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© 2012 by Nicola C. MatthewsAll rights reserved. Except as permitted under theU.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, distributed, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, or storedin a database or retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the author.
Published byX-Isle United Press
The characters and events portrayed in this bookare fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living
or dead, or to any other written publication iscoincidental and not intended by the author.
Cover art byBloody Feather Graphics Team
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This book is dedicated to my very dearfriend, Sergeant First Class Steven Hall.
Thank you for not hating me for turning you
into the bad guy.
XOXONicola
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Special Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Connie Peck-Saucier for
being such an awesome person and getting
Bret Michaels his first autographed copy of
the book which was dedicated to him, The RedFang , the first book in the BEFORE THE SUN
RISES series.
Special thanks to
Author Michael C. Laney
(For telling it like it is)
Don Henrie
(For not being afraid to be himself)
Bret Michaels
(For rockin out every chance he gets)
Morgue
(For making sword swallowing cool again)
Author Anne Rice
(For making vampires awesome)
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Chapter 1
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fter her escape, he had beatenher twin sister until she was
consciousness, the woman finally
succumbing to her injuries. He hadn't meant
to kill the girl, but he was so enraged after her
sister's escape that he had done just that,however accidental it may have been on his
part. It didn t take long for him to realize that
his escaped prize would be back with
reinforcements. He had packed up quickly and
left the secluded cabin. The twins were cops
after all, and damn good ones. He had gotten
as far away as he could as fast as possible,
leaving the bloody and broken body of the
twin still shackled to the basement floor.
That had been more than five years ago.
He had wanted Altania Lewis like no other
woman before her or since. He had dreamed
about her every night for years now, his
evenings spent systematically plotting out her
capture and eventual conquering. No matter
how much he daydreamed and planned, he
never could entertain the notion of killing the
A
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woman. That was what pissed him off morethan anything.
Ashton Jones was a serial killer. He had
started his craft when he was only ten years
old. At the age of twenty-six, his craft had
been honed down to a fine art. He had gottenso good at it, in fact, that he had been
recruited by The High Council a good three
years ago. He had spent the first year
following their rules, jumping through hoops,
proving to all of The Elders that he would not
go rogue if he was embraced.
Twelve months after his initial
recruitment, one of the little fledgling
vampires had been allowed to embrace him.
The High Council wanted to be sure he would
not be too powerful once he was turned, so
they allowed a young novice vampire to do the
embracing. Despite this, Ash was still strong
enough to continue to be an assassin for The
Elders. Now he had an endless supply of
victims that he was allowed to torture and kill
at his leisure. Perhaps best of all, with his
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victims now being members of the undeadinstead of mere mortals, they would stay alive
for as long as he wanted, allowing him to
spend days or even weeks trying out new
inventions and increasingly grotesque
methods of torment.Now he discovered himself in one of the
many, many buildings owned by The High
Council, waiting on his new partner to arrive.
Except what was standing in the middle of the
room was not the partner he was expecting,
but the object of his obsession.
"I don't give a shit if he is under the
protection of The Council, Stealth. I am going
to kill that son-of-a-bitch!" Altania Lewis was
being held by both arms by The Council's
oldest vampire assassin, the vampire known
as Stealth.
He was having a hard time holding onto
the woman, her constant twisting and lunging
causing his long, black hair to come
unfastened from the loose ponytail at the nape
of his neck. She was thrashing against the
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vampire so hard that his sharp nails weregouging out deep gashes in her skin.
The five-foot-six inch woman paid little
attention to the piercing pain in her arms. Her
sapphire blue eyes were glowing with rage.
She was babbling incoherently, tossing outcurses, death threats, and tales of castration
with a rusty razor blade.
Ash had not moved from his position
inside the doorway. He had been asked to
come down to meet his new partner. The last
person on Earth that he had ever expected to
see when he entered the room was the woman
whom he had vowed to conquer...mind, body,
and soul.
"She is under the protection of The
Council, Ash. If you harm her in any way, you
will be marked for death." Requiem spoke
quietly to the vampire who stood as still as a
statue just inside the door. "She is now your
partner, an appointed Vampire Assassin just
as you are. As such, she is entitled to the
same privileges and protections as all our
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assassins. You will protect her with your life.Do you understand this, Ash?"
Stealth was repeating the same speech to
the wriggling woman in his arms. Ash wasn't
so sure that she was listening, though. The
woman was still screaming obscenities at himin addition to her vivid recounts of what she
had planned for his testicles and penis. The
whole thing felt like a bad dream, one he
hoped he would wake from at any moment.
Ash merely nodded his understanding to
the vampire that stood between him and the
screaming woman, still too shocked to think
about much of anything. His mind just kept
going over and over the fact that he had
dreamed of nothing but this woman and what
he intended to do to her once he found her.
Now The Council was practically handing her
over on a silver platter.
Stealth had finally released his grip on
Altania, her initial anger burnt out to nothing
but a glowing ember. Her rage gave way to
tears, her emotions so overlapping each other
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that she stood in a far corner, crying quietlyand rambling on about how she had
discovered her twin sister, Altoya, beaten to a
bloody pulp and chained like an animal to the
cold stone floor of Ashton's basement.
Stealth attempted to console her as bestas he could, but she was so deep into her
anguish that she didn't seem to hear him.
Stealth tried to turn her around to face him,
thinking he would use his vampire glamour to
quiet her down and help ease her emotional
pain. Altania, however, kept her back to the
vampire. She had her hands over her face
and her entire body crammed into a corner of
the office. She didn t want to be here, didn t
want Stealth to hypnotize the pain away, but
at the same time, she wasn t sure how to deal
with all the emotions that were crashing down
around her.
Ash still wasn't sure what to make of the
whole situation. He finally had the woman
who had haunted his dreams for years, and
now she was protected by vampire law. To do
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anything other than protect her with his lastbreath would mean his immediate death. His
immediate slow, and very painful, death.
The situation was not any easier to
understand for the woman who was still
crying in the corner. For five years she hadcriss-crossed the entire country, going from
one crime scene to another in search of clues
that would ultimately lead her to the monster
who had so brutally killed her twin sister. Her
obsession with finding and bringing Ashton to
justice had caused her to lose her job with the
Shadow Cove Police Department. She had
been so preoccupied with Ashton's trail of
blood and gore that she had nearly gotten
herself and her fellow officers killed during her
last assignment.
Concerned with her declining mental
stability, her former captain had her
reassigned to the Vampire Council's assassin
division. He had hoped that the change of
scenery would help her to heal after the death
of her sister. Instead, she discovered herself
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in the same room as her sister's killer. Itbegged the question of whether or not her
captain knew The Council was going to
partner her with Ashton, or if this was solely
the perverted plans of The High Council
Elders?"How could they do this to me, Stealth?"
Altania asked with a calmness that worried
the nearly three-hundred year old vampire.
She still had her back turned to him, so he
wasn't sure if she really was calm or if she
was slipping into some sort of manic state.
"To help you heal, Altania," Stealth
answered just as quietly. "Ash is a valued
member of the Assassins now. He went
through the same training as you. He has
been taught the value of life. His only victims
are assassinations that have been sanctioned
by The Vampire Council. He is forbidden to
harm any other being or face the same
tortures and demise as his victims. He knows
the rules, Altania, and he follows them to the
letter. He has changed."
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The woman turned around swiftly andglared up at Stealth, her hands balled into
fists. "He has not changed , Stealth,” she said
through clenched teeth. “You of all people
should know that it takes more than a few
years of study with The Council Elders tochange a heart blackened by decades of
immorality. That monster there will never
fully understand the value of a life, not even
his own. He would just as easily give up his
own mother if it meant getting what he
wanted. And what he wants, is me. Now
thanks to your Council, you just delivered me
to my sworn enemy." She looked at Ash with
disgust. “You might as well have put me into a
cage with a rabid werewolf and have just been
done with it.”
She was angry, but that anger gave way to
a deadly calm as she pushed past Stealth.
She walked up to the eldest vampire on The
Council, a man whose name no one knew
except for the other members of The Council.
"What happens when this bastard tries to kill
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me in my sleep? Do I at least have permissionto defend myself? Or would you all rather I
just roll over and let him kill me?" She glared
up at the vampire, looking at his eyebrows
instead of directly into his eyes.
The vampire looked back and forthbetween the frail looking woman directly in
front of him and the much taller, much
stronger fledgling vampire who had finally
moved into the room to stand a few feet away,
his dark eyes intense as he watched the whole
scene quietly.
"The two of you listen, and listen well.
You are partners now, and as such you will
defend each other with your very lives. If
either one of you should come up dead, be it
by your partner's hand or another's, the
remaining member of your team will be
tortured to death, along with any and all
remaining members of his or her family."
The old vampire's gaze shifted from Ash
and back to Altania as he spoke. "A better
question, Miss Lewis," he said in hushed
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tones, "would be exactly how much of yourfamily are you willing to sacrifice to avenge the
death of one?"
Altania glared up at the Elder. "You think
that threatening him with death will keep him
from killing me the first chance he gets? ” Shelaughed hysterically. “ He would happily put
the gun in his mouth and pull the trigger
himself so long as he got to be alone with me
first. Has the centuries of immortality
replaced your brain with cobwebs?"
The High Council Elder stared at the
young woman for a few moments before he
moved to where Ash stood. He walked around
the still form of the vampire as he spoke. "Do
you notice anything different about your,
'sworn enemy,' as you call him?"
She watched the vampire as he circled
around Ashton, the younger man still
standing perfectly still as he watched Altania s
tirade. For the first time, Altania looked at him
closely. It was only then that she noticed
Ashton s normal dark brown eyes were now
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flecked through with gold, the iris ringed witha yellow-gold hue.
Her mouth dropped open. "You turned
him," she mumbled in quiet surprise. “You
sick son-of-a- bitch, you actually turned him.”
Altania stood in stunned silence for amoment before the vampire's threat and all it
implied finally settled into her brain. The
Council was not just going to force them to
work together without killing each other. They
were going to make certain that they protected
each other with their final breath. While her
family was being used against her to make
sure she didn't chop Ashton's head off in his
sleep, The High Council was using his new-
found immortality to keep Ash in line as well.
He would be given access to an endless
supply of victims that he could keep alive and
torture for as long as he wanted. If he were to
harm her, The Council would hand him over
to an assassin who had been applying his
tricks of the trade to vampires for centuries
untold.
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Seeing that neither was going to arguewith him, The Elder moved back to his desk.
"You two have your orders. You will go now. I
expect updates every morning." He sat down
in his leather chair, going back to his
mountain of paperwork, effectively dismissingthem all without as much as an upwards
glance.
Requiem and Stealth ushered Ash and
Altania out of the room. Neither vampire
spoke as they turned and made their way
down the hall, moving from the front entrance
to go deeper into the building, Ash and Altania
both eerily silent as the older vampires left
them alone, together.
.
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Chapter 2
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ltania rushed out the door andtowards her parked car, not
waiting around to see if Ash was
going to follow her. She was half way across
the parking lot by the time Ash got outside. It
only took him a few quick strides to catch upwith her.
"I don't care what the Council says,
Ashton. If you so much as look at me like you
might be reverting to your old ways then I will
cut your dick off and hand it back to you."
The thin-boned five-foot-six woman did not
look at him as she spoke.
Her shoulders were hunched over, her
hands balled into fists as she tried to control
her anger. Her dark brown hair was pulled
into a complex-looking French twist. The last
time he had seen her, Altania's hair was just
past her shoulder blades. He wondered if it
had gotten any longer in the last five years.
"My name is Ash. When I was embraced, I
was required to take a new name. I'm
forbidden to even speak my old, human name.
A
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And I have changed, Alty," he said, choosing,for the time being at least, to ignore her crass
comment about his possible castration.
Altania stopped to glare up at the man
who towered over her. "Changed? People like
you don't change . They just get more andmore deranged with each passing day." She
turned her back and moved a few feet away
before turning around to once again glare at
him coldly. "And don't you dare call me Alty.
That was my sister's name for me."
"I have changed," he insisted, hurrying
after her as she walked towards a black SUV
parked in the very back of the parking lot. "I
don't want to die any more than you want
anyone that you love to die."
Altania whipped around and marched
back up to him, the anger making her blue
eyes almost glow with undisguised hatred.
"Then pray tell, Ash ," she said, drawing out
his new vampire name, "exactly what
happened to change your mind? Five years
ago you would have cut off your own hand if it
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meant getting to your next victim. What onearth could The Council have said to suddenly
make you fear for your own life?"
Ash stood still for a few seconds before
quietly saying, "It's not what they said,
Altania, it's what they did." With thatstatement, he lifted the edge of his tee-shirt
and pulled it over his head, turning around so
Alty could see his back.
For one second Altania started to turn
away from the man. She had seen more
horrors in her years as a cop than any one
human should have to be exposed to, and a
lot of that carnage had been created at the
hands of the man standing beside her. But
once she saw the disfigured flesh on Ash's
back, she forgot the smart-mouthed retort
that she had been about to say.
Without realizing it, Altania moved closer
to the new vampire, her hand unconsciously
moving to lightly trace the zig-zagging pattern
of scars. The pattern reached around onto his
chest, the muscles beneath making the scars
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appear puffy and angry-looking. His armsshowed signed of healed lesions as well, the
scars snaking their way down his body to
disappear inside the waistband of his jeans,
the raised welts marring otherwise perfectly
sculpted abs."The Council did this?" she asked in a
hushed voice. She swallowed back the bitter,
acidic taste that rose in the back of her throat.
She knew The Council was capable of a lot of
things, but to torture someone, even someone
as demented as Ashton Jones had once been?
That was a new low even for them.
"Yes," he answered quietly. He stood still,
allowing the young woman to satisfy her
curiosity. After a few seconds he decided to
tell her what had transpired between him and
The Vampire Council Elders.
"When I was first recruited, about three,
maybe four years ago, I went through the
same 'behavioral' training that all the other
assassins are subjected to. But seeing as I
was a special case, The Council decided that
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they had to instill in me a better appreciationfor life. ”
“Since I obviously didn't give a shit about
my own family or even my own death,” he
said, “they had to get a bit more creative.
What they ultimately decided on, andimplemented over the course of the first years
of my training, was to subject me to every type
of torture that I had inflicted upon my victims.
And you, Altania, know firsthand just how
creative I had gotten at what I did." He gave
her a few moments to let that information sink
in good.
"But these scars look like the wounds
were inflicted months apart. How did they
manage to inflict this much damage without
killing you?" she asked.
Ash slowly turned around, putting his
shirt on as he did so. "One thing about
having so much time on your hands, it allows
you to make huge scientific and medical
advances. The High Council is centuries
beyond what the humans are capable of in the
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medical field. They kept injecting me withsome sort of serum that sped up the healing
process in my body. Whenever I got too close
to death, they would inject me and allow my
body to heal up, and then start the torture
process all over again.” “For one solid year,” he continued, “three -
hundred and sixty-five days, I lived my life
chained to a stone wall in the bowels of that
building." He jerked his head back towards
the brick and mortar structure they had just
exited, one of the many strongholds owned by
The Vampire Council.
"My body and mind were subjected to any
and every type of horror that I or anyone else
could ever imagine. Twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, for one full year, I was
repeatedly tortured and healed, tortured and
healed, until my mind and will had been
completely broken so many times that I lost
count. It was only then that they trusted me
enough to begin my apprenticeship as an
assassin."
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"Once I was embraced,” he said, “theystarted the torture sessions all over again. It's
one thing to be tortured as a human, when
you know that they will eventually inflict so
much damage to your body that it will simply
stop functioning. But you don't have thatluxury when you are immortal. You live in the
constant agony of pain beyond measure while
knowing that there are only two things that
will kill you.”
“But they won't do that,” he said with a
dry, humorless laugh. “Instead, they allow
your body to heal itself so that they can
continue to torture you in ways you could not
even begin to imagine."
Ash's deep, black-brown eyes had taken
on a far-away look, as if he was reliving the
terrors that he had endured. "So you see,
Alty, ” he said in hushed tones, “ I not only
have a new respect for my life, I even have
respect for those who I would have given my
right hand to be left alone with for just ten
measly minutes."
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Altania shuddered at his remark. Shehoped that he had changed. She really did.
And not just because she didn't want to die by
his hand, but because she knew without a
doubt that if he hadn't changed, she would be
able to kill him without so much as a secondthought. It didn t matter how many family
members they threatened; she would not
simply lie down and accept death by his hand.
She had dreamed for so many years about
how much she would love to see Ashton have
the same pain inflicted upon him that he had
so eagerly dished out to her sister, to her, and
to his countless other victims. She had
wanted that more than she had wanted her
next breath. In her heart-of-hearts, she had
not wanted him brought to the human's idea
of justice. She had wanted him to suffer, to
feel the complete mental anguish of knowing
there was nothing he could do to save himself
from the inevitable torture and pain. Now,
seeing the handiwork of The Council, knowing
that Ashton had suffered as not even his own
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victims had suffered, the images that used togive her so much comfort were now making
her incredibly sick to her stomach.
Altania turned, fighting back the bile that
threatened to rise in her throat. She dug in
her pocket and pulled out her car keys. She just wanted to sit down for a moment, clear
her head, concentrate on something other
than the strange feeling that was being
invoked in her by the images of Ashton
chained to a wall, naked, whipped and
bleeding, his dark brown hair hanging down
to half-cover a set of haunted brown eyes.
A pale hand reached out and plucked the
keys from her trembling hand. Ash gripped
her elbow lightly as he guided her towards the
passenger side of her SUV.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost,
Altania. Maybe you should sit down before
you hit the pavement." He used the remote of
the keyless entry to unlock the doors and
deposited her into the passenger seat.
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"Here," he said as he produced a smallPDA out of his jean pocket. He handed the
device to her before he moved to the driver
side of the truck. “Get caught up on our
mission. That ll help clear your head.
Regardless of your feelings for me, we stillhave to work together. Best to get used to it
now.”
Altania narrowed her eyes at him as she
muttered, “Stop reminding me,” under her
breath.
She took the small PDA from Ash. She
had the hand-held computer on and was
flipping through the files by the time Ash slid
into the driver seat.
"What is all this?" she asked, the detective
in her taking over as she read through the
information.
"It's all the files from SHiELD," he replied
as he adjusted the seat to a comfortable
position, moving the seat further back to
accommodate his long legs.
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"How the hell did you manage to get yourhands on this?" she asked in astonishment,
her eyes skimming over the files as fast as the
small computer could load them.
"The CRNH received it anonymously about
a year ago. They think it came from one of thescientists who were hired by the SHiELD of
Humanity. I'm pretty sure it came from
Tannitha, although after all this is over with,
she'll probably be kicking herself in the ass for
sending the information."
Altania's brow wrinkled as she read
through some of the files. "What's the CRNH,
who is Tannitha, why is she kicking her own
ass, and why would she send classified
information from the agency that she worked
for in the first place?"
"The CRNH is the Center for the Rights of
the Non-Human. I know that PDA belonged to
Chief Scientist Tannitha Johnson because I
was the one who smuggled it into the agency
for her. Sergeant Hall refused to allow any of
their research to be stored on computers. He
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was convinced the government could hack anycomputer system, and he didn t want his
„work falling into someone else s hands. He
was more than a little paranoid, and for good
reason."
Alty looked up from the device. "If theresearch wasn't backed up on computers then
why did this Tannitha Johnson go against
policy and then send the CRNH the files?
Better yet, how did The High Council get a
hold of this information?"
Ash took the PDA from Altania and flipped
through the files on the computer until he
came to the one he wanted. He handed the
PDA back to Alty who read the file name
aloud, "Subject Number 6349, Formerly
Subject Number 6103." She looked back at
Ash expectantly. "Is this supposed to mean
something to me?"
Ash gave the young woman a wry smile.
"Just read it," he said.
Altania turned her attention back to the
small computer, her eyes drinking in the
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information as quickly as it appeared on thescreen. It only took her a few minutes before
she had read over the entire file.
"Let me get this straight," she said with
astonishment in her voice. "The Council has
hired us to bring in the son of the man whoorganized the entire SHIELD of Humanity?"
Ash's smile held no humor as he started
the SUV and pulled out into the deepening
night. "Th at s the idea," he said.
Altania turned off the computer and put
her seatbelt on before she turned in her seat
to look at the vampire's profile. "Alright, I
think you need to start at the beginning."
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Chapter 3
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sh settled back into the seat ofAltania's black SUV. He tilted his
head slightly in thought as the
streetlights zoomed by them in the night.
"This is going to be a bit of a long story, but
we have a long road ahead of us, punintended."
His attempt at humor reminded her of a
question that had been on her mind since
before she had arrived at The Council's
stronghold. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"First, we stop at my place. After that we
have to go by the old SHiELD headquarters to
get a few answers that Tannitha's notes did
not divulge. What we learn at HQ will
determine our next move." He glanced over at
Altania, eyeing her black slacks, business-like
overcoat and stiletto heels. "Did The Council
have the good sense to tell you to pack?"
Altania had pulled out the little PDA
again, flipping through the files as they drove
along the darkened streets. She looked up at
him briefly, frowning. "Yes, my bags are in the
A
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back of the truck." She moved her attentionback to the handheld computer. "I take it you
don't approve of my current attire."
Ash shrugged as he made a sharp right,
pulling into the parking lot of Melody Lane
Apartments. "No, you look good, it's justgoing to be very inappropriate for the job we
have to do tonight," he said as he pulled into a
vacant parking spot.
"What job?" she asked as she looked up at
the three story tall complex. "How the hell did
you manage to get an apartment at Melody
Lane? ” she asked in astonishment. “ I've been
trying to get an apartment in this place for
years. The manager keeps telling me there
aren't any vacancies, which I find incredibly
unlikely, given as how people don t normally
take up residence in a little town like this."
Ash put the truck into the parking gear
and killed the engine. His face was a mixture
of surprise and amusement as he asked, "Are
you serious?"
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The young woman snorted at him as shelooked back down at the PDA. "What? I'm not
good enough for Melody Lane or something?"
she asked, crossing her arms over her chest in
a defensive gesture.
Ash rolled his eyes and then laughed."Alty," he said, "Melody Lane is owned by The
High Council. There's nothing housed here
but vampires. Humans are strictly forbidden."
Altania uncrossed her arms and stared at
him with wide-eyed amazement. Ash opened
the door to the SUV, laughing as he did. "Stay
in the truck, and keep it locked. I'll only be
gone a few seconds."
He flicked the electronic lock on the
vehicle and shut the door. He looked inside
the truck to make sure she wasn't going to
come after him, and then he vanished quickly
into the deepening darkness.
Altania blinked, forgetting for a moment
that Ash was now a member of the undead. It
always freaked her out that they seemed to
disappear into thin air. They didn't really
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disappear, of course; they just moved so fastthat the human eye could not keep up with
them. It still annoyed her to no end. It always
made her feel like the sucker at the magic
show that knew there was a simple
explanation to the trick, but was unable to gether mind to grasp the simple concept.
She sighed, looking back at the file she
had opened on the computer. She had not
even read the first word on the screen when a
light tapping came at the driver-side window.
Altania screamed, her whole body jerking
as she looked fearfully at the other side of the
truck, the PDA falling unforgotten into the
floorboard. Ash was standing there holding a
duffle bag and a sledgehammer, looking at her
expectantly.
"Shit," she said under her breath. She
reached down and unlocked the door, her eyes
still watching Ash warily.
Ash slung his bag into the back seat.
"Sorry," he apologized. "Didn't mean to scare
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you, but I said I was only going to be gone fora few seconds."
"Yeah, I know," Altania said, retrieving the
PDA from the floor of the truck. "I hate it
when vampires pull the whole 'disappearing
into thin air' trick. Freaks me out," shemumbled.
"Can't be helped," he said as he settled
into his seat and pointed the truck eastward.
"Now why are we going to the old SHiELD
building?" Altania asked. "I thought it was
destroyed a few years ago."
"It was," Ash said. "The Council had the
place cleaned up real nice too. We thought
the destruction of the building would be the
end of it, but after the CRNH sent us
Tannitha's PDA, they realized that SHiELD
had a lot of buried secrets where that building
used to be."
"You are talking way above my head," Alty
said. "You plan on filling me in on what you
know, or do you plan to keep me in the dark
the whole time?"
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experimenting on those same supernaturals,both living and dead."
He looked over at his passenger. She
looked like she had paled considerably. "You
want me to finish or what?" he asked harshly.
"Yes," she said, drawing out the last letterso the word sounded more like a hissing
sound. She turned to look out the window so
he wouldn't see the parade of emotions
marching across her face.
She hated that their government did not
consider the supernatural beings of this great
nation to be citizens; it was even worse that so
many humans had never been brought to
justice for killing them because the
government did not consider it murder. It was
disgusting, plain and simple. Every single
lycan and vampire started out human; the fact
that they were now something that science
was having a hard time explaining shouldn t
make it any less illegal when one of them
came up dead by another s hand.
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"Fine," Ash said, his voice a bit morecallous than he intended. "Before I do, Alty,
you need to get something straight. I've
always worked for whoever had the deepest
pockets. Now, money means very little to me.
My life, however, does , and since I am now aformal member of the immortals and a
sanctioned assassin, my life is all I have left to
me, so I will do what I am told when I am told
and how I am told. I have my orders and I will
follow them to the letter. I've been given
clearance by The Council to do whatever it
takes to bring the subject into custody.
Whatever it takes. Get it? So you better get
used to playing hardball because in this game,
there is no room for error … for either of us."
Altania shuddered at both his tone and
words. "Okay, Ash, I get it. Step up or move
aside, right?"
Ash nodded his head. "Right.” His voice
softened a bit as he continued, “I'm sorry,
Alty, really I am, but this is the way it has to
be. You're an ex-cop. You know how to follow
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orders, so you either do what The Council tells you or you can be easily replaced. And you
don't want to be replaced, Altania. Trust me .
You know what happens to people when they
are no longer of any use to The Council."
The woman swallowed down thediscomfort that had come over her. She knew
that Ash spoke the truth, knew it even before
she agreed to this mission. She guessed that,
somehow, she hadn't really thought the rules
applied to her.
She had gotten away with so much while
being a detective. Her captain had covered her
ass more times than she could count. But
after hearing about Ash's five year stint with
The Council, she now had absolutely no
doubts whatsoever that if she did not follow
her orders then she would be taking a long
walk down a very, very short road.
Satisfied that the woman beside him
understood the gravity of their situation, Ash
continued his story. "I was only brought
inside the agency s many buildings a few
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times over the years I worked for them. One ofthose times was when I brought Tannitha
Johnson that PDA. That's why I'm sure she
was the one who sent it. I don't think she
quite agreed with the methods of the agency."
"Then why was she working there?"Altania asked more to herself than to Ash.
"I think she had a thing for Dakota Hall."
Altania's head snapped around. "I would
ask, but I'm assuming you will be getting to all
of this," she said.
Ash nodded his head again as he pulled
into a long driveway that was lined with small
magnolia trees. It would have been pretty,
had it not been the site of so much pain,
destruction, and heartache.
"SHiELD learned all about how the
vampire and lycanthrope bodies work. They
experimented with the blood and various
drugs and even did DNA splicing until they
had created their own little fucked-up army of
hybrids. I think Tannitha was curious at first,
but the longer she stayed the more she
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realized that Sergeant Hall was totally bat-shitcrazy. By that time, she had already fallen in
love with Dakota, who had also become a
prisoner of the agency. Even if she had not
loved Dakota and wanted to leave, she
couldn t. Steven Hall ran his organizationmuch like The Council. You are either in, or
you are out, and if you go against them or are
of no use to them, then you are out. And „out
is not what you want to be in either of these
instances."
Ash pulled into what used to be the
parking lot of the old SHiELD headquarters.
He parked the truck and reached into the
backseat for his bag. He rummaged around
for a flashlight, pushing the button a few
times to make sure it worked before he tossed
the bag back into the backseat.
The two of them got out of the truck.
Ash stuck the flashlight in his back pocket
and opened the backdoor, pulling the
sledgehammer out and slinging it over his
shoulder.
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Altania wondered what the hammer wasfor, but she figured she would find out soon
enough. For now, she allowed Ash to continue
his story as they walked.
He led the way towards a large statue
sitting towards the far end of the grass-covered field. "Dakota had volunteered for one
of the agency's experiments. Tannitha
thought she could stop the internal decay
caused by the vampire blood. She was wrong,
of course, and by the time she realized it,
Dakota was already dying. She forced one of
the vampire prisoners to embrace him. It was
risky, seeing as how Steven Hall hated all
„pure supernaturals. But Dakota was his son,
so he kept him on as another variant of the
experiment, to see if any of Dakota s
personality traits and morals would still be
intact after he was embraced.”
Alty snorted as she mut tered, “I m
beginning to think this Steven Hall didn t have
two brain cells to rub together when it came to
the supernatural community.”
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Ash chuckled. “There is a lot more to thestory than just his warped perception. But
that s a story for a different time,” he said.
“ The vampire who embraced Dakota was
named Viktor ,” Ash continued as they neared
the far end of the grassy plain. “ He initiallyrefused Tannitha s demands, of course. That s
when they brought me back in to see if he
couldn t be persuaded to co operate."
Arriving at the statue, Ash felt around the
base of the marble figure until his finger found
the hidden mechanism. The entire statue
rumbled slightly and then slowly began to
move, the grating sound of marble against
cement eventually revealing a hidden stairwell
beneath the monument.
"Holy hell," Altania whispered.