Absolution of Fate (Fate Series Book 3) (19 page)

Her naked body was perhaps the most beautiful Dante had ever seen and, while it was impossible to hide his desire with every part of him exposed, he didn’t want to make it about sex. Sex he’d had, lots of it with lots of women, and it never meant anything. Layla meant everything and he was going to do whatever it took to prove that to her.

Layla turned to face him and kissed his well-defined pec as she slid her hands down the front of his body, letting her hands travel over the chiseled planes of his abs. She reached for his length, but he grabbed her hand before she could touch him. She looked up at him, confused, but intrigued.
 

“Not here, not yet,” he whispered, bending down to kiss her gently. “Come on,” he said taking her hand, “we should get dressed.”

“Really?” she asked, obviously surprised. She’d known Dante a long time; this was definitely a side of him she’d never seen.
 

“Yes, I want to talk.”

“Okay,” she said reluctantly and followed him to the bedroom. A minute later, thanks to their supernatural speed and Dante’s forethought to ask Jasmine to move some of Layla’s clothes to his room, they were dressed.
 

“So now that you have me here, just where you want me, fully dressed,” Layla teased as she rifled through her bag, “what did you want to talk about?” she asked, standing to run a brush through her hair. When Dante didn’t respond, she turned to find him on one knee in front of her, wearing an uncertain smile. She gasped when her eyes went to the little black box in his trembling hand.

“No,” she said in disbelief, “wait, not no to you!” she added, seeing the hurt and disappoint flash in his eyes, “It’s just I, I can’t, is this real?” she stuttered, her eyes filling up with tears.

“Layla Jones, I’m an idiot,” he began, earning a laugh. “You’ve been right here in front of me, one of my closest friends, yet somehow I didn’t see you, not the way I should have. You’ve been there for me in ways no one else has, and though I know I don’t deserve it, that I don’t deserve you, I’m hoping you’ll give me the chance to be there for you every day for the rest of our long lives. It took losing you for me to finally realize that you are the only one for me. I love you, Layla. Can you find it somewhere in that amazing heart of yours to forgive me and grant me the unfathomable honor of becoming my bonded mate and wife?

Her answer was a hug so fast and hard that they fell to the ground and then into a joyful fit of laughter.

CHAPTER 14 -
Chaos in Boston

“Sir, reports have been coming in from our sources in the city faster than I can keep up, not to mention what’s all over the news. It’s utter chaos out there. At least two-hundred humans have been grabbed so far tonight. After what happened last week, people are panicking,” Jester said, flying around the IT room, pulling up files on various screens.

“And we’re certain it’s Lucias?” William asked, looking to Commander Claesson as he ran his hand down the side of his face in frustration.

“There’s no doubt,” he replied, pointing to a video that Jester had just put up on the main screen. “Jester yanked this off a site twenty minutes ago.”

“Fuck me,” the High Commander said as he watched the clip. Two large men flew into view, moving far faster than the average human. One of them, with a single hand, yanked the driver’s side door completely off a dark compact car before scooping up the two-hundred-plus-pound driver as if he weighed no more than a bag of groceries. Meanwhile, his counterpart grabbed two other men who had yet to enter the vehicle, tucked them under his arms and turned in the direction of the camera, revealing his glowing red eyes before they all disappeared in a blur.

“Based on the police report, this was shot by the driver’s girlfriend who was still in the apartment at the time. She turned over the phone used to shoot this to the police when she filed the report and, from what I can tell, she didn’t share it with anyone before then. Turns out one of the officers at the station uploaded it to the Internet. We got lucky; the phone was still on so I was able to corrupt the original video and the one the officer sent to himself to get it online.”

“Thank God; the last thing we need is for something like this to be our kind’s introduction to the world,” William stated as he sank into a chair.
 

“It could be worse; so far the infected don’t appear to be feeding on any of the humans, at least not in public,” Jester added, “but with all of the attacks last week, people are going to realize there’s a connection and start asking questions.

“My guess is that Lucias is keeping these humans alive, collecting blood slaves to power up his army in preparation for battle,” Claesson said, though in the back of his mind he knew there was something else to it. Lucias already had plenty of blood slaves and no doubt some steady connections with a variety of blood dealers; he could see grabbing a few more, but hundreds? Something didn’t quite add up.

“So it appears we have run out of time.”

“I’m afraid it looks that way, my lord. Thank God for Alexa; she’s down in the lab as we speak, helping get the rest of the antiserum we’ll need.”

“What about the other preparations?” William asked.
 

“I’ll speak to Martinez as soon as we’re done here. We’ll have the rations within the hour and, if I’m correct, Lucias will be right where we want him when the sun goes down tomorrow; especially if we go ahead with the broadcast tonight,” Claesson replied calmly.

“Make the call, Jester. Set the meeting for midnight. We can have our people on the air by 10 pm on the west coast if the other leaders agree.”

✧

“Whatever the fuck happened before, I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned, you were operating under extreme coercion, Dante was mentally unstable, temporary insanity or some shit, and Alexa isn’t under my jurisdiction. Her father has already made it clear that, in light of recent events and Alexa’s contributions to our cause, he wants everyone involved in helping her pardoned from any further repercussions, so who am I to argue?” Commander Claesson said, pacing the floor of his office. “Dante and Layla will be out of containment soon, if they’re not already, but neither of them will be fit for duty tonight and I need someone local I can trust implicitly. That’s why I want you to take point on a mission to the city.”

“Of course, sir, whatever you need,” Martinez said gratefully, glad to hear that his friends were going to be okay and that none of them would be brought up on any formal charges for their actions.

“Good man,” he said, moving to the maps on his desk. “First, our civilian scouts report that Lucias’s men have been setting up here, here and here every night after sunset,” he said, indicating three circles on the large piece of paper located fairly close to the walls of the compound. “I don’t think we can move anyone or anything through the front or back entrances without getting ambushed, so the secret tunnel that leads to the center of the city is our only option. The space is tight, so we’ll need to keep the team small, just enough men to pull the carts once they’re weighed down; six guys should do it.”

“Why can’t we just wait until the morning; let the sun take care of Lucias’s men for us and use whatever entrance we want?”

“It has to be tonight; we can’t afford to wait. The shit has been hitting the fan out there since sunset. I don’t know what Lucias is up to, but hundreds of humans have gone missing in the last couple of hours and there have been witness reports claiming anything from big men high on PCP to the devil himself being responsible.”

“Shit; they’re leaving witnesses again?” Martinez said, shaking his head in disbelief.
 

“Yeah, and it won’t be long before the v-word comes into play with infected running around the city unopposed. There was even a video of one of the abductions. Jester managed to take care of it before it went viral, but who knows how long before something else pops us? By some miracle there haven’t been any witness accounts of public feeding this time around, at least so far. It seems the attacks last week were purely a distraction; this is something different, but one of them could still lose control at any time.”

“What do you need me to do, sir?” Martinez asked, studying the plans.
 

“I need you to take a team of five men and meet with Davies, here,” he said, indicating a spot about two blocks from Blood Runners, the vampire bar where Layla was kidnapped.
 

“Davies, the blood dealer?” Martinez questioned, more than a little surprised given what he knew about the Commander and the rumors he’d heard about Davies.

“Yes; if it goes against your moral sensibilities, get the fuck over it!” Claesson yelled, more angry with himself than with Martinez’s question. In addition to the stress of the chaos erupting in the city and his lack of sleep due to the intricate planning he’d been involved in all week, being forced to work with his degenerate brother-in-law rubbed him wrong in more ways than he could name. Not to mention, due to the severe shortage of blood, he’d gone without feeding longer than he should. “We don’t have a choice; keeping Dante and Layla from draining each other dry ate up most of our stores and Dr. Jones used most of what was left on Layla and Alexa to make the antiserum. We need to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice and, with all of the soldiers in from other compounds to feed, we need more blood now. I need everyone strong and well-fed if we’re going to stand a chance against an entire army of infected. We might have a cure, but that won’t save us from the fight.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t have a problem; I’ll work with whomever you tell me to.”

“Good. That brings me to the second part of the mission. As I’m sure you know, that little fucker happens to be my wife’s brother and, for some reason I’ll never understand, she trusts him. With the way things are going out there, I’ll feel a lot better if they were on the compound, so in addition to the blood, he’s bringing her and my daughter to the rendezvous point. Choose your team and be outside the pit in thirty minutes. Jester will set you up with comm equipment and Jackson will be waiting with some new bullets in case you run into any infected, which is a strong possibility. The boys in the lab haven’t had much time, so you’re only going to have a handful of bullets with antiserum. The policy is to use those if you can get close enough. If not, use the silver bullets to disable, silver nitrate or head shots only if absolutely necessary; but so we’re clear, if my wife and daughter are in danger, choose the latter.”
 

“Understood, sir; thank you” Martinez said before disappearing through the door. Commander Claesson sank down in his seat and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to steady himself before he got back to work dealing with the shit storm Lucias was stirring up all over Boston. He hated that he couldn’t be the one to retrieve his family, but he had a greater responsibility to their kind as they moved through the challenges ahead.

✧

Martinez stepped into the training room in search of the three men he wanted for the impending operation. He took two strides into the room when Captain Erikson stopped him.
 

“Hey, Martinez, I heard there might be a small team heading out on a supply run tonight or tomorrow. That true?”
 

“Where’d you hear that?”

Erikson motioned for them to step into another room. “I am still the head of the High Commander’s security team. That might not mean much to all of you here on the compound, but it means something to the High Commander and the Agency. I’ve been kept in the loop on the general comings and goings on the compound. It’s necessary for me to ensure Mr. Ryan’s safety.”

“Look, man, I’m sorry; I don’t have any beef with you. Whatever the issue is with you and Claesson, it has nothing to do with me. I just follow orders,” Martinez said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “You heard right, we’re heading out tonight; just a small team to stock up on blood and escort a couple civilians into the compound.”

“Any chance I could tag along?”

“You should probably clear that with the Commander first.”

“Listen, like you said, there’s some bad blood between me and Claesson, but I honestly don’t know why. He’s pretty much been hassling me and my men since we got here. I just need to get outside the walls for a few minutes; make a couple phone calls to my family and reach out to people for a couple of my men. We came here in such a rush there was no time for personal communication and we’ve been on physical and digital lockdown ever since; no one knows anything about where we are and you can imagine how worried our families are. Some of my guys have mates, kids. Help me out here, just to put their minds at ease. I won’t get in the way,” Captain Erikson said, pleading his case. “Just imagine if it was you. You’re lucky enough to have your mate here. Think how hard it would be with her on the outside having no way to reach you and no idea where you were or what was going on.”

“Bro, I’d like to help you, but I’m already on thin ice with the whole mess down in the containment unit. I’ve got to ask the Commander first.”

“Mess in containment?” Erikson asked, raising his eyebrows though he’d already heard more than whispers about what had occurred. It was part of the reason he was so desperate to get out of the compound.

“I’m not getting into that; if the High Commander wants to fill you in, that’s his business.”

“Fine, I get that; but about my leaving, you know what Claesson’s going to say. Listen, how about this? You don’t actually take me with you, just let me know when you’re going and you bring up the rear of the team. Ignore me and I’ll find my way out behind you and keep my distance. That way you have plausible deniability if anything goes down.”

“But how will you get back in without anyone seeing you? Only Elite can access the entrance from either side. If you’re not back here when we pass through, you’ll be stuck outside.”

“Just let me worry about that. I’ll make it back in time.”

Martinez sighed. “Fine, but to be clear, I don’t know shit about it if anyone asks,” he said, heading back to the training room.