“Well look at that, Hugh, it’s our old friend Lucy who we were absolutely not talking smack about,” Miles said with a wicked glint in his eye.
“I knew a gal named Lucy once,” Hugh said into his cards. “Feisty little thing, used to get up in a vampire’s face and say ‘bite me!’ Wonder what happened to her?”
I let them verbally abuse me for a few more moments before I couldn’t take any more of their terrible jokes. “Oh my god, you guys seriously suck at talking trash.”
“Hey give us a break, we’re rusty,” Miles said. “Seriously Luce, there’s a lot of rumors flying around here and I’m not going to pretend I ain’t concerned when you show up out of the blue after ignoring us for half the year. Andre may be like a brother to me, but ain’t no man worth losing your friends over.”
I had to admit, that stung. “Look,” I said with a sigh, “I’m sorry if it looks like I’ve been avoiding you all, but this hasn’t been the greatest couple of months and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make the assumption that this has anything to do with Andre. Okay maybe at first, but I’ve got a lot on my mind right now and I’d appreciate it if you just came out and told me about the rumors.”
Miles looked like he was about to start with me, but Hugh cut him off with a look.
“I just want to know one thing, Lucy,” Hugh said in a low voice. “Is it true Isaac Gillman is alive?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, but didn’t elaborate.
“And he’s in some sort of trouble?”
“He’s being held prisoner by the man who created him, yes.”
“Then I want in on whatever plan you got going on for getting him out.” I found this to be a bit odd because Hugh wasn’t the most open-minded person I knew, and he had a strong aversion to vampires, even Ida. How I managed to gain his trust was anyone’s guess. “I owe that man my life several times over,” Hugh replied to my questioning look. “I never met a more decent human being, Lucy. I know you think this is out of character, but I ain’t gonna pry about the other big news I heard. But know this, Isaac and I used to talk a lot about things he kept private and he’s been carrying a hole in his heart for many years.”
I couldn’t be sure exactly what Hugh was telling me, but if he was talking about my mother, I definitely wanted to hear more. “Of course,” I told him. “I don’t think anyone’s going to object to a little more help. But Hugh, it may not be that easy. I’ve got to talk to Evan and I don’t know if Andre’s made any progress with cracking the security out there.”
A plate full of eggs, toast, and sausage magically appeared in front of me. I hadn’t noticed Miles get up while I was talking to Hugh.
“What’s this for?”
“Protein, Lucy. If you’re planning on participating in a rescue mission, you’re going to need to get your endurance back up, and sorry honey, one little cinnamon roll ain’t breakfast. Hugh and I are working out at five. I want to see your butt in the gym with us, got it?”
“Maybe,” I squirmed slightly. I hadn’t kept up on my workouts, and after Abe’s earlier comment, I had to be honest with myself, I was probably out of shape.
“No maybe about it,” Miles insisted. “I wanna see some muscle back on your bones before you even think about running off again. Speaking of which, are you going to tell us why you did run off in the middle of the night or are we going to have to rely on rumors?”
“The rumors are probably true,” I mumbled around a mouthful of eggs. I covered my mouth and made an apologetic face before swallowing. “Sorry, these are really good. Anyway, I know you already know about Cynda, since Lona met her when I brought her in, and Hugh had to take her down when she went…um, a little crazy.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Hugh said with an astonished look. “That girl’s definitely been eating her spinach.”
“Yeah well,” I swallowed uncomfortably. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was allowed to talk about and what was classified. “She’s definitely different. But she told us about the farm she came from and I’m not going to lie, it’s disturbing. I wanted to get a feel for the place and see what we were up against. I had no idea I was going to find my…find Isaac.” From the look they shared, I knew my slip wasn’t lost on either Hugh or Miles. Thankfully, my phone buzzed in my pocket. “That’s Evan, I’ve got to go. Hopefully I’ll have more info after this and guys,” I gave them both what I hoped was an apologetic smile. “I hope you can forgive me for laying low. I promise I’ll be around more, okay?”
“Five o’clock, Lucy,” Miles said with a smile. “I’m counting on you.”
When I got to Evan’s office, Andre was waiting in the lobby for me. I noticed he was still wearing the same clothes from last night and his eyes were bloodshot and blackened by deep circles.
“Tell me you weren’t up all night.”
He shrugged noncommittally. “I got the codes to circumnavigate the fence,” he said in a rushed voice.
“That’s great! I got a bunch of information and I got a plan-”
“Wait Lucy,” he cut me off with a serious look. “There’s something I need to tell you before we go in there.”
“Okay.”
“I had a look at the scans I did of Isaac. I’m…” he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I don’t think the monitor he’s implanted with is connected to the fence. There was nothing transmitting on the same frequencies, but there was a GPS signal.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that he’s not bound by the barrier as much as his physical location. The only way we’re going to get him out is by removing the monitor on site.”
“Is that possible?” I asked.
“I’m not a doctor,” he said apologetically.
“All right.” I took a deep breath and blinked back the frustrated tears that were threatening. “Then let’s get in there and ask one.”
Chapter 12
I listened patiently while Abe described his discoveries about Isaac’s DNA to Evan and Andre. My original excitement from having a serious lead and plan was now diminished by the additional complications both he and Andre had presented. When Abe got to the part about human-vampire chimeras being immune to the enzyme, Evan glanced at me before sharing an infuriatingly cryptic look with Andre.
“How likely is it that the women giving birth are human?” Evan asked.
Abe shrugged. “Given that both Lucy and Andre’s hemograph transcripts listed nine human signatures, I’d say it’s very likely. I consulted Dara and she thinks that from a psychological aspect, it is likely. According to Cynda, the mothers are very protective of the children they raise and seem to have a genuine fear for their own lives. Even a vampire who was modified to form attachments with the children would not be as likely to fear on as deep a level as a woman who knows she is a prisoner.”
“But Bluebeard isn’t raising the next generation of mods,” Andre noted. “From the report, I gathered that none reach adulthood.”
“He’s also selling genetic material,” I informed them grimly. Three sets of eyebrows raised in question. “This morning, Ingrid told me she went out to the farm with her clan several years ago. Apparently, Bluebeard’s name is Adam and the official name for the place is Blackthorn Plantation. The have an office in the Garden District that arranges weekend excursions and also sells genetic material to smaller clans, who don’t have the laboratory space to create their own modifications.”
“I’m afraid I’ve got what could potentially be more evidence of this modification.” Abe looked up from the tablet he was carrying. “I’m running a scan of the database to see if we’ve encountered any other vampires who might be immune to the enzyme. It’s only twenty-five percent finished and I still need to run the tests, but it looks like there are seven potential matches already.”
Everyone else seemed as stunned as I was. Granted, hunters who carried the enzyme didn’t rely on it as a way of killing vampires. Still, plenty of lives have been saved because they carried t
he enzyme and survived being attacked, including the lives of Evan and another hunter, Saba.
“All the more reason to put a stop to this guy,” I pushed on. “Ingrid actually came up with a pretty good plan for getting the last piece of the puzzle.”
“Ingrid?” Andre asked warily. “As in one of the three walking disasters who nearly burned your building down twice?”
“Three times,” I corrected him, “but that’s beside the point. She actually has a sound plan and if Abe can figure out the dilemma with Isaac, we can coordinate and create a diversion while you go in and rescue him.”
“What dilemma?” Evan asked.
“The monitor attached to his heart is a GPS tracker and not tied into the boundary security system,” Andre explained. “I sent you the scans, Abe.”
Despite my mixed feelings on Andre, I had to admit he was amazing. We all carried phones that were capable of doing a lot more than your average smart phone, but Andre’s was practically a handheld laboratory. He had once tried to explain to me how the different applications worked, but I got lost rather quickly. All I remembered about the density scanner was not to call it an x-ray because it didn’t use radiation, which I suppose is a good thing.
“I’ll have to run some simulations, but it’s not impossible. Isaac heals nearly as fast as Lucy and he wouldn’t run the risk of infections or shock in a non-sterile environment, but I’m afraid this isn’t a one-person job. The problem with this is that bringing one of my staff means one more person to protect, should the situation turn on us.”
“Hugh’s already signed on,” I informed him, “and if that’s not enough protection, I don’t know what is.”
“What about Johnny?” Evan suggested. “He’s still up to date on his licenses, right?”
I could have kissed Evan. Johnny Sloan, Saba’s husband, was a hunter, but prior to the discovery of vampires, he had been Abe’s assistant, having earned his medical degree through the military.
“Good thinking, I’ll run it by him.”
“So what’s this plan you have, Lucy?” Evan asked.
“Well, it’s Ingrid’s plan,” I informed him, mainly because it kind of sounded crazy and I didn’t want credit for that. “We’re going to pose as members of the Daughters in order to purchase developed genetic material, which is vampire speak for a full grown child. Ingrid thinks that even though she’s going to make it seem as though we’re looking specifically for a child to use in a ritual, Blue- err, Adam will make sure whatever kid we get is tagged out of sheer paranoia that we are going to do something crazy.”
“What makes you think he’ll sell one? I mean, the Daughters aren’t exactly picky about who they sacrifice. Wouldn’t it seem suspicious?” Andre asked.
“True, but according to Ingrid, the Daughters do enough crazy shit that no one questions their motives, as long as they aren’t doing anything to risk the vampire community as a whole. She’s going to offer the same price as a weekend at the plantation, so he should have no objections.”
“That seems too risky,” Andre said with a frown. “Even if Ingrid can convince Bluebeard to sell her a child without seeming suspicious, she’s going to have to be convincing throughout the entire performance. And it’s not like any of us can go with her in case she fails.”
“No, you can’t, but I can and so can Holly. All we have to do is convince Layla and Kaylee that they can’t go. I love them to death, but they are malfunctions in the vampire world for a reason.”
“Holly’s fine, but you are not going out there,” Andre informed me abruptly.
“What? Of course I am!” Of all the nerve! What right did Andre have to tell me what I couldn’t do?
“I’m afraid I’m siding with Andre on this,” Evan said apologetically.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“Lucy there’s no questioning the fact that you are on Bluebeard’s radar. Cynda proved that and Isaac confirmed it. I sent you into a trap unknowingly once before, I won’t do it willingly now. I think it’s a good plan, and we’ll find another way to ensure Ingrid’s safety, but I can’t let you do this.”
To say I was mad was an understatement. Paris was a totally different situation because as Evan stated, we didn’t know we were being set up. This time I had a plan.
“Do you think I didn’t take that into consideration? I’m not going to walk in there and hand him my driver’s license, I’m going to be disguised!”
“We’ll talk about it,” Evan conceded. I didn’t miss the dark look Andre gave him. “For now, let’s finalize the other aspects, like getting the time bomb out of Isaac’s chest. I’ll get together with Hugh and brief him on what the rumor mill doesn’t know and I’ll talk to Ingrid and Holly as well.”
“Just don’t try to keep me out of this,” I warned. Evan smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Of course I won’t. I can’t begin to know what you’ve gone through in the last few days, but I understand. You’ll know everything I do. Just stay local, that’s all I ask.”
“How local?” Despite everything that was going on, I still had a job to do and every night I missed meant another life I wasn’t saving.
“I’d rather you stayed here, but I can’t stop you from leaving,” Evan replied, knowing full well he could do just that. The fact that he didn’t threaten to take away my access out of the building was reassuring at least.
“I’m not leaving town,” I assured him flatly.
After leaving Evan’s office, I decided it was late enough in the day to see Cynda. When I got to her door I started to knock, but the sound of explosions, car chases, and two teenage voices antagonizing each other gave me pause. Apparently, Cynda must have been introduced to Anil Sloan, who in turn introduced her to the mind-boggling world of video games. Seeing as Anil was the only other teenager here at headquarters, I decided not to bother them.
Instead, I headed for the gym. Miles was right, if I was going to convince Evan to allow me to go on the rescue mission, I was going to have to get back into shape. I’m glad I decided to go early, when no one else was around, because it was a disaster. During my training, I worked out for four hours every day and even after that, I usually got one to two hours of serious exercise a day. I had gone from a slightly overweight couch potato to running five miles without being winded after just a few months. Unfortunately, after several months of skipping workouts as frequently as I skipped healthy meals, I had lost nearly all of my endurance. I made it two minutes on the treadmill before my lungs were ready to collapse.
I gave up and decided a better strategy would be to start with a brisk walk around the city and work my way up to a jog. Besides, the gray walls of the gym were no match for the sights of New Orleans. Even after almost two years in the city, I still found something new every day.
When I got to the corner of Canal and St. Charles, I decided the Quarter would probably be too busy to maintain anything close to a good stride. Instead, I hung a left onto St. Charles and headed towards the Garden District, picking up a protein smoothie along the way and pointedly ignoring the voice in the back of my head that seemed to think this was a bad idea.
The Garden District was huge, but despite the supposedly haunted homes and cemeteries, it wasn’t really on the radar for vampire activity. As a hunter, I’d only ever worked the area about three times and probably saw more teenagers in fake fangs trying to get a glimpse of their favorite Gothic celebrities than real vamps. As I passed under the highway and into the district, I realized that I severely underestimated how far away from headquarters it really was. I briefly considered hopping the streetcar for the last mile, but I felt guilty, so I grabbed a bottle of water from a convenience store and kept walking.
I decided that the boutique neighborhood near Lafayette Cemetery One would be a good place to start snooping for anything resembling a secret vampire booking agency. Of course, this might have also been because I was exhausted and I knew there was a halfway decent coffee shop nearby.
As I passed the cemetery, one of the tour groups was just letting out, and I found myself awkwardly walking against the stream of tourist, who were making their way down Washington Avenue.
Half the group was discussing the historic value of preserving New Orleans’ cemeteries and the other half were boasting of ghosts that they had seen, which meant no one was paying any attention to where they were going. In an effort to avoid any more collisions with oversized handbags that felt like they had been stuffed with stolen cemetery rocks, I pressed myself close to the cemetery wall and inched along.
“Tourists, can’t survive without ‘em, can’t confine ‘em to the Quarter, eh?”
I glanced over at the speaker, a man in a low-slung fedora and sunglasses, inching his way past the crowd just behind me. I smiled politely and rolled my eyes in sympathy.
“Here, let me give you a boost,” he offered, sliding up next to me, and putting his arm out to direct the flow of traffic back to their side of the sidewalk. I was surprised when it actually worked.
The crowd thinned and eventually gave way as we reached the open cemetery gates. “Thanks,” I smiled and began walking at a comfortable pace again, expecting the polite stranger to head off on his merry way. I should have known better.
“Keep walking honey, and keep that pretty smile on your face.”
To an outsider, the arm he slung over my shoulder would have appeared friendly, but the unnecessarily firm grip on my upper arm told a different story. I cursed silently. He had a crowd of tourists, who were probably carrying wads of cash and valuables, and he decided to mug me. In a way, this was good. Unlike the tourists, I was carrying little of value except Fred, my smartphone. Not only would he find my phone useless, but when he tried to use it, the police would be notified of his exact location. I nodded and tried to look fearful, yet nonchalant as he steered me through the gates to a tree-shaded back corner that wasn’t visible from the main pathway.
Ignoring the advice I’d received in every self-defense class I had ever attended, I held my purse out to the man, who now had me pushed up against the side of a crumbling crypt.
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 42
