After Daybreak Part 26

"I'm not asking you to join us," I say. "I'm not asking you to fight against Sin. And when this is over, we can protect you. But we have to know how they're getting into the city."

Eris closes her eyes tightly and I see a single tear fall to the ground, perhaps the only tear she's ever shed as a vampire. She seems so human in this harsh light, nothing like the daughter of the sun who walked into our lives.

"Hursch," she cries softly.

"Roland Hursch?"

"Yes. He's hiding them."

Over the next several minutes Eris tells me everything: When Sin first arrived in Denver, masquerading as a new student, he brought three dozen of his most loyal Day Walkers with him. They remained in Denver, watching Sin from the shadows, protecting him in case he was exposed for what he truly was. They were also told to wait. And wait. And wait.

"Wait for the signal," Eris said. "And that signal was my arrival."

Sin was very busy as a student, involved in extracurricular activities I never would've dreamed about. He met with Hursch and made him an offer: "Let my Day Walkers stay in your mansion. Protect them. And when the time comes, release them as Eris requests. They will go out into the city, slowly at first, but always to return to you. When I have conquered the world, you will rule over the humans."

I feel sick, and yet I'm not surprised. Hursch wants power, but none of the responsibility that goes along with it. His rants all along haven't been about what was best for Denver, but what was best for him. By embracing Sin's promise, he'll finally be where he wants: at the center of everything.

I'm stunned. The Day Walkers weren't finding ways to get into the city. They've been there all along.

Chapter 22.

"Are you ready?" Victor asks.

The wind in the city is strong tonight, and it's cold, bringing a chill that can cut to the bone. All I can do is nod and wrap my arms around Victor's neck. We both look up at the roof high above us and the moon so much higher, clouded by the dense pollution of the Works that fuels the city. I close my eyes when Victor jumps, and I feel the wind rush through me and our soft landing as his feet find solid purchase. When I open my eyes, we're on top of the house. The owners of the very expensive, very large mansion probably won't be too happy that we've invaded their privacy and had the audacity to walk on their property. But when the news of Hursch's betrayal hits the stands tomorrow, they won't care about a few footprints on their roof.

In retrospect, I understand why the Day Walkers rained h.e.l.l on the city as soon as Victor left. Hursch knew the new Lord Valentine was traveling; Victor had told him so when Hursch barged into the Agency. Hursch must have told Eris that day. How else would the timing have been so perfect?

I look out over the neighborhood, the richest and most lavish one in the entire city. All the wealth is here: businessmen and con men alike. People walk by and are envious but can't stare for long before security shoos them away, as if their stares alone could devalue the estates.

All the players are here, but they don't show their colors, not yet. Night Watchmen blend in with the shadows, their shrouded features in contrast to their intricate pendants. Michael is probably among them. I try not to worry.

With the Night Watchmen are Anita and her crew of loyal Lessers. They are dressed as Night Watchmen so no one is mistaken as the enemy.

I see a car pull up, black and familiar. It's the car that used to drive me to the Agency to give my reports.

Jeff gets out. He's traded in his normal suit and tie for something much more tactical: his old military outfit, complete with neck guard and stakes. I've never seen him wear it, but it looks completely natural, as though it were always just under his suit, just over his skin.

He looks around, and everyone moves to their positions. It's like watching a beautiful ballet that no one else can see. He then slams the car door shut as loud as possible, his signal for all h.e.l.l to break loose.

I've had a lot of intense moments in my life: facing down Valentine, riding in a carriage with Sin to destinations unknown, waiting for my friends to rescue me from Eris. All of them I'll remember forever, and the emotions that they brought. This moment will definitely join the others on the top shelf of my memories.

I clasp Victor's hand the entire time. Doors are kicked in, windows broken, human and vampire screams echoing through the house and outside into the neighborhood, where lights are quickly turned on, neighbors exiting their front doors before rapidly retreating back inside. Every time a shriek fills the air, I squeeze Victor's hand tighter, unsure whether it's coming from the mouth of a friend or foe.

The takedown lasts only a few minutes, and I recheck my watch to make sure I got it right. It seems like a time warp, every second stretching into minutes, weighed down by all the lives at risk, not just inside the house but inside this entire city, maybe every city that stares up at the night sky and is afraid.

But eventually, Jeff and Anita walk out the door, Roland Hursch between them in handcuffs. And following them are the Night Watchmen and the Lessers, stakes in hand. I study them carefully, grateful when I recognize a familiar stride. Michael is okay.

Then my attention is riveted by the screeches of a girl who is very, very p.i.s.sed off. A Night Watchman appears holding Hursch's squirming daughter.

"Let me go!" Lila shouts.

Lila and I have never been close. After I became the delegate, she went out of her way to make my life miserable at school: painting my locker red, starting rumors that I was sleeping with vampires, making me out to be the enemy. Ironic that her father was the true enemy.

I don't know if she was in on Daddy's little secret; it's hard to imagine she wasn't.

"Do you know who I am?" she cries.

But the Night Watchman doesn't speak, simply moves her toward another waiting car and throws her into the back with a little excessive force. Lila scrambles to the door, but it shuts in her face. And I can't help but notice that the Night Watchman who put Lila in her place is wearing red, six-inch heels.

But as much as I'd love to watch Lila be taken off to the Agency, something amazing catches my eye. The unthinkable, and the thing I'd always hoped for, the thing my parents dreamed of: the vampires and humans begin shaking hands, begin laughing, begin patting each other's backs. A job well done.

And it was.

I get the mission report from Jeff: twenty-four Day Walkers slain. On our side: four killed.

"Vampire or human?" I ask.

"What does it matter?" Jeff responds. He's right, what does it matter? They fought together, they wielded stakes against the enemy just the same, they protected one another. What does it matter whether they bore fangs or not?

"Go get some rest," Jeff says. "Tomorrow night, we tell everyone, and they better be prepared."

I don't take Jeff's advice. I'm too excited to rest, not to mention there's a party. It feels weird rejoicing, as we're celebrating a victory hard won, but we're also celebrating the end to the attacks on Denver.

The party takes place in a safe house for Night Watchmena"an old, abandoned apartment building. At least, that's what it looks like from the outside. But inside, things take a strange turn once we find the right door on the fifth floor. Labeled 504, it opens with a secret knock, and inside I can see the renovation work that's been done.

All the adjacent apartments are connected, the walls between them knocked down long ago, creating a continuous ten-bedroom, ten-kitchen, ten-bathroom apartment. Much of the s.p.a.ce has been refurbished, designed for storage of equipment and giant maps of the city, where the Night Watchmen can plan their surgical strikes. And of course all the windows are boarded up tight, all the doors except for one nailed shut and renailed again.

"You guys made it," says a Night Watchman, shrouded in his black balaclava. He waves us in and shuts the door behind us.

"Great job tonight," Victor says immediately, shaking the man's hand.

"It couldn't have been done without that intelligence," the Watchman admits.

I stare at the two hands in a firm grip. I see so much possibility within that bond. Does anyone else? Is this just a party or the beginning of something, a Greater World Order that counters Sin's perverse dreams?

In the mega-apartment are about thirty people, half Watchmen, half vampires. The Watchmen are in their customary outfits, their ident.i.ties forever concealed, even from their friends and allies. But their masks are lifted partway up so that they can sip cold beers. The Lessers are dressed in black jeans and T-s.h.i.+rts, but their faces are uncovered. They talk with the Night Watchmen, both groups perfectly intermingling. I get goose b.u.mps watching them laughing and raising gla.s.ses, giving cheers.

"Dawn, over here."

I look at the corner of the room and see a Night Watchman, mask entirely covering his face, leaning against the wall. Even if I didn't recognize Michael's voice and stance, I'd know it was him because of the person standing beside him.

"Tegan!"

She grins. "Surprise."

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

She holds up her hands. "Don't worry. I don't know where here is. Michael made me wear a hood on the way over."

"Figured you'd want to see her," he says, giving me a very quick hug that seems to solidify what we are now. Friends. He then shakes Victor's hand. "Thanks for the intelligence tonight. This was a real big grab for us."

"You're very welcome," Victor says. "Though I had little to do with it. Dawn was the one who broke Eris."

"Really?"

"Surprised?" I ask.

"No," Michael says, and I see the corners of his mask move as he smiles. "I'm not surprised at all."

The room begins to grow quiet. The vampires have realized who is in their midsta"their lord. They move silently toward him, surround him, giving a clear message that they will protect him at any cost.

The group is divided again. The vampires in the center, the Night Watchmen around its edge. The camaraderie I witnessed at Hursch's was just an illusion, a moment of victory that wasn't as grand as I thought.

"I appreciate the loyalty, but I don't need protection here, Anita," Victor says. "As a matter of facta""

He moves beyond the circle, then turns and holds his hand out to me. I place mine in it and step up to stand beside him.

"Night Watchmen," he begins, "you hide your faces, you keep your ident.i.ties secret because you fear retaliation from vampires. But Dawn Montgomery has always dreamed of a world where vampires and humans live together. Tonight is the start.

"Just as I don't need protection from you, so you no longer need protection from us. Remove your masks, walk proudly among your citizens, let them see who guards their back, who watches over them. I am not my father. I will not hunt you for protecting the precious citizens of Denver from any who would hurt them. Those who fought beside you tonight are not the enemy. Reveal yourselves to us so we can recognize our allies."

I tighten my fingers around Victor's. Everyone is so still, so quiet. Someone steps in front of Victor. I know who it is before he removes his balaclava. Michael.

He holds out his hand to Victor. They shake. Then he begins moving among the other vampires, shaking their hands, thanking them.

Another Night Watchman steps up and removes his balaclava. I try not to show my surprise. Sampson. I know him from school. As a bookworm, a geek, a kid that other students made fun of. I wonder how long he's been risking his life for those who never appreciated him. He shakes Victor's hand, then mine, giving me a shy smile.

"Thank you, Sampson," I say.

He nods before moving on to be embraced by the vampires.

Two more Watchmen step forward. Then three, then six, and it's obvious that many are as surprised as I am to see who they've been fighting beside. How unfair that they've had to hide, even from each other.

When everyone is revealed, I spot Anita in a corner and . . . and is that a Night Watchman hitting on her? And is she blus.h.i.+ng?

Victor slides his arm around me. "As I said, it's only a start."

"But it's a start." I meet his gaze. "I wish the Vampire Council could have seen this."

"You can tell them all about it when we return to New Vampiria after we defeat Sin."

"I wish we had a way to know how things are going with Richard."

"He'll send someone back with news when he has some. It'll be another couple of nights before they get to Los Angeles."

"Long nights."

"Hey, you two," Tegan says, interrupting us. "That was awesome. I had no idea some of these guys were Night Watchmen."

I grin. "Yeah, me either."

"Here you go," Michael says, handing Victor and me each a beer and clinking his bottle against ours. "To Crimson Sands."

"To Denver," I say. "They showed us what was possible, but we made it happen."

"To Denver," everyone repeats.

We chug down the beer. Then stand around embracing the atmosphere.

"So I need to go put on some fresh lipstick," Tegan says to me. "Why don't you come with me?"

"You can't put on lipstick by yourself?" Victor asks.

"That's chick code," Michael tells him. "Tegan wants to talk to Dawn where we can't hear. Which means she probably wants to talk about us."

She punches his shoulder. "Don't be such a smarty."

I can see a light dancing in his eyes, and I realize she's here not so much for me as Michael indicated, but for him. And I'm glad, so very glad.

"Come on, Victor," he says, "let's go grab another beer."

As they walk off, Tegan says, "That's something I never thought I'd see."

"I know. It's wonderful, isn't it?" I turn back to her. "So you and Michaela""

"We're just friends," she says hastily. "Okay, maybe a little more than friends. He just . . . I don't know. He just always makes me feel like everything will work out. We'll defeat Sin, and the Day Walkers, and the Infected. We'll be safe." She gives me an impish grin. "And he's gorgeous. Even with the scars. As a matter of fact, I think they make him s.e.xier." She nudges my shoulder. "So you and Victor . . ."

I shrug. "I don't know. We haven't had a whole lot of time to actually be together when some crisis isn't breathing down our neck."

"But he's way hot."

I laugh loud and long. The old Tegan is definitely back, thinking about guys and how hot they are. Seeing her like this gives me hope that soon everything will be better.

After a while, Victor and Michael rejoin us. I relish the fact that there's no awkwardness between us. Eventually Michael and Tegan wander away, and I figure she's looking for a quiet corner where he can smear her lipstick.

Faith strolls over, but she hardly looks happy. No doubt Richard is on her mind. She's back in her signature red leather. "Everyone's acting like we've won already," she says.

"For tonight we have," Victor tells her. "Even though you weren't supposed to be involved."

"I don't know what you're talking about."