* * *
Senator Blaine Duff, from Oklahoma. That's who we'd been assigned to guard in Chicago. Honestly, I didn't think of him as conservative or liberal. I thought of him as batshit crazy. I'd voted against him (again) in the last election. Election time was here once more and he was making the rounds. I stared at Tony as if he were insane when he informed me that we were providing security for Senator Duff.
"Tony, that guy would like to see all the gays, progressives and atheists tortured and executed," I flung out an arm in disbelief. "And you're sticking me in the middle of his security detail? You want me to die if he finds out what I am?" I'd raised my voice and now Bill was pounding on the door.
Tony was a little angry himself and stalked over to fling the connecting door between our rooms open. "What?" he growled at Bill.
"Boss, things are getting a little loud in here," Bill was doing his best to be tactful.
"Fine," I muttered. I was done ranting anyway.
"Lissa, this is someone from your home state," Tony frowned at me. "And he's getting death threats."
"Honey, he's the reason I thought about moving away from Oklahoma," I grumbled. "Don't talk to me about how the state votes when he runs," I added. "My vote has been wasted for a long time now. And since I can't vote any longer, well, he'll be in office until he dies."
"Who says you can't vote?" Tony sat down on the edge of my bed.
"Tony, what the hell are you thinking? I'm dead, remember?"
"You don't look dead to me." That was from Bill and it shocked me a little.
"Our illustrious senator will think that if he finds out," I rubbed my forehead and sat down next to Tony on the bed. "As well as thinking I'm a minion from the lower levels of hell."
"You're not a minion from the lower levels of hell?" Tony teased.
"I may be a minion, but my digs are on the upper level now," I snipped. Tony laughed.
"Baby, you need to stop worrying about this and just do the job. That's all this is, okay?" Tony put an arm around me. "I may not agree with his politics either, but we have a job to do."
"And we're supposed to be professional about it." I hmmph'd a little.
"We have to be."
I didn't say anything on the way to the elevator and less, even, on our way to the back door of the hotel where the Senator and Co. were waiting. He was standing beside the usual dark car with tinted bulletproof glass, talking with two security guards. We were going to a stumping speech and fundraising dinner for a fellow political candidate; anyway that's what I was hearing.
The dinner went without a hitch—nobody planted bombs or sent in vampires. The speech was all about taking back the country. The last time I checked we were all Americans, so I didn't know from whom they planned to take it. We were loading into the cars after a lot of hand shaking and backslapping when the Senator motioned for Tony to come over and talk to him. Tony went and then came back after a minute or two of intense conversation. It was really noisy where we were; a busy street was nearby and honestly, I didn't want to hear anything Senator Duff said anyway. I should have paid attention.
"He wants you in the car with him," Tony said when he got back. There was the bomb that hadn't come earlier.
No way, I sent mindspeech. Tony, you cannot make me go with him. The man's wife had died shortly after he'd gone into office following the last election. I had no desire to cozy up to him for any reason. What if someone took photographs when we got to the hotel? That's all I needed—my face splashed all over the newspapers and television for Wlodek and the Council to see.
Lissa, this is an order, Tony ignored my pleading. At least I had my engagement ring on; maybe that would hold the turkey off if he had amorous leanings.
I had my shortest wig on, too—the ones Tony replaced had caught up with us and I preferred it since it didn't get in the way as much as the other two. Sighing, I walked toward the Senator's car and the Senator himself. Duff had additional security guards with him and one of them opened the limo door for me and waited until I sat down to shut the door. Two security guards rode along with us. A small, built-in television was on and tuned to a news station inside the car. I discreetly attempted to sit across from the Senator, but one of the agents motioned for me to sit next to the esteemed politician. I scooted as far into the corner as I could, the senator's door was shut and off we went.
"I haven't seen you before," the Senator offered an assessing stare. I felt shaky under the unwelcome scrutiny, but forced a smile anyway.
"I don't usually do this sort of thing," I said.
"Director Hancock says you're on loan from one of his special divisions. Is that true?" Duff was smiling now. I wasn't. He was in his mid-fifties, worked out daily, didn't have much gray in his nearly-black hair, had nice teeth, brown eyes and political and religious beliefs that would give me nightmares if I were still capable of having them.
"Yes," I answered his question.
"I spoke not long ago with Admiral Hafer, who described a young woman that managed to perform an amazing rescue," Senator Duff went on. "His description closely resembles you, Ms. Huston." The asshole was fishing for information and trying to nail me, I think.
Tony, I sent, he's saying he talked to the Ass Admiral, who gave a description of me. What should I do?
Tell him you're not at liberty to discuss any mission, Tony sent back. He sounded as if he wanted to do a little cursing, but didn't send that through the mindspeech.
"Sir," I said to the Senator, "I am not allowed to discuss any mission. I apologize."
"That's too bad," the Senator went on. "The Admiral certainly wanted to utilize those same talents, although he wasn't completely sure what they were."
I'll just bet he would. I almost snorted but held it back. "I go where I'm sent," I said instead. "He'll have to contact Mr. Hancock about that. He's the one in charge at the moment," I added, trying to be as diplomatic as I could.
"I get the feeling Mr. Hancock is less than forthcoming regarding your services." What did this guy want from me? Better yet, what did Admiral Hafer want from me?
"You'll have to address those concerns with Mr. Hancock."
"What if I would like you to have breakfast with me in the morning?" The Senator lifted an eyebrow.
"Senator, while that sounds tempting, I am engaged and my fiancé is quite jealous. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing anything of the sort."
"That's quite a ring on your finger." It was quite a ring. A full two-carat stone surrounded by swirls of smaller diamonds. I couldn't find anything like it anywhere and was afraid to have it appraised. It was probably worth a fortune.
"My fiancé only buys the best," I quipped. If we'd been alone in the car I would have placed compulsion, but we had Duff's two security guards with us and I was afraid to take the chance. Tony, now he's asking me to have breakfast with him, I sent. I don't know if he's digging for information like the Admiral was or if he wants a grope. Tony called my cell phone instead of sending mindspeech. I answered.
"Lissa, we have that appointment in the morning," he said.
"What appointment?" I was confused for a moment.
"The one at seven thirty." He was lying and I figured it out, finally.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot about that," I said. "What time do we need to leave in the morning?"
"Around six or six-thirty."
I repeated the time for the Senator's benefit and said I'd be ready. Tony hung up. "Couldn't have breakfast anyway, I forgot we had something to do in the morning." I tucked the cell phone inside my jacket pocket.
"Well, I would certainly like to hear someone else's account of what Admiral Hafer told me," Senator Duff said. "If you feel up to that sometime, please let me know."
"I'll keep it in mind," I said, glancing over at the security guards. They must have gone to the same school of non-expression that most of the vampires attended; they never made a sound or moved a facial muscle. Maybe their jobs were on the line if they developed a nervous t
ic. I turned my attention to the small television inside the limo then and almost cursed. Two more children had been kidnapped in Great Britain the evening before. Everybody was getting scared, now. These two made fifteen known disappearances and someone who lived near the two missing boys also claimed to have seen the blond man with the scar. I wanted the information that the newscaster was giving but Senator Duff picked up a small remote and turned off the television. I wanted to hit him for that.
As soon as we drove under the hotel awning, I was out of the car. While I worked my job making sure the Senator was safe, I also did my best not to look him in the eye once. He probably had plans to call the Admiral up and let him know where I was as quickly as possible, and that irritated me. Once the senator's security guards ushered him inside the hotel, I breathed a sigh of relief and slumped a little.
"He said he talked with Hafer?" Tony wore a deep frown as he came to stand beside me.
"That's what he said," I replied.
"I may have to make a few calls myself," Tony muttered.
"Tony, don't draw any more attention than you have to," I grabbed the lapel of his suit jacket. "And just to make sure, you'd better have somebody go out of this hotel in the morning looking like me in case Duff wants to snoop."
"Then we need to get you out of here tonight and make sure the cameras catch you leaving. I'll have someone else come in to take your place later. They can borrow your wig," Tony was grinning at me. Maybe he could joke about this, I couldn't.
That's how I ended up staying the day at another hotel nearby. Tony made the arrangements and brought in a female FBI agent who waited in the room for me, took my wig and walked out of there looking as much like me as anyone could, I suppose.
* * *
"Sir, here's the taped footage," Hafer's assistant, Lieutenant Simpson handed a flash drive to the Admiral.
"Let's see this," Admiral Hafer handed it back. Lieutenant Simpson loaded it into his computer, pulling up the images.
"Senator Duff has already reviewed the footage and verified the image," Simpson said. "See, here she is, walking out of the hotel with Hancock." They had a view of the female agent leaving through the hotel's sliding glass doors and climbing into a waiting car outside in full daylight.
"Well, that destroys my theory," Hafer muttered.
"What theory, sir?" Simpson gave his superior a sharp glance.
"Nothing. We were wrong, anyway," Hafer sighed. "I still want her services; I just don't have enough clout to demand them."
"What might she do for you?"
"Son, I saw something that I still find hard to believe," Hafer said. "And if she can do shit like that, everybody might come knocking."
* * *
Tony was aggravated. Well, aggravated might be too mild a term. Lissa had been right to want to stay away from the Senator. Duff had demanded a copy of the security recording from the hotel, sending it straight to Hafer. Fortunately, Hafer and Duff had both fallen for the disguised agent. Lissa's wig was now securely returned to her head and she'd walked inside the hotel with Tony after nightfall. Tony was thankful the Senator had spent most of the day inside his suite, doing business from there before flying out that evening to Oklahoma. Tony, Lissa and Bill would be on the same flight. It would be a relief to leave the Senator behind when he, Bill and Lissa flew back to Washington in three days.
* * *
"Is there anything you want to do while you're in your home state?" Tony smiled down at me. He wanted to put an arm around me but that wasn't professional behavior so he held back.
"The things I might like to do probably aren't such a good idea," I said, thinking about Don's grave. I'd like to put flowers out since I'd be close but that could be dangerous. I wouldn't put it past the Senator to have me followed. I hadn't had a chance to take my laptop with me the previous evening and my cell had died; I didn't have the charger for it, either. Therefore, it was poetic justice that I had several emails from different people, including Franklin and Charles plus an angry voicemail from Gavin. I called Gavin first.
"Honey, there was a bit of a snafu; my phone ran down and I didn't have my charger," I said.
"Lissa, you are going to have to learn to be better than this," he said. His voice was only raised a little so I have to give him credit for that. Honestly, I was getting a little homesick again and I wished I were anywhere except where I was.
"I know." Tears were threatening again. If it were someone else or if Gavin would only be content to chat, I might have told him that my hair was now a little more than half an inch in length—it was growing back fairly quickly and my eyebrows and eyelashes were almost normal. Another inch or so on my hair and I'd go wig free most of the time. Instead, I listened while he lectured me. Before he hung up, however, he told me that the Council had a new prisoner. They'd discussed it at the meeting they had two nights earlier. It was unusual for him to give out information on when the Council met and that surprised me a little. He also said that Wlodek wanted to wait until my return to do anything with the prisoner. I understood that—he wanted to know if the captive was Saxom's get before the trial. Gavin knew I'd figure it out. What he didn't know was that I'd gotten other information from him as well. Inadvertently, of course.
My next call was to Charles, who sounded as if he were walking around and working while he talked. We exchanged pleasantries for a little while before I asked him what I truly wanted to know. "Charles, I know this is likely none of my business and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but just bear with me for a few minutes. You probably don't have any interest in those children that are disappearing in Great Britain, but it's bothering me. What I want to know is whether the disappearances have coincided with any Council meetings in the past."
Charles didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Lissa, I'll look into that but I don't think I'll find anything," he said.
"Well, it was just a thought," I said. "I don't know why I was thinking it anyway." We talked for a minute or two more before he said he had to take some papers in to Wlodek and hung up.
* * *
"Honored One, I may have something here and you may not like it," Charles walked in with several papers in his hand, some of which he'd only printed off the computer in the past few minutes.
"What do you have, young Charles?" Wlodek looked up at his assistant expectantly.
"Look, sir." Charles placed two stacks of paper in front of the Head of the Vampire Council. "Each disappearance occurred on the same night as a regular Council meeting. We've had many unscheduled meetings between, but those notices don't go out until a few days ahead of time."
"What does this mean, Charles?" Wlodek frowned at the younger vampire.
"It means that these children disappeared when every Enforcer in England would be inside the cave that same night," Charles said.
"But that information is only known to the Council Members, the Enforcers and the Assassins," Wlodek said and then knocked his chair over, he stood so quickly. "Get Gavin on the phone and quickly," Wlodek ordered. Charles pulled out his cell and dialed.
Chapter 9
I sat in the back of the plane and pretended to be asleep so the Senator wouldn't be tempted to talk. He sat toward the front, his two guards nearby, while Tony and Bill sat somewhere between. Tony did his usual emails. That held the Senator off him, while Bill was the quintessential agent and put everybody off. We were now in the downside of April and I scented trees budding out and new grass when we landed in Oklahoma City. Our destination was an upscale hotel with a bookstore nearby, which might have spelled heaven any other time. I was still concerned about the Senator and couldn't enjoy the fact that printed pages were within walking distance.
Tony received phone calls the moment he hit the ground and took most of them away from the rest of us, making sure we couldn't hear. He knew how good my hearing was and seemed determined that I not be privy to his conversations. No big surprise, the man was who he was, after all. When I checked my laptop
for messages after we got into our room, I found one from Winkler. He was still on my shit list but I opened it up anyway instead of deleting it like I first thought.
There was an attachment with three proposals from different sculptors, depicting preliminary drawings of sleeping wolves for Glen's grave. He was buried in a cemetery in Dallas; I'd checked into that earlier. I liked one of the three best, even as Winkler's email tried to apologize. Well, screw him, and not in the physical sense. I told him which one I liked and that's all I told him.
Merrill's email was next, telling me that a shipment of blood should be arriving at the hotel the following day. That was a good thing—I was about to run out and had let him know a few days before just what my remaining supply was. He was taking care of it for me.
* * *
"Charles was the one who brought this to my attention." Wlodek studied Gavin, who sat before Wlodek's desk inside his private study. Charles, who stood nearby in case he was needed, cleared his throat a little and looked guilty.
"Charles?" Wlodek knew what his assistant's expression meant.
"Honored One, I was talking with Lissa last evening and she turned my attention to this," he said, hanging his head a little. Gavin lifted an eyebrow. He'd been the one to mention the last Council meeting to Lissa; she must have called Charles immediately after. He was glad she was in the states and nowhere near this. This was turning into a huge debacle.
"Since, then," Charles went on, "I took the liberty of talking with Rad—sorry, Radomir—and he told me exactly what happened at Vilmos' cottage. I managed to pull up Vilmos' last bank charges. Sir, I don't think you're going to like this." Charles handed over an itemized list of charges. Wlodek frowned as he took the papers from Charles. "I highlighted the ones that you might be interested in."
Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3) Page 15
