9781936653027BorntobeWildArsuaga

by Cynthia Arsuaga

  “Yes. I’m not interested in letting this drug get on the street. I’ve been watching what it’s doing to humans and vamps tonight, and I don’t like it. I want to stop Dragos and I have a plan.”

  “We need to get out of here. I don’t want to run into that psycho vamp tonight. Where can we go?” she asked.

  “Leave the club. Wait outside. I’ll come for you when it’s clear. We’ll meet with some of my friends and we’ll go from there,” Stefan said.

  Chapter 21

  Stefan watched Alexandra and Johnson walk, no more like run, out of the club. Her attitude cut him to the core. He wasn’t the enemy, damn it! Didn’t she know he loved her? Fool, how could she? When have I had the chance to tell her? Once, but did she remember? He debated following, but Dragos’ hand on his shoulder prevented his departure.

  “You want to explain what that was about?” Dragos asked.

  “I can,” Ecaterina said. “The little fat cow is Stefan’s human slave. The one I thought I took down in Virginia. Seems I didn’t kill her after all. What did you do, baby, save her without turning her? You’re such a pussy when it comes to rules.” The words purred from the female vampire.

  “Her name is Alexandra, not fat cow. Respect her or face the consequences of my anger.” Stefan warned her.

  “Okay, children, play nice. Who was the man with the woman? He is human and didn’t seem like a Dom to me. Do you know him as well?” Dragos asked.

  Stefan hesitated. “I learned his name a few minutes ago. He’s my mark. He’s Agent Scott Johnson.”

  Dragos’ eyebrows arched. “Really? I didn’t recognize the young man. Hmm, he looks different without a lab coat.” He laughed. “This is good. You can go and take care of this situation now. Hurry before they get too far.”

  “I’m not doing this now.”

  “What do you mean? We have an agreement.”

  “It doesn’t include Alexandra.”

  “The woman obviously is involved. I can’t have any loose ends. It seems to me she played you from the beginning. You were involved with her in Virginia. You’re telling me her appearance here in Miami Beach collared by the same FBI Agent I wanted you to dispose of is all coincidence Stefan? No, the woman has to go. I insist.”

  Stefan shook his head. “No, I won’t do it. Alexandra is my woman and to kill her you’ll have to go through me.”

  “Then she’ll die by my hand. I’ve tasted her blood and can track her. I’ll find her and kill her for you, Dragos. Let me do it,” Ecaterina said.

  “No!” Stefan shouted.

  “Hmm, you have no choice, my son. Don’t let this human female destroy your future. You know Cat can do it. My sweet kitty is quite adept at getting what she wants. But, of course, there is another alternative.” He walked around to Stefan’s backside, then around to his front.

  “And what would that be?” Stefan asked.

  “You could always turn her and bring her over to our side. I could accept that as suitable punishment for her misdeeds against me, but the Johnson man has to die. I want a clear message sent to the FBI.”

  “She won’t do it,” Stefan said softly.

  “Well, then I guess you have your decision made. You can’t run from what you are my son. I will always find you and you will always come back to me. Don’t think you can take your woman and run and hide. I’ll track you down like an animal and kill you myself for your betrayal. Think carefully.”

  “Yes, baby. Dragos doesn’t give do overs.”

  “Come my sweet, I want to play. Stefan has a job to do. I’ll see you back at SGM later.” He hooked his arm around Ecaterina and led her off across the room disappearing behind the stage draperies.

  Stefan blinked away the anger welling up inside him. He kept his composure, barely. Dragos’ words echoed in his ears—he could always turn her. The hopes of one day bringing Alexandra over into his world were always a possibility. He wanted her by his side, for an eternity to complete him, to bring light to his darkness. But, he was always going to give her the choice. He’d never do to her what he did to Ecaterina—never again. Now, he was faced with losing her. He could always kill Dragos.

  That was always another option.

  He scanned the room. The redhead named Becca still slumped at the bar. Whatever high the woman was on, Stefan figured she could stay there and enjoy. He was no longer interested. The rest of the humans and vamps were pretty much in the same state. Blue was doing its job, fucking with peoples’ brains and bodies.

  He checked the time on the wall clock, nearly one-thirty. His friends would be arriving for the meeting at any time. Perhaps it was fortuitous Dragos and Ecaterina went off on their own and left him alone. He didn’t have to make up an excuse to leave. He slipped out the exit to find Alexandra and Johnson.

  Stefan tapped on the window of the black Chevy Tahoe where Alex and Johnson sat, waiting. Johnson unlocked the door and Stefan slipped in the backseat. Johnson started the engine.

  “Where have you been? I thought maybe you changed your mind about helping us,” she said, turned facing the backseat. “I though you we’re setting us up, getting us away from the club, so we’d be alone and defenseless humans. But you’d be in for a rude awakening if you thought I’d go down without a fight mister…Oww!” Grabbing her head with both hands, she turned back around. “That wasn’t nice.” Not fair zapping me in my mind Stefan.

  Johnson looked over at the little red-haired hell-on-wheels in the front seat and chuckled.

  “Where we going?” Johnson asked, looking through the rearview mirror at Stefan, but there was no reflection. Only pitch black.

  A voice, low and velvety spoke from the darkness, “Drive to the Executive Airport.”

  “Okay. What’s there?”

  “Reinforcements.”

  After a few moments after they pulled away from the club, bright lights reflected in the side mirror grabbing Alex’s attention.

  “We have company boys.”

  “Probably Palmer,” Johnson said.

  “Who’s Palmer?” Stefan asked.

  “My partner.”

  “Rule Number Eight,” Alex said softly.

  “Huh?” Johnson glanced over at her, puzzled by the comment.

  “One of her bounty rules. You mean to tell me she hasn’t recited them to you Johnson?” Stefan asked.

  “No. First time I’ve heard of them. How many rules are there?”

  “Oh, I think I’ve counted at least ten so far. To be honest with you, I think she makes them up as the situation warrants.”

  “Hey, that’s not funny. The rules are real. There are ten hard fast ones that we bounty hunters live by. You’re already on my shit list, Stefan. Keep it up if you want to dig yourself deeper.”

  “And exactly what have I done to deserve this abuse? Tell me.”

  “You know exactly what you did. The spanking for starters.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Oh!” Crossing her arms at her waist, she harrumphed loudly.

  Another black SUV pulled in front of their vehicle.

  “Okay, Johnson, what’s going on? Another black one just pulled in front of us. Is that Martin or someone else?”

  “Don’t know. Something’s happening.”

  Alex’s cell phone rang and reached in her purse, retrieving it.

  Johnson’s cell phone rang. He reached in his pocket to retrieve it.

  “Okay this is creepy,” she said, flipping the phone cover. “Hello?”

  * * * *

  The caravan arrived at the Miami Executive Airport and parked. Stefan exited the vehicle and went inside the terminal, leaving Alex and Johnson.

  “So, I bet I know why we’re here at the airport,” she said.

  “You got the same phone call I did didn’t you?” Johnson asked.

  “Hmm, maybe. Mine was from my brother.”

  “Mine from the Chief. He just got a call from Headquarters.”

  “Really? About the vamps on the move from
Virginia?”

  “Now how’d Jordan know?”

  “Our network is good.”

  “Interesting. When I have more time, we’re talking about this network of yours. And those bounty rules too.”

  A tap on the window startled Alex and jerked slightly in the seat.

  “Jeez, he has to stop doing that!”

  * * * *

  He waited ten minutes before the flight arrived from Virginia with Gregori, Sorin and the remaining vamps. The group came down the hall, a sea of hulking men dressed in black walked six abreast through the concourse.

  Gregori and Stefan greeted each other first. “Brother, I’m so glad to see you. At first I thought you took off on one of your moody sabbaticals, until I got your call requesting my help.” They shook hands and patted each other on the back.

  Stefan greeted Sorin, a friend from his early days as a vampire. Dragos was also his sire and shared in Stefan’s distrust and hatred. Sorin had risen through the ranks and had the family in Eastern Europe, an old and strong blood clan. Dragos never challenged him after he took the Master and Commander position.

  For security reasons, Gregori had arranged for transportation, accommodations for sleeping, and the meeting place prior to the departure from Virginia. Five SUVs were waiting at the terminal as the group exited and transported them to a location only known to Gregori. Stefan didn’t want to know the details in case Dragos, as his sire, would have access to his mind. As it was, Stefan expended a lot of energy blocking Dragos from knowing the details of the plan thus far. The less Stefan knew about the initial planning, the better.

  With Alex, Johnson, and the FBI entourage showing up at the same time, there was a change of plans. The caravan of ten black SUVs and one unmarked van looked like a presidential cavalcade making its way to the safe house Gregori secured for the meeting. Of course, when he made the arrangements, he didn’t expect to have the Feds join them.

  Gregori acquiesced after Stefan convinced him cooperation with the FBI might be the only way to defeat Dragos, based on what he saw in the club tonight.

  “All right, I see no harm in us sharing information, for now,” was his response, and they loaded into the vehicles and proceeded to the secured meeting place.

  The atmosphere in the conference room was tense and contentious. The FBI Special Unit Agents sat on one side of the table, and the Masters of the fifteen Families sat on the other. Alex took a seat at the conference table next to Chief Martin, who sat to the right of the head of the table. Johnson sat on the other side of her. Gregori took the head of the table position. Stefan remained standing along with the other Knights and Sergeants of the entourage circling the perimeter. Their side of the room was wall-to-wall black leather jacketed vampires.

  Gregori acknowledged the others sitting around the long table. Sorin sat to his immediate left, followed by Lucius, Marius, Philip, and the remaining Grand Masters. He nodded to the humans. Stefan paced around the table, deep in thought.

  In the corner of the room, Chief Martin posted two agents to secure the entrance. Not to be outdone, Gregori motioned for one of the vampires to stand sentry with the agents.

  “Before we get started, I want to go on the record as saying, this meeting is not taking place and the United States Federal Government, specifically the FBI Special Vampire Unit will disavow any knowledge this meeting ever took place. It is not our mission to ever fully cooperate with the vampire community. We are only mandated to investigate, regulate and terminate if necessary your kind. It’s only now, well, that the mission has grown a bit complicated. It seems we need each other’s help to bring about the elimination of a threat to both sides of the coin threatening us.” Martin’s gaze darted nervously about the room.

  Gregori leaned back in the chair. He gave Martin a suspicious look, and then crossed his arms. “Okay, first tell us about this vamp virus. Is it as deadly as the rumors purport it to be?”

  “Yes, we can verify it conclusively,” Martin said.

  “I can too,” Stefan said. “Dragos showed me the records from the lab reports. His only intentions though are to scare the human population enough to get Congress to revoke the Vamp Laws of 1905.”

  “Prohibition of Vamp Blood,” Alex said.

  Dead silence fell across the room and all eyes turned to her.

  “Whaaat?” she continued. “It’s what Dragos wants so he can bootleg your blood for a huge profit. You could be rich. Are you telling me all of you are honorable and aren’t tempted just a little to let Dragos do this?”

  Growing uneasy with the direction of her theories, Stefan touched her mind and she went silent.

  “In answer to your question, Miss Carlton,” Gregori replied. “Yes we are, and no we’re not interested in changing the laws that now exist. The accord between humans and vampires is comfortable. We don’t intend to upset the current balance. When there is a vampire who steps out of line, we take care of them in our way. That is why we are here. I didn’t expect to be greeted by the Feds, but my friend has told me the problem is bigger than he originally thought.”

  Martin nodded in agreement. “There is a bigger threat than the virus. This Dragos Munteanu has created a new blood, a Blue Blood, laced with a synthetic heroin-like component he is planning on distributing. It is illegal of course. We want to keep this off the streets probably as much as you do.”

  “I’ve seen the effects of this Blue tonight at Euphoria. Dragos had the human patrons lined up taking it and within minutes they were in a drug-induced state,” Stefan said. “The vamps in the room were drawn to them like animals in heat. It was like an aphrodisiac. Trust me, I felt the effects and didn’t take the blood like other vamps did. It is very powerful. That’s when I knew I needed help to stop this plague. Later, Alexandra walked in the club and told me about her connection with the FBI.”

  “Alex, have you been working us since Virginia? Who are you exactly?” Gregori asked.

  She looked at Stefan’s knowing grin.

  “Gregori, you know who I am. I’m Alex Carlton, Carlton Bounty Hunters, Inc. and part-time undercover FBI Special Agent.” A wide Cheshire cat grin materialized across her face.

  Stefan covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.

  Gregori’s brow wrinkled. “A bounty hunter? I hate hunters…but, I’ll make an exception for you because I know Stefan can vouch for you.”

  More than that.

  I heard you. Stefan said back to her in her mind.

  Glancing at Stefan, their eyes locked, I wanted you to. The ends of her mouth turned up slightly. He returned the expression and laughed to himself.

  “Can we get back to the business at hand? We have a renegade vampire ready to turn the world upside down with a deadly virus and powerful addictive blood drug, who cares if Miss Carlton is a bounty hunter and works for us?” Chief Martin asked.

  “I agree. Thank you Martin,” Gregori said. “What are your thoughts on how to handle this situation?”

  “We have the full support of the President to contain this situation. Whatever it takes, he wants it to go away with the least amount of fanfare, so as not to alert the public. We don’t want to complicate the problem with panic in the streets, riots, unwanted attacks against the vamp community, another blood bath like we had before the laws were enacted. If that happens, Dragos will have won by proxy.”

  “Agreed, that is why we like taking care of our own and not involve humans. So, what do you have in mind?”

  “I’ll alert the military,” Chief Martin said. When a few dozen heads with glowing red eyes turned to him with alarm, he lifted his hands. “Don’t worry. It won’t be heavy artillery, tanks, and stealth bombers. I’ll keep it light, maybe a few armored vehicles, helicopter gunships, and fifty thousand men instead of a hundred thousand.”

  There was dead silence in the room.

  “Chief I don’t think your sense of humor is going over too well,” Johnson said softly.

  “You think?” Alex remarked.

&nbs
p; “Okay, okay. Lighten up. I was kidding. The tension in this room is a little heavy. You boys need to get a life. Oh, that’s right, you don’t have a life. You’re dead.”

  “Good one Chief,” Palmer said, snorting a few times.

  Gregori stood to leave, saying, “Perhaps it would be better if we seek separate solutions.”

  Alex stood, pushing the chair back with force, knocking it over. “Okay, that’s enough. I’m not going to sit here and listen to this pissing contest between high-level testosterone males. We have a maniacal, evil vampire who threatens the world. It will take all of us working together to bring him down without causing panic or bloodshed. Wake up! Work together. You have the same purpose, the same cause. Find a way to put aside your dislike for each other and capture Dragos, or we’re all in trouble.”

  Silence fell on the room again. All eyes focused on the little red-head.

  “Well boys, how does it feel to be schooled?” Stefan asked. One corner of his mouth curled up.

  “She’s right. I apologize. Gregori,” Martin said. “Alex is right. An alliance with you is in the best interest of all Americans, and the world for that matter, both living and undead.” He extended his hand.

  Gregori hesitated, his eyes narrowed. Finally, prodded by Alex’s unwavering stare, his demeanor relaxed, “Agreed and thank you, Martin.” He settled back into his chair, followed by the other vampires. “Let’s get started, then. One of our top priorities is to destroy the production of the drug and the virus. It is imperative the virus is contained. None of it can escape. Does anyone know where it is stored in the factory?”

  “I do,” Johnson said.

  “I do too,” Alex said.

  “Okay, we’ll need instructions on how to get into those areas. The same with this blue drug.”

  “We have that covered too,” Johnson said.

  “Good. Another top priority is rounding up all the remaining vampires under Dragos’ family outside the SGM compound. Since you know the area best, we’ll have to rely on the FBI to guide us.” Gregori nodded to Chief Martin. “You have the floor, if you want to speak.”