Page 14
CHAPTER 14 - KNOXE
T he day had finally come. It only took almost three years to catch the vamp responsible for taking the life of my best friend. For what? Nothing? Once, we had an end in sight, our goal clear—catching Styx and cashing in on the bounty points set to get us out of the Guardians. Points that meant jack shit when the warden put our release on hold because he needed all hands on deck to retrieve fugitives who escaped.
The tight band that became a permanent fixture around my chest tightened to the breaking point. I didn’t know how much longer my team or I could take serving the Guardians. We lost Jaz, and narrowly avoided losing Pascal, Astra, and Raze. Serena got caught in the crossfire. Styx broke Tor’s spine. Who next? Me? Loco?
Vampires hissed behind me as the iron-based cuffs weakened them and burned their skin when Loco and I jerked them forward through the metal detectors. All gantii were allergic to it and gin and tonic, hence our weapons were forged with both these materials. Up this close with the vampires, the back of my throat cloyed with their heavy copper scent.
Loco did all the grunt work, preparing the paperwork for the vamps’ transfer. Guardian policy dictated he take more soldiers to transport the gantii to their home planet for his protection. Hence why Serena and I tagged along after her discharge from hospital.
The three of us dumped our weapons in containers on the security racks in the Terra Room and were forced to walk through the scanner with our vampire captives. The computer beeped its confirmation that we didn’t carry any unregistered munitions, and Sentry Ford waved us through.
“You sure you want to come?” I checked in with Serena, securing the vamps’ chains to a six-inch column, allowing me to remove my weapons from the container and fit them to my body.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she cracked back, stuffing the formal paperwork down the front of her zipper to enable her to gear up. “This is the biggest contract the Guardians has ever had, and I want to be part of it.”
Everybody dreamed of the glory of this contract, or one of the top five on offer. Glory that once belonged to me, but I relinquished for my team to share.
Her eyes slid to Loco, then the Ford, back to me, and she smiled.
“All right.” I clipped my gin and tonic bomb belt over my hips. “Let me know if you need to take a breather.”
“Sure thing.” There came that uneasy smile again. “Thanks for looking out for me, Knoxe.”
Looking out for those in my team used to be my job and it was ingrained in me. “No problem.”
I no longer felt the stab of insecurity at her assuming my position. In fact, I felt an enormous weight lifted off my back at not having to shoulder the burden of making critical decisions. For once, I could cruise along and enjoy the ride. That didn’t mean I didn’t worry about my team. Kicking that habit was a lot harder, and maybe I’d never shake it when it was part of my makeup.
Loco clapped me on the shoulder. “Good on you, son.”
The praise from my girlfriend’s father felt strange when my own rarely gave me any. I nodded at him and unhooked the vampires’ chains and clutched them tightly.
Having Loco accompany us made me think of Sunset, the bright blue eyes they shared, and whether she’d return. One part of me wanted her to remain free to stay with Raze and live her best life. The selfish part of me wanted her with us, which was unfair to him when he didn’t have anyone and needed her more than ever. Both sides warred with the other and hadn’t given me any peace since she accompanied him to his sanctuary. Whatever she chose to do, I hoped she was happy and safe. I certainly wouldn’t forget my fiery sunset that set my world ablaze. I just hoped that Raze’s shifter community were able to secret her away from the Guardian hunters Vancor might deploy to find her… not that the warden seemed to give a shit about her welfare.
Our end goal of freedom became a blur when the Guardians were left with significantly lower numbers of soldiers to perform missions, courtesy of the mass exit of fugitives. We got a vague promise of freedom if we apprehended them. Then what? More missions? How many more years of service and imprisonment? In the event we rounded up every last traitor and brought them back here, it was unlikely they’d ever be trusted to perform missions, and that left my team and me on lockdown for the foreseeable future. My ribcage ached like never before, and I doubted we’d ever see freedom. Maybe it was for the best Sunset stayed with Raze.
On the other side of the machine, Serena held her sides and winced. Her wounds still gave her grief, and that gave me reason for pause, especially if one of the vamps tried to make a break for it. She wasn’t fit enough to apprehend or tackle one in her condition when the doctor advised her to stay in the prison for another twenty-four hours. Hell, she had to twist his arm to get clearance for release and to accompany Loco and me to the vampire planet.
Stubbornness and hating being idle were something else we shared. I just hoped she knew what she was doing. We couldn’t afford another injury.
For that reason, Tor and Pascal stayed behind. Pascal hadn’t been cleared medically and wouldn’t argue against the doctor’s directive when he was a rule follower. Tor remained under medical observation since he returned with the broken exoskeleton.
Cole came in daily to test the repairs and the device’s response until the warden was satisfied and approved Tor for missions. Not that he minded when he got the jump on the information the thief avatar supplied, fulfilling his superhero complex, sharing information with Cole for their mission, in the hopes we might get additional clarity on our goals.
“Activating the portal.” Ford’s order and him flicking a switch, snapped me out of my thoughts.
Electricity hummed in the air as the crystals charged with power and radiated a soft white glow that branched out into a circular aperture in space.
“Proceed,” Ford announced with a hand signal for us to cross.
Serena took one final glance back at us and grabbed the case containing Styx’s head stored on ice, her neck muscles straining from the weight.
“Let me take that,” the chivalrous part of me prompted.
She shouldn’t bear any weight.
“I’ll be fine, Knoxe. Really.” There went that stubborn streak. She patted my arm and vanished through the white-blue shimmer of light.
“Get your asses moving.” I jerked my chains, dragging the vamps forward, and they hissed in protest at the cuffs biting into their wrists.
The seven of us crossed time and space, emerging into a darkened cave. Two guards flanked three high-ranking vampire officials waiting off to the side, their skin waxy and unnatural in the low light. The pungent scent of copper clogged my lungs. Vampire guards hung from the ceilings, ready to apprehend any gantii attempting to stray.
“Greetings, High Council.” Serena bowed her head as was custom in both our worlds. “We come bearing the ziker prisoners of Styx’s faction.”
Ziker was the gantii word for criminals and used across every world since they created its meaning at a gantii council meeting thirty years back.
The officials reciprocated the gesture when her bracelet translated her words into the vamps’ language.
One official lifted his bloodshot eyes and said, “Thank you for bringing them to justice.”
“Our pleasure.”
“Verarie?” The robust guard demanded.
Serena handed him the official documentation to transport a gantii prisoner. Vamps didn’t use paper for records and relied on feeding information into their sacred plant that stored their history and afforded them a hive mind.
Which meant she had to translate for him. “Styx perished in a battle to apprehend these prisoners.”
“Perished?” The guard’s eyes slid to the four captives.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Serena set the case by her boot and tapped its side. “His head is stored in here for you to verify.”
The official stretched out spindly fingers tipped with claws to lift the case. “Thank you for returning the traitor.”
“No problem.” Serena tucked her arms behind her back. “I thought you’d also want to know that one of our team found a cure for your breeding problem, and we’re manufacturing a vaccine to administer to repair the damage in your blood.”
We brought Dr. Jeffries, the geneticist, in to the prison’s laboratory to extract blood samples of the vamps caught in Astra’s magical explosion. We wanted to get the jump on it, forge a cure and prevent any of Styx’s remaining soldiers from assuming control of the rogue faction and plaguing us again. Thankfully, the doctor was up for the challenge. Sunset wouldn’t be happy that it stole her thunder. I’d have to make it up to her.
A collective hiss went around the group that sounded different from the threatening one we were used to when confronting vamps. Relieved, perhaps. Filled with hope. If I were them, that was how I would feel.
The first official spoke for them. “We are grateful to your team and appreciate any assistance we can get to save our race. Maybe now we will finally end this division with the rogue faction.”
Vamp society split in two when the government failed to get answers for their breeding problem. Styx’s wife was a scientist, and when she lost her child, her soldier husband established a task force to investigate why their race faced extinction. Desperation for solutions drove him too far, kidnapping scientists and threatening to take the lives of their families if they didn’t comply. That bastard met his undoing when he took Astra and Raze.
“We’ll take the prisoners from here.” The official concluded our meeting.
Fine by me. I wanted to be free of the vampires. Free of Styx. My heart lightened at the prospect of never having to encounter his cruel eyes ever again. To release the pain of losing Jaz, and the guilt for dragging my team for a ride on my rollercoaster of grief.
Serena stepped aside, and Loco and I went with her.
The guards seized the prisoners, and Loco and I released them from the cuffs. They weren’t our problem anymore if they broke free. We got them back here, and it was up to the officials and guards to see that they were charged and imprisoned. Whatever happened here on out, we got our points, but the fact that we didn’t earn our release tainted the prize.
Serena stared after the guards as they escorted the vamps away down the long cavern. I waited for her to cut tail and march back through the portal, but she lingered for some reason. Maybe she wanted to revel in this historic moment. It wasn’t every day that Guardians got to take down a prisoner as ruthless and cunning as Styx.
“Need another minute, Serena?” I voiced when she didn’t make a move after two minutes.
Loco and Serena exchanged a glance that conveyed a thousand words. They knew something. Information they withheld from the team.
I rounded on them. “What is it?”
“I think it’s time we brought you in on a secret, Knoxe.” Serena ran a hand through her hair. “This goes deeper than you can imagine, and we need you to know what we’re up against so you and the rest of the team can make an informed choice of whether to proceed.”
A tempest of dread picked up in my stomach at the seriousness of her words and tone. “What do you mean?”
“Loco, my husband, and I were assigned to a top-secret mission eighteen years ago by Vartros, back when he ran security for Nightfire Academy,” she started, her voice flinty and grave.
Fuck, this was BIG. Related to the case Vartros put me on, no doubt. The case against powerful players who threatened his family, drove him to stress and illness, forcing him to take a step back, and take administrative leave from his warden role to lower the heat on him.
“We were tracking Guild traitors who partnered with the Brotherhood of Serpents to acquire them gantii in exchange for accumulating wealth.” Her next words made my instincts crackle, drawing lines with the suspected traitors assisting the vampires to obtain Guild technology.
After my team’s graduation from Nightfire Academy, we were assigned to investigate a series of Veil breaches at three locations and busted a bunch of traffickers selling water sprites. According to Raze, Jaz told him that the people behind the business put out a hit on our heads for costing them money and lost merchandise. Hence, Jaz faked a crime and got us convicted and sent us to the Guardians to protect us from the Brotherhood.
I hooked my fingers in the loops of my belt and asked the hard question. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“We believe the gantii-related material that Pascal and Astra discovered on our last mission was stock connected to that same operation,” Serena advised. “Stock the vampires and Guild members acquired for the Brotherhood in exchange for payment in gold and technology.”
Missing pieces of my puzzle snapped together with blinding clarity.
I ran my eyes over the vampire guards hovering on the cave’s ceiling. They were too far out of range for our bracelets to translate our conversation.
I took a stab in the dark and asked, “That was how the vamps got hold of Guild tech?”
“We believe the Guild traitors are responsible.” Loco finally spoke. “We got close to proving it, and they locked us up in maximum security to shut us up. Until Vartros got us released.”
A fate no one deserved.
I nodded and scrubbed my jaw, appreciating them sharing this with me.
Serena sighed. “We believe this connects to the escaped fugitives, we just don’t have the evidence to prove it. If our hunch is correct, then you need to understand that these players had us locked up. They play dirty and will stop at nothing to achieve their means.”
Loco set a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “They cost me my family. Time with my kids and wife. Seeing my babies graduate high school and college. Serena lost her family, too.”
My jaw hardened, and I worked to free the ache setting in.
His hand tightened on me. “Is your team willing to risk the freedom you earned from this contract? You’ve got your whole lives ahead of you. We’ll understand if you don’t want to be part of it when our lives were ruined by these bastards.”
Their heartbreaking story upped the pressure on my chest.
“You’re pursuing them even after everything?” I asked.
Loco stepped back, removed his knives, swirling them over his fingers. “We won’t stop until every last one of them is six feet under.”
“But you’ve been reunited with your daughter,” I countered. “Don’t you want to get out and be a family?”
Loco’s hand crushed my arm. “We’re not getting out of here alive, Knoxe. They want us dead. Vancor is one of them, we’re positive of it. Vartros is forced on leave after releasing us? Come on.”
Fuck. I swiped at my jaw. Circumstantial evidence at best, but the elements certainly added up. I suspected something wasn’t right with Vancor, and so did my leader and second-in-command. Clues I couldn’t ignore. If our suspicions were correct, then Vancor wanted to erase all evidence of his connection to the traitors and to ensure they remained on the run.
Loco let me go to walk it off and blow off steam. “The only reason Vancor kept us around was because he needed to maintain the ruse of apprehending the fugitives to the Guardian hierarchy.”
I glanced at Serena. “What about Cole?” I didn’t repeat the line about family when it was a given.
Her eyes glistened. “My son is investigating them from outside with Raze’s help. That was how he happened upon the vampires.”
I pinched the corners of my mouth. Then I paced a few feet, not too far, cautious of antagonizing one of the vampire guards.
I came to a stop in front of my leader, and Loco did too. “What you’re saying is we’re fucked if we do and fucked if we don’t arrest the fugitives.”
Her lips thinned and gave me my answer.
I scraped the back of my neck. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to get out of the Guardians. I can’t speak for Tor, Pascal, or Astra, but I’m certain they will agree. That means we must beat these traitorous assholes at their own game.”
Since they came clean with me, perhaps it was time I shared with them the investigation we conducted behind their back. I grabbed them by the shoulders and dragged them into a huddle, spilling all the details on our deal with Mads, the USB, the last conversation I had with Vartros, and the information he supplied on a separate USB.
I finished with, “We don’t tell Vancor what we know, and we play along with his game, catch a fugitive here or there, but what’s our main objective?” That decision I left to Serena out of respect for her leadership.
She glanced from me to Loco. “We get Cole this information you obtained, and he’ll pass it on to Vartros. He was working on this case with us, but instead of locking him up, they transferred him to the Guardians to take up the warden position, and that was just as much a prison sentence.”
Fuck. Poor Vartros.
Fire ignited in Serena’s eyes. “Then we trust that Cole gets the evidence to just officials who won’t protect our enemies from prosecution, and who will arrest them and sentence them to the Guardians.”
A sound plan. Piece of cake, right? We were only dealing with a bunch of psychopaths who protected their own and wanted us dead.