Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (41 page)

Holding my dislocated jaw, I stumbled over to Lucas. He was halfway across the field. His attention diverted to me as soon as he finished ripping another elder vamp’s head off with his bare hands. A second later he flashed directly in front of me.

“Hold still,” he ordered.

I let go of my jaw and braced for him to reset it. There was a crack when he moved it back into place. I winced—damn, but that hurt. I tried working it to get the blood flowing properly again and he just shook his head at me.

“Please tell me you killed whoever did that.”

I glared at him. “Of course.”

My words came out a bit garbled, but from the look in his eyes he understood. I decided I’d hold off a bit before trying to talk again.

“You’re covered in blood,” he observed, caressing a hand over the part of my head Zoe had cracked. “We will be working on your technique in the future.”

Lucas, on the other hand, only had a few splatters on him. Usually he killed his opponents so quickly he was already moving to the next one before the blood could hit him. Must be nice take down one’s enemies that fast. Me? I had to immerse myself in gore to get the job done.

I just snorted at him and started walking toward the area where the others were gathered. A gathering of clouds had covered the moon, but I could still make out the shadowy figures of a large group of our people. As we got closer, my night vision kicked in better so I could see them more clearly. It appeared they’d left one elder vampire alive and Nik had his hands wrapped around his throat.

“How many of your people are left in Fairbanks,” Nik asked.

The vampire smiled. “None by the time you get there. I called them already and they have a plane waiting to take them away.”

Nik’s face darkened. “To where?”

“As if I’d tell you.”

The master vampire held out his free hand to Kariann, who stood next to him. She slapped a stake in his palm. A moment later it was in the other vamp’s heart.

“We’ll be taking this one back for questioning,” Nik announced.

The pain in my jaw had eased enough that I felt safe to talk.

“What about them?” I asked, nodding at a group of sensors our side had rounded up.

I’d made a big deal out of insisting we couldn’t kill them unless absolutely necessary. There’d been ten of them when the battle started, but it looked like only six had made it to the end—including the one female sensor who’d come.

It was too bad my father hadn’t been around for the fight. He was one sensor I’d have been happy to take out without questioning him first. The coward must have known I’d come here and decided to stay in Fairbanks. If that part of Zoe’s group had left already, I’d missed my chance to face him again. Someday. Someday he’d get his reckoning.

Nik looked over at the bedraggled group. A few of them were wounded and would have to be patched up. “The sensors will be questioned as well.”

He dropped the vampire to the ground. Kariann moved to hover over the guy and make sure he didn’t somehow get the stake loose. Some of the older ones could work past the pain enough to do that.

I looked at the sea of bodies scattered all around and figured we’d have to remember to collect keys before burying them—which would be fun in the dark. We’d passed the cars Zoe’s people had used coming up and it looked like most of them were rentals. It was only fair to return them to the companies who owned them.

At least the place we were located at was remote enough we could dispose of their bodies without having to move them elsewhere. Nik had insisted we bring shovels in our vehicles just for that purpose. It said something when you’d fought enough battles to factor burying the dead into your strategic planning.

“Well, you guys know what needs to happen next.” He paused to look at his watch. “We need to be out of here by three o’clock if we want to find and rescue our people before dawn—so work fast.”

I checked the time on my cell phone and saw it was a little before two. The battle had seemed to last forever, but it hadn’t actually taken that long.

Lucas leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Stay here and help guard the prisoners. The rest of us can clean this up.”

I wasn’t going to argue with him. Sorting and burying bodies wasn’t one of my favorite pastimes.

“Wait,” I said when he started to move away. “Get this damn thing off of me first.”

I fingered the choker still around my neck. It had some kind of locking mechanism so I couldn’t remove it myself. He’d claimed it was so no one else could take it off either.

He flashed his teeth at me. “I rather prefer it where it is.”

“So help me God, Lucas…” I began.

A second later he’d flashed behind me and lifted my braid out of the way. I breathed a sigh of relief when it fell from my neck. Never again would he convince me to wear one of those. It had annoyed me the entire battle.

“I’m keeping this for later use.” He picked it up off the ground where I’d let it fall.

“Maybe on you,” I replied.

He just chuckled and walked off.

Kerbasi strolled up a few minutes later. He’d rushed off the moment Lucas took Zoe away and stayed by the cars for the rest of the battle. The magic in the cuff had a weird side effect of making me more cognizant of his location. Not that the spell worked on me, but with constantly sensing the magic running between us it forced me to pay more attention to him.

The guardian ran his gaze up and down my body. “You are covered in blood. It is a good look for you—though it would be better if more of it was your own.”

I pulled my gun and shot him in the head three times. It had been too long of a night to worry about his humanity lessons. Now he’d put me in a bad mood. I homed in on our prisoners and thought of something more productive I could be doing than wasting my bullets on Kerbasi.

Several of them looked scared when I walked up. Selecting one of the male sensors, I pointed my gun at his head.

“One of you better tell me in the next ten seconds where Zoe’s been keeping the hostages or I’m putting a bullet through this man’s head.”

They all looked at each other, but no one said anything.

“One,” I counted.

Still nothing.

“Two.”

Maybe I’d picked the unpopular guy and should have chosen a different one.

“Three.”

“Wait.” The female sensor rushed up to me. “They’re confined inside a warehouse. I don’t know the address, but I can show you where to go.”

I examined her more closely than before. She had long brown hair that she wore loosely over her shoulders and hints of a possible Latina heritage. Despite this being a battle all she’d worn was jeans and a fitted t-shirt. The clothes hugged her tightly. I wouldn’t have called her thin, but she carried her weight well. She was also pretty—and young. At eighteen years old, they never should have brought her into this mess. I still had to question her, though. She knew too much.

“It’s not a trap, is it?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. All the guys who were guarding it will be gone by the time we get there.”

“No explosives or other things that could go off if we go into the place?”

A smile played at her lips. “Nope, though I’m surprised she didn’t think of that. I promise, nothing bad will happen if you rescue them. I’ve been able to listen in on most of her plans, so I’m sure.”

Well, the girl wasn’t lying.

“Good enough.” I put my gun away. “Now you’re going to come with me so we can have a little chat.”

I took her arm and guided her away from her group. It’d be a while longer before they finished cleaning up the mess on the field and she and I had a lot to talk about.

Chapter Forty-six

It was less than twenty minutes before dawn by the time we got back. As soon as we’d finished clearing out the battlefield, we’d gone straight to the warehouse to rescue Nik’s people. They’d looked worn, but otherwise fine and happy to be free.

Most people went straight home after that since nothing was keeping them away from their houses any more, but some of us were still on prisoner detail. Lucas was going to question the sensors who’d been taken to Nik’s house after he reclaimed it. I’d be talking to Zoe alone first where we’d set up a special prison cell for her ahead of time.

Nik had called off questioning the vampire we’d taken until later in the day. There just wasn’t time to ask much before the dawn lethargy would set in for all vamps—even the older ones. He was confined to the basement of Nik’s home, though, so they could start in on him by afternoon. Older vamps were up by then though they had to restrict their movements to indoor spaces protected from the sun’s rays.

I made my way toward the old cellar we were using to hold Zoe. Charlie had put up some kind of special shaman warding on it. Between that and the chains, she wouldn’t be escaping anytime soon. Kerbasi had wanted to go with me, but I reminded him about his latest report. So long as he had a task relating to his humanity thing to complete, he didn’t get to do anything else.

Aniya nodded at me as I walked up. We’d left her and a few of the weaker sups behind since they would have just gotten themselves killed. As it was we’d lost five during the battle, though I hadn’t found out about that until later. None of them were sups I knew well, but I’d still go to the memorial we’d have for them later.

“How’s it going with our prisoner?” I asked Aniya.

She gave me a tired look. “The woman doesn’t stop complaining. I finally moved up here to get away from her.”

“Go get some sleep,” I said. “Nik’s sending someone else soon to watch over her for the daylight hours.”

“Thanks,” she said weakly before wandering off.

I pulled the cellar door open and headed down the dark stairs. There was only one light on and it was in the main storage area. Two days before we’d cleared the space just for the purpose of putting Zoe in it. We’d also installed heavy duty prison bars on one side and fortified it as much as possible.

Charlie had been down here ready to set the wards when we left for the battle. As soon as Lucas dropped Zoe off, he’d put them up. He would have been helpful in the main fight—I knew that from seeing him in action before—but securing Zoe had been a bigger priority.

The female nephilim was pacing inside her make-shift prison cell when I got to the bottom of the stairs. More like shuffling, actually. Lucas must have added the shackles on her legs after he’d moved her here. We hadn’t brought them with us.

“Come to gloat?” Zoe asked as soon as she spotted me.

“No,” I said. “I just want to know why you’re so determined to go to Purgatory.”

Plus a few more things, but I’d ask one at a time.

She cocked her head. “Lucas hasn’t told you, has he? He must think you’d sympathize with me if you found out.”

I leaned against the cement wall and crossed my arms. “What could possibly make me sympathize with you?”

She went silent for a moment, studying me. “Someday you’re going to slip up and get pregnant. Now that you’re immortal you won’t be as fertile, but eventually it’ll happen. Maybe a year from now. Maybe a decade from now. What will you do then?”

Zoe seemed to be going somewhere with this so I decided to play along.

“I guess I’ll be investing in a lot of explosives for when the baby is born—if the archangels don’t want to negotiate.”

She stepped closer to the bars and a fierce expression came across her face. “They didn’t negotiate when they took my baby girl away. You can collect all the explosives you want, but eventually they’ll get to your child and they’ll kill you for trying to stop them.”

“You’re still alive, so I’m assuming you didn’t fight?”

“I knew there was nothing I could do after begging and pleading didn’t work. That’s when I began planning a way to rescue her someday. It’s been over three centuries, but I’ll never give up until I have her back,” she vowed.

I thought of the nerou I’d seen in Purgatory. There had been several women on the beach that day, but I couldn’t remember if any looked like Zoe. If I’d known her daughter was there I would have definitely paid more attention. There was no point in telling her what I knew, though. It would just make her want to escape from us more. Freeing the nerou was a project I’d be working on once other priorities were out of the way.

“Where did you put Micah?” I asked.

A smile played at her lips. “I’ll give you a hint, since you gave me one for the portal. He’s not in Alaska, but he is in the United States.”

“That’s a whole lot less detail than I gave you,” I pointed out. “Can you narrow it down to a region?”

She tapped her chin. “Since I doubt it will help—he’s in a northern state, though it could be east coast, west coast, or somewhere in the middle. That’s all you’re getting out of me, though. Lucas will get tired of looking for his brother eventually and that’s my bargaining chip to get free.”

We wouldn’t release her no matter how long it took to find Micah. Plus we still had the sensors and vampire to questions. There was always the chance they knew something.

“So do I get anything to eat around here?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said, giving her a magnanimous smile. “Bread and water—as much of it as you want.”

I wouldn’t lower myself to Kerbasi’s level, but that didn’t mean I was going to be a nice warden.

Epilogue

Three days later Lucas was pacing in my living room. We’d relocated back to my house the day after the battle, but we’d still been spending a lot of time at Charlie’s place. Lucas’ mood was steadily deteriorating.

“None of the prisoners know anything except Zoe and nothing I’ve done to her will make her talk.” He clenched his fists.

Lucas had done a few less than pleasant things to her, but all she did was scream in pain. That year with Kerbasi must have helped her keep her mouth shut. Of course, I wasn’t about to ask the guardian for tips.