"Raona, do you want something to eat?" Roff asked.
"Karzac said I couldn't have solid food until tomorrow, so I guess I'll have some blood," I told him. He came back with a bag in a few minutes and I drank what I could, giving the unused portion back to him.
"Does anybody have anything to read?" I asked. I'd never made it to the gift shop two days before—I'd sat down in the coffee shop to talk with Winkler instead.
"My child and I have purchased an e-reader for you," René smiled. Tony left to get it while I stared at René. "It is much easier to carry than many books, and Anthony and I have already selected several titles for you." René's smile widened.
"I think I love you," I smiled back at René. Gavin never turned a hair at my statement.
"How are they explaining Larry Frazier's death?" I asked while Tony was gone. Bill was noticeably absent, as was Michael.
"Bill decided to connect Frazier to the convenience store murders and robberies," Gavin sighed. "They've manufactured evidence of unstable behavior, culminating in a mental episode of some sort."
"They still have Hafer," I pointed out. "So he must be useful to them in some way. Does everybody know to call Bill if the esteemed Admiral just shows up somewhere?"
"I do not know that, cara," Gavin shook his head. "When Director Jennings contacts us again, we will ask him about it. Wlodek dislikes the idea of any humans knowing where this safe house is located. Bill agreed to have compulsion laid not to reveal it before he was permitted to come. Wlodek stretched the rules to allow our werewolf, here, to stay." That made me smile again—Gavin was calling Winkler our werewolf. I thought of him as that too. Not that Gavin didn't feel the bite of jealousy now and then—he did. Winkler had joined the family, I think, as had Tony. Gavin at one time might have been willing to remove Tony's head. Now, as René's vampire child, Gavin accepted him completely.
Gavin pulled out his cell and dialed as we talked. Charles was on the line quickly. "Charles, hold for a moment," Gavin passed the phone to me.
"Charles?" I said.
"Thank goodness," Charles heaved a huge sigh. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better. The healer that came said I can't do much for the next four days but we're moving in the right direction, I think."
"Gavin said your blood was everywhere, Lissa," Charles scolded. "You need to take it easy. It'll take a while to come back after that."
"You need to stop fretting, honey," I said.
"Does that include me?" Wlodek was now on the line. I drew a shaky breath. "Lissa, will you ever stop being frightened when I speak with you?" Wlodek asked.
"I don't know," I answered truthfully.
"Moro mou, I am not going to chastise you over the phone. You merely need to let me know when there is information that should be shared with me. Gavin had difficulty with this at first, as did many others. I did not punish them or lock them up for it."
"They're not female, either," I muttered.
"Is that upsetting you? I am worried over you because you are female, it is true," Wlodek sighed. "You are so precious to us; something that we cannot replace if you are lost. I know that any sort of confinement is a cage to you, child. When we gave you to Gavin in your absence, we were looking for ways to make your cage a comfortable one. You must forgive us our mistakes. I beg you to not give us a scare such as this again, daughter."
"I'm right there with you on that one, honey," I muttered. Wlodek chuckled, more than likely over the fact that I'd called him honey. That always seemed to amuse him. "How's Flavio doing?" I asked to change the subject.
"Much better," Wlodek replied. "He wishes to entertain you and Gavin when you return."
"I'll probably drive him crazy," I said. "I make Gavin crazy on a daily basis."
"Lissa, I think you may have that effect on any vampire more than five hundred years of age," Wlodek had a smile in his voice.
"Maybe you need to include mental health leave in the vampire package of benefits," I teased. "I'm sure that vampire doctor you have can name a mental illness after me. Then Gavin can call in sick with Lissa syndrome." Gavin was now frowning—I'm sure I'd stepped over some sort of line. Nobody treated the Honored One in this manner.
"Lissa, I think we are all afflicted with that," Wlodek replied and I laughed. Gavin attempted to pull the phone away from my hand. After a brief tussle, I ended up in Gavin's lap; my arms were wrapped tightly around his neck as he stroked my back gently with one hand and held the phone to his ear with the other.
"She is still recovering, Honored One," Gavin said and I muffled more laughter against Gavin's neck.
"Gavin, this is good for her," Wlodek informed him. "It gives me pleasure to make her laugh."
Gavin got off the phone shortly afterward and our audience disappeared as Gavin pulled my arms away and held my face in his hands. "Cara, I was so frightened," he said and kissed me as carefully as he could. "Your father tells me you have a muted heartbeat since he gave you blood. You could have died, my love." I was placed in my bed and Gavin crawled in beside me, holding me until I fell asleep.
* * *
"Listen to me carefully," Xenides struggled to hold his anger back. Lawrence Frazier, his human pawn, had not received the best of instruction and had almost killed the little princess. His spy informed him of this, although he hadn't been able to get updated information on where she'd been taken. The fools in the U.S. had botched this completely. Xenides would see that they paid for this mistake later. In the interim, he still needed them. "You will instruct any others to protect her life, not take it," Xenides' anger came through in his voice.
Rafael hadn't been the one to give Larry Frazier instructions, but he was bearing the brunt of Xenides' wrath. He knew not to make excuses—that was extreme foolishness and the punishment when it came would be harsher if he attempted it. He held his tongue and accepted the verbal abuse.
* * *
"I'm not going to argue if she wants to go eat," Winkler said. We had very little in the house other than blood to consume and I knew Roff was tired of sandwiches. Winkler, too, actually. I was trying to talk Gavin into going out so some of us could enjoy a decent meal. I know he didn't like letting me out of the house, but it had been three days since Karzac left and there was only one more day that I had to take it easy anyway.
"Cara, if this is what you want, then we will do this," Gavin finally caved. "What do you wish to eat?"
"Is there a good prime rib nearby?" I asked. Bill had come to the safe house, after making sure he wasn't followed.
"I know a restaurant," Bill nodded. He'd dropped by to give us updates—there still wasn't any word on Admiral Hafer, although everybody was looking for him, now.
"How did Larry get to the hotel?" I asked Bill later.
"He had a stolen car," Bill said as we climbed out of the van at a restaurant. "We're checking the area where the car was taken, but we haven't found anything yet." Gavin, René, Tony and Winkler were all scanning the area as we walked toward the restaurant. I discovered that all of them were forming a circle around me, Bill included. Roff walked alongside me; Gavin had one of my arms, Roff the other.
Winkler ate half my prime rib, since it was too much food. It was good, though. I hadn't had anything like it in a long time. "What I can't figure out," I said, pushing half my baked potato in Winkler's direction, "is why they let Larry go to the hotel to do what he did. Surely, they didn't think he was just going to walk away afterward with his life. I thought he was valuable to them, giving them his expertise along with what he took from me."
"I am concerned about this as well," Gavin agreed. "What changed to make him expendable?"
"We still don't have a line on the three humans that Lissa scented," Tony gestured with the swizzle stick from his obligatory drink. "Who are they? Did they work with Rahim, or did Xenides pick them up somewhere and force them to work with his vampires?"
"Maybe they have medical training, too," I suggested. "Larry was too well-known, and maybe these three were there to learn what they could from him before Xenides dumped him." Bill was jerking his phone out of his pocket and punching a button. I was thankful we'd gotten a private alcove at the restaurant since there were so many of us. Bill was asking questions the moment somebody picked up on the other end. Questions about doctors, medical personnel, EMTs or such that may have gone missing recently.
Bill was on the phone for maybe ten minutes while somebody did research somewhere. We were all listening in except Roff, whose hearing wasn't quite as good as everyone else's. I was leaning my forehead against Gavin's arm when the conversation was over. Three research biologists had disappeared from the Atlanta area just before Tony and I had gone there to check things out. The official story was that they were friends and had gone camping together. They'd been lost somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. The three men still hadn't been found, although their campsite had been searched thoroughly.
"Let me guess—they worked for the company in Atlanta that manufactured the flu vaccine." I mumbled against Gavin's arm; I didn't want to pull my head away. Honestly, I wanted to be somebody else, right then. Anybody would do. It just had to be somebody who didn't know what I knew and wasn't worried about what Xenides might be able to do from this point forward.
"Yes." Bill confirmed my worry after Gavin repeated my words to him—his hearing wasn't very good, either.
"At least we have names, now," Tony said. He was upset about this too, I could tell. René was rubbing Tony's shoulders.
You're such a good parent, I sent to René. He smiled slightly, although he wasn't looking at me. He could receive, just as Gavin could. They just didn't have the talent to send back. Not normally, anyway. If Gavin got my blood, though—I sighed, thinking about what Xenides might do with my blood that Frazier had likely handed over.
"So, have we done any more research on Hafer and Larry Frazier?" I asked pulling my mind away from more frightening thoughts. "Since Larry did his hip replacement and heart surgery?" Bill's fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
"Lissa, I completely forgot about that," Winkler said. "Too many things happened and it went right out of my head." We hadn't mentioned it before—we'd speculated about Larry Frazier, figuring he'd pointed a finger in Hafer's direction as someone Xenides might target for information and state secrets. We'd never done any speculation on Hafer himself.
"Yeah, well, we got privileged information from a mutual source I can't name who said Hafer got Larry to do a hip replacement a few years ago and that he had some heart surgery done, too, but all of it was hushed up for some reason." I grimaced and knotted the napkin in my hands beneath the table. Things were starting to fall into place, and I didn't like the picture it presented.
"More than likely so the president wouldn't ask Hafer to retire—we always suspected he had other health issues and shouldn't have been involved in national security," Bill said, hauling out his cell again. "If Frazier was treating him and keeping it under wraps, that would keep him in the thick of things, wouldn't it?" Bill was repeating exactly what Daniel Carey said. "Frazier might know exactly what kind of information Hafer might offer to Xenides, but there's another way this could go as well," Bill muttered.
"You don't think—oh my gosh." I wanted to slap my forehead again.
"I'm thinking the same thing, I'm sure," Bill said and punched a number on his cell.
"You think Hafer was spying, don't you Lissy?" Tony leaned around René and gave me a look. That would explain why Hafer was after me—I could get in anywhere and find any information.
"Hafer probably knew Larry was on that boat, didn't he? And even if Rahim or one of the others didn't get that information from Larry, they may have gotten it from Hafer. Which explains why he wanted me so bad." I wanted to get up from the table right then and go looking for the bastard. We had to shut up when the President came on the line. Bill outlined his suspicions and asked for help from the FBI and CIA to pull financial records and such, including any aliases that Hafer might have used. The wheels were turning before Bill stopped talking.
"Lissa, I should have dinner with you more often; I get more work done that way," Bill sighed, slipping his phone in a jacket pocket.
"I remember when you were looking at me like I was the demon from hell du jour when Tony spilled the beans before," I lifted my wineglass in a toast.
