Dropping Tony and the President on the floor as gently as I could, I warily watched the vampire, who held the first Lady tightly, shortened claws against her throat. She was scared out of her mind I could tell, but not even a peep came out of her mouth. Two agents rushed forward to protect the President, who was seeing something in the nearly unbelievable realm—a vampire holding his wife hostage.
"I'll trade her, for him," The vampire grinned, fangs showing, and pointed toward the President. Two agents grabbed the President by his arms and dragged him backward.
Don't get any closer to him or he'll place compulsion, I sent to Tony. I'd learned that lesson from a bomber who'd stood in front of Wlodek. The vampire had a square jaw and might have been handsome except for the malevolent sneer on his face. This one held humans in contempt—I could feel the waves of disdain rolling off him. The President was putting out vibes of fear; he truly did love his wife and was terrified she was going to die. As discoveries go, I barely had time to register that I could read strong emotions from humans and from some vampires unless they had them tightly under control. Werewolves? Not so much.
Tony, the President and I, along with various Secret Service agents, stood in the center of Cross Hall. The vampire had the First Lady backed into the entrance hall. What the vampire did next shocked me to my shoes. He sent out mindspeech.
Xenides! He shouted mentally. He didn't bother to direct that mindspeech only to the recipient since it was very likely that nobody else was going to hear it anyway.
Tony, did you get that? I sent in desperation. I'd heard the name Xenides before. Xenides had been Claremont's contact and was more than likely one of Saxom's get.
Get what? Tony had his gun out, as did the other agents, but the situation was much too volatile for them to fire weapons. The First Lady's life hung in the balance.
I know this doesn't mean anything to you, but he's sending out mindspeech for Xenides. I immediately went to mist. Time to deal with the situation before a second vampire showed up. One that was likely bigger, badder and much, much older than this one, who weighed in at a thousand years.
Tuning out Tony's cursing behind me, I floated behind the vampire, who was backing up now and doing a little cursing himself. He'd seen me go to mist. He hadn't been close enough to get my scent before but as far as I knew, no other creature could disappear that way. I was nearly behind him and in a position to remove his head when the second vampire rushed into the room. I thanked whatever or whoever was watching that he wasn't a mister too, otherwise he would have come in that way. It would have been foolish not to. What he did have, however, was mindspeech and he used it now. I cursed my inability to understand any language except English; Xenides was speaking in Greek. At least that's what I thought he was speaking.
It didn't take a genius, though, to discover his intent as Secret Service agents crept closer and closer to him. Only a little more and they'd be in range of his compulsion. He could tell them to shoot themselves or each other or the President. They'd do it, too, without turning a hair. The situation had just reached critical mass. If I killed Xenides, the other vampire would kill the First Lady. If I killed the vamp holding the First Lady, Xenides could get away or worse.
Get everybody away from him! I was doing a little barking of my own and Tony immediately called the agents back from the danger zone. We didn't need them shooting the president. Xenides growled out his displeasure at this turn of events and took a step forward. I suppose the agents knew if they shot him, the First Lady was dead and that's what held them back.
There are times, I know, after reflecting on them later, that you wish you could have forced time to stand still so you could perform two simultaneous acts without time speeding past you, forcing you to choose one over the other. Glen's death had occurred in just such a moment. Now, Xenides was going to escape because I couldn't allow the First Lady to die while her husband watched. I misted behind the first vampire and removed his head with less than a thought. Xenides didn't even realize what happened until I appeared three feet in front of him. The First Lady choked back a sob while the vampire who'd held her dropped in a heap on the floor, his head rolling away and his body turning to ash.
Xenides growled at me, then, and I might have gone after him; after all, my claws were extended and I'm sure my eyes were red and my fangs out as well. He was gone in an instant instead, moving as fast as Merrill could move. Who knows if I'd been able to catch up to him? Tony was shouting my name and that was the only thing that kept me from racing after Xenides.
* * *
The First Lady was sedated and resting in her bedroom while Tony paced and the President toyed with a pack of gum he'd pulled from a desk drawer in the oval office. I was getting to see the room under less than ideal circumstances. "You're sure he was shouting Xenides?" Tony was grilling me. He wasn't happy; I could tell that right away.
"Yes, Tony." I was weariness itself at the moment.
"What do you know about Xenides?" Tony demanded. I stared at Tony, wondering what he knew about Xenides and what I should actually tell him about Xenides.
"Old," I said. I didn't say how old. In the brief scent I'd gotten off Xenides, he was at least a thousand years older than Wlodek. Maybe more. And he had mindspeech. The vampire I'd killed had been similar to me, having misting ability as well as mindspeech. That was frightening. "He can mindspeak," I went on. "Both vampires tonight had the same taint as the others."
The President was listening dispassionately while Tony played twenty questions. The man had nearly lost his wife earlier. I'm sure he was having a hard time separating that from the matters at hand.
"Is that all you know?" The words were snapped in my direction. Tony was being a hard-ass.
Xenides was Saxom's main contact, I think. I'm sure he was his right hand man and is now bent on destruction since his sire was whacked. I sent my reply as mindspeech; I wasn't sure what the President knew or should know about Xenides.
Say that's all you know, Lissa. Tony's mindspeech was now just as weary as mine.
"That's all I know," I said aloud.
"I expect you to keep me informed," the President told Tony as he rose from his chair.
"I will," Tony nodded. We picked up more Secret Service agents on our way out of the Oval Office and the President and his guards went one way, Tony and I went the other. We found Bill and our driver next to a car outside. I climbed in gratefully. It had to be close to four in the morning; I was exhausted and knew I'd need extra blood when we got home.
"What did you intend to do if I hadn't stopped you?" Tony asked as we drove away from the White House.
"Which time?" I was pouting, now. My treatment after saving the First Lady had been less than polite in my opinion.
"When Xenides took off."
"I was going to follow the fucker and kill him if I could." I wasn't in any mood to mince words.
"Christ, Lissa." Tony rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. He didn't say another thing on the drive home.
* * *
"Take a look at these results," Dr. Lawrence Frazier showed Tony two separate experiments simultaneously on two computer monitors. "This one on the left was done using the ash you gave me three days ago. The one on the right is using the last of the fresh blood and tissue we collected. The difference in the two is remarkable."
Tony watched as the special ops soldier on the left took five minutes to turn to invisible mist while the one on the right turned immediately. He knew what Frazier was angling for and he also knew his time with Lissa was winding down quickly. He only had two more weeks. Guilt was still eating at him from the first time. If he allowed Frazier to take blood and tissue again, Tony would have to make sure Lissa was kept in the house; she was too tired and weak afterward.
"Come to the house tomorrow morning at ten," Tony snarled and stalked out of Frazier's office.
* * *
I sent the information over the whole First Lady/Xenides incident to Merrill and C
harles. I didn't have Wlodek's personal email account and wasn't likely to get it. I didn't really care whether Tony wanted the information passed over or not; this involved the vampires just as much or more than it involved him. I knew he had knowledge of Xenides that he wasn't giving me and I hinted at that to Merrill. The incident during the State Dinner had been hushed up for the most part, too. The news reported that it was a kitchen employee who went a little crazy and that the whole thing had been handled without injury. The First Lady wasn't even mentioned. As long as you weren't counting the dead vampire, I suppose the no-injury statement was true.
It was now three days since the State Dinner. Tony was working very late most nights and I was left to entertain myself. I finally picked up the folder he'd given me to read the final report on the kidnappings in Great Britain, receiving quite a shock. Tony had handed me the wrong folder—I could see that right away. The information on the top page concerned a terrorist named Rahim Alif. I almost slapped the folder shut so I could hand it back to Tony but another name on the top page caught my eye. It also had me reading the report front to back twice and then borrowing Tony's scanner, hoping like hell he wouldn't come home in the middle of what I was doing. I had all the pages scanned, saved in my computer and emailed to Charles just as quickly as my fingers and the computer could move. Then I put all the pages back in the folder and went to lay it on the kitchen counter.
Tony came in around ten, brushing rain off his trench coat. He looks nice in a trench, but I wasn't about to compliment him. I did offer to make a sandwich for him but he said he'd gotten something earlier during a meeting. "This isn't the folder on the kidnappings," I picked it up and handed it to him. "I looked at the first page, determined it was some secret spy stuff and left it here for you." Tony frowned and took the folder, opening it and then shutting it quickly. "You were right to give this back to me," he mumbled and stalked off toward his bedroom. He came back with another file. "This is yours," he said. I opened it and sure enough, it was mine.
"Thanks," I said, giving him the best smile I could. "Now I have something to read." I took off toward my bedroom. I never said I didn't read the first file. Everything I'd said was true, I'd just chosen my words carefully.
* * *
Charles was using curse words he didn't normally use. Ever. Unplugging the power source to his laptop, he raced up the stairs to Wlodek's study. "Honored One!" Charles almost screeched as he skidding to a halt in front of Wlodek's desk, leaving tracks in Wlodek's antique Persian rug.
"Charles, this is an unwarranted interruption," Wlodek frowned at his assistant. Charles set the laptop on Wlodek's desk and turned it around so Wlodek could look. There was a photograph with a handwritten caption, naming one of the persons in the photograph Xenides, the other Rahim Alif. Wlodek recognized Xenides. Oh, yes. He'd been introduced as someone else when he and Wlodek first met—centuries ago. The other looked to have a Middle Eastern background. Wlodek began to read.
"Charles, where did you get this?" Wlodek looked up from his reading.
"Lissa sent it to me. She said that it was accidentally handed to her instead of the file she was supposed to get. She scanned this so she could send it to us," Charles was excited. He very seldom was allowed to delve into the intrigue as he liked to call it. "Merrill got copied on it too," Charles added.
"Call Merrill and set up a meeting tomorrow evening if he's available," Wlodek said. "And copy me on this email, young Charles."
"Of course." Charles's eyes were dancing, although he acted as dignified as he could. He knew what Xenides looked like, now. That was a coup, indeed.
* * *
"You took too much last time and it hampered her," Tony glared at Frazier as he laid out blood collection supplies. Tony carried Lissa to his bed again; he didn't want her scenting any of this. Bad enough he was doing it and betraying her in the process. He also had no desire for her fiancé to learn of it.
Frazier whined and Tony finally gave in, watching as the blood containers filled up. Frazier packed it all away in his cooler afterward and left. Tony sighed and left the house after placing Lissa in her own bed.
* * *
Thursday, May twentieth came and I woke feeling really tired again. I had no idea what was causing this, determined to ask Merrill about it as soon as I got home. Gavin called and since I wasn't doing anything dangerous at the moment, he was almost pleasant. He merely grumbled instead of shouting.
"How close did you come to that monster, Lissa?"
"Which monster?"
"Xenides." Merrill had spilled the beans, looked like.
"A few feet away, honey. As soon as the other vampire died, he turned tail and shot out of there."
"Lissa, if he had placed compulsion," Gavin didn't finish that thought.
"He didn't, honey." What would Gavin say or do if I told him that compulsion wouldn't do a thing? I had to hide that knowledge. Who knows what the Council would do if they learned they couldn't control me?
"I also heard that you stood in as Winkler's Second to fight off a challenging werewolf." I didn't know who let that cat out of the bag but if I found out, we might have a bit of a tussle.
"Honey, it wasn't a big deal."
"I also heard that you were a Packmaster. At least for a short time." He wasn't happy about that, either.
"About thirty seconds," I said. "I didn't think you'd appreciate the commute I might have to make if I kept it." I was still in my pajamas, huddled against the headboard of the bed as I spoke with Gavin. I felt so tired and honestly wanted to roll over and just go back to sleep. I'd had my meal already, but while I spoke with Gavin, I leaned over the side of the bed, pulled a partial bag of blood out of my cooler and sipped it while we talked.
"Lissa, you always make light of these things," Gavin growled a little.
"Honey, what else am I supposed to do? Be gloomy and dire over all of it? Where's the fun in that?"
"I wouldn't mind seeing your smile, Cara."
"I wouldn't mind seeing yours either, Mr. Cantankerous."
When we hung up, I remembered that he'd bought something for me while on assignment. Well, time was ticking away and I wanted to get something for him too, grumpy schmuck that he was.
Since I wasn't sure that mindspeech would work with Tony wherever he was, I called his cell instead. "What do you want, Lissa?" He sounded even grumpier than Gavin did.
"I just wanted to tell you that I'm going out to do a little shopping." There was a mall nearby. I hoped to find something there.
Tony didn't want me to go. I could tell by the sound of his voice and I really didn't feel all that spiffy but I'd made up my mind to go anyway.
"Do you need to borrow a car?" Tony asked when he couldn't convince me to stay where I was.
"No." I'd gotten myself around New York. I could get around here, too.
"Then stay out of trouble." He ended the call abruptly. Tony had a lot of things on his mind. What with terrorists and all—I'd read that file. Something was going down, that's for sure. Xenides and Rahim were behind the attempts on the President and the Secretary of State and arranged the bombings in L.A. and several foreign countries. Somehow, Tony's department had learned of Xenides, probably before the Council did. Neither had shared information, and that wasn't a good thing. I wanted to kick Wlodek and Tony both, I think. What puzzled me (along with Tony and a lot of other agents and operatives) was that none of us could figure out why Xenides and Rahim had been in Atlanta, but it did explain why Tony had dragged me there weeks earlier. Several scenarios had been laid out in the file; certain businesses and officials could be targeted in Georgia but none of them really fit the classic terrorist target. There was even a pharmaceutical company listed in Atlanta, but they mostly made flu vaccines. Didn't make any sense to me.
I dressed and misted through the front door. I still had my credit card and most of my cash with me so I zoomed off toward the mall. The jewelry store inside the mall drew me and I looked at tie bars and money
clips. Gavin carried a money clip; I knew that. On the nights we spent together, he'd unload his pockets and the money clip always made the same clunk when he tossed it on the dresser.
"Is it possible to get it engraved tonight?" I asked the sales clerk. She was a nicely dressed woman in her forties that wore a brand of expensive perfume. It was all right—she hadn't bathed in it.
"I think we can do that," she nodded, "as long as it isn't too complicated."
"Just three initials," I said, and pointed to the gold and diamond money clip I wanted. She pulled it out and while it was being engraved, I looked at some fancy letter openers.
"That one is a replica of a Roman sword," the saleswoman indicated one that had caught my interest.
"I want that," I said. She pulled it out and let me look at it first, then boxed it up for me. Merrill was always playing with his letter opener. I'd take this to him. I paid with cash, causing the woman's eyes to widen a little; the total was more than twenty-two hundred dollars.
I bought Greg and Franklin gift cards from the bookstore. They both liked to read and this would allow them to buy online as well. I purchased a computer game for Charles. That wore me out and I had my doubts about making it back to Tony's place, but I did. I had even more blood when I arrived and then went to bed. I slept right past dawn and didn't wake until the evening of the twenty-first. I drank my dinner first thing and then with nothing else to do, I stripped the sheets off my bed to wash. Tony had a small laundry room—mostly I'd used it to wash my jeans, t-shirts and underwear. My special agent outfits had to be dry cleaned. Since I was washing sheets, I decided to pull Tony's off, too. Who knew when he'd washed them last?
The moment I walked into his bedroom, it hit me. I knew who'd been there and what he'd been doing. Tony must have let him in the back door through the garage; I hadn't smelled him in the rest of the house. The man I'd rescued from the pirates had been there and he'd taken my blood. The scent of it was all over the room. I'd been wounded often enough that I knew my own blood when I smelled it. Tony had hauled me into his bed so the other fucker could put his hands on me and take my blood. I thought my head was going to explode, I was so angry. Tony and I were done. He wasn't Winkler—he couldn't blackmail me. I could and would get the hell away from him. I stripped the top covers off his bed and left them lying in a heap on the floor. Then I went to get a bag of blood out of my cooler; one of the partial ones would do nicely. I painted my message to him in blood on his bottom sheet and left it there to dry while I threw my clothing into suitcases and called Merrill.
Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3) Page 23
