Suddenly feeling suffocated by the hazmat suit, Vash strode toward the door. Grace met her there and typed in the code that released the seal to the antechamber.
“You’re talking about a hel of a lot of manpower,” Vash muttered, fol owing Grace’s example and standing on a painted circle on the floor.
Something sprayed from the exposed piping over her head, surrounding her suit in a fine mist.
“I know.”
There were tens of thousands of minions, but their inability to tolerate sunlight seriously hindered their usefulness. The original Fal en had no such restriction, but there were less than two hundred of them. Far too few to provide the blood to minions that would grant them temporary immunity.
Certainly not enough to manage the pavement-pounding necessary to carry out the requested task in a timely manner.
Shrugging out of her suit, Vash rol ed her shoulders back and set her mind. The initial reports of the il ness had surfaced at the same time as Adrian’s lost love. Nailing down a timeline would help her to decide if the Sentinel leader had culpability or not. “I’l make it happen.”
“I know you wil .” Grace paused in the act of ruffling her choppy blond hair and her gaze moved over Vash. “You stil dress in mourning.”
Vash looked down at the black leather pants and vest she wore and managed a shrug. After sixty years, the pain was stil there, throbbing to remind her of the vengeance due her for Charron’s brutal slaying. One day she’d find a lycan who could give her the information she needed to pick up the trail of Char’s kil ers. She could only hope that happened before the ones responsible died of old age or on a hunt. Unlike Sentinels and vamps, the lycans had mortal expiration dates.
“Let’s get that list,” she said crisply, ready to start on the monumental task ahead of her.
* * *
Syre watched the video to the end, then pushed to his feet in a burst of agile movement. “What are your thoughts on this?”
Vash tucked her legs up beneath her on the chair that faced his desk. “We’re f**ked. We don’t have enough people to attack this as quickly as the virus—the Wraith Virus, she cal ed it…As fast as it’s spreading, we don’t have the resources to tackle it.”
He shoved a hand through his thick, dark hair and cursed. “We can’t go down like this, Vashti. Not after al we’ve been through.”
The Fal en leader’s pain was a tangible force in the room. As he stood before the windows that overlooked Main Street in Raceport, Virginia, a town he’d built from the ground up, it appeared as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. It wasn’t just the problems they faced that pressed down on him. He was in deep mourning, grieving the loss of his daughter after centuries of praying for her return. And he was altered by that loss.
No one else had noticed it yet, but Vash knew him too wel . Something had changed in him, a switch had been flipped. He was harder, less flexible, and that was reflected in the decisions he was making.
“I’m going to do the best I can,” she promised. “We al wil . We’re fighters, Syre. No one wil give up.”
He turned to face her, his beautiful face set in fierce lines. “I received an interesting cal while you were with Grace.”
“Oh?” His tone and the glitter of his gaze set her on edge. She knew that look of his, knew it meant he was resolved to his course but expected resistance.
“The lycans have revolted.”
Vash’s spine stiffened painful y, as it always did when discussing the Sentinels’ dogs. “How? When?”
“Within the last week. I assume Adrian’s distraction over my daughter was seen as a prime opportunity to break free.” His arms crossed, his powerful biceps flexing with the movement. Adrian had first been attracted to Lindsay Gibson because she was the latest incarnation of Shadoe, Syre’s daughter and Adrian’s longtime love. In the end, it was Lindsay who’d won both Adrian’s heart and the right to her own body, leaving Syre mired in grief over the loss of his child and Adrian knocked a bit off his game. “The lycans wil need us if they want to stay free, and it appears we need them just as badly.”
She pushed to her feet. “You can’t be serious.”
“I know what I’m asking of you.”
“Do you? This is akin to me asking you to work with Adrian, knowing he’s the reason your daughter is gone. Or me tel ing you to partner with the demon who kil ed your wife.”
His chest expanded on a slow, deep inhale. “If the fate of every vampire in the world was dependent on my doing so, I’d do it.”
“Fuck you and your guilt.” The words slipped out before she could hold them back. Whatever else Syre was to her, he was first and foremost her commanding officer. “I’m sorry, Commander.”
He dismissed her concern with an impatient flick of his wrist. “You’l pay me back by finding whoever the lycan Alpha is and offering an al iance.”
“There are no lycan Alphas. The Sentinels have made sure of that.”
“There has to be one or the revolt would never have happened.”