The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 16: Matters of Urgency

"Dublin?" she asked. "This isn't the first evacuation you've done under threat?"

Lash smiled wryly as both Narcist and Truk laughed quietly.

"Not even the first this week, little sister," Truk said. "In fact, we've done so many in the last week, we should get bonus points for pulling them all off!"

"Well, almost pulling them all off," Lash amended, looking into the rearview at Truk. "Heathrow to Brussels wasn't without its issues." And, before a grinning Truk could explain, he was shaking his head.

"She doesn't need to know the details, Truk."

That was enough to make Ellie's eyes fly open wide as she stared at Lash.

"And now I want to know the details!" she exclaimed, giving his shoulder a push.

"All I'll say is parts weren't pretty, and other parts were scary," Truk said, winking at Lash in the rearview mirror. "Maybe if you get him drunk enough, Lash will share the details with you someday!"

"There isn't enough liquor in the world for that." Lash said with a soft snort.

The caravan rolled on through the night, the roads virtually empty thanks in no small part to the curfew the humans had thrown over the city as they worked to regain full control after the White Flame assault. Which, of course, raised questions as to why the rogue human faction was so willing to expose itself to the extent that it had here, even greater than Galway, and on the train.

While they knew the lilith sanctuary was a target for the Hand, and their mind-boggling mission to cull the lilith population to put greater power in the Council's hand, it didn't make much sense for the White Flames to expend the enormous amount of resources they had here, just to support their alliance with the assassins. Then again, the curious action just reinforced the questions Lash already had about the human faction, their motives and ultimate goals. Answers that would likely be winnowed out of the encrypted garbage Mordecai had downloaded out of that White Flame commander's mind. If they could just find the time to break it down.

Already they had put aside their mission to return to Brussels and confront Anna van Tallert. Originally it was with Fiadh providing the pheromones to break through any resistance the traitor had to their questioning. But with the situation rapidly deteriorating in Europe for anybody not a member of the Hand or the White Flame faction, they were forced to take the Irish lilith to safety instead. Which meant that, without access to a lilith's pheromonal power of compulsion, they were going to have to pry the answers out the old fashion way.

But, before they could return to that mission, NachtFeuer and the Queens' Conclave happened, with his encounter with Anka the Nordstrom lilith. Which was quickly followed by the mysterious transmission supposedly from the m'tada captain of the guard for the Ventru lilith Amyra. One they were obligated to respond to, if only on mere principle alone!

So yet again the traitorous Anna van Tallert would have to wait until they resolved the situation with Amylia. If she even truly existed!

Thinking about Anka made him stir uneasily, a frown appearing on his face. Despite everything he could do between meditation and mind exercises, he was still finding thoughts of her and what she did to him deeply disturbing. Almost enough to take away from his focus on their newest mission.

Her eyes already on the big vampire, Ellie caught what was almost a grimace of pain, followed by an uneasy stirring. She quickly leaned forward, concern on her beautiful face.

"Lash?" she quietly asked. "Are you alright?"

Lash glanced at her, the muscles in his jaw jumping with tension. Then he was nodding as he looked back at the road.

"I'm okay," he gruffly said, his expression telling her that he didn't want her asking about it again in the near future. That didn't stop her from reaching out, however, and putting her hand over his where it rested on the steering wheel. And after a slight hesitation, he let go with that hand and let her finish curling her hand around his, squeezing it reassuringly and silently giving him strength and support against whatever nightmare was marching through his mind.

They had been driving for almost fifteen minutes hand in hand when the lights of the city began to fade around them and they moved into the more densely forested territory around the city's perimeter.

"The sign should be coming into sight to our right," Narcist indicated, her face ghostly in the pale light cast by her table's screen.

Almost on queue a triangular red sign with a white background on which a black image of a plane was stenciled appeared on the right hand side, with a second sign beneath it showing a right hand turn.

"Absinthe. Right hand turn, fifty meters," he said into his earpiece.

"Copy fifty meters," the tattooed nestari replied. "I've got visual. Beginning to de-accelerate to make the corner."

"Watch your spacing, transports," Lash directed as he turned onto the road, a single lane, paved passageway that looked to be big enough to accommodate the buses, but barely so. "Don't bunch up and present a clustered target." He grimaced as a tree branch narrowly missed dragging along his door.

"Not much room in here, Absinthe. Watch yourself."

"Copy that. Going skinny."

With Lash in the lead, the caravan drove along the single lane for another ten minutes before the trees around them were abruptly gone and they were looking out over a small airfield surrounded by a high, chain-linked fence. The road led directly to a broad gate. Which, as their headlights hit it, was being drawn aside by heavily armored and geared Silver Legion legionnaires.

"By the looks of the doormen, we're in the right place," Truk noted. "I doubt, however, they were expecting a caravan of buses."

"I don't much care what they were expecting," Lash tightly noted as a glance along the airfield showed three heavy Airbus A4000M Atlases with their props spinning and their cargo doors down. "They've got the capacity to get our precious cargo out of here and that's what truly matters!"

With the breeders taken care of, it was now time to tie up loose ends. Starting with a certain werewolf in a hotel, and a SUV filled with psionic tech. Putting a finger on his earpiece, he began to speak rapid fire.

"Ballan, I'm putting you in charge here. I need to return to the city to pick up the gear we left back there. Gear that cannot fall into the enemy's hands. Round trip forty minutes max. Tell the pilots to keep those engines warm!"

"Copy that, Wolf. We'll get the breeders on board and settled as best we can in the meantime."

"Excellent. See you shortly." Then he was yanking the wheel around hard to spin the SUV's tail tightly to the side and putting him in a position to go back out the gate in a straight line. Which, as soon as Fordricht in the rear guard vehicle was through, he did, punching down on the gas hard.

He could almost feel Narcist and Truk exchange a quick look behind him. Then Truk was saying:

"Bronwyn?"

"Bronwyn," Lash confirmed with a tight nod.

"What's a Bronwyn?" Ellie asked.

"You'll see, little sister," Truk replied. Then they were punching out of the trees and back onto the highway leading back towards Salzburg.