Page 65 of Flesh and Fury
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I was just wondering…this is gonna be over soon, isn’t it? I mean really over.”
She smiled. “Yes, Sapphire. It’s really going to be over. And, not only that, I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”
Eoghan nodded, smiling back at her and feeling more excited than anxious for the first time that day.
Chapter Twenty
ARI
The warehouse in Sun Valley wasn’t easy to find since it was in a large industrial park filled with multiple brick buildings and a few obscure addresses in peeling paint. The rough-hewn walls had stood for decades, decaying under hot L.A. summers and wet winters. Rusted metal flashing and the stained, cracked concrete and asphalt where rain had caused it to bleed into the ground, made Ari wish for a set of sturdy gloves. He watched the chief pull out what seemed to be an ancient set of keys, and unlock the metal door. The way it protested with a squeal against the cracked ground, set his teeth on edge. As it finally gave way on rusted hinges, Ari wondered just how long it had been since anyone had rented the large unit.
Eoghan inched a little closer to him as she shoved the door open, and Ari glanced over to find his boyfriend watching him with some trepidation and wariness in his own countenance. As they stepped inside, Ari turned and reached for a light switch, flicking it on. Twelve feet above, a bank of buzzing fluorescent lights flipped on, revealing a room measuring about forty by forty, around the same size as four two-car garages. A single steel table stood toward the back of the room with several files stuffed with paper and two FedEx tubes containing who knew what. Other than the table and three cork boards with push pins stuck into them, the room was empty except for the dust motes which floated in the air.
“Come on in and shut the door,” Priest said, and Ari was quick to obey, shutting the door behind Eoghan who stepped in behind him.
“We’re the first to arrive,” Eoghan said as if surprised by this.
“The others will be along in the next few minutes I expect. Let me show you what I have here,” she said. “You can help me tack what I’ve gathered on the boards while we wait for the others.” She walked over and opened one of the FedEx tubes, pulling out a tube of paper.
“Now, if you would just help me put this up, Sapphire, I think this will do nicely,” she said, handing him the rolled map. Between them, they stretched it out and hung it on the center board. It turned out to be a large map of the Southern U.S. Ari watched as she found Flagstaff and pushed a pin into it, then instructed Eoghan to do the same with the surrounding cities she’d marked in black Sharpie. “Please cut me some lengths of yarn, Brown, so that I can show our group how far Bradshaw’s reach extends. Visuals are always good.” She nodded to the ball and Ari picked it up, along with the scissors to begin cutting the yarn. It wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door. She, with Ari as back up, withdrew their weapons and they walked to the door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Severin, Invictus, Alo, and Joe Two Trees,” a familiar, deep male voice replied.
She dragged the door open as Ari covered it. “Come in.”
Everyone glanced around and greeted Ari and the chief as they put their weapons away. They exchanged greetings all around before doing the same with Eoghan.
“Where are your tribes?”
“They’ll be here any minute,” Joe Two Trees replied. “We brought everyone down from Tahoe in the back of a semi. Ourdriver, Tom Fuller, is parking. We have twelve from our tribe and we saw other semis pulling in at the same time. One is being driven by a man I didn’t recognize, but Rana is sitting on the seat beside him,” he said.
“Okay, let me show you what we have so far,” Priest said. “This way.” As they all walked over to the board, Ari was surprised to see that the pins connected Flagstaff to Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico. And Eoghan was in the process of connecting yarn to Santa Fe, New Mexico. All those cities had synthetic blood factories and were probably already under the control of Bradshaw’s vampires. The only other city marked was Las Vegas, Nevada in the opposite direction from New Mexico but Eoghan hadn’t yet connected the strings.
“This is where we know he’s operating?” Severin asked, frowning at the board.
“All but Nevada,” Priest said. “If they’re in Vegas, it’ll be really bad, but I won’t know about that until Andy Red Crow gets here. He’s close to the shifter tribe leader in Henderson, Nevada which borders Las Vegas. When he finishes parking, I’m sure we’ll find out what happened there.”
“You said it’d be bad if Las Vegas was already in Bradshaw’s hands. Why?” Eoghan asked.
“Because of the mere size of it,” Priest replied. “There are two blood plants in the city, so shutting them both down and hoping that they haven’t already begun spreading their product to the rest of the population there, seems unsurmountable. With a big city of consumers looking to party with the drugs Tillis Bradshaw deals, and the network he already has at his disposal, things could be grave in Vegas. We’ll have to wait and see, and pray that he hasn’t already moved into the city.”
There was another knock on the door and Ari went to answer it. This time, Severin was his cover. Rana, Andy, and another thirty odd people stood outside. “Welcome,” Ari said, hugging Rana and stepping aside as he ushered the rest of their people into the warehouse. It was becoming more crowded by the second. Right behind them, was a man he didn’t recognize. He was an older man with long, graying hair tied back in a long queue down his back, dressed in leathers and motorcycle boots. When he asked for Arizona Priest, Ari glanced back to find the chief jogging over with a ready smile on her face. As soon as the stranger saw her, he grinned widely and scooped her up in his arms, twirling her around, before setting her on the ground. It was only then that Ari noticed another fifteen people behind him, also dressed in biker clothes.
“Vance, I wasn’t sure you’d make it,” she said, laughing as he stepped back.
“It’s a long ride from Vegas but you couldn’t keep us away,” the man said in a gruff voice. “When Andy said you might need our help, I told him I was thrilled. You know me well enough to know you can’t keep me from a good fight. Bring on those nasty vamps. I can’t wait to try a few new tricks.” He dragged his happy gaze away from her and then looked at Ari before holding out a hand to him. “Vance Ross,” he said, “from the Vegas bear pack.”
“Whoo hoo! Vance, is that you?”
Ari turned to find Alo and Joe coming over to them, wearing wide grins. As the men began hugging, Ari stepped back to make room for the other bikers who were filing into the room, making it even more crowded than it had been. He looked over at Eoghan who was tacking photos of other bikers to the board. They resembled Vance’s guys, but these had glowing, red eyes, and a photo of Tillis Bradshaw wasamong them, looking just as ugly in the photo as he had that first day Ari had seen him. He was a big, cruel looking man and so were the multitude of other pictures being tacked up, nearly covering that whole board. It starkly illustrated the mountainous job with which they were tasked.
All of Bradshaw’s vampires looked vicious, too thin, and newly made simply from the desperate hunger evident in their red eyes. He knew that meant they’d be ravenous and wondered whether Bradshaw intentionally kept them that way to exercise maximum control over them. He had no doubt if he was keeping the remnants of John Townsend’s clan under his thumb by using their hunger and working in his favor, then he was probably keeping the closest vamps to him, starved for food, and therefore pliant as slaves.
“I guess you all know each other,” Ari said, smiling as Alo and Joe hugged Vance and a few of his men.
“Sorry, I should introduce you,” Joe Two Trees said. “Vance Ross, is the brown bear pack leader from Las Vegas. We know Vance through Andy.” He nodded to Andy who nodded back, looking just as unsmilingly cautious as the panther had when they’d first met him in Denver a few days ago.