Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Preventers: When Vampires Attack ❯ Chapter 14

"Dammit." Selket gnawed on her lower lip, scanning the small room with fiery eyes. "Dammit all to bloody hell!"

Amy tore her glower away from the PA box to face her friend. "If he gets caught, it's not like he doesn't deserve it, y'know." She surprised herself with the tired resignation that laced her tone. Still, her words earned her an icy glare.

"Do you really, honestly think Mikael would do something like this? Good lord, girl! You ought to know him better than anyone else here." Selket huffed softly and twitched a wrinkle from her black shirt. "Except for me, of course."

"Of course." Conan pursed his lips slightly, regarding the demoness with a level gaze. At her innocent shrug, he shook his head. "You do know that Mikael is perfectly capable of this. There's a reason I'm not supposed to let him get out of control…. And this pretty much sums it up." He sighed, letting his legs give out to deposit him neatly on the edge of Stacie's cot. "Dammit."

"Dammit, dammit, dammit. Yeah, yeah, we're all pissed." Duo rolled his eyes disparagingly. "Look, we're wrapping up this murder case, right? No more kids gettin' killed. And this excites no one?

"This Adam kid said Mikael was definitely behind the killings. According to our `vampire expert' here, he couldn't have lied about it. So we've got the right guy. Why not dish out the justice while the dishing's good?" Duo swiped the air with a fist.

Every eye turned to study Adam's prone body. Conan had stilled his mind, holding it in thrall beneath the mind web that had served to betray Mikael moments before. The young vampire was limp among the thin, rumpled sheets, his eyes half-lidded and jaw slack. Despite the severity of the moment, Amy found herself fighting the urge to shave his eyebrows.

"I don't like this," Selket hissed softly. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would he do this? He wouldn't stand to gain anything by killing of a bunch of kids."

Conan stuck his hands into his armpits and glowered at Adam. "If you ask me, this little intrigue smacks of ritual. Perhaps he's unearthed another tome; he seems to be good at that. Maybe this one contains black spells that promise him power in exchange for blood."

"Or maybe he's just nucking futz," Duo interjected helpfully.

A commotion outside the door saved him from a sound smiting. Someone bodily thudded into the door, shaking it on its hinges. A familiar voice rose, although the closed door muffled it somewhat. "I'm with them! I was here this morning. Where's that Wells guy? I'm telling you, if you don't let me in right now-"

Conan was at the door in a heartbeat. As soon as he turned the knob, the voices hushed, falling silent as he threw the door open. "For God's sake, will you-?" His anger dissolved and about-faced into stunned silence.

What on Earth was going on out there? Amy trotted up behind him to peer around his shoulder. As expected, Wufei had planted himself in front of the door. His obsidian eyes were blazing beneath angry eyebrows; and his expression didn't change one bit when those eyes fell on her. But it wasn't Wufei she was looking at.

The policemen who had taken up residence in the hospital corridor were gone, replaced by stiff black suits. Ten pairs of no-nonsense eyes were fastened on the door. Two of the Secret Servicemen had taken hold of Wufei's arms and the others had encircled him, ready to drag him off who-knows-where.

"Hello…." Amy's warm smile was met with stony silence. "He is, ah, with us." She fumbled for her Preventers badge. "You can call and ask Sally Po, or Lady Une."

One of the men released Wufei's arm. "Fine. But he has no identification on him. He can settle down in the waiting room for the time being."

Wufei shook his other arm free, but remained rooted to the carpeting. "Before I head out, there's something you guys should know. Check out the news."

One guard attached himself to Wufei as the young man turned on his heel and strode back down the hall toward the waiting room. Before Conan could shut the door again, Selket was searching the small bedside table for a remote control. Duo leaped up and began pressing buttons on the small TV held aloft by a thin black arm. As they both located the power buttons, the TV sputtered in confusion.

Conan crossed the floor in two quick steps to snatch the remote from Selket's hands. "Cool it. Duo, turn it on now." He sounded tired. "What channel is news?"

"We're there." Selket sounded a tad disgruntled.

"-rest of the world. I'm shocked, Bob. Who would have thought?" A pretty blonde news anchor turned to blink at her male counterpart.

"According to the President, it's no joke. Halloween isn't until another two months anyway." He offered the camera a shiny white smile.

Conan settled onto a corner of the cot with a raspy sigh. He clicked the channel button.

"-don't know about you-" Click.

"-Vivian, but this gives serious rise to-" Click.

"-childhood fears. If-" Click.

Duo quirked an eyebrow as Conan snapped through the stations. "Same thing's on every channel!"

Finally, Conan deposited the remote on the mattress, where it lay for .2 seconds before Selket claimed it once more. Amy made a space for herself on the cot as well, sitting to Conan's right.

Vivian and Bob were both smiling at the camera now. "For those of you who have just tuned in, we will be airing the President's speech every half hour until the eleven o'clock news-hour." They straightened their papers as the screen split, half showing the news anchors with their cityscape backdrop and half showing President Asano from the shoulders up. In another moment, the news screen shrunk and attached itself to the upper right hand corner of the TV. As Asano's picture grew to fill the TV, the audio/video feed worked its magic.

"Good evening, my fellow citizens of Earth. Tonight, I come to you with an issue of the utmost importance. This won't be easy for any of us, but a truth must be addressed tonight. My fellow citizens, there is a danger in the dark of night, and that danger bears the name vampire.

"I understand what you must be thinking, what must be going through your minds at this moment. But I assure you this is no prank…no Halloween joke. I do not idly waste your time. In truth, there exist people- no, beings that do not belong in civilized society. These creatures think nothing of murder and exhibit no signs of human decency. They may resemble us, but they are not human.

"I tell you this not to frighten you, but to inform you. Know that the Earth Sphere United Nation is dedicated to your protection. Security measures have been put into effect and we ask that you exercise caution. Awareness is the first and foremost step toward ensuring safety.

"Again, I assure you that the Earth Sphere United Nation is fully focused on protecting each and every one of her citizens. This evening, a law has been issued, denouncing these creatures, these vampires, from any form of citizenship under the Earth Sphere United Nation. As these vampires so blatantly disregard civilized laws and graces, so too do they exempt themselves from any protection the ESUN may have offered. Should one approach you, you are authorized to use any means of self-defense you deem appropriate.

"These vampires are not human and not citizens-"

"BULLSHIT!!! What is this?! What is this?!!" Selket almost took out Amy's eye as she hurled the remote control across the small room. It burst into flame before it hit the wall.

Amy worked her dry mouth slowly. It felt like she'd just eaten talcum powder. What did Asano mean by what he'd said? Vampires? Citizenship? She'd never thought of vampires as "law-abiding citizens," but they certainly weren't monsters. Well, not all of them…. Careful not to twitch so much as a muscle, she rolled her eyes to the left, toward Conan.

He was every bit as upset as she'd feared. He hadn't moved since depositing himself on the cot and he wasn't giving any indication that he was considering to so much as bat an eye within the next millennium. He hid behind a smooth expressionless mask, his eyes locked on the television, on Asano, who was concluding his message. Duo seemed to be attempting to sooth Selket.

"Conan." She turned to face him, laying a hesitant hand on his arm. He stiffened, locking his muscles beneath her hand. Licking her dry lips, Amy ducked her head in an attempt to catch his eyes.

When he turned them to regard her, it was frightening. His dull expressionless gaze slowly melted away to leave Amy staring into icy fury. She tensed her brow under the weight of his ferocious gaze. "Conan, I-"

Selket swooped in and grabbed the vampire's other arm, shaking it angrily. "He can't that can he?! He can't just- Can he, Conan?"

In an instant, Conan was on his feet, having torn himself from the grips of both women. His arms sliced the air to either side, gesturing furiously. "Jordan, you idiots! It's Jordan!" he roared, backing up beneath the television. "I'm Jordan Edwards!" Step. "Jordan Edwards!" He backed up into the wall, hesitating a moment before slumping against it. "I'm just Jordan Edwards, dammit." His voice rasped in his throat as he slowly slid to the floor.

Amy wrung her hands around the cross pendant. Selket began bitching toward Duo as he frantically tried to calm her and Conan buried his face into his hands, cursing hoarsely. For an instant, Amy twisted around to glance at Adam, the only other quiet being in this noisy room. The rumpled white cot almost seemed a haven of sorts. He looked so peaceful there, with his wound healed. With a frown, Amy wondered what it would feel like to wake up and discover that your rights had been revoked overnight. There would be no lawyer and no trial for Adam. Briefly, she wondered if they'd even bother to wake him up before killing him.

Bob and Vivian were chatting it up on the TV screen again. Amy pocketed the cross and shut the set off before kneeling to take Conan's shoulders in her hands. It did wonders to ease the noisy confusion of the room.

Before she could think of anything utterly profound and helpful to say, Conan lurched forward, wrapping his arms around her in a rough bear hug. Something popped in her back beneath the pressure of his arms. Her lips twisting in a wince, Amy softly stroked his hair as he buried his face in her shoulder. Inside, her mind reeled. She couldn't recall ever ever seeing him like this before. Frustrated, cold, distant, sure. But this…?

"I did this," Conan murmured into her shirt with a shudder. "I have single-handedly damned them all."

His words struck Amy as ironic, but she doubted he would find them amusing. She ran her fingers through his sandy blond hair, pressing the thick locks behind his ear. Lowering her face, she spoke in a whisper that she hoped was too low for the intercom to pick up. "You're still free to leave this hospital. They don't know about you. You can go somewhere else and just…lie low until this gets smoothed out."

Conan pressed his forehead into her shoulder as he shook his head from side to side. "This is a global thing, Amy," he rumbled softly. "There's nowhere I can go where I'll be exempt from this. And there are others out there who don't deserve this judgment I've brought down on them. Sarai, I would never wish this on her…." He groaned softly. "Why didn't she just show up at Nikolaos' deathbed? She would have become Master and this never would have happened under her…."

Amy pressed her lips together and vowed yet again to extract the full story from him as soon as possible. But not now. She threw a furtive glance at the speaker above the door. "Get up. They're going to be wondering what's wrong with you."

Conan moaned under his breath.

"Up, now." Amy channeled a spark of fire beneath his bum. Conan shot up, nearly flailing back into the wall again. She dusted her hands off and issued him a curt nod as she rose to her feet. It was always satisfying to get results.

Conan barely had time to glare at Amy before Selket rounded on him again. "I am not leading them to Mikael now. He's not getting a trial or anything now, is he? Maybe he's done bad things, but they're just going to-"

Selket spun to glare at the door as a terse knocking cut her off. Four pairs of eyes stared at the doorknob, afraid to let the outside world into their little room. Amy sidestepped between Conan and the door protectively. One end of the cross bit into her hip. She carefully touched the stream of Fire within her, as one might dabble their fingers in a rushing brook.

The door opened to admit a straight-backed Secret Serviceman. He didn't have any shades on, of course, but his hawk-like eyes couldn't have belonged to any other. He nodded to them brusquely. "We'll take this vampire off your hands now."

Amy nearly rerouted the entire torrent of Fire into the man's spleen before she realized that he wasn't talking about Conan. The man regarded Adam as one might look at a squished cockroach. Of course, they wanted to take Adam.

"Why isn't he awake?" The black-suited man frowned and eyed Duo suspiciously.

Conan cleared his throat and stepped past Amy. His face was a smooth mask once again. "I left him with a psychic suggestion to be still so he wouldn't get in the way. He's fine."

The man nodded, but cast another dubious glance at Adam. "Well, wake him up and hand him over to us. We need to relocate him."

Conan stiffened. "Relocate him? You're prepared to handle him?"

"We're loaded for vampire." Four more men hovered in the doorway behind the first. At his second nod, they leveled handguns at the helpless young vampire. "Do it quickly."

Conan hesitated. "I can't…. Now. Ah…."

"Can't?" Cold eagle-eyes narrowed at Conan.

Amy shook her head and touched Conan's arm. "He can't remove the suggestion unless the subject feels safe coming out of his sleep. Ah. Since we're dealing with Adam's, ah, the vampire's subconscious here, he's aware of you and your guns nearby and he won't let himself wake up while he feels endangered." If they weren't all watching her, she would have gladly kicked herself. Who on earth would buy such a complete load of shit?!

The man nodded and motioned for his buddies to back on out. "If you'll be safe in there with him…." Knock twice on the door when he's awake and mobile." He ducked into the corridor and shut the door.

Amy laughed weakly as Conan offered a wan smile and a thumbs-up. "Thanks. We need a few moments alone with him so he doesn't turn around and make our lives very miserable for us." He cleared his throat and raised his voice slightly. "I'm releasing Adam from my mind web. If you'd please stand ready in case he tries something...? Amy, hold onto that necklace a bit longer."

Amy nodded and fished the silver pendant out of her pocket. She looked at it for a moment before tightening her grasp on it, as if shielding Conan from the very sight of it would help him in some arcane way. The arms of the cross dug into her palm. She almost chuckled when she realized she actually enjoyed the sensation. After the last few nights, such a mundane hurt seemed to ground her; the hypnotist snapped his fingers and she completed her climb from the deep, deep sleep.

Conan wiped his hands on his black tee-shirt, approaching the entranced boy warily, as though he were unsure of his next move. Leaning over the hospital cot, the elder vampire quietly took Adam's face in his hands once more, gently cupping the teenage boy's cheeks. Amy concentrated on the two, willing herself to feel Conan's energy expulsion this time. A slight tingle whispered along her spine. Before she could access whether it was real or a result of her own imagination, Adam blinked, fully opening those half-lidded eyes.

The atmosphere in the room snapped. If there had been a barometer in here, it would have been screaming "Danger, sailor, danger!" In the absence of a magical talking barometer, one was well served to simply eyeball the room's occupants. Duo and Selket were on their feet and ready to rumble. Duo's fists hovered at his hips, his knuckles white and tendons strained beneath an eerie green miasma of dark energies. Selket clenched a ball of flame in either hand, the gauze pad forgotten on her wrist, clotted to the wound along with the drying blood. Amy herself clutched a torrent of Fire, readying herself hurl a nasty surprise at the young vampire.

If someone had farted, the entire hospital wing might have gone up in flames.

Conan's movements were both deliberate and graceful as he withdrew his hands, calmly twisting them into a casual "hands up" gesture. Adam's blue-green eyes followed those hands warily before rising to survey Conan's face. "Who-" The tip of his tongue darted out to moisten cracked lips, his eyes widening momentarily as he recognized the taste of blood. "Who are you?"

There was a slight pause. "Jordan. And you are Adam."

Adam's eyes widened in panic before he could slide that smooth vampire mask over his face. "You're a-"

"Obviously. These three are my servants."

Amy suffered a brief pang of resentment followed by a sunny epiphany. Of course. Although Adam could tell Conan was a vampire, they would still be safe as long as this wasn't voiced out loud. It would come out sooner or later, she realized grimly, but as long as Conan wasn't around when this happened he should be safe. As for the Preventers…. Amy sighed. They would definitely be asked ever so nicely to explain this one away. Now would be a good time to advance ranks in Bluff.

"Where-" Adam was scowling now. He had noticed the remaining two restraints. "What the hell?!"

Conan loomed. "Mikael has summoned you. His servants are here to escort you." He nodded at Duo, who trotted over to the door and knocked twice. "You will do what they say unless you want trouble with the Master."

Amy barely stopped a nod of approval at Conan's little act. Although Adam eyed the Secret Service suspiciously, he allowed them to release him from the restraints and escort him from the room. Instead of shutting the Preventers in the room once more, a sixth man leaned in. "You can go home now and rest up until dawn. Then you can take us to this Mikael's location. That is, if daytime really is the best time to take on vampires?" He sounded halfway amused. "Edwards, if you'd leave your hotel and room number with us, we'd appreciate it. Your presence would be appreciated."

Conan nodded and, without even the slightest hesitation, scribbled a name and number on a notepad that lay on the bedside table. He even smiled as he handed it over. "Happy to help." His words, however, were less than controlled. He gruffly bit the sentence out through his smile. The Secret Serviceman didn't appear to notice; he took the note and left them to their own devices.

Wufei was pacing the hospital waiting room when they reached it. He stopped short and gave everyone a healthy dose of scowl. "You saw it?" Obsidian eyes locked onto Conan.

"Yeah, we saw it." Stacie (she had retracted her wings before leaving the room) sounded like she wanted to find Asano and puke in his shiny black shoes. "Fucking bastards…. We have to go help them gangbang Mikael at dawn. Real fucking democratic-like."

A woman in her mid-thirties glared at Stacie and covered a young boy's ears, although the boy seemed more interested in his bloody knee than he was interested in Stacie's potty mouth. Stacie made a face at the indignant mother and turned her back to them.

Conan cast a glance around the waiting room. The three television sets were on now, all airing the president's speech. The vampire practically shrunk into himself, hunching his shoulders protectively. "I should leave. I'm just asking for trouble down here."

Wufei caught his arm as he headed for the exit. Conan bristled as though he expected a confrontation, but Wufei just maintained a direct gaze. "You should stay with us."

Amy and Conan made a pretty harmony. "What?"

Conan squinted at Wufei as though the Asian man had gone loony. "You understand it's not exactly healthy for me to be here right now."

Wufei compressed his lips impatiently. "You'll be fine with us. What, you want to go back to your forest? Like they won't be searching there once they find out where M- Where he lives?"

For a moment, the vampire seemed to have frozen in place. Only his eyes moved as he searched Wufei's face. Finally, Conan shook his arm from Wufei's grasp, offering the Preventer a stiff smile. "Thank you. I do appreciate it, but-"

"It's settled then!" Amy linked her arm through Wufei's, grabbed Conan's elbow, and propelled them through the door.

Stacie and Duo caught up with them on the street as they headed for the lift to the surface. They walked in silence for a few moments before Duo spoke up. "You aren't really going back to help them, are you, Conan? Or Jordan, or whoever you want to be now."

Conan shook his head. He had managed to free himself from Amy's prying fingers to fall into step between the two couples. "No, I gave them the name of an Alben hotel and some random number. If anyone's in that room, they'll get a surprise." He actually offered a grin at the thought. "More importantly, I hope you four have a plan to get into Mikael's lair. It's not exactly a cake walk."

"Actually, I have an idea." Stacie sighed unhappily. "I don't like helping them with this at all, but…. I can get Joe to pretend he's Vampire Joe. Mikael has human servants who guard the lair during the daytime since you vampires go all weak. If Joe pretends he's Vampire Joe, we'll just follow him on in and take out the guardians so the…" she threw a disparaging look over her shoulder, "stupid-ass police-guys can get in and wreck everything to hell."

"Heh. You told "Joe Cool" about Vampire Joe?" Amy snickered despite herself.

"Pffft, no. But we'll try to explain this morning. Joe will prolly just be so desperate for the female attention, he won't care." Stacie waved her away. She frowned again as she caught sight of Conan, who had melted into the epitome of depression. "Hey…you okay?"

"Yes, I…." Conan shook his hanging head. "Dammit, but everyone in there is going to be murdered tomorrow. And it's because I let Adam blurt out all that stuff out loud."

Duo patted the vampire's shoulder awkwardly. "Hey, but they all follow Mikael, so they're bad, right? These are the guys you've been against all these years."

Conan glared balefully from behind a curtain of hair. "You of all people should know there's no cookie-cutter good and evil. And none of those vampires or their human servants deserve your government swooping in to dispense your justice. We have our own systems and policies for that sort of thing. As usual, you egocentric humans take it upon yourselves to right whatever wrongs you perceive, smugly sure that your way is the `right' way. If you don't understand it, it must be wrong."

Needless to say, the ride to the surface stretched on in awkward silence. After a moment on the surface, Amy managed to voice the question that had been weighing on her mind for a good part of the way up.

Conan scoffed, shaking his head wryly. "They wouldn't dare kill him yet. Adam's weak and the only vampire in their possession at the moment. My guess is that they'll keep him around for testing."

"What?" Stacie sounded shocked. Duo and Wufei exchanged a glance and nodded slowly.

"They've pretty much signed a death sentence for every vampire in the word." Now Conan's voice just sounded dead. "Now they have to back up their words. And to do that, they'll have to find out just what hurts a vampire. I can guarantee that Adam is going to be their guinea pig all night. And if they aren't smart enough, he'll be dead come sun-up."

That gave everyone something to think about for the rest of the walk to the apartments. When they reached the rooms, everyone parked themselves at Amy and Wufei's place. Wufei valiantly offered Conan a place to rest on the couch. Conan was polite enough to accept, although he wouldn't be resting until daytime. However, everyone's presence seemed to prevent Wufei from bringing up the subject of shipping Amy back to HQ, and that made for one content Amy.

As Amy threw together a quick meal (she was quickly losing track of what meal she was eating when) Juan Haverez placed a phone call. He gave them the heads up that Asano's men had discovered that the real Jordan Edwards was involved in an operation overseas. However, he had managed to extricate the Preventers from any blame, claiming that the imposter had provided seemingly valid papers. He assured Amy that Damien had been relocated to a safe place in an attempt to wait out Asano's wrath, and earned brownie points by not inquiring about Conan's whereabouts. To Wufei's delight and Stacie's sorrow, Haverez also mentioned that they had no need to return to Libido, as the case seemed to have been cracked.

Stacie disappeared briefly to place her phone call to Joe, insisting that she wouldn't be able to negotiate as well if everyone else was there with her. No one asked any questions.

As the five sat down to a hardy meal of mac'n'cheese and pickles, no one brought up vampires. Amy liked to think that it was because of her scrumptious cooking. But she noticed that no one asked for seconds.

† † † † † † † † † † † † † †