Dread Nemesis of Mine (21 page)

"Leave him alone!" Katie yelled.

I looked up in time to see Amanda smack her
against the wall like a doll.

A rough hand clawed into my hair and dragged
me up. Amanda kneed me in the stomach and followed with a flurry of
blows to my chest. Every breath of air exploded from my lungs. I
sucked and heaved for oxygen. The vampire kicked my feet out from
under me and pinned me to the floor.

"You didn't think Maximus chose me just
because I can resist your incubus powers did you?" Her yellowed
fangs glittered in the light. "I've studied martial arts for over a
hundred years."

"Martial arts this, bitch," said Katie and
dumped a flask of silver liquid on Amanda's head.

The vampire screamed as the substance burned
the skin on her face. She flailed at Katie, but a gray hand caught
the vampire's and held it.

"These martial arts are interesting," said
the golem.

Amanda twisted away from the gray man and
backed off, wiping the silver liquid from her face. It left angry
red welts where it had been. "You think a little silver is going to
kill me?" she screamed at Katie. "I'm going to drain you dry, you
little tramp."

"I cannot allow such a thing," the gray man
said, and stood between her and Katie.

I jumped to my feet and stood beside the
golem. "Think you can take on two of us, Amanda?"

"Does a bear crap in the woods?" She
lunged.

I let go of my body, and let instinct take
control. Her fist flashed for my face. I dodged and felt the wind
from its passing. The gray man grabbed her wrist. I grabbed her
other arm as she overextended from the missed punch. Together, we
drove our knees into her stomach and slammed her against the wall.
She recovered faster than I thought possible. Kicked off the wall
and flipped forward, twisting at the same time. Her arms slipped
from our grasps. Amanda ran back up the stairs and vanished.

Katie stood up, rubbing her bottom, a pained
look on her face. "Oh, crap."

"We're going to have company." I looked at
the golem. "Where were you at the beginning of the fight?"

"I had returned to our prison room for a
moment. I am sorry for the delay."

"Yeah, well keep close from here on
out."

Katie clambered onto my back and wrapped her
legs around my waist. "Let's go."

At the top of the spiral staircase, a long
hall ran to the left and right, wide enough for four people to walk
abreast. The stone construction looked old but sturdy. Doors lined
the corridor to our right. To the left, the tunnel ended at a red
metal door with skull and crossbones on it.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"No idea. They keep it locked all the time."
Katie motioned to the right. "That way."

I jogged in down the corridor, and peered
inside the first open door. It had obviously been a prison cell,
converted into a room complete with a bunk bed and rug.

"This used to be a dungeon," Katie said as
we raced down the hall. "This is where most of the vampires live,
but thankfully, it's still dark topside, so they're probably all up
there."

A young woman stepped from a doorway and
yelped as we almost ran her over.

Katie motioned with her hand as we
approached a junction. "Take a left at the fork."

I nearly plowed into a guy and girl who were
making out hot and heavy just outside a doorway. Ahead, a group of
people mingled, drinking, laughing, and talking. Loud music started
up.

"Act casual," Katie said.

"With you on my back?"

"Yes."

All eyes settled on the gray man as our
group pushed through the crowded hall. From what I could tell, they
were all noms—normal humans.

"What's wrong with him?" asked a girl, the
alcohol on her breath concentrated enough to start a fire. She
grabbed at the golem's hand.

"Too much alcohol," Katie said, and then
yelled, "Giddy up, horsey!"

I made a whinnying sound and the crowd burst
into laughter as we galloped away. A moment later, we reached a set
of stairs leading up to an open archway.

"We have to be careful here," Katie
whispered in my ear. She climbed off my back. "It'll be better if
we walk. At the top of the stairs is the courtyard. We'll need to
take a right and go through a tunnel to reach the dumpsters."

I nodded and looked at the golem. Unless it
was pitch black, he'd stand out like a sore thumb in his gray suit.
I looked inside a couple of the rooms and found an open suitcase
with clothes about his size. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a T-shirt,
and a baseball cap. "Put these on."

"They do not match, Justin."

"I don't care. Now hurry!"

He stripped down to a pair of gray boxers
while Katie watched with uneasy fascination. His hairless body
appeared lean and muscular, his skin the same bloodless gray as his
face. He slid on the jeans and the orange soccer jersey, sliding
the baseball cap over his slicked-down, silvery hair last. Katie
stood on her tiptoes and spun the hat around backwards, then slid a
pair of wraparound shades on the golem's face.

She dusted off her hands. "Perfect."

The golem's expression never changed, but I
figured if he had a miserable look, this was it.

"Am I sufficiently disguised?" he said.

"Yeah." I ducked into a room and grabbed a
ball cap and shades for myself, slid them on. I waved toward the
stairs. "Lead on, Katie."

She went up to the archway and peered
through. Motioned us to follow. "Clear."

The compound looked like a fortress. A tall
wall ran around the perimeter. Adobe buildings of varying size
crowded the edges while a large brick-paved courtyard held the
center. The shadowy forms of vampires patrolled the tops of the
walls, and the courtyard was full of vampires. I'd expected them to
be partying it up like the humans below, but they were all
business.

Several long lines wended through the area.
At the end of each one stood vampires handing out rifles and
ammunition while yet another shouted squad assignments. Almost
without exception, each vampire wore a band around their arm with
the pierced heart of Blood Rush emblazoned upon it. No matter how
raw these recruits might be, this place was obviously built with
defensive capabilities. The Templars were walking into a slaughter.
I had to get out of here and warn them.

Gunfire erupted from somewhere across the
courtyard. Vampires shouted and raced toward the conflict, rifles
at the ready.

"Oh no," I breathed. "I think the Templars
are here already."

"We can get out and warn the others," Katie
said, tugging my hand. "That's about all we can do."

"What the hell are you newbs doing out of
the dungeon?" said an angry male voice from behind.

I turned and came face-to-face with an armed
vampire. "Just wanted to see what's going on, sir."

He grabbed my shirt and pulled me close. "We
told you—wait a minute. You don't smell human." His eyes went wide
and he opened his mouth.

A gray hand gripped his throat and squeezed.
The vampire struggled, but couldn't dislodge the hand. I walloped
him in the face and he went limp. Katie took the rifle from his
shoulder and slung it over hers.

"Carry him," I told the golem. "We can't
leave him here."

The gray man tossed the unconscious vampire
over his shoulder.

Somehow, we made it to the short tunnel and
emerged in the middle of overflowing dumpsters. Despite Felicia's
assurances, I spotted an arm poking out from one and shuddered.

The gray man tossed his unconscious
passenger in an open dumpster and closed the lid.

"Where is Felicia?" Katie said, looking
around the dumpsters while pinching her nose tight.

I checked the time. We were five minutes
past due, but surely that wasn't enough time for her to assume
something terrible had gone wrong and go looking for us, was it?
Katie vanished behind a dumpster. A moment later she made an
excited noise and reappeared.

"I found the exit Underborn told me about
and opened it. We can go."

"Not without Adam's sister."

"At least don't stand out in the open—"
Katie's mouth dropped open.

Amanda and a cluster of vampires rounded the
corner, guns drawn. Some had rifles. Others held pistols. They all
looked ready for blood.

Elyssa

Fausta clenched her fists. "Punishment?
Commander, have you ever known me to do something stupid for no
reason?"

He shook his head. "And that's what has me so
puzzled. You
were
on track to become an officer. But you've
thrown it all away by recklessly acting on misguided notions.
You'll be lucky to ever make up for it." Christian turned his gaze
on Elyssa. "And
you
." He shook his head. "You've been given
more chances than most."

Meghan appeared with Healer Delgado in tow.
"Before you condemn these loyal Templars, perhaps you should defer
to the experts, Commander."

He looked at Healer Delgado. "Do you have
anything to add?"

The woman looked a bit off balance, Elyssa
thought. Hardly surprising considering what Meghan might have told
her on the way over.

"I'd like to hear a full recitation of
events," Healer Delgado said after taking in the faces of the
others in the group. "Healer Andretti explained a few things on the
way over, but I'm afraid my mind is a bit discombobulated from all
the commotion."

Christian set his jaw but let Elyssa explain
everything, including her own experience with taking the White and
the dreams she'd had about the house with fog and rain in the back
and sunshine in the front. She also gave the healer the inside
scoop on Daelissa, the blonde so-called angel whose sanity seemed
to hang by a thread.

"Why have I heard nothing about this Daelissa
person being the Divinity?" Delgado said. "My god, if everything
Recruit Borathen says is true, we're in terrible danger."

"Our discovery about Daelissa was very
recent," Christian said. "Commander Borathen and I were discussing
how to proceed with the information. As you can imagine, this
revelation would be a shock to Templars."

The healer's eyes tightened. "Better to shock
them now than lead them to their deaths, Commander. We need to
question everyone and discover if these dreams are plaguing anyone
else, or if they're limited to Lieutenant Martinez."

"But they're just dreams," Christian said,
shaking his head. "I can't recall and abort a mission based solely
on one officer's unusual dreams."

"Wait," Elyssa said with a gasp. "Did you say
recall
? You mean, the assets are already in the field?"

Christian paused as if considering whether he
should answer the question, but relented. "Commander Borathen got
wind of Artemis's unofficial visit and knew he might try to stop
our offensive. In case you hadn't noticed, nearly half the legion
isn't here. We sent the stealth teams ahead and the remainder of
the force is waiting in the wings."

"Crap!" Elyssa's chest tightened. "You have
to recall them now. They're walking into an ambush."

"What is going on over here?" Thomas Borathen
said in a low voice as he pushed into the circle. He looked Elyssa
and the others over with his cold blue eyes.

Christian pondered the question for a moment
before turning to Elyssa. "Perhaps you should explain. Again."

Elyssa wanted to throttle him. "We don't have
time. When are they going in? Is it too late?"

"Someone had better explain the meaning of
this immediately." Despite the blaze of his eyes, Thomas's voice
was low and calm but not without menace.

Seeing no alternative, Elyssa spit out the
story once again, taking time to read the diary entries. Her
emotions warred within her as she read. Would Underborn still go
ahead with his rescue mission? Elyssa traced the outline in her
pocket of the arcphone Underborn had given her. She had to contact
him immediately and tell him what was happening. But she couldn't
let hundreds of Templars walk into a deadly ambush. This legion had
already lost good people during the attack on the drug lord,
Franco's, compound barely more than a week ago while trying to
apprehend Justin. Sadness nearly choked her as she read the diary
entry. Poor Justin. He'd been kidnapped by Franco, only to have
Maximus do the same thing to him.

The thought knocked loose the memory of a
conversation she'd had with Justin a few days ago. He'd recounted
his imprisonment at Franco's compound. How he'd nearly been beaten
to death before tricking them into bringing him a woman so he could
feed and regain his supernatural strength.

Franco and his right-hand man, Marcel—both of
them vampires—had supposedly kidnapped Justin for Maximus. In
return, Maximus was supplying them with weapons and ammunition.
Ammunition
. The cursed bullets Franco's thugs had used tore
through the Templar's Nightingale armor like it wasn't even there.
Elyssa cursed. So much had happened between that conversation and
now, but it was no excuse. Forgetting to tell them about the cursed
ammo was a deadly oversight.

"What is it?" Meghan asked.

Elyssa shook her head. "The ammo Franco and
his gang used to penetrate our armor wasn't something they made. It
was supplied to them by Maximus."

"Our people are still investigating those
bullets," Christian said. "We still don't know where they
originated, so how in the world could you know?"

She shook her head. "Justin told me. He said
Franco was bragging about Maximus being their supplier. If that's
the case, it doesn't matter if Daelissa knows our plan of attack.
Our armor can't stop those bullets, and our people don't know it.
They'll never even know what hit them."

Christian cursed.

Thomas pursed his lips. "Recall them," he
said. "Now."