"I know how this happened," I looked around at the devastation. It wasn't as good as what I could do, but it was impressive anyway.
"Lissa, what else can you do?" Gavin gave me his best, longest suffering tone.
"Uh, blow things up with my mist," I hung my head. "I told Franklin and Greg, but Merrill had other things on his mind right after I got back from Refizan. He wasn't paying attention when I mentioned it."
"What did you blow up?" Gavin frowned deeply, his brows drawn together with worry. He never showed this much emotion. Never.
"A temple."
"How big was this temple?" Bill asked.
"Pretty big," I was staring at my feet. "If I'd used everything I had, this store would have been scattered for a mile, I think." I looked up into Gavin's concerned face.
"Lissa, you frighten me at times," Gavin said.
"So, now we have the how, we just don't have the why," Bill said.
"What is the other lead?" Tony asked. I ignored him—didn't feel up to talking to him at the moment. His and Frazier's faux pas was getting us deeper into trouble as time went on. We climbed into the van and drove to the second crime scene.
"Hafer was here, with the other vampire," I said, sniffing around the second convenience store. At least it was still intact. This clerk was also dead; his blood still permeated the front of the store. The DVR disc was missing here, just as it was in the last place. "Why are they hitting convenience stores?" I couldn't figure this out at all. If the humans were hungry, there were vending stands up and down the street. "Was this one robbed?" I walked over to Bill.
"It was," Bill nodded. "But we think that's just a cover."
"What if it isn't?" I asked. "What if they can't get cash or money some other way without robbing someone?"
Gavin had his phone in his hand so fast I never saw him reach for it. Charles was on the other end in seconds.
"Have any accounts been frozen recently?" Gavin asked curtly.
"We got a few names from the shapeshifter," Charles replied. "The Honored One had me freeze their assets."
"I think we are tracking them now; they have killed in the course of a robbery," Gavin informed Charles. Wlodek must have been standing at Charles's elbow listening in, because he was on the phone immediately.
"What is happening?" Wlodek demanded. Gavin gave a report, including information on the kidnappings of Larry Frazier and Admiral Hafer, as well as the unwelcome news that Larry still had some of my blood and that he'd given it to at least one of the vampires to duplicate my talents. Wlodek cursed when Gavin informed him that I could make things explode with my mist.
"Remind me to have a talk with my child when you bring her home," Wlodek muttered angrily. Great. Something to look forward to. My life wouldn't be complete unless I was in trouble with somebody.
Wlodek provided three names he'd gotten from Angelo—Rafael Rivera, Alphonse Bouvier and Cyrus Falcone. All three vampires' accounts had been frozen by the Council. I figured the vampire that had blown up the first convenience store had been pretty pissed about something. He may have discovered the exploding talent by accident, but he certainly had a weapon in his hands now, as long as Larry could keep supplying him with my blood. The questions were, what would they choose to destroy with that talent and how much of my blood did they have left?
"Why didn't I know about all these things you can do?" Winkler quizzed me later as we walked toward the van.
"I've learned these things as I went along," I wanted to elbow him in the ribs. It made me worry over what might have happened if I'd known all this from the beginning. Would Winkler or Weldon have tried to control my talents? I still didn't know what the Council's intentions were toward me. They already had designs on Tony; I could see that from a mile away. What did they want from me? Would they take advantage of my youth as a vampire to get me to do as much for them as they could?
"Lissa, you have the biggest frown on your face," Tony said as he opened the van door for me.
"Just thinking," I muttered, climbing inside and scooting over on the bench seat so Gavin could slide in beside me. I wanted to yell at Tony. I didn't. That wouldn't solve anything, and both of us would feel worse afterward. We needed clear heads to deal with this problem.
"Lissa, I do not think Wlodek will be overly harsh," Gavin said. He was thinking back to Wlodek's words when he'd spilled the beans about my exploding mist trick.
"You two may be like this," I held up a hand with fingers crossed, "but he wants to yell at me every chance he gets." Winkler crawled in on Gavin's other side and closed the door, Tony and René loaded into the third row. Bill was in the front passenger seat and our driver, who'd waited for us inside the van, put the vehicle in gear and drove us back to our hotel.
"Lissa, you should eat and then try to sleep," Gavin said when we reached our room. René was schooling Tony with the hours of night remaining.
"What are you planning to do?" I asked.
"I will assist René," Gavin replied. I waited until he left the room before misting into Roff and Michael's room. Roff murmured sleepily when I lay down beside him, pulling my head onto his shoulder and falling asleep again quickly.
* * *
"Her blood does this?" Xenides hadn't felt like laughing with glee in a very long time. Some of the talents that Lissa bore were more than extraordinary. He would keep her alive and under his thumb for this latest reason alone. He'd intended to keep draining her blood for other reasons, once she was his, but this—no other vampire had ever been able to do these things. Xenides had always envied the misters—all he had was mindspeech. With the little princess's blood, however, he could destroy anyone and anything.
"And the effects lasted for nearly half an hour," Rafael said. "More than enough time to do anything one might wish to do. It was a stroke of genius, my sire, to take Frazier. He gave us additional information we did not have before." Rafael had no talents in misting, mindspeech or any other thing that might have made him special. For half an hour the previous evening, however, he'd been able to fly as invisible mist and had destroyed the convenience store when the clerk pulled a gun on his human puppet. He wanted that exhilaration again and was thinking of demanding the solution from the Frazier human. Rafael had to rein himself in; he realized they might need every bit of blood left to accomplish their goals for Xenides.
"How much of her blood remains?" Xenides asked, causing Rafael to start and grip his cell phone tightly.
"Only five vials," Rafael admitted reluctantly.
"Then do not use any more for frivolous activities. I will see that you have a credit card to use quickly. No more robberies. You may be detected, and we cannot risk this. And I want two vials of her blood sent to me. Make sure it is packed safely and securely."
"Of course. The package will be sent tomorrow, sire," Rafael felt chastened. "We have enough money to feed the humans and enough blood to feed us. It is fortunate the older human had an apartment that does not appear on any of his records," Rafael smiled. "We are staying there until our mission is complete."
"Remember, if you see the little female, place compulsion immediately to do only as you instruct. I will come to retrieve her as quickly as I can."
"I will, sire," Rafael said.
Chapter 10
I dreamed of the High Demon's planet again, only this time there was a different king. The comesula was addressing him as Raoni Jaydevik. The king was handsome, with thick brown hair that curled slightly, dark eyes and a sensuous mouth. A beautiful woman with a river of platinum hair hanging down her back stood beside him.
"Glindarok, avilepha, say you will have my children when this is over," Jaydevik put his arms around the woman after the comesula left them.
"Jaydevik, if we can defeat the Ra'Ak and the rogue High Demons, I will be more than happy to have your children," the woman sighed.
I knew, though I had no idea how I knew, that she was already pregnant. Not pregnant long—perhaps a month or two—but pregnant all the same, and holding that information back from the king for some reason. And what was she saying about the Ra'Ak and rogue High Demons? That sounded like a conspiracy of some kind. Dragon told me that only the High Demons' planet survived out of all the dark worlds, because the Ra'Ak could not defeat the High Demons. Yet it seemed that some High Demons had thrown their lot in with the Ra'Ak. What had they been promised? I couldn't imagine that High Demons would ally themselves with the enemy unless they wanted something very badly.
A phrase whispered into my mind; answering my question in the dream—rule of the dark realm. Was I looking at something in the recent past or something that had yet to come into being? That question wasn't answered for me as I was shaken awake by a frowning Gavin and hauled back to our room. He grumbled softly, even as he planted kisses on my brow.
* * *
Roff woke me this time; right at ten a.m. Winkler was with him, a standard Secret Service uniform in a plastic bag slung over his shoulder.
"Rise and shine, baby. We have to get you cleaned up and ready to go before Director Bill has an aneurysm." Winkler offered a wolfish grin.
"Raona, I was upset that you left me last night," Roff grumped.
"I didn't, sir schmuck over there came and got me," I sat up on the bed, rubbing my eyes.
"Ah," Roff said, nodding slightly. He wasn't about to argue with Gavin. Most people, vampires included, wouldn't argue with Gavin if they knew what was good for them.
"This is yours," Winkler handed the dark suit and white shirt over. I showered and dressed as quickly as I could. Winkler was dressed in a nice suit and was going as a guest—go figure. His name was recognizable; I guess Vampire Queen wasn't a title one could throw about at the White House, so I was going as hired help.
"Lissa, I want you to turn to mist or whatever it is you do and scout out the place," Bill told me later while we were going through an employee entrance. The reception was being held in the Blue Room at the White House.
I saw it from above everyone's heads; some of the biggest names in computer technology were there having tea and cake with the President and the First Lady. Winkler fit right in, wouldn't you know? There wouldn't be any other vampires there; my ability to walk in daylight had been given to me by Griffin and I hadn't been able to do that when Larry Frazier took my blood. He'd never get his hands on me again—not if I had anything to say about it. The reception was a bust, as far as attacks went. The worst thing I saw was one of the guests slipping a snack into a coat pocket.
Bill was waiting for me later in a hallway near the door, after the President and First Lady had gone back to their quarters. I materialized right beside Bill. "Nothing," I told him, shaking my head.
"Yeah. It was a long shot, anyway," Bill agreed. "We still have the one at five, and the dinner at eight." I didn't get a vibe off either of those things and figured it would be unimaginative of Xenides to attack the White House again. I didn't say that to Bill, though. He had enough on his plate to worry about.
Bill and I were served a light meal in the kitchen, where Winkler found us. The second reception was held in the East Room with a handful of foreign ministers from the European Union, who also represented member nations of NATO.
