Birth of Jaiden (35 page)

Then, they were there,
gathered in the forest together and ready to go. Michael stood on a
fallen tree and gave a speech while Damion supported his
talk.

Michael announced, “We are
moving in pairs and threes. If you don’t have buddy who is a
slayer, then pick one. This is important because we are the ones
planting the bombs.”

To emphasize, he waved the
little light thing around in front of them.

Alex could feel the sun
pushing itself up. The sky was becoming light and that meant that
Malcolm and Levine would be going to sleep soon. He thought of
Jaiden and Isabella and said a prayer for them.

Damion explained who would
be doing what mission. Alex, Danielle, and Jackie would save
Jaiden. Deanna, Chris and Michael were to find Isabella. Those were
the two main missions. Damion and the rest of the slayers were
going to place bombs and fight until the missions were completed.
Victoria and Jeremiah remained back at the semis to protect
them.

Michael raised his voice. “This
is the most important part, you guys.” He had the crowd’s
attention. “In
one
hour, there are going to be massive explosions. You will
most likely survive these because most of the explosion is going to
be from the lights. But, by sunrise, you will want to be as far
away from this place as you can get. We are blowing the entire
thing.”

Alex and Chris caught each
other’s gazes.

“
What about us?” Chris
asked.

Michael smiled. “You, sir, are
with a powerful witch, she will protect you. And you,” his eyes
moved to Alex, “you are with your guardian angel, are you
not?”“You
do
want me to die.”

Michael only
laughed.

The next thing he knew,
Jeremiah was at his side and thrust a syringe into his hands. “Take
this.”

“
But it didn’t work last
time.”

Jeremiah snorted. “Didn’t
I tell you I was going to fix it?”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, then, deal with it;
if it doesn’t work, then you are no worse off, right?”

Alex shrugged. “I guess
so.”

“
You’re welcome.” Jeremiah
stalked off. “Oh,” he called over his shoulder, “I gave some to
Chris too.”

Alex twisted the capped
syringe around between his fingers for a moment before he uncapped
it with his teeth, took his jacket off of one arm, and emptied the
contents of the syringe into his body. Again, like before, he felt
nothing.

It was time to rock and
roll.

***

“
They
are
going to come here.” Levine, dressed in a
red silk robe and matching high heels, whipped back the covers on
their bed.

Malcolm sighed. “Darling,
I know they are going to come here. I don’t know what you are
afraid of.”

He climbed under the
mountains of blankets. She blew her breath out and climbed in after
him.

“
I am
not
afraid of them. They fear
me
,
I know they do, I just don’t want them to destroy my home.” She
pouted.

“
It will be all right,
darling.”

Levine watched as her
husband closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep; he didn’t know
the things she knew. They were on their way and she would not rest
knowing they might attack at any moment.

She rose from the bed and
went to talk to her guards.

36

In the cover of darkness,
Alex flew out of the trees with Chris, Michael and Jackie right
beside him. In an instant, he had toppled his chosen guard and
snapped his neck. Chris, Michael, and Jackie had done the same.
None of the four guards had uttered a sound.

The shift change was to
happen any second. They waited silently, two on each side of the
door. When they heard the movement and voices on the other side of
the door, Michael sent a hand signal to everyone who was waiting
between the trees.

It had to be simultaneous
when they went for the guards coming out. If it didn’t happen at
exactly the same time, then it wouldn’t work. They couldn’t take
the chance that any of them would have time to scream to alert
those inside.

The doors opened and the
four replacement guards gasped in shock at the sight of their
fallen comrades who lay broken on the forest floor in front of
them. When the first of them glanced up to find the source of the
murdered guards, it was their cue to attack.

Alex sprinted for his
target, covered the guard’s mouth and sunk his fangs into the
tender flesh of his neck. Immediately, he felt rejuvenated by the
blood of his victim. He needed the fresh blood; the more he had,
the better he would perform in battle.

Chris, Michael, and Jackie
chose snapping necks for their method. The guards’ bodies dropped
to the ground. Alex and his team drug them out of sight, into the
trees.

A swift signal from
Michael to the tree line brought forth a multitude of people who
rushed the doors. Alex watched as they disappeared one by one into
the mountain lair with only their minds as a map to guide
them.

Deanna passed Alex on her
way through the door and held up her hand for a high five. He
slapped her raised hand and she continued silently on her way.
Grinning, he followed her through the doors and waited while
Damion, the last through the doors, shut and bolted the door the
way it had been.

Alex glared at him as he
passed. He had a vision of Damion’s lips all over his precious
angel. Alex actually gagged slightly and felt disgusted. Damion
shot him back a confused look but kept moving through the
tunnel.

Alex shook off his
frustration with Damion and hurried to find his team. He knew he
had to keep the mission as a priority. He had to concentrate on
finding Jaiden and Isabella.

Without telepathy, he had
to find Danielle and Jackie the hard way. Luckily, they were
waiting for him at the corner of the first bend. He motioned a hand
signal to them in the direction that he wanted them to
go.

Alex finally felt his
adrenaline pumping. The slayers moved quickly through the tunnels,
tucking their little bombs into unseen crevices in the cold, damp
walls. Danielle was at his side and Jackie right behind
them.

This is just too smooth to be
working
, he
thought,
something seems just too easy about this
.

He made the turn into the next
tunnel and down the spiraling stone stairway.
Where are
they
? If he
knew Malcolm and Levine at all, he knew they would not
simply
let
their lair be invaded.

As they descended the
stairway, he heard the muffled screams of the people held prisoner
and he was unsure of how he was going to feel about them later. He
could feel Danielle at his back. He could smell Jackie there too;
she was bringing up the rear of their group. None of the slayers
were in sight but he could smell them close as well. If he could
smell them, he knew damn well that the evil vamps in that lair
could smell them too.

Danielle brushed her hand
against his back. She sensed something; he could tell by the simple
touch. He braced himself for a kill and sniffed the air. It wasn’t
human, had to be vampires. But, his only concern was how many of
them they had to fight. They cautiously descended each stone step
knowing something waited for them below.

They know we’re
here
.

On the fourth step from
the bottom, Alex decided the best plan of action would be to jump
out into the line of fire and surprise the enemy. He risked taking
his eyes off the landing to signal to Danielle and Jackie what he
intended to do. They nodded in agreement; even Jackie, who, as a
mortal, risked the most, bore no fear in her eyes.

Alex softly placed his
left foot on the third stair and prepared for the jump. He held up
his hand with three fingers extended, and then two. The second his
index finger folded, the three jumped the last four steps to the
landing.

On each side of them,
three vampire guards stood wielding one sword each. It took only
half a second till Alex had his own in his hands.

“
Freeze!” one of the
guards called out.

Alex had absolutely no
intention of freezing. Instead, he bounded high into the air and
forced his sword down into the guard closest to him.

Danielle ran the opposite
way and landed a swift kick to the hand of the vamp. His weapon
clattered to the stone floor which allowed her a fair fight of hand
to hand.

Jackie shot a bolt from
her crossbow into the second guard on Alex’s side, killing him in
mid-attack on Alex. She turned swiftly and shot another bolt at the
other guard on Danielle’s side, right in the heart.

Damn, she is
good
.

Alex’s last vampire guard
snarled, then turned and ran.

Jackie moved to
follow.

“
Stop!” Alex commanded and
threw his arm out. “You’ll never catch him. Besides, they know
we’re here, anyway.”

Danielle’s fight ended
with her vamp being a pulp of vampire mess on the floor. Jackie
aimed her UV flashlight and flicked it on. They watched, well, Alex
turned his eyes away, as what was left of the vampire turned into a
pile of dust.

She did the same to the
others lying on the ground. Then, they took the swords and carried
them for extra weapons.

“
Let’s go.” He led the way
down the tunnel to the left. Torches lined the shiny, damp walls.
Their shadows crept along the walls with them while Alex
concentrated on remembering what Victoria had shown them. It was
the cave of closed doors; they were almost to the room with the
archway.

“
Psst,” Alex motioned to
Danielle and Jackie, “this way.”

Suddenly, the musty scent
of another vampire wafted through the air around him. He stopped
instantly. The scent wasn’t Chris so it had to be
another.

“
Through that door,” he
whispered and pointed toward the door at the end of the cave.
Danielle and Jackie nodded their silent acknowledgement and moved
to the front so he could stay behind them in case someone was
following them.

Danielle stopped in front
of the closed wooden door and gently tested the knob to see if it
was locked. She held up her fingers like Alex had before, three
fingers up. Three, two, one. Then slowly, she turned the knob and
eased open the door.

Another narrow staircase
twisted down into the depths of the mountain. The scent of vampire
began to grow stronger, as did the screams of trapped
humans.

Danielle led the way down
the stairs with Alex still in the rear. Once they reached the
bottom landing, Danielle motioned for them to stop and cautiously
peeked around the corner.

“
It’s the room with the
archway,” she whispered.

Alex nodded. He knew they
needed to go in there.

“
There aren’t any guards
here. I doubt they are in there.”

Alex nodded again. It made
sense but they still needed to go in and let Jackie plant some of
her light bombs. Another countdown and they stormed the archway.
Alex took the center, Danielle the left and Jackie the right. They
entered the throne room with their weapons drawn. Several armed
vampires awaited them on the steps in front of Malcolm’s jeweled
thrones. Alex counted seven of them. Seven against
three.

Well, we just took six. This
should be easy
.

The vampires who awaited
them were large, unarmed soldiers. They wore tight black tee shirts
and jeans. Their eyes glowed red against their pale skin, and they
drooled visibly over the coppery scent of Jackie’s
blood.

Jackie, however, was the
first one to advance against them. Her crossbow ready, she took a
single step forward.

The one simple move was
all the reason the vampires needed to charge them. Like lightning,
within a split second, the vampires had them circled. Trapped! They
had fallen into the trap perfectly. He did not take his eyes off of
the vampires within his sight.

Danielle held her sword
out in front of her, raised high enough to slash the throat of one
of the vampires. She knew it would only take one wrong move and
they would attack. She decided to speak instead. “Leave us be and
we will let you live.”

None of the guards spoke
but kept their formation. Alex suddenly realized that they were
waiting for something.

Alex heard a sharp click.
He tore his eyes away from the vampires in front of him and turned
in time to see a bolt escape from Jackie’s crossbow.
“Jackie!”

Then, everything happened
within a matter of seconds.

The vampire it was
directed at quickly reached out and caught the bolt, then flicked
his wrist to fire the bolt back at them.

Danielle gasped and
dropped her sword. It hit the floor with an earsplitting clang. The
vampires did not hurry into an attack. Alex figured they had orders
to capture them alive. Alex, however, did rush to Danielle, only to
stop short in front of her.