Title: This Can’t Be Good
Characters: Jack Carter, Victor Frankenstein, Lyca, Sylum Clan members, Original Characters
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jack Carter thought of himself as a regular guy. Graduated college, got married, had a kid, got divorced, and suffered terminal exasperation with his Bohemian sister. Now he’s been transferred from the Marshal’s Service to act as Sheriff in the top-secret town of Eureka. Jack’s not so normal anymore.
Sylum Timeline: 1998 to 2000
Rain. Rain, and then it rained some more. The autumn rainy season in Oregon always reminded Jack of his first experience in Eureka.
Traveling with his teen daughter, Zoe, to Eugene for a flight home to Los Angeles, he had swerved to miss a dog the size of a pony and ended up on narrow track that took them into the isolated town of mad scientists. Not insane mad but take ideas from science fiction and try to make them real type mad. By the time the crisis of the week had been solved, the town’s sheriff had retired after losing a leg, and the leader of a group calling themselves The Consortium, which established Eureka after World War II, had offered Jack the sheriff’s job.
Victor Frankenstein and his toady, Dr. Rowan Chase, had set off Jack’s bad guy meter to an eleven, so the Marshal had taken himself and Zoe away from Eureka as fast as he could without lights and sirens. The Consortium periodically sent offers tempting him to transfer to Eureka until the day he met Jonathan Royce.
Jonathan Royce reminded Jack of his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer. Mid-level lawyer at a high dollar firm trying to worm his way to being a partner. He had a case of short man syndrome along with thinking he was the smartest person in any room. Royce tossed a business card on Jack’s desk and announced he was there to buy him lunch. Seeing The Consortium name and number, Jack turned back to the work on his desk.
“As you can see, Mr. Royce, I really don’t have the time to be away from desk for longer than it will take to grab something from the lunch truck.”
“I believe you should take the time, Marshall Carter. The people we need to talk about are very important.” Royce’s eyes shifted to the picture of Jack’s sister, Lexi, and daughter, Zoe.
It appeared The Consortium was done taking ‘No’ for an answer. “The paperwork will still be here in hour. Someplace quiet would be nice. I hate having to shout to have a conversation.” Jack locked his files away. “Lead the way, Mr. Royce.”
“Jonathan. Mr. Royce sounds so formal, and I believe we’re going to be very well acquainted by the time lunch is over.”
Following the younger man down the street, they stopped in front of a hole in the wall storefront. Royce held the door for Jack to enter then proceeded to greet the hostess in Chinese. With a smile and indication to follow her, the men were led into a private dining room. Nothing else was said until they were settled with a pot of tea and a plate of appetizers.
“Best authentic Chinese in the area.” Royce offered as he took a bite of spring roll.
Jack held his silence until the dishes of the family style were delivered. “What dance are we doing here, Royce. I like my life just fine the way it is. I have no interest in riding ramrod in Eureka on a bunch of mad geniuses that are trying to invent doodads from every science fiction movie they every watched.”
“And I understand perfectly where you’re coming from.” Jonathan sat back and spread his hands over his chest. “But you should take some advice from someone who knows. You do not tell The Consortium ‘No’ Things will start slow … Small things with your daughter, Zoe or sister, Lexi.”
“Are you threatening my family?” Jack started to stand.
“Sit down, Jack. I am not threatening anyone. I am simply introducing you to the reality of your situation. Humans are fragile … Accidents happen.” Jack sipped his tea to calm the adrenaline rush. “You have a unique talent for genius wrangling and seeing things through a different lens then the rest of us.”
Remembering the breathing exercises Lexi used to lecture him about, Jack took several deep breaths, releasing them slowly until the pounding in his head was down to a background throb.
Royce was beginning to feel a grudging respect for the Marshal as he spent time with him. He was considering throwing him a bone just to see where Carter took it, and to set the cat amongst the pigeons. The worse that could happen was Victor would have his pet thug, Euric, kill Jack for the audacity of digging into The Patrician’s secrets.
“How many of these entitled geniuses know they’re working for The Consortium?”
“None of the ones that work above Level 12 at Global Dynamics. Level 12 and below there’s approximately seventy-five, but you will not need to concern yourself with their projects.”
“That sounds good if you say it real fast. From what I heard around town, there seems to be at least one dimension, world-ending effect a week, and sometimes twice on the weekends.”
“Yes, well, the people at the top rarely concern themselves with the problems that get fixed before the world ends. They are only get involved if it interrupts their dinner at Antonia LaFoso’s Michelin star restaurant.” He pointed his chopsticks at Jack. “You be a good little sheriff for five or six, ten years tops. The benefits are top notch; the pay will allow you to retire retire … Not find another job after retiring … Easy, peasy.”
A crash and a string of cursing that would make a whole boatload of sailors blush, pulled Jack from his memories.
“Jo!?”
“S’okay, Carter. I got it handled.”
“So, if I come back there I won’t find any blood?”
“No.”
“Are you under anything you can’t move?” Jack asked then moved toward the armory.
“No.”
Looking around the corner, he saw his deputy on the floor with a lap full of one of Taggart’s monster rifles that looked like it could vaporize Eureka. “That had to hurt.”
“My vest caught the worst of it.”
“You should ask Taggart to make people sized versions instead of a Hulk sized.” He helped his deputy off the floor.
“This is the people sized version. Too much weapon for you, Sheriff?” She tried to sound teasing, but Jo’s humor sometimes carried a cutting edge. After five years she still carried a bit of resentment that Global Dynamics/The Consortium had hired Jack instead of appointing her sheriff.
“I usually have the right weapon for the job. I hopefully never have to shoot first and regret it later.
Jo winced as Jack stalked back into the office. She knew there had been some duress over him taking the sheriff’s job, but she just couldn’t seem to not show her ass some days. Carter was usually the most even-tempered man she knew, but something had been off the past few days. Maybe an offer to buy his favorite cheeseburger and fries at Carpe Diem would settle him. Satisfied she had a plan, Deputy Jo Lupo turned to finish her monthly inventory.
Mentally kicking himself for losing his cool with Jo, Jack pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and stepped outside the office. Five years he’d been in Eureka. Every day the itch at the back of his neck telling him he needed to get out pushed a little harder. Every year on his transfer anniversary date, he put in for a new posting, and every year he was denied. He wondered who Victor Frankenstein was bribing to keep him in Eureka and had made it a pet project in between Eureka’s bi-weekly attempts to blow up the space time continuum that wasn’t in Frankenstein’s pocket.
The day he’d had lunch with Jonathan Royce, the man had written a name on the back of their lunch receipt, and the things Jack had been able to find out as quietly as possible were not good. He was almost certain if the transfer paperwork he’d sent was denied, again, he’d be getting a visit from a very unhappy boss. If the man was angry enough, Deputy Lupo might get to be Sheriff Lupo and learn all the stuff Jack wished he didn’t know.
Heading to his Jeep to make the afternoon rounds, Jack made a note to call Zoe and Lexi after work … Just in case.
~~*~~
Resisting the urge to throw the file folder at Jonathan Royce’s head, Victor Frankenstein pulled in a deep breath he didn’t need and released it. A man of his age and stature did not engage in adolescent tantrums.
“Why can’t this man be satisfied with where we put him? With the salary and benefits it’s perfect.”
“I believe he wants to return to his prior posting in Los Angeles to be closer to his family.” Royce liked Carter but defending the man was a delicate dance with his boss. Victor thought himself above everyone and everything be it Human or Vampire.
“I will meet with him and explain there will be no transfers until such time as he is no longer needed.” Keeping his expression carefully blank, Royce waited for Victor to pick a date for his trip to Eureka. “I will have a three-day window ten days from now. See to the arrangements.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The text he received told him to meet Frankenstein in Section 5 on Level 20. That did not surprise Jack. His transfer request had been submitted the day before. Usually, Victor just called, said one word …. Denied, and hung up. The Consortium boss wanting a face to face did not bode well for him.
*Oh Boy.* Jack thought as he stopped at Carpe Diem for what may be his final Vinspresso. He hated Section 5. Dr. Chase called constantly since only the Sheriff had the security clearance to handle problems in that Section. It was where Jack had learned about Vampires, and a lot of other things that gave him nightmares. He had tried to get Chase to read Lupo in on Section 5, but Chase refused to deal with those he considered peons.
Seeing Jonathan Royce in one of the labs, Jack had a momentary surge of hope until he saw the other man give a minute negative shake of his head and would not look up as Jack and Dr. Chase walked past. The man was a slick son-of-a-gun, who had passed information to Carter that led him deeper and deeper down rabbit holes about Crimson Moon, Black Moon, and Victor Frankenstein. If he were the paranoid type, Jack would say the man was working to control the world like something out of a James Bond novel.
Since he was the paranoid type and he worked for a top-secret facility in a nearly top-secret town where three impossible things happened every week, Jack was very worried about how his meeting with Frankenstein would end. Since the first time his transfer out of Eureka had been denied, he’d been working out various plans of escape. He had documents, cash, and copies of his research on Frankenstein in several locations and prayed they wouldn’t go after his family. Publicity that could be traced back to anything associated with Frankenstein would be the last thing the dour man would want.
Finally stopping in front of Victor’s office in Section 5, Jack took a deep breath to settle his nerves before the mountain in a suit opened the door.
Closing his laptop, Victor Frankenstein watched his sheriff enter his office. When Dr. Chase had tried to follow, Gregor blocked his access. He could hear the vain man complaining until his guard bent down and said something only Chase could hear. The scientist had paled and scurried back the way he came.
Victor was not happy with the lack of progress with any of the projects Dr. Chase was spearheading. He was beginning to see the man more as bureaucrat than the pure scientist he claimed. While he had gleaned several things that had made him enormous amounts of money, his number one goal was still out of reach.
After finding out the true origins of the Lealta Clan Leaders, Romulus and Remus, it had become his obsession that he too should carry the blood of the first of their kind. The blood of the first kings of Rome had run through his veins as a Human, and he considered it his right as a Patrician to drink from The Ancient, Viduus … To take what was rightfully his.
Even now, he held what he considered vital pieces to bringing The Ancient into his control. Within two of the Crimson Moon facilities in North America, Frankenstein was holding Lyca and Lycan, a pair of magnificent warriors that had been with The Ancient since the beginning. The knowledge they had gleaned from experiments on the couple was invaluable to further Victor’s plans. Several scientists theorized the gifts carried by the pair would transfer in a blood exchange but had no empirical evidence to prove those theories. While he admired the fine specimens they were, the stench of wolf kept Frankenstein from contaminating his noble blood with theirs.
Bringing his mind back to the present, Victor steepled his fingers in front of his face. “Sheriff Carter, I cannot believe you once again are wasting our time by wanting to transfer from our idyllic little town.”
“I want to be able to spend more time with my daughter. She’s starting high school, and in no time she’ll be headed to college.”
“Bright child she is, I am sure that she would do well if she were to transfer to Eureka. Our teachers are well respected in their fields, and there is no shortage of opportunities to be had.”
Victor’s tone caused a chill to race down Jack’s spine. “I don’t want to take her away from her friends she’s been with since kindergarten. The stress of a move like that could throw her off her game.”
“It could, or it could be the chance of a lifetime.” Victor’s voice sounded much closer than when he’d started speaking.
Jack felt a sharp pain … His vision went dark … And he knew no more.
“Euric … Royce!” Victor bellowed as he forced Carter to drink from the cut on his wrist then dropped the sheriff’s body to the floor.
Johnathan wanted to roll his eyes at Frankenstein’s drama but merely took in the details of his boss’ dishevelment and Carter’s condition. Noticing a few drops of blood on the French cuff of Victor’s shirt spoke volumes.
“You Turned him?”
“I need to be in control of the people in positions like Carter’s.”
“You could have let him go and brought in Lupo. She’s been wanting to be sheriff since we hired her.”
“I need problem solvers that can handle this town of idiot geniuses not someone like Lupo whose solution to everything is to shoot it.” Victor growled. “Put him in an isolation room. If he wakes up give him that new man they just hired … The one that stands and gapes like he’s never seen anything more sophisticated than a pencil.”
Throwing the unconscious sheriff over his shoulder, Euric opened the door to the office. “Do not dawdle after you drop the sheriff off. I want to go home and change.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll have Michael bring the car around.” Victor almost smiled. He hadn’t regretted a single day that he’d Turned his most loyal servant.
“Dawson … Davis … Ah, DeWitt.” Royce read off his tablet.
“That’s the one. Shame we don’t have someone that looks like his daughter.” Victor mused.
“Are you trying to drive your Fledgling insane?”
“No. Just malleable.” Victor smirked. He turned to follow Euric to his car.
~~*~~
Carefully opening his eyes, Jack began to take in his surroundings. It was dark, but he had no trouble seeing the room. An electronic hum indicated there were cameras. He recognized he was in an isolation room in Section 5. Not wanting to set off the motion detectors on the camera, Jack forced himself to lie still though the cold from the concrete floor was causing him to shiver.
*Oh. This can’t be good.* Cold. Being able to see in a room with windows. Jack touched the side of neck knowing there would be no scar, but it seemed like the ghost of a memory. The last thing he remembered was Victor stepping towards him, then nothing. As if conjured by the thought of Victor Frankenstein, a deep, gnawing hunger yanked his attention from any rational thought.
Giving up the pretense of still being unconscious, Carter sat up and wrapped his arms around his head to concentrate on wrestling control from the starving Vampire pounding the inside of his brain. He leaned back against the concrete wall as he finally battered his new alter ego into submission. Before he could think about what to do next, the door opened and a person was shoved through the door before it slammed in their face.
William DeWitt, don’t call me Bill, was highly intelligent. His parents, teachers, and advisors all praised his IQ and ability to learn. With his average height and looks, he was no threat to the cool kids pecking order. They took advantage of his people pleaser personality to make him the work horse in every study group and team project. When Dr. Chase had called him out for a special project, he’d been thrilled. He’d only worked in Eureka for six months, and now he was on a ‘special project’. Excited to be in a section of General Dynamics that he’d only heard about through whispers and rumors, William had worked up the nerve to question Dr. Chase about what he would be doing when the man stopped before a locked door. A flip of a keycard and William found himself shoved in the door. It slammed shut behind him throwing the room into total darkness. The hair on his body stood up as some primal sense warned DeWitt he was not alone. Hs lost his breath as his back hit the door. His hands covered his eyes so he couldn’t see what was coming. He fainted.
Breaking free of the tenuous control Jack had gained, the starving Fledgling took no notice of the condition of the limp body in his hands. Its only concern was the heart beating and the blood rushing through veins and arteries. Without hesitation, he bit into the warm tissue drinking deeply of the rich young blood flowing over his tongue.
Horrified at the loss of control, Jack fought with his Vampire until he was able to force himself to pull back his fangs and lick the wounds closed. The young man’s pulse was weak and thready, but thankfully still viable. Jack Carter was once again in control of his mind and body as guilt flooded through him at the pain and misery he’d inflicted on an innocent person.
He sat through the night cradling William DeWitt, hoping that keeping him off the concrete floor would help him keep a little body heat. Sitting through the long hours, Jack made a vow that at the first opportunity he’d escape this corner of Hell located in Oregon and do everything in his power to bring down Frankenstein, and maybe The Consortium, but organizations like that were eternal. When one member fell there was someone to take their place. Another thing he noticed while in his trauma induced meditative state was a connection. A connection that when he followed it felt like Frankenstein. Not knowing if the fictional accounts of vampires controlling their ‘children’ through such connections were true, Jack devoted the hours before dawn to strangling that connection until it resembled a dead vine.
The door eventually opened to Victor and two men in lab coats with a gurney. Carter stood and laid his burden on the gurney. Giving them an icy glare, he got a minute nod from a man he recognized as one of the techs from medical. He turned his attention back to his Boss slash Sire.
“So, what now?” Jack had no delusions about his position.
“You continue to do your job with your usual competence, and you will be provided with what you need to survive. Cross me at your peril, Sheriff Carter. I commend you on gaining control before you killed that young man. It would be a terrible thing to have hanging over your head.”
Seething over the implications in Victor’s little speech, Jack seemed properly cowed. Once he got out of the thrice damned Section 5, he would begin working on his escape plan. The most important things were making sure Zoe and Lexi were safe and getting the information he’d collected to someone who knew how to best utilize it.
“I took the liberty of having Royce retrieve a change of clothes from your house. It wouldn’t do to have you driving through town looking like you’ve been in a riot.” Victor smirked as he handed Jack a duffle. “He will also be giving you a briefing on your new circumstances, and what they mean going forward. I look forward to our continued association.” Victor paused once again before he went out the door. “We will be monitoring your visits with your daughter. We wouldn’t want you getting ideas about leaving our little family.”
Jack started to follow Victor out the door, but Jonathan Royce stepped between them holding Jack’s go bag.
“How about I show you where you can clean up, Sheriff? I’m sure things will look different once we clear the evidence of our little misunderstanding.”
There wasn’t much on this planet that intimidated Jonathan Royce, but the look that Jack Carter leveled at him held so much leashed fury, it caused him to back up out of arm’s reach. Watching Carter fight to gain control and slip back into his affable cop persona was a bit disconcerting but gave Royce hope that Victor had underestimated his newest Childe.
~~*~~
On the six-month anniversary of his Turning, Jack settled a backpack across his shoulders and started to walk. He’d told his deputy he was taking a week’s vacation to do a little camping and hiking. There was going to be a lot more hiking than camping, but no one but Jack needed to know. The goal of this excursion was not to escape, but a test of how closely he was being watched. Plus, he needed to know what consequences Frankenstein was prepared to meter out for Jack’s perceived transgressions.
Loving the speed and endurance of being a Vampire, Jack had traveled nearly fifty miles from Eureka. The ease in which they found him in the middle of the Siuslaw National Forest revealed a subcutaneous tracker. That he’d been chipped like a pampered poodle pissed him off, but it was added to his list of things to be handled before his final attempt at freedom.
Frankenstein’s goon squad had trussed him up like a Christmas goose and hauled him, none too gently, back to the isolation room in Section 5 where this nightmare started. Jack was thankful for his Vampire constitution. When Victor came to release him, Carter was bruised, battered, and near feral with hunger. Victor once again left Jonathan Royce to deal with the aftermath.
“You could just give in and be a good little peon like your deputy.”
Jack rolled his eyes at Victor’s fixer/clean-up man. “Now that wouldn’t serve our agenda very well if I became a Eureka pod person.”
Jonathan hid his surprise by ignoring Jack’s comment. “I suggest you feed first in case some well-intentioned busybody drops by. You got a little fang showing.”
“Ass.”
“You might loosen up if you got yourself a little.” Royce’s smile was near blinding.
“I’m surprised ol’ Frankie hasn’t had Euric shoot you.”
“He doesn’t want to train another fixer. Victor hates change.”
“Probably can’t find anyone to work for his arrogant ass.”
“That, too.”
“Oh crap.” Jack muttered when he saw the car in his driveway.
“Wow. I thought they’d let you have a minute before descending.”
“You got it in one. Busybodies.”
Jonathan was out of the car before Jack got his seatbelt off. “Dr. Blake. Is there a problem at GD that requires the Sheriff’s attention?”
“Well no. But I heard that …” Royce directed her to her car, and away from Jack. She kept trying to turn back as Jack slipped into the house.
Grabbing a large mug and a couple bags of blood, he warmed it enough to make it palatable. With the most immediate problem taken care of, he stripped down and headed to the shower. He was thankful for tankless water heaters as he scrubbed every inch of skin.
He wasn’t surprised when he came out of his bedroom to find he was alone. Exhausted but too restless to sleep, he began sorting through the mail piled on the dining table. He chuckled quietly when he saw the legal sized envelope. Inside there was an organizational chart of Vampire society and where they were all located. Jack hoped he lived long enough to use that information.
Now was the time to review what he’d learned and rework his plans.
~~*~~
A few speed bumps on his journey to get out of Eureka led to more time spent in Section 5 with Victor and his goon squad doling out pain and humiliation. In between them trying to tame his defiance, Jack had taken advantage of his enhanced senses to learn to move around town undetected. Dodging cameras, motion detectors, and nosy citizens became his new hobby.
Dr. Blake had unknowingly helped him in his plans when she asked him to keep an eye on Sheriff Cobb’s old house. With all the weird energy particles the house had been exposed to, the structure wasn’t stable. She had reports from some of the parents their kids were trying to organize a party at the glow-in-the-dark cabin. Dr. Blake told him the house was hard to scan, so, if anyone entered the house, there was a good chance they might never be found.
That was good news for Jack as it gave him someplace to hide a cache of supplies. Dr. Taggart and his mutant wolves were one of the few things that roamed the woods on this side of Eureka. Most preferred the more civilized areas near town.
When word got around about the new patrol route, teenagers and other looky-loos found somewhere else to be. General Dynamic security relaxed about Jack going to the outer boundary of Eureka.
Using the pretext of checking the inside of the cabin, Jack hid a large duffle in the coat closet by the door. The bag contained travel essentials, his personal firearms, and anything else he thought would come in handy when running from Frankenstein’s bully boys. He’d shipped the few items that were important to him to one of his Marshal friends in Los Angeles. If he lived through this, he’d pick it up when he found a new place to live.
Los Angeles would be the first place they would look because of his daughter, Zoe. There were Vampires there that could probably help Jack, but people like Bruce Wayne didn’t take drop in visits with a Sheriff from a secret off the books towns. Lexi was in Sedona at some kind of feel-good vibes retreat that didn’t allow outside contact. It had been years since he’d been to New Orleans, and that seemed to be where the Vampire heavy hitters in North America lived. Making sure the duffle was out of sight, Jack turned to go back to his Jeep. He closed and locked the hatch when the world went black.
As he had done many times before when he’d earned Victor Frankenstein’s ire, Jack stretched out his senses. There was wood under his hand, so he wasn’t lying in the concrete room in Section 5. Through the screen of his lashes, he saw the sparkles of energy in the air. So still at Sheriff Cobb’s cabin. His eyes opened without any input from him when a woman’s husky voice said something in a language that sounded like a mishmash of Latin-based romance languages.
Above him stood either a hallucination or some warrior princess out of a sci-fi movie. Sun-streaked dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and an expression that said she could kill you without breaking a sweat or losing a minutes sleep over it.
*This can’t be good.* Jack thought as he sat up. His gun was missing from the holster, and his duffle bag had been searched. Rubbing the back of his head, he was grateful for Vampire healing that would soon take care of the bump and the headache.
Pointing to himself, he tried to conjure up the few words of high school Latin he remembered. “Nomen, Jack Carter.” He pointed at himself.
Tapping her chest, she said, “Lyca.” Out of the words that followed, Jack was only able to pick out a few he understood. Vampire, Crimson Moon, Black Moon, Victor Frankenstein, mate, whose name was apparently, Lycan.
After ten minutes of a mixture of charades, his broken Latin, and Lyca’s stubbornness, Jack was able to convince her that they needed to leave the area instead of going to kill Frankenstein. While he was talking, he pulled a change of clothes out of the duffle and began stripping off his uniform. He was thankful to see the small box of dry ice and blood bags still inside. Feeding might be a hit or miss thing, and not something Jack had become comfortable doing with people. The memory of William DeWitt still weighed heavily on him. The young man had recovered but Jack still carried the guilt of almost killing him in his feral state.
Disabling the Jeep to give him a reason to ask for a loaner to get home, Jack slipped the military surplus sea bag over his shoulders as he encouraged Lyca to follow him. Headed toward Henry Deacon’s garage and mad scientist workshop, Carter worked on a story for his friend.
Lyca wasn’t happy when Jack told her to hide her weapons and stay out of sight. His mangled language made it hard as she tried to remember the little bits of English her former captors used. She could tell he was a caring man by the way he did not try to touch her while trying to communicate. Watching the way he moved, she could see he was also a warrior. Not like her and Lycan, but still a warrior. She decided to wait and see where he would take her.
She didn’t know what Jack Carter had told the man who drove off, but he came with a car the man had let him use to where she was hidden. Throwing the duffle in the backseat, Jack turned away from Eureka. They passed through several small towns before Jack Carter stopped. He parked the car in a big box store parking lot and locked the keys in the car while encouraging Lyca to follow him. They ended up at a self-storage unit where Jack had stashed the things he needed for the identity of Travis Calhoun. They emptied the unit into the car he had stored and headed south.
~~*~~
Fear pushed Jack to get out of Oregon as fast as possible. He paid with cash as much as possible for gas and food. Jack thought Lyca was a great traveling companion. She was teaching Jack her language and was always on alert any time they stopped. Covering six to seven hundred miles a day, Jack hoped they would find the Sylum Clan before one of The Consortium’s Black Moon squads found them. They stayed at small mom and pop motels and took turns sleeping while the other kept watch.
They had left I-10 on the last leg of their trip when their luck ran out. Several black SUVs came from the east and the west. Luckily it was just after daylight so traffic on the state route was light. Jack pushed the mid-sized sedan as fast as he dared. A bullet whizzed by his ear that shattered the back window and embedded in the windshield. Jack chanced a look at Lyca when he noticed her changing position to sit on the open window facing backward to shoot at the lead SUV. A look in the rear view showed it swerving into the ditch as a bullet took out a front tire.
Noticing two more SUV crossing the median to join the two SUVs left behind him, Jack did his best to keep them from coming up alongside and forcing them off the road. Catching blue lights out of the corner of his eye Jack felt a surge of relief at the possibility of help. He pushed the car for a little more speed to give the police room to maneuver as he prayed to any entity listening they got out of this in one piece. Lyca was still exchanging gunfire and a second SUV headed for the swamp.
This can’t be good.* Jack thought as he saw the police cars across the lanes in front of him.
“HOLD ON!!” He shouted at Lyca. She slid down into the seat and braced herself as Jack fought to stop before hitting the parked vehicles.
Tires squealed and smoke rolled as the SUVs tried to cut across the media or go around the roadblock. Jack grabbed his Marshal credentials out of his pocket before putting his hands out the window as deputies ran toward them with their guns aimed.
“I need to talk to US Marshal James West. I have information and a witness he needs.” He kept an eye on Lyca, noticing she’d tossed her guns in the back seat and kept her hands where they could be seen. “She’s under my protection and doesn’t speak a lot of English, so don’t get trigger happy.”
They directed Jack to pull on the shoulder. Part of the officers headed west to look for the wrecked SUVs while two cars waited with Jack and Lyca. He shamelessly eavesdropped on the radio traffic. Turns out the officers and deputies were familiar with West and knew where to find him. Relief ran through his body as he heard them say West would be at their location in twenty minutes.
A black SUV and pickup truck crossed the median and pulled in behind them. The sheriff talked to the men in the SUV. A slim, handsome black man, and a shorter brunette that carried himself like he just stepped off a battlefield. He called out in the language Jack was learning from Lyca. She looked confused but answered the man. A long-haired blond man and another black man left the pickup and headed toward Jack’s car.
“James West.” He held out a hand to Jack.
“Jack Carter. US Marshal, but lately of Eureka.” He watched the brunette and Lyca.
“It’s cool, Man. That’s our Clan Leader, Nick Stokes. He’ll take care of Lyca. Those two are James Hickok and Noah Dixon, Nico’s security team. We knew you were coming but didn’t have an ETA. Glad you made it relatively unscathed.” West chuckled.
“I have a bit of information for you. I need to make sure my daughter and sister are safe.”
“Already being handled. We’ll take Lyca with us. You can follow us back to the Manor.”
Feeling woozy, Jack looked down at the puddle of blood forming by his right foot.
*This can’t be good.* Was Jack’s last thought as the world went dark.
~ Fini ~
Oh, boy!
Yep.