The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files (36 page)

One of the benefits of going from two feet to four feet on a regular basis was that your balance became exceptionally good. I was able to maneuver to the back of the bus without too much issue.

To see the S-Class flying along behind us. Backwards.

As I gaped, Merc floated in next to me.

“How --?”

“We have a towing cable. Not all undeads are without their own transportation, you know.” He grinned at my expression while I wondered if I looked as dumb as I felt. “I love the ability to shock anyone in Necropolis Enforcement. It’s a good day.”

“It’s probably not going to stay that way.”

He shrugged as we made our way up front. He leaned down when he reached Sexy Cindy. “They tell you that wraiths, ghosts, succubae and our related undead brethren can’t eat or drink. They lie, pretty baby…they lie. We don’t need to eat, but we sure can still enjoy it -- if properly prepared.”

Sexy Cindy shot me a dirty look. “Hey, I just go by what they tell me,” I said. They could eat? Really? This particular case was full of fun, new, interesting facts. I found myself wishing I could go to sleep and process even one of them. I moved my mind off how many hours I’d been awake and considered the benefits of tossing some chow down my gullet before I keeled over.

Merc seemed to read my mind. He opened the impressive fridge and tossed me an entire ham. “Enjoy.” He handed Sexy Cindy and Freddy something, too, but I was too busy wolfing to pay a lot of attention. “I have nothing a human can eat,” he said to Jack. “Sorry.” Merc didn’t sound sorry, but I chose not to mention it.

“Not a problem,” Jack said. “I snagged a snack while Nero was giving me the full-on home tour. That should be grounds for arrest, right there.”

“Huh.” Merc looked back at me. “Ralph need a meal?”

“I have no idea, but I’d figure it couldn’t hurt.” Werewolves needed to eat a lot and even if Ralph had pigged out at the hospital, which I doubted, it had been too long and we’d been too active, him in particular.

Merc nodded and grabbed another ham. “He can probably clean this off before we go in.”

“Go in?” I hoped my burp at the end of that short sentence had been discreet enough to be missed.

“Into the Little Church,” L.K. called from the driver’s seat. “Because that’s where we are and Ralph’s stopped, but only because they aren’t allowing pets.”

“Hilarious.”

“No, really. There’s a sign and everything.”

I trotted to the front of the Bus. Sure enough, they had their huge parking lot cordoned off and there were a variety of signs, one of which clearly stated that no pets were allowed.

Merc opened the door and Ralph scrambled in, grabbing the ham in his jaws on the way. Yeah, he was hungry, if how fast he ate it was any indication. He also had strong jaws, possibly stronger than mine, because he crunched through the ham bone like it was a banana.

“He went into the Church,” Ralph said as he finished in record time and we gathered back in what, for want of a better term, I considered the Bus’ living room. “I figured I’d better wait for you.”

“Why was he able to beat you up here?” Ghouls weren’t normally considered faster than werewolves.

“No idea, but I’d guess he had warlock help.” Ralph looked and sounded exceptionally irritated. “Just how did he get away? I thought Wagner here was supposed to be watching him.”

“He was surrounded by four of us,” Jack replied. “Sorry, I guess I assumed your werewolf senses would have noticed when our prisoner took off.”

“We don’t have time for internal bickering,” I interrupted. I didn’t want to go back to wondering if Ralph, or anyone else, was a mole and so had somehow let Nero escape. We had too much trouble right in front of us. “We’re likely to be facing at least one major minion, probably a whole lot more than one. We need to work together or we’re all going to be dusted.”

“Good point,” Jack said. “What
is
our plan?”

“Call for backup,” L.K. said quietly from the driver’s seat.

“What? Our team’s out, it’s just us.”

“I don’t think we’re going to care about that, Vic.” L.K.’s voice was measured but tense.

I went back to the front, the others trailing after me. It was a big driver and shotgun area, so we all fit, though it was a bit tight. Jack was on one side of me and Ralph was shoved up against the other. I was about to mention that this was a tad too cozy when Sexy Cindy pointed at what I realized L.K. was already looking at.

“What’s going on?” Her voice shook, but then she hadn’t spent most of her life performing. At least, not on stage and for large audiences.

Not that I could fault Sexy Cindy for sounding like she was about to lose it. Because I had a feeling fear and horror were the right reactions here.

The suns -- both the one for the human plane and the one for Necropolis -- were different. They were blood red for starters, and it was like they were much closer, because we could see the eruptions and solar flares and the like. It looked like death throes.

A black disc was covering each sun. Normally, you’d think this meant we were in for an eclipse. But one wasn’t scheduled for either plane and the discs weren’t moons.

I tapped the code into my wrist-com without looking. Some things they trained us to do from the first day on Enforcement payroll, and this was the number one thing.

“All being alert, all being alert. We have the start of Armageddon. Repeat, we have the start of Armageddon.”

Chapter 52

I didn’t wait for replies. “Let’s get everything out of the trunk and get in there.”

L.K. opened the door and we piled out. I popped the S-Class’ trunk and started handing paraphernalia to the rest of the team. Ralph didn’t even argue about the bullet-proof K-9 vest. Too much.

“It hinders me,” he muttered as I strapped it around him.

“You want to go to human, then you can wear the other one.”

“No, thanks. What’s the plan?”

“We storm in and kill anything that looks, smells or acts like minion.”

“Doesn’t that mean innocent people could get killed?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, it does. Here’s a news flash -- if they bring about Armageddon,
all
the innocent people will be dead. You pick.”

“There’s one positive,” Merc said quietly.

“What’s that? I’d love a positive.” I felt completely out of my depth. Stopping the evil bad guys was my job, on both planes, but stopping Armageddon once it was begun? That wasn’t exactly in the Agent’s Handbook.

“The suns’ light will be blocked. Meaning that we can have vampiric help.”

That was a good thing. “Sadly, though, that means any turned vampire they have can show up, too.”

“All are called to serve in the great war,” L.K. said quietly.

“Yeah, I know, per you, no one gets out of here alive.”

“But many have and can still enjoy a vibrant afterlife,” Merc said. “If we don’t panic, that is.”

It was odd getting calming platitudes from one of the gods of rock, but I let any comebacks pass. “I’m not panicking. I’m managing my stress in a commanding manner.”

“Wow, you really must have done well on the verbal tests,” L.K. said. “Don’t worry, babe. It’ll all work out. It’s not time for everything to end yet.”

“Glad you feel so confident.” I looked around. Jack had a bulletproof vest on. Sure, it was made for humans and human bullets, but I had to hope it was going to work. The others could go to mist -- I heard Merc giving Sexy Cindy a fast lecture on how -- and Freddy, being a zombie, was reasonably safe as long as they weren’t shooting rock salt at him. “Freddy, put on a vest.”

He did as asked. “Victoria, if I may, what is your plan?”

“I have no plan other than storming in and shooting things. I don’t know what they’re doing, but spells of this magnitude can be disrupted by the tiniest things. I’m hoping we can all disrupt in more than a tiny way.”

“But, if you’re right and we’re facing Hitler, then he’s going to be thinking in a military fashion.” Freddy looked around. “You know….”

I waited, but he didn’t add on anything to that. “I know what? Right now, I don’t feel all that knowing.”

“Tanks.”

That was it. Apparently when he was under duress, Freddy went monosyllabic.

“Yes? Tanks? We have the Tour Bus.”

“There are all these cars here.” Freddy walked towards the nearest. “And this is the Estates. ‘Safe enough to leave your keys in the car.’ I wonder….” He pulled on the door handle and the driver’s door opened. “Sure enough.”

“Wow, people are really easily influenced. And, seriously, did you just memorize their advertising?”

Freddy shook his head. “I told you, Jerry quoted it. Not just these lines, every line about the Estates.”

A thought crawled up from the back of my mind. “Merc, L.K.”

They came over. “Nice car,” Merc said. “We borrowing?”

“Yeah, I think so, credit Freddy with our becoming a tank unit.”

“I see lots of big ones,” L.K. said. “Several Hummers and similar.”

“We’ll take those if we can. But I want you both to listen to Freddy recite every bit of Estates advertising propaganda he can remember.”

All three of them spoke as one. “Why?”

I headed off for the nearest Hummer. “Because I think they’re part of Hitler’s spell.” And while they weren’t warlocks, they were both musicians and undead proof that the right lyrics had magic in them.

Sexy Cindy caught up with me. “You want each of us driving?”

I considered. “If we can, yeah. Ralph needs to ride with someone, though.”

“I’ll take him with me,” she offered.

I almost said no, that I wanted him with Jack. But reality reared its head. Jack was a trained policeman, and Sexy Cindy wasn’t. “Sounds good. Ralph!”

He raced over. “You want me to go in first?”

“Bad dog. No, I want you to ride with Cindy.”

He glared. “Why is that?”

I opened the Hummer. Nice, keys were in it. How in the world anyone in the Estates kept a car longer than five minutes was beyond me, but I had a suspicion it was because this place was under a heavy spell we’d all missed for far too long. “I want you with Cindy because she’s new and I don’t want my only trained Enforcer shot down in the first wave.”

“You’re in charge.” Ralph and Cindy trotted off towards another humongous SUV. I hoped she could reach the pedals, but figured if she couldn’t, Ralph could do the highly trained pet thing and push them for her.

Jack grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. “Be careful.”

I leaned against his shoulder. “I’ll do my best.”

He kissed me. It was deep and urgent and far more arousing than the situation should have allowed. “You’re mine, I’m yours, no one in between -- right?”

“Right.”

“Promise me. No matter what happens, we’re together forever.” He looked worried and possessive and very masculine.

“Well, forever’s a long time.” I didn’t want to mention that if we failed, forever wasn’t going to last too long for any of us. And he was a human, meaning that even if we won, his forever and mine weren’t necessarily going to mesh.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t care. I’ll figure out how to last forever, okay? I just want to know that you’ll be with me, when I do.”

“I will be.” I leaned up and kissed him. “I promise.”

He hugged me tightly, kissed me one more time, then headed off for a nearby Suburban.

The others ran for similar vehicles and we started off. It wasn’t too hard to maneuver, the parking lot was huge and orderly. As I barreled towards the front of the Little Church worry flashed a fang. What if I was wrong? What if they weren’t in here at all? What if I blasted in only to find nothing but nice, churchgoing, normal people?

There are times for prayer. I decided this was one of them. “Yahweh, could I have a sign that I’m doing the right thing?”

I waited, pedal to the metal, for some sort of clue that this wasn’t going to be a really bad idea. Just as I hit the front steps and worry that I was completely wrong washed over me, a bolt of lightning hit the doors, blasting them open.