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She chuckled and pointed to his office door. “So, you can go home while there is still daylight and come back to it in the morning.”
He sighed. “Yes, dear,” he said like a nag weary husband.
A little zing went through Camila that made her pause for a moment as she looked at his teasing smile. She gave herself a little shake. “Exactly,” she asserted and gently pushed him towards the door.
They left his office and rode down to the lobby, where he stepped out with a goodnight as she was going to the garage.
Roy was in the lobby speaking with two of his team. The big man smiled at him and glanced at the wall clock above the reception desk.
Henry held up his hands in surrender. “Yes, yes! I know. I’m going home now.”
Roy chuckled. “Have a good night!”
Henry waved over his shoulder and stepped outside.
The air was warm but comfortable, and Henry had a spring in his step as he walked to the subway. It was definitely less crowded at this hour, so it was a comfortable ride back to his neighborhood.
As he walked along the waterfront walkway, he enjoyed the light breeze from the river. He felt his body relaxing as he got closer to home. Then he recalled everyone was away visiting their families. That put a little damper on his enthusiasm. He realized he felt a bit tired, so maybe he’d just grab a bite and get to bed early.
As Camila said, tomorrow he’d have all the work he didn’t finish today!
-=-
Meixiu smiled across the table at her two new friends. She’d received a text from Eleanor Hollings asking if they could get together tonight. Her shift at the hospital ended at six, so she and Raymond met her at half-past in a coffee shop down the street from the hospital. She was thrilled to meet other Vampires.
“Your departure the last time we met was amazing,” Eleanor said with a wide smile.
Meixiu shrugged and blushed. “I must admit I was showing off. I used up almost all of my energy outrunning the motion sensors on the next street over.”
Raymond blinked in surprise. “You can outrun the lights?”
She giggled. “Yes, but it’s exhausting.”
Eleanor looked at her and could almost feel her energized state. “You seem fine now.”
Meixiu nodded. “I had a feeding.”
Raymond glanced at his wife. “Feedings or a feeding?”
“Just one,” the tall beauty said with a smile.
Eleanor’s curiosity was flaring, then a sick feeling of dread washed over her. “You… you didn’t kill them?”
Meixiu’s expression flashed to embarrassment. “No! Oh, I’m sorry! I gave you the wrong idea. I took only three small mouthfuls, but his energy is so intense I lost consciousness momentarily. I should be good for a week or so. Unless I show off again.” She smiled sweetly.
Raymond was sharing another look with his wife. They had to be so cautious about their diet and took only enough to last them one or two days. To not have to eat for a week! “I don’t understand. How is his blood able to contain so much energy?”
Eleanor was equally shocked. “Would… Could we meet him?”
Meixiu suddenly realized she was divulging privileged information. She looked at her new friends sadly as she bit her lip. She looked around, but they wouldn’t be overheard. “I shouldn’t have mentioned him as the Council has put a lock on all information about him. I was just so excited to have friends like me.”
“There seems to be a rash of people either hiding from or being hidden by the Council these days,” Raymond growled. Meixiu looked to him with regret. Eleanor explained. “The first was a woman who can control people with her singing. She was on the run from the Council.”
Meixiu perked up. “Oh! You’ve met Lorelei Reichenbach? My friend told me about her!”
“Yes, she told us she was worried about the Council, but she didn’t know why they were after her,” Eleanor offered.
“This isn’t a safe place to talk about it,” Meixiu said. As her new friends were already aware of the Naiad, she came to a decision. “I think you should meet Henry.”
Raymond and Eleanor smiled excitedly and nodded. The three quickly left the coffee shop and headed to the subway.This content is © NôvelDrama.Org.
“I will text him to let him know we are coming,” Meixiu stated as she fired off a message letting Henry know they were coming to visit.
She couldn’t wait to show him her new friends!
-=-
Henry heard a ping, which drew his attention back from where his mind was drifting. He glanced at his cell’s screen and saw Meixiu had invited herself over with her new friends. He smiled at her assumption this would be cool with him. He sighed. So much for getting to bed early.
Whatever. She seemed excited about these new friends. He could be gracious. He banged off a reply stating he was steps from his front door and looking forward to meeting her friends.
He hit send, then his cell spun out of his hands, over the railing into the Hudson. Then he couldn’t see anything as a black hood was yanked over his head. It was tied around his throat, but luckily he could still breathe. Then someone punched him in the gut, and he lost his wind. Hands grabbed his arms and dragged him backward. He wanted to yell, but he couldn’t get his breath. More hands grabbed him to hold him still, and he felt a pinch on his arm then a cold sensation.
“Go! Get that blood back to the boss,” a voice barked, and footsteps rushed away as his arm ached.
Henry felt a cold fear shoot down his spine. How much blood did they take?
Then he was moving again, stumbling backward. He tried to think of something he could do, but they were so strong.
“Get him in the van!”
More fear surging through him. He thrashed and managed to shake off their hands, but that just meant he tumbled backward to fall onto his back. A foot kicked him in the side of the head, and he saw stars.
A heavy mass fell across his body, pinning him down. Then he heard a strange sound, like a sharp metallic cough. After each burst was a grunt, wheeze, or sigh. He was still pinned down, but he fumbled with the tie on the hood until he was able to yank it upwards over his face.
Then he froze at what he saw.
-=-
Minkah could no longer wait. She was going to take Henry tonight. The target! She was going to take the target tonight!
She cursed inwardly. This mission was messing with her head badly. She took some calming breaths then got into position in the lot facing the walkway he’d be coming home along. She’d called Rand von Deussel, so he was waiting in the extraction van. He was sick of waiting too.
She was familiar with the movements, comings, and goings of Henry’s neighborhood, so when the city works van parked at the end of the street two blocks away, her radar went off. She was in her cat form, so she rushed forward and kept to the shadows, out of sight of the large men who exited the truck. They weren’t acting like city employees as they set up a perimeter. They were an extraction team!
Someone else was after Henry!
Then she spotted him walking towards the men, oblivious of the danger ahead. He pulled his cell out and smiled as he tapped a message into the keyboard.
She almost yelled out as two of the men approached him and slapped his cell phone from his hand.
She transformed into her human disguise as she ran forward. They were sticking something into his arm, then the one with the syringe was running away. She sprinted closer as they roughly tugged Henry closer to their waiting van.
Her suppressed SIG-Sauers were in her hands, and she was firing before she arrived. The thug holding Henry’s right arm took a round through his temple, and down he went, falling over Henry.
Then she was putting bullets through the heads of each of the goons trying to steal her target. They tried to retaliate, but her aim was too accurate, and her hands were too quick. None managed to do more than pull a weapon from inside his coverall. Six thugs went down in quick succession, including the driver. She pulled that one from behind the wheel before he made a mess of the vehicle. She looked up the walkway to spot the one with the syringe sitting in the passenger seat of a car on the next block. He was staring back at her in shock. She put a bullet into his throat just before the car reversed back out of sight.
Her keen hearing picked up the sound of Henry struggling to free himself, so she holstered her guns and rushed around the side of the truck just in time to see him yank his hood off.
His eyes locked on hers, and recognition flared.
“What?”
She jammed the injector against his neck as his smile began, and her heart clenched to see it collapse into disappointment.
Forcing her emotions down, she yanked open the van’s side door and hoisted Henry inside, and closed the door. Then she climbed behind the wheel and got the van moving. She pulled the burner from her pocket and pressed the quick dial.
“Yes?”
“Change of plans. Get moving, and we’ll do a vehicle switch-over in the lot under the turnpike,” she said tersely. “Send a clean-up crew to this location as soon as possible.”
“Right.”
She drove calmly away from the grisly scene and merged into the evening traffic.
-=-
Meixiu looked at the chaos of emergency vehicles, police blockades, flashing lights, and news crews swarming over the area just a block from Henry’s home. They’d just come out of the subway and were faced with this nightmare. Raymond was speaking with the police as she stood with Eleanor. She tried calling Henry, but it went to voicemail, and he didn’t answer his texts. She also called and woke Michelle, who knocked on Henry’s door, but he didn’t answer, so he wasn’t home.
She texted Sigrid, and she responded immediately. She said Roy was on his way.
Raymond returned, and his expression was grim. He moved their little group away from nearby ears. He kept his baritone voice low, so it didn’t travel. “They’re saying it looks gang-related-a professional hit. Someone executed at least six men wearing city worker uniforms. Headshots.”
“Not Henry!” Meixiu gasped in relief, and Eleanor put her arm around the woman.
“They’re IDing the victims. Does this seem like something your friend would be involved with?” the public defender asked.
Meixiu’s eyes flared, then she calmed. “No. Not at all, but the timing is too close to when he sent me the text, and trouble finds him too often.”
“Meixiu!”
She turned to see Roy walking towards her. She flung herself into his arms, and he gave her a hug as he eyed the two people standing with her.
“Eleanor and Raymond Hollings,” the woman said, “New friends of Meixiu’s. We’ve much in common with her.”