"Ah." He looked at me for a moment and then motioned for me to follow him out of the building. We went to the next location. Two vampires this time, with two humans. Neither of the vampires were related to the mister I'd killed beneath the President's car. Also not related to each other. That didn't mean that one or both couldn't be misters. I gave Tony the information I had.
"Do you have any of the humans in custody?" I asked.
"Lissa, you should know better than to ask that. National Security is involved," Tony came up behind me and put his arms around my shoulders, pulling me against his chest.
"What is it with you people?" I grumbled, moving away from him.
"We're a tight-lipped bunch," Tony said. "Ready to go? I have an early morning."
"We can't have you staying up all night, then," I said and followed him to the car. He offered to let me drive but I declined. "I don't know where I am," I said. "You do."
"So, you know your way around London?" Tony asked innocently.
"Nice try, Security Boy," I said. "I'm not about to tell you where I drive around."
"You're just too quick for me," he said, pulling away from the curb.
"Yeah. That and a five might get you coffee at Starbucks."
I looked at my map again later after Tony went to bed. He might have wanted me to go with him; he looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it after a while and went down the hall to his bedroom. His door closed before I turned to the work I wanted to do—checking distances between the child disappearances. They varied. If it was a vampire and a human helper under compulsion, there had to be some rhyme or reason for these particular stops. I just didn't know what it was. Dithering for a little while, I broke down and emailed Charles.
Charles, I wrote, if it were possible that a vampire is behind these abductions, would these particular cities have any safe place nearby for a vampire to hole up, like a cave or something? I know I'll get smacked across the chops for even thinking this, but it keeps worrying me. Go ahead and tell me I'm an idiot. It won't be the first time, or even the first time tonight—Lissa.
* * *
"Just be careful," Tony watched Larry Frazier tie off a tourniquet on Lissa's arm and check for a vein. Tony carried Lissa into his own bedroom for this; he didn't want Frazier's scent anywhere inside Lissa's room. Her nose was much too sensitive.
"She doesn't have a pulse; that will make this difficult," Frazier grumbled. He recognized her, all right; she'd pulled him away from the pirates and gotten him back to safety. Now he knew how that was possible.
"Are you not finding any veins?" Tony was getting worried and he didn't want to hurt Lissa.
"May I make an alternative suggestion?" Frazier looked up at Tony and untied the tourniquet.
"What?"
"Cut or stick her somewhere that she's not likely to notice, take the blood and hope she heals while she sleeps. That's what I understand happens."
"But it was tissue—ash, I guess, that you got before." Tony slapped his forehead.
"Then anywhere we stick her, we'll get tissue and blood which should work just as well," Frazier said, pulling a large Vacutainer out of his kit. "This one has the largest needle. Turn her over."
Tony didn't know how he felt about the whole thing but did as requested. Frazier pulled down Lissa's pajama bottoms, felt around for what he thought was her femoral artery and jabbed the needle in. Frazier pulled out enough blood and tissue to satisfy his requirements before wiping off the puncture carefully. Tony watched with a worried frown—to him it looked like nearly three pints of thick, dark red blood.
"You have to be thorough, she'll smell the blood," Tony warned. "And don't use alcohol or anything else; she'll smell that, too." Frazier frowned and wiped the area again but it was already healing. He then packed up the samples and his supplies, leaving Tony to deal with an unconscious female vampire.
* * *
I felt tired when I woke. It was May fifth—Cinco de Mayo. Tony wasn't home so I drank my dinner and wandered around listlessly, eventually flopping onto the sofa in Tony's media room to watch television. I shouldn't be tired. I hadn't done anything strenuous and gotten my normal day's sleep. Tony came in around nine, finding me dozing on the sofa.
"Lissy, what's wrong?" He'd never caught me napping before.
"I feel tired," I said, yawning a little.
"Do you need more blood? Did you drink enough?" He came around to look at me, a concerned frown crossing his face.
"I got the usual amount. If I try to drink more than that, I cough it up. I don't think you want bloodstains all over your carpet." I rubbed my forehead a little.
"Take a little from me." He sat down beside me and opened the collar of his shirt.
"Tony, will you stop? That's not acceptable." I pulled my knees to my chest. I'd put sweats on and only wore socks on my feet.
"I wanted to go to Silver Spring and let you sniff around but I don't think you're up to it," he sighed.
"No, let me get my shoes," I said, waving him off when he reached for my hand to pull me back down. "Just bear in mind I'm not up to a marathon or anything."
Tony drove while I catnapped in the passenger seat. I felt like I was coming down with a cold or something and that was impossible. "Lissa, where do you think they might be?" Tony asked after a while. I'd nodded off again.
"Huh? Sorry." I rubbed my eyes. "Are there Mexican restaurants with bars or anything? It's Cinco de Mayo. There might be a crowd at those places and tipsy people make easy targets." Tony pulled out his phone and did a little web surfing, coming up with several possibilities so we took off again. We went to four places before I got a hit. I'd rolled my window down as we'd cruised past the other spots. This one, Cactus Bar and Grill, had tables set up outside and even though it was a little on the cool side, there were people on the patio drinking and laughing. There was also a vampire nearby; I could tell by the scent. I had to go to mist before he detected me.
Tony shouted as I turned in a blink and misted out the window. The vampire had fed already and was heading swiftly down an alley between businesses. I was so focused on him and on taking his head quickly that I failed to see where he was running. My brain was addled for some reason—I took his head and then materialized, looking behind me just to make sure we hadn't been seen. That was a mistake.
Two more vampires hit me like a storm and if I'd been slightly taller, they might have taken me down. I was unprepared when they sliced my forehead and my ribs, forcing me to duck and turn to mist again. Their momentum had carried them past me initially, but they were fresh and I wasn't, in addition to being injured. Both vampires came back after scenting my blood but I'd gone to mist and hovered above them. If I'd had a voice, I would have whimpered, I think. I still felt pain, even though I was mist. Tony was sending mindspeech as well, and that distracted me.