Blood Royal (Blood Destiny #5)

by Connie Suttle

  The vampires had placed compulsion; otherwise, they'd have never gotten past the guards and Secret Service. What was I supposed to do? When Hafer and his newfound cronies rushed in with claws out or guns blazing, I gathered all four leaders and Director Bill inside my mist and got the hell out of there.

  * * *

  Camp David is located in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland, and let me tell you, I was just about to have a meltdown, hauling the President and three world leaders along, all of them having a conniption in a different language. Bill was the only one remaining silent. I had to take these guys somewhere and then get back to Hafer and his posse.

  The Visitor's Center down the mountain was closed when I dropped my cargo inside it, and I then did my best to place compulsion on three guys whose first language wasn't English. I finally got things under control and felt very thankful that Bill had his cell phone with him. He was calling for a helicopter and as much firepower as he could get as I left him and the others behind. Sorry, Mr. President, I sent as I turned to mist and flew upward through the ceiling.

  I discovered why three kidnapped research biologists had been dragged along on this little attempt at murder and espionage; they were there to inject my blood into three vampires. I saw three distinct spots of mist when I returned to Aspen Lodge. I was hovering in a corner of the ceiling, watching as three patches of mist floated closer to the floor. They weren't used to flying high overhead yet, so that might give me a bit of an advantage. I also didn't want to kill Hafer unless I had to—I figured Bill would like to get his hands on Mr. Spy Pants.

  Hafer was ordering the remaining two vampires, the Secret Service and the Navy guards about, making me think they hadn't been alerted to his new status as a spy. Hafer was shouting at them, telling them that the President and his guests had been abducted and the entire compound needed to be searched. He told them to be on the lookout for a female spy (I'm assuming that meant yours truly). Hafer was also instructing them not to shoot at me or damage me in any way. At least he'd been briefed, whereas Larry Frazier hadn't. They still thought the President and the others were somewhere on the grounds. Hafer wasn't asking anyone to search anywhere else.

  * * *

  Winkler had his cell glued to his ear as he punched the code to get back into the safe house. Bill had called out the National Guard, in addition to anybody else available, including all four branches of the military. Then he'd called Winkler, asking him to pass the message to Gavin and the others—he wanted their help. Camp David had been taken over by Admiral Hafer and a contingent of vampires and their human sheep. He did say that the President was safe and on his way back to the White House, along with three foreign dignitaries. Bill didn't elaborate on that. Gavin was growling as Winkler appeared in the basement of the safe house just as he was ending the call. Roff was directly behind the werewolf, his eyes huge and frightened.

  "Hafer and those vampires tried to take the President and now they have control of Camp David," Winkler muttered. "Bill is sending a helicopter for us but we have to be at a helipad nearby as quickly as we can get there. Lissa saved the President and three others—they're safe at least, but she went back into the whole mess as soon as she got them away from there."

  Gavin started cursing again until René intervened. "Cousin, she is doing what she can in a volatile situation. I know you worry for her, as do the rest of us. Let us go and see if we can offer assistance." Gavin quieted after that, nodded at René and motioned for Winkler to lead the way out of the safe house.

  "Roff, do you wish to go?" René asked quietly. "I warn you, it will be extremely dangerous."

  "I will stay here. Please keep the Raona safe," he whispered.

  "That will be our top priority," René smiled at the comesula and followed the others out of the basement.

  "You look an awful lot like Director Hancock," an FBI agent commented when Tony, Gavin and the others piled out of the van near the helicopter.

  "He looks like no one you know," Gavin growled out compulsion. The agent nodded, his eyes going blank for a moment before leading them to the helicopter, its blades already whirling swiftly in preparation for takeoff. There were headsets for all of them and they climbed aboard and settled in.

  * * *

  This had turned into a waiting game—at least fifteen minutes had passed while Hafer and his cronies, surrounded by elite Navy guards, combed through the main building and then went on to the next, and the next after that. I hovered over their heads; they were frantically searching for the President and the others, sure that I'd be with them.

  It was likely they intended to kill the President and the others, in order to cause an international incident. They'd made an attempt on the Vice President already; if that had succeeded, and then they'd succeeded in this attempt on the President and the others, the entire country would be in chaos. Gavin had been correct—Xenides wanted to destroy countries, along with getting his hands on me.

  It was fortuitous that I'd sent mindspeech to Bill as he and the President were preparing to fly to Camp David. The fact that I'd agreed to come along with them was almost too good to be true. Too bad I couldn't get inside Hafer's brain to see what he or the two vampires who weren't mist were thinking. As it was, I was afraid to go lower, not while the other three were still mist. I wondered how long they could remain mist. I think I was about to find out.

  One of the vampires began to rise higher inside the building currently being searched, so I was forced to hover next to a fluorescent light, hoping he wouldn't be able to distinguish my white mist from that of the artificial light. He couldn't, and I heaved a mental sigh of relief. He did search out every corner of the room, though, carefully checking to see if I was there.

  There was sudden shouting and a commotion outside—evidently the cavalry had arrived and more compulsion was about to be placed for the Navy guards to fire on their fellow soldiers. I misted through the ceiling while the others rushed for the door—they hadn't discovered that they could mist through walls—another advantage I held over them. The two vampires that weren't mist were shouting out orders laced with heavy compulsion for the guards to start shooting. They did. And if something wasn't done soon, then this would likely turn into a bloodbath.

  Hafer was hiding behind his two vampires as well as he could, the jerk. He was doing his best to get honest, loyal soldiers killed just so he and Xenides could get what they wanted. Bullets were now flying indiscriminately, several of which zinged right through my mist. Yeah, I wasn't crazy about being shot at again, even if the bullets didn't do any damage. I heard a helicopter in the distance and figured more troops were coming.

  I misted toward the ground troops that had just arrived to see if I could help them in any way. They were down low, completely puzzled over why their own were shooting at them. I found Bill and a few other important people at the back of that crowd. I dropped toward them at an incredible rate of speed.

  Bill, I'm right beside you, I sent.

  "Lissa, come on out, we'll cover this up," Bill said, still bending low with the three others with him. Bullets were still flying overhead.

  "I sure hope you can cover this up," I muttered dryly, materializing next to him in a kneeling position. "Three of theirs are invisible right now."

  "Can they hurt any of ours?" Bill was worried, and I now had three sets of eyes trained on me. Looked like bigwigs from the Army, Navy and Marines. I figured the Air Force were the ones flying around the perimeter of the camp.

  "If they figure out what they can do before the effects wear off," I grumbled while a bullet cracked into a tree limb over our heads. Honestly, I was about to get pissed and go after those schmucks anyway, mist or no mist.

  "Lissa, what will they do to you while you're mist?" Bill asked while more bullets whacked into the tree over our heads. Somebody had our location, looked like.

  "You know, I don't think they can do much at all," I smiled sweetly at Bill, gave him a kiss for pointing out the obvious, (which sh
ocked the hell out of him, I'm sure) and misted away in a heartbeat.

  Two vampires died swiftly, their heads and bodies separately turning to ash in seconds. Three research biologists under compulsion were then gathered and dropped in the midst of the advancing soldiers; they were disarmed and restrained quickly. Admiral Hafer was then jerked up and hauled straight to Bill; I dropped him from ten feet overhead, breaking a few bones when he hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Hafer's gun flew out of his hand and he yelped as he fell. Now, the three that were mist were chasing me; they'd seen me finally and I was about to see how long they could remain mist. I flew straight east as fast as I could go while they tried their best to keep up with me. I had experience being mist—they didn't.

  After ten minutes, we were over the Atlantic. I didn't want them dropping into the ocean and possibly living over this, so I turned and headed toward land. Good thing, too—the injection of my blood wore off and the first one materialized, dropping right out of the sky, screaming all the way down. I swooped in and gathered him into my mist. Let me tell you—he could curse in as many languages as Gavin. The second one rematerialized and dropped. We picked him up as well. The third one was misting toward the ground when he turned and I still managed to get him. Now, what to do with them?

  Tony, is Gavin still having a rant? I sent. My mental voice sounded weary, even to my own ears. Karzac had been correct—I hadn't waited the extra day to get over my bullet wounds to the chest and I was tiring.

  He is, but we're here at Camp David, now, Tony replied.

  Tell me where you are, I have the three misters, I informed him mentally. You guys need to be ready; we need these dead as soon as I dump them on the ground. Tony described where he, Gavin and René were, so I headed in that direction.

  I didn't dump the vampires gently, either, opting to fling them onto the ground. Gavin, Tony and René didn't take long to remove heads from bodies, and Bill and his buddies were there to witness the entire thing. Gavin was growling and had my upper arm in a tight grip as soon as I appeared. I didn't expect anything else, to be honest.

  I heard René placing compulsion on humans as Gavin hauled me toward a nearby stand of trees. "Lissa, I want an explanation and I want it now," Gavin's eyes were dark and his fangs were showing.

  "Gavin, I don't have any excuse. You're right as usual. I'll try harder next time." I'm not sure what he wanted to hear, if anything. I was terrified and exhausted at the same moment. Anybody else would be terrified, too, with Gavin like that. I'd seen anger before—killing anger. Alcohol-induced, crazed and irrational. Watched my mother die as a result, and then took blows meant to kill me afterward. I had no desire to wait for Gavin to deliver any blows of his own, so I was shaking and prepared to go to mist in a blink. Yes, I was watching Gavin's hands, now, and not his face. That would be my signal—when those fists clenched or the claws formed. I took a step backward. Gavin followed, still shouting and cursing. I'd stopped trying to translate the words; I was watching his body, waiting for the blows to come. When I saw the fists clench, instinctively I raised my arms to ward off the inevitable punch. I think I was crying by that time.

  * * *

  "Lissa, stop crying. Please." Winkler was kneeling beside me, an arm around my shoulders. I don't know what happened—I'd dropped to the ground while Gavin had been shouting, expecting him to hit me at any moment, he was so angry. And then I couldn't stop sobbing. Couldn't. I heard someone nearby, telling someone else that drugs had no effect on me so the tranquilizer should be put away. I heard René's voice, quietly talking to Gavin, who wasn't saying anything, now.

  "Lissy, you can't have a breakdown now," Tony was kneeling on my other side. "Baby, we need you. We can't do this without you. He didn't mean it, he was just upset. He wasn't going to hit you, pretty girl. I promise."

  "Come on," Winkler coaxed softly, drawing my arms around his neck and lifting me up. I was sobbing against his neck, now. He carried me toward Gavin, René, Bill and a few others standing there on the leaf-strewn grounds of Camp David on a September night, quiet now except for my sobs.

  * * *

  Gavin and René were on a conference call with Wlodek. Gavin was a wreck. "I have not seen this before, not in a vampire," René sighed. "She believed that Gavin was going to strike her. As soon as his fists clenched, she dropped to the ground and we could not stop the weeping. She cried herself out after four hours, when sunrise came."

  Wlodek's fingers stilled on his gold pen. Gavin and René were in Director Bill Jennings' office. He'd set up the conference call for them. Charles had set up the webcam from their end and Gavin and René both watched Wlodek's face. It held no expression, as usual. "I can do nothing about this from so far away," Wlodek said after several moments of silence.

  "We were hoping that Merrill, perhaps, or even Lissa's father, if he could be contacted," René suggested.

  "No, Merrill cannot be disturbed at this time," Wlodek sighed. "Gavin, I have never seen you allow your temper to run away with you like this," Wlodek went on. "This is your mate. You know how fragile she can be in this respect. What were you thinking?"

  "And I did this in a public place," Gavin reluctantly admitted.

  "He didn't say anything that would reveal the race," René offered. "He was shouting as an angry husband might. Well, as some angry husbands might," he amended.

  "Will she be able to function after this?" Wlodek asked quietly. "Where is she now and what is she doing?"

  "I left her in bed at the safe house. I wanted her to sleep as long as possible. I think the recent injury as well as exhaustion may be playing a part in all this since she has been awake so much during the day," Gavin muttered. Wlodek had already been advised regarding Lissa's adventures during the day. He understood now what Griffin's blood had done for her.

  "At least she was able to eliminate Xenides' minions," Wlodek remarked, staring at the gold pen in his hands. "But there are others still out there and the threat in Kansas has not been dealt with. We need her help with this. If this is not possible as a result of this breakdown, I expect to be alerted immediately."

  "We will let you know," René promised and terminated the call.

  * * *

  My head was pounding when I woke and Roff was there, waiting for me to wake, a glass of ice water in his hands. "Roff, I feel sick," I scooted up in the bed, my head in my hands. It felt like a migraine, to be honest, and I wished that aspirin or something actually worked right then.

  "Raona, will a bath help?" Roff was trying to coax me off the bed.

  "Roff, my head feels like it may explode," I muttered.

  "Weeping will do that," he pulled my head against his chest and stroked my jaw. Roff pushed and pulled, coaxed, begged and cajoled until he had me soaking in a bathtub full of hot water, a cool compress over my forehead and eyes. That's where Gavin found me when he came in. I don't know where he'd been and at the moment, I didn't really care. He'd frightened me the night before, causing something to happen that hadn't happened in a long time. Don was the only one who'd ever seen one of those—some sort of breakdown. I'd had several in the first few years after Howard Graham nearly killed me, but nothing in the past decade or so—until now, that is. I suppose it was the injury, the stress and the exhaustion, all weighing in at once. Roff left the bathroom quietly. I didn't make a move, leaving the compress over my eyes. I knew Gavin was there by his scent. He knew I knew as well.

  "I'm not going to apologize," I said right off. "That hasn't happened for at least ten years. Hopefully it won't happen again."

  "Cara, what hasn't happened in ten years?" Gavin's voice was gentle. Where did that come from? It was as far from what he'd been last night as it was possible to be.

  "Don called it crying jags. It happened a lot in the first five years after Howard Graham, well," I didn't finish. "Only once in a while after that before it finally went away. Until last night."

  "Cara, I am not Howard Graham."

  "I know."

 
"Cara, I will not touch you in anger."

  "Gavin, you say that now. What if I make you mad again? Howard Graham always promised my mother that he wouldn't hit her again. Until he'd get drunk the very next day and break his promise." I pulled the compress off my eyes and the light in the bathroom made me squint and ramped up the headache.

  "Headache?"

  "Migraine."

  "Worse."

  "Yes."

  "He yelled and cursed, didn't he?" The subject had changed again. Gavin now knelt next to the bathtub, taking the compress out of my hand and settling it over my eyes again. "While he beat you and your mother."

  "And before and after, don't forget that." I slipped down farther into the water. There was no bubble bath in this water, it was perfectly clear. Gavin could see every bit of me. I felt a little embarrassed, but then he'd seen every bit of me for a while, now. Gavin took the mesh sponge, dribbled body wash on it and proceeded to give me a slow and lazy bath.

  After a while, he began to talk. First in Italian, then switching to French. Telling me how beautiful I was. He kissed my hands and my fingers. Traced my collarbone and nipples with the sponge, and then with his fingers. Said he loved my ankles and kissed those when he lifted them out of the water. And then he started to talk about Howard Graham.

  "How could he harm this?" Gavin ran fingers down my ribs. "Could he not see how fine and beautiful it was? Why would any man harm a child, even if it were not his?" Gavin leaned in and placed a kiss—the first of the evening—on my mouth. "Cara, when you are away from me, I dream of your mouth." He kissed me again. Eventually he pulled me out of the tub after the water had cooled quite a bit, wrapped me up in my robe and carried me out of the bathroom.

  "There is our little rose," René said when Gavin carried me into the kitchen to feed me a bag of blood. At least two-thirds of a bag, anyway. Winkler, Roff and Tony watched as I had my meal.

  "Our girl is fine except for the terrible headache," Gavin put the rest of my blood back in the fridge. I think they all heaved a sigh of relief.