Innocence and Evil (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #6) (6 page)

She raised an eyebrow. “It’s possible, look
at us.” She gestured to the group. “We all look normal on the
outside.”

I stalled. “She’s right, we shouldn’t leave
them alone down here. We need someone to stay down here and guard
the door.”

“I’ll do it.” Oscar stepped back. “You all
need to be in on the attack plans, you can just fill me in
later.”

I exchanged a glance with Drew. He appeared
to be thinking the same thing as me. If they got out, Oscar might
not be able to hold his own with two of them.

“Oh come on you guys.” He rolled his eyes.
“I have two guns and the intercom. I can watch two guys securely
locked up in a basement.”

Chloe pushed at Drew. “He can do it. Let’s
go.”

“Thank you for your confidence, Chloe,”
Oscar called after us.

***

Upstairs, Alice had just finished making a
plate of sandwiches and was placing it on the table as we entered.
She glanced up at us. “As always, you guys have perfect timing when
it comes to food.”

“I can smell it a mile away,” Chloe told her
jokingly as she plucked one off the pile.

Sarah and Daniels were already sitting down
at the table. Daniels had the chair turned around, resting his head
on his arms which were folded across the back.

I looked for Christina and found her leaning
against the counter, filing her fingernails. She caught my gaze and
offered a small smile. Sometimes, it was hard to know what she was
thinking. My girl was all hard around the edges and didn’t like to
let people in. I guess that was what made us so perfect for each
other.

Ignoring the urge to cross the kitchen and
kiss her until she couldn’t breathe, I chose to pull out a chair
and sit down at the table.

Drew stalked in next, tugging his shoulder
holster off and looping it over the back of a chair. “We have to
talk about what we’re going to do with those guys.” His eyes
flicked toward me.

I leaned back, returning the glare.
“What?”

“It’s just that we aren’t really equipped to
hold people prisoner, nor do I
want
to have anyone tied up
in our basement.”

“Well, excuse me for not having time to
consider the options. I was busy trying to get the morons to
talk.”

Chloe snagged another sandwich. “Knock it
off, you guys. Hey, Alice, is there anything you can do to wipe
their memories or something?”

Alice poured herself a big cup of coffee and
sat down. “I can’t do anything like that right now, but I could
work on it when I have time.”

“That would come in so handy if we end up
having to hold more Dragons. We know there are a lot of them still
out there.”

Christina tucked her file into her back
pocket. “And they are still following the Vampire Council.”

“The Vampire Council that is trying to come
back from the dead,” Alice pointed out, lifting her coffee mug to
her lips.

“All right.” Drew selected a sandwich from
the top of the plate and held it in his right hand without taking a
bite. “We have several things to worry about right now. I feel like
the first priority is finding the vampires and taking them out.
Maybe if we do that, these Dragons will just stop whatever they are
doing.”

I shook my head. “Those two downstairs need
to be locked up forever. The evil radiates off of them like bad
body odor. We can’t let them out into the world again.”

Gavin had quietly entered the room with
everyone else and stood off near the doorway. “Zander, I don’t
really think that is your decision to make.”

“Wrong. It is my decision. The Warrior Angel
gave me these gifts for a reason.”

“So you think the fate of mankind is in your
hands?” Gavin’s voice was low, non-confrontational, and I tried to
keep that in mind when I replied.

“Look man, I was given this power for a
reason. Not only do I want to do the right thing, but I want to
accomplish the mission the Warrior Angel gave me.”

Christina stepped up behind me. “What he
said was that if we find the humans, then we will find the
vampires. He wants us to find the vampires.”

“But… the Dragons.”

“No,” she cut me off. “He said that the
Dragons were simply mislead, and that hopefully they would change
course. That means there is still hope for them. These should be
the only ones we hold.”

I took a deep breath. Had I jumped the gun
with the Dragons? Yeah, I didn’t kill them … and I admit, I wanted
to. “Okay, these two are the only ones … for now.” I added the last
part and Drew glared at me.

“What? You know as well as I do that some of
these guys are bad dudes. What good are we doing the world just
letting them roam around hurting people?”

“Again,” Gavin stated quietly, “That is not
your call.”

I wanted to argue, but I didn’t have the
chance because Luke shuffled into the kitchen right then. “All
right, kids, it’s time to start the plans to stake out where we are
going to find these vampires.”

I had the distinct feeling that Luke had
been watching us on the cameras, since he didn’t want to discuss
the guys in the basement.

Drew cleared his throat. “From what Oscar
got out of one of our guys, they are based at the old library. He
says there are two leaders, Edgar and Tristan.”

“And about twenty vampires total,” I added.
“I think we can take all of them with just our group.”

Luke wrinkled his brow. “I don’t know, I’d
feel better about bringing in another team, just to be safe.”

“He’s right.” Chloe leaned back in her seat.
“We do have the Dragons to consider. We don’t know how many of them
there are and they will fight for their vampires.”

True enough. “Do you think that if we take
out these vamps it will finally end this problem we have with
them?”

Chloe shook her head. “We couldn’t kill
Anthony because of me, but there is also Pavlos to consider. We
can’t concentrate on him right now, but it’s something we are going
to have take care of eventually.”

Most everyone in the group nodded. We all
knew that trying to find Pavlos wasn’t going to be an easy task.
“Well,” Luke clapped his hands together, “First things first. We
have to protect our own city, so we need to take care of this
particular problem. To do that, you all need to try and get some
sleep. We head out at noon.”

Drew stood, grabbing his shoulder holster
from the back of the chair. “Do you want me to go to Arcadia Falls
and get the team ready?”

“No,” Luke shook his head. “I’ll take care
of that. You go get some rest.”

“Yes sir.” Drew nodded and left the room.
Chloe hurried to catch up with him and everyone else slowly
followed.

I stayed in my chair, watching them leave
and thinking about the people who had become my family. Drew was a
natural leader, also the strong silent type who didn’t like taking
orders from anyone. But, when it came to Luke he was all, ‘yes sir,
no sir.’ Aside from Chloe, no one else could talk that guy down
when he set his mind to something.

My mom was the only one who had that effect
on me. Now, Christina might be the only one who even came close to
being that person who could get into my head. I looked up and saw
that she was waiting for me.

“Are you coming?” she asked.

“You know I’m not going to sleep,” I told
her.

She flashed me a sexy smile. “I didn’t think
you would. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t still go to bed.” With
that, she glided out of the kitchen.

***

The early light of dawn streamed through the
curtains of my bedroom window. I’d told Christina the truth, I
hadn’t slept. I guess that part would come later. Or maybe, not
sleeping was part of what I’d become, maybe I would never sleep
like a normal person again. Not for the first time, I wondered if
I’d been given a gift or if it was a curse.

After slipping quietly out of bed, I took a
long, hot shower. When I got back to the bedroom, wearing fresh
jeans and a tee shirt, Christina was laying against the pillows
with her eyes open.

“Hey,” I greeted her.

“Hey,” she said back.

I flopped down onto the bed beside her. “So,
are we going to talk about what’s bothering you?”

She shook her head, feigning an innocent
expression. “Nothing is bothering me.”

I turned onto my side and kissed her
shoulder. “Come on, this is me. I know something has been going on
with you for a few days.”

“It’s nothing,” she insisted.

“Look, I know I’ve had a lot going on, but
I’m not the selfish bastard everyone wants to believe I am, now
spill it.”

She closed her eyes and then opened them
again, as if she had to pause and think of what she wanted to say.
“I don’t like to complain about stuff.”

I smiled at that because it was true. “I
know you’re a tough chick and telling someone if you’re upset or
worried or whatever, doesn’t have any bearing on how people see
you.”

She rolled over so she wasn’t facing me
anymore. “Don’t worry, I’ll get over it.”

I let out a huge, dramatic sigh and crossed
my arms over my chest. “Are you kidding me, now I really want to
know? All this ‘it’s nothing’ crap just makes me want to know even
more.”

“Fine!” She rolled back over. “I am the only
one in this house without any gifts … I feel so useless sometimes.
At least when Drew didn’t have any, I wasn’t alone.”

I shook my head. “Luke doesn’t have any
powers.”

“Yes he does. He’s like … psychic or
something.”

I furrowed my brow. “He is?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, “It’s not something like
where he gets these incredible visions of the future, but he can
sense certain things.”

“That’s dumb, anyone can do that.”

“Well …” She frowned. “It doesn’t make me
feel any better about it. I know I’m never going to have gifts, if
I was intended to have them, I would have already come into them by
now.”

I heaved myself up and straddled her,
placing an arm on either side of her head so that I was staring
straight down into her eyes. “You are special. You do have gifts.”
I inched my face closer to hers. “Just because it’s not something
supernatural, doesn’t mean that you aren’t special. No one I know
can come close to throwing a knife the way you can. You have an
ability that no one else has.”

She tried to turn her face away. I reached
over and stopped her. “No. Don’t turn away.”

“It’s not a gift, Zander, it’s a skill.
Anyone can learn how to throw a knife.”

“Not like you.”

She managed a small smile. “You’re only
saying that to make me feel better.”

I dipped down and kissed her soft lips. “Yes
and no. I do want you to feel better and I’d probably say anything
right now to make that happen. But, I do think you have an ability
that is only for you. Yeah, people can learn a skill, but it takes
someone extra special to be extraordinary at it. And you … my love
… are extraordinary.”

Her eyes widened. “Did you just …”

Oh crap
.

“You said …”

Own it Zander,
I told myself.
You
don’t always have to be hard. You can let her in and still be the
person that you are.

“Yeah, I called you my love, and you are.
Deal with it woman.”

She laughed. “I know you love me, you moron.
I just never thought I would hear you say it.”

I grasped her hands in mine, pinning them to
the pillows on either side of her. “Oh really, how do you know how
I feel about you?”

She rolled her eyes. “You aren’t as much of
a closed book as you think you are. I can just tell, even when you
don’t say it.”

“It’s hard to say it,” I whispered.

“You don’t have to,” she told me in a soft
voice, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

This time when I bent down to kiss her, I
didn’t pull away. I sunk into her, letting her know without words
just how special I thought she was.

It wasn’t until later, when I was checking
the clips in my guns and putting my holster on, that I realized she
didn’t tell me that she loved me back. I knew she did, but it was
just strange that she would have a harder time admitting it than I
did. Maybe, she was truly the roughest one out of all of us.

I made up my mind right then, I was going to
make her know that she was an asset to the group and her abilities
were ones we couldn’t do without. The fact that she didn’t have any
supernatural powers was bothering her and I didn’t want her to feel
like we didn’t need her. I needed her … and so did everyone
else.

***

The entire group was gathered downstairs in
the living room. A map was spread out on the coffee table and Drew
was already giving orders on what positions each person was to
take. He glanced up when Christina and I entered the room. “Nice to
have you two join us.”

I rewarded him with a smile. “Wouldn’t miss
it for anything.”

“Take a look at this.” He pointed. “You and
Christina are going to be here, on this side of the street. You
will be directly across from the library.”

“No problem,” I assured him.

Daniels, who I still thought of as a soldier
even though he no longer wore a uniform, slid a Glock into his left
holster and glanced at all the people in the room. “So who is going
to stay here with dumb and dumber downstairs?”

“I am,” Luke announced. “Oscar and I can
handle them.”

Christina crinkled her nose. “But aren’t you
in charge of the team coming in from Arcadia Falls.”

Luke shook his head. “No, Drew is.”

That was new. Usually the older Hunters who
had seniority would lead the teams.

“We are going in as one team today. That
way, we are all on the same page and no one is overlapping the
other team,” Luke explained. “And since we are the ones requesting
the infiltration, then we are the ones who will lead it.”