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“A good number of the bikers drive older vehicles, and Angelica has that cute little MG she restored as a teen.”
“When I talk to Brain, I’m going to see what he has to say about hardening a vehicle. Adding firewalls or something.” Between Brain, Harmony, and McGyver, I felt certain they’d come up with a solution, but I wished Eric was still here. He’d moved to Alaska with Kendra, but he was also Ranger’s nephew, and it was just one more way Ranger and his little foursome tied all the groups together. If we needed him, Ranger could probably pull him in, but I wasn’t ready to push that button yet.
Marco’s suite at Homewood was set up with a desk that had an extra computer monitor on it, so he could plug it into his laptop and have dual screens while he worked. There was also a hub he could plug into, so he could use a full-sized keyboard and mouse. I made sure he had everything hooked up and working, and then smiled when he also connected to the television on the wall ten feet away. I’d set the room up so he could do exactly what he did – put Patience on video chat on half the television, with views of various security cameras showing on the other half, while he worked on the two video monitors.
He seemed fine, set up with his own little control room in the bowels of Homewood, so I went to our control room and sat beside Nathan, who was scrolling through the cams around our grounds while talking to Chance, one of the Drake hackers.
From what I could gather of the conversation, with the car’s circuits trashed due to the EMP, there wasn’t much of anything to find. I’d figured as much, but it was still disappointing.
When he disconnected the call, I told him, “I’m glad I had the EMP device. Marco’s original thought was for me to telepath Kirsten and have her teleport us out, but we were traveling well over one hundred and fifty miles per hour on a little curvy road with ruts and potholes, so I got us stopped the fastest way possible.”
“By the time you explained the problem and what you needed her to do, it’s highly likely you’d have slammed into a tree at those speeds. The hack they pulled off would let them control steering as well, they just hadn’t gotten to that yet. Or, they wanted to see how good vampire reflexes really are when driving an out-of-control car? I don’t know, but you made the right call.”
“I agree, and thank you again for letting me hang onto the EMP device. I’ve told my people if they absolutely have to drive, to crash into something the very instant their car starts speeding up on its own. Is there a better option I’m missing?”
He shook his head. “Bash texted me with an idea he says Angelica came up with — an emergency override switch. She says it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to rig something up to keep the fuel from making it to the engine – fry the chip that controls that process, or disable the fuel pump somehow. If you wire that process, whatever the car-guys decide on, to a button on the dash, you’ll be able to kill the car even if hackers take control. You’d have to replace the chip or the fuel pump or whatever they decide to disable, but that’s a helluva lot cheaper than replacing the whole car, and that brand new nearly two-hundred-thousand-dollar Maserati Levante Trofeo is toast. The body panels, seats, that kind of thing can be salvaged, but for my purposes, it’ll be best if it’s burned, so no one goes snooping and realizes an EMP took it out.”
“Then I’ll get with Marco and make it happen. The disabling switch — is that something the bikers can handle in their shop? Retrofitting all our vehicles with a kill switch?”
“That’s the idea. Angelica and Harmony are working with Bash on the best implementation. I have some concerns about everyone jumping to the conclusion this was a hit on Marco. It’s possible you were the target. You’d be much more likely to take on a fatal injury from the crash than Marco.”
I nodded, because I’d had the same thoughts. “Or it’s possible they liked the idea of getting two birds with one stone. I know the possibility of us becoming a ruling couple has some people wary.”
Chapter 4
Marco
I didn’t want Etta to do this, but she was right that we were probably out of options.
Her former masters had put a leash on information they didn’t want her sharing. I’d been in her head to look, and there were barbs around her brainstem. If she told me whatever they’d forbidden, she risked killing herself.
But here she was, on her knees, blood pouring from every orifice while she forced the words out.
“Vampire wear skin. Walk sun. Eat…”
I bathed her in my energy, but I couldn’t heal her as fast as the damage happened. Etta leaned forward and wrapped her hand around my ankle at the same time Cora completely opened herself to me, and I was suddenly a conduit for the energy of more than twenty thousand werewolves.
The magic took over, and the room swam for a second as the power of three kicked in — Cora, Etta, and myself in a vortex of power, and I felt the protocol placed on Etta snap. If I felt it, it should’ve debilitated her, but she sat up, her eyes clear, though I sensed how much that snap had hurt.
Quick, before it could reform, she said, “They’re making a skin so vampires can walk in the day and eat food.”
I wasn’t pleased that Ryan was present to witness this, but I understood why Etta hadn’t asked him to leave. We’d been having a monthly meeting of my top people, and I’d invited Ryan into most of those meetings since we arrived in town. Abbott started the experiment, showing the slayer we have nothing to hide, and I was continuing it because it felt like doing otherwise would send the wrong message. I telepathed Venom and asked him to call Andreas, his lion-shifter submissive boyfriend, to the office as a blood tribute. Venom was seated across from me, watching, so he understood the urgency without my having to tell him.
Everyone in the room sat in silence a few seconds, waiting to see if the protocol fixed itself inside Etta. When it didn’t, she continued. “Wolves can be tigers or bears, and…” She shook her head, clearly frustrated, and continued. “Imagine a lion shifter with the focus and strategy of a big cat, wearing a skin that gives him the size and deadliness of a giant honey badger.”
The blood flowing from her ears, nose, and eyes had slowed, but hadn’t stopped yet. I checked in on Andreas and saw he was approaching the office at a full run. “Anything else?” I asked Etta.
“I have no specifics. I only picked up on the big details. It was why they didn’t want to sell me to you, but you offered so much money, they found a way to send me away in perceived safety.”
The door opened and Andreas stepped in. Seconds later, he’d lifted Etta and was holding her so she could drink from his neck, but Etta didn’t strike until Venom told her, “Drink in the bounty of that which is mine, dear Etta. Fear and blood. Take what you need.”
When she’d sated herself on the young lion, she ordered him to put her down, thanked Venom, and then turned to Ryan, clearly unsure of how the slayer would react.
I tensed when Ryan stood, but thankfully, the slayer merely pulled my Etta into his arms while berating her about putting her life at risk.
Andreas left, and I checked in on his memories to make sure Venom had removed what Andreas shouldn’t remember — and was pleased to see a memory of being called upstairs to give his vampire a blowjob that had turned messy, so he’d been sent back downstairs to shower, change, and order whatever delivery he wanted on Venom’s credit card. He would see the mess without noticing the blood, when he disrobed. Venom was always quick to say he wasn’t in love with his lion, but it was clear he truly cared for the young man.
Meanwhile, now Ryan was as bloody as Etta, and she was trying to push him away while he told her, “Not the first time I’ve had someone else’s blood on me, probably won’t be the last.” He was smiling at her, but his face grew more serious when he looked past Etta to me. “I can’t remember ever feeling so much power in a room, and I’ve been around some big workings. You’ve been holding out.”
