. 01

Andrew listened to the unknown caller trying to gauge if she was being honest and though he couldn't detect any deceit, he was wary. "How do I know if you are telling the truth?" Andrew asked harshly.

"Believe me or not it makes little difference. Therefore, you decide either let me do the job I was asked to or get in my way and I will stay a spectator, Your Choice!" The mysterious caller retorted.

"I believe her," Amelia said telepathically.

"Alright we will go into the safe room," Andrew agreed reluctantly.

Once the manger heard Andrew agree, he told his other employees to head into the room. "Elena, I want you to lead everyone through the escape tunnel. I will bring up the rear." Augustine quietly ordered. He then announced to everyone, "Follow Elena she will lead you through the tunnel to safety."

"What about you?" Gloria asked. She liked Augustine; they had become good friends over the years.

"I will be right behind you I just want to secure the sensitive data before I leave. I will join you in a couple minutes," Augustine promised.

Gloria reluctantly entered the safe room and no sooner then she cleared the doorway then the door slammed closed behind her and the time lock snapped into place. Gloria cursed knowing it would be twelve hours before the door could be opened. Elena moved the shelf and started the procedure that would open the door to the escape tunnel. The procedure would take her about twenty minutes to complete if there wasn't anyone in the tunnel; if there was someone in the tunnel then they were effectively trapped because the exit door wouldn't unlock without the proper code which none of them possessed.

True to the mysterious caller's word, twenty heavily armed, rough, looking vampires entered the waiting area. The leader who was just over six feet tall and looked as if he just stepped off the front of Solider of Fortune magazine stepped slightly in front of the others. "We are here to bring in the fugitive vampires. Either produce them or we will tear this place apart and find them." He demanded in a menacing tone.

"Sir, I would request that you lower your voice this is a place of business. Now how may I help you?" Augustine spoke in a very businesslike tone without a hint of fear.

"I am here to affect the capture of the renegade vampires that are with Andrew Martin and Amelia Hensley. You will turn them over or we will remove you from our way and then tear the premises apart till we find them." The leader threatened as he places his hand on the butt of his holstered pistol.

'We both know that is an empty threat. All of the enforcers have signed an agreement that Susan's businesses are neutral grounds and if you cause any trouble in here all of you would be hunted and put down before you could collect your reward," Augustine replied in a calm but assertive manner.

The leader calmly removed his pistol form its holster and pointed it at the' Augustine's head, "Andrew if you do not show yours..." He started to say when the top of his skull disintegrated into a spray of blood and brains. The leader's body fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. For a couple of a heart beat everything was quiet except for the sound of falling glass then everyone of the mercenaries moved at once trying to take what little cover there was before silence reigned again. After a few minutes, the phone rang. Augustine still in shock answered it after the second ring out of habit. He listened for to the person on the other end of the phone then put the call on speaker.

"Ladies and Gentlemen I thought you would like to know who is going to kill you. My name is Dafne but you may know me better by my pseudo name Le' Mirage I believe it was your former Employer whom gave me that handle. Hello Rafael," Dafne said with a chuckle.

"Dafne why are you involving yourself in this mess they are only a couple out of control parvulus?" Rafael asked nervously.

"Rafael my sweet I am going to miss our talks but I will indulge you one last time. Up to an hour ago, I would have said because you were taking my prey but I received a call from two old friends both of them asking me to protect these people one of them happens to be the first of one of the ladies you have trapped in there and the other caller was her mate. Both of them offering me outrageous amounts of money to protect them, not that their money is any good with me, but I had to ask Susan why she was so hell bent on protecting them. After she explained, I have decided it is a worthy cause and signed on to assist them." Dafne explained.

"Fuck," Rafael stated without realizing he said it aloud.

"Yes you are my dear. Oh by the way the three snipers that you had on over watch are taking a very long nap," Dafne said nonchalantly.

"Dafne, My dear can we please come to some kind of understanding? I don't want to die or watch my team die," Rafael requested.

He knew that if couldn't convince her to make a deal or they would all have a very bad day. He cautiously glanced at his surroundings trying to figure out her location when a red dot appeared in his right eye for a scant moment. Rafael quickly dove back into cover cursing himself for making such a rookie mistake.

"Looking for me my dear," Dafne taunted with a hardy laugh. Then her voice the turned cold as she continued, "I will indulge your curiosity. Did you see that tall building about eight hundred meters out .You know the one that you set your sniper on well I am sitting next to his cold corpse. O' that was his laser sight, not mine I detest those things."

There was total silence for a few minutes a couple of the mercenaries thought that she had hung up the phone. When one of the mercenaries asked using hand signal, "Want me to go out the back and try to slip around behind her?"

"Good plan," Dafne said with humor tinging her voice, "All you have to do is make it to the door. Are you ready to try?"

"How the hell did she know," The mercenary said before he realized he said it aloud.

"You can either run for it or die where you sit Vinnie. You have five seconds to start your run," Dafne warned.

"Please..." Vinnie said before she interrupted

'One thousand one," Dafne started.

Vinnie stay in cover! She hasn't got a shot," Rafael ordered sharply.

"One thousand two."

"One thousand three."

The man took off as she said four and just as he reached the rear door, he heard One thousand five then heard the glass shatter. He then felt a sharp pain in his chest. The last thing he saw was bloodstain spread across the front of his shirt as the darkness of oblivion took him

**********

Rafael tried to stop Vinnie from running, he knew exactly what Dafne was doing. She was scaring him into breaking cover. He knew she didn't have a shot on Vinnie so she fucked with him until he broke cover and gave her the shot. "Why are you being a bitch? You could have proven your point without killing Vinnie," Rafael asked angrily.

"Two reasons on I wanted to make my point, as you call it, crystal clear. Secondly I hated the bastard since he killed Winthrop," Dafne replied showing no emotion.

While Rafael was listening to her answer, he looked around wondering how she saw Vinnie's hand signals. He knew there was no way she should have been able to see them from her perch. He slowly scanned the room when he saw the camera above the counter and made it inoperable with couple of rounds from his Sig. "Without breaking cover take out those fucking cameras," He ordered sharply. He thought about taking out the lights but decided it would be a wasted effort.

"Are you happy now that you think that I am blind to what is going on in there?" Dafne asked sounding almost bored.

Rafael was trying to figure a way out of this situation he knew that Dafne wouldn't let one of them live it would be a mistake on her part if she did and that was something Dafne didn't do often; make mistakes. He was the manager hiding behind the counter trying to make himself as small of a targeted as possible. He pointed Sig at the man, "come here," He ordered.

Augustine hesitated not wanting to move until a round from Rafael's Sig slammed into the counter less than an inch form his head. Rafael placed Augustine so that his body acted as a shield against Dafne; making it next to impossible for her to get a clear line of fire on him. He started to dial Rodrigues number even though he dreaded making it. Rafael knew it would most likely cost them most if not all of the reward but he saw no other way of walking away from here alive.

"Rafael who would you be calling I hope that you aren't thinking of calling Rodrigues because if you did I would be forced to take more drastic action we both may regret," Dafne said.

"Like what Dafne? We both know you aren't going to let us leave here and forget about the whole thing," Rafael replied.

"What makes you think that?" Dafne asked her tone sounded almost bored.

Before Rafael could reply his call was answered, "Who is this?"

"My name is Rafael Antonius, Mr. Rodrigues; my team and I have the parvulus ..." Rodrigues heard Rafael starting to explain when the phone made a loud screeching sound just before it went dead

*****************

Daphne maneuvered to where she could get a clear shot on Rafael. The wall that was now between her and him was of little consequence the rifle she used could pierce a half inch of plate steel and still have enough power to knock a man off his feet. She used her thermal scope and aimed for the hand that was by his head. Daphne checked the camera feed one last time to make sure no one had moved and she took a slow deep breath calming herself and slowing her heart. Once she was sure she was in her zone, she gently squeezed the trigger making sure she was between her own heartbeats so as not to affect the trajectory of the round.

*******************

The round left the barrel of the rifle at one thousand meters a second and easily cut its way through the wall speeding towards it intended target. Less than a heartbeat later, the round passed through the phone Rafael was talking on and plowed it way through the upper part of his right cheek exiting through his lower jaw of his left side and finally coming to stop in his left shoulder after shattering his collarbone. Rafael let out a gabbled scream of pain before collapsing. The only sound that was heard for several seconds after that was Rafael's labored raspy breathing inter mixed with him choking on his own blood.

"How did that call work out for you Rafael?" Dafne asked with a chuckle. Then her voice turned icy as she continued, "The next one of you that even thinks of making a call will die. He was my one warning."

"Dafne, its C.P. I am going to go check on Raf, please hold your fire," Cherie said in her calm but sultry manner before she rose and slowly walked towards her fallen comrade. Cherry checked over Rafael's wounds while they were grievous they weren't life threatening she knew that he needed blood to assist in the healing process. Cherry was raised in a small Celtic village where she like her mother before her was the village healer.

Cherie looked around trying to see where the manager of the facility had gotten to. She had lost track of him in the confusion after Rafael had been shot, no one had expected Dafne to be able to target them through a wall. She saw Augustine lying on his stomach about a meter from her and kicked him in the foot just hard enough to get his attention.

"I need a couple units of blood please," Cherie, pleaded.

Augustine looked at her as if she was crazy there was no way he was going to move. He never thought he would be in this situation where he was being threatened after all no one in their right mind would go against one of Susan's facilities it was pure suicide. He had never been an overly brave man he preferred to avoid conflict not that he was a coward but this was beyond anything he had ever experienced. The only reason he had confronted the mercenaries in the first place was that he naively thought that they would leave as soon as he reminded them who owned the business. Augustine was about to tell the woman no, but the look on her face made him want to help her. He nodded then quickly then glanced out the window hoping that he wouldn't be shot. He slowly rose and walked towards the cooler where the blood was stored.

***************

After convincing the Employees from the Exchange to stay hidden near the exit of the escape tunnel Andrew, Amelia and the rest slowly made their way back to the building. They stopped just outside of the area where the other vampires could sense them. "Gloria and Fredrick wait here while Layla and Amelia try to work their way to the rear of the building. I am going to try to work my way around front and find my guardian angel once I do, I will call you each group, and we can have a conference call on how we want to rescue Augustine," Andrew ordered.

Andrew then turned to fulfill his part of the plan when Gloria grabbed his arm stopping him, "Andrew I think we should call Charles he had to be the one to enlist your guardian angel. Think about it who else would have known we were there and have the resources to acquire someone like her on such short notice?" Gloria quickly suggested.

Andrew paused for a moment then sighed, he should have thought of that himself, but the anger he was trying to hold at bay was clouding his judgment. He realized he had to keep his mind clear of the anger that was threatening to engulf him or he would make a mistake that would cost him one or more of the most important people in his life. Andrew took a deep breath and slowly released it attempting to center himself "You are correct; I should have thought of that myself, Sorry" Andrew quickly apologized.

"Andrew, you have nothing to apologize for. You are holding up much better than any of us had expected you to. You know we are all in this together and however this turns out I'm so glad I am with you and Amelia," Gloria exclaimed full of emotion before giving Andrew a sisterly kiss on the cheek.

While Gloria was helping Andrew to calm down Layla took out her phone and dialed the familiar number. She waited for the person on the other end of the line to answer, "Hello big brother I need to know if you sent someone to help us and if you did how can we contact her." Layla knew that her calling Charles big brother irritated him but she never could resist even though she knew it was a bit childish of her.

"Yes Layla, we did send someone to help you but why do you need to contact her?" Charles inquired before answering her question. He learned to ignore her calling him big brother long ago in fact now he sort of looked forward to her little tease not that he ever admit it to her.

"Augustine refused to go into the tunnel with us and is now trapped in the exchange with the mercenaries. We want to coordinate with your people to rescue him and then try to catch up with Ziaran." Layla answered hoping he believed her. She knew that Charles and her relationship was stressed at best. She had always been fond of Charles but Amsu had warned her about trusting Charles claiming that he would only use her to farther his own goals and quickly discard her once her purpose had been served. Though she no longer believed Amsu, she still was wary.

"Layla it is Daphne helping you. Her number is 011-972-4-555-5612. Don't worry about Ziaran, Susan and I will take care of him. Please let Andrew know and once you settle thing their please call me so we can arrange to meet to plan out the next stage of the operation."

"OK, Charles hopefully we will be calling you soon," Layla said before ending the call. She then handed Andrew her phone and repeated the number Charles had given her.

Andrew dialed the number while trying to decide what he was going to say, After the fourth ring he heard a rather annoyed sounding feminine voice, "Who the hell is this and how did you get my number?"

"I thought that a guardian angel always knew when her charge was contacting her," Andrew quipped.

"I am glad you managed to extract yourself from there. Now what may I do for you?" Daphne responded sounding amused.

"First of all thank you for all of your help, you saved our asses. Next how can we help to rescue Augustine?" Andrew inquired.

Dafne considered telling them that she would handle the extraction and for them to get as far from here as they possible could however after her discussion with Susan earlier she knew they would just attempt a rescue without her and most likely getting Augustine and a couple of them killed in the process. "I was considering offering them a chance to leave and hope that they would take it. I am almost sure that Rafael will call Rodrigues however we should be long gone before he is well enough to make that call." Dafne explained.

"Sounds like a plan, What do you want us to do?" Andrew asked.

"Hopefully nothing, I have a feeling once they know that you all have managed to escape they will be willing to leave without a fight," Dafne responded. Then paused as she worked out the final details of her plan, "Andrew do you think you all can safely make your way to the building I am on?"

"I could if you could tell me which building you are on," Andrew replied with a chuckle.

"I am across the street and to the left of the front door of Susan's place. There is a back door." Dafne responded in a much friendlier tone.

Andrew led the rest of them back the way they had came until he was a few blocks away he then made a wide circle towards the building that Dafne had indicated that she was on as they approached the rear of the building Andrew saw several large vampires about to enter the building and quickly moved to intercept them. As soon as he came into range of them being able to sense him two in the rear turned towards them and Smiled, "It looks like we hit pay-dirt boys."

The other three vampires turned and smiled as they fanned out to face Andrew. Amelia and Gloria quickly moved to Andrew's right side while Layla moved to his left. Fredrick stepped from behind Layla to move to her side when the lead vampire recognized him and his smile quickly dropped form his face and a look of concern that bordered on fear over took his expression.

"Fredrick what the fuck are you doing here with them?" the lead vampire bellowed out. His voice was full of false bravado that the rest of his features lacked.

"I am here to protect my mate and her associates," Fredrick stated nonchalantly.

"Then you and your mate are free to go all we need are the two parvulus and the one called Layla. So you and your mate are free to go," The lead vampire offered.

"My mate is Layla," Fredrick replied his eyes narrowing in anger.

"In that case we will let her go and bother you no more but the parvulus stay." the man offered.

Fredrick paused as he considered his response making Andrew wonder if he was going to accept his offer.