Winkler, I am still pissed at you, I wrote. If Leigh Williams is still available when all this is over, I think you should ask her out. You schmuck.
Then I went back to my map of places in Great Britain where the children had disappeared. How were they connected? I couldn't get any clear idea, even though I racked my brain over the whole thing. Dawn was coming and I barely had time to shower and get ready for bed before I was out.
* * *
Larry was asking for more ash and Tony was berating himself. If he'd had any sense at all, he'd have asked Lissa to pick up what she could of the mister from the night before. Tony was pacing a little in the President's office while Dr. Lawrence Frazier sat nearby. They'd all sat and watched the computer screen when Larry loaded in the results of his experiments with the mister's ash from Los Angeles. Tony couldn't believe what he was seeing. If a chimp could turn to mist, then a human could. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind about that. This had so many possibilities. Hostages could be rescued. Soldiers could be gotten into places they'd only dreamed of before—secret meetings between enemy operatives or inside tanks, planes and helicopters—Lissa had. Tony drew in a sharp breath and looked at his watch. It was after four. "I'll have somebody pick you up around ten tomorrow morning," Tony informed Larry. "Be ready to go and bring blood collection supplies with you. I trust you know how to draw blood without harming the patient?" He gave Larry Frazier a hard look.
"I can draw blood just fine, thanks," Frazier grumbled. The President was watching the exchange with interest.
"Is this something I don't want to know about?" he asked, steepling his fingers.
"It's better if you don't, sir," Tony replied. He was stepping onto thin ice, gambling heavily that it wouldn't crack beneath his feet.
* * *
"Lissa, don't you want a night off?" Tony watched as I pulled pieces of chicken out of a skillet. He hadn't come in until nearly ten and I hadn't tried to call him.
"I thought you wanted chicken," I said, turning off the burner. I'd even made cookies.
"I do, but I was going to take you out tonight."
"Then put the chicken in the fridge," I said. Yes, I was a little upset. If you wanted a date, it was good to call ahead of time.
"No, it smells too good to just stuff it in the fridge."
He ate while I watched the late news. No more reports on missing kids, at least. The ones still missing were very likely dead. I held no hope that any of them might be found alive. "Tony, have you paid any attention at all to those children missing in Great Britain?" I asked after a while.
"No. The Metropolitan Police are in on it, I hear."
"The ones that everybody calls Scotland Yard?"
"One and the same," he replied with a terse nod.
"Then that means there are disappearances in London, too." I mulled that over a little.
"I'd take that and a hundred to the bank," Tony said. "This chicken is really good."
"I was a good cook," I said.
"Still are."
"I wish I could taste it," I grumbled.
"Do you want me to check on the disappearances in London?"
"Could you?" I was excited, now. Tony carried more clout than I ever would.
"I'll see what I can find. Don't you want some wine or anything, Lissy?"
"I'll just have to cough it up later. I don't like doing that if I don't have to."
"You can bite me again."
"Tony, no. Any blood you give away can make you weak. Don't go there. You need your strength."
"Tell me about your fiancé." He had a smile on his face after dipping into the mashed potatoes.
I blew out a breath. "What do you know about the Council?" I asked.
"White tells me they're the Vampire Government. He's also alluded to Enforcers and Assassins and says that those guys are the peace-keepers for the Council."
"Gavin is an Assassin," I sighed. "And old on top of that. Trust me—you don't want to get into a pissing or staring contest with him."
"I didn't think vampires pissed."
"Figuratively speaking," I said. "You wouldn't want to get into a fight with Winkler, either."
"Seen him in action?"
"Yeah." My voice was a little glum over that. He'd ripped Tate Briggs apart while I watched.
"Want to check out a couple of houses like we did in Atlanta?" Tony asked after I loaded dishes into the dishwasher.
"I don't seem to have anything else to do."
"Good." Instead of the Escalade, he drove his other vehicle—an Aston Martin. Tony drove crazy at times but Charles could outdo him easily.
"Have you ever wrecked anything?" I asked, holding onto the oh God handle as we drove through town.
"Once." He grinned. "Am I scaring you?"
"If you ever have a chance to ride with my friend Charles, ask me again after that," I said.
"Charles?" He was interested, now.
"Have you ever talked with Wlodek?"
"Yeah."
"Did somebody else answer the phone first?"
"Yeah."
"You've talked to Charles," I said.
"Drives fast, does he?"
"Honey, he gets to his destination ten minutes before he leaves," I said.
"What does he drive?"
"He calls it the Lizard King," I said. Tony screeched to a halt at a traffic light.
"He has a Wiesmann GT MF-5."
"If you say so," I said. "I was never much on cars. Merrill has a Maybach that he won't let me drive. And a Bentley, which I really like and don’t get to drive. Not to mention the Rolls, which, no surprise, I also don't get to drive."
"What does he let you drive, then?"
"The Range Rover. He thinks I'll do the least damage to that." Tony snickered.
"You are not supposed to be laughing, mister," I swatted him. The light turned, so we drove on. "I'll have you know, I had a clean driving record."
"I know," he agreed.
"Slime," I said.
"I work in the security business, baby. What do you expect?"
"More sympathy and tact," I informed him. "Besides, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead."
"The rock band?"
"Now see, that's just totally disrespectful," I said. We pulled up in front of a building. Tony had a key—big surprise.
"We've already gone through and pulled out evidence," he said as we walked inside. It looked like a business of sorts, containing a desk with a phone (unplugged) a copy machine, chairs, corkboards on the walls, that sort of thing. What hit me when I walked in however, were the scents.
"The vampire I killed the other night was in here—a lot," I said, turning to look at Tony. "I'm getting three humans; two more prominent than the other."
"Was there only one vampire?"
"That's all I'm getting." I nearly heaved a sigh of relief. I was afraid he had brothers and/or sisters. Which brought up a whole new train of thought—what if Saxom did turn females? That was scary.
"Come upstairs to the living quarters," Tony beckoned for me to follow so we walked down a narrow hall and found the stairs at the end of it. The living quarters on the second floor smelled just the same; no new people or vampires there.
"Did you find any bagged blood?" I asked.
"No."
"They're feeding off the population, then. Have any recent outbreaks of flu or flu-like symptoms?" Tony looked at me as if I'd lost my marbles for a minute before hauling out his cell.
"Check all the local clinics and hospitals," he barked at somebody who'd barely had time to say hello. "See if there's been an increase in the reports of some sort of flu or something." We waited.
"In Silver Spring," the voice said. That was Maryland, I knew.
"Any particular part?" he asked.
"Citywide," the voice—a female—replied. Tony shut the phone.
"Silver Spring has about seventy-five thousand, population-wise," he said, running a hand through his hair. At least he had hair to
run his hand through. Nowadays, my wigs itched. "Why flu-like symptoms? What are we looking for, here?"
"If you drain out the blood, the donor feels weak. Depending on how much is taken, you might feel poorly for a day or two, particularly since you didn't know you donated blood."
"Ah." He looked at me for a moment and then motioned for me to follow him out of the building. We went to the next location. Two vampires this time, with two humans. Neither of the vampires were related to the mister I'd killed beneath the President's car. Also not related to each other. That didn't mean that one or both couldn't be misters. I gave Tony the information I had.
"Do you have any of the humans in custody?" I asked.
"Lissa, you should know better than to ask that. National Security is involved," Tony came up behind me and put his arms around my shoulders, pulling me against his chest.
"What is it with you people?" I grumbled, moving away from him.
"We're a tight-lipped bunch," Tony said. "Ready to go? I have an early morning."
"We can't have you staying up all night, then," I said and followed him to the car. He offered to let me drive but I declined. "I don't know where I am," I said. "You do."
"So, you know your way around London?" Tony asked innocently.
"Nice try, Security Boy," I said. "I'm not about to tell you where I drive around."
"You're just too quick for me," he said, pulling away from the curb.
"Yeah. That and a five might get you coffee at Starbucks."
I looked at my map again later after Tony went to bed. He might have wanted me to go with him; he looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it after a while and went down the hall to his bedroom. His door closed before I turned to the work I wanted to do—checking distances between the child disappearances. They varied. If it was a vampire and a human helper under compulsion, there had to be some rhyme or reason for these particular stops. I just didn't know what it was. Dithering for a little while, I broke down and emailed Charles.
Charles, I wrote, if it were possible that a vampire is behind these abductions, would these particular cities have any safe place nearby for a vampire to hole up, like a cave or something? I know I'll get smacked across the chops for even thinking this, but it keeps worrying me. Go ahead and tell me I'm an idiot. It won't be the first time, or even the first time tonight—Lissa.
* * *
"Just be careful," Tony watched Larry Frazier tie off a tourniquet on Lissa's arm and check for a vein. Tony carried Lissa into his own bedroom for this; he didn't want Frazier's scent anywhere inside Lissa's room. Her nose was much too sensitive.
"She doesn't have a pulse; that will make this difficult," Frazier grumbled. He recognized her, all right; she'd pulled him away from the pirates and gotten him back to safety. Now he knew how that was possible.
"Are you not finding any veins?" Tony was getting worried and he didn't want to hurt Lissa.
"May I make an alternative suggestion?" Frazier looked up at Tony and untied the tourniquet.
"What?"
"Cut or stick her somewhere that she's not likely to notice, take the blood and hope she heals while she sleeps. That's what I understand happens."
"But it was tissue—ash, I guess, that you got before." Tony slapped his forehead.
"Then anywhere we stick her, we'll get tissue and blood which should work just as well," Frazier said, pulling a large Vacutainer out of his kit. "This one has the largest needle. Turn her over."
Tony didn't know how he felt about the whole thing but did as requested. Frazier pulled down Lissa's pajama bottoms, felt around for what he thought was her femoral artery and jabbed the needle in. Frazier pulled out enough blood and tissue to satisfy his requirements before wiping off the puncture carefully. Tony watched with a worried frown—to him it looked like nearly three pints of thick, dark red blood.
"You have to be thorough, she'll smell the blood," Tony warned. "And don't use alcohol or anything else; she'll smell that, too." Frazier frowned and wiped the area again but it was already healing. He then packed up the samples and his supplies, leaving Tony to deal with an unconscious female vampire.
* * *
I felt tired when I woke. It was May fifth—Cinco de Mayo. Tony wasn't home so I drank my dinner and wandered around listlessly, eventually flopping onto the sofa in Tony's media room to watch television. I shouldn't be tired. I hadn't done anything strenuous and gotten my normal day's sleep. Tony came in around nine, finding me dozing on the sofa.
"Lissy, what's wrong?" He'd never caught me napping before.
"I feel tired," I said, yawning a little.
"Do you need more blood? Did you drink enough?" He came around to look at me, a concerned frown crossing his face.
"I got the usual amount. If I try to drink more than that, I cough it up. I don't think you want bloodstains all over your carpet." I rubbed my forehead a little.
"Take a little from me." He sat down beside me and opened the collar of his shirt.
"Tony, will you stop? That's not acceptable." I pulled my knees to my chest. I'd put sweats on and only wore socks on my feet.
"I wanted to go to Silver Spring and let you sniff around but I don't think you're up to it," he sighed.
"No, let me get my shoes," I said, waving him off when he reached for my hand to pull me back down. "Just bear in mind I'm not up to a marathon or anything."
Tony drove while I catnapped in the passenger seat. I felt like I was coming down with a cold or something and that was impossible. "Lissa, where do you think they might be?" Tony asked after a while. I'd nodded off again.
"Huh? Sorry." I rubbed my eyes. "Are there Mexican restaurants with bars or anything? It's Cinco de Mayo. There might be a crowd at those places and tipsy people make easy targets." Tony pulled out his phone and did a little web surfing, coming up with several possibilities so we took off again. We went to four places before I got a hit. I'd rolled my window down as we'd cruised past the other spots. This one, Cactus Bar and Grill, had tables set up outside and even though it was a little on the cool side, there were people on the patio drinking and laughing. There was also a vampire nearby; I could tell by the scent. I had to go to mist before he detected me.
Tony shouted as I turned in a blink and misted out the window. The vampire had fed already and was heading swiftly down an alley between businesses. I was so focused on him and on taking his head quickly that I failed to see where he was running. My brain was addled for some reason—I took his head and then materialized, looking behind me just to make sure we hadn't been seen. That was a mistake.
Two more vampires hit me like a storm and if I'd been slightly taller, they might have taken me down. I was unprepared when they sliced my forehead and my ribs, forcing me to duck and turn to mist again. Their momentum had carried them past me initially, but they were fresh and I wasn't, in addition to being injured. Both vampires came back after scenting my blood but I'd gone to mist and hovered above them. If I'd had a voice, I would have whimpered, I think. I still felt pain, even though I was mist. Tony was sending mindspeech as well, and that distracted me.
Lissa! Where are you? His mindspeech was a near-shout.
Stay away, Tony! I was trying to shout back and move behind one of the vampires at the same time. I was slashed across the back when I took the second vampire's head; the third vampire had seen me partially turn. He'd taken the opportunity when it presented itself and now I was truly crippled. The remaining vampire was turning swiftly, looking for any sign of me while he backed out of the alley, going toward the crowd. If he made it to that mass of people, there was no telling what he might end up doing. Many scenarios flitted through my impaired brain and none of them had a happy ending. I had to get him before he got too far ahead or he'd get away. Or kill and get away. Plus, if he had friends and managed to escape, any cover I still had would be blown. I was almost on him, trying to find an opening to take him while I still had some strength left when Tony ran into the al
ley, gun in hand.
Run, Tony! I was desperately trying to get him to run toward the crowd and lose himself in it. But of course he didn't. There wasn't any way he could stand against a vampire and his gun would be worthless. He fired anyway as the vampire bore down on him and I, using up the last bit of strength I had, flew into the vampire as fast as I could. Bringing myself back to corporeality then, I allowed my momentum to hurl my body into his, knocking him to the ground just before he reached Tony. Snarling and clawing, he fought as he twisted beneath my weight. Dumb luck saved me, I think. I raised my hand to fend off his claws, slicing his hand off in the process with my own fully extended talons. He screamed as I drew my other hand across his throat, nearly decapitating him. Exhaustion claimed me then; I had nothing left and nearly collapsed across the vampire's body. Tony had the presence of mind to grasp my hand in his and finish the job with my claws—I didn't have the strength.
* * *
"Lissy, please wake up, baby," Tony begged. He held a bag of blood in his hand while I lay on the carpet I'd told him I didn't want to damage earlier. My body was sliced and bloody and now his carpet was bloody as well. "Lissy, drink this," he commanded as I blinked up at him. My eyes were closing again when he slapped my cheek. "Drink this," he was shouting now, holding the bag to my lips. I swallowed as best I could, although he was forcing more blood into my mouth than I could comfortably take. More blood dripped onto his carpet while he worked. When the second bag of blood was empty, I lost consciousness.
* * *
Tony cursed himself. He cursed Lawrence Frazier. He cursed the vampires that had attacked. Nobody was safe from him that night. Lissa was unconscious again. He should have insisted that she stay home. He hadn't known what the effects of taking so much of her blood might be. He knew now. He called Ken White and asked him what problems might arise if a vampire lost blood. The vampire agent explained that it needed to be replaced as soon as possible. Otherwise, the vampire could show the same effects that a human might if they suffered blood loss. When asked, Tony informed Ken that Lissa had been hit taking down three vampires and had huge claw marks all over her. A concerned agent White volunteered to come but Tony ordered him to stay where he was, asking him instead what to do.
Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3) Page 18
