They exchanged a look that acknowledged their enemy’s technology was getting damn scary. They found a well-concealed spot and sat there and listened for a while, but not so much as the rustle of a leaf came.
“I think we need to draw him out,” Briar said, and she jumped up to her feet, and jogged to the next tree while he shouted at her mentally.
I’ll pretend I'm trying to be sneaky, she thought at him.
You have to actually be sneaky.
Come on, I’m friggin' hungry. She jogged to another tree and ducked there for a moment. Before she reached the third tree, she saw the guy. The mist moved, revealing the shape of a man, his gun pointing right at her. She dove for a clump of brush, felt dart stab her thigh, yanked it out, and hit the wet-sponge ground with a splat.
Rolling over, she pulled off her belt while crab-walking backwards. Back against a tree, she tightened the belt around her thigh until it hurt like hell, then made a new hole to keep it there. Her head was swimming.
Footsteps came behind her. Dammit, where was Reaper?
The guy came closer, rifle leading the way. He wore camo from head to toe, and a seaweed looking net over his stupid head. She could see his white smile right through it, though, and it pissed her off.
She turned the dart over in her hand, near her outstretched thigh, where he couldn’t see, and wondered if there was any juice left in it.
When he got within his human range of vision, she closed her eyes to the narrowest of slits, let her head rest against the tree, and watched him from behind her lashes. Her body was relaxed and heavy with the effects of the drug. But she’d yanked the dart out almost instantly, so maybe…
The man came closer, pausing right over her. He pulled off his stupid netting, leaving only his camo cap, and looked down at her from the shadow of its bill. “That was easier than I expected,” he said as if to himself. Then he touched his collar, and spoke into it. “I’ve captured one of the females. She’s darted and I’m bringing her in.” Then he released the transmit button and added, for his own ears only, “I win.”
She sensed Reaper coming from the left like a freight train, and called out, Stop, wait! He says he’s taking me in. Why don’t we let him? Maybe he’ll lead us right to Jack.
Reaper stopped in his tracks. But she could feel his itch to keep going. Something’s wrong with you. You feel–
Weak and dizzy. I got darted, but just a little.
I do not believe that’s a thing.
The phrase you want is, ‘that’s not a thing.’ He was so cute with his take on modern lingo. She laughed inside her mind, and maybe a little bit out loud too, because the guy froze in the middle of gathering her up into his arms, dropped her on her ass, and took a step backward, raising his rifle.
“Plan B, then," Briar said.
Reaper was on him before she the n in ‘then.’ The rifle went flying and Reap latched onto the guy’s throat for a sip. Briar yelled, “Hey, don’t Bogart that. I bet you’ve eaten since I have.”
He lifted his head. The guy was blubbering, pleading for his life. His jugular hadn’t yet sealed back over, so trickles of blood leaked through. Briar caught a whiff and her eyes went red.
She jumped on him, bit in, and drank deep. But she didn’t kill him. She stopped herself before that. She stopped while he could still recover and raised up her head and licked her lips.
Then she pressed her forefinger to her incisor just enough to draw blood, and held it toward her unconscious victim’s parted lips.
“Briar, no.” Reaper grabbed her wrist.
“Come on, babe. Jack’s life is in danger.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that taking over another man’s mind is wrong.”
“It’s only for a few hours. It’ll wear off.”
“Like heroin wears off,” he said.
She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. Like he was seeing something he didn’t like about her. And suddenly the feeling was mutual.
“Didn’t your job used to be hunting down rogue vampires? Killing them? How dare you judge me?”
“I’m not judging you, I’m–“
“It’s one time. He’s not going to be addicted after one time.”
“It’s vampire blood, Briar.”
“You know what? I don’t care. He came here to hunt vampires. He deserves far worse than this.” She shrugged and added, “Besides, I might have taken too much for him to recover without it.” And she popped her finger into his mouth without waiting for her undeader-than-thou boyfriend’s permission or consent.
Seconds ticked past, so many that she wondered if her new devotee had died while she’d been arguing ethics with a vampire hit man, retired but still. The friggin’ nerve!
Eventually, his eyes popped open like a finger in a light socket and he latched on and tried to suck the skin off her pointer finger. She yanked it free and made a disgusted face. “Got any hand sanitizer?”
The patch on their would-be executioner’s chest said “Burke.” She noticed it when he twisted to open the pack at his shoulder.
Reaper tensed, but Briar clapped a hand to his chest. And then the kid pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and handed it to her.
“Thank you, Burke.”
He smiled at her with adoration in his eyes.
“This is wrong,” Reaper said.
“He’ll be fine. Jeeze, Reap, I just cured this guy of any disease he might’ve had baking inside him, and provided him with an extended period of absolute ecstasy. He’ll probably send me a thank you card.” She looked at Burke. He was a handsome man of around thirty mortal years, she would guess. Pretty brown eyes. His neck was as wide as his head.
“I’ve got a few questions for you, Burke.”
“Yes,” he said. He had the vapid eyes of a cartoon dingbat. Why was a “dingbat” always female, anyway? That was shit.
She looked at Burke again. “What are you doing here, Burke?”
“It’s a training exercise.”
“Details,” she said, snapping her fingers at him.
“There are five vampires, that’s you guys, trapped in a within a circle with a one mile radius. You will go after the bait they have the hub.”
“And you are here because…?”
“Four of us were dropped in. Our mission is to stop you from reaching the bait at the hub.”
“And how are you supposed to stop us?”
“Tranquilize, incapacitate, and transport, ma’am.”
Reaper put a hand on Briar’s shoulder and said, “What are your orders regarding lethal force?”
Burke didn't answer, instead looking to Briar for permission. She gave him a nod.
“It’s green lit, sir. Up to us to decide.”
“So you’re a squad of executioners?" Now he was pissed. "What do you get if you complete the mission?”
“It’s part of the final exam to join DPI’s Enforcement Team.”
“Enforcement of what, exactly?” A chill went up Briar's spine at the words.
“The law, just like everybody else.”
“Except we get our own special ops sort of police force? You don’t see anything wrong with that, Burke?”
He frowned at her as if she was speaking some unknown tongue. Yeah, his brain was mostly on pause just then. He couldn't process much besides the need to please Briar. She wanted to leave him better than she'd found him, though. “You’re going to think about this later. You’re going to remember that we are just like you, and we deserve the right to exist. You just remember that, and you reconsider the profession you’ve picked, kid. Because the way things stand, you’re one of the bad guys.”
“I’m one of the bad guys?” He asked, looking stricken by her disapproval.
“Well, you used to be. Vampire hunters are all bad guys. But you're not like them anymore. Understand?”
“They're all bad guys.”
“They want to kill me,” she said.
He sprang upright, stuck his chin out, and barked, “Who wants to kill you?” Stepping in front of her, he shielded her with one very large hand and beefy arm, and wielded a gigantic knife with the other. She had missed the sheath on his belt, because she hadn’t checked. Bad vampire.
Burke waved his blade menacingly and a little hypnotically at Reaper, who just shook his head and said, “Ah, hell.”
“That’s Reaper. He’s my friend and my lover, even if I sometimes want to–“
“Probably best not to give him ideas, darling," Reaper said.
She giggled and clapped a hand over her mouth and then giggled around her hand. It made her furious. She was not a giggler.
“His blood hasn’t counteracted the tranquilizer yet,” Reaper said.
“Yeah, I’m still a couple of pints low,” she said, and then she almost laughed again.
“You’re high as a kite. We should wait until it wears off.”
“There’s no time to wait. We’re going.” And she just started walking. “Come on, Burke. You’re gonna keep your promise and take me to the hub.”
“Yes,” he said, eager to please.
Reaper lowered his head, shaking it all the way down.
“He’ll be fine,” Briar said. She looked at Burke’s adoring brown eyes, and felt a rusty blade of guilt pricking at her heart.
Chapter 6 coming soon!
