Page 54 of Vanessa’s Bravery

“Of course,” Samson said. “We’ll put surveillance on them to see who they’re meeting with. But our priority right now is to find the ones who’ve already been turned. And to bring them back alive. Only they can lead us to the vampire behind this.”

The plan sounded solid. Even Cole had to admit that. But he still had concerns. “These bloodsuckers are strong. I’m a big guy, and even I couldn’t fight a skinny hundred-and-seventy-pound vampire off. How are you gonna catch one alive? No offense but that sounds dangerous and pretty damn near impossible.”

“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “We have the right weapons.”

“Stakes?”

“No, that would defeat the purpose,” Gabriel replied. “We can restrain them with silver chains. It’s the only metal they can’t break. It burns their skin like acid.”

That knowledge calmed him a little. At least the people from Scanguards knew enough about vampires to fight them.

“When we have a little more time, you must tell me how you all found out about vampires,” Cole said, looking at Gabriel and Samson.

For a second there was only silence in the room, and all he could hear was the sound of the twins coming from the livestream. He noticed Gabriel casting a look at his daughter.

“Yeah, sure, when it’s a bit quieter,” Vanessa finally said. “But I think tonight we’ve got too much going on.”

“Gabriel,” Samson ordered, “get everybody up to speed, and have Quinn put together teams, so we can check on all thirteen addresses simultaneously, just in case they are communicating with each other. We don’t want them to tip each other off.”

“Got it,” Gabriel said and rose. He turned to the monitor, “Thanks, Scarlet. We’ll let you know when we need you.”

“Bye, guys.” The screen went blank.

Everybody got up.

“Nessie, why don’t you take Cole to the lounge? Maybe he wants to eat something while we get this mission set up. And then we need you upstairs for the briefing.”

“All right, Dad.”

“Gabriel, are you saying that Vanessa is gonna be one of the teams to hit the incels’ addresses? You know how I feel about—”

Gabriel put a hand on his forearm. “We need her at the briefing, that’s all. I won’t assign her to any of the search teams tonight.”

Relieved, Cole tamped down his pounding heart and took Vanessa’s hand in his. When he met her gaze, she looked less than pleased.

“You’re not gonna be able to stop me from doing my job,” Vanessa said. “This is what I do.”

“But not tonight.” And he would make sure to come up with plenty of reasons to stop her from putting herself in danger.

“Uhm, Cole,” Gabriel said, “you’re not gonna win that fight with her.”

“Yeah, might as well give in now,” Thomas added with a smirk.

“I don’t give in easily,” he replied without breaking eye contact with Vanessa. “Particularly when it concerns someone dear to my heart.”

And there was nothing and nobody dearer to his heart than Vanessa.

26

Patrick kicked the gas pedal of the Scanguards blackout SUV down, while Ethan sat in the passenger seat, directing him to the address of the incel they’d been assigned to check out.

“You think Cole is right about these incels? That they would agree to be turned?”

“You heard the others. Thomas and Eddie were impressed by the data, and your dad as well as mine are confident that his data will lead us to the rogues,” Ethan replied.

“So, about this Cole… Have you met him?”

“I ran into him before I left the house this evening. Didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but Dad told me he tried to dissuade Nessie from going patrolling, because he didn’t want her to put herself in danger. Of course, he doesn’t know that she’s more than capable of looking after herself.”