The door slammed open suddenly and completely without warning.
Marco’s body was in motion before his mind could completely process what might be happening. He came out of his role with weapon drawn as his eyes scanned the room in a split second trying to locate the intruder or what danger he might be in. Behind him Valentina gasped in shock and he finally allowed his reflexes to relax as he too saw what was in the doorway.
Two figures were roughly silhouetted inside the door frame, one was considerably shorter than the other but in their present position it was impossible to tell one from the other.
“Jesus Christ,” breathed Lorenzo.
The two figures made their way into the room. Marco recognized Noemi’s short brown hair. It was the bag of limp flesh that she was carrying that he couldn’t identify at first.
Without a word Noemi laid the broken and pulpy flesh that used to be Simon on the couch. Valentina moved to the kitchen with her usual vampire grace but with a speed that might be considered unnecessary. She ripped a few blood bags from the refrigerator and threw them at Noemi.
The short haired brunette caught them all and tore one open. She slowly began feeding Simon from it.
His broken, glass shard filled face barely moved. His throat swallowed reflexively.
Marco, his weapon holstered, came to stand over Noemi and the broken form that used to be their commander.
Simon was a mess. His face was filled with shards of glass. His jaw was busted up real good, broken in at least two places. He couldn’t tell for sure, but by the way he was drinking and his unconscious face was contorting with every sip he was pretty sure several of his ribs were broken, with possibly punctured lungs. Lungs didn’t mean anything to a vampire, but the internal bleeding would take time to heal, even for an undead. One leg was more powder than bone and the other was flopped down in such a way that if it was in any better shape than the other it was broken in at least four or five places. On the battlefield he would have called this guy a lost cause. But Simon wasn’t just any soldier on a nameless field. He was a vampire and he would heal. But other than that he was his friend.
“What happened, Noemi?” Marco asked quietly in the dead silent shock of the room.
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The woman looked up at the taller man and then at the rest of her friends as they gathered around her and the injured man on the couch.
Noemi was hesitant and began carefully. “We left here and drove to Alessandro’s tower just as Simon said we were going to. I should have known something was up because Simon was unusually quiet the whole drive, even for him, I mean he didn’t even breathe.”
Marco was surprised at hearing this. Even though vampires didn’t need to breathe it was an unconscious act that most vampires did out of habit from when they we’re alive. Noemi wasn’t stupid, but for Simon to be noticeably unnerved by something enough not to breathe and seeing the man on the couch now, Simon had had good reason to be apprehensive it seemed. What had he sensed tonight that made him so uncomfortable and what loyalties did he hold that made him go through with meeting Alessandro?
Noemi continued a bit quicker, “I dropped Simon off in the underground garage and I took off just like Simon and I have worked out and done a dozen times. I didn’t know what happened in the tower. I drove around made various stops, looping back in and out of traffic, my usual stuff.”
Marco nodded. Noemi was a great driver and a better spotter. Her urban movement techniques were among the best that Marco had ever experienced. If she said that she avoided a tail and predictable surveillance than he believed her.
“So what happened?” Sofia asked. Her wavy black hair framed her face in such a way that immediately drew attention to her deep brown eyes that right now held a mixture of concern and a smoldering anger that was looking for something to lash out at.
“It was lucky that I was on the side of the building that I was,” Noemi said. “I was a block away across from the building on the other side of a nice little urban park. I looked up and suddenly one of the windows exploded outward. I recognized that it was Simon flying through the air and I slammed on the gas. I tore through the park and reached the side of the building just as Simon plowed down into the pavement.”
“Jesus,” Lorenzo said. “Sounds like something out of a Roadrunner and While E. Coyote cartoon.”
Noemi continued, “I scraped him up off the pavement and threw him in the car. Then I gunned it and got the hell out of there. He hasn’t woken up or said anything.”
“So you have no idea who did this?” Sofia asked.
“Yes we do,” Marco replied. “It was Kenneth.”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Lorenzo said. “Why would Kenneth even know about us and why would he throw Simon out of a window? Vampires know our kind when we meet. He would have known that the fall wouldn’t kill him.”
Marco replied, “It could be that he wanted to send a message. If Noemi got there that quickly we don’t know if he was sending guys to finish the job, which he probably was. A suicide is a lot easier to clean up than a murder.”
“So Alessandro is dead,” Silvia said.
“That’d be my guess,” Lorenzo commented.
“So what happens now?” Sophia asked.
“We…stay…and deal….with..tha…”
Noemi turned back to the injured man on the couch. “Simon don’t talk!” She gently patted his forehead and caressed his glass filled face. “It’s ok we have time. Just rest now. We’re not going to do anything right now. We came here for you and we’re not going anywhere. Rest now.”