Inside Source

Alpha Steven Dauntless’ POV

Our command post had been busy since the tipster called us on our hotline. I’d listened to the recording of the call a few dozen times, hoping to pick up any more information than she had given us.

Lynette had taken the call, and I’d put on headphones to listen when she waved for everyone to be quiet. It wasn’t a long call, but she had her code, and she’d given us the things we needed to know. We had a location, and we knew they were vampires. In Mexico City, that meant Master Vespucci.

Our group agreed the call was credible, so my next call was to Alphas Leo and Adrienne. Leo sure kicked over a hornet’s nest with his antics in the Northeast. The Alphas had watched the conference call in horror. Later, Alpha Lance informed the Packs that Leo had killed the Chairman before his men could stop him. The entire Werewolf world was teetering on the brink of war, just as Master Vespucci had planned.

It didn’t leave us much time, but Adrienne’s gambit to go to Supreme Vampire Cyprian Pontalba had paid off spectacularly. I hadn’t believed how fast our new allies had organized, helping to smuggle in dozens and dozens of people and their gear to Mexico City.

Early this morning, we had confirmation that the girls were there. “The tip was correct, Steven,” Adrienne said over the secure videoconference. “One of the Three Sisters trackers picked up their scent. We have two sniper teams with eyes on the building now.”

“When are we going in?”

“Tonight,” she said. “There are too many civilians around during the day. We’re busy making plans for a coordinated assault after sunset, which is at six-oh-three. Target time is nineteen hundred.”

“That’s twenty-hundred here,” I replied. “I’m taking out the local Coven at the same time. The Coven ordered the abduction, and they’ve been stroking us off the whole time we’ve been here. I want Mateo’s head on a fencepost.”

“You’ll have no arguments from our end. We had to be coordinate it perfectly; if Vespucci gets a warning, our people will die. If it doesn’t work out, let them go, and Pontalba can round them up later.”

There was no way I was losing this one. “I’ll handle my end. Stay safe, everyone. We’ll talk this afternoon.” I ended the teleconference and pulled all my people together into the room after breakfast. I updated them on our target time and asked them to start thinking of the best way to take out our local vampires.

“You look like hell,” Colleen said after the meeting broke up. “When was the last time you slept?”

“I got an hour in last night,” I said.

“Respectfully, Alpha, we need you to be ready for tonight. Trust your people with the assignments you’ve made, and get some sleep. I’ll handle this room for you.”

I looked around at my people and knew she was right. “Fine, but you wake me up if anything important happens.”

“Of course, Alpha,” she replied.

I walked back to my room, took a quick shower, and was asleep moments after falling into bed.

“ALPHA, WE NEED YOU BACK IN THE ROOM,” one of my warriors sent me.

“On my way,” I said as I rolled out of bed. My body was protesting my getting roused from a deep sleep. I looked at the clock, and it was just after noon. I’d gotten maybe four hours of sleep. I reached for clean clothes. “What’s happening?”

“Our girl called back.”

“Share it over the link,” I said.

I finished dressing as I heard the phone call over the mind link. “…will recover in time, but Master ordered me to take two more pints from all of them in three days. Taking that much blood a week after the last two-pint withdrawal will leave them weak. I’m worried that after the miscarriage, Vicki won’t heal properly.”

“Did he say why he needs more in three days?”

“No, but Master is getting passports for everyone, and they should arrive before the end of the year. I think he’s planning something big then, and he’s trying to get as much blood stored before then as he can. He might even plan to drain them before he departs because I can’t take more blood that early.”

Shit. If our informant hadn’t called, Vespucci’s army would be unstoppable by then. I finished dressing and headed out into the hallway.

“Can you tell us anything about his home?”

“He’s excavated a huge underground safe room below the mansion. The entrance main entrance is in the library on the main floor, hidden behind a bookcase. It’s like a vault door, and the stairs to the door on the bottom are booby-trapped; there’s a system to flood it with liquid nitrogen and other defenses. There’s another entrance, a fireman’s pole from the master bedroom upstairs, plus there is an emergency exit that leads to the sewers. They showed it to me this morning; I think he’s going to stash me there if it gets dangerous.”

“Are you out of the way now? Safe?”

“I’m at work now, but I’m nowhere near safe,” the girl said. “Master is raising and training an army. He must have over a hundred vampires he’s turned in the last few months, and they need blood. I’ve been skimming bags from work, and Master ordered me to take twice as many. The familiars can’t keep up, and the older vampires are hunting every night.”

Fuck me. A hundred vampires? Cyprian was going to shit. “We have eyes on the place you told us about, and we haven’t seen anyone go in or out yet. Are they holed up there?”

“Not in the main building, but they live and train in the warehouse attached. I haven’t seen them, but I’ve heard them.”

“That’s good to know. We’re going to move soon, and you won’t be in danger much longer. When we start the attack, we’ll text a code word to you with the time. When we come in, shout the code word and stay on the ground. Our people will not harm you.”

“I don’t know if that will matter,” she said. “Something else is going on. Master never paid much attention to me, but I was called to his office this morning before work. When I arrived, Master Vespucci had a priest waiting, and we got married.”

“Married?”

“Yes, he had me sign the certificate and everything. He killed his last wife, but I have no idea why he picked me.”

“We’ll figure it out. Keep your head about you and wait for our signal. You’ve earned that reward and more.”

“It’s not about the reward; it’s about being free from this man. I wish I could go back to what I was, but I know it’s impossible.”

I heard a click just before I arrived at the command post. “Let me in.” The door opened, and everyone looked at me. “We got that on tape?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Colleen said.

“Get it ready to play,” I said. “I’m getting the other Alphas up on videoconference.”

As soon as I started to tell Luna Adrienne what happened, she made a call. Master Pontalbo’s face joined the conference. “Sorry about that, but his group is in a different location,” Adrienne said. “Let’s hear this call.”

“A HUNDRED of them in the warehouse?” Leo was shaking his head. “How the hell do we get past a hundred fucking vampires?”

“A hundred newborns,” Cyprian said. “Little power or training. It changes our plans, but Vespucci is doing us a favor by gathering them in one place.”

“We’re at much greater risk of failure,” Leo said.

“Your job remains the same, Alpha. Storm the building and free the girls; we’ll keep the vampires off your back.”

We talked for another five minutes, and then I let the others go to continue their planning on their own. We had our own problems to consider.

Consuela (Mardona) Vespucci’s POV

I went over every scenario while I finished the rest of my shift at the hospital. Taking more blood hadn’t been difficult, but it wasn’t repeatable. Sooner or later, someone would discover the missing blood, and I’d get fired.

I stashed it in my new purse as I got ready to leave. I was vulnerable, and I hated that feeling. Master had picked me for my work connections, not for my fighting ability. What would happen to me after the attack? Would he figure it out? One bag of Vicki’s blood, and he’d be unstoppable.

I froze as I got to the office door.

Vicki’s blood. In a time of danger, he’d drink Vicki’s blood.

I walked back to my desk, placing a spare set of crimping pliers and spare crimps in my purse. Walking out the door, I didn’t take my usual bus. There was a store nearby that specialized in herbs, natural treatments, and unproven remedies. Walking in, I smiled at the older woman behind the desk.

Ten minutes later, I was in a cab heading for Master’s home. The place was quiet, with only a few guards upstairs. I entered the library and waited for the door to the basement to open.

“You’re early,” Paco said.

“I missed my bus getting the extra blood, and I had to take a cab here,” I said. Paco probably knew that already, as the video surveillance he monitored would have shown me getting out of the cab. “I have to drop off the supplies, then go check on our prisoner.”

“Don’t take too long there. Master may need you later.”

I shuddered to think of what he might need. “Of course.” I walked off to the storage room, verified I was alone, and opened the refrigerator drawer. Placing the bagged blood on the shelves, I opened the box where I kept the ‘special’ blood. Finding the two bags from Vicki, I grabbed my supplies from my purse.

Withdrawing a large syringe, I filled it from the bottle of bloodroot extract I’d purchased at the shop. I injected half into the first bag just below where the tube was crimped off and made sure the poison made it into the main bag. I then cut the tube just below the injection point and re-crimped it. A minute later, both bags were back in place, and the tools were back in my bag.

I had one more idea. I took the other bags of werewolf blood and placed them at the back of the refrigerator, under the most recently obtained blood. Taking some regular human blood, I used a Sharpie to match the markings I’d made of the werewolf blood. If something happened, they wouldn’t get any boost.

“I’ll be back in an hour or so,” I told Paco as I headed back up the stairs.

If I got through tonight, it would be a miracle.