Page 67 of Good Vampires Go to Heaven

“I didn’t think of that,” Zeb said.

The question in all their minds, though, was: Would there continue to be vangels when this war was over?

Then Jogeir gave them a post-op report. “Thirty Lucies destroyed and off to Hell, ten Lucies killed but no heart piercing; so, they’re back at Horror by now and will come back as Lucies once again. We lost five vangels. I pray to God we will be able to rescue them when we hit the target there. Hopefully, the Lucies will be too busy out on field missions to torture them right away.”

Regina cringed at the prospect, having witnessed firsthand Jasper’s torture room. “Speaking of which, will we go to Afghanistan or directly to Horror?”

“Um, that’s the thing,” Jogeir stammered. “You two and fifty vangels are going to stay here.”

“What?” Zeb and Regina said at the same time.

“The possibility was discussed back at the castle, but a definite decision was handed down when I relayed to Vikar your remark, Zeb. You know what you told me, about how the Lucies would return here after an initial retreat?” The vangel leaders were able to communicate with each other via specially designed wireless devices, similar to cell phones but much more secure and with wider ranges. “We have to get every single one of them. I’m sending my half of the vangels on to Fallujah right away, but I’ll stay until tonight, just to make sure everything is secure.”

In fact, when Zeb scanned the area, he realized that half the vangels were already gone. They must have already teletransported out. Quick work, that. But then, these were important, and dangerous, times for vangels. Timing and manpower were everything.

Jogeir gave Zeb and Regina pointed looks. “Like I said, you two will remain, equally in charge.”

“Pfff! Cleanup work! You’re doing this because I’m a woman,” Regina snarled. She made as if to attack Jogeir, but Zeb held her back by tugging on her braid which had come loose during the fighting. She didn’t struggle against his restraint, so he assumed she’d meant no harm, just an aggressive motion to show she was as much top dog as any man.

“Not at all.” Jogeir put up both hands in surrender. Then he crisscrossed his hands over his groin to ward off one of Regina’s famous cock curses. He was probably teasing. No one really believed that nonsense. Did they?

“It’s important work, Regina, for a man, as well as a woman,” Jogeir continued. “And I made the final call, if you want to blame someone.” Zeb noticed that Jogeir still had one hand casually over the crotch of his pants.

Zeb was just glad to be given any job at all as a vangel. Or almost-vangel. Or whatever he was.

“Keep in mind, we could just destroy this cave headquarters, thus taking away a Lucie nest, but, as we discussed earlier, this could be a valuable vangel outpost. Plus, we don’t want to alert all of Greece that we’re here with an explosion, even one that implodes. Even if they think this old volcano is erupting, it would be attention we don’t want.”

“Got it,” Regina said.

Zeb nodded his agreement.

“One more thing,” Jogeir said, hesitating.

Uh-oh!

“I’m going to take a few vangels to recon for a few miles’ radius and make sure the villagers in that town about ten miles from here aren’t alerted to our presence. You two are going to have to clean up that mess of slime and abandoned clothing and weapons out there. Sorry to leave you with such a dirty job, but we can’t risk some humans seeing it. Even a plane passing over might notice the scene and alert authorities.”

“See!” Regina snapped. “Women’s work. You give the cleaning job to a woman.”

“Shut up, Regina,” Zeb said.

That got her attention, and that of Jogeir, who grinned.

“It’s not just a woman he assigned this task. It’s me and fifty vangels out there, as well.” Zeb patted her shoulder to show he understood her chagrin. “Besides, there are two other female vangels in this contingent.”

She shrugged his hand away. “Still . . .”

The witch just couldn’t let go. Persistent, she was, and stubborn.

Then she told Jogeir, “Sorry if I overreacted.” But to Zeb, she said, “Jerk!”

Zeb grinned now, too.

“How long do we stay here?” Regina asked Jogeir in a calmer voice.

“I would think two days, three max, would be more than enough,” Jogeir answered. Then he turned to Zeb. “What do you think?”

“Sounds about right. They’ll be back, for certain. It’s the pattern most Lucipires follow in battle. Retreat and Return.”