Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3)

by Connie Suttle

  "You sent a man out after clothes?"

  "Hell, yeah."

  "Unbelievable," I sighed and rolled over so I could use an elbow to push myself upright. Tony must have pulled my jeans off sometime; I was dressed only in a bra and panties as I wobbled toward the connecting door.

  "Use mine," Tony steered me toward his bathroom. "I moved your soap and shampoo over. This way, if you drop in the shower, I'll be more likely to hear it and come running. Then you have to report on what happened last night."

  "Unbelievable," I repeated as I walked into his bathroom, closing the door in his face.

  * * *

  "So, he was a mister, too?" Tony practiced his new vocabulary words later.

  "Yes. I could see him while he was mist but he couldn't see me. That's how I surprised him," I said. "Tony, no way can you ever tell anyone else that I can see other misters while I'm mist. Even the Head of the Council doesn't know and there's no telling what he'd do if he found out I withheld information."

  "Lissa, these people sound vindictive," Tony looked at me, a worried frown creasing his forehead.

  "Hmmph," I grumbled. He had no idea. None at all. He asked me questions as I explained what I'd done and how I'd gotten hit, getting close enough to deal a death blow.

  "Now," I said. "You told me once you were raised by wolves. Care to explain that to me?"

  "My mother is a werewolf, my father isn't," he shrugged. "My parents divorced and mom married my stepfather who is also a werewolf. I have a werewolf half-brother."

  "Are your parents still alive?"

  "Yeah. My stepdad is Second in the Denver Pack. My half-brother works in the Denver area. He's a police lieutenant."

  "Being a werewolf probably helps out quite a bit with that profession," I said.

  "It does, he just has to be careful and make sure there are other ways to explain how he knows whodunit," Tony grinned.

  "How does he feel about having a human brother?"

  "He's good with it, especially since I outrank him, so to speak."

  "How about that?" I grumbled.

  "Want to take a walk? I haven't had dinner yet."

  "I think I can make it to one of the restaurants downstairs without fainting," I muttered sarcastically. "Tony, I'm a little worried, though. What do you think our dead vampire's buddies are going to do when he doesn't come home?"

  "I don't know. I have people doing intelligence now, but nobody can say for sure at the moment. Come on, I want a steak."

  "You know, I think you got more wolf in you than you know," I said and followed him out the door.

  Somehow, we picked Bill up on our way downstairs. He stepped out of his room, chased after us and rode the same elevator downstairs, asking if he could join us for dinner. So much for being able to talk to Tony over a meal. And since my wig from the evening before was missing, I had one of the longer ones on my head this time. Bill didn't say a word about my changing hairstyle. I'll give him this; at least he knows discretion.

  "I received a call from Naval Intelligence this afternoon, asking if they could borrow the female agent," Tony smiled, cutting up his rare steak. He really had been influenced by a family of werewolves.

  "You'd better tell them no," I snapped before thinking. Wlodek and Gavin would never agree to that. No way.

  "Young woman, you could be written up or fired for insubordination," Bill admonished. He's by the book, all right.

  "Feel free," I said. I had my cup of hot tea in front of me; I didn't even pretend to eat.

  "Lissa," Tony said quietly. I shut up.

  "What was all the fuss about last night?" Bill was in a mood to talk.

  "Can't say," Tony replied. Bill was probably wondering why I never came back from the bathroom. At least I wasn't the only one left in the dark at times.

  "The next time you go off to handle a situation without your partner, I expect to be informed," Bill grumbled, handing me a dark look.

  Tony looked from me to Bill. "Lissa, see if he can hear you." He cut another piece of steak and stuffed it in his mouth. Tony was a swift and vigorous eater.

  "What?" I didn't understand, at first.

  "Go ahead—see if he can hear your mindspeech."

  "Are you kidding me?" I couldn't believe he was asking this. Tony was outing me to a rigid, semi-insufferable goon. Bill was now staring at me in shock.

  "Go ahead. Include me, too," Tony instructed, stuffing another chunk of steak in his mouth.

  Bill was now staring at Tony, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. Tony, I'll get you for this, I sent to both of them. Agent Bill Jennings was on his feet in a flash, nearly knocking the chair over in his rush.

  "He heard you," Tony smiled, cut another chunk off his steak and chewed. "Sit down, Jennings. See if you can send your thoughts back to Lissa."

  Bill tried. I'll give him credit for that, he just couldn't do it. "Don't worry about it," Tony told him. "It would be great if you could but I didn't think it was going to happen. I think Lissa may be able to send to just about anyone if she concentrates on them well enough." Tony was extremely happy with his little experiment. "Jennings, I hope you know not to let this get out," Tony cautioned. "Now you know why she's so valuable and can get away with a bit of insubordination now and then. She's on loan to us so don't fuck this up. We might need to borrow her again."

  "I can see that," Bill was nearly breathless at the information he'd received. Tony and Bill finished their meal; I was grateful when it was over and we rode the elevator upstairs. Bill glanced speculatively in my direction several times, thinking, I'm sure, just how my talent might be exploited. He also wondered where I'd come from, since he'd never been informed of anyone like me. Plus, I had no idea how Wlodek would react if he knew Tony had given out a piece of my information. Naval Intelligence was already knocking on the door; they'd gotten a little taste, too. I doubted if Madam Secretary even knew how close she'd come to being jumped by a vampire. I guess some things are just better left unsaid.

  * * *

  "Merrill, I'm positive it was one of Saxom's turns," I insisted. I'd called him when Tony and I had gotten back to our rooms. I shut the connecting door, too, since I wanted to make my calls in private.

  "He had the taint? You're sure of this?"

  "I'm sure. Merrill, Tony took me to a house while we were in Atlanta and I scented three humans and two vampires there. Both vampires had that smell about them."

  "How old was this one? Could you tell that?"

  "Yes. He was older than the one the Council sentenced."

  Merrill blew out a frustrated sigh. "Lissa, this is frightening. If there were some way I could pull you back from all this I would, but we made a promise. Please let me know if you find something like this again and I'll inform Wlodek about this one."

  "All right." I wanted to do a little sighing myself but held back. We said our goodbyes so I dialed the next number on my list.

  "Lissa, are you well?" Weldon was on the phone.

  "Yeah. How about you?"

  "I'm good; I'm a proud Grampa, now."

  "Hey! Congratulations," I said.

  "Two weeks ago. Daryl Harper Junior," he said. I could picture him, standing there about to pop the buttons off his plaid flannel shirt, he was so proud.

  "That's great. Is Kathy Jo doing all right?"

  "She's fine. That baby can't even snuffle without one of his parents being right there," Weldon said, a grin coming through in his voice.

  "And I'm sure Grampa is right behind them," I teased.

  "Maybe," he admitted.

  "Weldon, I need a favor if it's possible," I said.

  "Little girl, all you have to do is name it and if I can arrange it, it's yours," he replied.

  "Wait and see what it is before you say yes," I said. "Have you heard about those kids that are coming up missing in Wales and Great Britain?"

  "That's been on the news several times," he said. "What about it?"

  "Weldon, I need somebody with a good n
ose to go to the next crime scene, and I'm thinking there will be a next one, just to see if there's any vampire scent. Better yet, if they find more dead bodies, see if there's vampire scent around those."

  "Baby, don't you think you ought to go to the Head of the Council with this?"

  "Weldon, do you think they'd listen to me?" I said. I'd already told the Head of the Council what I thought and he hadn't listened.

  "All right, I have someone that can arrange to send a wolf out to check things over. I'll have the information passed on to you if they find anything. How's that?"

  "That will be fantastic," I said. "Thank you, Weldon. I'll be forever grateful."

  "Little girl, you don't owe me a thing."

  "Kiss that baby for me, okay?" I said. Weldon was laughing as we hung up.

  My next call was the one I dreaded to make because I didn't know what mood he'd be in and also didn't know if Merrill had managed to pass on information yet. I dialed Gavin's number.

  "Lissa?"

  "Hi, honey."

  "Cara, how are you?"

  "I'm fine now. I got into a little bit of a scrape last night but everything is good now," I repeated.

  "What kind of scrape?"

  How I wished I could confide in him without setting him off or making him curse. That was impossible, so I just forged ahead with my news. "Gavin, I was at the Chinese Embassy last night and a mister came in—somebody that the Council doesn't know about. He had the same taint as the one that the Council took care of last time."

  "Lissa, what did you do?" Gavin growled.

  "I killed him, Gavin. He's dead now. I sneaked up on him and managed to do it."

  "And you were harmed." I could hear the anger in his voice.

  "It's all fine now," I said. I'll give him this, he didn't curse as long or as loud as he normally does but he did curse. I felt like crying at the end of all of it. Why couldn't he be sympathetic? Just once, when I needed him to be? I wiped a tear off my cheek. "I love you, too, honey," I said, my voice getting thick. I hung up before I started sobbing.

  * * *

  "Wlodek, this is sounding more and more like a carefully laid plot," Merrill said over the phone. It was nearly dawn and they didn't have long to talk. "Lissa swears that this mister had the same taint. She knew about the last one. If this is true, there's no way to tell how many of them are out there."

  Wlodek was tapping the gold pen against the blotter on his desk. The problem hadn't gone away when Saxom was eliminated, and now his turns seemed bent on causing chaos and destruction. Wlodek and the Council were at a loss, however, to discover just what Xenides and Saxom's other whelps truly planned. Wlodek had eyes and ears in many places, but Saxom's turns remained cleverly hidden. This was becoming worse by the minute. Two Assassins and twelve Enforcers were not enough to send out against an enemy that might number in the hundreds at the very least. Who knew how long Saxom had been making turns? "We must to be quite vigilant from this point forward," Wlodek said. "Quite vigilant indeed."

  * * *

  "Hi, Frank, I hope I didn't wake you." It was nearly five in the morning on the west coast and I was going to hit the bed shortly. I'd thought about sending Franklin email but I wanted to talk to him instead. At least it was three hours later on the east coast.

  "Lissa, I was already up making breakfast. How are you doing?"

  "I'm fine, honey. I just wanted to check in with you and see how you were." Franklin paused for a moment and I didn't like that hesitation. "Franklin, tell me what's wrong." There wasn't any way I could place compulsion over the phone and I wouldn't do that to Franklin anyway. Franklin was my friend and I loved him.

  "Greg went in for some tests yesterday," Franklin sounded upset, suddenly. "The doctor didn't say anything but I'm worried."

  "Oh, honey," I said. "What can I do to make this easier for you while you wait?"

  "Lissa, I'm not sure there's anything anybody can do except pray, I think. One of the tests was a biopsy and this was after blood work was done a couple days before. We're keeping our fingers crossed."

  "Then I'll do the same. Frank, you know I love you, and Greg, too. Tell him that and I'll be thinking about both of you."

  "Send him email and pretend you don't know, all right?" Franklin sniffled slightly, although he'd covered the mouthpiece with his hand.

  "I will, honey. I miss you both." We hung up shortly after; I think Franklin was about to have a meltdown and I wasn't there to help.

  "Lissy?" Tony gave an obligatory half-knock before barging into my bedroom. He was getting up; I was about to go to bed. My pajamas were on and my teeth brushed. I'd just waited until the last minute to make my call to Franklin. I was glad that worries never followed me into my sleep and that I didn't dream. I think I'd be well established in the nightmare realm, otherwise.

  "Tony?" I was handing him a one-word question back.

  "I need you up and about as soon as possible tonight, we have work," he informed me. "I'll also have a uniform for you."

  "Tell me it doesn't include sunglasses," I joked.

  "It might if you want them."

  Great. What did he have planned? Of course he wasn't elaborating. Of course.

  "I'll get up and around as fast as I can," I grumbled.

  "Come on, baby, the sun's about to come up, get in bed," he was herding me. Tony wore pants only; they looked like the pants to a suit and he wore them well. Nothing wrong with Tony, other than a couple of scars. Nothing at all.

  Bill let himself into my bedroom that evening while I was racing around trying to finish dressing. The uniform consisted of the standard dark suit and white shirt I'd seen Bill and the other agents wear, and there were two extras lying across the foot of the bed when I woke. Wonderful. I was thankful that Bill hadn't barged in while I'd been drinking my dinner.

  The suits fit. I gave Bill my best glare for not knocking first and then went into the bathroom to slap a wig on my head. At least my fuzz was looking longer and thicker now and my eyebrows and lashes were almost back to normal. Grabbing a suit jacket and clipping my name tag on, I gestured for Bill to lead the way.

  Madam Secretary was scheduled to deliver a speech that evening at a venue downtown. If I understood some of the chatter in Bill's earpiece, the same location had been used for the Academy Awards a few times. Most of the security team was already in place. I was the latecomer and Bill, since he'd had to wait on me, didn't like that one bit. He was always punctual, I could tell. Well, if Tony wanted my help, he had to live with my little quirks, one of which was being completely unconscious until sundown.

  We met up with Dusty and another agent at the back of the building where the usual dark cars were parked. I imagined that most of them were bulletproof. The other agent waiting for us was a tall black man whose tag read Jefferson. He didn't smile, though, as Dusty did.

  "The Director wants you by the front door," Dusty informed Bill and Bill took off almost at a run. "Lissa, he wants you to roam. He said you'd know what he meant. We're supposed to be inside so we'll catch up with you later." Dusty flashed a wider grin and he and agent Jefferson took off as well. I found a dark corner, hoped there weren't any security cameras nearby and turned to mist.

  The speech was a good one, concerning the economy and other issues facing the country and how the U.S. figured into the global scheme of things. I just wish I could have heard more than bits and pieces of it as I zoomed through the place as mist. I was beginning to hope there wasn't anything to go wrong when I caught the faintest of noises coming through one of the air vents I passed.

  The two terrorists—at least that's how I thought of them—looked like your average boys next door. Maybe they were in cahoots with someone else; I had no idea. What they did have (which gave them a huge advantage), was the second vampire I'd scented at the house in Georgia. The three of them were huddled in a crawlspace where pipes and air conditioning ducts ran throughout the building. I decided quickly that the vampire had placed compulsion—not on
ly on the two young men who seemed to have a knack for building and placing explosives, but on someone who worked at the venue in order to get inside. One of the young men was laughing as he placed an explosive and set the charge. I saw this as I rushed past them as mist.

  Tony! I gave the mental shout. Dusty! Agent Jefferson! Bill! Dammit, why didn't I know more names? Get everybody out! There are bombs! Get everybody out now!

  Precious minutes were wasted as I wondered why the vampire was still there, watching calmly as additional charges were laid, until I realized he'd likely had compulsion placed on him as well. Now there was a decision to be made and I had to make it quickly. Did I leave the vampire and get myself out, taking the chance that he might escape, or did I take him now? More seconds ticked by—important seconds while I desperately worked to make up my mind. Another charge was placed during that time and the decision was nearly taken away from me. The young man who'd laughed earlier started a countdown from ten. He'd reached four when I raced invisibly back in the bomber's direction instead of getting the hell out of there as any normal (and sane) person might. My hands formed with claws out and I took the vampire's head, causing both humans to shriek. The one who'd started the countdown pressed the detonator as the vampire's head was removed. The entire building exploded.

  Chapter 7

  Agents Bill Jennings and Dustin Howell had to hold Anthony Hancock back from the exploding building; parts of it were still blasting skyward. Fire crews were already on the scene and rescue squads and paramedics were treating wounded while more emergency crews dashed in. Sirens could be heard from blocks away as thick, black smoke billowed into the night sky. The Secretary of State had been evacuated and rushed to a safe location, along with many other high-profile guests. The advanced warning had given security enough time to alert attendees, the evacuation was orderly and they'd gotten most people out of the building before the first of many bombs detonated. Even so, there were still a few wounded and several missing. Lissa was one of the latter and Tony was screaming her name.

  Another portion of the building blew, filling the night air with ash and acrid fumes and forcing Bill and Dusty to haul Tony backward while he struggled to pull away. Arthur Jefferson, the tall, black agent walked over, dragging an EMT with him. "He needs to calm down," Jefferson told the tech, nodding toward Tony who was back to shouting for Lissa. The med tech nodded and ran to one of the waiting ambulances.