Chapter 34
34
A fter taking an Uber to stop by Cole’s condo building to get his car, Vanessa and Cole arrived at Scanguards’ headquarters at the same time as many of her colleagues. Everybody headed for the large conference room, piling into it until there was only standing room left. Several of her colleagues eyed Cole, and she put her hand into his to indicate that he was with her. Vanessa caught her father’s look, and she could see his question in his facial expression. She nodded in his direction, letting him know that she’d told Cole the truth that they were all vampires. A quick smile played around Gabriel’s mouth, before he turned back to exchange a few quiet words with Samson.
While they waited for the meeting to begin, Vanessa pointed out to Cole who some of the assembled staff members were. She would introduce him later to some of her friends and colleagues who hadn’t met him personally yet, though she was sure that the news that she’d found her mate had already spread among them like wildfire. Nothing remained a secret in their society for very long.
Slowly, the conversations in the room quieted, and Thomas stepped forward to the lectern. He cleared his throat.
“Thank you all for coming,” he started.
Vanessa couldn’t help but notice that he looked a lot more earnest, if not downright upset, when he cast his gaze at the assembled staff members.
“The reason I’m speaking to you first, is because I’m the reason for the mess we’re in.”
Surprised gasps and murmurs bounced around the room.
“Had I made a different decision, a better decision, 37 years ago, none of this would have happened.”
“Thomas,” Samson interrupted.
“No, Samson, it has to be said. It’s my fault. And I take full responsibility for it.”
He tapped on a mouse, and turned sideways so that everybody could look at the picture on the large screen behind him. “This is Milo. He was my boyfriend back then. Thirty-seven years ago, he and his sister Ilona tried to rob Samson and Scanguards of all their funds. We foiled their plan, and killed Ilona, but I made the mistake of letting Milo live.”
More whispers traveled through the crowd, and Vanessa listened attentively. She’d never heard anybody talk of Milo.
“Milo is back. He’s the vampire who’s been turning incels into vampires and letting them loose on the city to wreak havoc among the human population. We can only assume that he’s back to take his revenge, not just for us killing his sister, but also for thwarting his plan to rob Scanguards.”
Thomas nodded at Samson, and stepped away from the lectern. Vanessa watched him as he walked to Eddie, his blood-bonded mate, who put his hand on Thomas’s arm, squeezing it, while he gave him an encouraging look.
Samson took his place at the lectern, continuing where Thomas had left off.
“I want you all to memorize this photo. It’s also being sent to your cell phones, so you can refresh your memory when you’re out in the field canvassing the neighborhoods. It has taken Milo 37 years to return. That means he’s had plenty of time to come up with a plan. Gabriel and I talked about this earlier, and we don’t think that turning incels is the only part of his plan. We have to assume, that he’s also turning other people, but in the absence of any other leads, we’ll need to start with what we know.”
Samson gave a nod in Gabriel’s direction, who now approached.
“Our first order of business is to find Milo,” Gabriel announced. “This will be mostly in the hands of our IT staff, who will comb through CCTV footage and traffic cams, trying to find Milo. We’ll run facial recognition, and have asked every IT staff member to report for duty. We believe that he’s holed up somewhere in the city to watch his plan unfold, and see the city descend into chaos, when more and more humans are being attacked. There’ll be a panic when this happens.”
“While the IT staff is busy with this,” Samson said, taking over from Gabriel, “our second priority is to pick up all the incels. Unfortunately, tonight our teams didn’t have much luck, since most of them were out, most likely hunting for blood. That’s why we’ll do it differently this time.”
Samson let his gaze sweep over the assembled vampires and hybrids. “The hybrids will be teamed up, and they will go to the incels’ homes during the daytime. They won’t expect you to come, thinking they are safe in their homes during daylight. We think that most of them don’t even know about hybrids, and aren’t aware that they can brave the sunlight. This will give us the advantage. You’ll take the blackout vans and all equipment necessary to get the newly-turned vampires into the vans and transport them back to HQ. We’ll be locking them up here for now.”
“How about the incels that haven’t been turned yet?” Benjamin asked.
“They will also need to be brought in, since they are at risk of being turned. We don’t want to give Milo any more easy targets.”
“But won’t that show our hand?” Cole asked, lifting his hand. “I mean, won’t that give away that we know what he’s up to?”
Samson pointed to Cole. “Everybody, this is Cole. He’s Vanessa’s mate.”
Some of the vampires turned to Cole to look at him, before Samson continued, “That’s a good point, Cole. The fact is that by showing Milo that we’re onto him, we’re forcing his hand. He’ll have to do something that he might not be ready for, so he might make a mistake. In any case, it will give us a better chance of finding him. And by locking up the incels, we’re not only making the streets safer, we’re also in a better position to get information out of the incels. One or more of them will have seen Milo’s car, or where he came from. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a good lead as to where he’s hiding. And then we’ll come down on him with everything we’ve got.”
Vanessa understood what Samson was saying. Milo wouldn’t get out of this alive. She glanced at Thomas, and noticed that his jaw looked tight and his body rigid. Guilt and regret rolled off him in waves.
Her attention snapped back to the lectern, where Gabriel now cleared his voice.
“There are still ten incels we haven’t captured or killed,” he started. “Quinn and I put a list together of who’s assigned to which incel. Each team will consist of two hybrids. Grayson, Monique, and her two brothers are on their way here from New Orleans. Virginia is bringing them through the portal shortly.”
Vanessa felt Cole tug at her arm.
“Portal?” he asked, his brow furrowing.
“I’ll explain later,” she whispered.
“Unfortunately, since we only have sixteen hybrids available, it means that the teams that bring in their incels first, will be sent out again to bring in remaining ones.”
“Can’t we just go in alone?” Ethan asked. “It really wasn’t hard to snatch Mike Harris. He was totally hapless.”
Gabriel instantly shook his head. “Out of the question. Nobody goes in alone. We can’t take the risk.”
Vanessa noticed how her brother let out a breath, but he didn’t protest, even though she could tell that he wanted to.
Gabriel lifted several sheets of paper for everybody to see. “You can find your partner on these sheets together with the corresponding incel with his photo and home address. Sunrise is at six forty-seven. Get yourselves ready to go in at seven a.m. sharp. Make sure you’re armed. Quinn will assign you your vans, and Amaury, Haven, and Yvette will help you equip them with everything you need.”
Vanessa looked at the clock on the wall. They had a little over an hour until they needed to leave HQ.
“Once you’re outside the incels’ homes, send a message to the command center so we know you’re in place,” Gabriel added. “Be safe out there.”
Everybody began talking at the same time, while some of the hybrids already headed for Gabriel to pick up their assignments.
Cole put his hand on her arm. “I’m coming with you.”
Vanessa automatically shook her head. “You can’t. This is a mission for the hybrids only. It’s too dangerous for you.”
“But I can’t let you go out there unprotected. What if you get hurt?”
Patrick interrupted them, “Don’t worry, bro, I’ll make sure she doesn’t get hurt.” Then he looked at Vanessa. “You’re on my team.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes at Patrick. “Yeah, and I’ll make sure you won’t get hurt.”
She reached for the piece of paper and looked at the information and the incel’s photo. “This is our incel: Jeff Cramer. Five foot six and a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet?” She made a dismissive hand movement. “Easy-peasy.”
Cole looked over her shoulder at the paper. “Yeah, but he’s a vampire. The one that attacked me wasn’t much bigger.”
She could hear the worry in Cole’s voice, and took his arm. “Give us a moment, Patrick.” She brought her face closer to Cole’s, and lowered her voice, though she was sure that some of the people in the room would still be able to hear their conversation.
“Please, Cole, trust me on this. I can handle myself. You know it. You’ve seen it. And Patrick is a strong guy. And we both are as well trained as anyone at Scanguards. We’ve got this. I don’t want you anywhere near this mission. I would only have to worry about you, and that would take my focus off the task at hand. And when I lose focus, things go wrong.”
She noticed Cole take a deep breath. At first, it looked like he wanted to protest again, but then he nodded. “All right. Be careful out there.”
Before she knew what he wanted to do, his lips were on hers, and he kissed her with the same passion as he’d showered her with when they’d made love earlier.