CHAPTER 13

"Lock it down!" That was the voice of Deputy Director Tom Lattesta. I heard the protesting of police officers as they were rounded up by the muscle of CIA operatives.

"Is everyone deaf? Get your useless ass up and in line."

There was the scraping of chairs and, from the sounds of it, the agents were helping the officers to their feet.

"This building is under quarantine as a matter of national security," A female called over the chaos. "Anyone in contact with the Jane Doe, female suspect in custody for the square shooting, is to be locked down. Orders are from Washington under class priority target Alpha…"

I would know that high-pitched bitchy tone anywhere. She was Lattesta's work wife. She was the one his real wife thought he'd left her for emotionally. How the real Mrs. Lattesta came up with that I had no idea. The only person more impressionable than Lattesta was his second in command, Sara Weiss.

"We're officers of the law! You can't fucking detain us!" Someone shouted.

"The piece of paper your Commanding Officer is holding says I can," Sara retorted. "You're my bitch, but don't worry boys, I'll be gentle."

I smiled while I watched them from my interrogation room window. You really just had to love all that dick measuring that went on amongst the various branches of law enforcement. I listened while they steamrolled the locals. It took about ten minutes for the agents to take control of the entire precinct. It took a half hour more for them to wipe my presence from their records.

When he found his way into my interrogation room, Lattesta looked just as he had the day I met him almost a twenty years ago; thoroughly annoyed. He hadn't liked me then and he didn't care for me now, but I'd done this country favors and he owed me. He liked that fact even less.

"You certainly took your time, Tommy." I said in hello.

"Don't fuck with me today, little vampire. You have no idea how tempted I am to leave you to rot."

I smiled coyly and tapped my temple. "Now we both know that's just not true."

My father had told me to be on my best behavior while with them but I needed information. In that single exchange I knew everything I needed. The government wasn't behind my attack. If I hadn't been able to read the minds of my would-be assailants then it would stand to reason that I shouldn't be able to read Lattesta, but I was. Nothing had changed.

The Director tried to think of a million other things while he tried to confuse and distract a telepath, but I knew his mind. Thomas Lattesta was Director of DOA; Department of Otherworldly and Alien Affairs. The first time he introduced himself I laughed so hard I fell over! Come to think of it, that's probably why he never liked me. The acronym DOA usually meant 'dead on arrival.' I was with two vampires at the time; they were literally dead on arrival! He didn't get it. It wasn't my fault that he had no sense of humor.

Since the Great Revelation, Lattesta's unit had gained more respect but he still felt as if he had more to prove as demonstrated by his scowl. Lattesta mashed his lips into a hard line and the vein at his forehead pulsed almost violently.

"You think this is a fucking game, fangling? You think you can do whatever you want and use this country's government as your cleanup crew?"

No, I didn't think that, but I was sure I could if I had the means to pay for it. If the throbbing of the vein in his temple was any indication Lattesta knew my thoughts.

"A restaurant on US soil was turned into a goddamned war zone in the middle of a crowded strip. You left six dead, four critical."

I shrugged. "It was self-defense, but you know that already otherwise you wouldn't have come, favor or no."

In addition to being a total stickler, Lattesta was a good man and an even better agent. I didn't push him anymore because I still needed him not just to get me out of here, but to help me find out just who those assailants were.

"You need to be debriefed and I still have some loose ends to tie up; wipe the story from the locals. We reconvene at 0300."

I managed to stifle the derisive snort, but not the sarcastic two fingered salute. "Aye, aye Capitán."

He glared as he waved one of his agents over to uncuff me and tossed me a change of clothes. It was only then I remembered that I was covered in blood. It had dried on my hands and arms. It was all over my clothes too. I guess I'd been too hungry and tuned it out. Now that I looked at the grisly mess I was, Colman's words came to mind, the words he'd spoken to Caspian that made him look at me like a monster.

'…She is a vile and vicious thing like those whose company she keeps. Giving is not what her kind does. They take; they kill.'

That was exactly what I looked like, a killer. I pushed it away. None of that mattered. I didn't even allow myself to think of the one person I needed and wanted most in the world. I had things to do. I washed off in a bathroom and changed. Once I emerged I got to work. I was exhausted, but glamour was now almost as easy as telepathy. I removed my face and edited details. My face was also removed from the series of events. Now, all the officers and SWAT thought they had been at the scene of a drug deal gone bad not a shootout. Lattesta was nice enough to bring the cocaine and the briefcase full of money. If I had to guess, the money the agency owed me was used for all this. As it stood, I would be running out favors soon.

I was in a convoy of black Suburbans headed back to campus. Lattesta began with the questions but I had no answers. When he asked me the same question for a tenth time in another different way, I lost it.

"No sé. Nescio. Je ne sais pas. Ya ne znayu. What language is it going to take, Tom?" I snapped.

I knew I was making the other agents in the car nervous, but I couldn't really give a shit right about now. One was inching his hand to his gun. I ignored him because if I didn't, I would do something to neutralize the threat he was posing. I'd be damned if I got shot again tonight.

"I. Don't. Know."

I was entirely at sea. I had no idea who those people were, why they were after me, who had sent them. If there was anything I hated, it was not knowing.

Tom looked at me and whatever he saw made him change tactics. He replied in Russian, "Tell me what you do know."

I did and that didn't take long. I told him how long I'd been here and where I lived full-time. The reason I disclosed this was because I knew he already knew. I wasn't naïve enough to believe that the government was allowing me to go untraced. As long as it didn't involve their secrets they didn't care. By the time I was finished, Lattesta looked somewhat disturbed. Sara chose that time to jump in.

"Bird's here. Agents are waiting a go to wipe her room down."

"No," I said.

I knew they would return me to the desert, the one place I couldn't go.

"That is not the way favors work. You do what I want. Right now, I want to stay right here and see this through, find out who is after me and why. Give me agents and I'll need a full workup on my attackers."

I watched Lattesta as a calculating look colored his softly graying features. "I give you this and you will be out of favors with the Agency."

I rolled my eyes. He was totally trying to hustle me. "You are Intelligence. This person snuck up on both of us. I know you want him, especially because of what he can do mentally."

He shot me a death glare; I matched it and raised him a cold smile. He caved. "Alive," Lattesta clarified. "Along with the safety of my agents guaranteed to the best of your many abilities."

I nodded and Sara handed me a folder. It contained the faces of my attackers. I'd been right to assume that they had been well trained. Four were Navy Special Forces. It said that they were retired, but given their ages and mission specifications, they had most likely faced a dishonorable discharge and had been given a choice; them and the people they were with worked as military contractors.

People who often did 'wet work' for the government outside the military chain of command so the government could claim deniability. What the hell? How the hell did people like these even know my name, never mind where I was and when? Vampires didn't send them. Neither did the Fae. Both species thought too little of humans to do so. I had no idea what was going on.

For the duration of the ride, I was trying to read my own mind. It was the only way to explain it. All six of my senses caught so much that it was impossible to notice everything as it came in. I went deeply into my head to find anything.

Normally it worked but tonight… I couldn't focus. My emotions were running too high. I felt anger, guilt, and confusion. Anger I understood. Confusion made some sense, but guilt baffled me. This wasn't my fault. I had killed people who would have killed me or worse. So why was it that for the second time tonight Colman's words flash through my mind? I was starting to feel as though he had cursed me or lay bare what I never wanted to be, what people presumed all vampires were.

My mood was such that no one said a single word to me. Not even when I took the phone of a random agent and reprogrammed it to the one I'd hastily dumped while under attack did anyone acknowledge me. I was dropped off back at the college. There, five other agents were waiting in an identical vehicle. Caspian was outside my door with Colman and Preston guarding him. The agents went still, no doubt under some spell.

Caspian was going to speak but I shook my head. He either didn't see or he didn't care. "I am happy to see you are well." Then again, maybe he did. Without awaiting a response, he left pulling Colman and Preston with him. It was clear that they wanted to guard their insurance policy.

All I wanted was Eric. I wanted to hear his voice. I needed it like I needed air at the moment. I crawled into bed and called him. I was using a phone that wasn't mine, but he wouldn't know that. My number would show, he would talk to me, and make me feel as though all was well. When Eric talked to or looked at me, I didn't feel so unique that I was alone. I felt loved unconditionally and adored without qualification. I needed that more than anything at the moment.

I called. With every ring that went unanswered, tears spilled over lids and fell down to my ears.

I was asleep for only an hour when I was being shaken awake by one of agents. He had a phone almost up my nose.

"Yeah, what?" I said.

"They're dead," Lattesta said.

I sat up trying to fight off fatigue. "I don't understand," I told him. "Who?"

"The four who were left in critical condition were under local guard. We went to secure them after dropping you off but there was a gun man. Obviously he was there to tie up loose ends but he made it look good. He also took the lives of civilians."

I rolled out of bed and to the little television in the room. There were already a dozen versions of the event.

"What is the body count?" I asked. The area hospital was a scene of outright pandemonium. There were more flashing lights of emergency responders than I could count.

"Including his marks and him, eighteen. He wounded ten others. With the exception of two local officers, there were all civilians, and some were fucking kids who were patients in the ICU," he told me.

"Can you continue to handle this?" I asked.

"DOD is en route, and if they don't like what I have to say, they will take lead and I can't stop it."

"Do what you can," I told him. "Whoever this is, I am going to find them and when I do, I am going to make them wish they were dead."

"Make their wish come true," He said, but before hanging up he made an interesting comment. "If what they can do mentally can make someone capable of this, I want to knowledge to die with them."

"Understood."

I was too furious to go back to sleep. I followed the story as it unfolded. The news rocked the city and state, but not the nation. I knew that had something to do with Lattesta. The Agency was playing it down. I was grateful. The bigger the hype and the more details the media leaked, the more liable vampires were to question the events, most specifically my vampire. I guess I'd made the decision to keep this from him.

I promised myself that I would tell him once I figured what was happening. Eric was old enough to deny instinct for reason, but where I was concerned, not so much. I needed to give him something to work with and right now I had nothing. That was unacceptable. I got dressed, but it wasn't to head to work. I was going hunting.

I had a meet and greet with the team Lattesta had left with me. Maybe it was the training or the job itself, but all CIA agents looked alike to me. I was stuck with five clones who called me, 'Ma'am' to my face and the package amongst themselves. They told me what had been gathered thus far on the gunman from the hospital.

His name was Noah Lowe. He had a long history of schizophrenia and frequented the hospital, mostly on cold or rainy nights. In addition to his mental illness there was a history of violence and drug use, but nothing like this massacre.

We all knew that Noah was the cleanup guy. That was all that was known for sure. Was he willing or forced? I sifted through everything trying to find a pattern or a link between my attack and the one at the hospital. I knew there was one but came up with nothing.

"Have you traced the weapons?" I asked.

Each of my assailants at the restaurant had enough weapons on their person to start a war so the file was thick. I read through everything, even though I was mostly concerned about the ultraviolet stuff. By the time I was getting to the autopsy reports, I heard Caspian arriving long before the agents did. I could have warned them but I wanted to test a theory.

I waited and watched covertly, but none of the agents even looked toward the door. They weren't relaxed either. They were just focused on the folders we'd spread across the floor. However, the instant Caspian knocked, it was answered with of five guns instantly trained on the door. Sheesh, that answered that I guess.

"It's fine," I told them. "Come in, Cas."

The look on my friend's face was comical when he entered. Two of the five were on either side of the door, hands on their weapons. Two had taken up a post behind me and one was directly at my side. He was the most dangerous of the guards, at least by human standards.

"MIB?" Caspian asked.

I snorted a laugh. . "They're private security," I said with a smile. "I had a rough night."

Now that I got a clearer look at him, he looked as if he hadn't faired any better. Vain as the Fae were, none would be caught in the same clothes two days in a row, with wrinkles no less.

Before I asked he said, "Can we talk in front of them?"

His expression was solemn, unlike anything I'd seen since my arrival. I nodded. "They know what I am." He was smart enough to know what that meant. Lattesta assumed I was in college for the experience because I didn't need the education. That wasn't entirely inaccurate. They didn't know about the Fae or why I was here. That was how it needed to stay.

"Chari is dead," Caspian said. "She was abducted, tortured, and when her body failed, she died."