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I felt the anger beginning to simmer inside of me. “I have every right as the Mistress. Those of our breed that harm humans are removed. We do not tolerate that—we never have—and we sure as hell won’t allow you to control how we have done things since the start of our time.”
McMurphy was staring at me, and I knew he noticed that my eyes had changed color. I let my steel-gray gaze linger on his for a moment.
“Gentleman, if that’s all you came here to discuss, I believe this meeting is over.” I went to stand, but McMurphy held his hand up.
“Wait, Mrs. Armstrong, we seemed to have gotten off topic here. We really did want to speak to you about ways to protect your people.”
I stared down at him. “Your concern is noted, Mr. McMurphy, along with Mr. Singer’s disdain. We aren’t interested in your assistance. Thank you for your time.”
I heard the other elders get up from their seats as Joshua escorted me from the room.
“She can’t just walk out on this,” I heard Mr. Singer growl.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to talk to her, Tom. Calm down,” Mr. McMurphy said as I walked down the hallway. Yeah, good luck with that, I thought to myself as I reached the elevator.
Lorna was behind the other elders, and I knew that Jett and Ryker were still in the conference room and would show our guests out. We loaded into the elevator, and it wasn’t until the doors closed that Scarlett began to speak.
“They want more than what they are asking for,” she said.
“Yeah,” Beckett replied, “I am pretty sure they want to use our people, the ones that might be able to assist them, anyway.”
“Well, that’s not happening,” I stated. “I have no plans to get into bed with the U.S. government.”
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out, Lorna and Clayton behind me. I was pretty sure the rest were going to head down and out of the building now.
“Lorna, can you ask Lainey to come to my office, please?”
“Sure, Kris,” she replied before she split off down another hallway near my office.
Lorna had come to work with me several years before she went through her transition. When Julian and Lyssa had been killed during a raid on the VMF office out west, Clayton and Lorna had moved here to help me. It had been thirty-five years since they were killed, and my heart ached as I thought of Julian. It always ached when I thought of him.
Now Lorna was a full-blooded vampire mated to Paul, one of our traveling sentinels. Their daughter Lainey, who was twenty, was my current assistant.
Joshua left me at my office door, and Clayton came in with me and took a seat on the side couch. “I have a bad feeling about this, Kris.”
“I do too, Clay. I’m not sure if it’s because they want to know what we are capable of, or because they think they can gain control of us, but I don’t like it.”
I took a seat in my chair and glanced at Clay. His gaze was locked on the large photograph near my door. His voice was soft, sad, as he spoke. “I sure wish we could go back in time.”
I lifted my eyes to it. “Yeah, sometimes I wish that too, Clay.”
Chapter 2 – Hugh
“She can’t just walkout on this.” Tom snapped as Mrs. Armstrong left the room.
