Specters: A Monster Squad Novel - 8 (34 page)

“Well, yes, but—”

“No buts.” Jameson leaned forward, preparing to hang up. “They will face the Council and destroy them. Then they will face the Monster Squad and destroy them. If they aren’t up to those tasks, then they simply aren’t worthy.”

“So, what? We wash the project down the drain?”

“Of course not, dear boy. We simply create a better monster hunter.”

18

“What do you mean we can’t appropriate that building? I already cleared it with General Litchfield’s office. They said that nobody wanted that building because of the condition and—” Mitchell got cut off and clenched his jaw while the woman on the other end of the phone made excuses.

He pinched at the bridge of his nose and did his best not to yell. “Ma’am, I understand that, but we were assured that we could utilize that building as long as we were willing to renovate to current code and standards and we agreed to in order to ensure the security of our operations. General Litch—” He was cut off again, except this time she explained that somebody much higher up, from the Pentagon, had authorized the use of the three-story office complex, and the new tenants were already making renovations.

Mitchell groaned and leaned back in his chair, the fight having left him. “In other words, there’s not a damned thing that neither I, nor General Litchfield can do. Somebody with more brass than brains has already made the decision.”

“That is correct, Colonel.”

Mitchell fought the growl rising in his throat as he thanked her and hung up. “More bad news, I take it.”

“You could say that.” He turned and filled his coffee cup again, wishing for the umpteenth time that it was scotch. “We lost the building across the way that Bigby set up in.”

Jennifer nodded as she tried to find a silver lining. “I suppose if somebody is utilizing the building, the odds are much lower that somebody else can do what Bigby did, correct?”

Mitchell shrugged. “I suppose.”

Jennifer fought the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “So what is the proper military protocol when you get a new neighbor? Do you take them a cobbler or a pie and welcome them to the neighborhood?”

“You’re not funny.” Mitchell sipped the coffee and lifted his blinds to study the two men down in the lab.

“I really wish you’d lighten up a bit.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and nuzzled his neck.

“When all of this is put to rest, I’ll do my best to take a little time off.”

Jennifer snorted and hid her face. “I thought you said there was always some sort of threat that needed your attention?”

He gave her a sidelong glance. “Did I?”

“I believe you did.”

“Hmm. Well, maybe I should choose my words more wisely in the future.”

She stepped between him and the window and gave him a devilish smile. With a sudden jerk of her hands, she pulled open her blouse and exposed herself to him. “Maybe if I can distract you from all of these worries.”

Mitchell opened his mouth to comment just as his office door burst open. “We have an operator miss—Oh, my God!” Tufo spun on his heels and headed back out of the office.

“Would it kill you to learn how to
knock
!” Mitchell yelled.

“I didn’t see a damned thing!” Tufo yelled from the hallway. “And for the love of Pete, turn up the heat before she catches her death!”

Mitchell ground his teeth while Jennifer laughed and refastened her blouse. “Go. See what’s so important.”

“I’m gonna kill him.”

She placed a hand on his cheek and gave him a loving smile. “We’re wolves, my love. Nudity doesn’t faze me.”

“But it was
him
.” Mitchell’s eyes narrowed.

“Go!” She pushed him toward the door, tears of laughter forming as he reluctantly left.

Mitchell did his best to stomp menacingly toward the OPCOM. He threw open the door to find Mark sitting at attention in the command chair, his eyes glued straight ahead at the overhead screen.

Mitchell shut the door and stepped to the chair where Mark refused to even blink. “What was so damned important that you felt it necessary to interrupt,” he glanced around the room and cleared his throat, “such an important meeting?”

“Gus Tracy has been abducted.” Tufo’s eyes continued to stare straight ahead. “And let the record reflect that I didn’t see a thing.”

“Bull cookies.” Mitchell glanced to the boards and checked the readouts on the drone. “Anything on the thermals?”

“Negative, Colonel,” the drone operator responded. “We’re doing an expanding grid, but so far we’re not picking up anything larger than a raccoon.”

Mitchell glanced to Tufo, his face a mask of confusion. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Turn up the heat in your office?”

“No! For the love of…underground tunnels!” Mitchell slammed a fist down on the rail between the command chair and the technicians. “If they nabbed Gus and they’re not reading on the thermals, they must be travelling through some kind of tunnel system.”

Mark’s eyes widened as it suddenly became clear. “That area is supposed to be eat up with caves. Who says there can’t be tunnels connecting them?”

Mitchell nodded to the coms officer. “Notify Delta Actual. Tell him to keep his eyes peeled for any kind of underground access. And for God’s sake, be careful out there.”

*****

“Chief Jack, the Wyldwood asked that I provide guidance while here and I must profess that this course of action is foolhardy at best.” Allister took a half step forward, his face unreadable. “Might I suggest that you take a moment to calm yourself and—”

“When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you. Understood?” Jack pointed the angelic blade in Allister’s direction, sending the griffin back the half step he had advanced. “That goes for all of you. If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.”

Azrael’s brow furrowed as he spoke. “We’re either with you or against you? Is that what it’s come to, Chief Jack? Because the last I heard, you were our leader.”

Gnat stepped from between Azrael’s legs and propped his familial war hammer across his shoulder. “Aye. I pledged my allegiance to you, Chief Jack. To live, fight, or die by your command.” He glanced across the room to the others. “I stand by that pledge. Even if I believe your threat to be foolhardy as Allister has proclaimed.”

“Nobody wants Brooke to live more than I, Chief Jack.” Kalen stepped between him and her immobile form. “But I also understand that we must not suffer the demon queen to live. The risk is too great.”

Jack felt the sword becoming heavier in his hand and he slowly lowered it. “There has to be another way. There just has to be.” He looked to each of his warriors and saw the sorrow in their faces.

Kalen leaned down beside Brooke and gently kissed her forehead. “It is time.”

Jack watched his body move forward as if on autopilot. His mind was still searching, doing its best to find another way out of this, but it felt as though he were drugged. As if he could no longer think properly.

He reached the table and stood beside Brooke’s still form. He glanced to Kalen who was wiping tears from his eyes. A glint reflected from the Gatekeeper and Jack’s hand reached out, grasping the elf by the wrist. “Call her.”

“Who?”

“The Wyldwood. Maybe she knows of another way. She has the gift of sight. Maybe she has seen another way.”

Phil crossed his arms and muttered, “You are grasping at straws.”

“It’s worth a shot, dammit.” Jack pulled Kalen’s arm up until the stone was in his face. “Use it.”

Kalen nodded. He stepped away and turned his back on the others. He waved his hand over the stone and waited for the light to shine through. It took longer than he had hoped but eventually Loren’s face reflected through the stone. Kalen sighed when he saw her reflection.

“You know what we face, Wyldwood?”

She nodded solemnly. “And I knew you would face it, young warrior.” Her eyes reflected the sadness that he felt. “I tried to warn you not to become involved with her.”

“Tell me there is a way to save her and still destroy Lilith. Please. I will do as you ask. I will renounce my feelings for her and return home, never to…”

“It cannot be, Kalen. The Brooke you know is already gone.” The Wyldwood lowered her face, and when she peered back into the stone, he saw the tears streaking her face. “For two spirits to inhabit one body, one must be destroyed. That is why Lilith cannot possess a body with a soul. The essence of her spirit would be destroyed.”

“But Brooke has no soul, Wyldwood. She is vampire. You know this.”

Azazel nudged Jack and nodded to the elf. “To whom does he speak?”

Jack whispered back, “Only the wearer of that bracelet thing can see and hear the person speaking through it on the other side.”

The Wyldwood nodded. “Yes, Kalen, but she still has her spirit. That is her essence. It is what makes her,
her
. It is her emotions, her feelings, her memories, the very thing that makes Brooke who she is. Once Lilith took over Brooke’s body, a large part of her essence was destroyed. The longer Lilith has been within her, the more of it she has destroyed. If you could remove Lilith without destroying Brooke’s body, she would be little more than a ghoul. A mindless zombie. A mere shadow of the woman you once loved.”

The Wyldwood choked on her next words and it almost made Kalen break down. “You would be granting her a mercy if you ended her life. I am so sorry, Kalen.”

Kalen shook as he stared at the reflection in the Gatekeeper. “Why didn’t you warn me? I could have stopped her from going. I could have saved her!”

His anger was palpable, and the Wyldwood didn’t back away. She allowed her tears to continue flowing as she replied. “It was predestined. All of the visions were the same. Brooke had to be sacrificed to destroy Lilith forever. She had to be in a mortal body. She couldn’t be destroyed in her original form.”

Kalen screamed and pulled the Gatekeeper from his wrist. He threw it across the room and pounded his fists on the table.

Jack stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell us what she said. We can pretty much tell from your reaction.”

Kalen hung his head and sobbed. “She knew.”

Jack leaned closer. “What?”

“The Wyldwood. She knew this would happen. She said it had to be this way. It was the only way that Lilith could be destroyed completely and forever. She couldn’t be killed in her original form.” He lifted his reddened eyes and peered into Jack’s. “They sacrificed Brooke to meet that end.”

Phil stepped forward and reached for the sword that Jack held. “Perhaps your fight is with the elves and not with the angels.”

*****

Laura pulled her Jeep into the parking lot at the hangar and killed the engine. She glanced up at the rusty old hangar and smiled. “Be it ever so crumble, there’s no place like home.”

Stepping down from the four-wheel drive vehicle she left her bags in the back and headed for the doorway. The guards at the guard shack gave her a mock salute when they saw her approach.

“Please tell me you’re here to stay.”

“If they’ll still have me.” She gave the sergeant a smile and a pat on the arm as she walked past and through the open roll away door.

The familiar sights and smells assaulted her as soon as she walked in and the first thing she wanted to do was run down the stairs and throw herself at Evan. She turned and stared at the stairwell. Three flights down and a quick left should take her straight to his lab.

“No time like the present.”

She hit the door at a jog and took the stairs two at a time. When she pushed through the metal doors that led to the large floor with Evan’s lab she could feel her heart racing. With each step, she could feel the muscle in her chest hammering to escape. She saw the clear acrylic walls of his laboratory and her breath caught in her throat.

She mounted the steps and launched herself through the doorway. “Hi, home, I’m honey!”

Evan spun on his chair and his eyes widened at the sight of her. “Laura?”

“I missed you.” She ignored the man sitting across from him and closed the gap between them. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her for the longest, deepest kiss they had ever shared.

The man sitting at the table cleared his throat and squirmed while she ran her hands through the vampire’s hair. Finally he muttered, “If this is how you ‘eat’ somebody, I’m glad you opted not to eat me. That could get a little weird for me.”

She raised one hand and gave the man a one fingered salute.

When the pair finally broke loose, Laura was gasping for air. “God, I missed you.”

“Me, too,” Evan stammered. “I mean, I missed you, not that I missed me, too.” He blushed slightly and did his best to straighten his lab coat again.

Laura glanced to the side and raised a brow at the man sitting across the workbench. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh. Uh, well, technically, he’s not my friend, per se. I mean, well, he was a prisoner of sorts. But now he’s assisting us in, uh, well…it’s a long story.”

Stevens stood up, his hand extended. “Robert Stevens. Ex-CIA analyst.”

Laura raised a brow. “And you were a prisoner here?” She tentatively reached out and took his hand.