* * * *
The mood at their new ’home’ was as foul as the weather. A line of thunder storms had rolled in. Thankfully there were no fatal injuries and only a few minor wounds. I was happy that I had helped but I still felt sick for killing those people, even if they were drug dealers, ruining people’s lives with their “product.” But I had learned that I wasn’t a liability anymore. I had proven under fire that I could take care of myself and function with the team.
The day after the fight, Erica approached me. She said, “Thank you for watching my back at the warehouse.” She paused briefly and finished, “I thought Nish had taken out that third guy. According to him it was you that shot him.” With that said she gave me a hug. When she pulled away she placed her hands on the side of my face and pulled me in for a kiss. The kiss was full on lips, just more than ‘thank you’ but without the passion a lover would have. I was left in stunned silence as she left me there with my jaw hanging open and said, “Too bad you are so young.”
Todd came over after she left and said, “Kid, you trying to catch flies with that trap?” Laughing at his joke, he walked away.
A Change in Plan
Tammy and Allyson had been keeping their distance since just before the gun fight back at the warehouse. I wondered what I had done to offend them. I wasn’t sure how to approach the situation when Erica opened the door over dinner shortly after the warehouse fight.
“Damn, you can cut the tension between you guys with a knife,” she said.
“Here, here,” chimed in Todd, Clinton, and Mathew in unison.
“Just what is it that our young Samuel did that is worth the cold shoulder?” Erica continued. “It’s not like he didn’t hold his own back there.”
“This started before that,” added Candy
I nodded dumbly in agreement with Candy.
Tammy went on the defense, “I would rather not say just yet.”
“Your actions are creating a rift, Tammy. He was your pick, NOW you won’t say more than ‘hello’ in passing.” Max’s statement left Tammy no choice but to answer the question.
“I think he may be a mage,” she said bluntly.
That one little statement caused all eyes to focus on me. No matter how hard I tried I didn’t turn invisible. Looking back at Tammy Max added, “What makes you think that?”
“I’ve seen the effects of it. Candy, remember that day he knocked you down in training?”
Candy’s face flushed as she said, “How can I forget that?”
“That was a spell,” Tammy continued. “I’m not sure if he knows that he case the spell or not.”
“I knew someone like him couldn’t take me,” Candy said, a little too excited. “No offense of course, Samuel.”
“None taken.”
Allyson added, “He also knew about the problem with our cloaking spell.”
“We had a problem with our cloaking spell? And I’m just NOW hearing about this!” Max’s tone made me grateful that I was not the focus of this inquiry.
“Well, yes, it only covered the vehicles outside, not its inside.” Not wanting to keep anything else secret, “They may have been able to see me on CCTV when we stopped to get rid of the vampire agent. Plus the bug in Nish’s van was able to transmit its contents when the door opened.”
I hadn’t heard Max yell the whole time I’d been with them until then. “WHAT! You’ve been sitting on this information and you didn’t THINK to mention this to me. Dammit woman if they know who we are, they can adjust their tactics to trap us. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to go to one of those camps.”
I wasn’t sure about the rest, but just being in the same room as Max was scaring me. Everyone knew Tammy was by far the most powerful in the group because of her magic. She was also the oldest. But the sight of Max mad with his anger directed at her was enough to make her squirm.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think of the implications,” Tammy said.
Using his finger to emphasize his point, Max said, “I am responsible for EVERYONE here. I need to know when information has been compromised.”
As the tension in the room settled, Max turned to me and looked me right in the eyes. I felt helpless to look away. “Are you a mage?” His voice was in a nice even tone.
“I don’t know,” was all I could get out.
“Okay, that takes care of that. Tammy, you and Allyson are to start his training in the morning. Work with the other to get a schedule established for his training. The last thing we need is for him to accidentally cast a spell and blow this place up.” With that said he left. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one confused by Max’s reaction. Something was going on.
“All right,” said Clinton, “Another heavy hitter in our little band of misfits. This calls for a celebration. How about we go find a pub and get hammered?”
I was surprised that Clinton offered the little outing. He was outgoing and always friendly but never went out of his way to engage me like this. Before I even had a chance to answer, Todd spoke up, “That sounds like a great idea. I’ll talk with Max.”
An hour later we were in a place called Carlos Murphy’s, a Mexican-Irish pub. I was still nursing my first beer; they were on their third. As a joke Todd asked, “If you want, Samuel my boy, we can get the waitress to put a nipple on that for you.” This had them and several people in earshot laughing. When the laughing died down Clinton asked, “Todd, how did you get Max to agree to this ‘outing’?”
“It was easy. I’m teaching young Samuel here to blend into a crowd. You’re here to assist me in my lesson.”
“That was brilliant, Todd,” said Clinton in admiration. “We should have done this a long time ago.”
Not wanting to be the butt of any more jokes I quickly downed my beer and ordered another round. The waitress brought over different beer this time. She placed a nipple on my beer and winked at me. I turned several shades of red as she walked away. There was another round of laughter as I removed the nipple and took a big drink. I was never much of a drinker so when I finished this beer I was starting to feel a little buzzed. Another beer was placed in front of me right about when I saw Max walking straight at us with a scowl on his face. I was sobering up quickly as adrenaline pumped through my veins. I started tapping Todd on the shoulder as Clinton look surprisedly at Max.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing here?” He was looking right at me, already knowing the answer.
“I tried to wait for you but our waitress was just so quick,” Todd answered. They all started laughing. They laughed even harder when I tried a weak laugh with them. Todd let me off the hook by saying, “Got you!” Realization hit me like a ton of bricks as the set up became obvious. With that Max sat down and motioned for the waitress to bring another round.
The beer was flowing and I was loosening up when some drunk said, “I guess they’ll serve anyone in this dump.” I started to smile, thinking this was some friend of Max’s. I looked at Max’s face only to notice four very large guys standing around our table. Todd caught my eyes and shook his head, meaning ‘don’t do anything stupid.’ The same drunk then added, “We have a leprechaun, a pretty boy, a scared puppy, and one ugly half breed.” Some gasps escaped nearby patrons and I saw knives being drawn by the drunks. I could see the gears turning in Max’s head, wanting to defuse the situation.
It took me a minute to realize that he’d called Max a half breed. He must be enlightened. The others were clearly following his lead. Todd, always the kidder, in his best Irish accent added, “How about we buy you lads a drink?” The guy behind him grabbed his beer and poured it over his head.
Thankfully the manager picked that time to come from the back. “The police have been called and are on their way.”
The drunk motioned for the door and said, “We’ll finish this later half breed. Mark my words.”
With that said, he exited to a flood of lights. It seemed that two squad cars
were enough to take the fight out of him. Todd gave Max a nod and grabbed my arm; we moved quietly to the kitchen door. Todd stopped me as he listened . Satisfied with what he heard, he opened the door a crack. After a quick look around he grabbed my arm again and led me out the back door into the parking lot. We made it to a wall and hopped it. I was about to ask why the hasty retreat when I realized we were wanted criminals.
Todd saw the gears turning in my head. “They are not wanted by the government. Only by a few jealous husbands.”
We made our way to a store down the street were we could watch the events unfold. It was about an hour later that the police left with their prisoners in tow. Max left on foot, heading in our general direction. Clinton came out with a woman who handed him a piece of paper and gave him a passionate kiss as he left to meet up with Max.
“It looks like it time to get some new vehicles and change homes again,” Max said, as flatly as possible.
Todd asked, “Do you have any idea were to start looking for a new place to live?”
“I was thinking of taking a road trip to, say, Cleveland, and hit a vampire stronghold.”
Clinton’s eyes grew wide as he processed what Max had said. “Max, I’ll be back in the morning. If I’m going to be a dead in a couple of days I need to unwind tonight.”
“Alright, but I want you back early so we can get an early start. This area is getting a little hot for my liking.”
Clinton gave a quick nod and headed back to the pub. I couldn’t understand how in the span of an hour Clinton was able to hook up with some random woman. I wished that I had that kind of skill with women. Never having been very lucky with women, my big problem was that I lacked confidence. This resulted in me making off the wall comments when talking with women I was interested in, leading to some very memorable failures.
A quick nudge from Todd brought me back to the here and now. We walked down the street a short distance. We stopped when Max asked Todd, “See anything you want in there?” Todd shook his head. There was another lot down the street. This time Todd pointed out a large van. He gave a quick look around and spotted two cameras with very poor coverage.
“I don’t suppose you can do some magic to take out those two cameras?” Max asked
“I just found out that I can do magic. I don’t think I could make bubble if I tried.”
“There is a Walgreens not far from here. I’m sure they have bubbles for you,” Todd said with a laugh.
“Okay, girls let’s focus on the issues at hand. How do we get past the cameras without being seen?”
“You’re right,” Todd said, “I’m not sure if we can get past the cameras.” He was looking around rubbing his chin, and added, “If I had my bag tools this wouldn’t be an issue. We could just break into the trailer and hope for the best.”
I had gotten to know Todd and knew he never went anywhere without any sort of fly away kit. “Todd, do you have any tools in the old van?”
“Yes I do, but that could be a problem if the cops found it.”
“But if they haven’t found it by now, they aren’t going to find it until it gets reported, correct?”
“They could be sitting on it, waiting to see if someone comes for it,” Max added.
“What makes you so sure they know we are wanted?”
“We don’t know. Caution says to treat the situation as a worst case scenario.”
“All I’m saying is they may NOT know we were there.”
Max must have been drunk because he saw my logic. “Okay, we’ll see if they are sitting on the vehicle. But we only approach if I get a warm fuzzy.”
It didn’t take long to get there and sweep the area for surveillance. Max was uncomfortable going back to the vehicles but this was not the normal situation. Todd was able to approach the van and get our packs without being seen. When Todd was safely with us again I was able to breathe again. Less than a minute later an unmarked vehicle pulled into the parking lot and another one in the lot across the street. Max gave me a look that spoke volumes.
Todd made short work of what little security systems were at the lot. Todd was grinning when he came out with two sets of keys. “Don’t break too many laws,” he said to Max as he tossed him a set of keys. When Max pushed the unlock button on the fob, a charger flashed its lights. Max gave Todd a smile as he quickly moved to the car. I made my way to the driver’s side of a van that Todd was approaching. After we put some distance between us and the pub I changed direction and started taking winding roads home.
It was really late when we got back. Max had only gotten there a few minutes earlier. We all smelled of alcohol and smoke from our outing. Allyson and Erica gave me raised eyebrow stares, letting me know they wanted to ’talk.’ Thankfully, Max said, “Clinton will be back in the morning. When he gets back we have some planning to do. So everyone get some sleep and leave Samuel alone.” With only a slight pause he added, “Good night.”
Max walked up to me and in a hushed tone said, “You’re welcome.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder as he went to his room. Tammy had joined Erica and Allyson in glaring at me. Their stares sent chills running down my spine. How I longed for those drug dealers.
Clinton showed up shortly after eight o’clock. I was thankful when he showed up because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could avoid the women.
Max gathered everyone to the dinner table. “We have been sitting idle too long. Now that I know our little family will take care of each other, I think we need to go on the offensive. We will start with a small target to test and refine our new dynamics. Tammy, Allyson, I need you two to make sure Samuel over here doesn’t do anything stupid with magic. Test him to find his potential. Nish, Candy, work with Tammy to set up a new training schedule. We are going to pack up and take a road trip south of here. We leave in two hours. I have the lead; everyone follows me. I’ll give more details when we are on the road. Now let’s get packing.”
His last statement silenced all questions before they were asked. Todd and I made short work of our room and started packing the communal items. Everyone was packed and ready to leave in an hour.
Max had us drive down I-75 and pull over at the last rest stop before Ohio. I was not a happy camper because Tammy insisted that I drive her. So there I was in the van with Nish, Tammy, Allyson, and Erica. Nish was not happy with me for not inviting him along for a night of drinking. By the time we pulled into the rest stop I longed to be back in that small room with agent Smith.
We went to an area in the back where no one was at. “We are headed to Hershey Pennsylvania. The vampires have a blood farm there. We are going to take out the facility and leave a little surprise for them. When we get there, we are all going to have to pull together to take it out and have everyone walk out alive. Does anyone have any questions?”
Mathew was the only one in the group that looked worried. Not scared but worried. He caught me looking at him and nodded his head away from the group.
“I don’t like going home. My parents had my life planned out for me. If I had stayed in the priesthood of Trest I would have been a high ranking member by now. My family knew all the right people to get me the right training and chances. All my life I had been told I was destined for greatness, but in my heart I knew my path didn’t lie with her.” After a long pause he continued. “I was on an expedition and found an old tome of the goddess Aaryan. What I found out about her was that she was killed in the battle of the gods. Upon her death it was written that her followers were killed and her temples razed to the ground. I can’t explain why I didn’t simply torch the book. Instead I reproduced it and distributed it over the internet.” His eyes glazed over briefly. “They followed the cyber trail to me and extended punishment for my transgressions.” When he saw me looking for scars he added, “Not all torture leaves physical scars.” He walked away looking very pale at that memory.
Tammy and Allyson started bombarding me with instruction as soon as we were on the road again. It was confusing
because Allyson would start with the lesson and Tammy kept stepping in to correct this or that. With all my other training I absorbed the principle easily enough but the two of them working together were confusing me. I was ready to explode when Erica took pity on me. “Ladies, far be it for me to tell you how to teach, but you two are confusing the lad more than teaching.” Then turning to me she said, “Take five while we get a game plan together. By the way, you’re welcome.” I don’t know why everyone felt like rescuing me from them, but I was grateful they did.
I grabbed my phone and started playing a game I’d just downloaded. The game didn’t hold my attention long. Images of Mathew turning white kept making their way into my mind. I decided to look up any information on this long dead goddess that he was so willing to protect. It didn’t take that long to find the tome Mathew uploaded. It was a large file. I was about to scan it for viruses when the screen blinked and I heard the camera take a picture. I quickly removed the battery from my phone. “Guys, we may have a problem.” Allyson’s phone clicked like a picture was just taken.
“What is going on Samuel?” Tammy demanded.
“Erica, signal the others to pull over!” She quickly started flashing the high beams in code with her turn signal on. Tammy had already removed her phone’s battery and was moving to take care of Erica’s phone since she was driving.
As soon as we stopped, I ran to the next van and told them to remove the batteries from their phones. Max was already removing his battery when I approached his car.
“Have the others meet at the next rest stop. We’ll talk about this there.” Max sped off as I turned to the others.
Todd stuck his head out the window. “What’s the word?”
“Remove the batteries and toss the batteries and phones here. Then we meet at the next rest stop.” Todd had a questioning look so I added, “My phone was compromised and it started infecting the other phones.”
When I got back to my van I passed the word about the phone and the meeting with Max. Erica pulled off the side of the road heading to the next rest stop. After a long silence Allyson asked, “What happened?”
Shaking my head I answered, “I don’t know. I looked up that file Mathew uploaded when….”
I didn’t get a chance to finish. Tammy cuffed me in the back of the head. “Are you stupid or just careless? What were you thinking? You should know better than to look up forbidden information.” She yelled at me, anger flashing in her eyes.
I fired back, “How could I know what is and isn’t forbidden if no one tells me anything.” My anger at being treated like a child had boiled over. “I’m new to THIS world. I don’t know all the rules but if YOU don’t tell me you can’t blame me. The way I see it, you can either start spinning me up or let me off at the next town. I will not be treated like a little kid anymore.”
Tammy started to say something but Allyson stopped her. I just turned my back to her and stared out the window, listening to the silence. Thankfully the rest stop was only half an hour down the road. I was the last out of the van. Tammy was waiting for me. She placed a hand on my shoulder as if to say something. I quickly brushed it off and glared at her. I wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easy for the way she had been treating me.
I made my way to the group. They were waiting for us to arrive before starting. Max gave Tammy a nod. She cast a quick spell, masking our little group from being monitored. Max looked at me and asked what had happened. I told him about looking for the file Mathew uploaded.
“I’m so sorry for that Samuel,” said Mathew. “I should have warned you against it. They attached a really nasty virus to find anyone who wanted to learn her ways. That is my fault.”
With anger barely contained, Max said, “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. We can’t go to that farm now.” He gave a quick look around before walking to one of the vans and opening a map inside. He pointed to the map. “We are here. We can replace our phones here.” Pointing at Pittsburgh he continued, “I have a friend that owes me a favor. From there we’ll go to Live Oaks, Florida, and hit that blood farm. Same plan, different location. Follow me in Pittsburgh. Where we are going, it’s a very bad area. No one goes anywhere ALONE.” I could have sworn I saw him look at Clinton when he said “alone.”
“We are going to get new phones and vehicles there, nothing else. Do I make myself clear?”
With that said, Max went to his car. I traded rides with Clinton. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Tammy. I also wanted to learn more about Aaryan from Mathew.
A Personal Touch
It had been five years since she’d had her heart ripped out. She often dreamed of the day she would see him again. Now here she was with her dream close at hand. It was a fuzzy picture but she would recognize him anywhere, Mathew. Even in her head his very name sounded evil.
Celine hated him with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Even so she didn’t want him dead. No, death would be too easy for what she had planned. She wanted him to witness the destruction of his new religion, to watch as those who helped him were killed. She was going to need help to locate him. There was no one better for that than the vampires. They were cunning hunters with valuable resources everywhere. The drawback was that their prices were high. They often required a payment in blood from the priest. This, however, was important enough to contact them, for every person Mathew converted weakened her place of power. She had to find him, damn the cost.
Monica’s voice was flat and bored as she talked with Celine. “So you need the assistance of the Department of Parks and Recreation, Section 7, is that correct?”
“As I’ve explained before, we have a heretic spreading false information and we need your resources to find him.” Frustration crept into Celine’s voice. She knew being placed on hold and routed to several different people was a ploy they used to frustrate and confuse callers.
“Ma’am, if you could e-mail a copy of these pictures, I can see what I might be able to do.”
Exasperatedly Celine said, “I’ve already e-mailed the pictures, twice! I sent the pictures when I first called and again two transfers ago.”
Monica said, “Let me check my messages about that.” There was a blinking message on her computer. This was not just a message, it was a priority alert. It flagged a fingerprint from one of the pictures which the computer identified as Tammy Stone, a wanted vampire killer and very dangerous individual. Monica saw a promotion in her future IF she could bring Tammy in. A slight smile crept onto her lips. She blessed good fortune that Celine wasn’t there and that she was so desperate for help.
“Celine, it would seem that we might be able to assist.”
“That is good news indeed. I look forward to working with you on this endeavor.” Celine was in a state of barely controlled rage as she hung up.
It took Monica’s team thirty minutes to find the location of the phones that were infected by the virus. From there it was short work to find the direction of travel. A time stamp on the photos was the final piece they needed. They now knew the when and where; all they had to do was get the camera’s footage. Celine watched from one of the seats as three vehicles pulled over and a lone male emerged from the last vehicle and made his way to the lead vehicle. Some words were exchanged, then he went to the second vehicle and traded places with another male. When that male went to the last vehicle and they all pulled off the road, Monica asked a question, “Did anyone see any faces or identifying marks?”
As she looked around, only one person said no; the others shook their collective heads. A slight scowl appeared on her face. Monica could appreciate the skill these people had. She was left with more question than answers. Not once did anyone show any sort of identifying feature. They had skill … but then why did someone trip such an obvious trap? Why did the two people trade places? Her thoughts were interrupted when Mark said, “Ma’am, they went into a rest stop just down the road and their vehicles haven’t left.”
“Check to see if any
vehicles have been stolen from there. Two, possibly three vehicles. If I had to guess I would say look for SUVs or a minivan. While you’re at it, see if you can find them in the parking lot.” Monica didn’t expect to find much. All she needed was some small piece of evidence.
“Ma’am, I have what you wanted.” With a key stroke an image was on the big screen and a small group of people appeared briefly on the camera before they disappeared from the view. “Here is the list of vehicles stolen during that time.” A Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Chevy Express were reported stolen within an hour of their arriving there. They were smart, taking older vehicles so they wouldn’t have to deal with GPS tracking.
“Mark, can you get me a better image of them before they disappear? Hold ... on … just … a … minute … there I have it.”
Sure enough, the telltale signs of magic. This had to be Tammy. “Play that in a loop for me.” After a few minutes the image was replaced with a map and an arrow.
“Ma’am, I’ve found the vehicles. They turned off the turnpike and took I-79 South bound.” An image of the vehicle popped up, then the vehicle disappeared from the camera.
“Damn it!” Monica looked around to see who had said that when she realized it had been her. Everyone was looking at her now. “Okay people, we lost them just outside Pittsburgh. They are going to need some clean vehicles and new equipment. We need to start running down our lists of contacts. Let’s shake the trees and see what falls out.”
She knew the hit on Tammy’s print would get attention but she was confident that she could track her down. That was the easy part. The hard part was going to be bringing her in alive or leaving enough of her intact to identify. This one fugitive would help her out. She was the child of a council member. If she brought in this real life boogieman, she would get her chance to sit on the council.