Chapter 23: The Meeting

  Lamar walked into the empty two-story glass warehouse in the downtown Toledo area, it hasn’t been used in over ten years and was slated to be torn down any day now, Lamar figured it was the perfect place for a meeting. As Lamar walked in he noticed Councilman Savage sitting on a crate waiting for him to arrive.

  “Lamar how nice to see you again, I’m guessing this isn’t a social call my dear boy.” Councilman Savage said as he lit a pipe that he pulled out of his inner jacket pocket.

  “Why are you calling me dear boy and why do you have a pipe, you’re only 30.” Councilman savage was what they like to call eccentric, he always told people he had an old soul. He also dressed like he was a 1950’s gangster. He was the youngest member on the council, and part of the shooter class. He was considered to be one of the best snipers in the class. Lamar and Savage had become instant friends during a raid they did on a werewolf den a few years back that almost killed them both. He has been an ear to bend when ever Lamar had a question or a concern about the council or just the dusker business in general.

  “My dear boy we are as old as we feel, what can I help you with.” Savage took a drag of his pipe and immediately started to cough and gag.

  “You okay? Why do you have a pipe you don’t even smoke.” Lamar said with a confused look.

  “Trying something new.” Savage said still choking.

  “There are other things you could try you know.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t reach out to me because you wanted to talk about my smoking ventures?”

  “No, you’re right,” Lamar paused for a second, he didn’t know if he could trust Savage fully, they may have been friends, but he was still a council member and they only looked out for themselves. He had already come this far by reaching out to him so there was no going back now. “I need you to call off the enforcers and pardon us, and in return I will join the council.”

  “There is no way after everything that has happened you will be able to join the council and as for the enforcers my hands are tied. There is nothing I can do about that part. It’ll be best if you just turn yourselves in before we find the rest of you, get this over with and I will try my best to make sure they go lenient on you guys.” Savage said as he adjusted his tie.” Savage might be the youngest of the council members but his families name hold weight in the dusker’s community. Lamar figured if anyone could get this resolved it would be him.

  “I wish I could believe you.”

  “Then the hard way it is,” Savage snapped his fingers and Lamar was suddenly surrounded by duskers, all of them were in the shooter class, Savages personal little entourage that he mentored and trained. With their guns drawn and Lamar surrounded Savage thought he had won and had a smug grin spread across his face.

  “Lamar make this easy on yourself and don’t try fighting. Let me take you in and you tell me where the others are hiding.”

  “Damn, I hate it when he is right.”

  “When who is right?”

  “Doesn’t matter, I was told not to trust you, but I was like no not Savage, we are good friends he wouldn’t do me dirty.”

  “Just business, it’s nothing personal.” Savage said as he waved a hand for his entourage to close in on Lamar.

  “Remember you said that when I come for you.” Savage laughed at Lamar’s words.

  “People told me all the time that you were arrogant, that you thought you were so powerful, I mean you even tried to use you joining the council as a bargaining chip, how delusional can you be, to honestly think that you’re that important you smug little fool.”

  “Powerful enough to be thousands of miles away and still have you think I’m right here in the room with you.” Lamar wasn’t really thousands of miles away, but he didn’t want Savage to know they were still in the city. One of the shooters tried to grab Lamar and their hand went right through him.

  “Astral projection.” Savage said with a chuckle.

  “I’m glad I know where you stand now, so I won’t feel bad when we wipe the council out.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Now Timothy Savage, my dear boy, you know I don’t make threats, just promises.” Lamar was then gone like he was never there.

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  “Well that was pointless.” Lamar said as he opened his eyes. He was sitting in the van with his legs crossed and a vanilla incense burning. He put the incense out, he grabbed his bag and got out of the van.

  “How’d it go?” Sean said as Lamar stepped out into the chilly fall air. Lamar shut the van door and just gave Sean a look that said it all.

  “That bad.”

  “He had a group of shooters waiting to surround me. He then tried to convince me to turn myself in and give you guys up.”

  “Now aren’t you glad I talked you into astral projecting and not actually going to meet him.”

  “Yeah you were right. It just sucks that we are really out here on our own. I was hoping that our friendship, Savages and mines actually meant something, but as he said it’s just business. Since that’s the case I’m not going to feel bad when we take them down.”

  “Let’s get some rest, you been going at it all night, placing wards all around this place and now astral projecting, I’m sure you are drained.” Lamar agreed and they both headed inside to find them a place to sleep for the night.

  “The morning light filled the living room as Elle opened the curtains, the smell of coffee and bacon danced through the air, waking up everyone else in the house like a delicious alarm.

  “What smells so good.” Mycal said as he came down the stairs.

  “Maple bacon, scramble eggs, waffles, and butter grits.” Elle said placing a large platter of bacon down.

  “Elle did you cook all of this?” Lamar asked as he grabbed a few pieces of bacon and shoved them into his mouth. He was hungrier than he thought after all the things he did last night.

  “I can’t take the credit for this one, it was Crystal’s dad. And act like you got some manors and stop eating like you don’t have any home training.” Elle said popping Lamar in the hand with a wooden spoon as he went to grab more bacon.

  They all ate there fill until there was nothing left, they thank Crystal’s dad and offered to clean up but he declined and wanted to do everything himself, he said it was his way of saying thanks for saving his daughter and grandson.

  They piled into the living room, Crystal excused herself to change the baby, everyone else found a spot and settled in.

  “What’s our next move?” Daniel asked as he loosened his belt a bit.

  “Between the vampire king and now the council we are spread pretty thin, there might not be anything we can do.” Sean admitted.

  “We take them both on.” Lamar said. The room went quiet for what seemed like an eternity. Lamar thought, was this even the right move, could they pull it off, but he knew they didn’t have a choice and so did everyone else.

  “We aren’t enough. I know that, but we have allies and I’m sure some of them are also sick of the council and the way things are being run, we get them to help with the council and the vamps. I also have another idea; I’ve been working on a way to mimic Mycal’s berserker warrior ability. It’s not as strong as his, but I think it’ll give you the edge you may need in a pinch. There is one side effect, it only last about three and a half minutes and it will drain your powers almost completely and it will be a while before you are fully restored. So don’t use the berserker potion unless it is absolutely necessary.”

  “How were you able to do that?” Elle asked, she was intrigued and also proud of how far Lamar has come as a mage, the things he is capable of astonishes her on the daily.

  “I had Mycal go into berserk mode a few times and ran some test with the help of Serenity and her equipment and were able to figure out what changes in his body when he goes into that mode. So we have that and I have a few ideas on upgrades for your weapons too.” Lamar said grabbing his notebook out of his bag. He sketched a few weapon ideas last night before he finally fell asleep. He passed the book around so everyone could see.

  “There is one problem though, any upgrades I do will have to be at my shop.”

  “And there is no way they aren’t watching all of our places.” Sean said.

  “We break up into two groups. Group one will be Mycal, Lamar and Daniel, Group two will be Sean and myself, your group will go to Lamar’s and get what you need to make the upgrades. Sean and myself will do as much recruiting we possibly can do.” Elle instructed.

  “We might want to see if we can get Serenity to help us with the recruiting efforts, will be able to reach a lot more duskers discreetly that way as well.” Sean said.

  “We all have our assignments so let’s get to it.” Elle said as she stood up.

  Crystal entered the room holding a baby monitor.

  “Has anyone talked to Roberto? He isn’t answering his phone.” Crystal said with a worried expression.

  “The last time I seen him was at the roller rink the other night.” Lamar answered.

  “This isn’t like him, he wouldn’t go this long with out contacting me or answering my calls, especially since we just had the baby. Something is wrong, I can feel it.” Crystal tried dialing Roberto’s number again, but the phone just kept ringing.

  “Nothing.”

  “That’s a good sign that the phone is ringing and not going right to voicemail, it means at some point he has charged the phone, if something was wrong, he wouldn’t been able to do that, maybe he just can’t get to it right now.” Daniel said.

  “We can swing by the roller rink on our way to my place and see of he is still there.” Lamar said.

  “I’m going with you.” Crystal demanded.

  “No you should stay here and be with the baby, we can handle this one.” Mycal said.

  “My dad can watch the baby, I need to make sure Roberto is alright.” Crystal said tearfully.

  “What if he is not, and what if something happens to you trying to find out if he is okay, then that little boy up there will have no parents. I know what that is like, and so do you know what it is like not having a mother. You’re going to stay here, and I promise we are going to make sure Roberto is fine.” Lamar gave Crystal a hug. Mycal tapped Lamar on the shoulder and nodded towards the door signally that it was time to get going. Before Lamar left he gave Crystal a few of the grenades he made and a revolver that he made for himself that used hellfire bullets, these bullets would kill anything. The material to make them was really rare and hard to come by, so he didn’t have that many bullets, there were only twelve rounds, he also left her some regular rounds and instructed her to only load the hellfire rounds if she didn’t have any other option.