Tall, Dark & Heartless

Page 5

Not now.
"I'm a quarter of the way through the tunnel now, Danni. I might need help closing the emergency hatch that opens on C-24." Greg said, sounding out of breath.
The idea of saving his ass after he screwed up with the blueprints naturally rubbed her the wrong way, but not enough to risk screwing this mission up. Not when she had everything riding on this assignment.
"I'm on my way," she said, throwing one last glance in the direction of the nest.
"Received."
Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she turned and sprinted in the direction of the new emergency tunnel. She pulled her sidearm out and kept it ready. At this point the area she'd already covered was no longer secure and she'd have to worry about minions, vampire slaves whose sole purpose in life was to please and care for their Master, patrolling the tunnels for intruders.
If she or any of her teammates came across one their orders were shoot to kill. Not that she'd do it any differently. She wouldn't. Since minions willingly gave up their humanity and killed for their Master without question, they weren't to be trusted.
About three hundred years ago the Sentinel Council changed their rule of capture, interrogate, and reform minions to kill on sight. The rule was decided after a large group of minions managed to trap twenty Sentinels in the Catacombs of Paris and burned them alive. Not surprising ever since then, the Sentinels and their human members held no sympathy for minions. If she had any sympathy for them it would have flown out the window eight years ago when two minions shot and killed her parents in broad daylight.
Hunting down their killers and taking them out had been the first and only unsanctioned minion extermination she'd ever committed. At the time she hadn't cared what the council did to her. They could lock her up for life on one of their many private islands used to punish and reform Sentinels or they could have killed her for all she cared at the time. She'd hated the minions who took her only family away from her too much to follow the rules.
For months after she'd killed them she'd kept her focus on training and patrolling as she waited to be called in for the killings. When six months passed and nothing happened, she figured the council decided to look the other way.
"What's your location?" Greg suddenly demanded, sounding nervous. Not that she could blame him. He'd f**ked up big time with the blueprints.
She slowed her pace to check the dark tunnel to her right before proceeding down it. "I'm about twenty yards from G-8's opening."
"Good. I'll meet you at the opening," he said, sounding relieved.
Danni frowned. What the hell was he doing at the opening? He was supposed to be investigating the hatch to C-24. Maybe the tunnel was actually blocked. In that case he should have radioed her sooner than this so she could take up her original position.
Twenty feet from the opening she slowed her pace when she spotted Greg pacing. When he spotted her he gestured for her to come to him. Shoving aside her annoyance she walked over, stopping five feet from him.
"What's the problem, Greg? I thought you were checking out the hatch," she said, holstering her weapon.
Greg watched the action with a weird little smile playing on his lips. "There's no hatch," he announced with a careless shrug of his shoulders.
Great, he'd f**ked up. Again.
"I'll go check it out. Maybe you missed it," she said, stepping past him. The sooner they found and secured any unmanned escape routes the better. She was eager to get back to her position knowing they'd need her. Right now her and Greg's assigned positions were unprotected. If they didn't move their asses, their teammates would be left fighting with two less men and since they were humans fighting against vampires that was a very big deal.
The only comfort she had was knowing that Caine was there to protect their unit. He couldn't watch everyone's back, but he could definitely even the odds. That is unless he was incapacitated with a bullet in the head or heart. Then they'd all be screwed.
Shit.
Just thinking about her team being left defenseless against the large nest was enough to make her antsy. She quickened her pace, wanting to get this over with only to come to an abrupt stop when she reached a tiled wall at the end of the tunnel.
"I thought you said this was finished," she said, turning around to face the man who f**ked up once again. "What the hell.....," she mumbled as the tunnel filled with light behind Greg.
"I lied," Greg said.
Slowly she pulled her night vision mask off and let it drop to the ground by her feet. She squinted against the bright light and quickly counted twenty men forming a group behind Greg, effectively blocking off her one and only exit.
"What's going on?" she demanded, already knowing she'd walked into a trap. She reached down to pull out her weapon.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Greg said, sounding smug. The sounds of guns cocking made her pause.
She ran her eyes over the small crowd and wasn't too surprised to see that Greg's new friends were vampires. Although she'd liked to say she'd seen this coming, she couldn't. Greg was a ruthless bastard and an all around grade A ass**le, but she'd thought he was loyal to the Sentinels and their cause.
"Why?" she asked, hoping to buy a little time.
Greg gestured two vampires forward. They quickly disarmed her and took away her radio before she could protest. Not that she would at the moment. She wasn't an idiot. She needed to buy time, assess the situation, and try to figure a way out of here. She also needed to get to her team before they found themselves in a similar situation.
"It's nothing personal, Danni. I had certain requirements to meet and you," he said with a lazy hand gesture in her direction and a sigh, "were just a means to an end."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she demanded, taking in a slow deep breath as black spots danced around her vision. Sharp pain shot through her head and down her neck nearly dropping her to her knees. She fought against the need to let the darkness take over so she could escape the pain, but she knew that if she gave in this time she might not wake up again.
She needed to keep it together and figure a way out of this situation, or at the very least, warn her teammates.
"You're going to help us," Greg explained.
Danni let out a humorless laugh. "You're insane. There's no way in hell that I'm helping you."
Greg smiled that cocky smile she hated. "Oh, but you already are. Thanks to you the Master will finally have what's rightfully his."
"Master," Danni mumbled. She glared at the man she'd stupidly wasted one too many months on. "You're a goddamn minion," she said with open disgust.
"Oh, I'm so much more." He looked thoughtful. "Well, I will be soon."
It wasn't hard to figure out what he was talking about. "You're going to be turned into one of them." She shook her head in disgust.
He shrugged, taking a step closer to her. "Why not? We both know we've been f**ked over. Neither one of us should be human. Our parents are Sentinels for f**k's sake!" he shouted, losing his calm for the first time since he started this little game.
"We should have been given their status. At the very least we should have an extended life, but God decided to f**k us over instead. It's bullshit!"