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There was an element of truth to this little speech, which I knew all too well. Vampires believed they were better than humans. This overlooked the fact they were all once humans themselves. They genuinely considered themselves a superior breed, or an evolutionary step towards perfection. I’d heard whispers about the notion that vampires might be demon-kin, but only from Keaty, my old partner. That wasn’t something anyone spoke about in front of a real vampire.
They were sensitive about that sort of thing.
“How are the vampires helping?”
“They used to sit back and let humans do the summonings, which never really went that well, I’m assuming because humans lack the power to forge the circles needed to open proper doorways. But lately vampires have been coming together with some of those humans, and down below this is giving us reason to believe things might actually start working.”
Again I cast a glance over to the mirror, but this time there was nothing amused in my expression. Instead, looking back at me was my own suddenly pale face, reminding me yet again that I was a mortal, playing a game of immortal stakes.
“So vampires are going to help open the doorway to Hell.”
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
This time he looked towards the mirror. Of course he knew we were being watched. What he might not know was that every single word he said was being recorded to see what kind of wisdom we could glean from it. If any.
“Then what?” he repeated. “Well, Ms. McQueen, the demons come to party.”
Chapter Five
Back on the outside, I cracked open another bottle of water and sat on a little bench a few feet from the holding cell. I kept swallowing until the whole bottle was empty then leaned my head against the wall and took a deep breath.
“Do you believe him?” I asked Tyler.
The tall man nodded gravely. His dark hair was a mess, well outside regulation for a proper dyed-in-the-wool FBI Special Agent. It was sticking up all over the place as if he’d been raking his hands through it nervously while watching Harold and me talk.
Couldn’t blame him. There were a few moments where I had wanted to rip out my own damn hair.
“There’s no value in him making up such a close date,” Emilio said. “It’s too easy to disprove. We could just hold on to him and wait out the day tomorrow, and then we’ve proven he’s a liar. Nah, this has a nasty smack of truth to it, if you ask me.”
That was what I was worried about. Emilio was incredible at picking out lies. He had to be. I had never asked him how many interrogations he’d led before coming to the FBI, when he’d been a black ops mercenary, but I knew he was a man who had drawn blood in the name of getting to the truth.
We were all in agreement that Harold was telling us the truth. The real question was what we should do about it. Technically we were sitting on some pretty monumentally important information. Like, pull-out-a-big-red-phone-and-dial-your-direct-line-to-the-President important.
But I wasn’t sure we had the time to put this in the hands of bureaucrats. If vampires were helping demons, then yes, there were some substantial diplomatic concerns that the vampire council would need to address with the government. Right now, though, we needed to keep a door shut.
Did the government really need to know?
Tyler was giving me the look that told me he was reading my mind, something he did often enough now to make me wonder if he had secretly implanted a chip in me to literally let him read my mind.
Fuck you, tall boy, I thought at him.
If he heard me, he didn’t even flinch.
“We have to report this, Secret,” he said instead. “You know we do.”
“Okay, but hear me out. What if we didn’t report it until tomorrow?”
Emilio and Tyler exchanged concerned glances before turning back to me. It was Emilio who asked, “What do you think you can accomplish in a few hours that the U.S. Government can’t? Actually, what is it that you’re planning th
at you don’t want the government to know about?”
“I would like the government to pretty much pretend I don’t exist, at all times.”
“Everyone would like that,” Tyler replied.
“I want to take Harold back out and have him show me where this is going down. And then I want to stop it.”
