I collect my things slowly taking as much time to collect myself as I could. Once I had put away everything I slung it over my shoulder and then realized that I looked armed to the teeth. If I tried to walk through the lobby without my escort people would start screaming.
“Edge, I can’t move.” I whine feeling all my emotions come back to me. The wall I kept up on missions was way beyond broken down and I was starting feel more human now.
“I’m here.” I scream not expecting him to be standing right behind me. He moves to pick up my duffle bag and I move it out of his reach. “No one touches my gun.” I say letting him know with my eyes that I wasn’t joking. He nods and takes my other bag from my shoulder.
“Is there a reason you don’t like anyone touching your gun?” He asks. I wasn’t sure how to react to his nonchalant attitude.
“Why the hell aren’t you angry?” I snap from anger.
His eyes turn serious. “It worked out in the end. No use in discussing it further.”
“I almost blew a beginner level mission!” I thrust my hand toward the building opposite us. He doesn’t respond and walks out of the room leaving me behind.
I walk behind him with my eyes on the ground. At least I saved that woman from something terrible.
“If you hadn’t saved her I would have.” Edge says looking over his shoulder. I glance at him with misty eyes and I look away rubbing them.
“I hate that kind of thing too.” He says and I nod not able to form words.
“You did your job.” He says trying to comfort me. “I wouldn’t know what to think of you if you had just sat there and let that woman get raped.”
“Thank you.” I say and he smiles.
“Thanks for having my back.” He slows down his pace and walks in step with me.
“Are they all ok?” I ask straightening my shoulders. He bumps me with his shoulder.
“Of course they are. I gave them all some vampire blood and they’re going to be fine. I erased all of their memories and told them to go back to what they were doing before they were taken.”
“You can give an order that vague?” I ask trying to keep my mind from wondering down a bad path.
“Yeah. They just go back to what they were doing before and carry on like someone pressed resume on a movie.”
“I can’t believe you dosed them with vampire blood.”
“They had some scrapes and bruises it was the quickest way. And I resent that, I didn’t dose them. I just bite my fingers and shoved it in their mouths.”
“Ew, coodies.” I say finding my smile again.
When we get to the room I look around at the carnage. One of the vampires heads had been ripped clean off and thrown across the room, while the other three were still intact and just had smudges of blood on their chests, but they were smocking from chests.
“Did you set them on fire?” I ask turning a disgusted look to my partner. Edge looks at the bodies and shakes his head.
“Nope, but that would be fun. Setting fire to the Bellagio. I would love to see the look on Gerald’s face when he gets that bill.” He walks over to the blond one that I had shot first and I want to kick him in the crotch, but too bad he was dead.
“Is that what happens when a vampire dies, they smoke like this?” He nods solemnly.
“I expected them to turn to dust, catch on fire or I don’t know some kind of light show.”
“No. They say that smoke is their souls leaving their bodies.” I stare at his vacant face.
“Is that true?” I ask and Edge stares at me with serious eyes and then bursts out laughing. “Nah, that’s just what happens when you touch a vampire with silver. It burns us. I’m surprised you can’t smell the burning flesh.” I scowl at him and give him the finger. Although, now that he mentions it I can smell the odour of cooked meat over the stink of this room.
“Dick.” I actually took him seriously for a second. “Vampires are gross.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Take out the phone Cam gave us and type in the password.”
“Cool, I have been dying to use this.” I take out the phone and I type in the word “lily” like we were told and in seconds I get a response from Cam saying “Received. Stand by.”
I don’t know why it came to my mind in that moment, but I remember that one of the vampire’s heads had been ripped off. “Did you really rip one of their heads off?”
He scratches his head and starts shifting his feet. “I got cocky. I knifed him in the back, but I didn’t puncture enough of his heart to kill him. When he got back up he clocked me over the head with something and the other one that you shot grabbed my gun off me. So, when I got back up I may have been a little angry and sans gun, so” he shows me his bloodied hands while uncomfortably smiling.
“Don’t bullshit me. You have a second gun strapped to your hip and two more knifes. You were just pissed and embarrassed.”
“You keep my secret and I keep yours.” He point two fingers at his own eyes and turns them to me in a “I am watching you” gesture.
“You’re not going to deny it?” That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. Edge gave a very macho man vibe and his answer contradicted that. I was expecting him to say “No one disrespects my masculinity” or something along those lines.
“How about we call it even? I keep your secret about blowing a baby level mission.”
“The way it seems from my perspective buddy, you made a pretty newbie error too. You turned your back on someone without checking if they were dead.” He playfully glares at me.
“And I ripped their head off in retaliation.” He says menacingly. “So maybe you should learn from his mistake of provoking me.”
“Not going to work on me. You be gunned down before you even laid a finger on my neck.” I replay cheerfully. He smiles back.
“I believe you.” Edge’s voice turns gravely and it tickles my ears.
“Plus you’re attitude isn’t going to scare me away now. You showed me that you’re half decent under that hood.” I pull on it lightly.
“Watching you take those shots just reminded me of how focused you can be on a mission. I was actually pretty pissed when you turned out to be decent.”
“Oh yeah, you were spying on me.” I say the words slowly. I still can’t believe I was being tailed and I had no idea.
“And you tried to shoot me.” He extends his arms in a surrender motion. I shiver suddenly I can feel his brain on my skin like I had a few days ago.
“I still can’t believe you let him shoot you.”
“It isn’t that bad. When you shoot me in the brain it’s like sleep paralysis.” Bile rises to my throat.
“You were conscious?” The colour drains from my face. I have had sleep paralysis dreams before and they’re terrifying. I am always screaming for someone to come wake me up. I may be like that for a few seconds, but he was out for a full minute. Edge sees the look on my face and I look away hiding my disgust while trying to keep the burger down.
“He knew that’s what it feels like and he still shot you in the head.” I mumble to myself. What the hell kind of person am I working for?
“You’re aware how sick that is right?” Edge’s shoulders tense and he remains silent. “I’m sorry. I should keep my nose out of your business.” He still doesn’t respond. “I don’t like it when people abuse their power. You’re a person too.” He turns slowly showing me some sings of acknowledgement. Edge doesn’t say a word, but he gives me a little head nod.
A white glow illuminated Edge’s features and for a moment I was frozen still. He was actually glowing!
“You glow like in those movies?!” My questions came out louder than I had expected. He smiles and gestures with his hand behind me. I turn and the room’s door had begun to glow.
On cue I was alert and pulled my gun out of its holster and Edge grabs my hand to stop me. “Woah! It’s Cam she’s opening the door from her side so we can go home.”
Illuminated runes start to surround the frame of the door like it had done back at headquarters. “Oh.” I whisper feeling my sense of alert deflate like a balloon.
The door opens and Cam must have opened it from her side. She stands on the other side with a wide welcoming smile. “Welcome back!” Her smile is contagious and I feel safe. I want this woman to hold me in her arms and tell me everything is going to be ok and if she did I would believe her even if we were in a room that was on fire.
“A job well done.”
“Thanks Cam.” We both say at the same time causing us to smile.
“Listen to this, for a solid second there Ainz was convinced vampires glowed like disco balls.” My cheeks burn and I scowl at him.
“Oh dear.” Cam says with disappointment and humour.
“Way to tell on me you prick.”
“Edge left his post Mum!” I point to him and Edge freezes. Cam turns to him and shakes her head.
“To bring her food.” He explains. “She shot at a window! You have to take care of that now.”
Cam stares at us like children because that’s how we were acting and she blessed us with a deep, heart-warming full belly laugh. “You both had a good time I see.”
“I can’t say shooting people is a good time, but yeah. He isn’t the piece of shit he wants people to believe he is.” He smiles and lightly taps me on the head.
“And you aren’t the insubordinate uncooperative soldier you try and convince people you are.”
“It’s an act to hide the pain!” I say in a melodramatic tone.
“Yeah sure.” It was in this moment that I had decided, Edge’s smile was a beautiful thing and I liked that I was part of making it appear on his lips.
We walked down the hall to Gerry’s main office. I still had Jolene slung over my shoulder, even though Cam made me give up my clip. Right now, she was just an accessory. Edge lifts his hand to knock on the door and stops. He takes out a pair of gloves and slides them on his hands. He then knocks on the door.
This catches my attention instantly. Edge wasn’t a germophobe so why had he covered his hands?
“What’s wrong?”
“Gerald’s door is made of pure silver.” What? I turn to the door and feel it.
“So he is afraid of you.” I growl.
“Come in!” His authoritative voice says.
“Keep your temper under control. I can smell it.” Edge warns.
“Too bad he can’t.” I say.
I reach for the handle and open the door so Edge doesn’t risk getting burned by the silver. “We’re home Gerry!” I say in a jovial tune. As we spend the next half an hour briefing him on our mission he never takes his eyes off me. Maybe it was because he expected me to fail and technically I had, but Edge had left that out of his briefing. Maybe it was because I managed to kill two vampires without any training or perhaps it was because while I stood there silently next to Edge it was clear in my gaze that I wanted to kill this man.