“Yes, well, if it had been up to me, Johnson and Maggie would be on this plane with us right now. We need him in the field, not stuck in DC.”
“Believe me, he’s fine being in DC. He’s spending time with Maggie, alone, and without work interrupting them. What would you give to have two solid weeks with Dylan and not have to worry about the VEB?”
“I see your point,” Karma said and grinned. She and Dylan were secretly planning their wedding, and their honeymoon. “Dylan and I may take a vacation once we find Caia and eliminate Crompton.”
“Do you think things will calm down some once Crompton is eliminated?” Gina asked, wanting nothing more than a little peace.
“Maybe for a bit, but we have a list of vampire who are in violation of the laws. We will track them all down,” Baxter answered.
“And even after they’re all eliminated, there will be others. Some vampire will become bored with the new laws and violate them. When they do, we will find out, and we will hunt them,” Dylan told her. “But, for now, we focus on getting Caia back and stopping Crompton before he decides to leave the US.”
“Speaking of leaving the US, how are the InterPol negotiations going?” Karma asked Eduardo.
“They’re going well. We have England, Spain, and France on board already, and President Isaac has meetings with Africa and Russia this week. We’re hoping to have the world involved by summer.”
“Good,” Karma said and grinned.
“England and France are wanting you and Dylan to come speak with their leaders,” Ramsey told her, and her grin faded.
“What?” She asked, and Ramsey laughed.
“You’re the faces of the VEB, and the US Government, and you didn’t expect other countries to want to meet with you?” Constance asked. “One of us will be accompanying you to whatever country you’re visiting as we are all from one or the other of them. Ramsey and I were born in the United Kingdom, Eduardo was born in Spain, Aleyn, Holbrook, and Langley were born in France, and Dristen was born in Ireland. I have a home in a small village in England, and return there every century or so for a few years.”
“I believe we all have homes in the country we were born in,” Ramsey told them. “I know I have one in the village I was born in. After I was changed, I bought land there, and I return, posing as a descendant, every fifty years or so. No one remembers me from my last visit, and I only stay a few months to a year when I’m there, but I love it when I am there.”
“I too have a home in Spain,” Eduardo said. “It is not the same village I lived in as a child, as that village no longer exists. I have a very nice home in Madrid, and a cabin in the mountains near the coast. It’s where I go when I want to be alone, and I return more often than some of the others because, seeing as I am in a very large city, I rarely come across people I know. Since coming out of hiding, I will most likely return more often though.”
“Some will try running us from our homes now that they know what we are,” Aleyn stated, sadly. “But they will adapt like the rest of the world.”
“You’re too pretty to be that sad,” Zora stated and walked to Aleyn. When she laid her hand on his cheek and closed her eyes, she started shaking slightly. “You don’t have to worry about her anymore. She is safe.”
“What is she talking about?” Karma asked, looking at Aleyn, who had paled when Zora spoke.
“I have no idea.” Aleyn answered and Karma narrowed her eyes at him.
“You should know by now that you cannot lie to Karma,” Eduardo told him calmly.
“She is safe, and she knows,” Zora told him. “And she is worried about you.”
“Aleyn, you must tell them,” Constance told him. “Young Zora will if you don’t.”
“Child,” Aleyn said softly and touched Zora’s cheek. “Thank you.”
Her eyes opened and locked onto his, and he saw knowledge in them that went well beyond her years. “She loves you.”
“Yes, child, and I love her,” he told her and smiled. “Her name is Mireille. She is a Halfling. I met her nearly a century ago while visiting my home in France. She was very young at the time, had not reached maturity yet, and was shopping in the village. She did not know what she was, and she was alone in the world. Her mother had passed a few weeks before, and she was working for a wealthy family. When I saw her, I knew what she was, so I followed her. When I saw what she was living in, what they were making her do, I lost it. In the eight centuries I had been a vampire, I had never killed a human, until that night. I slaughtered the entire family, including the two children, and took Mireille away from that place.”
“She’s your copula,” Karma breathed nearly silently. “Yet you’ve never talked about her to any of us, never even let on she existed.”
“She hated me for what I did to the family she worked for. Until a few years ago, she wanted nothing to do with me, and I let her have her way. Then, about a decade ago, she found me. It wasn’t hard because I kept tabs on her, and knew where she was and what she was doing. She wanted to talk to me about what I did all those years ago. I told her everything, from the first time I saw her, to the fact that she was the other half of my soul. She confessed that I terrified her, but she had never been able to forget me, no matter what she tried, and she wanted us to try being together.”
“How are you able to leave her?” Baxter asked as he pulled Gina closer to him.
“She’s never far from me,” he responded. “When we first went to Santa Fe to meet with Karma and Dylan, she was with me. She doesn’t like being in large groups of vampire, or humans, but she travels with me most of the time. She’s currently at our home in the Pyrenees mountains, as she is unable to travel with us right now.”
“Why?” Gina asked and looked at Aleyn. “She’s a halfling, so she is capable of defending herself, and being injured wouldn’t stop her from travelling.”
“She is nearing the time of giving birth to our child,” he answered, and Karma gasped loudly.
“Oh my God,” Gina said and looked at Zora.
“Her pregnancy is the biggest reason I have not told anyone about her. I cannot risk my enemies knowing about the babe, and I will not take a chance of her being harmed in any way,” Aleyn told them. “The Senate knows of her, but Demetri was killed before she became pregnant so I feel she is safe as long as she’s in our home.”
“I would love to meet her,” Karma told him. “A Halfling who is a century old. How did she ever survive?”
“Her mother was a parlor maid, and was used to sexually satisfy the male visitors to the home,” he told her. “One visitor was a vampire. He was long gone before she realized she was with child, and the family covered up what was happening. Her mother was forced to marry a stable hand, and he was presented at the father of the child. He killed himself just before Mireille was born because he couldn’t live with the lies. She was only sixteen when I saw her for the first time, and she was being used in the same manner her mother had been. Yes, sixteen then was far older than most were married, but she wasn’t most. She was mine, and I would not have another touching her.”
“I can understand that,” Dylan said and ran a hand down Karma’s braid. “All of us who have found our copula can.”
“That sparks the question, have any of the rest of you found your copula?” Karma asked, and looked around the plane at the other Senate members.
“No,” Ramsey answered for them all. “And at our ages, most of us have given up looking.”
“Okay,” Karma said and looked at them all again before turning her attention to Dylan. “On that note, we have something to discuss with you all.”
“Karma and I have decided to get married,” Dylan said, and the plane erupted in cheers.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What have we got?” Baxter asked Jensen as soon as he walked into the warehouse the VEB was using as a bunkhouse.
“A possible lead,” Jensen answered and handed Baxter a paper he just printed off. “There’s a small cell of unregistere
d vampire just outside of San Francisco. Their creator is unknown, but the numbers are just over what the law allows. Also, these properties seem to be owned by one of Booker’s companies. I think we should check both out. Anything could lead us back to Crompton.”
“We’ll check it out at first light,” Baxter said and looked out the window at the sun as it sat across the lake. “Call everyone back from DC. I think we need the whole team for this.”
“On it, Boss,” Jensen said and picked up his cell phone. “Also, I tried finding information on Agent Lynn, but couldn’t find anything. I searched birth records across the last twenty-five years, and nothing.”
“Interesting,” Baxter said and looked away the window. “We will have a chat with her very soon. She’s lying to us for some reason, and I want to know why. For now, though, call Watson and have her and Harrington fly out tonight. We need them here for whatever is going to happen next.”
“What about Johnson?” He asked.
“Johnson is suspended for nine more days, and he will not have a part in this.”
“I told him I was going to see that he was suspended for not telling us about Booker, but I was pissed. I would have never done that to him.”
“Just as he would have never done that to you. There are things in your past that you haven’t shared with us, and you can’t tell me there aren’t considering who your creator was.”
“There are, but they will never affect how I do my job,” Jensen told him.
“Unless they become a threat to Caia,” Baxter reminded him. “Believe me, I get it. If anyone or anything from my past threatened Gina or Zora I would not hesitate to eliminate it using any means necessary.”
“Yeah,” Jensen responded and sighed. “I need Caia back.”
“And we will get her back,” Baxter told him. “Now, make those calls while I gather everyone here together. We will be ready to head out at first light.”
When Baxter walked out of the room, Jensen looked out at the lake for a moment before dialing Watson’s number. He wanted nothing more than to be able to claim Caia as his, but he knew that would have to wait. There was no telling what Crompton had done to her, and for that he would rip the vampire apart and feed the pieces to the wolves that lived in these woods.
****
“What’s going on?” Gina asked when Baxter walked into her small house later that night.
“We have a couple of leads. One on some possible holdings of Bookers, and one on a small cell of vampire. They’re unregistered, and their creator is unknown, but we think they’re all fairly new and their numbers are just over the legal limits.”
“When are we leaving to check it out?”
“First light,” he responded and sighed. “And I guess there’s no way you’ll stay behind, is there?”
“Hunting vampire is my job, Nathan,” she reminded him. “I won’t stay behind, but I will stay by your side so you can make sure I’m safe.”
“That’s more than I expected,” he told her and grinned. “Want to come talk to the Huntresses with me? Nevaeh is calling everyone in for a meeting in a few minutes. I want several Huntresses, and a few agents, to stay here and keep the children safe. I really hate leaving Zora, but I can’t stay behind and protect her.”
“Who are you leaving here with them?”
“Harrington, Larson, Cook, and a few others,” he answered. “Maybe even Watson if I can convince her to stay. She was very young when she was turned, and is good with children.”
“How young?”
“Seventeen,” he answered and looked at her. “She and Jensen are the youngest agents we have. At seventeen and nineteen when they were turned, we can use their youth to get us in places we normally wouldn’t be able to get into.”
“Karma and Jackson are also very young,” she reminded him. “And they could get us in places, too. Karma is between Jensen’s and Watson’s ages.”
“Yes, but there is something about Karma that screams dangerous and humans tend to take a wide birth around her. She is dangerous, but not to humans. Also, her face is too well known, being the spokesperson for the VEB makes her someone everyone, human and vampire, recognizes.”
“Karma scared me when I first met her,” Gina confessed. “There was so much anger in her, and her strength, even at fifteen, was beyond any we had ever seen. After her family was killed, she was volatile, and we used that to help us take down a cell of about twenty vampire. She took out seven of them without blinking.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” he told her. “I saw her fight as a Halfling, and she was wickedly fast and strong. As a full-blood, she’s even faster and stronger. Hell, I’m nearly certain she could take out the Senate if they pissed her off.”
“She could,” Gina told him. “Most of the Senate will tell you that they’re glad she’s on our side.”
“I am, too,” he responded and thought back to the first time he’d fought beside her. She was still a Halfling, but was changed that same day. “The first time I fought with her, I was super attracted to her. That’s the day she was bitten, and Ramsey changed her. I will never forget the look in Dylan’s eyes when she was injured. I thought he was going to kill us all, including Harrison, that day.”
“You were attracted to Karma?”
“Yes,” he said and laid his hand on her arm. “It was very brief, and I was not alone in that attraction. I think Martin was in awe of her. She truly is stunning when pissed. That being said, my heart belongs to you, and only you.”
“That being said,” she said and grinned. “I think I’ll call Dylan and let him know what you just told me.”
“Don’t make me spank you,” he said without thinking, and her instant arousal hit him like a train, causing him to growl softly. “You like the thought of me spanking you?”
She blushed deeply and looked at the floor for a moment before she muttered, “We need to go speak with the Huntresses.”
“We do, but this conversation isn’t over,” he told her and grabbed her arm as she went to walk around him. “I can smell your arousal, Gina, so there’s no point in denying it. I want to know everything there is to know about you, including your likes and dislikes. When we get back from meeting with the Huntresses, we will talk about this.”
“Nathan,” she started, then stopped. “Okay.”
“Gina, nothing you tell me will change how I feel about you. You are the half of my soul I thought had died many years ago. I am forever grateful I found you, and will spend the rest of forever showing you just what you mean to me,” he told her and touched her face gently. “Now, let’s go talk to the Huntresses, then we can come back here and talk, just talk, about your reaction to what I said.”
“The things you make me think, make me feel, are new to me, and I can’t really explain them. When we get back, we will talk about my reaction, but I’m not sure I even know what it was about.”
“And that’s okay,” he told her and kissed her forehead before he stepped back. “It’s something we can discover together when you’re ready.”
“I think that is the best thing I’ve heard all day,” she said and finally looked up at him. “Now, let’s go meet with the Huntresses and get things ready for tomorrow. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long day.”
When she walked to the door and opened it, he sighed deeply.
“I have a feeling it’s going to be an even longer night,” he muttered to himself before he followed her out the door. He could handle it, he could handle anything, as long as she was safe and happy.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Huntresses, listen up,” Nevaeh said to the group that filled the cafeteria. It was the only room on the compound large enough to hold all the Huntresses, so it doubled as a meeting room. “There has been a small cell of vampire located in the San Francisco area, and we are heading out at first light to check it out with the VEB. We will be needing several of you to stay behind, with some agents, to protect the children. This could v
ery well be a ruse to lure us out of the compound, and after the attack two weeks ago, we aren’t going to take any chances.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Lexie spoke up, and a few others turned to look at her.
“Thank you, Lexie,” Nevaeh said and smiled at her. “We will need at least half of you here.”
“May I say something?” Baxter asked from beside Nevaeh.
“Yes,” she answered and looked at him for a second before looking back at her Huntresses. “This is Agent Nathan Baxter, leader of the VEB. I have worked very closely with him for the past few months, as have several of you. He is to be respected, and if he gives you an order, it is to be followed as if it came from Gina or I. Is that understood?”
When they all nodded, she stepped back and motioned for Baxter to step forward.
“Thank you, Nevaeh,” he said and smiled at her before turning to the Huntresses. “Good evening, ladies. As Nevaeh said, I am Agent Nathan Baxter, but y'all can call me Nathan or Baxter. I took over as leader of the VEB after Agent Fuller was executed for treason. But, I am more than just the leader of the VEB. I am also someone you can count on for whatever you may need. Tomorrow, while we are gone to check out this band of vampire, I will be leaving some agents here to help protect the compound and the children. I will not risk anyone here.”
“Why would you do that?” A Huntress asked from the back row.
“Because you ladies, even the ones I don’t know yet, are family, and I will do whatever it takes to keep family safe.”
“But,” another Huntress started, and Gina stepped forward.
“I am Nathan’s copula, his lifemate, and I know you all understand what that means,” she said and looked at her sisters. “As such, he will do what’s needed to protect you all because anything less would hurt me. Now, please let him finish what he has to say.”
“Yes ma’am,” the first to question Baxter said and Gina made note of who it was. Her sisters would learn soon enough that these vampire could be trusted completely, but until they did, she would make sure none of them did anything that would get them killed.
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