Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) (46 page)

“Jesus. Overkill much?” the guy said. “This guy Charles Manson, or what?”

The vampire holding Black’s left arm grunted as he led Black out of the van. “You don’t know much about this one, do you?” he said only.

“I know he’s cuffed. He’s also walking like he’s doped to the gills.”

“Trust me, you want the overkill.”

The guard grunted. “Whatever, man. My tax dollars at work, I guess.”

The vampire’s voice grew less amused. “Are you taking us in? Or are you going to stand out here, holding your dick and talking crap?”

The man sighed. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

Black’s legs moved as they began leading him away from the truck. Again, the glass doors swished open in front of him, letting out a cloud of air-conditioned air. The swirl of activity was less than he remembered as they entered the upper floor of the building, but that might have more to do with the time of day. He still felt people walking around them, probably due to the armed guards. Only the two vampires brought him in; the rest stayed in the loading bay inside the warehouse.

Black knew that was temporary though.

They stopped about halfway through the lobby, just like before.

“Wait here,” the guy from the loading area said.

Black heard him walk away, going back the direction they’d come.

He knew they’d be bringing up the security team and/or one of the doctors who had badges and clearance to be in the lab downstairs.

It seemed like they were only standing there a few seconds when a familiar voice rose. It was the same guard Black remembered from earlier that day, the one who’d yelled at Dr. Nguyen for letting the vampires feed on Black. The one who gave him a clean shirt, and orange juice to drink, and actually treated him like a person.

“So they brought the poor bastard back, huh?” His voice sounded angry, like it had earlier that day. “I guess some guys just can’t catch a break.” Exhaling, he addressed the vampires directly, his voice turning businesslike. “You got the paperwork?”

“No,” the vampire to Black’s right said.

“No?” There was a silence. “What the fuck do you mean, no? I can’t bring him downstairs without––”

But the vampire must have unholstered his gun.

The shot echoed through the lobby. Black heard it even after the heavy sound of a body hit the tiled floor in front of him.

He didn’t wait.

WRENCHING HIS ARMS and body sideways, he slammed his elbow into the vampire to his right. Catching him off guard, he hit him square in the face, hard enough that Black felt something crunch. Sliding swiftly around and behind the second one, he used his hands to rip the hood off his face, then slammed his shoulder into that one’s back, knocking him off-balance right as he was unholstering his gun.

He used the same shoulder to knock him into the granite-topped reception desk, driving his head into it. The vampire let out a startled cry, then crumpled to the carpet.

Chaos had already erupted around them, screams.

Black knelt over the first vampire he’d hit, slamming both fists down on his head, using the cuffs on his temple. He raised his hands, about to do it again, when a familiar voice broke through the screaming and other sounds in the room.

“Stop! Right now!”

Black looked over. He’d assumed Brick was talking to him.

Then he saw the row of guns on him. He saw Brick raise his hands to the vampires holding them, a deadly warning in his eyes.

“Do not kill him,” he said, staring directly at Black with those red eyes. “We need him alive. Any vampire harms him, and I will torture and
kill
your entire bloodline...”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Black snarled, gripping the vampire by the throat between his cuffed hands. “You’d better fucking kill me now!”

He looked over when gunfire broke out near the front of the lobby area. He saw vampires using rifles to gun down humans where they stood. They weren’t being choosy. They killed every person they saw, methodically, like an extermination team. Black heard screams, running, people yelling in a blind panic, but the vampires never stopped methodically firing.

“Mr. Black.” Brick’s voice was calm. He held up a hand to him, like one might with a wild animal, or a child who was about to hurt himself. “I have no intention of keeping you prisoner. I have every intention of honoring our deal...”

“Bullshit! What the fuck did you do to my wife?”

“Miriam is fine, Mr. Black. She is fine! We are returning you to her this very day, just like I said. I have not harmed her or violated her in any way...”

Black stared up at him, panting, his hands still around the vampire’s throat. He saw that vampire watching him warily now, but also looking at Brick, as if waiting for the go ahead to defend himself.

“Why?” Black snarled at Brick. “Why would you let me go?”

“I just said why. We need you, Mr. Black.”

“Why?”

Brick smiled, shaking his head as if in amusement. “Get up, Mr. Black. Your services are no longer required here. I will call your wife personally, as soon as you are gone. My people will take you to a meeting place immediately after, so she can pick you up. There are clothes in the back of the van. I suggest you use them, and not wait on the side of the road in prison attire...”

Black stared at him, still breathing so hard he was panting.

“What about the collar?” he blurted, his voice still low, animal-like. “Are you going to take it off me? Or is that just a final fuck you before I go?”

“Only Miriam can take the collar off you, Mr. Black.” Brick smiled at him. “It seemed appropriate, don’t you think? Tell her that her left ring finger should do nicely.”

Brick checked his watch then, motioning towards Black with the gun in his other hand, almost like he was dismissing him.

“Now I really must say goodbye, Mr. Black. I’m afraid we have more pressing business to attend to here. Business that no longer concerns you.”

Black sat back on his heels, staring around at them, that fury still coursing through his veins. Then something cold and metal pressed against the base of his head, just above the collar he wore.

“Get up, Mr. Black,” a voice said courteously. “It’s time to do as Mr. Brick says.”

Recognizing the voice of the driver of the van, Black contemplated trying to disarm him. Then, seeing the rest of the guns pointed at him, he changed his mind.

He rose slowly to his feet, his hands held out in front of him.

“Very good. Now lower your hands.”

Black did that, too. Once he had, the human who had been sitting shotgun during the drive stepped forward from his other side. Black watched as he bent down, connecting a chain from his cuffed wrists down to his cuffed ankles.

“Goodbye, Mr. Black.” Brick smiled at him as the two humans began leading Black out of the clinic’s ground floor lobby. They walked him through the line of vampires casually, aiming his feet in a shuffle-walk towards the sliding glass doors.

Black’s eyes remained on Brick as he passed, and he saw Brick do the same, that faint smile still dancing on the vampire’s lips.

“Thank you
so
much for your assistance, Quentin,” Brick added, still turning to follow him as he gave a short bow. “May we meet again someday... hopefully under more mutually pleasant circumstances than these.”

“You shouldn’t wish that,” Black told him coldly. “You really shouldn’t.”

Brick smiled back, his red eyes holding not so much as a flicker of concern.

Behind him, the two vampires Black knocked down were being helped slowly back to their feet. The one whose throat Black had in his hands got up first; he helped pull up the second one, the vampire Black knocked unconscious against the reception desk counter.

Black was still watching them when Brick looked away.

Once he had, the moment ended.

Black felt the shift more than saw it; he’d simply ceased to exist. He watched as Brick’s face slid into a flatter, more alien expression, right before he spoke into a walkie talkie he brought to his lips. His voice came out cold, businesslike, stripped of feeling––even with the New Orleans accent that continued to color his words.

“All right, my friends, we are inside,” Brick drawled the words, his red eyes reflecting the fluorescent lights. “We are alone now in this, so kill anything that doesn’t eat from the one true source. I have just now sent the seer with Davis and Greg. Alister is coming through the gates as I speak with the second team. They will be accompanying my team downstairs. Finish clearing this floor, then keep watch on the front with engines running. Brick out.”

Somewhere in that speech, Black found himself hearing Brick’s true voice for the first time.

He would remember that, too.

More gunfire peppered walls in the back rooms as Brick released the walkie’s button. The screams and shouts sounded further away now, from deeper inside the maze of corridors making up the ground floor. Black found himself reminded of runs he’d done in other countries, where the order was to leave no one alive, no matter who they were.

There was a reason he’d gotten out of that work.

As he and the human drivers exited out the glass doors, he came to a stop, staring down at the bodies that already littered the floor of the loading area. He counted eleven in total, including two wearing work coveralls who were probably mechanics.

He was still standing there when a second black van pulled into the warehouse loading area next to the first. The vehicle hadn’t even come to a complete stop when the doors slammed open. More black-clad soldiers streamed out, holding automatic weapons and wearing kevlar.

Red eyes stared at him as they jogged past.

Blank. Emotionless. Hungry.

Then they were gone.

They disappeared inside the building, and once more, it was quiet.

Black glanced behind him when more automatic weapon fire erupted, closer that time. Piercing screams rose as it continued, that time, from a lot of people... at least twenty whose voices Black heard. The vamps must have found a pocket they missed on the first pass.

The screams started to die down even as the glass doors shut behind him a second time, cutting off the cloud of air conditioned air.

Black let them lead him into the back of the van.

He only sat there while they locked the double doors, unmoving as he heard them climb into the driver’s cab and passenger seat and shut both of those doors too. There was barely a pause before they started the engines, then began making their way back to the front gates.

Black’s mind was blank now.
 

It was just... blank.

For now, at least, he was pretty much done.

Twenty-Four

END OF THE ROAD