friend, so I’ll do it gently, but I’ll fully knife you.”
Luke, trying to hide his smirk, opened the door and walked around back to let Roxi out. Scowling, she stormed by Luke and climbed into the back of the truck. When he rejoined them, Roxi sat with her arms crossed and stared out the window, grumbling under her breath.
Sam, choosing the wiser path of withdrawing from the engagement, turned around to stare out the front window and watch for Simone’s return. Moving their gear out of the way, Luke slid next to Roxi and rubbed her leg. After a minute, Roxi huffed and turned toward Luke, leaning into him.
“I suggest you keep that video Sam sent you for personal use only, Roman.” She looked up at him, batting her eyelids flirtatiously, though the eyes were hard as agates.
“You know I’d never do anything to humiliate you.”
She reached up and patted his cheek. “Good man. Sam, I will trust you to only use that in moments of dire need.”
“You can trust my discretion, Roxi.” Sam winked jauntily before turning back around to watch for their wolfish friend.
A minute later, a dark blur darted across the street into the shadows of the bushes and trees running along the sidewalk. Sam stepped out of the truck, leaving the door open. A moment later, a medium-sized wolf with dark black fur jumped into the front seat. Shaking her fur, she sat then shifted into her human form. Once she was dressed, she panted for a few moments then slouched.
“What did you see?” Luke asked.
Simone turned to look into the back seat. “It’s eerie as fuck,” she said, her French accent thicker than normal. “The porch lights are out, and there aren’t any lights on in any of the houses. The streetlights are out too. Some looked broken. And with all the trees and bushes? It’s dark up there.”
“Did you see or hear any vampires?” Roxi asked.
“Yeah. And smelled a lot too. And…” She gulped, shivering a little. “And more. Death and decay. Dead bodies.”
Sam, still standing on the sidewalk, leaned further into the truck. “What were the vampires doing?”
“I only saw a few. They were staring out the front windows of a few houses. I caught the gleam of the light on the occasional set of fangs as they watched me walk through.”
Luke jerked around, his eyes narrowing. “They saw you?”
Simone shrugged. “Yeah. If there were as many as you said, someone was bound to see me and sneaking looks sneaky. So, I just walked through the neighborhood. I figured they have plenty of werewolf stooges, but they probably can’t tell werewolves apart.”
Roxi nodded appreciatively. “When subterfuge fails, be bold and act like you belong. It’s spy craft one-oh-one. Good job, Simone.”
