Chapter 11

Blake

Blake pulled up to the guard gate and nudged Lincoln, who was asleep in the passenger seat. After he saw the pictures and heard how upset Angela had been, he became agitated. It didn't take long for Lincoln and Nikki to grow tired of listening to him rant and rave. So, Lincoln offered to let him drive. Blake jumped at the opportunity to do something. He drove the rest of the way.

The hours of highway hypnosis made it easy to focus his thoughts. He loved Angela. There was no doubt in his mind. She had a beautiful smile that took his breath away. Her beauty ran deep into her soul. She had this way of settling his mind. It was as if he could fully breathe when he was with her. After Lorelei's death, he assumed there would never be another woman for him to love. Heather had been a distraction. She helped him forget the pain of his father kicking him out of the family and the pain of Lorelei's death. She was a distraction, a fucking awesome distraction. It gave him an excuse to ignore his shit. But Angela's love was inspiring. He wanted to be better.

He lowered the window and nodded to the guard.

The guard nodded back. "Identification, please."

Blake nudged Lincoln again. "He's talking to you."

Lincoln sat up and stretched. He opened the glove compartment, took out a badge, and showed it to the guard. "He needs to see yours as well," he told Blake and Nikki.

The guard scanned a QR code on Lincoln's badge. "Good morning, Mr. Talbert. Your team got here about an hour ago. We made guest passes for these two." He pointed to a building on the other side of the gate. "Just step inside the guest center and show them your identification." He nodded and waved them through.

Blake parked, and they walked to the center.

"It's been a long time since I've been on a base," Nikki said.

Blake gave her a side glance. "Did you serve in the military?"

Nikki shook her head. "Didn't you look into my background before keeping me?"

Blake shrugged. "You were already guarding Benji when I took over. He was comfortable with you, and Angela spoke very highly of you. That was enough for me."

Nikki shook her head and headed into the center.

The two military men sitting behind a counter stood and saluted them as they walked in. Blake was shocked when Nikki stood ramrod and returned the salute. He didn't know the correct protocol. Tristan had been the one who enjoyed being in the military. Blake knew he had some type of high-level rank, but he never bothered to find out what it was. He copied Lincon's head nod.

"I understand you have guest passes for my last two team members," Lincoln said.

Both men released their salutes. One picked up two plastic cards and gestured them through a swinging half-door.

"Yes, Sir, Mr. Talbert. We need their pictures."

Lincoln held out his arm, waiting for Nikki and Blake to walk through the half-door first.

The guard told Blake, "If you would, stand on the X over there."

Blake complied and then stepped away.

The guard turned to Nikki. "Ma'am, if you would do the same."

Nikki stepped on the X.

The guard said to Nikki, "Ma'am, can I just say what an honor it is to meet you? I was stationed in Iraq in August of O-Seven."

Blake noticed Nikki's mouth tightened.

"That was a messy day," Nikki said.

"Yes, Ma'am, but from what I've heard, it would have been even worse if you hadn't found the other suicide bombers."

Nikki did not make eye contact when the guard handed her the ID card.

"I know you don't know this, but my brother was headed to the last building. If his platoon had made it to that building before you found the bomber, who knows what would have happened?"

Nikki sucked in her bottom lip and raised her eyes to see the guard. "We all have jobs to do, Sergeant. It's what we do."

"Yes, Ma'am." He handed her and Blake their cards.

"I'm glad your brother survived that day," she said.

"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you again, Ma'am." He saluted Nikki.

She saluted, put the lanyard around her neck, and headed to the door. Blake and Lincoln followed her.

"Mr. Talbert, the rest of your team is in the second building on the left, after the first traffic circle. Go through the circle, and the building will be on the right. Your liaison will join you soon to make sure you get everything you need."

Lincoln thanked the guard, and they walked back to his SUV.

"Are you an officer?" Blake asked.

"Major. I've been serving this country in one way or another since I came here," Nikki said.

"And where did you come from?" Blake asked.

Nikki opened the back door.

"You can sit in the front if you want," Blake said.

"I'm already back here," she said.

Blake waited for her to answer, but she didn't.

It took less than thirty seconds to get to the building. Four wolf shifters were inside, setting up computers, whiteboards, and maps.

"Hey, look who finally decided to come back to work," an African American man said.

"Hey, boss-man." A sandy-haired kid switched his attention away from the laptop in front of him.

"Hey." A woman with long dark hair said. "I just finished tapping into the satellite. We should have visual in a few minutes." She walked over to Blake and Nikki with her hand outstretched. "I'm Maddison." She shook their hands.

Blake couldn't help but notice that Madison's face softened when she shook hands with Nikki.

Madison pointed to the African American man. "That's Washington." She pointed to the sandy-haired kid. "That's Ford." She pointed to the lower half of a woman who was half under a table. "And that's Reagan."

Reagan called out from under the table. "Nice to meet you." She crawled backward, tried to stand, and bumped her head on the table. "Sonofabitch."

"Uhh, don't worry about it. You've got a hard head," Ford said.

Reagan glared at him. "Screw you." She ignored Blake and held out a hand to Nikki. "It's good to see you again, Nix."

Blake's eyes doubled in size. Nix? Did this woman know her? How did it not occur to him to investigate Nikki's background? He just assumed that since Angela liked her, she was fine. But he knew next to nothing about her.

Nikki stepped over to Reagan, glanced at the woman's hand, and then back up to her face. She cocked up an eyebrow. "Really? We're gonna resort to just handshakes?"

Reagan pulled back her hand. "I wasn't sure if you'd be happy about seeing me."

Nikki crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, you mean because you cheated last time, I saw you?"

Everyone froze and watched. Blake sensed everyone's animals go on alert. He had no idea what was about to happen, and if it went wrong, it would be on him to fix it.

"No one wins six rounds in a row," Nikki said.

"Maybe I'm just that good." Reagan winked and gave Nikki a half smile. Nikki narrowed her eyes.

The tense pause expanded. Blake moved forward, planning on stepping between them. Before he could reach them, the two women started laughing and hugged each other. He exchanged looks with Lincoln to see what he missed. Lincoln shrugged.

"You would have never won that last round if I hadn't slipped you that card," Nikki said.

The stress in the room switched from adversarial to lustful so fast that Blake almost missed it. These two women had a history.

Reagan stepped back. "I thought for sure we were about to be caught. I'm not sure if we could have made it out of there."

Nikki waved a hand in front of her face. "Oh, we would have been fun. I slipped some belladonna into the whiskey. Neither of us likes whiskey, so it was perfect."

"Um, okay. What's going on?" Ford asked.

Nikki and Reagan turned their heads to Ford.

"It's a long story," Reagan said. "And one, you'll never hear."

Lincoln clapped his hands. "Well, that was fun, but we have a job to do." He nodded to Washington. "Care to fill me in on what we've learned?"

Washington stepped over to a laptop, pushed a few buttons, and handed Lincoln a black and white photo. The projected image on the wall matched the one in the picture. "This is still the only un-spelled photo we have of the person who owns the land."

Lincoln handed the photo to Blake. It was only the back of a female with short, dark hair, but there was something familiar about her.

"I don't understand how a photo can be spelled," he asked.

Lincoln pointed to Reagan. "Do you want to explain it to him?"

She nodded and pointed to the photo. "It's a trick I used before. "It's not that this photo is spelled, exactly, but the person in the photo has a type of, um, let's call it a cloaking spell. It keeps her true identity hidden."

Blake handed the photo back to Lincoln. "That must cost a lot of energy."

"It does. I've only been able to do it in quick bursts once or twice at a time. My guess is the person in this photo is very old and very powerful," she said.

Washington pushed a button, and a photo of Heather popped up.

Lincoln sat at a table and propped up his feet on the table. "That's why I contacted Tristan. I'm sure you recognize that woman."

Blake leaned against a table, crossed his ankles, and put his hands in his pockets. "I already told you I did. You say that Heather is a Tribe witch. That makes no sense to me. But if I remember correctly, she'd be about fifty by now, and that woman-" he pointed to the projected image, "-is not fifty."

Lincoln nodded to Washington. Another image appeared on the wall. It was a copy of Heather's obituary.

"Heather Fairchild died fifteen years ago," Lincoln said.

Blake let out a low growl. "Let me guess. Her funeral had a closed coffin?"

"Actually," Ford picked up the story. "She was cremated. At least, that is what everyone believes."

Blake's family had a lot of past conflicts with the Tribe. One of his ancestors fell in love with Isabeau and Elspeth, sisters who started the Tribe. He wasn't entirely sure what happened, but it didn't end well, and the sisters have been at war with each other since. Their issues spilled over into every aspect of their lives, and the Tribe split over conflicting views.

Ford continued the story. "I'm sure you know how Tribe witches are made."

"A woman dies a violent death at the hands of a man and is brought back to life," he said.

"Exactly," Ford said. "Heather had a very violent death."

Blake watched the wall as the Washington clicked through the next three pictures. The photos made him sick to his stomach. Heather did not deserve that.

"Was she a random choice?" he asked.

"We're not sure," Lincoln said. He looked at Blake. "Did you know she had a large inheritance?"

"A trust fund?" Blake asked.

Lincoln nodded his head.

Blake ran a hand through his hair. "I never thought about it. I had enough money, so it never occurred to me to find out about her finances."

Nikki pulled out a chair and sat down. "You said you weren't sure if her death was random."

Lincoln said, "We aren't. We also aren't sure how she connected with Keyser and funded his research."

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.

"Keyser set up a lab in South America to continue what Xerxes started. Like I told you, in DC, we followed his trail to Arkansas, and it ended. In the process, we stumbled upon a huge portion of land spelled with a magic more powerful than we'd encountered before. We sat on it for a little bit, but the agent I sent to investigate went missing."

"Who was that?" Blake asked.

Washington hit another key on the laptop.

"Holy shit. That doesn't make any sense," Blake said. "Why would you send in the Ambassador? Is she working for you?"

Lincoln dropped his feet to the floor. "That isn't Giselle Baptiste. It's her sister, Jada."

"Are they twins?" he asked.

"No," Lincoln said. "Jada is fifteen years younger."

"Does the Ambassador know her sister is missing?"

Lincoln said, "Remember I told you that the people on my team stopped existing when they joined me? I'm not sure what Giselle knows about her sister."

He pointed to Washington.

Washington nodded back. "I was serving time at Guantanamo."

Maddison said, "I was at Pam Lechner. I'd been there two years and had eighteen more to go."

Reagan touched her chest. "Sing Sing."

Ford raised his hand. "San Quentin."

Blake had a hard time understanding what they were telling him. "So, all of you are criminals?"

Lincoln said, "Weeellll, that depends on who you ask."

"Where were you?" Blake asked him.

"My prison doesn't exist, so it's hard to know for sure." Lincoln continued. "I knew of each of them. When the government approached me to lead a team like this, they wanted me to train humans. I told them it wouldn't work, but they didn't listen. When the first attempt to capture a vampire failed miserably, they let me create my team and gave me full autonomy."

"When was the last time you had contact with your agent?" Nikki asked.

"About two weeks ago," Maddison said. "We got an email with the pictures Lincoln took to Washington. It took me over forty-eight hours to crack her code and download the embedded pictures. I knew she was good, but I didn't know she was that good."

Blake shook his head. "None of this is making much sense to me. Find a wizard and destroy the spell. Take care of everyone involved."

Lincoln looked over to Nikki. "Do you want to explain it, or do you want me to?"

Nikki sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's why you needed me."

"Yep," Lincoln said. "We tried what we could find, but it wasn't fresh or pure enough."

Nikki pressed her lips into a thin line. She asked Blake, "How much do you know about the Tribe?"

Blake raised his eyebrows. "I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did because I have no idea what you guys are talking about."

Nikki said, "The Tribe has one weakness, the horn of an alicorn. Think of it like Kryptonite to Superman. That's why there aren't many of us still alive."

"I thought you were the only one still alive," Blake said.

Nikki clicked her tongue. "I am. I've stayed that way because I stay as far away from the Tribe as possible."

"So, your horn kills them?"

Nikki got out of her chair and leaned her weight on the table. "If only it were that easy. The only way to kill a Tribe witch is by summoning an empousai. To do that, you need the power from my horn. Alicorns have been the only species that can control the empousai and prevent them from losing control because they do not want to go away quietly once summoned."

"By the love of the Goddess. This keeps getting better and better," Blake said.

"I know, right," Ford said.

No one said anything. What was there to say?

Blake was never good with tense silence. He finally said, "This is a bunch of shit."

Ford slurped on a straw, making a loud, obnoxious noise. Everyone glared at him.

He scrunched his face. "What? I wanted a drink and didn't realize my cup was empty."

"So your plan is what?" Blake asked Lincoln. "Summon an empousai and storm the castle, so to speak?"

"Yeah, exactly," Lincoln said.

"I think you'd have an easier time convincing Tristan to go on a vacation." Blake laughed at his joke but stopped abruptly when no one else did. He glanced at Nikki because, surely, she got it. But there was no humor in her face.

Tough crowd.

"I've never faced an empousai," Nikki said. "What makes you sure I can?"

"Well," Lincoln said, "if the legends are true, you will know how to do it. Instinct, I guess."

Nikki snorted. "Legends are mostly half-truths and exaggerations."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes, studying her. He walked to Washington's laptop and pushed a button on the keyboard. The picture he'd shown Blake of the power source popped up. "We believe something is going on at this place that centers on this. If these people are hunting shifters and hiding it as well as they are, this is not something good for any of us.

Blake pushed out a big breath. "This just keeps getting worse and worse."

"We still aren't sure how wide the ramifications reach, but this needs to be stopped before it can get any bigger," Lincoln said.

"Agreed," Blake said. "But you're going to need a better plan."

"Oh, we didn't say we don't have a plan. We do, and it involves you," Washington said.

The man had been so quiet that Blake was almost startled when he heard his voice. "Me? Me specifically?"

"Well, not necessarily you, specifically, but a dragon," Washington said.

"Why a dragon?"

Washington said, "Because there isn't a hunter alive who wouldn't love to mount a dragon's head on his wall."

"Or her wall," Maddison said.

Washington dipped his head once. "Agreed. Women can be hunters, too."

"There isn't a human hunter alive, male or female, who could catch a dragon." Blake puffed out his chest slightly and clenched his hands.

"True," Lincoln said. "The only way that could happen, I suppose, would be if the dragon allowed himself to be caught."

The room fell silent again, and all eyes settled on Blake.

By the love of the Goddess. This was the worst plan he'd ever heard of, but he had to admit, it might be the only one that would work.