Page 50 of Blood Illusions

“Fine,” I crisply replied as I rubbed the back of my neck with my clammy hand.

Justice slipped into the seat across from me, casting his gaze over me.

I squirmed in my chair. Damon gave me a will-you-stop look.

“Please have a seat.” Tim gestured toward the chair across from him.

“Thank you,” Dr. Gould responded as he sat.

Tim turned to me and Damon. “I’m sure your boy told you this is Sawyer and Damon Grant.”

Damon leaned back, his discerning gaze fixed on Dr. Gould. “Well, Dr. Gould, ‘exchanging information’ sounds great on paper, but let’s cut to the chase. What’s your angle in all this? You say our lives depend on it, but I’ve been in this game long enough to know there’s always more to the story. Why don’t you start with the ‘why’ and we’ll see about the ‘what?’”

“Justice said you didn’t trust us?—”

“I don’t. So, tell us what gives.”

Dr. Gould looked at him with a surprisingly patient look. “Meaning what?”

Tim met Dr. Gould’s curious gaze. “You tell us what you learned, then we’ll compare. If your information matches ours, we’ll know you’re on the level.”

“And if they don’t?” Dr. Gould asked.

Damon gave him a curt smile. “Then we’ll never be friends.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

As the words hung in the air, Justice’s eyes shifted toward me. His gaze was penetrating, almost accusatory as if he was trying to peel back the layers and see the truth hidden beneath. I met his gaze head-on with defiance and a hint of vulnerability.

It was a silent standoff, each side assessing the other, a wordless exchange that raised questions and doubts without a single spoken word. In that brief look was a sense of challenge, a silent query of allegiances and truth, leaving the air thick with unspoken tension. A tension that was almost suffocating.

Dr. Gould looked at us. “All right. I will share what the PMC has discovered in our laboratory.”

Damon leaned back in his chair and gave him a there’s-no-way-I’m-going-to-believe-you look.

Dr. Gould pulled an envelope from his trench coat. “We conducted some tests on the ashes?—”

“What tests?” Damon interrupted.

Dr. Gould opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. “Solubility and heat tests. We found something strange. Something we’ve never seen with a vampire’s ashes, something unprecedented.”

I held my breath.

Tim leaned in to grab the paper, eyeing it closely. “Well, I’ll be,” he muttered under his breath. “We ran into the same freak show. This thing with the ashes turning green, smelling like death warmed over, and moving around? That’s new to you guys, too?” His voice held a note of fear.

Chills ran down my spine as I remembered the strange green ashes and the putrid smell from our test. I shivered and rubbed my arms.

Dr. Gould nodded, a grave look on his face. “Absolutely. In our world, this isn’t typical of vampires or any other creatures we’ve dealt with.”

Damon’s expression hardened, his voice edged with suspicion. “Hold up, ‘our world?’ You saying there’s more than one playground for the creepy-crawlies?”

Dr. Gould’s voice dropped to a hushed tone as he leaned forward in his chair, his fingers steepled under his chin. “According to our extensive research and the results from these rigorous tests, we have concluded these beings are not from our world, but rather from another dimension.”

Damon raised his eyebrows, a hint of incredulity in his voice mixed with a touch of his typical dry humor. “Another dimension, huh? That’s a new one on our ‘crazy things we’ve seen’ list. But hey, in our line of work, ‘impossible’ went out the window a long time ago.”

He leaned back, crossed his arms, and focused on Justice. “So, what you’re saying is we’re not dealing with your garden-variety vamps.” He scrubbed his face. “We’ve got interdimensional bloodsuckers on our hands. Great. Just when I thought our job couldn’t get any weirder.”

Tim’s eyes widened. “How is that possible? Who has the juice to open a portal to another dimension?”

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