“And?” he said after another pause, still slightly out of breath. “Where do you think they go? The patients who come out of there?”
Cowboy hesitated, as if trying to decide if he should push the point.
In the end, he seemed to accept Black’s wish that he let it go.
“I figure they send ‘em to more doctors,” he said, matter-of-fact. He made his voice casual, tilting his head back and closing his eyes up at the sun. Opening them again after a beat, he squinted at Black. “You know. Institution or something. Dope ‘em to the gills so they can’t talk about what was done with ‘em. Can’t call no ACLU lawyers nor press. Tell ‘em they had some kind of ‘mental break’ while they was in here... tell the docs that, too.”
He gave a low snort, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.
“I sure as fuck don’t expect to run into one of ‘em bagging groceries at the Piggledy-Wiggledy when I get out.” He grunted. “Or living high on the hog off Uncle Sam’s teat, for that matter. Their crime and chaos days are over, my friend.”
Turning his head, he gave Black another meaningful look.
Black pressed his lips together, fighting another surge of near-irrational anger. He knew the separation pain from Miri was making that worse. He also knew it wasn’t all about her. He hadn’t felt this helpless since he was a kid, and he fully intended to make someone pay for that.
Before he could think of another question, Cowboy spoke up again.
“Can you get to the machine shop tomorrow morning, brother?” He adjusted his arms on the bench behind him, his eyes still closed to the sun. “Say, around... seven? Eight o’clock? I might be able to provide an escort.”
Black looked at him, the separation pain briefly forgotten.
“Yes,” he said. “Absolutely.”
Both words came out definitive, with zero doubt.
Sixteen
BREAK-IN
REMEMBER, THEY CAN block us now, Miriam... almost totally. Expect to be blind as soon as they realize we’re inside the building. I’ll do what I can with my people to try and counteract that, but you have to expect you won’t have any advantage over them. Worse, they will still have some advantages over you...
My uncle’s words ran like a constant mantra in the back of my head.
He’d been pushing me to learn to partition the different areas of my mind, but I still couldn’t do it very well. Moreover, the separation pain was so bad most days I was having trouble focusing on just one thing, much less multiple things at the same time.
I’d asked my uncle to help me learn to control that, too. I didn’t have much choice; just about every day it seemed to get worse, and it still didn’t seem to be leveling.
They can also block you from reading humans in spaces they control, he went on, his mental voice low and precise as he murmured in my mind. Much like seers, they can protect their own humans from our minds. You have to identify the actual vampires visually, if you can. They look different... it’s subtle, and humans won’t notice, but remember the markers I showed you. Once they make a move on you, the differences should be obvious... but it would be better if you could ID them well in advance of that...
I nodded to that, too, renewing my grip on the gun I held.
Their reflexes are as fast as ours, Miri, my uncle conceded grudgingly. Maybe even faster. They have a better sense of smell... and hearing. And for the gods’ sake, don’t let them bite you. The effect of the bites can be extremely disorienting, especially the first time. They have a means of hacking our minds when they drink from us... I can’t fully explain it, although we’ve tried to study it since we discovered their existence here. It seems they have the ability to both read our minds and force mental projections on us via our blood. The effect is short term––more or less limited to feeding and the period shortly after. There is some theory their bite emits a chemical that has a paralytic effect, as well. It certainly seems to have that effect on humans...
I fought with the part of me that wanted to tell him how ridiculous this all was, the part of me that still couldn’t believe we were seriously discussing vampires as if they were a real thing. I tried to force myself past that feeling, to focus on why I was here, what I was doing.
This is a combat op, Miri, I told myself. Combat.
Think like a soldier.
If my uncle noticed any of my doubts, it wasn’t apparent from his thoughts.
The effects of their bite can be compensated for by training, he added, his mental voice grim, holding a more overt thread of anger. All of the seers I brought for this have that training, and have fought vampires before, so you’ll have help if anything happens... but you won’t have any of that training yourself, so you need to be extremely careful, Miri. They’ll try to bite you just to pacify you... and they’ll drink as much from you as they can. So don’t let them get too close.
I grimaced, but made myself nod to his words.
He’d told me most of this before.
I knew his repeating it was likely due to worry for me, and in some ways the reminders were helpful, but they were also distracting as hell.
They also kept bringing my mind back around to Black, and what he might be going through right now. For all I knew, a whole coven of these fucking things were taking turns feeding on him. They could have him naked and strapped to a table right now.
The image brought another wave of separation sickness. That one nearly blinded me.
“Are you okay, sister?” Ravi asked from next to me.
His voice bled concern. When I couldn’t answer him at first, he grabbed my arm, and I nodded, biting my tongue.
He crouched next to me, both of us hunkered down just outside the main gate of the mansion of Viktor Konstantin––and yes, that was really his name––a known recluse who went only by his last name in everything but legal documents. According to my uncle, the first name was entirely fictional anyway, since vampires used only a single name, usually a historical one.
Next to Ravi and me in the shadows were Dex, Kiko, Peter Mondragon (“Ace” as everyone called him), Alice, Javier and Walter, all of whom worked for Black. Every one of Black’s people were vets from one branch of the service or another, and hand-picked by Kiko and Dex.
Closer to me hovered the only two seers on my immediate team, Efraim and Ravi.
I admit, I’d grown more reliant on them in the past few weeks.
Ravi stood right at my elbow, and from the cloud of angry protectiveness emanating off him and Efraim, I definitely got the sense they didn’t intend to leave my side all night.
Truthfully, that was okay with me, too.
We were Team 1.
My uncle led Team 2.
I had Colonel Holmes’ people in my ear, too, but we hadn’t used them much yet.
Currently, my uncle’s team was working to knock out the physical security on the main building located on the property. According to Charles, the gate would open when they were finished, which would also serve as our signal.
Team 1 would then breach the property ahead of Team 2.
Everything about this place spelled fortress more than home. The stone wall was covered in razor wire and glass, in addition to the few decorative gargoyles, and surrounded by tall trees that were virtually unclimbable, or would be without spiked shoes and/or rappelling or mountain climbing gear. The nearest branches were so high off the ground that trying to use them to get over the fence would likely only get you killed. We’d already heard dogs barking inside the compound too, and they didn’t sound small.
Really, the house looked like something a vampire would own.
When I mentioned that to my uncle, he’d only grunted.
I hadn’t put up much of a fight when he announced he would be leading the second team personally. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it, though. I could tell part of the reason he’d insisted came from worry for me, which I wasn’t sure how I felt about, either.
I also knew it wasn’t his onl
y reason.
From our discussions over the past two weeks, I’d grown very aware that my Uncle Charles viewed the vampires taking his son-in-law as a personal attack. That was regardless of how he viewed Black himself. He also saw it as a blatant violation of the treaty he’d helped to craft, and as an exposure threat, which I knew bothered him more than anything.
He also made it clear that these creatures––which he called “the dead ones” when he wasn’t calling them “vampires” outright––would definitely know they’d committed a hostile act against him in taking Black. He said there was no possible way they wouldn’t know this, and that they would likely be expecting this breach as a result.
He’d also muttered about having met Konstantin personally, how they’d hammered out the truce together. I could tell he definitely thought it was far too easy for us to trace this whole incident back to Konstantin himself.
I couldn’t help but agree with him.
After all, if these creatures really did have some kind of truce with my uncle, why would they hit Black in a section of the Port of Los Angeles that was obviously owned by their flagship company? Why use a boat directly traceable back to Konstantin as their escape vehicle? Not only was the operation easily traced back to vampire holdings... every shred of evidence we’d found led back to the company that literally had his name all over it.
He might as well have left us a signed note.
I hadn’t exactly been in the best place to discuss the issue rationally, however, the one time my uncle brought it up. When he kept muttering doubts about this or that aspect of the operation, I’d finally lost patience and snapped at him.
“What the fuck do you suggest? That we not go at all? Or did you have some other master plan you’ve deigned not to share with me, for one bullshit overprotective reason or another... or simply because you don’t happen to like my husband very much?”
He’d stared at me, a mild shock bleeding over his strangely perfect features.
I knew he could probably feel the separation pain on me.
I’d been suppressing it for hours at that point, so I probably should have told him to leave me alone for awhile.
When I said it, our last six-hour planning meeting had just concluded. The others had gone out to gather supplies and probably get food or sleep, leaving me and Charles alone in the hotel room Black got for the two of us in Santa Monica. Thinking about that only made the pain worse though, especially when I remembered why we’d spent almost no time in that room together.
All of that went through my mind in a heart beat, making my jaw clench.
I knew it was irrational. I didn’t care. At times, the pain got so bad, it was hard to give a damn about anything. I knew if Black had been in the room right then, I might have punched him. That, or maybe handcuffed him to the bed and then burst into tears.
Either way, a long pause followed my question.
Then Charles had clicked at me softly, almost empathetically somehow, shaking his head. Sending me a pulse of warmth, he turned then, staring out the balcony window towards the ocean without seeming to see it.
“No,” he said after another pause. “No, I’m not saying that, Miri. I think your plan is still the best option we have. We’ll grab Konstantin and see what he has to say. I just want you to understand how dangerous this is. It’s not going to be clean. It can’t be.”
Hearing the anger in his voice somehow dissipated the hotter edges of mine.
Still, thinking about his words, I found myself studying his expression warily.
“So what do you think this is really about?” Unlike him, I didn’t stand but sat, perching on one corner of the sky blue couch in the room’s sitting area. My knees were bent, my feet resting on the cushion near my butt and I had a mug of tea in my hand.
“Why would they lure us to Konstantin?” I said. “Or do you think this really has nothing to do with your ‘vampire’ sect at all?”
“Oh, they are definitely behind this.” Uncle Charles gave me a piercing look, right before he aimed that gaze back at the ocean. “This stinks of vampire games. It has their fingerprints all over it... from the staged murder to the dropped clues about where to look for them. I would have wondered if they had done this even if they hadn’t used the shipping yard of Konstantin Group. I just wonder why they are trying so hard to convince us it is Konstantin himself behind it.”
“Why?” I said, sharper. “Why would you have known it was them?”
“Well, for one thing, because your husband never called for help.” Charles turned, giving me another of those cut-glass looks. “Seers can be surprised on occasion, even by humans. They can also be drugged. But no drug acts that instantly, Miri... and he never called you for help.”
I frowned, shaking my head, about to argue, but Charles cut me off.
“You’re his mate, Miriam. Unless he literally couldn’t reach you, he would have called for your help... no matter what his rational mind told him about your safety or whatever else. It’s pure instinct for us. He would have called for you... and that woman, Jacquie, said he was conscious for a few seconds after the drug felled him. Her exact memory of that is one I read. His eyes were open, his hands... one of them, at least... were moving.”
Charles clicked his tongue in anger, shaking his head. “The fact that you never heard that call tells me he couldn’t reach you. And apart from my own people, only vampires could have accomplished that.”
Still shaking his head, that fury emanating off him, he went on in a more angry-sounding voice. “Truthfully, I think someone is trying hard to start a war with us, ilya. Or perhaps only with me. I very much doubt that person is Konstantin, however. On the other hand, I have zero issue with using him to find whoever that person is.”
“Why?” I said again. “Why not Konstantin?”
“Apart from the obviousness of the trail leading to him?” Charles snorted, his mouth firming briefly before he looked at me. “Because I know him a little, Miri. He is a conservative, highly racist, greedy and manipulative individual... but he is also extremely risk-adverse, and like most in his species, a coward.”
I didn’t bother to point out the irony of his “racist” comment.
He gave me another of those fury-laden looks, but again, that anger wasn’t aimed at me.
“In other words, I could see him wanting to kill seers... but he would never pick a fight with me in such a brazen way. Further, there is the issue of why he won’t answer my calls. If he had any awareness of this plan, much less had orchestrated it himself, Konstantin would have accepted those calls. Truthfully, I’d fully expected him to play ignorance at this move... to offer to help us find Black, even. I expected him to proclaim his innocence up and down, to swear that his vampires had nothing to do with it, that they were being framed. I certainly wouldn’t have expected him to ignore me altogether. It makes me very... wary.”
I’d frowned, thinking about that as well. “Wary about what?”
“Wary that we are being manipulated into certain conclusions, ilya.”
Frowning at that, I fought past the wave of pain that wanted to rise from him calling me that particular endearment... and the sudden desire to snarl at him that only Black got to call me that. Fighting past both things, I tried to think about his actual words instead, to decide what they might mean. It was frustrating to know so little about the world my uncle had so recently dumped in my lap... much less any of the players in it.
“So why hit Konstantin’s place at all?” I said finally lifting one hand in frustration and letting it fall to the couch. “You said we should still do it... but why? If we are being led there, they won’t let us use him to find the real culprits, will they?”
My uncle gave me another of those glass-eyed stares. “He is still their leader, Miriam. If he is not attempting to mitigate this situation with me, I want to know why.”
I’d nodded to that, too. I’d found myself thinking about Nick and Angel then, particularly Nick, who was no
t in favor of this plan at all. I’d basically forced the two of them to stay out of it, although I’d done my best to keep them in the loop.
Well, with some of the big pieces, anyway.
I still hadn’t found a way to tell them about the vampire thing.
None of the humans on Black’s team knew either, which made me nervous.
I had no idea how to prepare them for what they might encounter in there. More than that, I worried that by withholding that information, I was putting them at severe risk of being killed. From what my uncle told me, these things were lightning fast, ruthless, and always hungry. Moreover, they were sadists and killers by birth. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing that in action myself, but I worried about my whole team freezing up and/or losing their shit when they were broadsided by something their rational minds couldn’t accept.
Colonel Holmes convinced me we couldn’t tell them, though, and my uncle mirrored the sentiment. They thought it would be a death sentence to Black’s team to tell them that. If the vampires got any glimpse that they knew about them, they’d hunt down every human being in Black’s employ, on the off-chance he’d told them something.
Moreover, it would risk the exposure of both races if more humans knew. Most seers didn’t even know about vampires, from what Charles said.
He was still convinced Black didn’t know.
Well, hadn’t known anyway.
I bit my lip, fighting another wave of nausea as my mind wanted to return to that image of Black strapped to a table while animals fed on him.
I knew my uncle had been reading me when he spoke into that silence.
I also knew he was trying to distract me from where my mind wanted to go.
“I really wish you hadn’t involved the humans in this at all, Miriam,” he said, his voice holding a softer rebuke. “Really, why would you tell them these things? You know the vampires have at least one person among the human police. Even the humans know they have an intelligence leak. Why would you involve humans at all before that leak was identified?”
Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) Page 20