“Ladies, thank you, but I’m well taken care of,” Ian said. Barbara’s thoughts split between logic telling her to leave and pleasure over the handsome man’s confidence in her. When Ian continued to rebuff the other women in favor of her, her indecisiveness crumpled.
“Are all of you deaf?” she snapped, her authoritative voice rising above the others. “Leave, before he calls the cops for harassment, too!”
With a few final grumbles, the would-be harem dispersed, allowing me to see the look of gratitude mixed with sensual promise that Ian bestowed on Barbara.
That did it. She closed the last few feet between them without hesitation, holding out her cell phone. When his fingers curled around hers as he took it, “Cold hands,” drifted through her mind before his gaze locked onto hers and lit up with bright, mesmerizing green.
Oh shit, was her last conscious thought.
“I told you this would be easy,” Ian said, and he wasn’t talking to her.
Bones started the car. I looked away, not needing to see Ian climb into Barbara’s to know that the two of them would soon be following us.
“There’ll be no living with him now,” I said under my breath.
Bones grunted in amusement. “As always, Kitten.”
Ten
The good news was, after hours of questioning Barbara, we knew the location of the facility where Tate, Juan, Dave, and Cooper were most likely held since that’s where the vampire blood samples came from. Then, like the not-actor James Franco, Barbara was sent on her way with a lower blood count and a new memory.
Ian was going to throw in a bonus service (“I’m many things, but a tease isn’t one of them,” he’d stated), yet I stopped him before he could make good on his former, unspoken offer to Barbara. We didn’t have the time, plus, her previous attraction didn’t equate to current consent in my book.
The bad news was, I didn’t know how we could break into the facility without getting caught.
The McClintic Wildlife Management area in Mason County, West Virginia, was more commonly known as the “TNT area.” During World War II, it was a large manufacturing and storage center for explosives. In addition to the dozens of aboveground concrete bunkers that housed the aforementioned TNT as well as radioactive waste, there was also a network of tunnels and underground bunkers built to withstand a nuclear blast. After the war, the blueprints of the massive underground facility conveniently disappeared, though the topside bunkers were just sealed up and left to rot.
Today, a few hundred out of the three-thousand-plus-acre tract were off-limits to the public due to safety and environmental concerns. Even the airspace was closed over a section of preserve after one of the bunkers mysteriously exploded in 2010, but while the government owned and monitored the area, someone like Barbara could slip in and out without arousing locals’ suspicions. In addition to hunters who frequented the McClintic Wildlife Management area, it was also the original location of the Mothman sightings and thus drew paranormal seekers by the thousands.
“In short,” I said to Bones after I spent several fruitless hours scouring the Internet for more information, “we’re screwed. Barbara always picks up the briefcase in front of the S4-A storage igloo, but that doesn’t mean it’s the entrance to the underground compound. That could be anywhere underneath three thousand acres of swamp, forest, and brush, and we can’t go there ourselves to narrow its location by listening for thoughts.”
After all, this wasn’t located in a city like Madigan’s lab in Charlottesville. There, it wouldn’t be unusual for vampires to frequent the vicinity. Hunters and wannabe cryptids might be able to stroll around the McClintic Wildlife Management area without arousing suspicion, but no self-respecting vampire would shoot animals for sport. Neither would one chase after a supernatural creature that didn’t exist.
“If this place has security like the Tennessee compound,” I continued in frustration, “infrared alarms will go off if anyone with a body temperature lower than ninety-six degrees enters the preserve. And if those alarms triggered an instant explosion, well . . . they don’t call it the TNT area for nothing.”
No one would find that unusual, only unfortunate. Madigan had the perfect cover with this facility.
“Send Fabian to scout it,” Ian suggested, referring to the ghost I was friends with.
I gave him a sour look. “It’s worth a shot, but I doubt the most important place in Madigan’s scheme to create partly undead supersoldiers is also the only place he didn’t ghostproof.”
Bones tapped his chin, his silence acknowledging his agreement. Then, with a twisted smile, he tossed me my purse.
“You’re friends with the only vampire in the world who can beat infrared sensors, and he’s explosion-proof to boot.”
I thought he muttered, “More’s the pity” after that statement, but I was too excited to chide him.
Vlad! With his pyrokinesis, he was warmer than most humans, and that same ability also rendered him fireproof. I dug my phone out of my purse and dialed Vlad’s cell.
Daca nu este ceva important, nu lasati mesaj si nu sunati din nou, a recorded male voice answered, followed by the English translation of “If this isn’t important, don’t leave a message and don’t call back.”
No one ever accused Vlad the Impaler of being too charming. I left an urgent message with both mine and Bones’s cell number before I hung up.
“Okay, that’s done. Now, let’s find Fabian and get him to check out the McClintic Wildlife preserve, just in case.”
Fabian du Brac had been forty-five when he died, and his longish brown hair was still drawn back in a style that went out of fashion over a century ago. His sideburns and clothes also marked him as from another era, but it was his somber blue eyes that I focused on now. Before he even spoke, they told me that he didn’t have good news.
“There is indeed a large, active facility deep beneath a section of the McClintic Wildlife Management area, but I don’t know where the entrance is. The entire facility is covered by a barrier I cannot penetrate and no one has left it the entire time I’ve been there.”
I ground my teeth. Madigan’s staff lived on-site, so no one could glean information from their comings and goings. Or kidnap one of them after they left, which had been my other plan to get more details.
I hated the bureaucratic bastard, but if I’d been designing security for the place, I would have done the same thing.
My breath blew out in a sigh of resignation.
“Then we have to wait eleven more days until the next scheduled labs pickup. Someone will have to come out of that compound to give the briefcase to Barbara.”
Fabian nodded. “Elisabeth and I won’t leave until we discover the entrance. She remains there now in case someone emerges while I’m gone.”
I gave him a watery smile. “Thanks, and thank your girlfriend for us, please.”
Resolve flashed over his face. “You owe me no thanks. You gave me a home when no one wanted me, and Elisabeth wouldn’t be my ladylove now if you hadn’t helped her in her time of need, too.”
He was, as always, too kind. For the thousandth time, I wished I could hug Fabian, but instead, I did the only thing I could do: held up my hand and smiled as his transparent fingers curled next to—and through—my own.
“Now all you need is to make a V with your hand and say in a death rattle that you have been, and always shall be, his friend,” Ian noted with heavy irony.
“Why would I . . .” I began. Then understanding dawned.
“Holy crap, you’re a closet Trekkie!”
I would have delved deeper into this surprising revelation about Ian, but my cell phone rang. I glanced at the number before snatching it up with impatient relief. After leaving multiple voice mails for three straight days, Vlad had finally called back.
“Where have you been?” I answered in lieu of a hello.
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“Busy,” was his clipped reply, his cultured accent more pronounced.
“Aren’t we all? Listen, I need your particular brand of help, which is why I called—”
“Count me out this time, Cat.”
I was too upset by his reply to make a quip about the real Dracula using the word “count.”
“It’s serious,” I said, in case he thought I was looking for a teammate for competitive nail filing.
“Whatever it is, I can’t help. Furthermore, you need to be in Romania tonight.”
I was well versed in Vlad’s arrogance, yet this was going too far. “You refuse to help me with a life-and-death scenario, but you want me to hop a plane and leave immediately for your house?”
“He’s lost his wits,” Bones muttered from the next room.
Vlad replied with four words that briefly cleared my mind of all thought. I asked him to repeat them to be sure I hadn’t misheard, and when he did, I began to grin.
“Then I guess I’ll see you tonight,” I said, and hung up.
Bones came into the room, his chiseled features marred by an expression of disbelief.
“We can’t rush off to Romania, Kitten. Whatever Vlad thinks is so important can wait—”
“No, it can’t,” I interrupted, still grinning. “He’s getting married tonight.”
Eleven
We hitched a ride on Mencheres’s private plane since he and Kira were invited, too. In fact, Mencheres was Vlad’s best man. Ian, however, didn’t come since he and Vlad weren’t close. Hell, neither were Bones and Vlad. If not for me, Bones would never have been invited, and if Bones didn’t know that Vlad had made my short list of true friends, he would rather pound sand than attend Vlad’s wedding.
While on the plane, Bones and I filled Mencheres and Kira in on what we’d discovered about Madigan. Aside from being his vampiric version of a grandsire, Mencheres was also co-ruler of their combined lines, so he could be trusted. His wife, Kira, might be in training to be an Enforcer, which was the vampire version of a cop, but she’d keep her mouth shut, too. Then I spent the rest of our flight trying to think up a way to discover the compound’s entrance that didn’t involve eleven days of waiting until Barbara showed up to claim another briefcase.
Our current inability to move on the compound frustrated me to no end, but in this instance, patience wasn’t a virtue. It was a necessity. We couldn’t outsmart the security system, and with Vlad seriously unavailable because he was getting married, I had yet to come up with a way around it that didn’t end up becoming a suicide mission. Part of me hated flying thousands of miles away while our friends were in danger, but the rest resignedly noted that either here or there, we were still stuck in waiting mode.
Unless . . .
“You could use your telekinetic powers to freeze everyone underground while we searched the place for the entrance,” I suggested to Mencheres despite it sounding naive to my own ears.
A winged brow rose. “And if this facility isn’t the command center of Madigan’s operations?”
I sighed. “Then we’re screwed.”
Someone high up in the government had to have been backing Madigan all these years after Don fired him. How else could he have at least two clandestine underground facilities at his disposal, not to mention the astronomical funding all his experimental research would have cost? So the shadowy figure—or figures—behind Madigan would go into deep hiding once they knew we had the power to immobilize an entire base. No, we had to save our best weapon for the final battle when we took out Madigan and the people behind him, not waste the surprise on the skirmishes before it.
It was the only logical choice, but it didn’t bode well for getting my friends out alive. I tried to remember the last time I’d talked with Tate. Had we fought? Possibly. Our relationship had been strained over the past couple years, but things had just started to get back to normal. I hated that I might never get a chance to tell him what his friendship had meant to me, through the good times and the bad.
Mencheres must have sensed my brooding because he said, “We’re returning tomorrow to the States with you,” in his most soothing voice. “I’ll be near when you need me, Cat.”
I flashed him a grateful smile. Once, I’d hated the ancient Egyptian vampire. Now the knowledge that he would be near for the final confrontation filled me with profound relief.
“Thank you.”
He gifted me with one of his rare smiles. You’re welcome.
The words weren’t spoken aloud. Instead, they slid directly into my thoughts like a telepathic text message. Mencheres, with his staggering age and abilities, was the only vampire I’d met who could communicate this way though he’d only done it with me once before.
“Show-off,” I murmured.
Another twitch of his lips, but then he turned his attention to the window and the lights it revealed when the plane banked sharply.
“We’re here.”
Vladislav Basarab Dracul’s house was exactly what you’d expect from the uncrowned prince of darkness: a massive mansion that was equal parts beautiful and barbaric, with intricately carved balconies and pillars next to gargoyle-adorned towers and turrets. It was also busier than I’d ever seen it. Members of his staff waited outside the four-story structure, hurrying to park cars as fast as the guests arrived. That wasn’t the only difference since my last visit. Instead of electricity, torches now lit up the exterior. They stood over a dozen feet tall around the grounds of the house, while smaller ones adorned the mansion’s many balconies. I would have called it a fire hazard except for Vlad’s abilities. Nothing burned around him unless he wanted it to.
We were politely hustled inside the great hallway, where more attendants took our overnight bags after asking our names. Inside, candles replaced the normal lights, and tuxedoed staff passed out crystal glasses filled with something crimson yet bubbly. Curious, I grabbed one off the nearest tray and took a sip.
“You’ve got to try this,” I told Bones, handing him the glass. “It’s like Cristal and O-Negative had a love child.”
Bones took it, raising an appreciative brow as he swallowed. He might not be Vlad’s biggest fan—okay, most days the two men hated each other—but he clearly approved of Drac’s plasma-infused bubbly.
Seeing his throat work as he took a second, longer sip reminded me that I hadn’t fed in over a day. How sexy Bones looked in his ebony tuxedo with his dark brown locks hugging his head like a sleek helmet only fueled the hunger rising inside me. We hadn’t had time to shop before Mencheres picked us up, but thankfully, the former pharaoh had plenty of fancy clothes. Mencheres and Bones were similar in size, so his borrowed tuxedo fit him as though it had been made for him.
“Have another,” I said to Bones, handing him a new glass of the champagne-infused blood after he finished the first one. “You’ll need to be well hydrated later.”
His mouth curled as he accepted the glass. Then his fingers held mine captive as he brought the glass up to drink. My knuckles brushed his smooth chin as he swallowed while those dark eyes never left mine. Only after he’d drained it did he release me, and by then, I didn’t want him to. In fact, I was wondering where our guest room was and if we had time to slip away before the wedding started.
He leaned down, his gaze now tinged with green as he set his empty glass on a passing waiter’s tray without once looking away.
“You make me ache with how beautiful you are, Kitten.”
The formal strapless dress Kira had loaned me was a bit tight, but from the way Bones’s eyes swept over me, he approved of how my breasts bulged a little too much over the bodice and how the black velvet draped me as though it were painted on. My hair was loose since stopping to get it styled was out of the question, but its deep crimson color matched my wedding ring. It was the only jewelry I wore, yet its magnificence made more than one of the beje
weled female guests pause and stare. Red diamonds were the rarest in the world, and the only other one close to this size was in a museum somewhere.
I slipped my arms around him, breathing in his scent and reveling in the hard feel of his body as he pressed me close.
“You’ll ache with something else as soon as we’re alone,” I whispered.
His arms tightened around me. “As will you.”
That low, gravelly tone made sensual shivers dance over me, but then behind us, someone cleared their throat. Since we were in a house filled with vampires, that wasn’t an accident.
Kira smiled shyly when I turned around.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Mencheres left to see Vlad, and I don’t know anyone else here.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re not interrupting,” I said, though my body protested when I pulled away from Bones. Then I grabbed a fresh crystal glass from the attentive waitstaff.
“Besides, you have to try the bubbly. It’s to die for.”
The wedding ceremony took place in the ballroom, which, aside from the grounds around Vlad’s estate, was the only place large enough to fit his many guests since it took up over half of the third floor. At a rough estimate, there were two thousand people here, yet I’d only need both hands to count the number of humans.
The bride, Leila, and the older man I supposed was her father were among the rare mortal exceptions. She gasped when she entered the ballroom, but that might not have been from the thousands of people who stood up when she appeared. It could have been from the gigantic pillars made of white roses that lined her path to the altar, or the ancient chandeliers blazing with more candles than I could count. That wasn’t Vlad’s best decoration, though. When Leila started her descent down the aisle, the iron canopy Vlad stood under erupted into flames that burned so hotly, by the time she reached him, it looked like he was haloed by a covering of gold.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“Showhound,” Bones muttered in reply.