Page 81 of Warrior Unraveled

“Let’s do it,” she murmured and willed the portal to open.

Loud noise immediately pierced her eardrums, as bright lights rushed past the opening. It took a second for her brain to make sense of it. A train was whizzing past them.

“We’re in a subway tunnel,” Wesley said next to her.

With the train having passed, Wes now inched his head out of the portal and looked down the tunnel. “There’s a station only a few hundred yards down.”

Virginia looked in the same direction and saw the lights of the subway station, where the train had stopped. “Let’s get there before the next train comes.” She glanced down the other end of the tunnel, but saw no lights around the bend.

“Agreed,” Wes said. “But let’s put our weapons away. We don’t want to look suspicious when we reach the station.”

She put her dagger back into its sheath.

“Watch your step,” he advised. “There’s only a slim ledge.”

“Go, I’m following you.”

Careful to walk along the edge of the tunnel, she followed Wesley toward the station. The train was getting ready to leave, its doors closing now. There were plenty of people on the other side of the platform, though this side of it was clearing out. Still, too many people would see her and Wesley emerge from the tunnel.

Wes looked over his shoulder. “This is Sixteenth Street BART station. We’re in the middle of the Mission. Scanguards’ HQ is right around the corner.”

“My old compound was in this neighborhood.” So they hadn’t moved the debris too far from its original site and reused it in the building of the BART system, the intra-city rapid transit system that connected the South Bay cities with Oakland and the East Bay, via San Francisco.

Just before they reached the spot where the station lights fell into the tunnel and could expose them, Virginia put her hand on Wesley’s shoulder.

“Wait,” she murmured. “I’m going to make us invisible.”

“Good idea.” He reached back and took her hand, and slowly they walked out of the tunnel and onto the platform.

Wesley navigated them past the few people waiting for the next train and followed those heading up the escalators, careful not to get too close to anybody in case some unsuspecting citizen suddenly bumped into an invisible obstacle.

When they reached the next level, where the turnstiles and ticket booths were located, it was busier. Wes pointed to the turnstiles and leaned in to whisper in Virginia’s ear, “Without tickets we can’t get out. Can you keep me invisible while I jump over it and then help you?”

“No problem.”

The hurdle was an easy one, and moments later, they emerged outside the station, at a busy intersection in the Mission district. It was raining and it was dark here too. Based on the traffic and the amount of people on the sidewalk, they were in the middle of rush hour.

“Shit!” Wes cursed. “The rain is gonna make us look like Chevy Chase in The Invisible Man.”

Virginia understood immediately. Their silhouettes would become visible. “This way.” She dragged Wesley to an alley, where several trash containers shielded them from view. “I need to make us visible, or the gig is up.”

“Do it,” Wesley agreed.

Assuring herself that nobody could see them, she uncloaked Wesley and herself. “Okay, we’re good. Let me tell the others that we’ve arrived safely.” She quickly typed a text message and sent it. The reply came immediately. Keep us posted, it said.

“Where to now?”

Wes took her hand. “This way.”

He led her along a busy sidewalk, took several turns, and crossed the street on two occasions. All in all they probably walked four or five blocks until Wes stopped at the back of a large building that seemed to take up half of the block.

“That’s our parking garage. Now, we could go in the front, but there’ll be lots of humans too, and who knows how the vampire guards are going to react to your presence. I’d rather take the back entrance and go straight up to the executive floor. If that’s alright with you?”

For a moment she thought about it. “You know your people best.” Then she pointed to the gate that blocked entry to an underground garage. “How do we get in?”

Wes pulled something from a pocket in his backpack and waved it at her. “With an access card.” He held it over the card reader. The light on it went green, but the gate didn’t lift.

Virginia was about to make a comment, when she saw Wesley press his thumb on the reader. He glanced back at her. “Security procedure, just in case somebody steals our cards.”