The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 24: Shadow Dragons

Lash took a step back from the monitor, thoughts spinning chaotically. The Viseith, the shadowy spy agency that usually gathered the intel the Qos Viran needed to operate, had been silent for months leading up the operation against the Brotherhood in North America. Nor did they make a sound after he returned and began burning his way across Europe in defiance of the pogrom, intent on finding the traitor on the Council.

A part of him had always suspected the Viseith had sided with the Hand against the Ventru. How else did they know exactly where the Clan's greatest assets were located? Or the hiding places of the High Born?

Yet here was Tanis, claiming the Viseith also fought the traitor on the Council. It was an assertion he was finding hard to accept.

Logically, at least. It infuriated him that his instincts didn't agree.

"All Nighthawks, this is NHA. Hold your position. We have intel that friendlies are in play. I repeat, hold your positions. Friendlies are in play!"

"Friendlies?" Fiadh asked out loud from just to Lash's right. He looked over to find a confused expression on her face. Instead of answering her, however, Lash cycled his comms back to Tanis.

"You have five minutes, Viseith," he tightly announced. "Use it well!"

"Copy that, Qos Viran," Tanis immediately replied and the comms went silent.

Then Fiadh was close, her bright green eyes intent.

"None of our operators are named Viseith," she pointed out. And again Lash favored her with a quick look before shaking his head. A tap on the tactical display and it lit up with hundreds of orange dots."

"The enemy," he said before punching a complicated code into the interface.

When he hit enter, four of the dots turned green.

"Viseith," Lash said, leaning back to fold his arms across his chest.

Fiadh looked from the green dots to the big vampire, quickly noting the unhappy expression he now wore.

"Are they assets?" she asked and Lash sucked in a quick breath through his nostrils before pushing it back out.

"Unknown," he growled.

Fiadh looked back at the display, her confused expression deepening.

"I don't understand."

Lash grimaced. How could he explain what the Viseith were without his own misgivings leaking through and tainting their perception of them.

"As a lilith, you wouldn't have known about the Viseith," he began. "And, in truth, most vampires don't. Those that do, don't truly understand what they do, and why."

His expression tightened.

"Unless you are Qos Viran. We know who and what the Viseith are, and what they do."

Now with every eye on him, Lash went on.

"We are a militant people. At every level we have soldiers, from House and Clan nestari, to lilith M'tada, and even the Hand. From those militaries, the Council drew the best and brightest to train as Qos Viran, the Special Forces tasked with the jobs ordinary soldiers weren't equipped to handle."

He looked over at Fiadh.

"But the Qos Viran, as effective as they are, can't always gather the intelligence themselves that they need to make an operation successful. That's where the Viseith comes in. They dig out all the stuff from the muck and filth that we need to defeat our enemies. The humans have a name for them that's apt: Spy."