"Talk!"
Jade had her arm in a stranglehold on the guy who dared to pull some kind of gun on her. She had little patience for such things.
"Who are you?"
"My name is…Beck."
She scrunches up her face. "Beck? What kind of name is that?"
A car screeches furiously toward them, Jade shielding her eyes from the bright headlights. It stops just shy of the pair. The vampire from Lyriz's office emerges from the driver's side door.
"Let's go," he tells Jade.
"Okay, another total stranger giving me orders. What are you two trying to get on my shit list?"
"Damn it, woman! We don't have much time!"
"Well, don't you know how to talk to a lady," Jade grins. It's the most amusing thing this night had to offer.
"What…time?" Beck struggles through his choking.
"Name's Andre. I used to work for Lyriz."
Jade blinked. "Used to?"
"Long story; look, we need to go now!"
"Why?"
"Because if we're too late, the city is in terrible danger."
Jade just shoots him a look. Beck, on the ground, looks back and forth between the two flesh eaters that have him between a rock and a hard place.
"Alright," Andre says annoyed. "I'll give you a practical reason." He checks his phone. "It's going to be dawn in about an hour."
Jade stares back at him with an even expression. A look of total disregard but he could tell the wheels in her head were turning from what he just said. Andre opens the backseat door.
Jade rises, grabbing Beck by the collar. "You're coming with me, Becky!" She throws him into the backseat, opens the passenger side door for herself and gets in.
The luxury sedan speeds off to avoid the ensuing dawn.
"Captain Vega?"
Cook was surprised to wake up at the sight of his superior, David Vega. Mills left some time ago.
"What are doing here?" asked Cook.
"My youngest was visiting a friend who had their appendix removed. She needed a lift."
"Oh, little Teri still can't drive, Captain?" Cook was trying to manage a half sympathetic tone but accidentally came off 100% sarcastic.
Vega smiled. "Tori. And…no, she failed her last driving test."
"My god, she must be in college right?"
"This year. Graduated this June."
"Wow. Don't you love how time moves so fast?"
"The worst thing about getting older. What are you doing here?"
"Shapiro got shot."
"Oh yeah, I heard about you two chasing down that car…and causing the blackout."
"Hey, it wasn't my fault. I shot the bastard. Didn't realize where a dead man was going to drive next."
The captain laughs heartedly at this. Cook and Shapiro were two of his favorite detectives on his team.
"He's okay, right?"
"Yeah, his doctor just woke me up actually. He has been out of surgery and is awake now. Luckily the bullet missed his heart and lungs."
Vega nods "Yes. Those internal bleeding cases are the worst. They can never do anything after that."
Cook stands up and straightens the street clothes he slept in.
"You gonna see him, Cap?"
"Oh, sure. Tori's still in her friend's room."
"Oh shit!" Cook scrambles for his phone and dials. "You go ahead, sir. I forgot to call my wife. She's probably wondering where the fuck I am!"
"Where the fuck are we going?" Jade pressed the driver.
"A hospital," Andre replies.
"What for?"
"Alright, Lyriz has begun to suspect me of pulling away from his philosophy." Andre looks at Jade. "So, he's more or less been keeping me in the dark for the last few years. I assume he only kept me around was because of my intimate knowledge of the city. He isn't from here."
Jade covers her eyes with her hand. "The point? The point?"
Andre rolls his eyes. "The point is that he was disappointed with how things were progressing with the whole 'revolution'," he makes a quote mark with one hand with that last word. "So, he thought he could accelerate things."
"How?" The silent Beck in the back was no longer so silent. Jade shot him an annoyed glance.
"What is faster than having hundreds of vampires feed? Or, put it this way: If the goal was to tip the planet's population scale in the vampires' favor, then why not just make as many as possible?"
"In other words," Jade begins. "Why eat the old order when you can easily convert them to the new."
Beck's tone got dead serious. "He's planning to infect the whole city. How?"
"By tainting the blood supply at the largest hospitals in town. I have spent months acquiring allies; more vampires deserting from Lyriz and his clan. I have them situated at all the major targets. All but one. And that's the one we are heading to right now,"
"Why hasn't he tried to do this sooner?" Jade asks.
"Because to keep hundreds of your followers alive while stockpiling thousands of gallons of blood would take a lot of time." Andre looks at Jade. "Even with your special blend."
Jade snorted at yet another coffee metaphor used to describe her.
"You were meant to be kept docile for at least a century. He wanted to try and obtain enough for the civilized world. Remember, it takes only a few drops per person."
Beck's head is spinning from this revelation but the two vampires up front barely notice.
"Unfortunately, for Lyriz, you escaped after only nine years."
"WHAT?"
Andre almost stopped the car when she yelled but remembered to keep going. A reflex from his old dating days.
Jade's face tightened with rage. "I have been kept down in that lab for NINE YEARS?"
Andre nods, wincing at the anticipation of a punch being landed on the messenger. It didn't come.
"I don't believe this," Jade folds her arms. "This shit isn't happening."
"Well, believe it or not," Andre continues. "Your breakout made Lyriz panic more than you even know."
Jade had to smile a little at the prospect of causing so much fear in her would-be captor.
"So it forced his plan of acceleration into acceleration," Beck seemed to be catching on.
She immediately turned to the backseat. "Now, you. Just who the hell are you really and who the hell do you think you are?"
Beck understood the line of questioning here. "My full name is Beck Oliver. I track and kill vampires. I protect humans from..."
"Oh, yee-hoo, the boy has a career!" Jade snatching Beck's duffle and starts rummaging.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Andre asking out of general principle.
An audible hiss is heard in the car. "FUCK!" Jade calls out, dropping something onto the floor. She puts her hand inside her sleeve to pick up the small object as if it were extremely hot. She studies the shiny find.
"That's silver," Andre morbidly informs. "Like sunlight, it's hostile to the touch"
"Yeah, no shit!" Jade quips.
Andre looks at his back passenger with his rearview mirror. "Tell me how you can afford silver bullets?"
"Let's just say that my employers have access to the necessary funds."
"Let me guess," Jade dropping the bullet back into the bag. "These employers of yours live and operate tax-free?"
Beck reluctantly nods.
"And people wonder why I stopped going to church."
A/N: NEXT CHAPTER...drum roll please...Tori!
