Chapter 7

Tom crawled slowly through rush hour traffic, praying that his pathetic excuse for a car wouldn't overheat. The red flashing light he had affixed to the roof had proven to be almost completely ineffective at clearing his path. The day had been an exercise in frustration. Four times the magistrate had screwed up the warrant, requiring it to be retyped and then taken through the channels all over again. If he hadn't worked with the man on numerous times in the past, Tom would have believed him to be an imbecile.

The SWAT team, Mark and a number of black and whites had been standing by at the address that Mia had given him since ten that morning. It was now well past five. Oddly, they had reported no activity in the house, though neighbors had reported that a dapper middle aged man lived there with a woman matching Mia's description. Tom wondered, not for the first time, if Mia had played him for a fool. Somehow, he still couldn't believe that she had.

Cursing loudly as the light turned red for the third time with no discernable movement in the line of cars, Tom pulled out his cell phone and punched in Mark's number.

"Yeah, boss?"

"I finally got a valid warrant, but I'm stuck in traffic and it could take me another hour to get there. It's your call. If you want to make the entry now, you have my blessing. I'll be there with the warrant as fast as I can."

"The SWAT boys have been getting a little antsy, and it would be nice to have a wee bit of light when we clear the place," Mark reasoned before adding softly, "Hey boss, I promise that everyone will know that it's important to take them alive."

"Thanks, Mark."

"No problem. See ya soon."

Mark gave the order to move and then followed the SWAT team in. It wasn't strictly protocol, but he loved to watch the elite unit at work. Besides, the day had been one long clusterfuck and he was anxious to be doing something besides cooling his heels. As he walked across the lawn of the old house, the sun sank below the horizon. Idly, he wished that the city had sprung for the IR gear as it would have made this a lot easier.

Mia's eyes sprang open in the pitch black of her casket. She could sense that there were a number of armed men in the house. She cursed softly. What had taken them so long to get here? Why had they come too late? A new worry rose in her mind: what if Tom were among them?

As Mia opened the lid of her casket, she saw her Master glance her way with a look of pure malice on his face. "We have guests, my dear," Arthur said calmly. "Come with me and let us make them pay dearly for their trespass."

Mia's body began responding automatically to the command. There was no chance of disobedience. Her Master began walking towards the cellar steps, power rising around him. Mia shied back, her eyes widening in fear. Her kind grew stronger over time and she knew that Arthur, who was much older than she, was also a great deal more powerful, but she had never suspected anything of the magnitude he was displaying now. As she hurried to catch up to him in obedience to his command, all the moisture in the air coalesced into a thick fog that flowed and eddied about them, rising upwards through the house.

Mark leaned against a wall as the SWAT team quickly searched and cleared the three story structure. All that remained was the basement and the team had regrouped to clear that final area. As they approached the basement stairs, a thick, white mist flowed outwards from the dark opening. The well trained SWAT team responded without thought, shouldering their weapons for the few seconds it took to don their gas masks and then bringing those weapons back to bear. His gas mask, of course, lay forgotten in the trunk of his car.

Mark began to hurriedly back away from the mist when two figures appeared out of its depths, one obviously female. Laser sights homed in on the silhouettes, but most were reflected or diffracted by the mist. "Get down and put your hands on your heads!" commanded the team leader.