Obsessions: A Monster Squad Novel 7 (39 page)

Samael reached out and wrapped his mighty arms around her. “I know what you gave up. I know why.” He kissed her lightly upon the neck. “I was there, remember?”

“His God would have none of it.” Her voice cracked this time as she remembered. “I remember what the world was like outside that garden.” She spun on him. “Do you?”

Samael nodded. “And that is why I carried you off, away from that desolate place.”

She withered in his arms. “Tell me again it was worth it.”

“How can you say that? Had you not, we never could have been together.”

“I was marked. Barren. Never to bear children.” She turned and buried her face in his chest.

Samael stroked her back with a loving caress. “There are worse things than being cursed childless.”

“Like living forever.”

20

Mitchell keyed the coms again, “Reginald, tell me more of the Council. Why do you think they’re targeting either of us?”

He watched the vampire through Dom’s helmet cam. He inhaled deeply and shook his head slightly. “I cannot be certain. There are rumors amongst my people. Those who fought with your people in the desert were marked as traitors. We continue to hear the same rumors from different groups and then they…” He trailed off, unable to finish.

“They what?” Mitchell pushed.

“They disappear. No trace. As if they were targeted for the true death.”

Mitchell leaned back in his chair and was about to turn to Tufo when he remembered his XO wasn’t there. “Your people fought with us at Area 51?”

“Yes, we were there. We were asked to by the
Lamia Beastia
. We felt it was in our best interest to stand against the Sicarii.” Reginald saw the helmet cam and directed his gaze directly toward it. “We didn’t agree with the Sicarii’s agenda.”

“Yet, you aren’t
Beastia
.”

“No, sir, we are not. As I explained to your man here, we have people who volunteer to feed us. We do not turn them, nor do we kill them. We take only what we need for survival.”

“Yeah, I heard that.” Mitchell wasn’t sure if he quite believed him, but he accepted the man at face value for now. “And the altercation my people and yours have already had? I’m supposed to believe that you’re ready to let bygones be bygones?”

“Colonel, we have a common enemy. A very
powerful
common enemy. As I understand it, they are breaking covenants daily in order to push their agenda. They want only those who are fully loyal to their old ways.” Reginald squared his shoulders. “Had we announced who we were, and simply attempted to speak with your people, then there’s a very good chance no lives would have been lost.” He bowed his head to the camera. “I place all responsibility on my own shoulders and hold your men blameless. That is what a leader does.”

Mitchell watched as the man finally brought his head up and stared into the camera again. “I have told you all that I know. I can show your men where we disposed of the young vampires who caused so much mayhem. We ask only that we be allowed to pass through these territories untouched.”

Mitchell nodded to himself aware that the vampire couldn’t see him. “And where will you go?”

“North. Perhaps to the Canadian border.”

“You do realize that we cover Canada as part of our protected area of coverage as well.”

“Yes, we do. If you prefer, I will personally check in with you and give you our exact location. If anything out of the ordinary occurs in our lands, you will have a point of contact.” He stared directly into the camera again. “We police our own, Colonel.”

Mitchell inhaled deeply and nodded again. “Reginald, call me crazy, but I believe what you’re telling me. Put my man back on the line.” He watched as the Dom helped transfer the coms back over. “Sierra One, Reginald here is going to show your team where they disposed of the vamps who stirred up trouble. Get his contact info and wish his people well. Remind him to check in with us when they reach their destination.”

“Copy that, Colonel.”

Mitchell nodded to the communications tech and had the coms cut. “Deploy resources to Major Tufo as needed. Set a watch to maintain surveillance on Second Squad until they’re in the air and on the way home.” He leaned toward the tech running the satellite. “If there’s any way to keep tabs on the group as they’re traveling, do it. Tag them for automatic monitoring. I want to know everywhere they go between now and when they contact us again.”

“Trust but verify, sir?”

“Exactly.” Colonel Mitchell stepped down from the command platform. “Shift command back to Captain Jones. Make sure Jericho is up to speed on everything that happened here.”

“Where will you be, sir?”

“I need a drink.”

*****

Mick sat in the helicopter, his anger and frustration growing with each passing landmark. He stared out through the windows and saw the blackness of the coast approaching. He knew that once they reached the water, there was no turning back. If he was dropped off on that stupid island, he would be stuck there.

They had unshackled his hands, but his feet were chained to the floor. He stared at the simple lock and a panic rose in him. He extended a claw and slipped it into the keyhole of the lock. He wiggled it around and prayed that it would give. It didn’t.

Mick fought the urge to scream and then his eyes fell on the shackles around his ankles. He almost began laughing as he stared at them. He slipped his shoes off and allowed his body to begin shifting. He watched as his feet elongated and narrowed. The shackled slipped and fell from his legs, clattering onto the floor of the helicopter. He quickly shifted back to human form and slipped his shoes back on. He slipped forward and watched the two pilots as they controlled the rotary wing craft.

He wrapped one clawed hand around the throat of the pilot on the right and gripped tightly. “Turn us around! Now!” he growled into the man’s ear.

“I can’t. We have orders.” The man struggled against his grip, and Mick reluctantly ripped a jagged hole in his throat. He quickly jumped forward and caught the other pilot’s hand before he could bring the pistol to bear.

“Naughty-naughty, mate. Your chum here didn’t want to play nice. How about you?” He twisted the pistol from his grip and pressed it to the man’s temple. “Let’s turn the craft around nice and gentle.”

The pilot sneered at him. “Go ahead and kill me. Who would fly this thing?”

Mick smiled back. “I’m a pilot, mate. I only have about thirty hours in a rotary, but I think I could figure it out.” He pulled the hammer back on the pistol and pressed the 9MM Beretta to the side of his head again. “Your choice.”

The pilot cursed and began turning the craft around. “Good choice, mate.” Mick dragged the other pilot to the rear of the craft and dumped him over the shackles. Taking his position in the front seat, he pulled on the headphones. “Let’s be sure and land this thing far enough away from the hangar that they won’t know we’re back.”

“And then you kill me, right?”

Mick gave him a sideways stare. “Nobody else has to die tonight, mate. Your buddy there? I had to make my point. I knew that saying please wasn’t going to work.”

*****

Thorn pulled Jack aside. “Is everything in place?”

Jack tried not to react. Although he had worked through things in his mind, his heart still considered Rufus a traitor. He stiffened slightly and the reaction did not go unnoticed. “I…yeah. Everything is in place.” He reached into his pocket and pulled the miniature detonator. “As soon as they’re both in place, we flip this and…blooey. It’s done.”

Thorn gave him a confused look. “Why both of them?”

“We’re not sure who is the…” he trailed off, trying to remember what term Viktor used. “The…the main key to making it all fall apart.”

“It is she. She is the ‘key’. The blast will most likely only slow her. We will need to dismember her.” He glanced around to ensure there was nobody listening. “We will need a distraction for the angel and demons though.”

Jack gave him a sly smile. “I can arrange that.”

“Very well. I will do my best to get her inside. Perhaps a demonstration.”

“I’ll get my people ready.” Jack turned to leave when Rufus grabbed his arm.

“What do you have planned?”

“Trust me. You’ll know.” Jack gave him a wink. “I’ve got a couple of people on the roof that should be able to keep the others busy.”

“Then it will be up to me to convince her she will be safer inside.” Thorn gave him a slight bow. “Good luck.”

Jack took off and Rufus turned to find the demon queen. He approached the office and nodded knowingly to Viktor. “Find Paul and prepare your people. Jack is going to provide a distraction.”

Viktor stiffened. “What is he going to do?”

“He said he has people on the roof that can keep Samael and the demons busy enough for us to deal with Lilith.” Rufus looked around for her. “But we must hurry.”

Viktor rounded the corner quickly and found the vampire and elf loitering near the crate with the angelic weapons. The gnome was still in the rafters. Viktor made a few subtle hand signals and the trio responded in kind. Kalen opened the crate and dug through the coconut fibers, his hand resting on the handle of his bow. He stayed bent, his eyes scanning the area.

Rufus found Lilith and approached her smiling. “My queen, I believe they have the system up and running if you’d like to see how it operates.”

“Perhaps later. I have an issue to deal with now.”

Thorn bowed slightly. “As you wish. I just thought that since the technicians were here, if any problems arose then they could make repairs.” He turned to leave. “We’ll just have to hope that they got everything right the first time.”

Lilith stiffened and turned to him. “They are leaving?”

Rufus paused and turned back to her. “Well…
oui
. They are not part of our effort. They have other projects to finish for other clients. They simply rushed this one as a favor to me.” He gave her a smile and turned back to leave.

“Wait.” She came beside him and gave him a condescending smile. “Perhaps I can make time to ensure that everything is working as it should.”

“As you wish, my lady.” Rufus offered his arm which she ignored and walked ahead of him. He quickly fell into step behind her. She waited at the door of her office for him to open it and she stepped inside to see the command center they had put together for her. Ten flat panel monitors set up in a semi-circle, each of them displaying a slowly moving icon.

She sat gingerly behind the screens and waited for him to tell her what to do. “Move this small device. It is called a mouse.”

She moved it and the screens came to life. “Oh, brilliant!”

“Once the cell phone feeds start coming in, they’ll be fed to the main screen here, then you can decide which ones you absolutely
must
see.” Rufus beamed as she stared at the screens.

“How will I do that?”

“The mouse has two buttons. Simply click the left button with your finger.” He stiffened slightly. “Ah, but you need something to ‘click’ do you not?” She looked at him as if he were daft. He held up a finger. “Give me a moment. I believe we can simulate that for you. It won’t be the actual feed from your people, but it will give you an idea of what to expect. Just one moment.”

Rufus stepped outside the office and pulled the door shut. He looked to Jack and nodded. Jack keyed the coms on his collar and two of the skylights exploded inward.

Azrael glided inward, sword and shield in hand. The Guardian dropped from the other skylight and landed with a crash amidst a handful of demons. The mighty sword and hammer he held made quick work of the minions close to him.

Samael lifted his mighty head to see what the noise was. He tossed the crate aside that he had been loading into another truck. The crate cracked open, spilling the suicide vests onto the concrete floor as he stomped toward the noise. He watched as the soft glow yellow glow of his demons leaving their human hosts flew up and out of the warehouse. “Who dares?” he bellowed.

Jack flipped the switch on the detonator and the warehouse was nearly leveled by the concussive blow of the C4 exploding in two different directions. The directed blasts had no place else to go but up, destroying much of the ceiling above what was once the office. Each of Jack’s crew took shelter behind the heavy concrete columns.

As the shock wave passed, they stepped out and wielded their angelic weapons. They watched in silent fascination as hundreds of demons departed their broken human shells, yellow beams of light shooting upward and into the night sky.

Thorn and Viktor pushed past the debris of the office and began to dig for the remains of the demon queen. She had to be dismembered before she could revive herself.

Samael picked himself from the broken machinery he had been blown into and shook his mighty head, trying to regain his bearings. “What happened?” He glanced around what once was their safe haven. His eyes fell upon where he knew Lilith was and they shot wide with fear. “Lilith!” He clambered and fought to free himself from the twisted metal just as the Nephilim appeared before him.

“Demon spawn,” the Guardian sneered as he lifted his mighty hammer.

“A Nephilim?” Samael’s eyes widened and he lifted his arm to block the crushing blow just as Phil brought the great hammer down. The hammer glanced across Samael’s arm and smashed into the metal remains of the machinery.

“Son of Rafael, you Fallen abomination!” Phil swung the sword intending to decapitate the fallen angel, but Samael fell back into the twisted metal and lifted his free foot.

He caught the Nephilim in the midsection and kicked him back and away. Samael pulled himself free and jumped from the metal, his hand pulling up a twisted beam to use as a weapon.