AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"It's mine," J.L. said. "Harrison and the sheriff left."
"What?" Barker gave J.L. an incredulous look. "Harrison left? Why did he do that?"
"Beats me." J.L. glared at Robby. "They met some guys in kilts, and the next thing we know, they're driving off."
Robby sighed inwardly. That would have been Connor and Angus. They'd been the first to arrive. They'd called the local sheriff's office and teleported there. Then, using vampire mind control, they'd persuaded the operator to call the sheriff's car radio. They'd erased memories and teleported to the sheriff's car, using the radio as a beacon.
"Yer companions were told to leave," Robby admitted.
"Why would Harrison do what some strangers told him to do?" Barker asked. "I'm his boss, and he doesn't obey me half the time."
"Vampire mind control." Robby spotted his colleagues gathered by the road. Their number had dwindled. Some must have teleported away.
Barker motioned toward them. "Those guys over there are vampires?"
"Aye, but doona worry. They willna harm you."
"Whoa." J.L. halted with a jerk. "Then you're a vampire, too?"
Robby groaned inwardly. "Aye." Olivia stirred in his arms, so he hurried toward the car.
Barker kept up with him. "You bite people?"
"Nay. I drink synthetic blood."
"And you materialized here?" J.L. asked.
"We teleported."
"What other powers do you have?" Barker asked.
"Superstrength and - speed, superhearing and - vision, a prolonged life, levitation, mind control."
"Cool," J.L. whispered.
"Nay." Robby stopped beside the car. "'Tis no' cool when it is used for evil. The Malcontents used mind control to render those puir mortals helpless. They died in terror, unable to defend themselves."
"Who are the Malcontents?" Barker asked.
Robby launched into a quick explanation of the Malcontents, Vamps, and the CIA Stake-Out Team. He stopped when Olivia moaned. "Hurry, open the door. The keys are on the ground there."
J.L. picked up the keys while Barker opened the back door. Robby deposited Olivia on the backseat.
"So basically you're the good vampires, and the Malcontents are the evil ones?" Barker asked.
"Aye." Robby shut the back door.
"What's the deal with the skirts?" J.L. asked. "I thought you guys were more into capes."
Robby gave him an annoyed look, then noticed Olivia was waking up. "I'll need you to keep this a secret. 'Tis imperative that the mortal world no' know."
J.L. snorted. "Like anyone would believe this." He climbed into the driver's seat.
"You can trust us." Barker circled to the other side of the car. "I don't want my secret to come out, either." He folded his long frame into the front passenger seat.
J.L. started the engine, and Robby stepped back. Olivia sat up in the backseat and looked around with a dazed expression. She spotted him, and her eyes widened with horror.
His heart twisted in his chest.
The car backed down the driveway. As it turned onto the road, Olivia peered out the window at him.
He raised a hand. Was this good-bye? Would she ever agree to see him again? She had to. He couldn't let her go without a fight.
The car sped off, and he was left looking at a cloud of dust.
"Are ye all right, lad?" Angus walked up to him.
He swallowed hard. "I may have lost her."
"She could still come around." Angus patted him on the back. "Give her some time."
"What did I miss?" Robby changed the subject. It hurt too much to dwell on the horrified look on Olivia's face. And he knew he'd missed some of the strategy meeting while he'd chased after her.
"Casimir is clearly moving south, but we doona know his final destination. Phineas teleported to New Orleans to warn them, in case Casimir is headed there. Dougal went to Jean-Luc's home in Texas to warn him."
Robby nodded. "Maggie and Pierce live in Texas, too. We should warn them. And we should tighten security at the Romatech in Texas." Casimir had blown it up last summer, but production had started again.
"We're going to spend the rest of tonight checking all the storm cellars in the vicinity." Angus sighed. "'Tis a waste of time, most likely. They could be far away by now."
Robby glanced at the farmhouses. "And the people who died? Is Whelan going to take care of the cover story?"
"Aye." Angus chuckled. "He's threatening to have you arrested for assault."
"Let him try, the bastard." After Olivia had run off into the cornfield, Robby had walked up to the smirking Whelan and punched his face.
His friends had applauded.
"He'll get his comeuppance," Angus said. "One of these days he'll find out his grandchildren are half Vamp."
Robby smiled. He didn't know how Roman could stand having Sean Whelan for a father-in-law. His smile faded. He could end up with some angry in-laws, too, if Olivia ever agreed to marry him.
Olivia took a shower, but it didn't wash away the shock. She took two aspirin, but it didn't take away the pain. She lounged on the lumpy bed in the motel room in her pajamas, staring into space. The television was on with the volume turned down low. The old familiar sitcom helped her believe the world was still normal. Even though it wasn't.
Vampires. The word repeated over and over in her mind. Vampires were real. And Robby was one of them.
She recalled how much attention he'd given to her neck when they'd made love. Two giant red hickeys below each ear. But he hadn't broken the skin. Instead, he'd bitten her decorative pillow. She shuddered, remembering the twin punctures. Robby had fangs.
He was never available during the day. Robby was dead. Or Undead. It was all rather confusing.
She'd caught him drinking something in the villa on Patmos. She'd thought it was a glass of wine, but now she knew better. It must have been blood.
She groaned. She didn't want to think about vampires anymore. She grabbed the remote control to access the movie channel on the television. Tonight's feature was...a vampire movie. Great. She flipped the channel to HBO. A vampire series was showing. She switched to the History Channel. A documentary on the history of...vampires.
"Dammit!" She turned the television off and sprawled across the bed. It was a conspiracy.
A knock sounded at her door, and she sat up with a jerk. Please don't be Robby. She couldn't handle that yet.
"Liv, it's me!" J.L. yelled. "I've got pizza!"
Like she really wanted food after an evening of dead bodies and shocking revelations. But she didn't want to be alone. "Just a minute." She checked her long flannel pajama bottoms and baggy sweatshirt and decided she was decent enough. She opened the door.
"How's it going?" J.L. strode inside, his arms loaded down with a pizza box and a plastic bag of food. He set it all on the table by the window. "Come on, let's party."
She shut the door and locked it. "What's there to party about?"
He reached inside the bag, grabbed a diet cola and passed it to her. "We're still alive. That's something."
She unscrewed the top off the bottle. "I suppose."
"Yeah. Could be worse." He opened a cola and drank a few gulps. "We could be dead."
"Or Undead," she muttered, and sat in one of the two chairs that flanked the table.
"And guess what?" J.L. opened the pizza box. "Harrison drove all the way back to Kansas City, so we don't have to share our food with him. Isn't that a lucky break?"
"What's he doing in Kansas City?"
J.L. selected a pizza slice, then sat in the other chair to eat. "Barker called him at his home, and he doesn't even remember coming here. He knows nothing about this assignment. Isn't that weird?"
Olivia sipped from her bottle. "How did that happen?"
"The vampires zapped him with some mind control." J.L. took a big bite of pizza.
She frowned, recalling how frustrating it had felt when Whelan had controlled her mind. "What about the guy from the CIA? He tried to control my mind and make me leave."
J.L. nodded with his mouth full. "The CIA guys are members of the Stake-Out team. Robby told us about them. They have psychic power so they can resist vampire mind control."
"When did Robby tell you that?"
