Midnight Sonata: Seventh Movement
Author’s Note: I would have finished this last night except I had a killer headache. The weather here is going nuts and so are my sinuses. And I swear I got for every cliché I can think of in this one. Or at least, that’s how it feels to me. All characters copy right their respective owners.
Midnight Sonata: Seventh Movement
By: Liz B
---
Mike woke with a pounding headache and a clear memory of what happened to him. He kept his eyes closed and tried to figure out if that was a good thing or not. He had been sleeping when someone started pounding on his door, waking Marvin who start barking furiously. Despite the pain medication, he’d gotten out of bed and opened the door, almost expecting to see Bobby with answers for him. Instead, it had been that brunette woman from the mission house and she had with her, of all things, a bow. She’d shoved him out of the way and then all hell had broken loose. Seven guys had come through the windows in his apartment. It was the strangest fight Mike had ever seen, though at the time he’d been too busy going for his gun to think about it.
The woman had been pretty good with the bow, though she missed more than she hit. If he hadn’t been there Mike wouldn’t have believed, but he had seen people turn to dust and survive a bullet to the chest. Things took a turn for the worse when the woman lost her bow. She’d started fighting with knives, but he’d gotten jumped and went down hard, shortly after she went down too. They’d put a bag over his head and then knocked him out.
Groaning, he opened his eyes and sat up. He had definitely not been expecting a richly decorated room when he woke up. It was done in rich tan tones with white and red accents with a lot of silver. Mike was pretty sure the chandelier was real crystal too. So, he’d been kidnapped by wasps, good to know. He was distracted by the sound of rattling chains and looked down at his wrist. He blinked, there was a heavy iron cuff on it, attached to a short length of heavy iron chain.
“What the hell?” He tugged on the chain, but it was firmly sunk into the floor next to him.
“It’s just a safety precaution. They don’t want us getting away while they sleep.” A voice said from next to him. Mike looked over and the brunette woman was sitting next to him, her back against the wall, and a matching iron bracelet on her wrist. “Drugs would ruin the taste of our blood, the chain thing keeps us here and keeps us tasting good.”
“Excuse me?” Mike blinked, “Did you say tasting good?”
“Hi, I’m Anna, we were never properly introduced.” She held out a hand and Mike shook it out of reflex.
“Can you tell me what’s going on because if this is a dream, I’m not going to take those pain killers any more.” He said, trying to be casual about the whole situation.
“Nope, not a dream. You were kidnapped by vampires.” Mike couldn’t help it, he laughed, which seemed to annoy Anna. She scowled at him, “Hey, you’re the one that asked.”
“Sorry, lady, but vampires?”
“Yes, vampires.” She insisted.
“This is definitely a dream.” He snorted, scooting back to sit against the wall, careful of his injured shoulder. It was throbbing pretty bad, but he couldn’t feel any blood, so he hadn’t pulled out his stitches. “Although the chain thing is a little kinkier than I’m used to. It’s okay though, you’re hot.”
Anna blinked at him for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. He smiled at her. This might turn out to be a good dream after all. When she stopped she smiled at him, “You know, I really needed that.”
“Glad I could help.”
“Seriously though,” Anna’s tone became grim, and she looked around the room, “Even if you don’t believe in vampires, the people who have us, they do and they’re going to either kill us or drink our blood. Most likely, it’ll be both.”
Mike frowned, considering the possibilities, “So, we’re screwed huh?”
Anna nodded, “Unless my partner figures out where I am, and then shows up before they kill us.”
“I’ve got two detectives looking for me, probably the whole force by now, so we may just stand a chance. How much time do you think we have?”
Anna looked towards the window, “Until the sunsets.”
“Well, plenty of time then.” Mike sighed, resting his head back against the wall trying to put things together. Anna had been at the mission thing, talking about Solaris and religious counseling. Bobby had thought it was a big scam and then they’d both been jumped. He couldn’t remember anything about that attack, but the second time he’d been jumped, she was there again. Had he and Bobby stumbled into something? Was Bobby actually right about the scam thing? If he was, where was Bobby? And why was he chained next to one of the woman who worked for the company? Damn it, what a mess.
He looked over at Anna, “You don’t actually do religious counseling, do you?”
Anna rolled her eyes, “Wow, you figured it out, congratulations.”
“You know, the sarcasm isn’t helping. I’ve seen you every time before I’ve gotten jumped. A normal person would think you’re responsible for that.”
“Well, I might be.” Anna said sheepishly, “It’s kinda complicated though.”
“I’m really sick of hearing that.”
“Look, you want to know the truth?” Anna sighed, “The God’s honest truth, no matter how outrageous and insane it sounds? Trust me, it’s going to sound pretty insane.”
For some reason, Mike hesitated before answering. He did want to know what was going on, but something in Anna’s voice and body language said he wasn’t going to like it. He didn’t like anything about where he was already. He was beat up, chained to a wall and kidnapped by a cult of “vampires”, if he did like it he’d definitely need to talk to Olivet. He really thought there was no way things could get worse. An explanation would really put his mind at ease, except there was a little nagging voice in the back of his mind. He might not like what he was about to hear, but he was used to bad news.
Mike nodded, “The truth would be nice.”
---
Andy stood shoulder to shoulder with Vlad in the crowd outside Detective Mike Logan’s apartment. The buzz in the back of her head hadn’t stopped since a few hours after Anna had left to get Chinese food. It hadn’t stopped in Vlad’s either. It was a sign. She’d figured out now that there was never any Chinese food. Anna had gone off on her own again and gotten into trouble. Trouble that some how involved Detective Logan.
“We need to get into that apartment.” Vlad said, breaking the tense silence.
“Think a glamour would work?”
“Only one way to find out.” Vlad started to push his way through the crowd, a hand on the hilt of Excalibur. Andy followed behind him, not sure if the glamour would extend to her, but going any way. If it didn’t, she’d get in on her own. Of course, breaking and entering is much easier when you have divine intervention on your side. They made it up to the apartment with no trouble. There was a bunch of people with cameras and blue Crime Scene jackets taking pictures and collecting samples of dust off the floor. Andy counted four piles.
“Excuse me,” Vlad said, walking over to one of the men in jackets. “Can you tell me what happened here?”
The guy looked at Vlad strangely before nodded, “Uh, sure, Detective. If you want to hear it again. From what we can piece together, the fight started in the main living room here. Your assailants came through the door and the windows. We found Detective Logan’s gun under the couch, it looks like he got six shots off. We’re going to analyze the dust and the blood, both have a rush on them. We still don’t know about the arrows, they’re carbon fiber though. Like the type used…”
“In a compound hunting bow.” Andy finished for him. She carefully stepped over one of the dust piles and studied the arrows. They looked like Anna’s, but vampire might have set up the scene. She was about the grab it and yank it from the wall when Vlad cleared his throat.
“Glove first.” He said smiling tightly.
“Right, can I borrow one from someone?” She smiled charmingly and a guy with a camera near by offered her one. She slid it on, then yanked the arrow out with a twist. The tip was silver. These were definitely Anna’s.
“Any witnesses?” She asked to the man who had explained the scene.
Again, he looked baffled, “Yes, Detective Cassady, the woman next door, you interviewed her this morning.”
“Right, I meant have any more come forward?” Andy said, scrambling for all the dialogue she knew from cop shows on TV. Those episodes of CSI had to be useful for more than keeping Anna quiet.
“No, not to us at least.” The guy was still frowning, looking more and more suspicious, “Look, Detectives, did we do something wrong this morning?”
“No, no, just seeing if there’s something we missed.” Vlad covered, patting the tech on the shoulder, “You guys are doing good work. We better get back don’t you think? The phones must be ringing off the hook.”
“Yeah. Thanks guys.” Andy passed the arrow to a waiting tech and then peeled the glove off as she joined Vlad out in the hall. They moved down to the stairwell and spoke in whispered tones.
“The detectives in charge of the investigation, that’s who you pick for a glamour?” She whispered angrily.
“Like we could have gotten through as crime scene technicians.” Vlad whispered back. “And it doesn’t matter. We know what happened.”
“Another hit squad.” Andy sighed, “What the hell do they want with that one? He doesn’t remember a thing. The other one’s more of a threat.”
“But he’s in the Centuria, he’s protected.” Vlad looked up the stairs to the hall, “We need to talk to the neighbor.”
“Yeah, because they won’t be suspicious at all if the detectives show up at her door again and ask her a bunch of questions they already know the answers to.”
Vlad glared at her, “Do you have a better idea?”
“Yes. Here.” She slid off her shoulder holster and handed it to him, along with Damascus. “Hold on to these and wait here.” She climbed back up the stairs and knocked on the neighbor’s door. A minute later it opened revealing a small Asian woman.
Andy smiled charmingly at her, “Excuse me, miss, I’m with the Daily News and my sources tell me you witnessed what happened to Detective Logan?”
“I didn’t see anything. I just called 911.” The woman said, looking suspicious. Man, New Yorkers were paranoid.
“Well, ma’am, I’m helping the police out here. Now, I read your statement, but I’d really love to hear what happened in your own words for my article.”
The woman considered for a moment then opened the door and let Andy inside. The woman’s apartment was a mirror image of Detective Logan’s, minus the dust, blood and arrows sticking out of the walls. She led Andy to the kitchen and offered her a seat.
“Now, just tell me what you told the police.” Andy said when she sat down.
“Won’t you need something to write this down?”
Crap. Andy hadn’t thought that far ahead. Thinking fast she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and held it up, her hand mostly covering it. “Tape recorder. Now, go ahead ma’am.”
The woman self-consciously patted her hair, “Well, it was really early in the morning. I don’t usually get up until six, but there was all this noise, I couldn’t sleep. I heard someone run up the stairs and I thought it was Tommy Warden from the third floor. He’s always running up and down the stairs with his friends, but then someone started pounding on the nice detective’s door.”
“Did you see who it was?” Andy broke in.
The woman shook her head, “No. It stopped before I got out of bed. Once I’m awake, I can’t fall back asleep, see. So, I was going to make myself some breakfast, then give that detective a piece of my mind when I heard voices shouting and windows breaking. It sounded like a wrestling match was happening. Well, I rushed to the peep hole to see what was going on and the door just fell inside. I thought I might have seen someone run past, but it must have been a hair in my face because it was just a blur.”
“Just a blur?”
“Yes, my bangs are always getting in the way. Well, after that I called the police, and stayed on the phone with the nice dispatcher until the police came. People have been going in and out of there ever since.”
“And you didn’t see anyone?” Andy pressed, leaning just a little towards the woman. She wasn’t that worried about Anna, not while the sun was up. She needed to find her before the sun went down though. She wished the tingle in the back of her head would tell her where the hell the lamiea were keeping Anna, but she knew that’s not how it worked. Andy would have to find Anna with only Vlad’s help.
“No, no one. It’s like I told the police. I didn’t check the peep hole until the fighting started.”
“Alright, thank you ma’am.” Andy got to her feet with a sigh. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. It’ll be so exciting to be in the paper.” Andy smiled and nodded as she left, going back down the stairs to Vlad.
“Anna knew something, something she didn’t tell us. She showed up here first and then the hit squad moved in.” She said as she put her holster and Damascus back on.
“She’s not one of us, she wouldn’t have heard the coactu.” Vlad frowned, “How could she know something we don’t?”
“I don’t know. Obviously she learned something she didn’t share with us. Stupid kid.”
“Maybe the hit squad said something to her when she was attacked?” Vlad theorized as they made their way down the stairs and out the building.
“Hit squads don’t make chit chat. They’re not stupid enough to make that mistake and give us a chance to kill them.” Andy shook her head, “No, it had to be some other time. Some time… shit.”
“What?”
“I sent her on patrol last night.” Andy smacked herself in the forehead and started jogging for the Mini. “When she came back she looked a little… freaked. I thought it might have just been left over from the hit squad. I asked her if she found anything and she hesitated. Stupid.”
“You’re thinking something happened while she was on patrol.” Vlad said, keeping pace.
“A messenger.” Andy slammed a hand on the roof of the Mini as she opened the driver’s side door and slid inside. “I mean, what other explanation is there?”
“And if it was a messenger,” Vlad said as he got in the passenger seat, “Then they were never after the detective.”
“They were after Anna.”
---
The Major Case Squad room was quiet, almost deathly quiet. No one was talking or joking around. Everyone was buried in their work and besides the occasional hushed question or phone ringing, there was an unearthly stillness about the room. The Captain made an announcement about Mike going missing just as Bobby walked in. All eyes had swung towards him and he knew that a few of them had expected him to be missing too. Eames had looked relieved to see him at least. He sat down at his desk and moved only to get more coffee. He kept his head down and let the guilt eat away at him.
Oh, he had an idea of what happened to Mike. It was one of the easiest leaps he’d ever made. The vampires had gotten him. It sounded so stupid and ridiculous in his head, he knew he couldn’t call Detectives Green and Cassady with the explanation. Still, he’d tried to call the Company of God mission and gotten no one. He didn’t have any other number for Andy or Anna. Just when he needed to contact them, they weren’t around. After work, he’d stop by there, try to talk to them personally. He thought they might be able to do something.
“Bobby,” Eames’ voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up and she was frowning at him, “It’s not your fault Logan’s gone missing.”
Bobby nodded, “I know, I know.”
“Then why do you look so guilty?”
Bobby thought for a moment about telling Eames everything. About the vampires, about the Centuria ab Sol, and everything else that had happened to him over the past few days. She might believe him, but he highly doubted it. She was his friend, but she’d still lock him up if she thought he was going crazy. So he shook his head, “It just doesn’t add up for me.”
“Logan going missing you mean?”
Bobby nodded, “These people who are after us, why would they just go after Logan suddenly?”
“Well, he is more injured than you. Maybe he was easier to subdue.”
Bobby shrugged, “Maybe.”
Now Eames was thinking. He could see her putting the pieces of what she knew together and noticing they didn’t add up. Well, he hadn’t meant to do that. He just wanted to explain his distracted behavior. Of course he knew she wouldn’t say anything about vampires but ever since he had learned the truth he’d wondered about how many of the people around him actually knew.
“See, it just doesn’t work.” Bobby gestured to her and shook his head, “Maybe if we had all the pieces.”
Eames nodded, “It’s hard looking from the outside in.”
“Did the Captain say anything about knowing more?”
“He said to let the 2-7 handle it.”
“We got involved when you… you know.” Bobby still didn’t know how to talk to Eames about Cage. It was like Brady with him, just one of those topics they didn’t talk about unless it was absolutely necessary. Eames had been seeing a department shrink about it, though, so he was glad she was talking to someone.
“I got kidnapped?” Eames smirked and raised an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, but that was related to the case we were working any way. We’re not involved in this one.”
“I am.”
“But as a victim, not a detective.” Eames pointed out and Bobby nodded again.
“You’re right, you’re right.” He tried to get back into his work, but he could feel Eames watching him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe you should go stay with Lewis for awhile.”
Bobby blinked, “What, why?”
Eames gave him a look, “Come on, I know you’re smarter than that.”
“Eames, I’m going to be okay.”
“They got to Logan, they could still be after you. You should stay with someone else for awhile.”
Bobby sighed, “Will you ask the Captain to put a car on me if I refuse?”
“I’m only looking out for you.” Eames said simply. He knew she’d do it too. If he was going to talk with Andy tonight, he couldn’t have a car tailing him.
He nodded, “Alright, Eames, I’ll go stay with Lewis.”
“See? Isn’t it easier when you agree with me?”
---
Vlad got out of the car when Andrea finished parking it in the exact same place as last night. He waited for her to get out of the driver’s side and raised an eyebrow, “Well?”
“She went down this way.” Andrea started down the alley behind the Mini and he fell into step next to her. When they stood close like this the ringing in his head doubled, but he could ignore it. They had been trained to handle these type of situations. It had been a long time since he had to deal with it, but he didn’t forget that training easily.
He glanced at Andrea out of the corner of his eye, noting her determined expression and the tension coiled under her shoulders. Ten years had changed her just slightly from his memories of her. She hadn’t looked so… haunted the last time he’d seen her. He tried not to think of that day, but spending so much time with her brought it all back. Despite the painful memories, working with Andrea again felt right. Vlad had… he had missed her. She was a damn good antepilana, clever and dedicated, but always cracking a joke. It had driven their master insane. Vlad had loved it, and then she betrayed him. Ten years later it still hurt, but he found that he had missed her more than he had hurt.
“It’s a dead end.” Andrea said as they emerged into a court yard.
“Perfect place for an ambush.” Vlad pointed out as he started to walk the perimeter, a hand on the wall.
“Messengers don’t ambush, they wait in the open. It’s part of the juris.” Andrea stood in the middle and scanned the windows. “I don’t see any lamiea symbols.”
Vlad paused half way around and ran his fingers over a nick in the wall. He slid his hand up and found another. “Two nicks here in the wall, they don’t match any of the others I’ve felt.” He looked at where his fingers were and saw the marks glow white for a second. “These were made by arrows.”
“How can you be sure?” Andrea asked, coming to stand next to him. She looked at the marks and her mouth formed a little oh, “Well, we’re on the right track at least. She ran into a messenger here.”
“Messengers aren’t allowed to attack an antepilanus. Why did she fire?” Vlad rubbed his fingers over the marks, trying to pick something up from them. The buzzing in his head was still loud, but he couldn’t get anything beyond the knowledge that they had found where Anna had encountered the messenger.
“You don’t know Anna. She hates lamiea with a passion and trusts them about as much as I trust drivers in this city. If the messenger made one wrong move she would have shot.”
“I can’t get anything from it.” Vlad shook his head and went to pull his hand away when Andrea’s came up and covered his.
“Feodor always said we were stronger together.” She muttered, pressing his hand to the wall with hers. They’d done this many times back in the old days, so many times Vlad noticed all the changes to her hand. She had a new scar on her palm and a burn on ring finger. She had more calluses too. Sometimes never changed though, his hand still dwarfed hers.
“Anything?” He asked in a whisper, looking down at her. She was a full head shorter than he was.
“White… white and silver and tan. Chains, two chains.” She pressed his hand harder, “Attrecto gloriatio.” The ring on her middle finger started to glow and she drew a deep breath. “I know where they are.”
She jerked her hand back and muttered some Latin under her breath. The ring stopped glowing and she shook her hand. He drew his hand away from the wall and rubbed at the back of it with his other hand.
“What did you see?” He asked and she shook her head.
“Just the address, didn’t see anything.” She said quickly, starting for the car.
“So, where are they?” He asked as he caught up to her.
“Queens.” She looked at her watch, “Alright, I’ll call Lee, get him looking up the floor plans of the house, while we raid the weapons. There will be two or more hit squads.”
“That’s a low estimate.” Vlad commented as they got back in the Mini.
“Well, it’s not a big house. It’s mostly empty except for the basement, which offers day time shelter and the upstairs room, which I saw a little of.”
“I thought you just saw an address.”
“I just saw the address clearly.” Andrea muttered, pulling into traffic, “Midtown will fuck us up time wise. And getting to Queens will suck.”
“You don’t think we’ll make it before sundown.”
Andrea barked out a laugh, “I don’t think we’re supposed to make it before sundown.”
The implications of that statement rolled through Vlad’s head and he said the only thing he could think of. “Damn.”
---
“Uh, Andy, someone’s at the side door.” Lee called as Andy checked the clip for the .40 auto in her hand.
“Well, who is it?” She snapped, slamming the magazine home and chambering a bullet. She slid the gun into a thigh holster and grabbed some spare clips from the weapon’s locker.
“It’s Detective Goren, and he’s going to draw attention from downstairs.”
Andy finished sliding the extra clips into her ammo belt and strode over to look at the screen over Lee’s shoulder.
“Alright, go get him.” She decided, clapping Lee on the shoulder, “If he’s got cop buddies with him just out of sight, I won’t get arrested for looking like a terrorist.”
Lee nodded and slid off the stool, heading for the door. When he left she looked over at Vlad. He was also armed to the teeth. He had Excalibur slung over one shoulder, a shoulder holster on the opposite side, two handguns at his waist, and one on his thigh. On the opposite thigh he had a strip of flash bang grenades. She had pretty much the same outfit on, except while Vlad had only four guns, she had six. Two in shoulder holsters, two at her waist and two on her thighs. Damascus was strapped to her left forearm, so she could carry more guns. She knew they’d eat through all the ammo they had before making any sort of dent, and when things went hand to hand the advantage would be to the lamiea. They were heavily out numbered and out classed in this fight, and they were going in anyway. Sometimes Andy thought she just might be crazy.
“He says he wants to talk to you.” Lee said as he came back inside with Bobby Goren. He looked startled by her and Vlad’s appearance at first then frowned.
“You know where he is.” He said, looking at her.
“Who? Detective Logan? Yeah, he’s with Anna. We’re going to get her, and hopefully him, though they might have killed him already.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Bobby looked grim, “I didn’t know they had gotten Anna.”
“They used Detective Logan as some kind of bait for her.”
“Why do they want Anna?” Bobby asked, and Andy shrugged.
“Don’t know. Not really a concern of mine right now.”
“Don’t worry, Detective, if your friend is still alive, we’ll get him out and bringing him safely back.” Vlad said, “You have my word.”
“I want to come with.”
Andy couldn’t help it, she laughed, “No way.”
“He’s my friend and I’m part of this little group, it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on.” Bobby took a step towards her and she took a step towards him.
“You have no idea what’s going on, buddy. And now idea how to fight these things. You got lucky your first encounter, but we’re going up against hit squads, lamiea that can tear you limb from limb before you so much as get your gun out of your holster.”
“So, just the two of you are going in? That’s a great plan. I can get a SWAT team to where ever you’re going and they can raid the house.”
“And before your SWAT team can get the door down Anna and Detective Logan will be dead. You have no idea how to win this fight.”
“Enough!” Vlad yelled and they both whipped around to face him. He looked at Andy before looking away, “He’s coming with.”
“What? Are you nuts, Vlad?”
“Andrea, don’t… don’t question this.” Vlad said, getting a ammo belt and holster down from the cabinet and walking over to Bobby. “Here. Silver bullets. Aim for anything you think you can hit. They’re fast though, so shooting randomly might actually work more than aiming. We only have the element of surprise in our favor. I’m going in first, you’ll come up behind and then Andrea will watch the rear.”
Bobby nodded, looking more grim than before. Andy crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Vlad who shot her a look, “We all started just like this.”
“He’s not one of us. He stumbled into this. He didn’t choose it.” She shot back.
“Maybe he didn’t choose, maybe He did.” Vlad shot back and Andy snapped her mouth closed. One problem when you knew God existed and He had a plan for you and other people, it was hard to tell what just was and what He made sure happened. She couldn’t argue against Vlad’s reasoning, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Fine, but make sure he gets an injection of silver and garlic before we go. Maybe that’ll keep them from feeding off of him before he gets killed.”
---
Midnight Sonata: Seventh Movement
By: Liz B
---
Mike woke with a pounding headache and a clear memory of what happened to him. He kept his eyes closed and tried to figure out if that was a good thing or not. He had been sleeping when someone started pounding on his door, waking Marvin who start barking furiously. Despite the pain medication, he’d gotten out of bed and opened the door, almost expecting to see Bobby with answers for him. Instead, it had been that brunette woman from the mission house and she had with her, of all things, a bow. She’d shoved him out of the way and then all hell had broken loose. Seven guys had come through the windows in his apartment. It was the strangest fight Mike had ever seen, though at the time he’d been too busy going for his gun to think about it.
The woman had been pretty good with the bow, though she missed more than she hit. If he hadn’t been there Mike wouldn’t have believed, but he had seen people turn to dust and survive a bullet to the chest. Things took a turn for the worse when the woman lost her bow. She’d started fighting with knives, but he’d gotten jumped and went down hard, shortly after she went down too. They’d put a bag over his head and then knocked him out.
Groaning, he opened his eyes and sat up. He had definitely not been expecting a richly decorated room when he woke up. It was done in rich tan tones with white and red accents with a lot of silver. Mike was pretty sure the chandelier was real crystal too. So, he’d been kidnapped by wasps, good to know. He was distracted by the sound of rattling chains and looked down at his wrist. He blinked, there was a heavy iron cuff on it, attached to a short length of heavy iron chain.
“What the hell?” He tugged on the chain, but it was firmly sunk into the floor next to him.
“It’s just a safety precaution. They don’t want us getting away while they sleep.” A voice said from next to him. Mike looked over and the brunette woman was sitting next to him, her back against the wall, and a matching iron bracelet on her wrist. “Drugs would ruin the taste of our blood, the chain thing keeps us here and keeps us tasting good.”
“Excuse me?” Mike blinked, “Did you say tasting good?”
“Hi, I’m Anna, we were never properly introduced.” She held out a hand and Mike shook it out of reflex.
“Can you tell me what’s going on because if this is a dream, I’m not going to take those pain killers any more.” He said, trying to be casual about the whole situation.
“Nope, not a dream. You were kidnapped by vampires.” Mike couldn’t help it, he laughed, which seemed to annoy Anna. She scowled at him, “Hey, you’re the one that asked.”
“Sorry, lady, but vampires?”
“Yes, vampires.” She insisted.
“This is definitely a dream.” He snorted, scooting back to sit against the wall, careful of his injured shoulder. It was throbbing pretty bad, but he couldn’t feel any blood, so he hadn’t pulled out his stitches. “Although the chain thing is a little kinkier than I’m used to. It’s okay though, you’re hot.”
Anna blinked at him for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. He smiled at her. This might turn out to be a good dream after all. When she stopped she smiled at him, “You know, I really needed that.”
“Glad I could help.”
“Seriously though,” Anna’s tone became grim, and she looked around the room, “Even if you don’t believe in vampires, the people who have us, they do and they’re going to either kill us or drink our blood. Most likely, it’ll be both.”
Mike frowned, considering the possibilities, “So, we’re screwed huh?”
Anna nodded, “Unless my partner figures out where I am, and then shows up before they kill us.”
“I’ve got two detectives looking for me, probably the whole force by now, so we may just stand a chance. How much time do you think we have?”
Anna looked towards the window, “Until the sunsets.”
“Well, plenty of time then.” Mike sighed, resting his head back against the wall trying to put things together. Anna had been at the mission thing, talking about Solaris and religious counseling. Bobby had thought it was a big scam and then they’d both been jumped. He couldn’t remember anything about that attack, but the second time he’d been jumped, she was there again. Had he and Bobby stumbled into something? Was Bobby actually right about the scam thing? If he was, where was Bobby? And why was he chained next to one of the woman who worked for the company? Damn it, what a mess.
He looked over at Anna, “You don’t actually do religious counseling, do you?”
Anna rolled her eyes, “Wow, you figured it out, congratulations.”
“You know, the sarcasm isn’t helping. I’ve seen you every time before I’ve gotten jumped. A normal person would think you’re responsible for that.”
“Well, I might be.” Anna said sheepishly, “It’s kinda complicated though.”
“I’m really sick of hearing that.”
“Look, you want to know the truth?” Anna sighed, “The God’s honest truth, no matter how outrageous and insane it sounds? Trust me, it’s going to sound pretty insane.”
For some reason, Mike hesitated before answering. He did want to know what was going on, but something in Anna’s voice and body language said he wasn’t going to like it. He didn’t like anything about where he was already. He was beat up, chained to a wall and kidnapped by a cult of “vampires”, if he did like it he’d definitely need to talk to Olivet. He really thought there was no way things could get worse. An explanation would really put his mind at ease, except there was a little nagging voice in the back of his mind. He might not like what he was about to hear, but he was used to bad news.
Mike nodded, “The truth would be nice.”
---
Andy stood shoulder to shoulder with Vlad in the crowd outside Detective Mike Logan’s apartment. The buzz in the back of her head hadn’t stopped since a few hours after Anna had left to get Chinese food. It hadn’t stopped in Vlad’s either. It was a sign. She’d figured out now that there was never any Chinese food. Anna had gone off on her own again and gotten into trouble. Trouble that some how involved Detective Logan.
“We need to get into that apartment.” Vlad said, breaking the tense silence.
“Think a glamour would work?”
“Only one way to find out.” Vlad started to push his way through the crowd, a hand on the hilt of Excalibur. Andy followed behind him, not sure if the glamour would extend to her, but going any way. If it didn’t, she’d get in on her own. Of course, breaking and entering is much easier when you have divine intervention on your side. They made it up to the apartment with no trouble. There was a bunch of people with cameras and blue Crime Scene jackets taking pictures and collecting samples of dust off the floor. Andy counted four piles.
“Excuse me,” Vlad said, walking over to one of the men in jackets. “Can you tell me what happened here?”
The guy looked at Vlad strangely before nodded, “Uh, sure, Detective. If you want to hear it again. From what we can piece together, the fight started in the main living room here. Your assailants came through the door and the windows. We found Detective Logan’s gun under the couch, it looks like he got six shots off. We’re going to analyze the dust and the blood, both have a rush on them. We still don’t know about the arrows, they’re carbon fiber though. Like the type used…”
“In a compound hunting bow.” Andy finished for him. She carefully stepped over one of the dust piles and studied the arrows. They looked like Anna’s, but vampire might have set up the scene. She was about the grab it and yank it from the wall when Vlad cleared his throat.
“Glove first.” He said smiling tightly.
“Right, can I borrow one from someone?” She smiled charmingly and a guy with a camera near by offered her one. She slid it on, then yanked the arrow out with a twist. The tip was silver. These were definitely Anna’s.
“Any witnesses?” She asked to the man who had explained the scene.
Again, he looked baffled, “Yes, Detective Cassady, the woman next door, you interviewed her this morning.”
“Right, I meant have any more come forward?” Andy said, scrambling for all the dialogue she knew from cop shows on TV. Those episodes of CSI had to be useful for more than keeping Anna quiet.
“No, not to us at least.” The guy was still frowning, looking more and more suspicious, “Look, Detectives, did we do something wrong this morning?”
“No, no, just seeing if there’s something we missed.” Vlad covered, patting the tech on the shoulder, “You guys are doing good work. We better get back don’t you think? The phones must be ringing off the hook.”
“Yeah. Thanks guys.” Andy passed the arrow to a waiting tech and then peeled the glove off as she joined Vlad out in the hall. They moved down to the stairwell and spoke in whispered tones.
“The detectives in charge of the investigation, that’s who you pick for a glamour?” She whispered angrily.
“Like we could have gotten through as crime scene technicians.” Vlad whispered back. “And it doesn’t matter. We know what happened.”
“Another hit squad.” Andy sighed, “What the hell do they want with that one? He doesn’t remember a thing. The other one’s more of a threat.”
“But he’s in the Centuria, he’s protected.” Vlad looked up the stairs to the hall, “We need to talk to the neighbor.”
“Yeah, because they won’t be suspicious at all if the detectives show up at her door again and ask her a bunch of questions they already know the answers to.”
Vlad glared at her, “Do you have a better idea?”
“Yes. Here.” She slid off her shoulder holster and handed it to him, along with Damascus. “Hold on to these and wait here.” She climbed back up the stairs and knocked on the neighbor’s door. A minute later it opened revealing a small Asian woman.
Andy smiled charmingly at her, “Excuse me, miss, I’m with the Daily News and my sources tell me you witnessed what happened to Detective Logan?”
“I didn’t see anything. I just called 911.” The woman said, looking suspicious. Man, New Yorkers were paranoid.
“Well, ma’am, I’m helping the police out here. Now, I read your statement, but I’d really love to hear what happened in your own words for my article.”
The woman considered for a moment then opened the door and let Andy inside. The woman’s apartment was a mirror image of Detective Logan’s, minus the dust, blood and arrows sticking out of the walls. She led Andy to the kitchen and offered her a seat.
“Now, just tell me what you told the police.” Andy said when she sat down.
“Won’t you need something to write this down?”
Crap. Andy hadn’t thought that far ahead. Thinking fast she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and held it up, her hand mostly covering it. “Tape recorder. Now, go ahead ma’am.”
The woman self-consciously patted her hair, “Well, it was really early in the morning. I don’t usually get up until six, but there was all this noise, I couldn’t sleep. I heard someone run up the stairs and I thought it was Tommy Warden from the third floor. He’s always running up and down the stairs with his friends, but then someone started pounding on the nice detective’s door.”
“Did you see who it was?” Andy broke in.
The woman shook her head, “No. It stopped before I got out of bed. Once I’m awake, I can’t fall back asleep, see. So, I was going to make myself some breakfast, then give that detective a piece of my mind when I heard voices shouting and windows breaking. It sounded like a wrestling match was happening. Well, I rushed to the peep hole to see what was going on and the door just fell inside. I thought I might have seen someone run past, but it must have been a hair in my face because it was just a blur.”
“Just a blur?”
“Yes, my bangs are always getting in the way. Well, after that I called the police, and stayed on the phone with the nice dispatcher until the police came. People have been going in and out of there ever since.”
“And you didn’t see anyone?” Andy pressed, leaning just a little towards the woman. She wasn’t that worried about Anna, not while the sun was up. She needed to find her before the sun went down though. She wished the tingle in the back of her head would tell her where the hell the lamiea were keeping Anna, but she knew that’s not how it worked. Andy would have to find Anna with only Vlad’s help.
“No, no one. It’s like I told the police. I didn’t check the peep hole until the fighting started.”
“Alright, thank you ma’am.” Andy got to her feet with a sigh. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. It’ll be so exciting to be in the paper.” Andy smiled and nodded as she left, going back down the stairs to Vlad.
“Anna knew something, something she didn’t tell us. She showed up here first and then the hit squad moved in.” She said as she put her holster and Damascus back on.
“She’s not one of us, she wouldn’t have heard the coactu.” Vlad frowned, “How could she know something we don’t?”
“I don’t know. Obviously she learned something she didn’t share with us. Stupid kid.”
“Maybe the hit squad said something to her when she was attacked?” Vlad theorized as they made their way down the stairs and out the building.
“Hit squads don’t make chit chat. They’re not stupid enough to make that mistake and give us a chance to kill them.” Andy shook her head, “No, it had to be some other time. Some time… shit.”
“What?”
“I sent her on patrol last night.” Andy smacked herself in the forehead and started jogging for the Mini. “When she came back she looked a little… freaked. I thought it might have just been left over from the hit squad. I asked her if she found anything and she hesitated. Stupid.”
“You’re thinking something happened while she was on patrol.” Vlad said, keeping pace.
“A messenger.” Andy slammed a hand on the roof of the Mini as she opened the driver’s side door and slid inside. “I mean, what other explanation is there?”
“And if it was a messenger,” Vlad said as he got in the passenger seat, “Then they were never after the detective.”
“They were after Anna.”
---
The Major Case Squad room was quiet, almost deathly quiet. No one was talking or joking around. Everyone was buried in their work and besides the occasional hushed question or phone ringing, there was an unearthly stillness about the room. The Captain made an announcement about Mike going missing just as Bobby walked in. All eyes had swung towards him and he knew that a few of them had expected him to be missing too. Eames had looked relieved to see him at least. He sat down at his desk and moved only to get more coffee. He kept his head down and let the guilt eat away at him.
Oh, he had an idea of what happened to Mike. It was one of the easiest leaps he’d ever made. The vampires had gotten him. It sounded so stupid and ridiculous in his head, he knew he couldn’t call Detectives Green and Cassady with the explanation. Still, he’d tried to call the Company of God mission and gotten no one. He didn’t have any other number for Andy or Anna. Just when he needed to contact them, they weren’t around. After work, he’d stop by there, try to talk to them personally. He thought they might be able to do something.
“Bobby,” Eames’ voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up and she was frowning at him, “It’s not your fault Logan’s gone missing.”
Bobby nodded, “I know, I know.”
“Then why do you look so guilty?”
Bobby thought for a moment about telling Eames everything. About the vampires, about the Centuria ab Sol, and everything else that had happened to him over the past few days. She might believe him, but he highly doubted it. She was his friend, but she’d still lock him up if she thought he was going crazy. So he shook his head, “It just doesn’t add up for me.”
“Logan going missing you mean?”
Bobby nodded, “These people who are after us, why would they just go after Logan suddenly?”
“Well, he is more injured than you. Maybe he was easier to subdue.”
Bobby shrugged, “Maybe.”
Now Eames was thinking. He could see her putting the pieces of what she knew together and noticing they didn’t add up. Well, he hadn’t meant to do that. He just wanted to explain his distracted behavior. Of course he knew she wouldn’t say anything about vampires but ever since he had learned the truth he’d wondered about how many of the people around him actually knew.
“See, it just doesn’t work.” Bobby gestured to her and shook his head, “Maybe if we had all the pieces.”
Eames nodded, “It’s hard looking from the outside in.”
“Did the Captain say anything about knowing more?”
“He said to let the 2-7 handle it.”
“We got involved when you… you know.” Bobby still didn’t know how to talk to Eames about Cage. It was like Brady with him, just one of those topics they didn’t talk about unless it was absolutely necessary. Eames had been seeing a department shrink about it, though, so he was glad she was talking to someone.
“I got kidnapped?” Eames smirked and raised an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, but that was related to the case we were working any way. We’re not involved in this one.”
“I am.”
“But as a victim, not a detective.” Eames pointed out and Bobby nodded again.
“You’re right, you’re right.” He tried to get back into his work, but he could feel Eames watching him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe you should go stay with Lewis for awhile.”
Bobby blinked, “What, why?”
Eames gave him a look, “Come on, I know you’re smarter than that.”
“Eames, I’m going to be okay.”
“They got to Logan, they could still be after you. You should stay with someone else for awhile.”
Bobby sighed, “Will you ask the Captain to put a car on me if I refuse?”
“I’m only looking out for you.” Eames said simply. He knew she’d do it too. If he was going to talk with Andy tonight, he couldn’t have a car tailing him.
He nodded, “Alright, Eames, I’ll go stay with Lewis.”
“See? Isn’t it easier when you agree with me?”
---
Vlad got out of the car when Andrea finished parking it in the exact same place as last night. He waited for her to get out of the driver’s side and raised an eyebrow, “Well?”
“She went down this way.” Andrea started down the alley behind the Mini and he fell into step next to her. When they stood close like this the ringing in his head doubled, but he could ignore it. They had been trained to handle these type of situations. It had been a long time since he had to deal with it, but he didn’t forget that training easily.
He glanced at Andrea out of the corner of his eye, noting her determined expression and the tension coiled under her shoulders. Ten years had changed her just slightly from his memories of her. She hadn’t looked so… haunted the last time he’d seen her. He tried not to think of that day, but spending so much time with her brought it all back. Despite the painful memories, working with Andrea again felt right. Vlad had… he had missed her. She was a damn good antepilana, clever and dedicated, but always cracking a joke. It had driven their master insane. Vlad had loved it, and then she betrayed him. Ten years later it still hurt, but he found that he had missed her more than he had hurt.
“It’s a dead end.” Andrea said as they emerged into a court yard.
“Perfect place for an ambush.” Vlad pointed out as he started to walk the perimeter, a hand on the wall.
“Messengers don’t ambush, they wait in the open. It’s part of the juris.” Andrea stood in the middle and scanned the windows. “I don’t see any lamiea symbols.”
Vlad paused half way around and ran his fingers over a nick in the wall. He slid his hand up and found another. “Two nicks here in the wall, they don’t match any of the others I’ve felt.” He looked at where his fingers were and saw the marks glow white for a second. “These were made by arrows.”
“How can you be sure?” Andrea asked, coming to stand next to him. She looked at the marks and her mouth formed a little oh, “Well, we’re on the right track at least. She ran into a messenger here.”
“Messengers aren’t allowed to attack an antepilanus. Why did she fire?” Vlad rubbed his fingers over the marks, trying to pick something up from them. The buzzing in his head was still loud, but he couldn’t get anything beyond the knowledge that they had found where Anna had encountered the messenger.
“You don’t know Anna. She hates lamiea with a passion and trusts them about as much as I trust drivers in this city. If the messenger made one wrong move she would have shot.”
“I can’t get anything from it.” Vlad shook his head and went to pull his hand away when Andrea’s came up and covered his.
“Feodor always said we were stronger together.” She muttered, pressing his hand to the wall with hers. They’d done this many times back in the old days, so many times Vlad noticed all the changes to her hand. She had a new scar on her palm and a burn on ring finger. She had more calluses too. Sometimes never changed though, his hand still dwarfed hers.
“Anything?” He asked in a whisper, looking down at her. She was a full head shorter than he was.
“White… white and silver and tan. Chains, two chains.” She pressed his hand harder, “Attrecto gloriatio.” The ring on her middle finger started to glow and she drew a deep breath. “I know where they are.”
She jerked her hand back and muttered some Latin under her breath. The ring stopped glowing and she shook her hand. He drew his hand away from the wall and rubbed at the back of it with his other hand.
“What did you see?” He asked and she shook her head.
“Just the address, didn’t see anything.” She said quickly, starting for the car.
“So, where are they?” He asked as he caught up to her.
“Queens.” She looked at her watch, “Alright, I’ll call Lee, get him looking up the floor plans of the house, while we raid the weapons. There will be two or more hit squads.”
“That’s a low estimate.” Vlad commented as they got back in the Mini.
“Well, it’s not a big house. It’s mostly empty except for the basement, which offers day time shelter and the upstairs room, which I saw a little of.”
“I thought you just saw an address.”
“I just saw the address clearly.” Andrea muttered, pulling into traffic, “Midtown will fuck us up time wise. And getting to Queens will suck.”
“You don’t think we’ll make it before sundown.”
Andrea barked out a laugh, “I don’t think we’re supposed to make it before sundown.”
The implications of that statement rolled through Vlad’s head and he said the only thing he could think of. “Damn.”
---
“Uh, Andy, someone’s at the side door.” Lee called as Andy checked the clip for the .40 auto in her hand.
“Well, who is it?” She snapped, slamming the magazine home and chambering a bullet. She slid the gun into a thigh holster and grabbed some spare clips from the weapon’s locker.
“It’s Detective Goren, and he’s going to draw attention from downstairs.”
Andy finished sliding the extra clips into her ammo belt and strode over to look at the screen over Lee’s shoulder.
“Alright, go get him.” She decided, clapping Lee on the shoulder, “If he’s got cop buddies with him just out of sight, I won’t get arrested for looking like a terrorist.”
Lee nodded and slid off the stool, heading for the door. When he left she looked over at Vlad. He was also armed to the teeth. He had Excalibur slung over one shoulder, a shoulder holster on the opposite side, two handguns at his waist, and one on his thigh. On the opposite thigh he had a strip of flash bang grenades. She had pretty much the same outfit on, except while Vlad had only four guns, she had six. Two in shoulder holsters, two at her waist and two on her thighs. Damascus was strapped to her left forearm, so she could carry more guns. She knew they’d eat through all the ammo they had before making any sort of dent, and when things went hand to hand the advantage would be to the lamiea. They were heavily out numbered and out classed in this fight, and they were going in anyway. Sometimes Andy thought she just might be crazy.
“He says he wants to talk to you.” Lee said as he came back inside with Bobby Goren. He looked startled by her and Vlad’s appearance at first then frowned.
“You know where he is.” He said, looking at her.
“Who? Detective Logan? Yeah, he’s with Anna. We’re going to get her, and hopefully him, though they might have killed him already.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Bobby looked grim, “I didn’t know they had gotten Anna.”
“They used Detective Logan as some kind of bait for her.”
“Why do they want Anna?” Bobby asked, and Andy shrugged.
“Don’t know. Not really a concern of mine right now.”
“Don’t worry, Detective, if your friend is still alive, we’ll get him out and bringing him safely back.” Vlad said, “You have my word.”
“I want to come with.”
Andy couldn’t help it, she laughed, “No way.”
“He’s my friend and I’m part of this little group, it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on.” Bobby took a step towards her and she took a step towards him.
“You have no idea what’s going on, buddy. And now idea how to fight these things. You got lucky your first encounter, but we’re going up against hit squads, lamiea that can tear you limb from limb before you so much as get your gun out of your holster.”
“So, just the two of you are going in? That’s a great plan. I can get a SWAT team to where ever you’re going and they can raid the house.”
“And before your SWAT team can get the door down Anna and Detective Logan will be dead. You have no idea how to win this fight.”
“Enough!” Vlad yelled and they both whipped around to face him. He looked at Andy before looking away, “He’s coming with.”
“What? Are you nuts, Vlad?”
“Andrea, don’t… don’t question this.” Vlad said, getting a ammo belt and holster down from the cabinet and walking over to Bobby. “Here. Silver bullets. Aim for anything you think you can hit. They’re fast though, so shooting randomly might actually work more than aiming. We only have the element of surprise in our favor. I’m going in first, you’ll come up behind and then Andrea will watch the rear.”
Bobby nodded, looking more grim than before. Andy crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Vlad who shot her a look, “We all started just like this.”
“He’s not one of us. He stumbled into this. He didn’t choose it.” She shot back.
“Maybe he didn’t choose, maybe He did.” Vlad shot back and Andy snapped her mouth closed. One problem when you knew God existed and He had a plan for you and other people, it was hard to tell what just was and what He made sure happened. She couldn’t argue against Vlad’s reasoning, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Fine, but make sure he gets an injection of silver and garlic before we go. Maybe that’ll keep them from feeding off of him before he gets killed.”
---