“I wish I could, Lucy,” Evan said with a weary expression, “but xenophobia has been on the rise for a while now. The government sees vampires as an invasive species, not as a different culture. The problem has escalated and the intolerance has spread to the point where some, Jack included, are pushing for a national registration of all vampires.”
“All? As in…” I couldn’t even bring myself to put words to the absurdity of it all. Evan nodded grimly, and one look at Dara showed that this was not the first she had heard of it. Her mouth was set in a thin line.
“That's... I can't believe...” I sputtered.
“Completely typical of the government,” Lance finished for me with undisguised bitterness. “But what do I know? I'm just a gay terrorist on at least two watch lists.”
“What?” I knew Lance had issues with the military and their views on gay rights, but I had no idea he was targeted for it.
“After I was kicked out for violating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, I took a couple of years abroad to blow off steam,” he explained with a shrug. “Apparently traveling to Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Yemen, and Syria to study different martial art forms raised a few eyebrows with Homeland Security.”
“Syria, sure, and maybe Yemen, but what was their excuse when they were questioning me?” Saba added. “I studied ballet in the Soviet Union as a child. For god’s sake, the Cold War was already over when I applied for citizenship.”
“Okay yeah, I understand why that would suck, but you two are walking weapons, so I kinda see where the government could have some concerns,” I said cautiously. “Forcing someone like Ida onto a registry for dangerous criminals is nothing more than an invasion of privacy. What is she going to do, feed people to death?”
“Without starting a philosophical debate, yes, it seems that for every step forward this nation takes on civil rights, we take two back. You can see where this puts us in a bit of a moral gray area,” Evan continued. “I stand behind the organization I created one hundred percent, but I refuse to cross the line between protecting the public and genocide. There may come a point where we are once again operating as an independent organization, and it may come sooner rather than later, but today we have bigger problems.”
That seemed like understating the issue to me, but I grudgingly let it go. Starting a fight with the folks who were on my side wasn't going to help anyone.
“What happened at the tourism office?” Andre asked. It was probably the most words he had said since we returned. As soon as we got word back to Evan that the mission was compromised, he had sent a team over to the office in the Garden district to secure as much information as we could.
“We’ve got the three employees who were there in custody and the premise is being scanned for traps. Mike already found out the hard way that the computers can’t be unplugged.”
“Is he okay?” I asked. Mike was pretty tough, but he was only human.
“It caught fire. Whether that was the intended outcome or a faulty bomb, we don’t know yet. Mike’s fine, though he’s a little upset that his mustache was singed.”
“Unless you have need for me here, I’d like to see if I can offer Mike any assistance.”
“I’m sure he’d welcome your input,” Evan said with a nod, though I didn’t miss the slight frown with which he regarded Andre. With a curt nod to his uncle and the briefest of eye contact with me, Andre left.
Something was definitely wrong. Undoubtedly, his assistance would probably be valuable over at the office, but asking to leave in the middle of a briefing was simply out of character. It tore at my heart to see him like that.
“So where do we stand with the government?” Saba asked.
“Jack Benson’s jumping a flight down here as we speak and I’m going to try to talk some sense into him. In the meantime, I’ve taken everyone off rotation for the foreseeable future. I don’t like it, but with all the injuries, we’re down too many hunters at the moment anyway. Once I know that the agency’s goons are gone, I’m sending a small team in to try and confirm Bluebeard’s death.”
“I’d like to offer my assistance,” Isaac said vehemently. “If his office was rigged then you can bet your butt that even in ruins, the farm’s still got plenty of deadly secrets and I’m the only person here who isn’t a minor with inside information.”
“Then I’m going too,” I added. After the hell we just went through, I wasn’t going to let my father go back there without me.
“Out of the question, Lucy,” Isaac told me. “You shouldn’t have been there in the first place and you are not one hundred percent healed.”
I started to protest, but Evan cut me off. “We’ll discuss it when and if I send a team. Right now, I’ve got to prepare for Benson’s visit. I’ll update everyone as soon as I have a better idea as to where we stand.”
I decided to go down to medical and see if there was anything I could do to help out. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea because as soon as we entered the elevator five voices echoed, “Medical” at the same time.
“Great minds,” Saba said with a nervous laugh.
“Any word on Johnny?” I asked her.
“He gets to add a few more trophy scars to his collection, but he’s fine. Damn lucky,” she said with an uncharacteristic waver in her voice. “Shot three times and nothing vital was hit. Someone was looking out for him.” She covered her face with her hands and her shoulders shook silently. “Oh god!”
“Saba, what is it?” Dara asked softly.
“I’m so sorry,” Saba apologized with a sniff. “Is it terrible that I almost wish the government does shut us down just so that I don’t have to watch my son follow in our footsteps?”
“No, of course not!” I said as the others echoed the sentiment. Lance put his arm around her shoulder and held her.
“After what we just went through I don’t want to send Anil out there and I’ve been helping to train him,” he said quietly.
“Maybe I can convince him to join the outreach,” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t worry just yet,” Dara added softly, but there was an ominous undertone to her words. “I think there’s going to be a lot of changes for all of us.”
I had a bad feeling she was right.
Chapter 23
The medical atrium was packed, but surprisingly calm when we arrived. Several of the girls from my outreach appeared to be herding the children into groups.
“What can we do to help?” I asked Kaylee, who was standing with the two young girls that I had rescued.
“All of the injured have been taken in to be seen, but it’s going to be a while before all the rest are going to get in. Abe’s in with Hugh, so Brad asked us to get some information.” She gestured with the clipboard in her hand. “I think you just undid some of our progress.” I followed her gaze to where Isaac stood talking to several of the older kids, who had left their groups to say hello and give him hugs. One of them was Ben, whose emotionless face stood out sharply in the sea of smiling children. “Ida just went to start making lunch. I think food might calm them down a bit.”
“She’s probably going to need help. I’ll snag my dad so that you can restore order,” I volunteered just as the youngest girl from the group I rescued, Trina, tugged on Kaylee’s pant leg and informed her that she had to go.
“Go where, sweetie?” Kaylee asked, which caused Trina some embarrassment. I couldn’t help but laugh at Kaylee’s confusion.
“I think she has to pee,” I whispered, shaking my head as I walked away.
“Can I steal you from your fans?” I asked Isaac lightly, smiling at the boys who were chattering at him. “Ida’s cooking lunch and I figured she could use some help. And Kaylee says you’re disrupting the well organized chaos.”
“Of course,” Isaac said with a smile. “You boys better get back to your groups before I get in trouble. I promise to come back with the best food you’ve ever tasted.”
As they reluctantly went back to their groups,
I hung back for a moment. “Hey Ben, can I talk to you for a moment?” He hesitated for a second then nodded and followed me over to an unoccupied corner. “I just wanted to thank you for getting us out of there. Without you to guide us, I wouldn’t have made it over that bridge. You were very brave, and I’ll never forget that. Thank you.”
For a moment he looked confused, but finally acknowledged my gratitude with a stoic nod. “You’re welcome.”
That even now, after he was safely far away from the hard life on the plantation, he kept up the emotionless front bothered me and I weighed my next words carefully. “About… about your mother, I know what it’s like to lose a parent. It’s awful, and sometimes even now, it saddens me when I think about my own mother. I’m sorry you had to experience that loss.”
A wild array of emotions seemed to war for dominance. At last he smiled at me, but it was a sorrowful smile and his eyes were moist. It was a bittersweet moment, watching the child who stoically led us through hell finally accept that it was okay to feel.
“Thank you, Lucy. I’m sorry too,” he said shyly before returning to his group.
I suspected Dara was going to have her work cut out for her, but if Cynda was any indication, these kids were pretty resilient. I might not have the same desire for a family as someone like Kaylee, but as I followed Isaac out to the kitchen, I found myself wiping stray tears from my own eyes.
“Well it looks like the reinforcements have arrived,” Ida said with a chuckle as Isaac and I entered the kitchen. “Grab a ladle; you’re just in time to start saucing the pies.” She gestured to the seemingly never-ending row of perfectly round discs of pizza dough that lined the counter. I glanced over at Ida’s flour covered assistants, Cynda and Anil.
“Your suggestion, I presume?”
Cynda smiled widely. “No one should go through life without knowing the joy of pizza. And ice cream, we have plenty of that too.”
“Just make sure you put plenty of vegetables on there.” Ida waved her wooden spoon for emphasis. “I don’t want to be known as the mean old lady in the kitchen. Kids need to learn early that healthy food is good food.”
“You trying to tell me you aren’t the mean old lady in the kitchen anymore? Shoot mama, you’re getting soft in your old age.” Isaac’s teasing earned him a light rap on the knuckles with the wooden spoon. Despite every horror I had encountered today, I couldn’t help but crack a smile at their natural interactions. It was as if everything was normal and Isaac hadn’t been missing for years. But that was just Ida’s way. As she put it, at her age she didn’t have enough future left to have regrets about the past.
“Ah, now don’t go making me get all sentimental. Though I gotta admit, I am having some feelings of déjà vu having all these little ones around and I don’t mind that one bit. If these kids turn out half as good as you, I’ll be pleased.”
“Then we’ll just have to make sure they’re twice as good,” Isaac said with a misty-eyed smile. “Boy they sure ain’t going to go hungry are they? How many pizzas are you making?”
“Oh I don’t think we’ll have to worry about leftovers,” Ida said while shaking cheese over a pie. “I’ve seen these two eat one apiece and there’s what, thirty kids out there?”
Isaac and I exchanged nervous glances. I had thought everyone was informed about the mission’s failures. Cynda noticed my expression and set down the bowl of peppers she was holding.
“Not everyone made it out did they?” she asked quietly.
“No,” I said hesitantly. “After the military showed up… I’m so sorry, Cynda. We saved as many lives as we could.”
She blinked a few times. Anil glanced at her nervously, unsure if he should say or do something. He was likely feeling just as guilty as I was, considering that I sent him and his mother away at the first sign of danger.
“I… I don’t blame you,” she said shakily. “At least… they’re not… at least Bluebeard can’t hurt them anymore.”
I prayed she never found out the details of what actually did happen at the plantation. It was something I knew I’d never forget and she was too young to have to live with that kind of regret.
“We’re going to make sure those who survived have the very best life possible, Cynda,” Ida said and put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “If you want to go see them, we can handle it here.” Cynda nodded and silently removed her apron.
“I wish I could have done something, anything,” Anil said after she had left.
“I know, me too,” I told him. “But I’m grateful that you didn’t put up a fight. I know how easy it might have been to try to be the hero, but if anything would have happened to you… well, there’d be a lot of people who would be devastated, not just Cynda or your parents. Look what happened to your father.”
“How many died?” he asked.
“Nearly as many as we brought back.”
The mood of the kitchen remained sober as we finished the pizzas and began gathering the plates and utensils we would need. Everyone who hadn’t required immediate medical attention had been moved to an observation suite so that they could eat and relax in relative comfort.
Watching the kids eat pizza for the first time lifted everyone’s mood, at least temporarily. A few of the older kids were suspicious and held back at first, but it wasn’t long before the tempting smells and the exclamations of awe by the younger kids got the better of them. Cynda seemed to be in better spirits, or at least she was doing a good job of faking it for the sake of the others.
I slipped into the kitchenette, where Layla and Kaylee sat around the small island counter, feeding the babies and younger children. I was almost ashamed that I had worried about their ability to care for children based on their previous domestic disasters. They were handling the kids as if they had been mothers for years.
“Any news?” I asked as I slid onto the last free chair.
“Bad or good?” Layla replied with a look that implied whatever bad was, I probably didn’t want to know.
“How bad is bad?” I asked cautiously.
“Hugh’s come through the surgery, but he’s still listed as critical. We haven’t had an update in over an hour.”
“But everyone else is stabilized,” Kaylee added with an attempt at a hopeful smile. “It was really tense for a while because one of the women, Zora, the one who had been shot in the leg, had an allergic reaction to the anesthetic.”
“Hugh's tough,” I said, more to convince myself, “he's got to pull through. How's Ingrid doing?”
“Don’t talk to me about that heifer.” Kaylee rolled her eyes. “She's completely healed and she really should be down here helping us, but she's still pretty scarred and she thinks she’ll scare the kids.” Of course, the ridiculous thing about that wasn't simply that Ingrid was a beautiful woman, but that she would scare children who had lived through a lifetime of horrors and seen far worse than a few burn scars.
“I think she’s still a little upset about the tracker too,” Layla added. “Word got back to her about what some folks thought.”
“No one blames Ingrid,” I assured them. “I heard that too and got mad. But Miles and Holly apparently spoke up for her. I’ll try to talk to her soon.”
Layla glanced over her shoulder then leaned in so that just Kaylee and I could hear. “We're not safe anymore, are we? I mean, out there. There's been a lot of rumors flying ever since Evan got the call that the government sabotaged the mission.”
“I'm not really sure,” I said honestly, “but from what I've heard, no, it doesn't look good for any of us. I don't like it and there's not much we can do. How do you fight for the civil rights of a group that ninety-nine percent of the population thinks are imaginary?”
“Never mind the fact that if they did believe, it would be that we are nothing but blood drinking killers,” Kaylee added wryly. “How do you fight against that which is technically true more often than it isn't?”
She wasn't saying anything that I hadn't already ta
ken into consideration. On one hand, the government had just as much reason to go after the mods as they did any other terrorist organization. Technically, they were doing the exact same thing as Evan’s group. Granted, hunters only killed when the vampire showed intent to kill. But on the other hand, they were painting all vampires, natural or not, as mindless killers who don’t deserve basic human rights. In their eyes, not only was I no better than the mods, but neither were natural vampires like Dara and Ida, and I couldn’t think of any situation that would justify that kind of broad bigotry in this day and age.
“I wish I could say that I have faith in Evan’s ability to set the government straight, but I’m going to be honest. If Agent Phillips was any indication of what the rest of the government is like, odds are we’re screwed. But I’m not going to discount Evan that quickly. Even if he can’t convince them we’re okay, he sure as hell isn’t going to let them get at us.” I wasn’t sure if I even believed that myself, but I didn’t want to add to their worries.
After everyone was stuffed with too much pizza and ice cream, they were divided into groups, based on age and gender, and shown to their temporary quarters. Though I was physically drained, I wasn’t yet tired. And to be honest, I was more than a little worried because it had been several hours since I had last heard from Andre. Evan was still tied up with the agency, so it wasn’t as if I could just pop into his office and ask for a status update. I needed to take my mind off of things for a while, so I went up to the roof, knowing that with the night shift still asleep, I would have the garden to myself.
As I made my way to my favorite alcove, I noticed a lone figure against the backdrop of the setting sun. I couldn’t make out who it was until she turned, revealing a sizable belly.
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 53
