Chapter 12

I was almost one hundred percent sure that they were human, but the only way to tell would be to enter their minds. If they weren't that would give me away. The other women screamed and were shoved out the door. I knew I was the target. I leapt onto the toilet and waited. On the upside, one of the other patrons would sound the alarm. Whoever these people were they wouldn't have much time.

The way they proceeded would tell me what they knew. The best case scenario, they would kick in each stall as if this was a movie, and then I could just pop out like a Jack in the Box with an axe to grind. Instead I got the opposite of best case. All I saw were black combat boots and black BDU's as they lined up in front of the stalls. They would spray and pray.

Fuck, they knew I was something other than human! I leapt up and braced myself as high off the ground as the stall doors and the tile walls would allow just as they opened fire. Bullets sent water, ceramic tile, and sunlight in every direction. Sunlight? They knew I was vampire so they came with ultraviolet weaponry. I looked at a shell under me and saw that it was solid silver.

As they sprayed the bathroom I heard mayhem beyond the walls of the restrooms. These weren't amateurs. They had waltzed in here confidently because they knew the police wouldn't come and if they did, they were sure they would be long gone. That was why they hadn't been afraid to harass a restroom full of women. It had to be why they hadn't bothered with silencers. Please be daemon mercenaries! If they were human, their tactics would suggest that they had clout that I no longer possessed.

"You said she was getting tipped off, that we had to nab her here!" A voice yelled. It was male and it was angry. It was accompanied by a door being kicked in. "Little problem, our mark ain't fucking here!"

"I saw her!" Another voice retorted.

This one was a female and she sounded more hostile than the first. Her words were accompanied by another stall door getting kicked in.

"Maybe she slipped out a window?" Another suggested.

I wish.

"Maybe you followed too closely," Another stall was kicked open. "Maybe she made you and messed with your mind."

No, this group was definitely not amateurs. There were ten people in standard military formation. That meant that the areas that been cleared weren't being watched as vigilantly. Two were guarding the door. The remaining eight were back to back. I was trying to calm my panic enough to get a better reading on them but I was too terrified to think straight. I was so sure they were human, but if I was wrong I'd be fucked; with no other aid in sight I couldn't risk it, so I waited.

"Fuck you, Lance!" the female replied. "You think I wouldn't know my seals have been broken?"

Seals? Obviously they were mental, but how was that possible? I didn't have time to think it through. I was in the middle stall. They were getting closer but with their arguing they were moving with less caution. Someone else cursed violently as something came in on an earpiece that was too fuzzy for me to hear.

"Locals are in route. We need to get gone, now."

I didn't let myself breathe a sigh of relief at that. There were only four stalls left but they abandoned them and began filing out. That was when my phone rang. It was Eric's ring tone. Somehow the theme song to Buffy the Vampire Slayer felt so right in this dire situation. It got me going. I had a husband to get back to. Before they could open fire I dropped down to the floor and took control of the two closest to me, or at least I tried.

I failed. Normally getting into a human mind was like walking through an open door. I tried to hijack their minds but nothing happened. The delay got me shot. I was no stranger to pain but this? Being shot at by automatic weapons at this range was pain in a class that was foreign to me. It hurt, a lot!

It hurt so much that my body didn't have the reflex to even force a scream. I made a choked, gargling sound as I dropped to the ground. Pain and confusion were right there with me. The comment the female had made now made sense. Their minds were somehow sealed. It sounded impossible but it was true. My gunshot wound was proof of that. This really was the day from hell; all I needed was my personal rain cloud.

How? I could force my way into the minds of vampires though I couldn't read them. How did they keep out my mental invasions? How did they know to guard against me? What the hell were they using to do it? I had no time or energy to think on it. They surrounded my bleeding body and confused mind with weapons still drawn.

"Bag her," the gruff male voice ordered.

Of all the things I had to do today, getting captured by a band of mercenaries was not one of them. The fact that they were human and immune to my defensive and offensive mental abilities was more reason. Instincts that I never before had to pay heed to screamed to the surface. No matter what my relationship was with my father, his teachings hadn't been for naught.

I forced my body to go still even with the scent of aggression and blood prickling at me. My fangs tingled and I wanted to pounce but everything in me knew it wouldn't save me. Knowing when to fight was more important than knowing how. I did nothing until I was sure I could win. I felt the breath of a human, and then I felt the weight of silver on my left wrist. I struck before he fastened the other cuff.

A vicious spin kick jostled the person off of me but I didn't let him fall. I grabbed the gun at his hip and fired it while using him as a shield and brought my back the wall. My hand was on his neck and I tried to enter his mind. Physical touch made thoughts louder. I could get something I might be able to use.

I hit a wall. If I tried to force it I would turn his mind to mush. That wasn't acceptable at the moment. I needed him to protect me. I didn't know how long that would last. By the stance of his people, they were thinking of offing him to get to me.

"I am immune to silver," I informed them.

The cuff was still hanging off my left wrist. I expected everyone to take the bait and glance down all at once. No such luck. Not only was this group trained, they had hunted together. They took turns verifying what I said and once they did they moved forward as a unit. I didn't back down.

"UV is useless, check my tan. Silver bullets hurt but not so much with my shield here,"

I was a predator and I was cornered. I would never be more dangerous. To make my point, I squeezed tighter on my hostage. His unit hesitated as he gasped for air. The lone female was shaking. It was slight, just her trigger finger, but it told me enough. He meant something to her. I focused my words on her, and my eyes on the man in charge.

"Go ahead, shoot. You'll only succeed in killing your friend and I promise you that before my wounds slow me down, two more of you will be dead," I said. "I don't want that and neither do you. Walk away."

I was trying to stall as I attempted to crawl gently under the mental defenses of my very literal human shield. It was like nothing I'd ever witnessed. It wasn't like the void of vampires, or the static and blurring of other supernatural creatures. I made contact with his mind but it was as if the door into it wasn't just closed it was sealed tight. If this situation wasn't so fucked I might actually take the time to be curious, such as it was I was scared.

"Light her up!" my shield choked out. His voice was panicked. I felt the tears from his face hit my arm. "She's getting in!"

I saw his thoughts seconds before they became words on his lips. It was all I needed. I wasn't faster than a speeding bullet but I was the fastest vampire I knew, my husband included. Pushing the man away from me, I was sure to kick him into his friend after I lifted a hawk style dagger from his thigh. I don't know if my human shield got shot as bullets started flying but, by the time I'd taken out two of his friends with his dagger, he was down. While they lay in a puddle of their own blood he seemed to be having some kind of seizure. I didn't think too much about that.

The people were moving faster than any human should. They had formed a tight circle with half sending gunfire in every direction. The other half was against the wall until the active first squad needed to reload. They had me pinned. I couldn't get to the door or make the gun in my hand matter. I looked to the ceiling and found my answer.

I shot out the fluorescent lights in a rapid burst. It was unlikely they had brought night vision gear. Then again, I was learning they were more than your average G.I washed-up Joe. Still if they did have goggles, they would have to pause to put them on. I only needed a few seconds. I had a full half minute as they scrambled. Their thoughts flooded to me. Whatever lock they had on their minds wavered in the dark as instinct and terror took hold. They knew I could see and they couldn't. It opened their mental pathways.

'Damn it!' Someone thought.

'Robbie, don't die. You can't!' The lone female thought. 'Please don't leave me all alone.'

'She could be right in front of me!'

Unbeknownst to him, that was exactly where I was. I'd crawled my way into the small opening in the middle of their circle. I pulled the pins off all the grenades I could reach, and then I left the circle. My whole life I'd always been smallest. I'd always been the weakest, but I was the smartest and fastest.

"Fire in the hole, bitches!" I yelled from the furthest stall.

They didn't get a chance to reply. The grenades ignited. For a full minute it was high noon in the bathroom. That too was the opposite of worst case scenario. I was hoping to blow myself a way out of here. That didn't happen. The charge from five ultraviolet grenades going off at once stunned my would-be assailants. That was the good news.

The bad news, I was about to be arrested, brutally, was my guess. Police had arrived but they were gone. SWAT was coming into the restaurant. I had a sip of blood from someone that was already bleeding to heal my earlier injuries fully. I tossed my phone down a drain. Then I turned to await my date with the police. I raised my hands and waited.

When they swarmed I didn't resist. I'd gotten shot enough for one night. When one shouted for me to get on my knees, I replied in Latin, "I never learned."

I said the words over and over again, pretending not to speak English. It was kind of true. I was raised to stand on my feet, taking a knee was not in my vocabulary. Plus it would make my arrest easier. They wouldn't have an interpreter which meant they wouldn't interrogate me until they found one. Most likely it would come from the FBI. Then I would be as good as freed.

I was cuffed at my hands and ankles. As I was led out the back I saw Caspian in the shadows. He was with Preston and Colman. I knew they were looking to act but I shook my head and they fell back, Colman more reluctantly than the others. The drive to the station was quick enough with the siren going the whole way.

I was fingerprinted and photographed, you know, the usual 'Perp-walk' stuff. What wasn't normal was the quarantine. I was remanded to an interrogation room. With me were two guards and they had itchy trigger fingers. If that wasn't enough, the door was locked and I was chained to a steel-reinforced table that even as part-vampire I couldn't break with sheer force.

It was overkill but I wasn't worried. All the minds around me were human and their thoughts were clear. No one knew anything about me or the people who had attacked me. I was in jail but out of the ten who had come for me, most were headed to the morgue and a few to the ER.

As it stood I didn't have details. I was just getting my info the same time it hit the precinct. I was seated in an interrogation room and chained to a metal desk that was bolted down. Having nothing else to do I slept as comfortably as my bindings would allow. It was maybe four hours when I came awake to more news.

"She's got a sheet somewhere. I don't give a fuck what the systems says," a male voice barked. I knew from trotting through all the minds that he was the police commissioner.

"She's not coming up anywhere on anything. She's obviously foreign but she's got no passport. No tax records, driver's license, her prints aren't on file or anything. She's a goddamned ghost."

"I have a press conference in an hour and you want me to go and tell the world that Barbie's hotter sister is our suspect in that bloodbath, with nothing to back it up?"

I smiled to myself. If the police department was keeping this quiet then all the better. That was why my father had insisted I did so much service to this country when I was kid, not just that he made sure that nothing I did would compromise it. He was no patriot but he knew the importance of appearing patriotic to the people who mattered. Everywhere I went my prints and presence were always erased. It was just as the officer had said, I was a ghost. I didn't exist, not on their pay grade away.

"With all due respect—"

"Whatever it takes. Your captain is with Interpol. I'm going to the FED's liaison. You're with the Marshalls and INS. Janice and Griffin can get a team and call up every single precinct and backwater sheriff's office in the fucking nation, if not the world. I want her run through every system we have access to. Beg, borrow, and steal, but don't stop until you get a hit."

One of the team leaders, Macklin, was at the open door as my guards were swapped out during a shift change. Even if I didn't have access to his mind, his face gave him away. He had found nothing, nothing, and more nothing about me. It had him looking at me in a different light. He was one of the few people who thought there was more to this than they could handle.

"You know this is beyond you, don't you?" I asked. "You're smart, you feel it."

I spoke in Latin while pointing to the bottle of water in his hand. He didn't speak the language but he inferred what he could. He was going to offer me the bottle, and then hesitated as if remembering I was MacGyver. He kept the cap and removed the label from the bottle before giving it to me. It was all I could do not to laugh.

"Someone get an interpreter that understands whatever she speaks," Then he was gone.

I went back to trying to sleep with my cuffs and two trigger happy humans in the room. It wasn't working well. My mind was on Eric. This had to be first time that I was actually glad he hadn't felt everything I felt. How the hell was I going to explain this? I didn't even know what this was.

At the first feeling of danger, I'd thought Water Fae but this was nothing like that. Whatever it was, I knew I would get out of it, but how I could tell Eric? I couldn't. This was the last thing that we needed. Ocella was providing a big enough problem. I understood that Eric and I didn't have an issue between us. We were having an issue over his Maker. I didn't mean that he didn't love me. It definitely didn't mean that he wouldn't over react, to something like this he most definitely would.

I was working with a faction of the Fae that another would want me dead for doing so, and then I come across humans, dangerous gun-toting humans whom I couldn't read or control. That had never happened to me in nearly three decades of life. Without a doubt, I knew if Eric even suspected I wasn't safe here he wouldn't let me return, especially now that I'd made sure my blood debt was paid. He wouldn't care that I was on the brink of saving an entire species, delicious as they were.

A part of me lifted and compelled me to trust Eric. It said that I could tell him the truth, no matter how ugly, and he would understand. Another part of me, the part that understood the baser instincts of vampires, knew for a fact that Eric would lose his shit. He wouldn't let me leave his side for the next decade, if that. That wasn't an option. I needed to get away from Ocella and the insecurities and animosity he caused in me. No matter how short a time he was with us, it was already too long.

My internal conflict was interrupted by the arrival of the Calvary. The CIA was here.