“Right this way,” he said, indicating a corridor leading to the left just past the sculpture. “The Master is expecting you.”
She cast one last look over her shoulder, cementing every detail into her memory. When she returned home, hopefully with the title of Seattle Sector Mistress, as well as becoming a voting member on the Xtark Software board of directors, she vowed to put together a room just like this one.
Or maybe a whole house.
GETTING STABBED WITH A SILVIE wasn’t the end of the world unless it went into the heart muscle, but it sure as hell hurt like shit.
At the field office, Jackson had just stuffed a sandwich half into his mouth and poured himself another glass of milk, when the door to the kitchen opened. Lily DeGraf, one of the Agency’s best tracker agents, waltzed in with a scowl plastered on her face.
Great. What now? As soon as it went full dark, he had planned to head out into the city to get more blood and energies. Sleeping the day away then eating everything in sight just wasn’t cutting it. Whatever she wanted had better not require much from him. His pupils were still fully dilated. He didn’t want her or anyone else to notice, otherwise he risked being sent to the clinic.
“Dude, what’s with the shades? Party too hard last night?”
Perfect, he thought as he adjusted the Ray-Bans. “Yeah, well, now you know.”
She laughed. “Why is that not surprising?”
“Because my reputation precedes me.”
She wore a pair of spandex workout shorts and a skimpy bra top, and her blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. Though recently engaged to Dom’s brother, Alfonso, she hadn’t changed at all. She was still the same Lily, ready to kick ass at a moment’s notice or laugh at a dirty joke. Jackson liked a woman capable of beating the shit out of him, but he sure as hell didn’t want to date one. Alfonso was a lucky, but very patient, man, he decided.
“Listen. We need to talk.”
Had she figured out that he’d been using the hot tub in the ladies’ locker room when no one was around? He couldn’t help that he enjoyed the peace and quiet over there sometimes. Plus, he liked the eucalyptus-scented candles. Oh, great. If the other guys found out about it, they’d never let him live it down.
“About what?”
“That normal charming self of yours seems to be in some hot water. Dom’s pissed off at you about something. I just passed his office and heard him on the phone with Cordell. Your name and a few choice swearwords were jumbled together into one long, brutal-sounding sentence. For a minute there, I thought I was hearing Santiago.”
“That can’t be good.” The region commander of the Horseshoe Bay region in British Columbia had a way with words—primarily swearwords—ones many people had never heard before. It was an education about the underbelly of the English language when you were around Santiago. But then, Dom wasn’t all that different. At least not to Jackson. More often than not, Jackson seemed to get under the guy’s skin. He was a great field team leader, and Jackson really respected him for the way he got the job done without micromanaging the people who worked for him. He just tried to stay out of the man’s way if he could. Made life much more enjoyable.
“I’m guessing he’ll be calling you to his office soon, if he hasn’t already,” Lily continued.
He glanced as his phone but couldn’t see the screen through the dark lenses. Turning his head slightly away from Lily, he slid the sunglasses down his nose. Nope. Hadn’t missed a call.
“What now?” he asked, pushing the glasses back up. He’d filed his sweetblood report shortly after returning to the field office. Sure, he was a little late, as he’d been trying to figure out what to do about the situation with that woman. But he’d taken care of things there and the report was finished. In the past week, he’d done drive-bys on the eight sweetbloods on his list and they were all accounted for.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Want any moral support?”
“Why? You want to see him kick my ass again?”
“Jacks, I’m hurt.” She stuck out her bottom lip and put a hand dramatically over her heart. “That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”
As they headed down the hallway toward Dom’s office, the overhead light caught on her ring. “Let me see that,” he said, grabbing her hand. The platinum band had an intertwined pattern and three diamonds embedded in the top.
“They represent Alfonso, Zoe and me,” she explained, smiling at the reference to her fiancé and their young daughter. “And the woven pattern is our take on a Gordian knot, signifying that our love has no beginning and no end.”
“Wow, that’s pretty damn romantic, Lil. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
She shrugged, looked almost a little hurt. Was she serious or pulling his leg? He’d never thought of her as a romantic, but maybe she’d changed.
“Seriously, it’s pretty awesome. I’m glad you’ve found happiness. Alfonso is a great guy.” He dropped her hand and they continued walking. “So, what if you have another kid? There’s no room on the ring for another diamond.”
“Guess he’d need to buy me a whole new one, then, eh?” she said, smiling. “We have no plans for another child, but if it happens, it happens. I just kind of hope it doesn’t. I mean, I’d be excited if it did, but work is keeping me so busy as it is, and I love it. I wouldn’t want to give it up to stay home.”
Oddly, Lily had never struck him as a traditional role kind of woman. “Stay home? What about Alfonso? I thought he was freelancing for the Agency. Wouldn’t his schedule allow him to be more flexible than yours? Couldn’t he stay home, instead?”
She knocked him playfully in the arm, sending pain shooting up to his shoulder. “That’s exactly what he says, too. Have you guys been talking?”
He tried not to grimace. “I knew I liked the guy. Nope, guess we’re both just family men at heart. Can’t you just picture yourself with a whole bunch of kids running around? Now that to me would be heaven.”
Lily stopped.
“What?” He turned around. “Are you coming or not?”
“I’m just surprised, that’s all. I’ve never heard you talk that way before.”
He shrugged, then instantly regretted it because of the pain. Jesus. Was this arm tied to every muscle in his body?
When the union of a vampire couple produced children, it was considered a good one because fertility rates were so low among their kind. He remembered his own parents saying that many times when he and Betsy were growing up. He got that familiar knot in his gut whenever he thought about his sister. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought.” Shoving his hands into his pockets, he continued toward Dom’s office.
“Somebody’s broody today. Hey, Alfonso wanted me to ask you if you’d like to come up to the house for a few days next week. We both have time off and Zoe has been asking about you. Wants to make you brownies or something. Xian gave her his recipe.”
He liked that they included him in their family. He and Lily’s daughter had this competition going as to who could eat the most brownies. Even Xian, the field office manager, participated in their little game. He’d make the brownies—plain for Zoe, with nuts for Jackson—and the two of them would see who could eat their brownies the fastest. Jackson usually let Zoe win just to see the satisfied expression on the youthling’s face.
“I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m heading down to San Diego tomorrow night. Gibby and I have tickets to some MMA fights.” That is, if he felt better. Maybe some of the more potent energies there would more quickly replenish what he’d lost.
“Ah, you and the fights. Don’t you ever get sick of watching them? That’s all you’ve been doing on your time off.”
Probably because he had no family to visit. His friends were his family. “Me? Sick of MMA? Never.” He
’d been a fan of every kind of hand-to-hand combat ever since his friend’s father had taken the boys to see the local boxing matches held in an old barn down in West Texas before the turn of the century. Neither boy had gone through their Times of Change yet, so the blood didn’t bother them. After they both changed, it’d be another decade or so until he felt comfortable being around blood like that. That’s what watching the fights was to him. A connection to friends who had replaced his family.
“So what did you overhear Dom ranting about? Do I need to prepare myself ahead of time?”
She shrugged. “I just heard him talking to Cordell.”
Cordell, the field office’s technical expert, handled all things computer related. Had Jackson fucked up the TechTran system again? All he’d done last night was log in, make his report and log out. Well, he did play Hollow Grave for a while. The online computer game was used by Darkbloods to attract young vampire males. They communicated the locations of rave-style parties where they sold blood and encouraged them to revert to the old ways of killing humans for food. When plied with blood like that, youthlings were very receptive to all sorts of backward ideas. Agents were encouraged to stay on top of what was going on. Besides, Jackson loved the game. He had reached the Ghost Hunter level, which opened up all sorts of new weapons and superpowers.
Could he have done something to the Agency system while playing the game? He knew he hadn’t compromised his identity. Cordell had set up each agent who wanted to play the game with an untraceable ID. He hadn’t messed with any of the settings, not that he’d even know how to do it in the first place.
No, the meeting with Dom couldn’t be about Hollow Grave. It had to be something else, but he didn’t find that very reassuring. He was glad Lily had come with him. Dom respected her and she had a way of calming him down, getting to the heart of the matter while not inflaming anyone’s anger. She was a diplomat, just like her father.
Jackson felt the tension pouring out of Dom’s office before he even opened the door. It was as palpable as last night’s fog. The field team leader was leaning over his desk, the muscles in his arms bulging as he stared at his computer screen.
Dom looked up as they entered, his brow furrowed, his blue eyes cold and accusing. It was clear that this wasn’t a social call. “What the hell is going on with you?”
“You mean at the Pink Salon? I was going to fill out my report—”
Dom stood up to his full six-foot-four height and scrutinized him in such detail that it seemed as though he was looking for the answers on Jackson’s clothes, his hair, his shoes.
“What’s one of the first directives of a Guardian?”
Not sure if that was a rhetorical question or not, he answered tentatively. “To…ah…uphold the laws of the Governing Council.”
“And?”
Jesus. Was he back in grammar school? “Excuse me?”
Dom huffed out a loud breath. “And what are some of those laws?”
This was bordering on patronizing. Jackson stood to his full height, too. Damn if he was going to let Dom intimidate him like this.
“I’m talking about this goddamn blog.” With a look that was equal parts disgust and anger, Dom pointed to the computer screen. “What the hell did you do last night?”
A blog? He got called into his boss’s office because of a blog? Jackson walked around so that he could see the screen. “Last night? Mitch and I charcoaled a couple of DBs in the alley behind the Pink Salon. It’ll be in the report I turn in.”
“And the night before?”
“I’ve already filed that report. I charcoaled two DBs who were after a sweetblood on my list. Is there a problem?”
“There were human witnesses.” It was a statement not a question.
“Yes, the girl and her cousin. I verified there weren’t others. I made sure they were safe then I wiped their memories.” He kept his answer clipped and unemotional, but despite his best efforts, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking of her.
Dom didn’t say anything for a moment. “You wiped their memories? Impossible.”
His boss was calling him a liar? “Believe it, because I did.”
“Then how do you explain this?” He pointed to the computer.
On screen was a banner that said Paranormalish and beneath it was an article. The title was Vampire Wars? You Be the Judge.
“Okay, so, I don’t see what this has to do with last night.” Humans were always speculating on the existence of vampires. That was nothing new.
Dom stepped back and folded his arms over his chest. “Scroll down and tell me what you see.”
Jackson grabbed the mouse. There, in the middle of the blog post, was a picture of him with a blade over his head, getting ready to charcoal that DB. His hands went cold. No way. This was impossible.
“What the hell is this? I don’t understand.”
“Let me try to explain it to you. You clearly fucked up again. And this time royally. You didn’t wipe their memories and you forgot to clear any evidence. What the hell is going on with you? Your witness obviously took pictures and videos of your attack that night and posted them to this blog.”
“That’s impossible. I confiscated their phones and, like I told you, wiped their memories.”
Dom’s impassive expression made it obvious he didn’t believe Jackson.
“I swear to God. Ask Cordell. He’s got the phones and is deleting all the pictures and videos from that night.”
“Well, obviously, she took some with another camera, then.”
Jackson stared at the screen and saw the exact picture of himself that he’d seen on the woman’s camera the night before last. “It doesn’t make sense. I took the phone that had the pictures. To be honest with you, I did consider letting her keep it after I deleted the images, but I decided to let Cordell work his magic on it before I’d return it to her.”
Dom pressed a button on his phone and a few minutes later, Cordell walked through the door.
“How could this happen?” Dom asked him. “Jackson says these photos are the same ones on the phone he confiscated. But you have the phone.”
Cordell rubbed his thigh as he leaned on the desk. “My guess is that pictures and videos taken by the phone are automatically saved to a cloud account.”
“What’s that?” Jackson and Dom asked in unison.
“It’s an off-site virtual-storage site that can be accessed from anywhere. Your human accessed the account last night and saw the images from the night before.”
Jackson ran his hand through his hair. How could this have happened? “What’s the gist of the article?” he asked, bracing himself.
“She documents the attack and how you charcoaled the DB right in front of her.” Dom tossed a pen onto the desk.
“What was I supposed to do? Tell her to look away while I killed the bastard?”
“You were supposed to wipe her memory.”
“I did,” he said, pacing to the other side of the office.
“Clearly, you didn’t,” Dom growled. “If Santiago catches wind of this, not only is your ass on the line, but, by default, so is mine.”
“If we’ve seen it, we need to assume DBs have seen it, too.” Lily picked at the red tip of one of her nails. “Or they will. Since the girl is a sweetblood, they’ll keep looking for her. This blog has made it easier for them to find her.”
Could this nightmare get any worse?
Jackson pulled a sandwich from his pocket. Xian kept a plate of peanut butter and honey sandwiches in the kitchen at all times, knowing eating calmed his nerves. “I’ll do what I can from my end,” Cordell said. “But without a password, I’m not sure I can get in to the blog and delete it. Correction. I can do it, it’ll just take me a little time.”
Dom looked angry enough to use the brindmal, a bullwhiplike weapon coiled at his hip, woven with strands of silver. He was a master, able to flick the tiniest of objects off a shelf twenty feet away with just a snap of his wrist. And Jackson had witnessed him taking DBs down with that thing almost as easily. Jackson had the sinking feeling that he was the enemy right now, so he put a little more distance between them.
“More important,” Dom added, “she’s exposed us to the human world at large. I don’t care how you do it, but you go back to that woman and shut her down.”
“Unless,” Lily chimed in, “she’s one of those rare humans who can’t have their memories altered.”
He hadn’t considered that, but maybe it’d be good for them to think that it was the woman’s fault, not his own. The real possibility existed that his ability to do a simple mind wipe, which allowed him to live peacefully among humans, was getting weaker and weaker as his dark urges got stronger and stronger.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Dom said. “If that’s the case, then we know what needs to happen.”
Jackson’s gut twisted and the sandwich soured in his stomach. “You wouldn’t. That’d be barbaric.”
Dom pounded his fist on the table. “And what choice do I have? Do you think I want it to happen? It’s written in the old edicts that a human cannot know about us. And if they’re immune to the mind wipes, the laws are very clear about that, too. Let’s just hope it was you who screwed it up and that it’s not her.”
The guy was sounding more and more like Santiago.
Jackson knew what the rules were, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. “But she’s the sole caretaker for her young cousin, the sweetblood. If she’s gone, the girl is alone.”
He couldn’t let that happen. He’d grown up without a family and the thought of actually causing the same thing to happen to the girl wasn’t acceptable. Plus, the woman didn’t deserve to die when it was because of him that she even had any evidence in the first place.
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