Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) (33 page)

Another of them came out the front doors, a female that time, and Kiko hit that one, this time in the chest. The dart tips were long and sharp, and she didn’t wear a coat, so she went down even faster than the first one had.

I couldn’t help noticing she had the same, strange, light-colored eyes that the first one had.

Otherwise, they looked nothing alike.

My uncle warned me that vampires shared few physiological traits apart from the odd color of their eyes, which were all more or less the same. They shared even fewer physiological similarities with one another than seers did with other seers.

They weren’t all particularly tall. They could be any age. They could also display the physiological traits of any ethnicity, and their proportions of each ethnicity seemed to more or less mirror the general population of humans.

The woman was small-boned, red-haired, only about five feet tall in height, and heavily freckled. The man had been tall, broad-shouldered, and looked closest to Middle Eastern to me. The only way I would have known they were the same was by the way they moved.

I knew it would get harder now, since others might have seen their companions fall.

When Dex looked at me, making the all-clear sign for the front of the building, I nodded, motioning for him to send his team inside.

I followed behind him and Kiko, conscious again that Efraim and Ravi shadowed my every move. I could feel their light extended around me as well, like a protective bubble.

More than that, I felt my uncle’s people following behind us now.

Barking dogs heading around the building caused me to motion to Kiko to speed things up on getting the rest of her team inside the house.

Javier and Alice went in first, with Kiko and Dex covering them. Walter and Ace went in next, then me, Efraim and Ravi, followed by Kiko and Dex.

Entering that cavernous hallway, I couldn’t help looking up, even with the infrared goggles, taking in the scope of the room. A very old-looking chandelier filled the space directly above me, hanging in the area between the staircase and the giant oak doors. I glanced around as Javier and Alice gave the all-clear sign for the foyer, noting human-sized sculptures made of marble and paintings and tapestries that looked like they belonged in a museum. The largest of the latter had the image of a white unicorn in the center, surrounded by adoring humans.

A yelp came from my right.

I jerked my head around, and saw Alice gripped in the hands of a heavy-set, athletic looking man who had his jaws attached to her neck.

Feeling my blood run cold, I raised my rifle, shooting the thing in the shoulder. For a long-feeling second, it didn’t raise its head. Then, slowly, groggily, it did. Blood gleamed from its fangs in the moonlight coming through the stained glass window above the door. Alice was panting, gripping his arms where he held her, but not actively fighting him.

When he went down behind her, she landed heavily on top of him, on her back.

Her rifle separated from her shoulder when she fell, clattering on the marble tile, and immediately, Javier stepped on it to deaden the sound.

Alice scrambled away from the unconscious vampire as soon as his hands loosened and he went still. I watched her, fighting the adrenaline running through my blood, as she snatched her rifle off the floor as soon as Javier moved his foot.
 

For a moment we all just watched her as she stood there, panting, pressing a hand to her neck. I watched as she flipped her goggles up, craning her head and neck to try and look at the wound his teeth had left on her skin.

“Did he fucking bite me?” she whispered, staring at Javier.

Javier nodded slowly, frowning. He glanced at me, lifting an eyebrow, but didn’t speak.

“Jesus fucking christ,” she said, her voice still sounding shocked.

“Quiet!” Dex’s voice was low, but unforgiving.

They all fell silent. Once he had their attention again, Dex motioned that we were going upstairs. I watched Alice nod, her expression growing determined once more. She flipped her goggles back down in the same few seconds, her mouth firming as she adjusted her rifle on her shoulder and fell in step behind Ace.

And yeah, I felt guilty as hell. But I was glad she was all right.

I’d asked my uncle if vampires could really turn humans into more vampires, and he’d never really given me a definitive answer, which told me they probably could.

When I asked Colonel Holmes the same question, he’d been almost as cagey as my uncle. He did tell me that it wasn’t as simple as the myths portrayed, likening it to some kind of genetic illness that could be passed under certain conditions. But he definitely alluded that turning a human into a vampire was possible.

They both said it took a hell of a lot more than being bit by one, though.

Even so, I found myself following after Alice, watching her back worriedly as we ascended the stone stairs.

Using the sub-vocals headset, I made sure it was turned to the channel where both Charles and the Colonel’s people would hear us, along with my own team.

“Red-1 here,” someone on the Colonel’s end said.

Whoever he was, he sounded young.

“We’re inside,” I murmured. “Three of theirs unconscious. One person on our team injured, but she seems to be okay.”

“Understood,” the guy on the Colonel’s end said.

“Any more signatures inside?” I said, still quiet. “Can you see them in here?” I didn’t know how to ask him if vampires showed up on the infrared with my whole team listening. Red-1 seemed to get the gist of my question.

“Infrared picks up significantly more hostiles outside the building,” the voice said, confirming my unasked question. “But we’ve also counted approximately seventeen upstairs. More are coming from the smaller buildings behind the main one. Oh, and they’ve let loose the dogs...” he added.

I nodded, gritting my teeth. “Copy that.”
 

“Request private channel,” Red-1 said then.

I switched over at once. “What is it?”

“Colonel Holmes wishes me to inform you that we’ve got an estimated head count of thirty-six humans and twenty-four non-humans total at this time, ma’am. Standard arms, from what we can tell. At least twelve of the non-humans are upstairs.”

So they could tell them apart from their satellite scans, too. Good to know.

“Copy that,” I said. “Tell the Colonel thanks.”

“Roger. Will do.”

I opened the private channel between me and Charles. “Did you get that?” I murmured through the sub-vocals.

“Received,” my uncle said. “We’ll take care of the downstairs problem... can you handle the upper floors until we arrive?”

“I got an additional headcount,” I said, mouthing the words into the sub-vocals. “Thirty-six and twenty-four. Warm bloods on the high end. Twelve cold ones upstairs.”

I felt a plume of irritation off my uncle. “And you’re sure you’re okay to go forward alone?”

“I’m not alone,” I said. Feeling him about to argue, I cut him off. “Take care of the downstairs problem for us. Then come up when you can. If we get cut off on both sides, we really will be in trouble.”

My uncle’s voice came out grudging. “Understood.”

I glanced at Ravi before my eyes drifted up the stone bannister to the landing on top. I could see the team tensing in front of me, so I knew they’d heard the initial headcount by Red-1.

“Reaching the first landing now. Signing off.”

“Be careful, Miri.”

I gritted my teeth, but that time, I didn’t answer.

Seventeen

SCOUT’S HONOR

WE’RE GOING FIRST this time, Mrs. Black... not the humans.

I knew the voice in my head, even before I turned to look at Ravi’s eyes. He wore contacts, as he usually did when working around humans, but I now knew his eyes were a brilliant blue-green in color, the color of iridescent fish. It crossed my mind that he’d likely worn the contact lenses for the vampires more than the humans tonight, since my uncle also mentioned that vampires could see in the dark, almost as well as humans could in full daylight.

Thinking about his words, I nodded, then touched my headset, signaling Dex.

“Ravi, Efraim and I will take point.”

Dex frowned at me, then looked at Kiko, obviously for help. I could tell from his expression that he was trying to decide if he should physically restrain me, versus bothering to try and argue with me verbally.

“It’s not a discussion, Dex,” I said through the sub-vocals.

Without waiting, I nodded to Efraim, who began vaulting up the last few stairs in front of me. I followed as fast as I could, but Ravi had passed me in seconds too, and I watched them fan out just ahead of me, obviously trying to cover me from both sides.

Ravi got to the top of the stairs, peered around the corner...

Then immediately began firing the tranquilizer gun. It was so soft I thought he’d only been using the scope at first, but I heard more of those hisses as he must have hit targets, right before I could suddenly feel Uncle Charles all around me, as well as his seer team.

Even as I noticed, my uncle’s voice rose in my mind as well.

We’ve cracked their blocking mechanism.
He sounded relieved.
Valuable intelligence, truthfully. I now think I know how it is they manage to block our sight...

I didn’t care about that now.
Where’s Konstantin?
I sent.

End of the hall. Master bedroom. There are six more between you and that room. He’s got five with him. Looks like your people have knocked out at least four of the others––

I flinched when Efraim grabbed my arm, thrusting me forcefully behind him right as a shadow rushed me, catching hold of my arms. I saw a flash of sharp fangs, crystal-like, scarlet-tinted eyes...

Then Ravi hit it in the face with the butt of his rifle.

The thing didn’t go down exactly, but he managed to knock it off its trajectory. Efraim spun, keeping me behind him as the two of them faced off with the vamp, a female with dark skin, long, black braided hair and a full mouth. She hissed just like the others did when Ravi shot her in the chest with one of my uncle’s tranquilizer darts.

When Efraim turned back towards the hallway, Dex appeared at my side.

Only when he grabbed my arm did I realize how angry he was at me.

I knew why. He felt responsible for me, with Black missing. All of them did.

But I couldn’t let that distract me from the job.

I touched the earpiece again, going to the private channel for the Colonel’s people. “Red-1,” I said, my voice louder over the sound of multiple guns going off around me now. “How many are still moving, over?”

“You’ve got six more in the hallway,” he said at once. “Four human, so it looks like your people have been knocking out the right targets. I see six in the room at the end of the hall... those are all non-humans. One isn’t moving but appears to be seated. Four more are waiting behind the door. The last one is standing over the seated one, likely to protect him if anything gets past the door. I’d guess the seated one is your target––”

“Okay, got it. Thanks. Over.”

I clicked over to Kiko and Dex. “We need to get in the room at the end of the hall,” I said. “Let Efraim and Ravi go ahead. I’ll follow them. You cover our six. Leave Ace on the stairs with Javier. My uncle’s bringing his team in shortly.”