Cesare raises a brow and watches us both with interest.
“Olivia, what are you—” Reilly begins.
I spot a waiter and hurry toward him without waiting for Reilly to finish his sentence. He’s following me, and I’m sure he is about to lecture me about being ladylike or polite again, but I don’t care. I grab the waiter’s arm, startling him into almost dropping the tray.
“Sorry, just, give me the tray,” I say, reaching for it. The stunned waiter lets me take it.
“Would—would you like some more sandwiches?” He asks, his eyes flicking between me and I’m sure an enraged Reilly standing behind me.
“No, she would not like some more sandwiches,” Reilly snaps. “You may leave.”
The waiter scurries away as I lean over the tray and sniff the sandwiches, pulling on my vampire magic.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Reilly hisses in my ear.
“When I bit Ryan, his blood tasted awful,” I say, sniffing at a sandwich with a cucumber poking out of it. It smells suspicious, but not bitter like the other sandwich had tasted.
“What does that have to do with sandwiches? Or with you leaving the table like that? You’ve embarrassed me and—”
“The sandwich I had earlier, the one I spit out, it tasted exactly the same as his blood,” I snap. “There is something wrong.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?” Reilly asks, brows pinching tightly together.
“Ryan lost control, and we still don’t know how. We don’t know why they took him, or why they let him go,” I say, waving a sandwich at him. “What if it was an experiment?”
“And experiment in what?”
“A weak vampire comes back to his clan and he’s out of control. So, obviously, the more highly ranked vampires in the clan step in to try to help him regain control. But he kills one of them.”
I can see the wheels turning in his head. “He shouldn’t have been able to.”
“It was like they sent a bomb back with him. If they hadn’t been able to lock him in that room he might have killed the entire clan, or at least a lot of them.”
“It’s possible the NWR did something to him to make him both lose control and become stronger, but that does not mean the sandwiches are poisoned. No one else has complained about them.”
I roll my eyes.
“None of the vampires are eating them, maybe they only taste bad to me. I don’t know, and I don’t care. When Martinez had me in that van he said something that I didn’t think was important at the time because he was rambling about so much. He said that vampire’s true nature would be revealed soon. Something about taking away the mask they hide behind.”
“That’s propaganda speak, they say that kind of thing all the time,” Reilly says.
“And they’re always trying to prove it. They aren’t sitting around passing out flyers. They are organized, and smart, and driven.”
“What are they planning then?”
“Dinner is being served tonight, this whole big thing,” I say, looking around at the tables, all set with more forks and knives than anyone should ever need. “What are the vampires eating?”
“Everyone has brought their own neckers,” Reilly says. “They’re waiting in the meeting rooms on a different floor.”
“Are they eating these?” I ask, shoving the tray at him.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been concerned with what they eat,” he says, eyeing the tray. He rubs his hand along his jaw, then looks at me. “You think they are somehow poisoning the neckers, and then what? The vampires feed from them and lose control?”
“It’s hard to poison a vampire,” I say. “It’s not hard to slip something into food for neckers. No one cares about them, they’re just dinner themselves.”
Reilly shakes his head. “This is insane, you don’t have any proof. This shouldn’t even be possible.”
“Stocke said that she thought that the stuff the NWR did in Texas was an experiment, right? That they wanted to see if they could discredit a vampire clan. It was working too.”
“Yes, I remember this,” he says impatiently.
“Can you imagine the shit storm if vampires at the Summit lost control and killed a necker? Or another paranormal?” I ask. “All of this, everything the NWR has been doing, has been about finding a way to make a vampire lose control. They say you are monsters, and if they can prove it to the world, they will start an all out war.”
“That all sounds terrible, but you still can’t prove any of this. I can’t halt this entire thing because you have a hunch,” Reilly bites out.
“Ryan was a child. What happens when someone like your sire loses control? When he is three times as powerful as he is now?” I demand.
Reilly grinds his teeth together, glaring at the sandwiches like he can blame them for my insanity.
“There is an hour until dinner. Find a way to prove this by then.”
I glare at him. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“That’s your problem to figure out,” Reilly says, leaning in close. “I have to go explain to my sire why I can’t keep you under control. Let’s hope neither of us fail.”
27
Reilly walks away and I’m left standing with a tray of sandwiches and a huge problem. I turn and march toward the exit. I pass another waiter holding a tray and shove mine at her. She grabs it with her free hand and almost drops it, but I keep walking as fast as I can. I need to get out of here and get my phone. Maybe Zachary can help, or even Stocke if I have to talk to her.
There is a constant stream of paranormals in and out of the main room. I weave through them as quickly as I can, but I don’t want to shove past anyone too roughly and start some kind of fight I don’t have time to finish.
The elevator is just as busy. I manage to slip in just before the doors close, but it stops at almost every floor on the way up. I tap my foot impatiently, letting person after person slip around me to get off until it finally arrives at my floor.
I run down the hall, no longer worried about who might see me or who I might run into. My room is exactly as I left it, as is my phone. I grab it off the bed and see three missed calls, two from Zachary and one from Elise. There is a voicemail which I tap, then put the phone to my ear.
“Olivia,” Zachary voicemail starts. “Martinez transport was attacked as soon as it left this morning. He’s been gone for hours. We aren’t even sure when exactly he escaped. Stay at the Summit with Reilly, don’t try to leave, and don’t go anywhere by yourself.”
My hand shakes as I lower the phone. If he has escaped he has to be coming here. He’s been a part of this experiment from the beginning. It was probably all his idea.
If I can find him, I can prove something is going on, and stop him. I look down at the welts on my arms and flex my fingers. Corinne can’t help me. She’s still unconscious, and Stocke wouldn’t let her try to Find Martinez again anyhow. I text Zachary, telling him everything I can think of. My suspicions about the food, about where Martinez is headed, and what I’m about to do.
I turn and sprint down the hall, dialing Reilly’s number with shaking fingers, but he doesn’t answer. I slap my hand against the elevator call button, but it doesn’t light up. I hit it again. Nothing. I stare at the elevators, panic growing in my gut. It could just be malfunctioning, but what if it’s something worse.
I spin around, my dress flaring out around me, and search for the entrance to the stairs. There is a small emergency exit placard on the wall that directs me down the hall and to the left. I sprint there and hit the door at a run. It flies open, hitting the wall a bang that echoes down the stairwell.
Magic flows through my body in a cold wave as I sprint down the stairs vampire fast. I barrel out of the stairwell onto the floor the Summit is being hosted, but I’m not anywhere near the main entrance. I don’t recognize the hall I’m in. A man wearing the light blue jacket of the serving staff is standing a few paces away, looking at me with wide eyes.
&nbs
p; “Is everything okay?” He asks hesitantly.
“No, where are the neckers being held?” I demand as I march toward him. He visibly shrinks back and I realize my fangs are poking out of my mouth.
“I, uh, I’m not sure,” he says trying to back away.
I grab him by his lapels and pull him close. His face pales and sweat beads up on his forehead.
“Then find someone who is. The NWR is about to attack this place, and I can stop them, but I need to know where the neckers are,” I growl.
“O-okay. I can take you t-to my supervisor.”
I spin him around and shove him forward. “Go then.”
With one last glance over his shoulder, he starts jogging down the hall. I follow, doing everything I can to push down the vampire magic so I don’t waste it. His heart is racing and he stinks of fear. He’s lucky I don’t crave human blood.
He leads me around two turns, then through a door marked ‘Staff Only’ into a huge industrial kitchen. There are chefs in their white coats creating more trays of hors d'oeuvres and dozens of waiters weaving through the chaos. He taps a woman in a crisp black suit on the shoulder. She holds up her hand to the person she was in the middle of speaking with and turns to him.
“She—terrorists in the building—the neckers,” he begins to stutter out. The woman raises a brow.
I grab the waiter by the back of the collar and drag him out of the way.
“I need to know where the neckers are. Their food has been poisoned and if the vampires feed on them, they are going to lose control and murder everyone,” I say, throwing my hands wide.
The woman looks at a loss for a moment. “Who are you?”
I bite the inside of my cheek before answering. Of course, the woman needs some assurance I know what I’m talking about. It would be way easier if she didn’t though.
“Olivia Carter, I’ve been working with JHAPI at the request of the vampire council,” I say as calmly as I can. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time here. Do you want to die, or are you going to help me?”
The woman hesitates, evaluating me, then grabs a walkie-talkie off her belt buckle.
“Delay dinner for thirty minutes. No one goes in or out of the necker holding room until I say so, alright?” She puts the walkie-talkie back on her belt and crosses her arms. “If you are with JHAPI where are the rest of the agents?”
“My team is in a different state,” I say. “But other agents are on their way. This was a last minute tip.”
My phone starts buzzing in my hand. It’s Zachary.
“Give me a minute,” I say, turning away from the woman and slipping back into the hall. The door swings shut behind me.
“Zach,” I say with relief as I answer the call.
“Olivia, what are you doing?” He asks.
“They’ve poisoned the food,” I say. “I ate a sandwich and it was bitter like Ryan’s blood. I think they injected him with something that made him lose control, and made him stronger. They’re going to do the same thing here and all these vampires are going to lose control in the middle of the Summit.”
“How do you know this?” He asks.
I pause in my pacing. “You don’t believe me?”
“I’m asking how you know,” he says, his tone suggesting he’s trying to keep me calm.
“Martinez has escaped. All these disappearances, they’ve been experiments. Stocke said they were, and she’s right. They were all practice runs for this,” I insist. “Zach, I can’t do this alone.”
He sighs. “I can have them send a team over, but if you’re wrong, we’re going to look like idiots. The councils will be furious.”
“They’re only willing to delay dinner thirty minutes. Can they test the necker’s blood before then? Or the food?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Zachary says. “Maybe Staci can figure out a way to prove it’s contaminated, but without having an idea of what it has been poisoned with, we can't test it.”
I sigh and pace back and forth across the hall.
“The elevators aren’t working by the way. I don’t know what else they’ve done, but they may have blocked the exits somehow.”
Someone is talking in the background. Zachary holds his hand over the phone for a second, drowning it out.
“All of the elevators?” Zachary asks.
“I don’t know. The one that led up to my room is the only one I tried,” I say.
“Stocke wants you to wait for a team to get there. It will be someone local, but she’ll be on the phone with them.”
“What if I can prove Martinez is here?” I ask.
“Is he there?” Zachary asks.
“I think so,” I say. “And I’m going to find him.”
“Olivia, you can’t do that—”
“Just get people here, okay?” I hang up the phone.
The door behind me swings open again and a waiter hurries past, but my attention is captured by a snippet of conversation. The woman I spoke to is asking for security to come upstairs and remove me.
I shove my way back into the kitchen.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demand.
“I need security up here right now,” she says into the walkie-talkie before looking at me with raised hands. “Ma’am I need you to please leave.”
“You cannot send those neckers into that room—”
“I spoke to our head of security, and he told me there is no threat from the NWR. There is no tip,” she says calmly.
“Just because your head of security doesn’t know, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening,” I say, stepping toward her. I want to get to Martinez, but all of this is for nothing if any of the vampires feed on these neckers.
“Ma’am—”
“What is the problem here?” Cesare asks from behind me. I didn’t hear him walk up.
I turn around slowly. He doesn’t look angry, merely curious. Reilly is standing a few paces behind him, as well as the two bodyguards that were at the table earlier.
“The food the neckers ate was laced with something,” I say haltingly. “Their blood is poisoned now. It will make a vampire lose control.”
Cesare frowns. “And how fast acting is this poison?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it takes very long to go into effect. The NWR wants everyone to lose control during the dinner.”
“And you don’t have a way to prove this?” Cesare asks.
“There’s never been anything like this before. It’s not like I can ring up a lab and have them test it in the next ten minutes,” I say glancing back at Reilly. I wish he would help.
“Reilly has assured me that you are not insane and that you are not simply trying to make me look like an idiot,” Cesare says, extending his arm to me. “Walk with me.”
I slip my hand into the crook of his arm. The magic that is rolling off of him is intoxicating. If someone like him were to feed on one of the neckers I don’t know what would be capable of stopping him.
Cesare leads us back into the hall. I keep my eyes straight ahead and focus on putting one foot in front of the other. If I’m wrong, I have a feeling it will be the last thing I’m ever wrong about.
One of the bodyguards walks ahead of us and opens an unmarked door. We follow him inside. There must be almost a hundred neckers in here, all dressed in black. They bow in unison.
Cesare gently removes my hand from his arm and walks forward, grabbing the arm of the closest necker.
“Tony, feed from her,” he says, nudging the woman toward his bodyguard.
I start to object, but a firm hand wraps around my mouth, cutting off the words. I can smell that it’s Reilly. His hand stays tightly clasped over my lips as Tony leans down and bites the woman’s neck. He drinks from her with long gulps while the woman goes glassy-eyed.
“That’s enough,” Cesare says after a couple of minutes.
Tony lowers the woman to the ground and stands up straight, awaiting his next order.
“Did she taste o
dd?” Cesare asks.
“No, sire. She tasted better than I’ve ever had,” he says.
Cesare looks at his watch. “In five minutes I’m going to give a speech accepting my position on the council. Reilly, if he loses control, put him down and come tell me Olivia was right.”
Reilly lowers his hand from my mouth but stays pressed against me, his other hand wrapped tightly around my arm.
“Yes, sire,” he says.
Cesare looks at me as he passes by until a strange grunt draws our attention. Tony huffs again, his fangs pushing down onto his bottom lip. A quiver passes through his body and he looks at Cesare and growls.
“Interesting,” Cesare comments.
Tony lunges toward him in a blur, arms outstretched. Reilly yanks me backward and we slam into the wall behind us.
I don’t see Cesare move. One moment he is in Tony’s path, the next he’s standing behind him, holding his head while Tony’s body topples forward. Both crumple to ash. Cesare shakes the dust from his hands as the neckers behind him start screaming.
“Reilly, evacuate the main hall,” Cesare says as he pulls out a handkerchief.
Reilly steps out from behind me and hurries out of the room. Cesare walks toward me, stopping only a foot away and carefully wiping the remains of his bodyguard from his hand.
“You have been very useful,” he says, his eyes scanning my face.
“I think Martinez is here,” I say shakily. “He escaped. I got a voicemail.”
“Then find him if you can,” Cesare says before stepping around me to address his other bodyguard. “Stay with them, make sure no one leaves. We don’t want anyone feeding on one of these by mistake after this is all over.”
He walks out. The neckers are all huddled as far back as they can get, their eyes on me and the bodyguard now that the others have left.
I stumble out into the hallway and take a deep breath. He just murdered one of his own men, and no one flinched. Reilly knew what was coming and he let it happen. I press my hand to my mouth and wonder what I’m protecting. Maybe Martinez is right, maybe the mask does need to be stripped away.
Blood Magic: Witch’s Bite Series Book Three Page 21