Chapter 794: The Army

The stocky vampire straightened.

"That’s ours."

Selene looked at him.

"I told them to keep enough for the people still hidden," he said. "No one asked me before taking it."

"The attendant needs it now," the soldier said. "A patient has started bleeding again."

Alex could have ended the dispute with one order. Everyone in the room knew it.

He turned toward the stocky vampire instead.

"Come and show Selene what you can spare."

The man hesitated, then followed her out.

The young woman stayed by the map.

"If he gives everything away, I’ll have to go back with empty hands."

"He doesn’t have to give everything," Alex said. "Stay here and tell Dorian where the people you’re protecting would go if the street fails."

Dorian waited while she marked another building close to the northern line. The passage behind it had fallen in during the battle.

"How many inside?"

She told him. He moved the proposed watch position forward, leaving enough street between it and the building for her people to reach the front exit.

"That gives you time to get them out. Use it. If I call a retreat, you don’t stay to prove vampires are brave."

The young woman tapped the new position. "We’re brave enough to want a way back."

Dorian gave her a hard look, then pushed the map closer so she could mark the doorway.

Alex watched Dorian move the position. He had almost ordered that group to a place which would have left their own wounded behind the first retreat.

Thepes studied him from the floor.

"Those are the ones who can stand here and argue," he said. "What about the ones who can’t make their blood stop?"

Alex looked toward the room across the street where Mara was being watched.

"They don’t go on the line."

"And when this one decides they’re broken?"

Thepes indicated the gray-haired loyalist with the fingers he could move.

The older man’s face hardened.

"I came here to defend our people."

"You came here and asked why they hadn’t cut me open."

"You aren’t the same as those people."

Thepes’s eyes narrowed.

Alex stepped between their lines of sight before the argument became another pull on the restrained blood sample.

"The people losing control stay away from the guard posts and the crowded receiving area," he said. "They get somewhere we can contain a surge, with attendants who know what happened."

Thepes looked past him.

"And who decides they aren’t another corpse?"

"Someone who has looked at them," Mingyue said. "You helped us hear Mara. You also heard the man who still attacks anyone close. They need different handling."

Thepes went quiet.

His instructions had not stopped the second man from attacking. Alex doubted he had forgotten that.

"If you notice a difference we haven’t seen, tell Vesa," Alex said. "She brings it to the people handling that patient."

"You’ll put that under his orders too?"

Alex looked at Dorian.

"The defense commander handles attacks and the perimeter. He doesn’t decide how to treat every person inside it."

Dorian’s expression remained stiff.

"If one of them breaks out, my people will have to stop him."

"Yes," Mingyue said. "Stop the attack. Don’t use it as a reason to clear every bed beside him."

Dorian held her gaze, then gave a short nod.

Thepes settled his head back against the support beneath him.

"I’ll speak when there’s something worth saying."

Alex accepted that much. Thepes had not agreed to obey, and the sample beside him remained a contribution he was choosing to maintain. The restraint on his body served a different purpose.

Selene returned with the stocky vampire.

Two bundles of cloth were being carried past the doorway behind them. The man still held a smaller wrapped bundle under his own arm.

"Those go to the attendants," Selene said. "This goes back to his people with the water they need. The rest of the cart stays marked as theirs until we agree on another use."

The man looked at Alex as if waiting for him to object.

"Who is taking it back?" Alex asked.

"One of ours and one of hers."

Selene nodded toward the young woman.

"She needs to remain here long enough to settle the watch. Someone else can carry the supplies."

The young woman looked at the bundle, then at the changed position on the map.

"We can take the first watch," she told Dorian. "After our people know where to go."

Dorian began naming the signals his soldiers used. She stopped him at the second one and made him explain the difference between falling back from a post and abandoning the whole street.

He explained it without asking Alex to intervene.

The loyalist moved to the opposite side of the map.

"My people can take the road beside them."

Dorian gave him a position which covered the approach without putting the two groups under each other’s immediate command. Both would answer his signal if the line changed.

The younger woman measured the distance along her road while the loyalist kept one hand on his own. Neither offered to share command. Alex let Dorian finish the signals instead of trying to improve the arrangement again.

Vesa asked what she should tell the groups answering from other worlds.

"Where we can receive them, what help we can offer, and what they need to tell us before coming," Alex said. "No order to abandon a shelter because they heard our names."

"And if they want to fight?"

"Send their people to Dorian when they arrive. He finds out what they can do before putting them in a position."

Mingyue looked toward Selene.

"Receiving and evacuation decisions stay with you. If the line changes, you and Dorian speak directly. Don’t wait for one of us to carry a message between you."

Selene nodded.

A sound outside made Alex turn.

The two men carrying the returned supplies had stopped beside a bed that needed moving. The man from the new group handed his bundle to the other and took the empty end of the stretcher.

Alex looked back at the map.

The next watch now had positions and a retreat signal. The argument would return with the next group, but Alex could leave this one to Dorian.

Dorian folded the map when both groups could repeat where they were going.

"I’ll take them out now."

Selene left with the stocky vampire to show the attendants which supplies they could use. Vesa kept the receiving information ready for the next caller.

Thepes watched everyone leave.

"You’ll want to make it simpler again," he said to Alex.

"Probably."

"Remember who wanted to be left out when you do."

Alex glanced at the restraint, then at the blood the prisoner was still holding steady.

"I heard you."

Mingyue touched his right arm.

"Come."

For a moment, Alex looked toward the people moving to the northern road. He wanted to check the route himself, then the supply cart, then the next response Vesa had set aside.

Dorian was already walking the new guards to their positions. Selene had the receiving route. No immediate danger required Alex to replace either of them.

He went with Mingyue toward Edonia.

Luna had asked for a time. They had given her one, and the work outside finally had people who could continue while they kept it.