laptop for the duration. Paulo passed his time reading his Bible. The Captain meditated, spending most of the flight on her knees, arms held out before her, breathing deeply.
Vanessa was envious of her ability to leave the world behind. She had never taken to medi t ation; the preparatory sessions before her baptism as a member of the Children had been agonizingly dull. She had passed the time trying to think of ways to kill vampires. During her training, she had cataloged nearly a thousand, some plausible, some absurd. She had since only been personally responsible for the deaths of four vampires, and was looking forward to starting her campaign in earnest.
The two pilots up front, Jason Burke and Andrew Connors, hadn’t said a word over the jet’s PA system since advising the passengers to prepare for takeoff. There was no need; the flight had been smooth and none of the passengers cared about the scenery below.
Just before takeoff, they had been joined by the engineer, a Korean man named Soon Park who rarely spoke and proceeded to spend the entire flight poring over spreadsheets with a furious intensity that Vanessa found bewildering. The final member of their squad, Carrie Brennan, had stepped onto the jet wearing a ridiculous flight attendant outfit and an expression that said she would murder the first person who mentioned it. Janus had glanced at her, visibly restrained himself from commenting, and gone back to his porn.
Vanessa liked Carrie. They were about the same age and had come up through the ranks together, though Carrie was only a Sergeant and would probably never go further. She wasn’t as physically gifted as Vanessa, but she was intelligent and determined, and she hated vampires with a passion that burned so brightly it seemed sometimes extreme even to the other members of the Children. Vanessa didn’t know the exact details of the incident that had brought Carrie to the Emperor, only that it had left the girl with a glass eye, several facial scars, and a permanent speech impediment – she pronounced her TH’s with an F sound. The rumor was that Carrie had a forked tongue, but Vanessa had never been able to confirm this as the woman rarely spoke above a murmur.
They touched down just before eleven o’clock at night and taxied to a small hangar owned by the Children, supposedly operating as an independent travel company for executives. From there they boarded two black SUVs, four of the squad members in each. By midnight they had arrived at their living quarters.
“Nice digs,” Janus commented as they pulled in, and Paulo made a low, impressed whistling noise. The place was a postmodern behemoth, three stories tall with a three-car garage. Vanessa guessed the size at something north of five thousand square feet.
“I heard a whole mess of vampires used to nest here,” Burke said, staring out the window at the mansion. “Bunch of Burilgi. We cleaned ‘em out and when the house went into default, we grabbed it for a song.”
“Beautiful,” Janus replied. Burke turned, nodded, and grinned. The two had known each other since coming to the Children as boys and had never been in separate units. Janus was a fast-talking, fast-moving, wisecracking pain in the ass who liked to shoot first and, rather than ask questions later, just keep shooting. Burke, a talented sniper, was careful and methodical, rarely joking about anything. Still, they seemed to complement each other, and were probably the closest friends in the entire unit.
They left the vehicles and entered through the building’s front door. Although Captain Perrault ran the squad during combat, Vanessa served as its day-to-day logistics director. To that end, she had been given a floor plan ahead of time, and she quickly ticked off the sleeping arrangements.
“It’s a five-bedroom. Captain, you’re upstairs to the left, all the way down. Janus, Jason, you’re next to her. Carrie and I will take the next room. Then Park, Oliveira,
Vanessa was envious of her ability to leave the world behind. She had never taken to medi t ation; the preparatory sessions before her baptism as a member of the Children had been agonizingly dull. She had passed the time trying to think of ways to kill vampires. During her training, she had cataloged nearly a thousand, some plausible, some absurd. She had since only been personally responsible for the deaths of four vampires, and was looking forward to starting her campaign in earnest.
The two pilots up front, Jason Burke and Andrew Connors, hadn’t said a word over the jet’s PA system since advising the passengers to prepare for takeoff. There was no need; the flight had been smooth and none of the passengers cared about the scenery below.
Just before takeoff, they had been joined by the engineer, a Korean man named Soon Park who rarely spoke and proceeded to spend the entire flight poring over spreadsheets with a furious intensity that Vanessa found bewildering. The final member of their squad, Carrie Brennan, had stepped onto the jet wearing a ridiculous flight attendant outfit and an expression that said she would murder the first person who mentioned it. Janus had glanced at her, visibly restrained himself from commenting, and gone back to his porn.
Vanessa liked Carrie. They were about the same age and had come up through the ranks together, though Carrie was only a Sergeant and would probably never go further. She wasn’t as physically gifted as Vanessa, but she was intelligent and determined, and she hated vampires with a passion that burned so brightly it seemed sometimes extreme even to the other members of the Children. Vanessa didn’t know the exact details of the incident that had brought Carrie to the Emperor, only that it had left the girl with a glass eye, several facial scars, and a permanent speech impediment – she pronounced her TH’s with an F sound. The rumor was that Carrie had a forked tongue, but Vanessa had never been able to confirm this as the woman rarely spoke above a murmur.
They touched down just before eleven o’clock at night and taxied to a small hangar owned by the Children, supposedly operating as an independent travel company for executives. From there they boarded two black SUVs, four of the squad members in each. By midnight they had arrived at their living quarters.
“Nice digs,” Janus commented as they pulled in, and Paulo made a low, impressed whistling noise. The place was a postmodern behemoth, three stories tall with a three-car garage. Vanessa guessed the size at something north of five thousand square feet.
“I heard a whole mess of vampires used to nest here,” Burke said, staring out the window at the mansion. “Bunch of Burilgi. We cleaned ‘em out and when the house went into default, we grabbed it for a song.”
“Beautiful,” Janus replied. Burke turned, nodded, and grinned. The two had known each other since coming to the Children as boys and had never been in separate units. Janus was a fast-talking, fast-moving, wisecracking pain in the ass who liked to shoot first and, rather than ask questions later, just keep shooting. Burke, a talented sniper, was careful and methodical, rarely joking about anything. Still, they seemed to complement each other, and were probably the closest friends in the entire unit.
They left the vehicles and entered through the building’s front door. Although Captain Perrault ran the squad during combat, Vanessa served as its day-to-day logistics director. To that end, she had been given a floor plan ahead of time, and she quickly ticked off the sleeping arrangements.
“It’s a five-bedroom. Captain, you’re upstairs to the left, all the way down. Janus, Jason, you’re next to her. Carrie and I will take the next room. Then Park, Oliveira,
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