BLACKOUT: CROSSBREED SERIES BOOK 5

by Dannika Dark

  “What about it?”

  Viktor picked a few pieces of lint off his sweater. “Young children are often frightened of strange new places. He does not want to sleep alone.”

  “I don’t blame him. You decorate this mansion like a haunted castle.”

  He pursed his lips and looked prepared to go on the defense.

  “Don’t even try,” I said. “You probably gave him a room that still had spiders under the bed.”

  “Shhh!” Blue raised her arm and snapped her fingers. “Everyone, look at this.”

  I hurried to the sofa and sat beside Gem. The news reporter clutched her microphone, the wind obliterating the hairspray that had once held her hair perfectly in place.

  “We don’t have any confirmed totals, but police have stated there are casualties,” she went on. “Witnesses reported seeing flames, but because of the widespread crimes and looting, it appears that the fire department didn’t have enough resources to put out the fire.”

  “Lindsey, are there any confirmed deaths?” the news anchor asked.

  Lindsey looked over her shoulder at a policeman setting up crime tape, and when the camera panned back, the gutted remains of a church came into view. “We don’t have information at this time. Residents are stunned as they look at the charred remains of what was once a beacon of light in this neighborhood. According to one gentleman, this church has a long history dating back to the eighteen hundreds, and his family has been coming here for generations. The chief of police has a live update scheduled in one hour, and hopefully, they can provide us with information on whether this was an accident or arson. Lindsey Fernandez reporting live from outside St. Anthony’s. Back to you.”

  I grabbed the remote from the armrest and turned down the volume. “Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?”

  But Viktor was already thinking it. With his chair turned away, he spoke quietly on the phone. Claude took a seat to my left and spread his long arm behind me. No one spoke, because we were all sick to our stomach with the idea that we could have lost officials.

  Blue stood up, smoothing down the flyaways in her hair from static. “Churches are neutral ground. Everyone knows that.”

  Niko sat on the desk. “Someone isn’t playing by the rules.”

  “What made you think they would?” I asked. “Breed bars are neutral ground because the consequences are getting blacklisted. People like their beer. Not everyone cares about church.”

  “Maybe we should have hidden them in a bar,” Wyatt offered.

  Claude hitched up the leg on his sweatpants and crossed his ankle over his knee. I looked at his giant foot, the sole slightly dark from walking on dusty floors.

  Still straddling the armrest, Gem rolled the back wheels of her skates on the floor. “It’s probably a coincidence. There was so much looting going on last night.”

  “Fuck coincidence.” Shepherd reached for his smokes on the table next to him and lit up another. “Did you see that cop in the background? I know that guy. He’s a Sensor. We used to work together until he got a job as an insider for the police department. Now he investigates Breed crimes.”

  “How do they cover up what they find?” Claude asked.

  Shepherd took a drag and blew out the smoke. “Vamps. No offense,” he suddenly said, looking at me. “Vampires work in every department, and when they collect evidence that points toward one of us, the Vampires begin the scrubbing process. They have a system so that nothing ever leaks. Everything’s clean. Witnesses usually leave statements with their names, and they know which cops worked a scene. It’s easy to track down everyone and erase memories. Anything in the computer system is either altered or deleted. As for evidence, that’s destroyed or moved by the guy who works in that department. Trust me. We’re everywhere.”

  “Like fleas,” Wyatt added, rolling his chair toward the center of the room.

  I crossed my legs and reclined my head on Claude’s arm. “Before you left the church, did Christian fill you in on the change of plans with sending Merry and Weather to another location?”

  He nodded. “Yes. He called.”

  “Was it that location?” I asked, gesturing at the television.

  Claude shrugged. “I don’t know. Why?”

  Heeding Viktor’s stern warning about unsubstantiated accusations, I quickly said, “I’d hate to think we sent them to their death.”

  “Listen up.” Viktor stood from his chair, his cheeks flushed and eyes alert. “I have confirmation that the church fire was one of our safe locations. My contact is working on clearing the scene of media, though there is little they can do about the information being public knowledge.”

  Wyatt shook his head. “Son of a ghost. That’s a lot of damage control.”

  “Which group was it?” Shepherd asked. “How many?”

  Viktor folded his arms, his eyes downcast. “That location housed the remaining members of the higher authority who didn’t fit in a populated group. Two Gravewalkers, Three Relics, and one Gemini.”

  Blue’s eyes widened. “A Gemini? I didn’t think you could kill those guys.”

  “You can kill anyone.” Wyatt spun his chair around before stopping it with his toe. “Immortal is kind of a loose term. I mean, everyone can die. But since some of you special people don’t get old, in theory, you could live forever. Well, so long as you stay away from fires and guillotines.”

  A cold chill ran down my spine. “Someone knows what we’ve been doing.”

  “Maybe they just followed one of the teams,” Blue suggested.

  I wrung my hands. “That’s a huge assumption. If we’re wrong, someone could target the remaining five churches. Then what?”

  Shepherd flicked his ashes into an ashtray, a few of them scattering. “They’d bring in replacements. It’s not like we’ll be without a body of law, but that’ll take a shitload of time to get organized.”

  I looked back at Viktor. “What did your contact say?”

  “He is the man in charge of contingency plans, assigned to overrule the officials. Yet he wants to make the officials aware of the risks so he can weigh their thoughts. I sent Christian a message to spread the news in our church, and the other teams will be notified to do the same.”

  I felt a rush of adrenaline as I stood up. “They’re safer spread apart in their homes. The power’s back, and now they can call their bodyguards.”

  “It is not up to us. After all, it is their lives we are protecting, and they have a right to decide their fate.”

  Shepherd held his head in his hands, a long tendril of smoke rising from the cigarette wedged between his fingers. “They gotta stay put. They don’t have anyone on the outside to protect them, not until they locate their bodyguards. They’re easy targets.”

  Blue put her hands on her hips. “What if someone knows all the locations? They’re sitting ducks.”

  “You can’t let ’em out.”

  “We will do whatever is ordered of us,” Viktor reminded them. “This is not our battle.”

  Shepherd’s head remained down. “They might have done this to drive the officials out into the open. What about the boy? You gonna send him home with Patrick when there could be an assassination attempt?”

  “The kid’s not our problem,” Blue informed him.

  “The hell he isn’t!” When Shepherd slowly raised his head, his brown eyes were savage.

  Claude shot forward and threw his arm protectively in front of Gem and me.

  Shepherd stamped out his cigarette in the ashtray. “I got something to say, and you ain’t gonna like it.”

  No one could silence a room like Shepherd. The bomb he’d dropped on us months ago about his pregnant girlfriend’s murder was shocking enough, but learning that his baby was still alive and in Patrick Bane’s care took the cake.

  “You caught him,” Gem repeated, still in a stupor. Of all the people at Patrick’s party, it had been Shepherd who saved the boy from a perilous fall. She drew up her knees and wrapped her
arms around them. “Did you know then?”

  Shepherd leaned back on the sofa. “No. Maybe if I’d gotten to hold him when he was born, I might have been able to tell, but I had no fucking idea. Not until I saw the picture with the scar on my phone and confronted Patrick.”

  Viktor stood before Shepherd, his arms folded and eyebrows sloped down. He hadn’t spoken a word since Shepherd had laid it all out on the table about his son. This kid was also a crossbreed, except a mix between Relic and Sensor. Shepherd reminded us how most mixed Breeds couldn’t have kids. Those who did had babies with gifts canceled out. It deterred people from procreating outside their Breed. It was extraordinarily rare for a child between two different Breeds to retain all his gifts. And for that reason, the murder and abduction made sense. Patrick wanted a child with fused gifts. And this boy was especially dangerous because of his innate knowledge of human physiology and viruses.

  Shepherd ran his hand over his bristly head. “Patrick wants to use my kid, and he’s brainwashing him. Do you understand why I have to stop this, Viktor? If we sit back and let it go, my son will end up on one of our lists someday. I can’t let that happen.”

  “And what does this mean?” Viktor prodded. “You kidnap boy?” Viktor’s anger was rising just as certainly as his words were dropping.

  “He threatened to destroy Keystone if I try. He’s backed me into a corner. I thought about leaving. I didn’t want my distraction to put your lives in danger. But you want to hand over the kid to Patrick while there’s imminent danger, and I’m not down with that. There was no way for me to explain why that’s not gonna happen without telling the truth. He’s safer here, with us. We don’t know what’ll happen if we let the officials out too soon.”

  “Patrick’s keeping him because of his Relic knowledge?” Claude asked. “Not because of his Sensor abilities?”

  Shepherd shook his head. “He’s using him for that too. Ever notice at the parties how he gives the kid glasses and dishes that some of his business companions have touched?”

  “Bastard,” Claude growled.

  “Yeah. And when he gets older, that son of a bitch is gonna use my kid to destroy the world.”

  Blue had returned to the beanbag chair and, by the look on her face, was mulling over all the information. “Why tell us now? Why didn’t you just tell Viktor… or leave?”

  “I was thinking about skipping out, but that would put me on your hit list, and you need to know what my motives are. Maybe it’ll change things, maybe not, but this fucking secret is eating me up. I can’t pass that kid in the hall without thinking about everything I stand to lose.” Shepherd suddenly dropped his head into his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. A tear escaped, and he quickly wiped it away with the heel of his hand. After a quiet moment, he leaned forward, arms resting on his knees. “If this means I gotta leave Keystone, then I’m asking you not to wipe my memory. I know you have to erase everything during my time working for you, but I’m begging you to leave me the memory of my son.” His eyes locked on Viktor.

  Viktor sighed. “I will ask you again. Do you plan to kidnap the boy? I do not want to hear about Patrick’s threats or your guilty conscience. I want to know the truth, and Claude will tell me if you’re lying.”

  Shepherd rose to his feet and stood like the Rock of Gibraltar. “I always thought of Maggie like a shooting star because I knew I wouldn’t have her for long. A Relic has the life expectancy of a human. She was beautiful and went out in a flash of light, but maybe what I need in this life is something steady—something true that I can count on always being there. Maggie was my shooting star, but my son will always be my North. I don’t know him. I didn’t get to change his diapers or rock him to sleep, but I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure he isn’t dealt a bad hand because I wasn’t strong enough to protect him. So to answer your question, no, I’m not gonna kidnap my own son. That would put his life in danger, and I’ll die before that ever happens.”

  We could all hear the resignation in his voice.

  “Then I will not ask you to leave,” Viktor promised.

  Shepherd cleared his throat. “Thanks. And now that you all know, just be sure that Patrick doesn’t get suspicious. If he thinks I told anyone, there’s no predicting what he might do.”

  Gem sprang from her seat and rushed Shepherd, wrapping her arms around his neck. He recoiled. Shepherd wasn’t a guy who smiled much, let alone showed public affection toward anyone.

  “All right,” he said, pushing her away. His neck and face were beet red as his gaze darted about the room. “Time to pack up all those feelings.”

  She wiped her tearstained cheeks. “You’re still a big grump.”

  A few of us chuckled, breaking the awkward silence of not knowing where Shepherd stood with our team anymore. Poor guy. I couldn’t imagine what he must have been going through all this time, being dragged to those parties and continually running into Patrick and his kid.

  Wyatt rolled back to his desk. “This cowboy has some work to do.”

  “Can you look at the surveillance footage from that night?” I asked, still wanting answers about the last murder victim.

  “That’s exactly what I’m doing now, buttercup.”

  Blue stood up. “How many Regulators were at the church?”

  Viktor glanced at his phone. “Chetyre.”

  “In English,” Gem said. “He means four.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Only four?”

  “Da. We only had a certain number of Regulators show up. They were divided based on how many heads they had to protect.”

  My thoughts drifted to Merry and Weather. Would they have murdered their own kind just to get to their targets? Were all the officials in that church on the list that Henry Tate had given me? I could easily see Relics being more supportive of human rights, but I wasn’t sure about the others.

  Viktor’s phone rang, and he turned away to answer.

  Deciding to return to the church, I stood up. Maybe it wasn’t our job to protect them anymore, but those men and women were in imminent danger, and I suddenly felt responsible for all their lives, including the asshole who’d body-slammed me against the concrete in a futile attempt to escape.

  Viktor lowered his arm. “The attack was deliberate. I have confirmation that the Regulators and the officials were all beheaded. The fire was to burn away evidence.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. Once the guards were taken out of the picture, the officials downstairs probably hadn’t even known what hit them. They were unarmed and defenseless.

  “I’m heading back,” I said, veering out of the room.

  I clenched my fists, my heart thumping against my ribs. I thought switching on the lights would fix all our problems, but now it seemed as if we were in an even worse predicament. Since everyone now had access to the news, the media would be all over another church fire. Did we have enough manpower to cover them all up? What if I had just inadvertently created an opportunity for humans to discover Breed?

  Perish the thought.

  “Wait up!”

  I twisted around and wondered why Shepherd was jogging toward me.

  “I’m coming with you,” he said.

  “Why? I thought maybe you’d want to hang out here and, um…”

  “Bond with a kid who doesn’t know who I am?”

  “Is that such a bad idea?”

  He shook his head. “What does it matter? He’ll just go back home and forget me.”

  My gaze drifted downward. “You’d be surprised how one person can leave an impression on a child. When I was a kid, a stranger saved me from a fire. I grew up wanting a better life because of him. I didn’t want to let him down. Weird, huh?”

  “And then you went and let a Vamp suck on your neck.”

  I smiled. “Life doesn’t always work out like you planned. He seems like a good kid. I’m real sorry all that happened.”

  Shepherd turned, and we walked together.

  “I suck at advice,
but maybe you should tie sandbags to Patrick’s feet and drop him off in a lake somewhere.”

  Shepherd chuckled. “The thought crossed my mind. He’s got too many guards, and I’d never get away with it. Then what? The kid winds up in an orphanage.”

  “Look at it this way: Patrick only gets him until he’s an adult. Believe it or not, kids rebel. It won’t take long for him to realize Patrick’s manipulating him.”

  “He doesn’t even have a name.”

  I blanched and stopped in my tracks. “What?”

  “It’s part of erasing his identity. Patrick wants to raise an obedient little soldier, so he just calls him boy.”

  “Then you need to give him a name. Fuck Patrick and his rules.”

  “What if that name I give him ends up on our list someday?”

  I clapped his arm. “If he’s your son, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  His lip twitched. “I guess you’re right.”

  “Kidding aside, you would have made a great dad.”

  He shook his head, eyes downcast. “I smoke, I drink, I cuss, and I kill.”

  “So did my father. Well, except for the killing part. I think. Unless war counts. He was textbook crazy. Didn’t even know how to pack a lunch. You know what he did the first year he had me? Drove up to my elementary school every day on his Harley and brought me fried chicken from KFC.”

  “Sounds like a good man.”

  “Crush is one of a kind.”

  Chapter 23

  Before leaving the mansion, I changed into a comfy beige sweater and left my leather jacket behind. My truck had a heater, and with the power restored, the church would warm up in no time. A jacket was one less thing to lug around.

  “What’s in the bag?” I asked Shepherd.

  He patted the plastic sack between us. “Christian’s clothes. That robe is creeping me the fuck out.”

  “Not a religious guy?”

  “Not when it comes to Christian.”

  I chuckled. “The irony of his name.”

  “Maybe hiding these knuckleheads in a church is just asking for it.”