The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Are you teenagers getting in or not?" The bus driver asked as he chewed on a cigarette bud. "I haven't got all day."

"Wait," Jack commanded him and then turned back to me. "Ailith, the sun is setting. Time is running out. Do you want to wait around for a repeat of last night?"

With every passing second, the twilight was fading, and the darkness was encroaching on us. I badly wanted to get on that bus, but there was an aching inside my chest. It was as though I could deny it no longer. We weren't evacuating. We were being kidnapped.

"Ailith," Holly pleaded with me. "We're running out of time. Whatever questions you have, why can't you wait and ask Jack later?"

"I want to see the badge you showed that soldier when he let us in," I said and planted my feet in the ground. "Let me see it, or I'm turning around. I'm going to the refugee camp with the rest of the people outside. That is if there are any of those innocent people left after you guys opened fire on them."

"Ailith, they threw rocks at us. If the guards didn't shoot, your brains would be on the pavement by now," Holly hissed and grabbed my arm. I ripped it out of her grasp and backed away. Holly was strong, but in my anger, I was stronger.

"Show me the badge," I snapped.

Jack sighed, reached into his pocket, and withdrew the badge. It was so small, smaller than even a credit card. I snatched it out of his hand and looked down on it. It was a plain black and white card that had been laminated and contained a hologram. Jack's unsmiling face looked back at me from a stamp size photo in the bottom left corner.

Joseph Faherty

Assistant Chief of Cyber Command

Security Clearance: Level Black

Shadow Guard Base 5

Headquarters: New Arca, Nivaria

"What the hell is that?" Holly asked, looking over my shoulder. "Is that like a branch of the CIA?"

"I have no idea," I replied and reached over and snatched the cell phone out of Jack's hand. "Back in South Beach, a woman told me they intercepted a call talking about the boy I saw in my dreams. That was you, wasn't it, Joseph? Who did you call?"

"I'm Jack; Joseph is just my code name. You know who I called Ailith. You were snooping around on my phone last night, weren't you?"

"It said unknown sender," I said. "So why don't you tell me? Who sent you after us?"

Jack sighed, but for once, he didn't look panicked. He seemed remarkably cool now, like none of this was especially interesting to him.

Was it all an act up until now? Why would he do it?

"I didn't lie to you guys. I used to work for Sylvirua during my summers in high school. Around my senior year, I was approached by a bigger fish. It was a man named Renat Rykirov. He convinced me to join a mercenary military force instead. That's how I ended up in Nivaria with Shadow Guard."

"Who is the green-eyed boy in my dreams?" I lowered my voice as I remembered the deference and fear the mysterious woman spoke with when uttering that name. "The one they call Jadueriel?"

Jack's eyes finally widened as I spoke that name. He suddenly looked nervous, for real this time.

"Jadueriel and the raven-haired boy are two different things, but they reside in the same person. He's looking for a life form that is living inside you."