Gathering Storm (35 page)

Glen only had to
walk a few yards away from the building to get a cell signal. He
dialed Baka, who picked up on the second ring. Glen wasn’t worried
about getting him because he was aware that Bak
a’s job involved working nights and expected that
he wouldn’t be in bed yet.

“
It’s Glendennon
Catch.”

“
How are you,
Glen?”

“Well, it’s been
an up and down day. Storm’s back. That’s the up part.”

“
All that’s
holy.”

Glen had always
thought that Baka used some incongruous expressions for a vampire.
Or ex vampire.
“Yeah. Holy. What
I need to know right now, and this is sort of urgent, is if Animal
House came to Jefferson Unit tonight for some reason?”

“
Animal
House?”

“
Um, that’s what
people call your, um, vampire.”

“
I see. Yes. I sent them for more vaccine. Is there a
problem?”

“Well,
maybe
. It seems they took four
of our knights somewhere and left them, but we don’t know
where.”

Glen could hear
that Baka had distanced his phone from his mouth and was cursing.
When Baka came back on he said, “I’ll call you right
back.”

Glen paced up
and down a base street in front of J.U. while he waited. Ten
minutes later, the intelliphone face lit up like a night
light.

“
Yes?”

“
It sounds like they took them and put them in a sort of
cage on the level where the pool is?”

“Okay. That
could be a big problem. That level was sealed off with explosives.
The heat and air were shut down and it may be days before we have
access.”

“C9
? You set off explosives
inside the building? What in heaven’s name is going on
there?”

“We were
attacked. It’s a good guess that it was aliens from Elora’s home
dimension looking for her. Anyway…”

“
Is everything
under control now?”

“Well, the place
is a mess. We have some people hurt…”

“
Who?”

“Sir Fennimore,
the Lady Laiken…”

“
We’re coming.
I’ll be with them this time and we’ll get it sorted
out.”

“Okay. Thank
you.”

Baka ended the call.

CHAPTER
26

Angel couldn’t
have been more surprised than to look up and see Rosie coming into
his hospital room carrying a big vase of red and pink
tulips.
His first thought was
that she was taking those flowers to Fennimore.

She was wearing a
bright smile. “Had a talk with your doctor.” She leaned closer and
whispered, “I told them I’m
family.” She giggled a little at that.

Wish you were.

“He says you’re
going to be good a
s new and you
can leave in five days. Maybe. If you’re a good boy. Where would
you like these?”

Angel looked at the flowers in her
arms and his heart swelled when he realized they were for him. “Um.
Here.” He nodded toward the bedside table.

“So what can I
do to make this more pleasant for you?”

“D
on’t know what you mean.
What could be more pleasant than getting out of workouts with Kay
and smack downs by Elora?”

She laughed. “I
don’t know. Feeling good? So would you like magazines? I could load
some movies onto a portaputer. You could catch up on your chick
flicks.”

“
How did you know
I watch chick flicks?”

She looked at him with such
fondness it did funny things to his feelings.

“When I leave
here in five
days, where will I
be going?”

“
Home, of
course.”

“
My home? Or your
home?”

Her face fell
when she took his
meaning. “I
don’t know, but I do know you’ll be staying in your own room until
you’re completely well.” She pulled on his blanket to straighten it
a little, which seemed more a nervous gesture than anything
else.

“
It’s been such a
privilege getting to watch you grow up.”

“Stop. You’re
going to make me cry.” And, from the look on her face, he could
tell she meant that.

“Yeah. Well, I
don’t want that.” His face and voice were soft. “Go get me some
sappy maudlin movies to watch. Something with no guns. And bring me
some of those macadamia nut cookies your mother hides in the coffee
can.”

Her smile was
back. “Cookies and cinema coming up. Back later.”

“Rosie?” She
stopped. “That
other guy? Is he,
ah…?”

She looked
puzzled for a minute and then realized what he was trying to ask.
“Sir Fennimore? He’s alive. I don’t know much more than that, but I
can check when I come back.”

Angel nodded. When she poofed
away, he looked over at the flowers. It was just the sort of thing
he would expect Rosie to take someone in the hospital. Full of
riotous color and life. His heart seized at the thought of how much
he’d miss her when he had to go.

Three hours later
Angel
was watching
You’ve Got Mail
on a large tablet propped up on his lap. He heard
the swish of the door and glanced up expecting to see a nurse come
to pester him in some unpleasant way or another. He had thought he
couldn’t have been any more surprised when Rosie had come to visit.
He was wrong. He was considerably more surprised to see his double
prowl through the door.

“
The Great
Storm.”

Storm’s lips
twitched just before he glanced down at the tablet screen. His
eyebrows went up. “
You’ve Got
Mail
?”

“
Nice try. It won’t do you any good to act superior. If
you hadn’t seen it, you wouldn’t know what it was.” Storm smiled at
that. “For some reason I’m just not in the mood for
shoot-‘em-ups.”

“Yeah. I get
that.” They stared at each other for a few beats. “I came to see
Fenn. Thought I might as well stop off here.”

“
How is
he?”

“Apparently too
stubborn to die. He’s in love. It’s a powerful reason to want to
stick around and see what’ll happen next.”

After a few seconds Angel said,
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“Looking at a
twin? Weird doesn’t begin to cover it.” Angel grinned. Storm
started to look serious. “You know what you did for Fennimore
during the attack? It wasn’t your job. You didn’t have
to.”

Angel looked out
the window for a minute. When he brought his attention back to
Storm, he said, “When you were gone, I spent my days trying to
learn to be you.” Storm nodded. “I don’t know. It wasn’t something
I really thought about. I guess I know it wasn’t my job, but it
kind of felt like it was. Hard to explain.”

Storm nodded
again. “I think I understand. So, need anything? Got enough chick
flicks to keep you entertained? ”

Angel smirked. “It’s an
education.”

“
It is
that.”

“
Intel on how the
opposite sex thinks that might prove useful at some
point.”

Storm laughed.
“And now you know why I’ve seen that movie, too. Want me to send
somebody in to give you a manicure?”

“Now, see,
there’s a big difference between you and me
right there. I’m actually
funny
when I want to
be.”

Glen was talking
to Storm and Kay in the hallway outside Elora’s room when Baka
arrived with Animal House and their sitter. With a little
interrogation and investigation, they were able to sort out what
had happened.

The vampire had
not only caged the knights, putting them in danger of suffocation.
They had also left them caged, unarmed, and at the mercy of the
aliens. Fortunately for Z Team, the Ralengclan were not
bloodthirsty. Their mission was simple. Kill the last Laiwynn,
Elora Laiken. If someone got in the way of that, they were a
target. The prisoners were not going to get in the way of anything
so they were passed by and left alone, a fact that puzzled and
troubled Torn Finngarick and Rafael Nightsong, who hadn’t stayed
around long enough to find out that the purpose of the invasion was
assassination. If they had, the behavior of the intruders would
have made more sense. And they might have understood that their
mission was not to protect Jefferson Unit, but to protect their
fellow knight, the Lady Laiken.

T
he teen vamps were
instructed to disarm any surviving Ralengclan, transport them to
the cells on S2, that had previously been used by Monq’s team to
study vampire, and make sure they were secured.

T
hey then retrieved Z Team
and, as directed by Storm, left them in the middle of the Hub.
Storm had decided that the first phase of their correction would
begin with a public humiliation. When they were liberated from the
kennel, they were almost unconscious from lack of air and freezing
because the heat had been shut off to Sublevel 3, a deep
subterranean facility, which would have been cold in August without
artificial heat, but in the middle of winter it was arctic. They
were also cramped from not being able to stand up straight for so
long.

The four
collapsed on the floor of the
Hub gasping for breath, shivering and looking at Storm like he
was the one responsible for their plight. Well, to be fair, he was
responsible for the spectacle. Storm called medical to attend them
where they were, then walked away, but not before saying, “You’ll
be notified of the time and place of your preliminary disciplinary
hearing.”

Monq knocked on
Elora’s door and poked his head in. She turned her head in his
direction. “You gave my baby to Rosie and she took him through the
passes.”

“Take it easy.
He’s with Litha and he’s fine. I’m the one who’s not fine. I’m
exhausted. That child weighs five hundred pounds.”

Rammel walked
over and, without a word, shocked Monq by putting his arms around
him and giving him a big hug. Hugging wasn’t really Monq’s thing,
but he allowed it and gave Ram a perfunctory embarrassed sort of
male pat on the back. Ram pulled back and said, “Thank you,” with
such depth of sincerity that Monq blushed.

“Well,
certainly. Anyone would do it.” He backed away from Ram just in
case another such display of affection might be impending, then
added, “Once.” He moved closer to the bed to get a look at Elora’s
face. “What’s the prognosis?”

Ram answered for her. “Pain meds
until the swellin’ recedes, then he’ll get to work to restore her
unrivaled beauty.”

Monq nodded.
“Well, he’s a good man, a little bit of a dick, but most surgeons
are. He’s good at what he does.” And with that he left the room and
closed the door quietly.

Elora said, “The pain meds are
causing me to hallucinate. I thought I heard Monq call somebody a
dick.”

“Definitely no’
on the magic carpet, my girl, and I heard the same fuckin’
thin’.”

After a brief pause, she said,
“Well, I hope he wasn’t using that sort of language in front of our
son.”

Elora heard Rammel laugh, really
laugh, for the first time since Storm had been lost. She sighed
deeply, feeling content to be alive and to be able to say the same
about her baby and her friends.

Storm
entered quietly and looked over at Ram
as he approached Elora’s bed. “How is she?”

“I’m in the room
you know,” she answered, opening her eyes. “What’s up?”

“The little shit
with the microphone says he overheard you tell Fenn and, ah, the
other guy, that you had some plan for sealing off Sublevel
1.”

Elora
nodded.
“I gave them some of
Monq’s new stuff, the C9. They blew the elevators, then the east
and west stairs. We were going to try to lure some of the
Ralengclan down there by way of the central stairs, seal it off,
and shut down air and heat going to that level from the main
controls behind Operations.”

Storm pursed his
lips and considered.
“Not bad
for somebody who never studied tactics.”

She smiled. “Thank you. Did it
work?”

“
Oh, yeah. Maybe
too well.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“Z Team tried a
stake on one of the Frenchie vamps who stopped in to resupply their
stash of vaccine. So the crazy kids put them in lock up in
Blackie’s old kennel and left them down there.”

After a pause Elora said, “Well,
that explains why we never saw them again.”

Rammel walked
over and shocked Storm by putting his arms around him and giving
him
a big hug. Hugging wasn’t
really Storm’s thing, but he allowed it and gave Ram a perfunctory
embarrassed sort of male pat on the back. Ram pulled back and said,
“Welcome home,” with such depth of sincerity that Storm blushed.
But he managed to say, “There’s no place like home.”