Page 30 of Countdown to Murder
“Don’t leave a guard at the cabin. We need to trap him, and that’s easiest to do once he’s in the tunnels.”
“Copy that. Control, please make sure Aaron Drake knows the current status, and tell him I need ten minutes on a secure line with him once he’s brought up to speed.”
“Hypothetically speaking,” I asked Aaron twenty minutes later, “if a vampire could do the old smoke-under-the-door myth, would that mean he could grab someone, turn them to smoke as well, and abscond with them?”
“Unfortunately, I believe that would be the case. Do you have reason to believe this vampire can do that?”
“Based on where he’s managed to put those damned flowers...” I sighed. “Nothing else makes sense.”
“If he’s coming in as mist, then the flower bouquet answers the question. Whatever he’s holding, he can turn to mist. When he puts it down, it returns to its original form.”
Mist. The same wording Mira had used. Aaron was bound by the same people Mira was, and likely knew most of the same secrets, but they couldn’t tell us. Frustrating, but I understood. I had a lot of things I wanted to tell Mira, but couldn’t.
“The moisture sensors didn’t pick anything up on the latest incursion?” he asked.
“They went off a second after the bouquet was in place. Not helpful.”
He sighed. “Right. I’m going to have some particle sensors delivered, but it’ll take about two hours to get them to you, and all they’ll do is let you know he’s in the vicinity. Whoever he’s closest to when he materializes is probably going to die. Everyone needs to physically keep their back to the wall, so he’ll at least have to come in from the side or front.” He paused a few seconds and added, “More people won’t help, unfortunately. You have enough people to handle him, but we’re probably going to lose some of you. I’ll contact the local Master Vampire and see if he’s willing to help, but my guess is he’ll be happy to let us deal with the problem.”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“Yeah. Just knocking her out might not be enough. He can still get in her head, and can possibly hear what’s being said around her.”
“Mira warned us about that, but it’s good to hear it from you, too.”
“How is she working out?”
“Better than anyone else on their first job ever has.”
“Good. She’ll be a true asset if we can keep her.”
If we can keep her.Did he know she was on lease from the Concilio?
I’d have to talk to Aaron about it later. Now, we had a human to protect from an ancient vampire who terrified her. Ella MacKenna had told Ember to kill her rather than let Andreason take her. That spoke to just how badly the bastard scared her, and no way was I going to let him get her.
We moved her into the first-floor media room — an interior room with no windows. We put seven men in the room, and we used plastic to seal the door. She was unconscious, and the men knew not to mention the fact she was in there, on the off chance the vampire could monitor what she was hearing while she slept.
Chapter Sixteen
Mira
Someone told me that security work is ninety percent boring, five percent cool toys, and five percent fight-for-your-life.
I hadn’t seen that last five percent yet, but so far, I figured they probably weren’t far off. I’d learned sniper tricks for staying focused, and I’d adjusted them over the years when I’d needed to watch a target for a day or two to figure out the best way to take them out. Surveillance is boring, but it’s okay to look away a few seconds while they’re eating or watching television.
It wasn’t okay to allow my mind to drift for even a few seconds while I was guarding someone’s life, though.
None of the doors in the saferoom suite could be opened from outside the suite. However, the seals around the door leading to the cave system and the tunnel to the cabin weren’t airtight. It made sense — the builders used it as a way to get fresh air into the suite. Nuclear falloutwouldn’t make it into the cave system or the tunnel, and neither would anything chemical or biological used in warfare.
We’d put up three red lasers, shining so we’d hopefully see extra particles coming in around the door in time to react. Alarms were supposed to sound if more particles were present, but I trusted my eyes more than the alarms.
I was standing with my back against a wall, and I knew for certain what was on the other side of the wall — four inches of concrete and a steel plate, protecting the saferoom suite even if the mansion burned to the ground.
Panda was to my left, in lion form. He hadn’t shared his reasons, but if he’d figured out the misting ability, and I thought he had, then he was probably hoping the vampire would have trouble vaporizing a seven-hundred-pound lion who was eating him. He was right, of course. Most vampires are limited to turning just under twice their body mass into mist, meaning this bastard would have no problems absconding with the client, but wouldn’t have a shot of carrying Panda in either his human or lion form.
But I had no way to get that information to him, so we’d had to move some furniture out of the way to give everyone room when we included the biggest lion I’d ever seen.
I’d been clear that I would have a better chance of killing this bastard than even a full-sized lion would have.I’d also made sure everyone was aware we had to decapitate him or pulverize his heart with silver, and preferably both. Even then, I was advocating we burn him and spread the ashes in different places, just to be sure. I’ve seen decapitatedold-onesbrought back and manage to grow their fucking head back on, and I’ve seen them brought in with silver in their heart and still reanimate and heal. They need help from another strong vampire, but I had a feeling this bastard was rich enough to buy anything, and that included other powerful vampires.
