Chapter 33

Ryan threw the bags into the back of the black Suburban, all of the passengers piled in and he took the driver's seat. Kyle hopped into the front passenger seat before anyone else could lay claim. Becca and Gabrielle took the middle and Danny sat in the back alone.

Kyle and Ryan chattered happily, Kyle working the stereo until finally settling on a classic rock station. The desert sky around them was the brightest of blues; Becca thought of Michael's eyes when he was happy. Her heart stuttered.

"Try not to think about it," Gabrielle murmured to her. "Try not to think about what?"

"Him."

"I wasn't."

She made a noise that sounded like "bullshit."

Becca stared pointedly out the window.

"You're a traitor to your kind," Danny snarled. "We're traitors for being here with them. If we injure a single human for them I hope you can live with that."

Gabrielle spun to face him, her beautiful face altered as her canines showed under her tight lips. "You are woefully misinformed about who the real monsters are here, Danny." She spat his name. "Humankind is as capable of atrocities as ours. You've had some great examples of humanity over the last century alone. All humans." Amber eyes narrowed, Gabrielle appeared to be growing inside the vehicle, the air around her beginning to shimmer. "And those are just the men who acted against humans. What about those who have campaigned against our kind for millennia?" She pictured Luc's face, destroyed by bombs. Bombs made of silver by human hands. "Where's our justice? When do we avenge our fallen?"

Ryan glanced up in the rearview mirror. "Gab, keep it together back there," he warned her evenly.

Throwing herself back into her seat, she respected the rules. Black wouldn't abide killing an innocent, even if he was a whiny pussy. Gabrielle steadily regained control of herself, her features settling back into their beautiful human facade. She was quiet the remainder of the ride.

The hot desert landscape rolled by. The reddish hues of the clay mixed with the tans of the sand in a multilayered palette dotted with the browns and greens of the sparse scrub, the only plant life able to survive in this harsh place where desert meets mountains.

What kind of person would want to live out here, Becca pondered quietly. Vampires couldn't take much heat or direct sun so it couldn't be one of them. Maybe a shifter or a were was a better guess. Or a human. Her stomach tightened. That made the most sense. Who would have better cause to hate these creatures than a human? Becca, in her infinite social naiveté, believed it could only be someone who, like Danny, didn't know them like she did. Or maybe, like his mother, they saw something that turned them against the entire race.

Race. The word struck her when it ran through her conscious mind. That was indeed how she thought of them all. They all retained some of their humanity; they just also had a dose of something else, something inhuman in their makeup from an accident of sorts. They were still partially human like her. If she had abilities that were different than other "normal" humans, then she was not much different from them.

The vehicle came to a stop at an overlook point around the backside of the hill they wanted and everyone piled out. They met at the back doors to grab their packs, even Danny. He looked surprised when Ryan handed him his.

"You need something to defend yourself against whatever this is, human or non." Ryan started digging out a few items to show Danny and Kyle how they were used. "Remember, there are more of us than you. We're not going to have any friendly fire incidents here, right? Any problems we have can be handled when we get home, alright?"

Becca asked, "Do you have any idea who or what would really want this list? It'll tear the country apart. It'll destroy what trust we have left. Who would want that? What good would it do?" Vanessa's monologue about power echoed in her mind. No one had power in that kind of anarchy. Only destruction could come of it and her logic saw no advantage there. Michael's warning that it was incredibly dangerous came back. Something like that might benefit from chaos.

Ryan put his hand on Becca's shoulder as he walked past. "Sometimes we tangle with crazy. We've seen some pretty messed up stuff."

Gabrielle finished checking her pack, answering more pragmatically. "It would be worth a lot of money if it were sold on the open market. Any number of agencies, governmental and private could use it to blackmail each other or sift through the files to create their own private armies. What rebel or terrorist with money and a hard on for power couldn't use some super soldiers?"

Becca blinked and wagged her head. "What about the fallout for the one who sells it? I mean, at some point doesn't he worry someone is going to find him and destroy him?" Kill didn't seem the appropriate word for such a beast.

Gabrielle and Ryan exchanged a look before she answered. "As far as worrying about himself, I would just say money buys safety in most parts of the world."

She remembered how strong Vanessa was and she'd been terrified of whatever commanded her. "Aren't you worried this thing could be too strong for us?"

Gabrielle shrugged into her pack and smiled bitterly. "We've been fighting enemies and friends alike since the beginning. Eventually, we all run into something stronger."