Duel Nature (30 page)

Deckert snorted at Benson’s comment about the
beautiful, curvy character in the movie. “You want assassin chicks
then just look at Citadel – the place is currently crawling with
them.”

“Yeah but they’re all cold blooded. Who wants
to snuggle with that? The one in the movie has warm skin,” the
burly ex-army soldier said. The others stiffened and he realized
what he said.

“Oops, my bad. Sorry Chris, I wasn’t talking
about Lady T,” he apologized.

“No problem. I actually know what you mean,
but I think it’s the reptilian stares that get me. The older the
vampire the less they act human. It’s really creepy,” I said.

“You know you might have hit it on the head,”
Hedges agreed, slugging Benson on the shoulder.

“Tanya acts just like a human…for the most
part,” he finished.

“I wish I had a suit of powered armor like
the one in the movie,” Stevens said in an obvious attempt to change
the topic.

“They can’t be that far
off,” I said. “Maybe not the flying part, but powered armor has
been a concept for decades. You just
know
that DARPA or some other agency
is looking into it.”

“Be useful against vamps and weres,” Stevens
said.

“Would it Chris?” Deckert asked. The others
all perked up, interested in my answer.

“Well it would have to help, at least against
the younger ones. I’m not sure how much good it would do against
the older ones – they’re just too fast,” I said.

“Hosokowa’s pretty fast huh?” Hedges
asked.

“Like freaking greased lightning,” I
muttered, then looked up. “You guys all heard about that huh?”

“Are you kidding? Arkady was first shocked
almost speechless then couldn’t stop crowing about the Young
Queen’s Chosen handing the Duelist his first loss,” Benson said in
a rush.

“I’m not sure I’d call it a loss. I got a few
good shots in though.”

“Yeah, more of a draw, although he was
wounded and you were just hungry,” Deckert commented.

“Speaking of hungry, let’s
grab a bite to eat….my treat,” I said, pointing to an Irish pub
looking place just across 54
^th
street from where we were
walking. The daytime crew might not have my metabolism, but they
were all big, athletic guys and the thought of food with the
possibility of beer on the side had their immediate
attention.

Being as it was early afternoon during the
workweek the place wasn’t too crowded. The pretty Irish hostess
found us a table, got us seated and handed out menus in short
order. She did it all while skillfully handling the automatic
banter that a bunch of high testosterone types get when around
attractive women.

“I think she’s seen through your blarney
Stevens,” Deckert said with a grin.

“Hell, I’ve barely gotten started,” Stevens
replied.

Our waiter appeared, asking about drinks, and
Deckert agreed that his crew could handle a round of Guinness. I’m
not sure that they were on official duty anyway, but his sense of
professionalism demanded that they stay sober. Me, I could drink a
keg of the stuff and not get drunk, the alcohol burning up way too
fast.

“Dude, I’m guessing the hostess is seeing
someone?” Stevens asked, trying for some field intell.

“Yeah – me,” the waiter answered as he headed
toward the bar to get our drinks.

“Crash and burn,” Benson commented without
looking up from his menu.

“Nah, that’s almost ideal,” Stevens replied,
looking unconcerned as he waved at the hostess who had glanced our
way.

“How so? Hedges asked.

“Workplace romances almost always fall apart
and she’ll need consolation,” Stevens said with a sly grin. “Till
then I’ll just have to find something else to occupy my time,” he
said as a mixed group of twenty-somethings were shown to the table
across from ours, his eyes locked on two very attractive girls in
stylish clothes. The hostess noticed him staring at them and just
shook her head. I figured Stevens wasn’t the first player to cross
her path.

I excused myself and headed to the bathroom
to take a leak. Business complete I paused just outside the
restrooms to look over the restaurant. It was long and narrow, with
a built in, leather clad bench against one wall that ran parallel
to the tables, and the long polished bar on the other wall. I heard
the lady’s room door open behind me, my senses automatically locked
on to a young female exiting the restroom. Without turning to look,
I slid to one side to let her go by.
“Sorry, just looking the place over,” I said, in explanation. Green
eyes glanced at me, then did a startled double-take at the sight of
my eyes.

“First time here?” she asked after finding
her voice.

“Yup, how’s the food?”

“The fish and chips are very authentic and
the chicken pot pie is really good,” she answered before brushing
brown hair behind one ear and heading to the table of young
professionals where Stevens was hitting on two of her friends.

I sat down just before the waiter plunked my
pint of Guinness at my spot. He broke out his order pad and started
with the formidable Mr. Deckert, who ordered three appetizers for
the table and a sea scallop entrée for himself. When it came my
turn, I ordered both the fish and chips and the chicken pot pie.
The waiter blinked a few times at my double order but no one else
at the table batted an eye.

The Guinness was tasty and I relaxed a bit,
listening to the guys debate the powers of the super heroes in the
movie while simultaneously sniping comments at Stevens about the
girls he was trying to pick up. The movie and the restaurant were a
slice of normalcy after three months Roving and the last few days
of hyper intense vampire drama. The Darkkin politics were only
going to get worse in the near future and I sensed real concern
from my mate.

“Who do you favor in the Elder race,” Deckert
asked quietly. Every conversation at our table stopped as the
attention turned to my answer.

“You’ve been a part of that world longer than
I have. I don’t know that I have any great insights,” I said,
noticing that our suddenly quiet table had caught the attention of
at least a few of our neighbors’ one table over.

Deckert snorted. “Son, your
place in
that
world
was set in motion before you were born…hell, before your mother was
born! In case it’s missed your attention, most of Citadel rotates
around your girl and to a greater degree than you
know—you!”

At some level or another I understood what he
was saying, but it wasn’t a concept I was comfortable with and not
anything I took for granted.

“I don’t know much about any of them, and the
only one I’ve crossed paths with was Mausya, but I have a feeling
she might be the lead horse in that race,” I said, staring into my
beer.

“Be real careful around her, hell, around all
of them, but her in particular,” I cautioned the table, then
noticed that Stevens’ two targets of opportunity were both watching
our byplay as was the pretty green-eyed girl I had met by the
restrooms.

The others noticed me noticing the attention
from the other table and being special ops types they immediately
changed behavior to cover the seriousness. A change of topic was in
order and I had been meaning to ask Deckert a question.

“How’s your daughter?” I asked.

He looked down at his beer, swirling the
rich, dark liquid around. “The test results came back as leukemia,”
he said, his voice bleak.

“That’s what Dr. Singh thought. Listen, Tanya
told him to use however much of her blood or even mine as he
thought necessary to treat it,” I said, remembering a recent
conversation. I had been recovering from my bout with Hokosawa when
the good Doctor had updated my vampire on the health of her human
security chief’s ten-year old daughter.

Deckert froze at my words, then looked slowly
back up at me. All pretense of pretending to hold normal
conversations halted at our table. “She said that?”

“Yeah, and Singh is certain that will be the
end of that. He said that regular vampire blood has a great track
record for curing leukemia and Tanya’s ought to pretty much
devastate it. He’s intrigued by the idea of using mine, but
whichever he uses the disease is pretty much gonna be history.”

His eyes held an intense light in them as he
processed my words. Deckert doesn’t normally show much emotion, but
he fairly vibrated with it at the moment.

“I thought that Tanya’s blood was off limits
to everyone but you?” Benson asked, flicking his eyes at his boss
then back to me.

“It goes to whoever she decides it goes to.
She’s decided that Brianne needs to grow up and provide her father
with grandchildren to train in the arts of mayhem,” I said as
lightly as possible.

“Do you know..er..when?” Deckert asked,
quietly.

“Well, Doc Singh already has a vial of each
of our blood so I would guess the very next time he visits her,” I
said.

“Tonight – he’s set to check up on her
tonight,” Deckert said, his voice sounding a little odd.

The table was quiet for a moment, then one of
the girls Stevens had been talking to leaned back in her chair and
whispered in his ear.

“Ah we’ve been invited to a party…some new
artist opening or something,” Stevens said, faltering.

Everyone looked at me. I shrugged. “You guys
should check it out. I gotta get back to the big C, see what
trouble I can get into.”

“Artist parties aren’t your thing?” Hedges
asked.

“Parties aren’t my thing. I..ah, don’t go to
parties, pretty much as rule. Never been to an artist party,” I
said.

“But you’ve been to a party right?” Hedges
asked.

“Sure, I go to Toni’s birthday parties every
year and back when I was with the Squad I went to some after work
parties.”

“I ain’t talking no kids party. I’m talking
about adult, alcohol served, loud music, women everywhere parties,”
he clarified.

“Maybe one or two during college, but they’ve
never been a good idea for me. Getting drunk was an invitation to
die, loud music hurt my ears and getting close to girls was an
invitation for them to die.”

“You should check this one out,” Benson
said.

“Alcohol doesn’t affect me anymore, loud
music really hurts my ears now, and I’ve got Tanya,” I said with a
shrug.

“Dude, it’s kind of sad that you never went
to parties. If you went now, the chicks would be all over you!”
Stevens said.

“Didn’t you hear him? He’s got Tanya!”
Deckert said to Stevens who had always been real unclear on the
concept of monogamy.

The waiter showed up with a tray load of food
and the table went quiet as everyone dug in.

***

Citadel was swarming with activity when we
got back.

“What’s going on?” I asked the security
vampires at the door.

“One of our techs got bit. Senka is pissed
off like I’ve never seen her. They want you there like yesterday,”
he replied, waving to another of Arkady’s guys to give me a ride in
a golf cart.

“Who got bit?” I asked, a hollow feeling in
my stomach.

He didn’t answer till I was in the cart and
it had started forward. “Your buddy…Chet!”

The golf cart shot forward, careening down
the long hallways at breakneck speed, taking me away before I could
fully process what he had said.

“Is he alive?” I asked my driver, who was
sitting as far over on his side of the seat as he could get from
me.

“I think so, but I don’t know any other
details,” he said, nervously.

I shut up and let him drive, worrying about
my friend, while the three minute drive seemed to take hours.

Chapter 30

The security guy dropped me off at a dead end
hallway. Four of Senka’s Guardian-trained vampires in full armor
and weapons were standing guard at the entrance to the little side
passage.

One of them pointed behind him without saying
a word or changing expression, so I kept my mouth shut and walked
down the short corridor to the corner where it doglegged right and
ended.

Senka, her giant seven-foot bodyguard,
Ondrej, Tanya and a visibly sleepy looking Lydia were studying the
empty end of the hall. A plastic ballpoint pen and a small puddle
of blood were the only sign that something had happened here.

All four turned to look at me and I started
to ask what had happened when the vision hit.

I have two types of visions; one that is
almost precognitive – always showing an impending demon attack and
the other is what I think of as a forensic vision – laying out a
series of images that almost always depict a recent supernatural
attack of some type.

This vision was the forensic kind and Tanya
picked up enough through our link to snatch a clipboard and pen
from an attending vampire and hand them both to me.

“Is he alive?” I asked while my right hand
sketched out the first of three scenes.

“Chester is alive and healing,” Senka said,
in a voice of arctic cold. “Singh is attending and assures me that
he will survive, especially after my Gift to him.”

The older vampires attached much meaning when
one of them donated a small dose of their own blood to heal a human
or younger vampire. The Gift of blood was a sign of how highly an
older vampire valued the recipient.

I looked around the hall while my right hand
continued sketching on its own. There were no security cameras in
this part of the hallway, so the attack hadn’t been recorded.

“Any video from the main hall?” I asked.

“Two, wearing hooded shirts – no faces,” the
giant Ondrej rumbled.

“Wait – didn’t Arkady assign a couple of guys
to watch over Chet?” I asked, still drawing.

“We found them staked in a supply closet,”
Lydia answered.