No sign of him.
Not a damn thing to go on to find him, until last night when there was reported sighting of him and Balthazar in this area.
Vlad was hiding out here somewhere and the fact that Balthazar had stepped in meant the big players were out for blood, ready to do what needed to be done themselves.
So, things were basically next level bad.
We couldn’t allow that research to get in Balthazar’s hands. Couldn’t allow it for the obvious fact that it would be bad on all levels. Cold fusion was a hot topic as it was. The fact that the Ra wanted the groundbreaking research was cause for concern.
We got closer to the village and Darren parked at the start of the thicket of trees this time.
“That’s better,” Claire told him.
He cut her a sharp glance and didn’t answer.
She didn’t care. The woman had never cared who she pissed off. Her concern was her mission and I knew more than most that she was hellbent on finding Vlad and Balthazar.
If we got Vlad back in our care then that would be great.
I could at least calm the fuck down.
It was a hard thing though for a man to watch the woman he loved go into potential danger. Harder when the man was me, a guy who had no patience.
She got out of the truck first. The rest of us followed. She took the lead and motioned for us to go to the left, in the direction of the back alley streets.
While the guys moved forward I caught her arm and tugged her towards me, pulling her to a stop so I could say a thing or two to her in private.
This was me acting out as her boyfriend. Not her second in command. Second in command was a term that was used loosely because of the way she always took charge. It wasn’t that I was weak. It was just that you couldn’t get much more daring than her. And my abilities didn’t lie in leadership. I was the guy who did my own thing.
“What?” she huffed, gritting her teeth. In the oncoming moonlight her hazel eyes looked brighter, almost glasslike. Against her velvet brown hair her whole look was striking. “What now agent? I know you don’t agree with me, a little support back there would have been good.”
“You need support? Since when?” I was only half joking.
“Now’s not the time for games Xander.”
She was right and we didn’t have time to stop and have a heart to heart. I just
needed her to understand she had to be careful.
“Claire, I have a bad feeling about all of this. Please calm down. Please.”
Her eyes widened.
I never usually said shit like that so she knew I was being serious.
I didn’t wait for her answer. I started walking again and she followed suit as we joined the others.
It was difficult to work with her and difficult to have any kind of relationship with her.
Harder in times like these. I wasn’t the flowers and chocolate kind of guy, not one bit. It could have been due to my upbringing. Living life on the streets as a thief could do that to a person. It was times like these however that I wished for something more. Something different. For her.
She deserved it.
I saw the way she looked when I took her on that surprise trip to Paris for Valentine’s day. That was only a few months ago.
I knew then what I wanted to do.
One more year in the field. We’d get this bastard, Balthazar, and push this crazy assed pursuit under the rug.
One more year and I’d be ready to ask her to marry me. One year and I’d take her back to Paris, she’d think I was trying to recreate our last time there but really I’d be prepping for our future. One that I couldn’t say was going to be in the unit.
I wanted more too. Prior to joining up I was working hard to be captain in the marines. I wouldn’t lie and say that I joined the SMF for myself. I joined when I was invited to because I knew I could protect her. Maybe it was foolish, but it was what felt like the right thing to me. It felt true to me. Like I was being true to myself by protecting the woman I loved because our little unit had been formed to hunt The Ra.
I might have found myself while being part of the agency and the unit as a whole, but it couldn’t be my forever. It was the same thing as the Marines. There came a time when it was time to change.
Honestly my view on that was my time came around last year. Nothing in particular happened to make me decide it, it was just a feeling. Something that came to me when I realized how much I loved Claire.
As we neared the end of the alley way a strange feeling came over me, it was the place, it was too quiet.
Strangely too quiet.
It was a little village that should have been bustling with more life than this at this hour. Intel showed there was a tavern and a few shops that would have been closing for business for the day. The place was small and one of those cozy villages where everyone seemed to know each other.
It wouldn’t have been this quiet.
It was almost easier to get around when it was busy, but that wasn’t why we chose this time to come. We chose the time because we needed to move fast. Like Claire had said, we did need to kind of grab and go.
It was just… too quiet.
“Guys.” I hissed and they stopped.
Claire looked to me. “What is it Xander?”
“Something’s wrong.” I pointed ahead. “Where is everyone?”
We’d stopped a little way from the end of the alley and I could see I was right, there wasn’t anyone around.
I stepped forward and readied my gun.
Continuing ahead of the crew, I went right up to the wall at the end of the alley and gazed on ahead.
I really wished I hadn’t done that because I wasn’t prepared for the sight before me.
There was a water fountain in the center of the village. It would have been beautiful except that it was covered in dead bodies. Bodies of people who looked like they’d been skinned alive.
The sight…
The horrendous sight made bile rise in my stomach and my soul shriek away.
What was worse was they were all arranged in some sort of display, like a nightmare.
This was the work of Balthazar and his spades.
A tease of spades showing the darker elements of their powers. Teasing us like a calling card left by a professional criminal who couldn’t be caught. Showing they were sick mother fuckers who didn’t care for humanity.
All these people here…
What did they do to deserve this?
It was shit like this I couldn’t deal with. No matter how badass a guy was, this… was fucked up shit you couldn’t prep for.
Fucking hell.
Claire and the others joined me, dashing up to where I stood when they saw my reaction. Paul threw up instantly and John heaved.
A tear ran down Claire’s cheek.
I was about to say something when I spotted someone else.
There was one person who hadn’t been skinned. He was at the entrance to a little boutique sitting up by the lamp post.
Vlad. Our scientist.
That was him. I was sure of it.
I moved to him. It was a foolish move because I didn’t check out the place first, for traps or anything. I took on my usual daredevil persona and moved.
The bullet that whizzed past my ear just missed me.
It made me snap into action though and reach for my gun, aiming it directly in the direction the bullet had come from.
That’s when I saw him. On the roof, not ten feet away from me was Balthazar Kane.