Pablo looked down at his cell phone and responded to the notification buzz.
“Delilah’s out front. I’ll let her in.” He stood up from the table they’d met at early that morning. A moment later, he returned with Delilah. Pablo cleared his throat. “Hey, everyone. This is Delilah. She’s been helping us clear up Portland’s freelance phlebotomist problem.”
Everyone except Sam and Maggie gave Pablo a confused look; Sam was hiding a snicker behind her hand, pretending to cover a yawn. Maggie rolled her eyes, although she grinned a bit.
“You know…vampires. They draw blood…” Pablo waggled his eyebrows.
Holly shook her head and rubbed her temples.
“Anywho… Delilah, the lady with the tattoos is Holly. She’s the packleader. The woman with the ponytail is Sam, Holly’s wife. The blond woman is Maggie, one of the pack doctors. And the fellow with the locs poring over the map is Jamaal.”
The werewolves greeted Delilah with a mix of nods, smiles, and waves.
Luke filled in Delilah on last night’s events, including what they’d learned about Gwen and the initial recon of Wapato Jail. He moved over to the map of North Portland they had spread out on the table.
“OK. I think I have a working idea for a plan, if you don’t mind?” He looked at Holly, who nodded her consent to continue. “Pablo and I will go in first. We’ll take out the guards outside. How many fighters can you bring?”
“Including Pablo, Sam, and me, we’ve got about eighteen that I can get a hold of now,” Holly said.
“When do you think they’ll be ready?” Luke asked.
“We’re looking early afternoon by the time we get all the people and resources gathered.”
Luke’s eyes rolled up a bit as he mulled over the numbers.
“It’s going to be tight. I’d like to get in before sunset, but better to be properly prepared than rush in. OK, we’ll split it this way. Give me a dozen fighters for the jail. That’ll leave four to guard the buses and act as a reserve if we need reinforcements. Holly, you’ll be on the outside in charge of the evac team.” He looked back at the map, then pointed to a spot. “Jubitz Truck Stop. Take the buses and the rest of the evac team and park there until you get the all-clear. It’ll be far less conspicuous. Plus, you can just roll straight down Marine Drive to the pull-off to the jail.” He ran his finger along the map to demonstrate.
“Pablo and I will take Sam with us. She’ll coordinate communications. The FRS radios I have will work well enough around the jail, but she’ll need to stay in touch with you via cell,” Luke continued.
Everybody nodded along.
“Sweet! Cool CB handles for everyone!” Sam clapped her hands excitedly.
Holly smiled at her. “Jamaal, you’ll stay here; you’ll be in charge of the pack until I’m back in town.”
Jamaal nodded. “Understood.”
“What about me?” Delilah asked.
“You’ll be going into the jail with me, Pablo, and the werewolves.” Luke turned to Pablo. “Pablo, can you organize our advance team? We’ll need four of them altogether. I’ll lead two and you and Delilah will lead the other two.”
* * *
“Hey, boys!” Sam called to the two human guards. “Can you help me with my car? It won’t start. You look like a couple fellas who know your way around a car.” She gave them her most winsome smile and struck a pose that highlighted her curvier assets.
The two schlubs looked at each other and came to some sort of silent agreement. “Sure, ma’am! We’d love to.” They abandoned their post and sauntered toward her.
“I’m parked over in the harp store parking lot. I was supposed to meet someone for an appointment at three to look at some harps, but I’ve been waiting for over an hour, and it’s almost dark. They must have bailed. Then, when I went to turn my car on, it wouldn’t start. I’m so clueless about things like cars.” She added an extra bit of ditz and led them to Luke’s old Volvo; it was parked behind the hedge, obscuring the view from the prison.
“Ma’am, would you mind popping the hood?” Sam opened the driver’s door and pulled the hood release lever. One of the guards slipped his hand under the hood, pulled the latch, and opened it.
That was the signal; Luke and Pablo stood up from their hiding place behind the car.
“What the f…”
Sam grabbed one of the guards and slammed his head into the radiator. When his head bounced back up, she slammed a fist into his face with a wicked uppercut that dropped him to the pavement. By the time Sam was finished, Pablo and Luke had knocked out the other.
“God, I can’t believe they fell for the old ‘damsel and car’ bit. Haven’t these guys ever watched a movie?” Sam asked.
Pablo chuckled. “Well, Sam, they probably weren’t thinking with their upstairs head, and you’re quite the adorable little bombshell when you want to be.”
“Hopefully the movie magic continues, and these uniforms magically fit us, but I won’t hold my breath,” Luke commented as he began stripping the guard. “There are zip ties in the duffel bag in the back seat. We’ll stash these two out of the way. Pablo, when you’re done stripping the other one, give me a hand with this one. I’ll grab the shoulders, you grab the feet. No need to drag them across the pavement. We’ve already knocked them out and stripped them; we don’t need to give them road rash on their asses, too.”
The three of them quickly rendered the guards bound and gagged and out of the way. Luke and Pablo stripped down to their undies and socks.
Luke didn’t have one of those romance novel cover six-pack bodies, but one that was muscular from hard work, balanced by just a touch of love handles. Falling into old habits, he’d began bulking up on calories for the leaner times that always came on a campaign. A series of old scars ran down the backs of his legs, peeking out from his boxer briefs. Scars of various sizes and shapes also dotted his torso and arms.
Though stockier, Pablo was likewise muscled from lifting large sacks of malt at his brewery.
Sam whistled at them appreciatively as she eyed them up and down. Her breath caught when she got a closer look. “What happened to your legs?”
“Those?” Luke stuck out, twisting around to see. “Those I got in training. Centurions were fond of the vine rods as a motivational tool. They were a symbol of their station and one they liked using heavily. Unfortunately, I was often on the edge of the formation. That, coupled with my centurion’s dislike of us ‘barbarian boys’ and my high performance, meant I got a bit more than average in quantity and quality. I did not mourn his loss when a Dacian arrow split his head open.”
As anticipated, the uniforms were a bit on the baggy side. Sam helped them out by pulling the sides of the shirts and pants around and smartly tucking them into the back, using the belts to cinch everything down. “That’ll have to do. Try not to move too vigorously. And keep your back away from anyone you have to talk to. At least the extra material does a good job of hiding Luke’s swords.”
Luke snagged the two security ball caps off the ground and tossed one to Pablo. “We’d better get back before they notice their guards aren’t on patrol, but if the crew inside are anything like these two, I don’t think ‘highly qualified’ was anywhere near the top of the list for hiring requirements. Everyone got their radio on? Sam, let Holly and the convoy know they can move to the second wait point.”
Pablo and Sam nodded at Luke as they checked the FRS radios. They headed toward the jail, leaving Sam with the car. Once they got back, they resumed the guards’ patrol route.
“Hey, Luke. I was thinking. Do you think they have more human guards inside? What I mean is, would they let hired guards have any contact with the humans they’ve captured? These guys,” he said, plucking his uniform, “don’t seem like the scary black bag kind of mercs who would be cold-blooded enough for this kind of work.”
“You might be right. We’ll have to keep an eye on it. It could be that they have an initial layer of hired help to watch during the day, but it’s all outward facing. The human guards are likely unaware of what’s going on deeper inside. In my experience, vampires are highly secretive. The humans, or whoever their employer is, often have no idea who they’re contracting with.” Luke looked at the descending sun. “We should keep the conversation to a minimum. I think the vampires will come out to relieve us as soon as the sun’s down.”
They continued the repetitive path around the jail’s perimeter for another fifteen minutes before Luke signaled for Pablo to stop. “OK, I can feel them. Once we turn the corner, we’ll be able to see them. I think they’re by the main entrance,” Luke whispered.
He reached back with both hands and pulled out his gladius and his rudis. Flipping the gladius around in a neat maneuver, he offered it to Pablo hilt first. “This should look enough like one of the batons the guards carried to get us close. Pointy end goes in the vampire. Try to hit the heart. And careful, it’s sharp. The anti-vamp enchantments shouldn’t be a problem for you, but mind the silver.”
Pablo nodded once and asked, “Won’t they see the swords?”
“Here. Hold it like this.” Luke demonstrated a reverse grip. “Keep the blade tight against your forearm, and that should do it. Your sleeve should protect you from an allergic reaction.”
Once situated, they turned the corner and kept their casual pace. Luke gave the vampires standing just away from the overhead lights of the main entrance a casual wave.
“Anything to report?” one of the vampires asked as they got closer.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Luke replied.
“Hey, you’re not the normal guys.”
“They couldn’t make it tonight.”
The vampires tensed and looked at the two guards still walking toward them. It was too late by the time they noticed they weren’t carrying batons. “What the fu…”
Luke rammed the rudis home into the vampire’s heart, starting his final death. Pablo was a bit slower with his sword. The other vampire, a tallish woman, had turned to run back to the entrance. Fortunately, she tripped in a gopher hole, allowing Pablo’s heightened speed to catch up to her. He grabbed her left shoulder and shoved the gladius into her back so hard it sank to the hilt. The vampire fell forward, pulling the sword from Pablo’s hand.
“Good catch,” Luke commended. “You only need to stab them a little bit, not impale them up to your elbow.”
“I got a little overexcited; I’m not a sword boy like you.” Pablo bent over to pull it out but couldn’t get the sword to budge. “It’s not coming out.”
“Give it a twist. Sometimes the flesh can form a bit of a vacuum. Or give it a few seconds for the vamp to start its decay.”
Pablo gave it a hard twist and yanked it free.
“Wipe it clean before the vamp goes totally gooey on us, please,” Luke added.
Pablo did as he asked, then rifled through the clothes, pulling two more sets of keys. It made for a grand total of five they’d taken from the guards, including Gwen’s set. Luke stood up and keyed the radio button as they sheathed his swords beneath the oversized uniform.
“We appear to have a plethora of keys,” Pablo said.
“Yeah. We’ll spread them out and leave a set with Sam. Speaking of which…” Luke engaged the mic on his radio. “Hey, Bandit, bring the Trans-Am over.”
Sam swung around with Luke’s Volvo, then backed it up to where Luke and Pablo stood just out of the light. Luke popped the hatch and slid out his gear tub. Pablo pulled out a ladder and a can of spray paint. Setting the ladder up under the security camera, he climbed up and sprayed the clear plastic dome until it was covered in black paint.
“Hopefully they won’t rush out blind. You better get your business suit on in a hurry, just in case,” Pablo instructed, taking down the ladder.
Luke shucked his purloined guard uniform and dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a tight black T-shirt. He pulled on his steel-toed boots and followed them with a set of elaborately engraved steel greaves. The scarf around his neck was followed by the lorica segmentata armor, giving a shrug and a shake to settle everything. Before he tied it up, he slid a manica, an armor sleeve made of segmented plates, up his right arm and fastened it to the inside of the lorica. Satisfied it was secure, he laced up the armor, cinching it closed. Over it went his nylon tactical bandolier, which sheathed the rudis to the back, hilt pointing left, and clipped the gladius’s scabbard at the bottom just above his hip.
“Sam, please signal Holly to get the evac squad moving,” Luke said.
As Luke finished draping a black cloak around his armor, a couple of passenger vans backed up to the entrance. Delilah leapt out, followed by a bunch of men and women in sweatpants.
Pablo walked over and got everyone’s attention. “Hi, everyone. For those who don’t know”—he looked around the crowd—”which is most of you, this is Luke. He’s a human and all-around general vampire slaying badass. The Black lady with the cute mini ‘fro is Delilah, also human, also a vampire slaying badass. Over behind us are a couple of vampire corpses returning to a more liquid state. Once everyone gets changed, go over and give them a good sniff. You’ll want to keep that scent in mind. If it smells strongly like that, kill it. Luke, got anything to add?”
Luke nodded. “The vampires will also be easy to tell because they’ll sport huge fangs, and their fingernails will convert to claws. Watch out for those. They can disable just as well as the fangs. Don’t let them swipe at your throats, or you will cease to have throats. You can render them inert by ripping their heads off or stabbing them through the heart with a wooden stake. If you do rip the head off, make sure it can’t roll back to the neck or someone else can put it back into place. It can reattach and reactivate the vampire. They are fast and strong. The older they are, the faster and stronger they are, so don’t get caught off guard or it will be the last thing you do. Pablo?”
“OK, Holly has given you your assignments. Alpha team and Bravo team, you’re with Luke. Follow his instructions as if they came directly from Holly or me. Charlie and Delta Teams, you’re with me and Delilah. She’ll be handling communication with Luke, Alpha, and Bravo. Don’t let any of the human hostages out of their cells until we’ve cleared the facility. Luke?” Luke shook his head; he had nothing more to add. “OK, team. Put on your fighting faces. It’s time to rumble.”
“Yay, team! Go Team! Rah, rah, ree; kick ‘em in the knee!” Sam cheered them on.
All the wolves, except for Pablo, Sam, and the other two divers, stripped off their sweatpants and tossed them back into their vans before beginning their shifts. A few moments later, Luke was surrounded by a dozen werewolves in bipedal hybrid form.
The door opened with a thud behind; everyone turned around. A head popped out the door, eyes going wide at the sight of a bunch of burly werewolves. Luke thought he mouthed the word “fuck” before disappearing back inside.
“That’s their scout figuring out what happened to that camera. Let’s go before they can get too organized,” Luke ordered, before starting his own shift.
The drivers of each of the vans had opened the back doors and were pulling out boxes full of stakes attached to bandolier-style belts. Each wolf was equipped with two. Pablo strung on a pair as well. By the time they were done, they looked like nightmare versions of a Chewbacca cosplay.
Luke looked at Pablo, who nodded in reply. “Let’s do it. Everyone behind us.”
Luke and Pablo unlocked the front doors with their pilfered keys and stepped inside. Two wolves followed up with large rocks to prop them open. Luke drew his gladius and darted forward.