Vespertine

“Everybody ready?”

The three strike teams in front of Quinn nodded. Riana leaned over and whispered in Quinn’s ear, “They’re nervous about raiding them again so soon, especially after losing Sal. You can’t let them see that you’re frightened, not even a little bit.”

“I’m not scared,” Quinn shot back quickly, before clearing her throat and lifting her head up a little higher, giving the V’s an encouraging smile.

“Move out, then.”

It was a risky move, back-to-back attacks, especially since Quinn was technically inexperienced. But Riana had agreed to it, and Quinn didn’t think Riana was the type to let her emotions influence her logic.

She hopped on her bike and strapped on her helmet, glancing behind her at the squadron she was leading, comprised of mostly older V’s. Tanner was driving. She was well aware that Riana had chosen them specifically because she didn’t reciprocate Quinn’s belief that she would not allow her feelings regarding her brother cloud her vision.

Quinn wasn’t sure if she trusted herself, either, but she steeled herself and blinked, hard, trying to erase the image of her brother bleeding out. Then she pictured Marissa’s—

Scarlett’s— green eyes and scowled. The engine roared to life beneath her, and she peeled out of the garage.

Twenty minutes later, the V’s were back where they had been two days ago, staring down the compound.

Astor was inside, somewhere. Without Scarlett’s “intel”, they were essentially blind, but Quinn was determined to finish the mission that had cost Sal his life. She had organized it so that all of the V’s would enter the main entrance of the compound, hopefully overwhelming any first-layer security by sheer numbers. With the element of surprise on their side, they were to quickly and quietly take down the main defense, and then sweep the floors systematically— one per team. As soon as a team located Astor, the others would head there for backup.

It was a reckless plan. Salvatore would never have approved a “wait and see” approach, but Quinn was not her brother. She understood the potential risk of capture or even death, but Astor was it. The big target, what Sal had been aiming for these past two years. And she’d be damned if she let him get away.

Tanner was the last to get out of the car. He locked it manually so that it wouldn’t beep, and then joined Quinn and the others. She had parked her bike and hung her helmet by the strap on the handle. Her white V mask sat starkly across her face, the most visible part of her in the darkening twilight.

“I can’t believe we’re just going to walk in there,” Al commented, a wry smile painted on his face. His expressions were always easy to read, even under the mask.

“I can,” Quinn responded humorlessly.

They silently made their way to the entrance of the compound before splitting up. Tanner whistled, and the two sentries at the door both turned to him. He grinned, and they started towards him. One began to reach for the alarm, but a swift blow to the head by Yuki prevented him from hitting it. The other sentry looked at his partner as Yuki took him down, allowing Quinn to blindside him, her strong arms locking around his neck in a sleeper hold.

“The code,” she hissed.

“3867,” he gasped. She nodded to Al, who entered the code in the keypad. The door slid open, and she smiled sweetly at the guard before tightening her hold, rendering him unconscious. She laid him down and stepped over his body, watching as the rest of the V’s streamed out from the forest, swarming the main lobby of the compound.

At first, there were only a few guards, and the V’s easily overpowered them. But a couple got away, and soon enough, alarms were blaring all over the place, and the room descended into chaos.

Quinn was mildly surprised that the first part of her plan had actually worked; the lobby now belonged to the V’s, and the sorcerers, though not defeated, were retreating.

“Sweep,” she ordered loudly, and watched carefully as one of the teams detached from the brawl and headed up the stairs to the third floor. The second team followed suit, and Quinn heard sounds of fighting from the floor directly above.

Now there was just Quinn’s team and a couple of sorcerers left. She watched as Tanner and Yuki dispatched one of them seamlessly, and offhandedly admired the years of training that had gone into that combination.

Al, on the other hand, was struggling. Quinn rushed over, blocking a hit from the sorcerer just as Al stumbled backwards. He shot her a grateful look before regaining his foothold and swinging his pistol towards her. She caught it in midair and fired a shot at the sorcerer, but soon realized why Al was having difficulties.

The shot bounced back at her, and she dove, narrowly avoiding being struck by her own bullet. There was some kind of energy field around him, now that she looked closely, a hard-to-discern-but-definitely-there ripple in the air. It disappeared, and she pressed the trigger again, experimentally, ducking as soon as she fired the shot. The air rippled and it ricocheted again. She clicked her tongue, annoyed.

Al had snuck behind him, but the energy field appeared to extend all around him. He skidded backwards as the strength of his own body slam was thrust back towards him.

The sorcerer’s face was almost relaxed in its total concentration. His eyes were closed, but Quinn had no doubt that he was entirely aware of what was happening around him.

That is, until Yuki swung off the chandelier and kicked him in the head. He went down with a graceless thud.

Quinn gaped at her, and she shrugged, allowing a small smile to make its way across her face. “A little creativity goes a long way.” Evidently, the sorcerer hadn’t thought to protect above him, and the front desk was the perfect height for Yuki to leap onto the chandelier. Quinn shook her head and chuckled, then beckoned for the rest of the team to join her.

“Your pick,” Tanner said, peering to the left and the right. The corridors branching off from the lobby looked identical save for the different plants in the pots that sat where the hallways began.

“I always liked hydrangeas,” Quinn responded, decisively heading down the left corridor. Tanner, Al, and Yuki followed, along with Serena and Adeline, twins that usually operated as a unit. They had been near the back end of the fighting; from the moment they stepped out of Tanner’s car, in order to guard the rear.

They didn’t encounter any resistance as they checked the first few rooms down the corridor. Further along, it split into two again, with one way leading to a stairwell downstairs and another going straight.

“We don’t have a team to cover the basement,” Serena said. It sounded more like a question than a statement.

“We’re operating under the assumption that Astor doesn’t live in the basement,” Tanner said.

Quinn nodded. “During our first attack, underground was our way in. We were supposed to go above ground to find Astor, which eliminates the need to search the basement.”

“What if he goes there to hide?” Adeline asked.

“If none of the teams find anything, then we sweep the basement,” Quinn responded, heading down the non-stairwell hallway.

The twins said nothing further.

Quinn was feeling suspicious. The corridors and rooms were all empty, and there wasn’t even the occasional sorcerer to stop their advance. She pulled out her phone and dialed Riana and Josephine, the leaders of the other two teams. “Found anything?”

“Nope,” responded Jo.

“A little too much nothing, if you ask me,” Riana agreed. “Not a soul on the second floor.”

“Nor the third,” reported Josephine. “I’m sure that’s not a coincidence.”

“No,” Quinn admitted, glancing towards the twins. Serena said nothing, but her turned away face spoke for itself. Told you.

“Come down to the first floor. We’re heading into the basement.”

“Alright,” they chorused. Quinn hung up. A couple minutes later, all the V’s stood assembled before the stairwell leading into the basement.

Quinn scanned the group for serious injuries. Luckily, the worst seemed to be a couple of burns and broken bones. “If you’re injured and don’t feel like you can fight, you can head back to the cars.”

A couple of them left, but most of the V’s stayed where they were, a mass of white masks and grim stances. Quinn nodded curtly in thanks, and then they began their descent down the stairs.

“They’re coming,” Silva said, eyebrows raised. Caiden could have told that even if she hadn’t said anything, judging by the pounding footsteps above them. The V’s weren’t going for covert.

“We’re ready,” Scarlett replied. Caiden toyed with the baton in his hand, having been forbidden to use a more lethal weapon. Astor’s way of keeping him leashed, though secretly Caiden was glad for it. He glanced at Scarlett, and felt that little prick of anger and betrayal that still surfaced when he saw her. He found it hard to put away, and had been avoiding her for the past day. Scarlett’s prediction of Quinn’s raid, however, had forced Caiden into working with her.

Astor stood in the very back of the room, arms crossed. All officers that weren’t out in the field were currently in the basement or passed out in the lobby. Even Scarlett had to admit that the V’s had gotten further than anticipated.

But if their target was Astor, there was no way they were going to succeed. Even if all of them came down here, the senior officers were much more advanced than simple lobby guards. Not to mention the edge having Scarlett gave them, with her intimate knowledge of how the V’s fought. Prick.

Quinn Vespertine appeared in the doorway, and was instantly barraged by a variety of attacks.

Luckily for her, she was quick on her feet, and sprang backwards enough to avoid getting hit. The rest of the V’s streamed around her, and the department surged to meet them. There was shouting and shoving and reluctantly, Caiden joined the fray, whipping out the baton and dispatching a young mortal with relative ease. He pulled out a pair of cuffs and shackled him, and then was simultaneously hit by two eerily similar looking twins.

How could he tell they were twins behind the masks, you ask? Well, for starters, they both had the same straight, platinum blonde hair, and were the exact same height and build. What really creeped Caiden out, though, was how similar their mannerisms were. More like clones than twins.

He dragged the young V out of the way before healing himself quickly and counterattacking. Surprise flashed across the face of the one on his left, and he took advantage of her moment of hesitation to grab her by the shoulders and swing her into her double. They both crashed into the floor, and Dante hoisted them up and handcuffed them together, tossing them towards Astor, who presumably knocked them out to put in jail later.

Genevieve was successfully disarming the V’s, turning their weapons to ash with a touch. Evidently, they remembered her from the raid on the coffeehouse, because they seemed to converge on her. Even Genevieve couldn’t withstand so many opponents, and went down.

For a moment, it seemed like the V’s were gaining an advantage. And then Dante roared and Ares set his hands aflame and the battle seemed to accelerate, and the V’s were shoved back. For every sorcerer that went down, at least two mortals were shackled.

Caiden whipped his baton across the chest of a short, wiry woman who seemed especially light-footed. She stumbled, but was able to recover quickly and avoided Caiden’s next hit. They circled each other, and suddenly Caiden sprang forward and grabbed her wrist with his hand, and her eyes widened in pain. He increased the pain enough to make her pass out, and then laid her down gently, hoping it hadn’t hurt her too much.

He straightened up, and across the room, briefly caught Quinn’s eye. She had evidently just finished taking down a sorcerer, and for a moment, there was an acknowledgement, a recognition between the two that was at once conflicted and natural.

But while Caiden had no desire to hurt Quinn, the same could not be said for Dante. He was still sore over how she had beat him the first time, and he leapt towards Quinn as she gazed at Caiden, taking advantage of her fatal mistake—being distracted in battle.

He wanted to shout at her, but she was already turning her head towards the massive grizzly about to slam its jaws around her neck, and there wasn’t enough time for her to do anything but—

BAM.

Caiden felt the shockwave, emanating from Quinn in that instant, and Dante stumbled as a section of ceiling crashed onto him.

Everybody stared.

Then, as the fact that the battle was still ongoing seemed to register in the minds of both the sorcerers and the mortals, everyone prepared to fight again when Scarlett’s voice stopped them.

“Wait!” She cautioned.

The V’s and the sorcerers seemed to untangle themselves from each other, each retreating back to their side of the room. Quinn was left in the middle, still staring at Dante, trapped under a concrete chunk of ceiling.

“Quinn,” Caiden managed to say. She lifted her gaze and looked at him blankly.

“How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do that,” she replied, numbly. “I can’t have.”

“I felt it,” Scarlett said, quietly. “The pulse came from you.”

Quinn shook her head, panicked. “No.”

“Quinn…you’re not a mortal, are you?” Caiden was almost reluctant to ask, but he could see her hands beginning to tremble.

If she really was a sorcerer, then she had absolutely no idea.

“I am a mortal,” she responded, almost desperately. “I’ve been mortal all my life.”

“What you just did was not mortal,” Astor said, from the back of the room. He sounded amused and slightly intrigued.

Quinn wheeled around, looking pleadingly at an older girl with midnight hair wrapped tightly in a bun atop her head. “Riana, you know—“

“I’m not really sure what I know,” Riana interrupted, her mouth hanging slightly open in shock. Caiden recognized the look in her eyes. It was the same look he had been wearing for the past day: betrayal.

“I’m mortal!” Quinn insisted, eyes darting frantically. The V’s were pressed up against the wall now, edging closer to the stairs. Their masks seemed more hostile than ever, now that they were directed at Quinn, a white, faceless entity casting out a traitor.

“You’re the only one still here from the raid,” one of them said. Quinn’s eyebrows knit together helplessly. “You must’ve led Salvatore into a trap. You’re working with her.”

The her he was referring to was Scarlett, who raised an eyebrow at whoever was speaking. Caiden wondered bitterly if they had been friends.

It wasn’t like that, he wanted to say. I was there. A warning glance from Scarlett stopped him.

“Why would I do that?” Quinn cried, trying to make herself heard over the shouts of agreement that were beginning to arise from the V’s. “Salvatore was my only family! Anybody who knows me knows that I would never hurt him. And how could I? I’m not a fucking sorcerer!”

The V’s looked to the girl with the midnight hair, Riana, and Riana looked at Quinn. Tears were forming in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Quinn, but I don’t know if I can believe you.”

Quinn was shaking her head. “No. No. You’ve known me for years, Riana, you can’t—“

“The policy for betraying the V’s is death,” Riana said, clearly. A tear rolled down her cheek, and her gaze flitted towards Scarlett, who actually looked away.

“But out of respect, and the benefit of the doubt, Quinn Vespertine, we will spare you.”

“What does that mean?” Quinn whispered.

Riana waved, and the V’s fled back up the stairs, retreating.

Everybody looked to Astor, who held up a hand. “Not worth the chase,” he said, and nodded towards Quinn instead.

Silva stepped up and pulled Quinn’s wrists together behind her back, handcuffing her.

She didn’t resist, gazing hollowly as what had once been her family left her deep underground.