Chapter 10 (Revised Version)

Dana entered the 64th precinct just after dawn. She bypassed her office and headed directly for the Chief's. She knocked and waited for his call to enter before opening the door.

Mark looked up from the report on his desk and held up a finger to indicate he'd be with her in just a minute, and then went back to reading the report as Dana closed the door behind her and sat down in one of the visitors' chairs. He finished the last paragraph and signed the paper, placing it in a tray on the corner of his desk.

He sat back and regarded his favorite hunter.

"So, what's up?" he asked.

"I got a tip on a lair. Seven vampires and their slaves, so I'm putting a team together. I just wanted to give you a heads up," Dana explained.

Mark nodded. If it had been anyone else, he would've asked for confirmation on the tip, but Dana was never wrong about these things. The fact that she was planning to bring backup instead of trying to go in alone told him she was sure about the information, whatever its source. He was also pleased she seemed to have finally given up on her recent white whale routine and was getting back to work.

"Who didja have in mind?" he asked.

"I was thinking Debbie and Dale, and then Carl Cooke from the Staten Island precinct."

Mark paused.

"You wanna go in with only four hunters?"

"It's only seven vamps."

"And their slaves. You mentioned slaves. Even if there's only one per vamp, that's still at least fourteen hostiles."

Dana had the decency to look chagrined, since Gabrielle had told her explicitly there would be at least two slaves per vampire, not to mention she should be extra careful with the vamps, but she still couldn't help arguing.

"You know slaves don't count. Besides, my information says they're poorly trained. My team will handle them."

"Slaves do count. We may not get as many kills from them, but they put more hunters in the hospital than the vamps."

"That's because the vamps cause fatal wounds and the slaves don't. Hence, they don't count," Dana grinned.

"Clark..."

Dana held up her hands in surrender.

"All right. How about I add Bastian from Manhattan North and Nicky Cavazzo from the Bronx? That's almost a one-to-one ratio with the vamps."

"Fine. I'll even call 'em in for you," he said as he turned to his computer to bring up the hunters' current duty assignments.

"Are you implying I won't?"

"I would never imply. I would state directly," Mark deadpanned as he checked over the list. "You goin' in today?"

"Yeah, I don't wanna wait. I'm not sure how long the info will be accurate."

Mark nodded.

"Well, you'll have to convince Deb to give up her weekend, but Dale and Sebastian are just scheduled for standard patrols, so they should be available." Mark frowned and shook his head. "Carl and Nick are busy with high profile murder investigations. If they try to put 'em off, we're looking at a media backlash we really don't need right now."

"Okay, what about Jason Albright? We could go in with just the five of us," Dana tried.

Mark hit a few keys and checked over the new list of names he'd pulled up.

"Yeah. He's just got some tidying up to do on the Delaney case, but that one's old news. It can wait a day or two." He looked over from the screen. "But you're not going in with less than six. You may be okay with those odds, but I'm not. Now, I just checked and Steve Harper is available. Why don't you—"

"No. No fucking way." Dana stood up and paced behind the chairs. "I'm not putting him on my team, not after last time. He could've gotten somebody killed. That son of a bitch—"

"Is sober now." Mark sighed at the barely suppressed rage he saw on the younger woman's face. "He fucked up, Dana. He knows it, I know it, everybody fucking knows it. But it was four years ago and he's done a hell of a job cleaning up his act since then. Everybody knows that, too... Except you, apparently."

Dana shook her head.

"I don't give a flying fuck. I trusted him and he screwed me over. He screwed my team over. I won't give him the chance to do it again."

Mark shook his head and sighed again.

"It's called forgiveness, Dana. You should look into it."

Dana crossed her arms and looked sullenly at the carpet. Finally, she spoke.

"What if he decides today is his day to relapse?"

Mark didn't hesitate.

"Then I'll fire his ass on the spot and file formal charges against him, so he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever claiming his pension."

Dana studied him, knowing he wouldn't say something like that and not follow through, but she also knew he cared a lot about the hunters and making sure their families were taken care of.

"You're that sure about him?" she asked.

"Yes. I wouldn't have put him back on duty if I wasn't, and I certainly wouldn't put his life, or anyone else's, at risk by allowing an unstable hunter on the job."

Dana snorted.

"Not according to some people."

Mark caught the reference and smiled.

"You're driven, not unstable. There's a difference." He softened his gaze. "Give him a chance."

Dana frowned.

"Is that an order?"

Mark shook his head.

"No. You pick your teams. Maybe not the number," he smiled. "But the people are up to you, you know that. But I think it would mean a lot to him to have a chance to make up for what he did to you, and I think you would learn a lot from giving him that chance."

Dana rolled her eyes, but Mark could tell she was thinking about it. Eventually, she nodded.

"All right. I'll talk to him. And I promise I'll call everybody in, since you're so worried."

Mark nodded his acceptance and moved on.

"So, who'd you get the tip from? I thought you had last night off."

"I did. What makes you think that would stop me from doing my job?" She smiled and turned away to head for the door. "I'll let everyone know what's up," Dana said as she closed the door behind her and went to her office to make the changes to the other hunters' assignments.

It wasn't until half an hour later that Mark realized she'd never answered his question about the tip.

^~\/^^^\/^~

Dana sat down at her desk and began making calls. She pulled Dale and Sebastian in from their patrols and then dialed Debbie's home number. She knew the woman wouldn't be happy about coming in on one of her days off, but Dana wanted Debbie on her team. There were very few women Dana trusted in a fight and she liked to use them on her teams whenever possible.

"Hello?" came the sleepy voice on the other end of the line.

"It's Clark. I need you for a raid today. You up for it?"

"Clark? Shit, it's fucking six in the morning. This is the only day I get to sleep in, goddamn it."

"Hey, you're the one who said to call you next time. Well, this is next time. And I'll authorize double pay if you come in. It's a good-sized lair. Seven vamps and their slaves. I could really use your expertise."

Dana heard a sigh of resignation and the rustle of covers being pushed back.

"All right. Fine. Give me an hour and I'll be there. Who else is going?"

"I've already got Dale and Bastian on their way in, but I still need to call Jason Albright... and... I'm gonna talk to Steve."

Dana felt the pause on the other end and then Debbie spoke.

"I'm glad you're finally working things out with him. He's a good man. And I'm sure he'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"I know so. Well, everything sounds good. Oh, hey, you mind if I bring Ben along? He's gonna pout for days if he finds out I went on a raid with you and left him out."

Dana thought about it and shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, sure. That'll put us at one-to-one, which should get the Chief off my back."

"All right, I'll let him know. See ya in a bit," Debbie said and then cut the connection.

Dana hung up the phone, taking a moment to process what she'd said about Steve. Even though she'd promised the Chief she was going to talk to the man, telling someone else somehow made it seem more definite, like she was locked in somehow.

After a moment, Dana shook her head at the ridiculousness of her thoughts. She'd already made the decision. Even if she hadn't acted on it yet, it was done. She had no intention of backing out.

She focused on the present and picked up the phone again, dialing Jason's cell phone number from memory.

"Albright," came the clear voice.

"Hey. It's Clark. Wanna go huntin'?" she invited, her grin coming through loud and clear in her predatory tone.

"You know it. Is that an order, though? 'Cause I'd love to, but Brodie tasked me with the Delaney murders, and I've still got a few things left to do before I'm finished with them," he replied unhappily.

"Yes, it's an order," Dana confirmed. "I want you on my team. I've got seven vampires just waiting for you to take a crack at 'em, so you can tell Brodie to go fuck himself. I'm transferring you for the day."

"I think I'll just tell him about the transfer part, if you don't mind. I sorta need this job. See you in a few."

Dana smiled to herself as she placed the phone back in its cradle. Then she remembered who the last person on her team was supposed to be and her smile faded. She sat for another few moments in indecision and then abruptly stood.

Fuck it. No time like the present.

Dana made her way down several hallways and stopped outside a familiar door. At least it had been familiar four years ago. She hadn't heard about any changes regarding the man's office, so she hoped he was still in there. She really didn't want to have to ask anyone where he was or log in to the system to check his location.

She took a deep breath, trying to settle herself, and then decided she was as settled as she was going to get. She raised her hand and knocked twice quickly, then opened the door, not waiting for an answer.

Steve was sitting at his desk, typing at the computer. He looked up, his expression slightly annoyed at the interruption, but it abruptly changed to surprise when he recognized who was in his doorway.

Dana didn't wait for his acknowledgment.

"You busy? Graves said you were available for a raid today."

"Um, yeah, I guess. I was just gonna—"

"Great. Meet me in conference room one at nine." She started to leave, and then paused. "Don't be late," she added, and then closed the door behind her.

She released the death grip she'd had on the doorknob and shook out her hand as she walked away.

She still wasn't sure letting the man on her team had been a good decision on her part. As much as she might want to blame Graves, she knew she'd never forgive herself if Steve caused any problems for the rest of the team. As team leader, it was her responsibility to keep her people as safe as possible given their job description.

Dana squared her shoulders as she made her decision. If Steve Harper put her team members in danger again, this time, she wouldn't hesitate. And she wouldn't wait for Graves to bench him. She'd take him out of the game herself. Permanently.

^~\/^^^\/^~

Less than an hour later, Dana was parked some distance away from the unmarked warehouse, which was exactly where Gabrielle had said it would be. She could sense the vampires within and saw movement behind the ratty curtains covering the dark windows. She raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes and focused on the dirty glass panes.

Slaves.

They were probably just having breakfast after tucking in their masters for the day.

Dana put the binoculars away and started the Beast. As she drove back to the precinct, she was already planning the attack based on what she'd seen. There were overgrown fences around the warehouse that would give good cover to her and her teammates.

Once she was at the station again, she went directly to the conference room she'd booked and logged in. As soon as the others arrived, she launched into the mission briefing. She brought up an aerial map on one of the large touch screens hanging on the wall and used two smaller screens to show multiple street-level views of the warehouse along with a digital wire mesh blueprint of the building she'd pulled from the county clerk's office. She used a stylus to circle different spots on the aerial and drew arrows to clarify her plans as she spoke. She didn't want there to be any confusion about what they were up against.

"We'll all go in at the same time, coming from these points, and clear out the slaves first. My sources say there are fourteen, but there could always be more. The building has three stories, but it looked like most of the slaves were on the bottom floor. Once we're done with them, you four," she pointed at Dale, Debbie, Ben, and Steve, "will back up the rest of us while we finish hunting down the vamps. We'll probably split up into teams at that point, but I'll assess the situation before assigning partners. We'll be hitting them in the middle of their deepest sleep, so they probably won't put up much resistance, but if the basement's been dug out well enough, they'll be safe from the sun and could end up really giving us a run for our money."

They all nodded. There was probably a getaway tunnel that connected with the sewer system under the city. If the demons made it to that point, they'd lose them. All the hunters had worked with Dana before and knew it was their job to keep the vampires from escaping long enough for Dana or one of the other lead hunters to kill them all. They could make kills themselves, but if forcing a kill meant letting another get away, Dana would stake them instead of the vampires.

"When do we leave?" Jason asked eagerly. He hadn't been on a raid in over a month and was itching for some action.

Dana grinned at his impatience and checked her watch as Sebastian clapped him on the shoulder in agreement with the sentiment.

"You've all got three hours to get your gear together. Then we leave. We'll hit the warehouse at twelve-thirty."

From past experience, the team knew Dana's timing for the raid was meant to hopefully catch the slaves at the end of their lunch, not only taking them by surprise, but also on heavy stomachs.

"All right, get to work," Dana ordered, turning off the screens, while her team members filed out of the small room.

When she was done, Dana sat down at the table and rested her head on her arms to try to relax and recharge for a few minutes. She was still tired, but planning the raid had woken her up quite a bit. She just didn't want to use up all her energy before it was actually needed. An adrenaline crash in the middle of a raid wouldn't be good.

As Dana closed her eyes, an image of the blonde vampire formed in her mind's eye. She immediately sat up and opened her eyes. She really needed to stop thinking about the damn vamp.

Dana tried not to dwell on the fact that hardly a minute had gone by that she hadn't thought about Gabrielle since she'd first seen her three weeks ago. The hunter had met many vampires. Most were beautiful. It seemed to be part of the code they used to decide who was granted vampire status and who was turned away, though there were some who were decidedly challenged in the area of physical beauty.

The hunter had seen many of them pass as humans, obviously enjoying their duplicity. But as soon as they were alone, they let their fangs grow and reveled in their vampiric nature, merrily showing off for Dana in an attempt to impress her with their superiority.

Gabrielle had done nothing to try to dazzle her, except maybe when she'd taken the gun from her hands, but that seemed to have been more to prove a point than to amaze Dana with her ability.

Dana shook her head. She was having a hard time keeping in mind that Gabrielle was a vampire and not just another human like herself. That story Gabrielle had told her about vampires being a hybrid species of human and 'a being from the stars' was slowly worming its way into her mind, making her question her beliefs. It would change everything if vampires weren't really demons.

Then again, maybe not, Dana thought, her eyes hardening as she remembered the lifeless bloodied bodies of her parents and brother, their screams echoing in her mind. Demon or no, they all deserve to die. They're evil. They prey on helpless victims. They...

An image of Gabrielle's small blonde form suddenly crystallized in Dana's mind and she paused in the middle of her mental tirade. Gabrielle didn't prey on the innocent. In fact, she did exactly what Dana did. She sought out those who hurt others and destroyed them.

Dana had read case after case in which Gabrielle had prevented rapes, muggings, beatings, and murders, even attempting to calm the victims until the authorities arrived, at which point she always disappeared. Compassion from a vampire seemed so out of place, but it appeared to come naturally to Gabrielle.

Dana quickly slammed down on her next thoughts. Sure, Gabrielle was intelligent, caring, beautiful, and even had a somewhat wry sense of humor, but damn it, she was a vampire.

"Just don't go there, Clark," she mumbled to herself as she left to sort out what equipment she'd be taking on the raid.