BLOOD EMPIRE REBORN: BOOK FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
Luke raised his hand, signaling for the team to stop. Pulling a short tube with a ninety-degree bend at each end from his belt, he crouch-walked to the end of the immaculately trimmed hedge. He extended the tube, flipped the caps off both sides, and lifted it so the top, with its bend, poked slightly above the flat top of the hedge.
Looking into the other end of the periscope, he swept it back and forth for a minute, then issued a series of hand signals to the team…—two guards moving counterclockwise. Two guards moving clockwise. Three to the left. Three to the right. Two hold here.
Collecting agreement from his friends, he nodded and looked back into the periscope. When the two teams of two guards passed in front of the house and walked away from each other on their patrols, he capped the periscope and contracted the tube, putting it away.
He inhaled deeply. Letting his breath out slowly, he settled his nerves. Even after over nineteen-hundred-years of fighting and operations, he still felt the nerves and anxiety before making the plunge into imminent violence. He wrapped his hand around the hilt of his wooden rudis and pulled it from its scabbard.
Delicate lines of silver filigree danced up the wooden blade, ending at the point. A silver-iron alloy cutting edge ran up both sides of the blade. Behind him, people pulled out various implements ranging from classic stakes to knife blades carved from wood and affixed to a bayonet-style handle. Judging his crew ready, he stood and jogged toward the left side of the house, ensuring his footfalls were measured and quiet to avoid alerting their quarry.
He didn’t have to look to know Delilah and Pablo were behind him, ready for action. In the year since they’d met, he’d come to trust them more than anyone in at least a few centuries. They’d become his left and right arms. Sam, the fourth member of his inner circle and as dear to him as the sister he’d never had, led her team of Jung-sook and Rhonda to the right.
When they reached the corner of the house, Luke halted and looked around the corner. The guards were about halfway down the side. Holding up his hand, he counted down, folding a finger for each number. Three. Two. One.
Pablo hurled a large rock over the guards, where it landed with a thunk. As they bent over to inspect it, Luke dashed around the corner, using all his supernatural speed. The guards approached the back corner then turned, finally realizing someone was behind them. The guards’ eyes flew open, wide as saucers, as three armed people sprinted toward them. They brought up the barrels of their sub-machine guns, but before they could pull back the hammers to rack a bullet, Luke shoved the barrel away and sank the rudis into the vamp’s chest. He yanked it out, destroying the vampire and sending it splattering to the ground in a pool of goo. Delilah, following closely behind Luke, kicked the barrel of the other vamp’s gun aside and finished with a stake to the heart. The second vampire joined the first to soak into the mossy ground.
Delilah and Pablo quickly scooped the straps of the guns from the ground and slung them around their backs. It’d become standard practice to recover all guns and quality weapons so they could be added to the pack’s growing arsenal. Vampires had expensive tastes, and the pack was quickly gaining a top-shelf weapon collection.
He peeked around the corner; Sam poked her head out. They gave each other a thumbs up.
Luke turned to Pablo. “Can you give the signal to the rest of the team?”
Pablo jogged back to the other corner, returning a few moments later. “All good.”
Luke nodded and swept around the corner, keeping his shoulder near the wall. Ducking under the rail along the deck, he crept toward the elegant French doors. When Luke reached them, he peered in, but a sheer white curtain trapped between the glass and the plywood blocked his view.
“What’s the plan?” Sam whispered, standing on the other side of the door. She pantomimed pumping a shotgun and tilted her head in question.
Luke inspected the top of the door, then the bottom. Next, he checked the edges. Nodding, he handed his rudis to Delilah, then held his hands out to Sam. She tossed the shotgun over. Catching it, Luke slipped the safety on. With the butt toward the door, he busted out the glass, clearing any clinging shards out of the way. Finished, he tossed the shotgun back to Sam.
Everyone prepared to move in case they needed to defend Luke or attack. Cautious of any lingering glass, he reached through and pulled the pin down, unlocking the top of the door from the frame. He pulled the pin at the bottom next, then reached through the middle and unlocked the door.
Delilah handed Luke his rudis, and he stowed it in its scabbard. With her help, he removed the Winchester M12 shotgun from around his back. He checked in to make sure everyone was ready. He hated going in blind, but there were few options, and they needed to clear this house. Laying his shoulder against the plywood, he pulled back and slammed his body into it. The plywood buckled, and Luke tumbled to the floor, tangling in the curtain and pulling it down with him. The sound of shells pumped into shotgun firing chambers followed his calamitous crash.
“Luke, duck!” Sam yelled.
Luke pulled his legs and arms in and made himself as small as possible as his friends leapt over him. The room filled with shotguns discharging and the indistinguishable yells of the combatants. Fighting the curtain, he shoved it away and scrambled off the busted plywood. He saw Delilah and Pablo disappear into a room while Sam, Jung-sook, and Rhonda swept upstairs, leaving Luke alone in the dining room with broken glass and plywood.
Someone outside rang the doorbell. Luke strode up to the peep hole and peered through, seeing Ahmed and Charlie, the new trans man who’d joined the core team after Archie’s death at the battle of Mt. Hood. Lifting the crossbar from the front door, Luke tossed it aside, letting the rest of his team in.
“Welcome,” Luke said with a sweeping bow.
“Clear,” Pablo called, walking out of the room he and Delilah had just swept through. Delilah followed him out, grabbed the doorknob of the next room, and pulled it open, letting Pablo sweep in before following.
“Sam and the rest of the gang are upstairs.” Shotgun blasts punctuated Luke’s words. He gestured with his head toward an unopened door under the stairs and grabbed the knob.
Luke pulled it open, revealing a closet. He shoved some coats aside with the barrel of his M12. The closet was probably just a closet based on the architectural cues, but better thorough than dead. He shut the door and opened the door next to it, revealing stairs. Ahmed swept down them; Charlie followed, flipping on the light switch.
About ready to follow, Luke stopped when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Only a handful of people had his number and could override his do not disturb setting, and none of them would call while he was out with his team unless it was an emergency. He pulled out his phone. Pieter. The phone stopped, then started again.
“Hmm.” Luke answered the phone. “Hey, Pieter. What’s going on?”
“Hello, Luke. Is this a good time to talk? If you’re not in the middle of anything…”
Shotgun blasts erupted from the basement, along with shouting.
The commotion pulled his attention away from Pieter. “I’ll call you back when we’re done here.”
“Alright, thank you.” Pieter hung up.
Luke stowed his phone, his eyebrows narrowing in curiosity. Calls from Pieter had been sporadic and vague, and now he called when he knew Luke would likely be out hunting. He pushed back his rising anxiety. One worry at a time.
He pumped a shell into the firing chamber and poked his head into the stairwell down to the basement. “Coming down!”
“Understood,” Ahmed yelled.
Luke moved cautiously, sweeping his barrel around, looking for fangers. A few more blasts flashed in the basement. A wall of shelves stood to his right; he moved left and followed the sound of more shotgun blasts.
“Clear,” Ahmed called. “Coming out.”
“All clear,” Luke replied.
Ahmed exited the room they’d just swept. “It’s messy in there.”
Luke looked over the tipped metal shelving, cans of paint and other household supplies scattered around. Ahmed and Charlie must have yanked the shelves out of the way to reveal the room behind it. “It’s a mess out here.”
Ahmed chuckled. “Didn’t feel like stacking it neatly.”
“Hey, Ahmed, Luke, come here,” Charlie called.
Luke followed Ahmed into the hidden room they’d found. Charlie was pulling back the molding from the far corner of the room.
“You don’t usually see molding running from floor to ceiling in a corner that’s attached to a hinge,” Ahmed said.
“You do not,” Luke replied.
Charlie looked back at Luke and Ahmed. “There’s a handle here.”
Luke nodded and raised his shotgun. Ahmed shoved shells into his magazine, then reloaded. Charlie pushed his hand into a hole hidden by a flap and pulled. The latch clicked. Charlie pulled back, and the wall swung out, folding from the middle. When the door was open, they saw the outline of shelves. Luke pulled a flashlight from a pouch on his belt and shined it in. Next to Luke, Ahmed whistled appreciatively.
“Looks like there’s a switch over there.” Luke shined the light toward a switch just visible past the secret door.
Charlie turned it on.
Shelf after shelf of high-powered weaponry stood before them.
“Holy shit,” Charlie said.
“Ahmed, head upstairs and call in the backup. I want to clear this room out immediately. Take a handful with you,” Luke said. He slung his shotgun over his shoulder and grabbed an armful of guns before following Charlie and Ahmed upstairs.
Sam, Jung-sook, Pablo, Delilah, and Rhonda were downstairs.
“All clear upstairs,” Sam said. “We snagged a few laptops while we were there.”
“Nice. Pablo, Delilah, you’re on guard duty up here. Everyone else downstairs. We found an arsenal. I want it.” Luke turned to Sam. “Check with our lookouts to see if Portland’s finest are headed this way.”
“Luke?” Rhonda said.
Luke turned toward her. “Yeah, Rhonda?”
“I saw suitcases upstairs,” She replied.
“Nice. Go get them, please.” Luke smiled. The vampire arsenal would make a nice addition to the pack’s weapons store. He liked the idea of letting the fangers pay for their own destruction.
Rhonda nodded and ran upstairs.
“No cops yet.” Sam shoved her phone back into her pocket.
When their backup team arrived, they systematically stripped the arsenal room, checking for any tracking devices or bugs. By the time they were done, the bed of Pablo’s pickup was significantly heavier and the pack far better armed. With everyone loaded up, they rolled out.
Luke, sitting in the back of Pablo’s truck, leaned forward. “Mind cutting the radio? I need to make a call.”
Delilah turned the radio off.
Luke dialed Pieter’s number and waited for him to answer. “Hey Pieter, what’s going on?”
“My father needs to arrange a time to speak with you. We’re sending a secure satphone by courier. They’ll be arriving on the usual ride. If you can arrange a pickup, that would be appreciated.”
“You OK, Pieter?” Luke asked.
Pieter sighed. “Let’s just say it’s imperative you take my father’s call tomorrow.”
Luke’s brows furrowed. The tension in Pieter’s voice, coupled with the secretive plans, spiked Luke’s anxiety. He simultaneously needed to know what was happening in Belgium, yet dreaded the arrival of the courier. “You know I will. How will we recognize your courier? Is it going to be you or your brother?”
“No. I don’t want to say more, but when you arrange the pickup, hold up a sign that says ‘Rubenson.’ Our courier will look for that sign.”
“Consider it done,” Luke replied.
“Thank you. Until tomorrow?” Pieter asked.
“Until tomorrow,” Luke replied.
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