Heroes by Susan Sizemore

been able to determine.”
    “Not all of us are companions,” Haven told her.
    “But you’re involved with an Enforcer.”
    “You didn’t know I wasn’t a companion until we met. There’s a lot you don’t know about—”
    “I know that at least one of the online group is a vampire. Now I know that there’s an unbitten psychic as well. We’re all after the same thing. And we’re all, more or less, kin to each other.”
    He raised an eyebrow at her. “Kin?”
    “I belong to Ben. Ben was bloodchild to Alice Fraser. I’ve traced Alice’s origin to a Nighthawk named Selim.”
    “ The Selim? Enforcer of Los Angeles?”
    “Yes. You have to be bloodchild of a Nighthawk to become a Nighthawk, though not all members of the Nighthawk line actually become Nighthawks—Enforcers.”
    “I know that.”
    He also knew that Siri, the woman who had organized the companions’ group, was the current companion of the same Selim. Selena, who had really united the group as an active force, was companion to Istvan, the most powerful of the Enforcers. Yevgeny, the vampire member of the group, had told Haven that he’d been companion to a reclusive strig who was ancient, powerful, and had never hunted humans. Her prey was always vampires, which meant she had to be Nighthawk even if she lived outside the rules and regulations of the underneath.
    “You might be right about most of the group. Maybe Nighthawk companions are different than regular companions.”
    “Maybe the Nighthawks subconsciously choose companions with stronger wills or—I don’t know. What I do know is that all the Nighthawks are descended from the same person. All,” Clare told him. “Whether it’s a natural mutation or was caused by a magical incantation, I don’t know. But I want to know, and I think Ibis has the answer. We need to know everything Ibis knows. We can’t change the future until we understand the past—where vampires came from. What can and can’t be done.”
    She sounded like Char. A whole lot like Char. “Knowledge is power, right?”
    “Right.”
    Mostly, he thought firepower was power, but knowing the enemy did help in deciding the best weapons to use against it.
    “So we’re agreed that extracting data from Ibis’s archives needs to be a priority for the companions’ group?”
    “Uh—sure.”
    “Good. Then let’s table the Ibis discussion and get on to the more pressing problem.”
    “Fine.”
    Maybe others in the group might find this Ibis project interesting, but was it really that important? He wasn’t the best person to try to break into Ibis’s vault, or wherever the old vampire kept his stash of ancient wisdom. Haven had learned a little bit about computer hacking, but he was still better with a shotgun than with anything that required subtlety. Besides, wouldn’t all these ancient texts be written in magical scripts and foreign languages? Still—Yevgeny was good with languages, and Selena could probably handle magic shit. He wouldn’t mind being the muscle.
    This really was Char stuff, but he couldn’t exactly go to an Enforcer of the Laws and ask for her expertise to acquire intel for a companion rebellion. He’d decided long ago that she might sympathize with their goals, but the way the vampire world stood now, Char would react like any other Enforcer faced with a threat to the Laws. She’d have no mercy.
    Haven noticed a sign for an exit a quarter mile up the highway. He decided to take it and turn back toward the city. Clare waited silently with her hands clasped tightly together in her lap until he made the turn. He wondered if it was his driving or the information she had to share that caused her white-knuckled nervousness. “Okay,” he said when the surreal skyline of Las Vegas was in view again. “Tell me about Martina.”
    “She’s an arrogant, fanatical bitch,” were the first words out of Clare’s mouth. “I don’t mind that she’s arrogant and bitchy, those tend to be exploitable