by Greco, Karen
Max recuperated from Berserker mode not too long after sunrise. Darcy and Matty were both at the factory apartment. He was holed up in Frankie's light-proof apartment, and, from her giggles during our 10 a.m. conversation, it was a safe bet that she was in there with him. Frankie was fast asleep in the guest room down the hall, still recuperating from his ordeal. I didn't think he should do the mission tonight, but I knew better then to question it. He'd be there, even if it killed him.
I texted Darcy and asked her to swing by Haven Brothers to bring me a double cheeseburger (rare enough to bleed) and fries. With 60 minutes to kill, I quickly debated the merits of sleep versus a shower.
I must have nodded off during that internal argument. The smell of fried potatoes and greasy meat snapped me awake at 5:55.
"Morning sunshine!" Darcy dropped the hot bag onto my chest. She flopped down on the couch beside me, sipping a soda.
"Darcy, you are a lifesaver. I am starving." I opened the bag and took a long sniff. "God, this is manna from heaven."
"Good stuff," Darcy agreed.
Matty was hovering in the kitchen. He opened the fridge and rummaged through it.
"You want to grab a beer for me while you're digging around in there, sport?" I called to him. The noise abruptly stopped.
"Sorry, I didn't mean..." he said sheepishly.
"To snoop? Yes, you did," I corrected him. "Now, how about that beer?"
I winked at Darcy, who shook her head and mouthed, "Stop."
Matty came into the room with three cans of Narragansett tall boys, handing one to me and one to Darcy. He sat on the arm of the sofa beside Darcy and slipped his arm around her. She nestled into the crook of his arm.
I popped open the beer with one hand and took a swig. "Better than coffee."
I laid out my fast food feast on the coffee table and tucked in, washing down the bloody beef and salt crusted fries with the cold brew.
Darcy pulled her laptop out of her bag and fired it up. "What's your Wi-Fi password?"
I stared at her blankly.
"Never mind," she sighed. "I'll hack it. It can't be that hard."
A few clicks and she sighed. "Nope, not hard at all. Nina, we really have to do something about that."
"Talk to Babe when she gets back," I shrugged. "Hell, we're lucky Babe has Internet access at all."
Darcy shook her head disapprovingly, muttering something about identity theft. She then buried her nose in the computer.
The door that led to the bar opened and Chuck peeked his head around. "Okay if I come in?"
"Come on in, Chuck," I called out, taking a huge bite of the burger. Matty stared at me with a mix of fascination and revulsion.
Chuck carried the airbed box with the quilt bunched up on top of it. "Thanks for the bed. It was more comfortable than I thought."
"Glad to hear it. You can leave it over there." I motioned for him to drop it by the closet door.
Once he dropped off the box, he joined us in the living room.
"Hi, I'm Chuck," he said as he extended his hand to Matty.
Matty gave him the rock star aloof business.
"Oh cut the crap," I said, rolling my eyes. "Chuck, that's Matty. He's a rock star. And my cousin. Matty, this is Chuck. Stop being a snot."
"It's that...he's..." Matty made a weird face.
"You’re unbelievable, Matty," I said. "He's like you. A Beta, exactly like you. So I suggest you lose the judgmental bullshit."
"Agreed," Darcy chimed in. "I'm Darcy, Chuck. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please forgive Matty's behavior. It's not you. It's his own self-loathing."
"I'm not self-loathing!" Matty objected.
"Matty, I love you," Darcy said. "But you have to recognize that this behavior is very unhealthy."
I should have laughed out loud at her armchair psychology, but I was still digesting her love comment. I guess the potion worked. Really, really well.
"It's okay," Chuck smiled affably. "We have plenty of Betas exactly like that in the nest. We even had a 12-step program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous. It was a real success. Maybe, once we get better, you'll want to check it out."
"Maybe." Matty shrugged petulantly. He wasn't used to being called out on his shit.
"Hey, Matty," I said. "You may not like it, but we won't let you behave like a diva. And that's what makes us your friends. And that could be the difference between life and death right now."
"Are you my friend?" Matty asked me. He wore a kicked puppy expression.
"Technically, I am family. They are your friends," I said, dodging his question. I wasn’t ready to feel solidarity with him just yet.
He seemed to accept that, and reached out and shook Chuck's hand. "Maybe I'll take a look at your program."
"But first, we have to get your nest decontaminated," I said as I crammed some fries in my mouth. I was starving. "What do you have, Darcy?"
"Okay, so this is the campsite," she said as she flipped her laptop towards me. Google Earth was up on the browser. "It looks like there's a log cabin, with two outbuildings beside it. One looks like a barn."
Chuck was nodding excitedly. "It's a werewolf pack's seasonal place. No one's been there since we showed up."
"Werewolves? You sure?" I hadn't heard about any in the area.
Chuck nodded. "It smells wolfy. And there's the cabin for the Alpha and his mate. Our tents aren't the first ones pitched in the area. There were so many tent-worn spots in the surrounding woods, it has to be a pack of werewolves."
"Oh Chuck," I sighed. "They are really territorial. Not the best place for you to lay low."
"They aren't even there," Chuck insisted.
"You think they aren't there," I corrected him. "But trust me, they know. For whatever reason, they are allowing it."
Chuck shrugged. "So they must be okay with it."
"They aren't," I said flatly.
"That's tomorrow's problem," Max said, peeking over Darcy's shoulder to look at her computer screen.
"Hey Max," Darcy smiled.
He winked in reply.
I eyed him over my beer as I took a sip. The last time I saw him, he was large and angry. "You feeling okay?"
"All good." He smiled, his eyes crinkling around the edges. It still dazzled. "So what's in the outbuildings?" he asked.
"One's an empty barn. The other is a two-car garage with no cars," Chuck explained.
"The only clearing is close to the barn," Darcy mused. "The rest is pretty thick forest."
Chuck nodded. "We have our tents near the clearing."
"I think the trees around the clearing are our best bet for the ops," Max said. "We want the tree cover."
"Where is this place, by the way?" I asked. I still couldn't shake the bad feeling I had about the werewolves.
"A little town up by the Connecticut border called..." Darcy looked at her computer. "Chepachet."
"Seriously?" I sighed.
"Yeah, why?" she asked.
"Is that where...?" Max stopped and looked at me.
"Where the farmhouse is? The one where my parents were killed?" I sighed. "The same."
"How much land do you have, Nina?" Darcy asked.
"Not sure," I said. "I've been meaning to make an appointment with the lawyer to figure out what I actually own, but I've been a little busy."
"So wait, are you rich?" Matty suddenly looked very interested.
"And like you're some poor relation?" I gave him a sour look. "I guess my dad was rich. Old-assed vampires tend to accumulate wealth over the centuries. As I am sure you know."
"I don't self-finance," Matty explained. "Killing Haley is always looking for investors."
Was he seriously hitting me up for money? "Thanks, but I'll pass," I said.
"What'd I miss?" Frankie asked as he stumbled out of the bedroom.
"Frankie!" Darcy smiled at the sight of him. "Good to see you up and around!"
"Yeah, and not twice dead," I sassed, grateful to be able to do it.
Frankie winked at me and smiled. "I'm starving. Anyone want to donate?" The buzzing room went silent. "Just kidding!"
"That's a good point, though, Frankie. You should probably eat," Max said, being, as usual, the voice of reason. "I have two coolers full of blood bags in the car. You want one?"
Frankie's face darkened in disgust.
"Maybe if we nuke it, it'll be more palatable?" I suggested.
"You've got to eat," Darcy agreed.
"It's really not that bad," Chuck chimed in.
"That's because you've never had the real thing," Frankie said, not masking his revulsion at a blood bag dinner.
Chuck looked slightly crestfallen at Frankie's response. It had to be tough being a Beta around full vampires. Hell, I felt like crap when Frankie had to cover my ass because I wasn't undead enough to take out a monster. Betas can't protect themselves from anything. They're as fragile as humans, maybe more so since they can't tolerate the sun, and have to rely on a supply of pilfered blood bags to survive. And we saw how that worked out for them.
Matty, however, looked completely nonchalant about the whole thing. His ego wasn't wrapped up in his feeding methods, clearly. Of course, he was a rock star. His ego hinged on other things.
"Frankie, nutrition is nutrition, and after what you've been through..." I trailed off and considered offering some of my blood. We were already bound, so what was the big deal?
Frankie leaned over the back of the couch and whispered in my ear. "Thanks, darling, but no. I want to make sure I am indeed infection-free before we share blood again."
His words sent an electric pulse through my body, and I sighed deeply before I caught myself.
Darcy cocked an eyebrow at me knowingly.
"Blood bag it is," Max said. His voice was a little too loud for the enclosed space of the apartment. He turned on his heel and headed back out to the car to get the blood.
"Right, blood bag it is." Frankie echoed miserably, following Max out the door.
"Grab one for me while you're out there!" Matty yelled after them. "O negative!"
"I'll take one too," Chuck said. "I'm not picky."
"Hang on a second. Where's Dr. O? Why isn't he here yet?" Darcy asked.
"We can't seem to find him." I didn't want to admit he was missing, but lying about it was pointless.
"Oh, that's not good," she responded.
"No kidding," I said. "But like Max said, that's tomorrow's problem. First, let's fix the vampires, then we find Dr. O."
"Did you check with Babe?" Darcy didn't let up.
I stared at the partially eaten burger and fries on the coffee table, my appetite suddenly gone. "She's on vacation."
"Yeah, so?" Darcy's face twisted in confusion. "Maybe he joined her out there. You know they're...well, together."
I brightened. "Yes, maybe he did fly down there to see her. And he wouldn't tell us because they are keeping it a secret."
"Who's keeping what a secret?" Max asked as he and Frankie walked back in, blood bags in hand. Max handed one to Chuck, who opened it immediately.
Frankie puzzled over the microwave. "Nina, how does this thing work?"
"I'll take mine cold," Matty said. He gagged on the reheated blood I made him drink after Darcy and I raided the blood bank. The memory made me smirk.
Matty raised his hand and caught the bag Max tossed to him. I cringed, hoping it wouldn't explode and cover the living room in blood.
"Dr. O and Babe. They are having a thing," I said as I climbed over the back of the couch. With all the people in the living room, it was the fastest way.
Max looked incredulous. "Dr. O and Babe?"
"And why wouldn't they?" I took the bag from Frankie, bit the corner open, and spit the plastic out of my teeth into the sink. I pulled out a pint glass from the cabinet.
"I just didn't picture it, that's all," he said.
"Well they are, so they are probably holed up in Mexico doing couple things. And I really didn't want to think too much about that, alright?" I poured the blood out into the glass, popped it in the microwave and pressed a few buttons. I tossed the bag into the sink. "It's ready when the microwave beeps."
Frankie just stared at the microwave, clearly still appalled at the idea of having reheated, bagged blood.
"So who's running the ops?" Darcy asked.
"Well, obviously you're running the communications base, wherever we set that up."
The smell of irradiating blood filled the apartment. I opened a window to air it out.
"What about the farm house?" Max asked. "It's close to the Betas and it's secluded."
I shook my head. "No electricity."
"What about a generator?" Darcy asked.
"I can get one from the police department," Max offered.
"With the type of noise a generator makes, we're no longer stealth." I wasn't wild about a loud generator encouraging locals to come out and snoop. "The property has been abandoned for a long time. Someone's bound to notice if a generator kicks in all of a sudden."
The microwave beeped and Frankie gave me a funny look.
"Go on," I said. "Take it out. It won't hurt you."
"Nina, you've got so much land there, I bet no one noticed it's been sitting abandoned all these years," Frankie argued, gingerly removing the nuked blood from the microwave. "The location is ideal."
"She can run communications from the factory," I argued.
"It's always better if I am close," Darcy disagreed.
"It's decided, then," Max said, cutting me off before I could argue. "I'll pick up a generator on the way out there."
"Wait, who is running the field? Frankie?"
"That's really hot!" Frankie spit his sip of blood back into the mug.
"Blow on it first," I suggested.
"Blow on it? That's your answer?"
"You want an ice cube instead?" I countered.
He stared into the glass of blood with disgust. "Now that just sounds ghastly."
"So, then you agree to run the field?" Darcy asked Frankie pointedly.
"Absolutely not," Frankie responded, blowing gently on the rim of the cup. "I don't think I should lead this one. Not after what happened."
"I'll run it," Max said quickly.
"Wait. You'll run it?" I asked incredulously. Max had done all of one field op with us, at the Killing Haley concert. And that was a disaster. "You have zero experience, Max."
"Hold on. I run field ops all the time for the FBI," he said as he crossed his arms and stared me down. "I am no rookie."
"You are with Blood Ops," I said.
"What's the difference?" he countered.
"I don't know, Max. Supernatural creatures, maybe?"
"So who's going to run it? You?" he snorted. "After what happened at the concert? Way too dangerous."
"Too dangerous? No one saw demonic possession coming!" I argued.
"I don't want you leading this operation. You'll be right in the line of fire."
"Oh, Max," Darcy warned, "I don't think that is the line of argument you want to take."
"I am always in the line of fire!" I said through gritted teeth. "It's where I prefer to be!"
"This time it's different." Max's left eye started to twitch. He was getting worked up, but I wasn't ready to back off. "If something goes wrong, those vamps can kill you. And you won't come back from it."
Frankie physically braced himself for the force of my rage. "He has a point."
"We have the cure," I said, looking between the two of them.
"No. Nina. You have. The cure." Max was doing some weird yogic breathing, to keep calm.
"No one else can do the spell," Frankie agreed. "You need to lag behind until the last possible moment."
"What about this Jackson character? I'm taking him down. I won't get left out."
"After you cure the vampires, we chase Jackson down," Max said calmly. The yogic breathing was working.
"I'm coming along for that." I wanted to make
sure we were clear on that point.
"Of course you are." Frankie took another swallow of the blood and made a face. "Good God, this is really—"
"Hi, it's Eva!" Eva popped her head in through the side door of the kitchen, interrupting Frankie before he could bitch any more. "And Al!"
Alfonso shuffled in behind her. "What the hell happened to the barroom door?"
"Someone kicked it in last night," I said.
I was relieved to see those two. I lost track of them after the helicopter dropped us all off at the Biltmore. "Where've you two been?"
"Holed up in Eva's crappy botanica." Alfonso shuddered. "I've seen enough plastic hippie witch shit to last me a lifetime. You got any whiskey, Nina?"
"Oh stop. You loved my tarot decks. You said they were magical," Eva said as she snaked her arm through his.
"I was flattering you, Eva. Trying to get a little nookie."
Well, at least he was honest.
"Oh, you didn't need to do that!" She batted her eyelashes. "You could have just asked!"
I didn't get this coupling. Really, I didn't.
I foraged through the lower kitchen cabinets and pulled out a bottle of Jameson's. Alfonso leaned in and pretended to check the label.
"She has a beautiful vampire deck," Alfonso said low. "You should check it when this crap is over." He gave me a nod and took the bottle. He helped himself to a Looney Tunes glass and poured out the whiskey.
Eva grabbed the glass from him and took a sip of the whiskey, handing it back before he could protest. She was something else. I'd never heard of a vampire tarot deck, and she had one that managed to impress an old, alcoholic witch.
"So, when do we go?" Alfonso asked as he knocked back the whiskey that remained in the glass.
"Whoa, no way," I said. "Too dangerous. You guys are staying here."
"The hell we are," Al was indignant. "What would have happened to you if we weren't at that crappy club?"
"We aren't facing demons this time," I said.
"You have no idea what you're facing," Al said gruffly. "Babe would kill me if I let you go in there without any sort of magic backup."
"But Al," I pleaded, "you and Eva—"
"Maybe Eva doesn't know what the hell she's doing," he said, cutting me off. "But I was a damn fine witch in my day. I'll allow I'm a little rusty..."