We returned to find Talia in an uproar. Her alpha power was just rolling off her and was influencing everyone in the office. It almost dropped Khloe to her knees along with everyone else in the office. Curious, I walked over and wrapped my arms around Talia, pulled her into a hug, and softly whispered in her ear “Calm sis. What happened?”
She visibly calmed and her power ebbed. I looked around the office and found Khloe. “Can you check on everyone and see about sending them home for the day.” She nodded.
“Fucking Dutch and his band of miscreants just laid waste to a house with about 10 younger vampires in it while they were sleeping. I just got off the phone with Donovan, and he has asked if you and I could come over to the house and look around. I told him as soon as you got here we’d be over.” She pulled away, now much calmer, and continued, “Then I got a call from Shane, that idiot who was involved with Dutch. He’s scared shitless now and said that Dutch got a call about doing a job for someone and that it would be simple and they would all make some easy cash. He said once he found out who the target was he backed out and Dutch had some of the others beat Shane to unconsciousness. He said that he got out of there and is seeking forgiveness for what he called ‘his foolishness for listening to Dutch’.”
Khloe walked back into Talia’s office and nodded to me in an indication that she had done as I asked. I began pacing around the office. “First, get a message to Shane and tell him to get his ass up to Portsmouth to talk to Mom. His fate is in her hands. Second, did the guys that James was calling get here yet?”
“Yes, they came in about an hour before I got the call about the vampires. They are down in the basement getting settled into the guest quarters.” Talia answered.
“Ok, I’m going to go change into something a little more appropriate for investigating a bloodbath. I would suggest that you two do the same.” I said as I pointed out Talia’s suit and Khloe’s more casual attire. “Then meet me at the truck.”
“Dorian, you know we are going to have to end him, right?” Talia said as I was headed to the door.
“Yes, I know,” I said quietly. I left knowing that they both heard me.
When I got to my room I went to my closet, pulled out my olive-green duffle from the Marines and pulled out more appropriate clothes. After I attached my holster to the belt, I reached for my leather motorcycle jacket before I headed back downstairs. I walked out to my truck and I noticed the team that James called getting into one of those customizable work vans. I made my way over I introduce myself to the team. It turned out that the comms guy was a girl by the name of Kim who served in the Air Force with the Air Intelligence Agency and could speak 3 languages before she was bitten by a Were while on an operation in Afghanistan back in 2003. The other three were all veterans of SWAT teams from Boston and NYC. I gave them the rundown of where we were headed and what to be on the lookout for. Khloe and Talia came out a few minutes later, both dressed similarly. Talia’s clothes were dark grey and she was carrying two scabbards that I knew held her fighting blades that I had specially made for her after she saw them in The Hobbit. Talia was unparalleled in her proficiency with them. Khloe was dressed like Talia and had her messenger bag. She had the most unusual sword strapped to her back.
She came over and kissed me lightly on the lips, “We’re ready when you are.”
“What’s with the machete?” I asked.
“It’s not a machete, Dorian. It’s called a Macana, an ancient weapon used by the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs for hundreds of years.” She said as she pulled the sword free from its scabbard and began to go through a series of moves that made my eyes open in wonder and amazement. After she finished, she put the sword back in its scabbard and went to get into my truck.
I turned to the QRF team. “This is supposed to be a simple investigation at the request of the Boston vampires.” I paused to rub my temple and let a sigh of frustration before I continued. “Be prepared for anything because I have no idea what we are walking into.”
It took us about thirty minutes through rush-hour traffic to reach the address that Donovan’s people provided. We found a couple of parking spots not too far apart from each other. As we got out we took in the neighborhood and the tenement building that was our destination. It was a four-story building containing about twenty units five per floor, plus whatever they used the basement for. From what Talia found out, the Boston Coven owns the whole building.
I did a 360-degree scan of the neighborhood. It appeared to be a quiet area with several other apartment buildings, townhouses, and duplexes lining the street. The building we wanted was on a corner and had a covered parking lot next to it. Our two groups met out front. I looked over to Joseph, their lead. “I want two of you to check the outside of the building and the other two to check out the basement.” They all nodded before I went on, “We will.” I pointed to Khloe, Talia, and myself “We will start in the lobby and move upstairs floor by floor. After you finish with the perimeter set up a security check point in the lobby while securing all entrances into the building.” I looked around the group and finished, “Let’s do this.”
I reached for the front doors and turned toward the girls. “If we need a nose, I’ll change. I’d rather have your blades available in case they are needed.” Talia nodded and opened the door.
The smell of blood and werewolf assaulted our noses as we went in. I looked around the lobby as one of Donovan’s vampires stepped out of the security office in the back. He appeared to visibly relax when he saw us. “Glad you guys could come over. With everything that is going on, we aren’t sure who did this. I’m Garrett, by the way.”
“Glad to help. I’m Dorian” I pointed at the girls, “This is Khloe and my sister Talia. Have you checked on all the occupants?”
“Yes, and we were lucky this building is almost empty. Only five units were occupied, and they are all on the top floor.” He answered as he pulled out a blueprint of the building. He spread it out on the counter, he pointed to the fifth floor. “There are only two ways to get to the top floor from inside, the elevator and the stairs.” He pointed out them out on the blueprint.
“If it all happened on the top floor why do I smell blood down here?”
“Security is handled by the coven and daytime is usually a human ‘Friend of the Coven’.” He supplied. That means that the daytime security was someone well versed in the supernatural world and was well compensated to guard this building during daylight hours. “Still don’t know how they got upstairs since both the elevator and the stairwell are secured by access points that require either a passkey card or in the event of the stairwell a security code.”
“No sign of forced entry on the stairwell?”
“No, none. Not even the daylight security has access to the upper floors due to obvious reasons. The rooms have additional security features implemented by each owner.” Garrett continued “Would you like to see the apartments?”
“In a minute. I want to see if we can sniff something out that you might have missed, but I want to wait for my other team to finish their external sweep of the building and basement.” I looked over to Khloe and Talia. “You guys notice anything out of the ordinary?”
Talia looked at Khloe and begun, “It looks like they went up the stairs. Not sure how they got into the stairwell…”
“I did sense some lingering power. I could check out the door more closely.” Khloe finished.
Khloe walked over to the stairwell door and began pulling some items from her bag and went to work with her brand of voodoo. Talia stood watch over her like she’d done it a thousand times. The smell of some sort of incense drifted over our way about the same time the rest of my team came in from checking the perimeter. Joseph walked over as the others began to set up the security checkpoint.
“Kim, call Craig, fill him in, and ask him to set up surveillance on Dutch and his cronies. I have a feeling that Dutch is going to celebrate what they did tonight and blow off some steam.”
“Got it!” Khloe hollered from the stairwell door. “Tricky bitch too.”
Garrett and I walked over where Khloe and Talia were standing Khloe put a hand towel back into her bag. On the floor around her, she had drawn a circle surrounded by more of her Incan runes in charcoal. Inside the circle is her bag, an incense burner, and sage judging by the smell. Talia was standing there with her trademark smirk of satisfaction like she was privy to something no one else was. Khloe looked at me and I brought myself up short. There was a smoldering fire in those emerald green eyes of hers. My wolf perked up and wanted her right there. He saw her as an equal and I had to agree with him. She broke eye contact and she shook herself. “Found something, I take it?” I asked.
Khloe grinned, “Oh yeah. Looks like he had the help of a witch. She’s skilled too, but I found what she did. Looks like she made a skeleton key that is tied to the building so it gave them access to every door in the building.”
“With the building, all but empty they had plenty of time to do what they came here for. Question is, what was their intent?” I asked out loud.
“Maybe someone here was tied to the leadership of the coven or another important role that we don’t know about,” Talia replied looking over at Garrett, our vampire contact, with skepticism. I was sure she thought that they were hiding something or someone from us.
I turned to Garrett and inquired with a little alpha power, “What aren’t you telling us? These weren’t just members of your coven. An entire building used for five vampires?”
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He answered as he almost fell to his knees under my influence.
“He doesn’t know anything,” Talia said as she pulled her cellphone out and dialed a number. “This is Talia Callahan, put Donovan on now!” She commanded.
Khloe tapped her foot for about a minute, then cleaned up her stuff and erased her circle and runes. “Donovan, who the hell lives in this building? Because someone hired our castoffs and a witch to gain access to the building, killed your guard, and then made their way upstairs to have their way with the five that live here. You need to start talking or we are leaving it to you. Oh, we’ll take care of Dutch and his bunch tonight, but the witch and everything else will be your problem.” Talia was pissed and I couldn’t blame her, the damned vampires thought that they could use us. I was beginning to wonder if this was a payback for the way that I had treated him at our office. I fucking hated political bullshit.
I released my power and let Garrett get up. As I walked over to Khloe, Kim called from the front desk. “Boss, we have something or someone coming up to the door.”
The four of us walked around to where my team had set up and as we got there an individual walked into the lobby. He had the smell of death and decay. He was an easy 6’5”, bald, and eyes black as pitch. His skin was like parchment, pale and weathered, and covered in tattoos like the ones on Khloe’s left arm. He wore ornate robes of such a deep red they appeared to have been dipped in blood. There was fine gold thread used to embroider strange symbols around the neck, sleeves, and along the bottom. The malevolence that flowed off him sent everyone to their knees except Talia and me. That seemed to get his attention. Then, in a voice that seemed to come from all around us, he said, “Interesting. No other being on this planet has ever been able to resist my domination of will.”
Talia and I looked at each other and shrugged. She pulled out her knives and as I began to strip she said, “You must be Kirin?”
“No, I am not. I am one of his humble priest’s. You should know that no mongrel has ever bested me in combat and you two won’t be the first.” He said and then he took off his robes. Beneath was what appeared to be leather armor that the Roman Centurions wore, custom fitted to his muscular physique. It was also a blood red. He then pulled a pair kukri knives from behind his back. The black blades that looked like they absorbed all the light around them.
He leapt forward with preternatural speed and Talia met him with her blades flashing. Sparks flew as her silver blades met his black blades. They were a blur of motion. They slashed at each other while trying to parry each counter attack. This ‘Priest’ was good as he blocked Talia’s attempts to get inside his defenses. Talia backed away from him as she began to circle him. Stalking him searching for any weakness or opening that presented itself. The priest then cried out in rage as he leapt forward with a wild slash that Talia ducked under. Countering with a strike of her own, her blades bit flesh, causing him to stumble. He righted himself, the priest reached down to the fresh slashes across the back of his thighs. AS he brought his hand up you could see it was covered in blood. He smirked as he simply licked the blood off his hand before moving in again. I don’t know how to explain it, but one minute it was an even fight until Talia scored that hit. Then the priest was a nightmare come to life as he renewed his vicious slashes and thrusts against her. I’ll give it to my sister, Talia was up to the task, matching each of his strikes. Then there was a cry, followed by the sound of Talia’s blade hitting the ground as she backed away, holding her right arm that was bleeding bad. The blade that had struck her appeared to drink her blood. Seeing Talia wounded like that, I lost control. There was a whirl of magic, I changed, but not into my wolf, but something that only my sister and I can change into, that of the mythical werewolf beast form. Standing almost eight feet and covered in black fur I roared my challenge and charged.
He took a step back and then smiled, his fangs fully extended, “Finally! A challenge.” Then he met my charge.
Talia stumbled over to Khloe. It seemed that my attack had negated the effect he was having on everyone else in the room. “Khloe, you have to help Dorian, he can’t hold that form for long.”
He met my charge head-on, ducking under the swipe of my claws, and slashing across my abdomen. I roared as though my insides were on fire. I spun away as I slashed him across his back before he could get too far away. He turned to meet me and glanced over his shoulder at the wound before he looked my way. There was anger and hatred written clearly on his features, his eyes full of malevolence that seared the soul.
In that moment, I suddenly noticed what sounded like Spanish. The priest’s steps faltered as he disengaged. He looked at Khloe with genuine fear. “How is this possible? Your people were wiped from the face of the earth centuries ago,” he said. Then he spun in a circle with his blades touching the floor. Almost like he was making a circle of power, there was a flash of light, and he was gone.
I collapsed on the tile floor, my body covered in slash marks from his wicked blades. Khloe and Talia rushed to my side as I changed back. Talia looked at Khloe with tears in her frantic eyes “Why isn’t he healing, Khloe? He should’ve already healed these slashes by now. Mine is healed why not his?”
“It must be those cursed blades that he wields. The blade is made from obsidian and they have dark runes etched into them. Your blood must’ve activated them.”. Khloe answered as she looked over Dorian’s body. “Foul. Nasty. Things.”
Talia got herself under control, picked up her discarded blades, and looked around the room. “Joseph, we’re moving out. We need to get Dorian back to the house.”
Joseph nodded barking out commands to his team to prepare to return to the townhouse.
Talia looked over at Garrett. “Tell Donovan to stay the hell out of our way. He better be ready to help or his ass is mine.” Garrett nodded his understanding as he waited for us to leave.