A Secret to Die For (Secret McQueen) (6 page)

“Oh?”

I explained to them what Keaty had told me, trying to limit my use of the phrase necromancer but failing terribly. There wasn’t much sense in downplaying the paranormal aspects just because O’Brian was with us. He’d witnessed the dead rise and take to the streets tonight. There was a good chance he believed in the supernatural now.

Most people were going to need to reassess their understanding of the world after tonight. Now they would know the truth. Ghost stories weren’t just stories, and the things that went bump in the night were no longer figments of their imagination.

The world was going to be a different place when this was all said and done.

I had to give O’Brian credit. He took the whole thing pretty well, considering what we’d told him. He nodded a lot and didn’t ask too many questions, which was what I liked in authority figures.

“Where’s Owen?” I asked Cedes, hoping her boyfriend was somewhere safe if he wasn’t with her here.

“He and your cat are holed up at my apartment. The alley gate makes it more secure than a lot of other options.”

While I was relieved to hear Owen was okay, I was even more pleased to hear Rio, my cat, was being cared for. I’d left her in Mercedes’s care when I went to Paris and Manitoba, and I hadn’t realized until that moment how worried I’d been about the stupid white fur ball. If I ever saw her again, I would give her the best canned food every day for the rest of her life.

Brigit had given Rio to me, and the cat was a constant reminder of my lost friend. If I didn’t have Rio, a very large memory of Brigit would be gone along with her. Stupid, but there it was.

I loved that cat.

“If we have a chance, we can go get him,” I offered.

Cedes shook her head. “No. He’ll be better off where he is, as long as he doesn’t try to do anything too heroic. I think I’d rather have one fewer person to worry about.”

I got her logic completely. If I could have spared the manpower, I would have preferred that none of my loved ones were out on the streets tonight. Unfortunately I couldn’t tackle this situation on my own, and I’d take helping hands where I could find them. But I wouldn’t endanger anyone against their will. Owen would stay put, and I’d make sure his girlfriend came home to him when this ordeal was over.

“So what’s the plan then?” O’Brian barked.

I liked him more and more the longer I was with him, but I wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good idea to include him. But, then again, what was the harm at this point? My own personal secret was already out among the paranormal community, and now that entire community was at risk of being exposed. What did one more human knowing the truth matter?

He was good with a gun and he was willing to join us, two big pros on his side. My only concern was that when the time came to kill the necros, would he be willing to bring down a mortal if he had to?

But I was getting ahead of myself.

“We’re going hunting. But first we need to find my dad.”

Chapter Eight

I don’t know if it was because of the extra manpower or because we’d gotten accustomed to the new order of the streets, but it seemed to take a lot less time to reach Chelsea than it had to get to the police station.

We’d waited for Tyler to return, but there hadn’t been any opportunities for him and me to have alone time where we could discuss what the FBI might be doing to help. I didn’t think he’d appreciate me outing him to Cedes and O’Brian, and I wasn’t ready to answer all the questions she would have. Even Desmond had looked at me funny when I’d announced my job over the police radio earlier, but he hadn’t pushed for details. Which was good, because it was a long story to say the least.

Too long to get into in our current situation.

But, hey, he and I were getting married. We’d have plenty of time to discuss my secret role in the FBI later.

Now there were six of us instead of three, and all of our new members were gun-trained and armed. O’Brian had opened up the precinct’s gun locker and supplied Tyler, Cedes and himself with semiautomatic SWAT rifles and a ton of extra clips.

“I didn’t think your building had a SWAT unit,” I mentioned to Cedes, admiring her new weapon.

“We don’t. Most of the stuff in that locker is obsolete for daily use, but we keep it around in case of emergencies. Guess this counts.” Her smile said she was trying to make a joke, but her voice was gravelly and tired.

Our conversation was cut short by approaching voices from the opposite end of the street. Through the cloak of darkness it was difficult to see who was coming our way, but if they were talking, it meant they were alive.

We moved off the street and onto the sidewalk, preparing to hunker down for a surprise attack, when a voice rang out. “If you’re going to hide, it’s smarter to do it before a vampire spots you.”

The familiar accent, just slightly British, made my stomach feel warm and wobbly. “Holden?” What the hell were they doing here?

“You’re in our grid, dummy.”

“This is ridiculous,” Keaty grumbled.

I waved forward the rest of my group, and we gathered in the street to meet the other team. “You’ve been busy,” Holden observed. “Except none of them are vampires. Detective Castilla. Tyler.” He nodded to them each in turn, and they both politely acknowledged him. Tyler and Holden had a tense history that went back years and began during a blind date I’d shared with the detective. Ever since then, and for good reason, Tyler had never completely trusted Holden. Mercedes, likewise, had her doubts about him, but she’d let her vampire hatred fade a lot since discovering I was part vamp.

“Sorry. Did he say vampire?” O’Brian asked.

“He did.” I holstered my gun, and the others followed suit, all but O’Brian who clearly hadn’t quite caught up to speed yet. It was a lot to take in in one night.

“A vampire,” he said.

I smiled at him, mustering as much patience as I could, then pointed to Holden. “Vampire.” I moved on to Desmond and Genie. “Werewolves.” Then I pointed to myself. “Both.”

“What?” Genie said, her eyes bulging. Oh, right, she hadn’t known all the details yet. Shit.

“Glad I’m not the only confused one,” the detective sergeant concluded.

“Can we all agree, for now, it’s best we take everything at face value tonight and not ask too many questions? We’re going to see a lot of weird stuff. We can’t constantly stop to be amazed by it.”

“But—” Genie wasn’t ready to let my revelation go, but I waved off her question.

“I promise when this is over, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, but right now we have bigger fish to fry.”

“Secret is absolutely correct,” Keaty said. Within our motley gang, he and O’Brian were the most out of place. Both men were over forty, though Keaty wore his age better, and both looked like accountants who had strapped on holsters. Holden, who was the only other member of our party in a suit, looked as if he’d been born wearing Armani.

Beyond my friends there were two others lurking hesitantly in the dusk. “Who did you find?”

“Considering we followed through with the plan, I brought you some wardens,” Holden said pointedly, as he waved the two newcomers forwards. He had found a male and female vampire who both appeared to be young, but the smell of their power put them closer to a hundred years or more each. She still had the youthful glow of a teenager, maybe sixteen, and had white-blonde hair cut in an edgy pixie, her bangs brushed across one eye. He was Native American, wearing jeans and a faded Ramones T-shirt. I recognized the woman, though I couldn’t place where from, and the young man was unfamiliar to me.

“Holden told you what we’re planning to do?” I asked.

The young man spoke first. “He said we were being called on by the command of a Tribunal Leader. He wasn’t specific as to why, but I didn’t ask questions.”

Good little warden, toeing the line. “What’s your name?”

“Reggie.”

“And you?” I asked the girl.

When she spoke, I remembered her immediately. So did Nolan, apparently, because he was keeping his distance from her. Her voice had a sweet, charming Southern accent to it that made me imagine sipping sweet tea on a plantation porch. “I’m Clementine.”

Of course.

Clementine’s voice also had power to it, more power than her age let on. She was only a hundred and fifty or so, but she
felt
much older. She was the kind of vampire who had special abilities, much like Sig, and the older she got the stronger she would become. Considering her power crawled over my skin like a swarm of wasps, I was afraid of what she might become in a few more centuries.

I’d only met Clementine once before, and Nolan had been with me that evening. She was the gatekeeper of a vampire club called Havana, and her gift had struck me as special even then.

She’d come with Holden because she wanted to, not because she’d felt compelled.

“The two of you ever dealt with a necromancer before?” I asked.

Reggie shook his head, but Clementine smiled, her wide green eyes gleaming in the dark. “Oh, yes.”

“I take it that means you’ve killed one before.”

“They tickle you from the inside while you drain them. The blood stirs something fierce, like whiskey. They’re delightful fun.”

I was glad I’d explained to the cops about necromancers back at the station. It kept the unwelcome questions to a minimum. Clementine’s answer gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I welcomed her presence. She might make me uneasy, but she could obviously handle herself. Reggie I wasn’t sure about, but he seemed strong enough, and he could use his undead senses to guide us to the necros. So now we had help.

“We have to get my dad. I don’t trust him to stay in the apartment when there’s no power, and he needs to be monitored.”

“Are you worried he might…?” Desmond’s voice drifted off, unable to finish his thought, but we all managed to finish it for him. Was I worried he might kill someone.

Sutherland Halliston was insane. Not in the fun supervillain kind of way, either. He was crazy like people who had been lobotomized were crazy, all thanks to his sire, Theo, who had done everything wrong when changing him over. Sutherland had been kept under the watchful eye of the West Coast Tribunal until I realized one of their ranks—the aforementioned Arturo—had it in for me. Since my father was no longer safe, I’d brought him back to New York to be under my protection.

Except now he didn’t have other vampires watching him constantly and was living on his own for the first time. He hadn’t attacked a human yet, but I didn’t know what he would do without television and guests to distract him. Thankfully if he did take to the streets, there weren’t a lot of humans running around for him to assault, but it didn’t mean I wanted to take the risk. If he killed someone, his life could pay the forfeit, and I’d never forgive myself.

“I don’t think he’ll hurt anyone,” I said, almost convincingly. “I’m more worried he’ll endanger himself.”

If anyone was going to argue against my plan, it would be Keaty, which was why I’d hoped I could get to Sutherland before I met up with their group again. But to my great relief he said nothing. I don’t know if he agreed with what I was doing, but if he wasn’t going to try to persuade me otherwise, we would all get along fine.

Now numbering eleven, we moved through the streets with more confidence. Clementine seemed to be having the time of her life. She skipped ahead of us, opening abandoned cars and rummaging through people’s things.

“Ooooh, look at this. This MAC lip gloss has been discontinued for ages.” She swiped the bright pink hue across her lips and made a satisfied smacking sound.

“Clementine, we’re not here to shop.”

“I’m not shopping. I’m stealing.” She slipped the gloss into her jeans pocket.

There was no sense in fighting stupid battles when we were about to go to war. If she wanted to take used makeup, let her. At this point, I honestly didn’t care.

We arrived at my father’s apartment complex to find the door had been locked by some intrepid soul within who thought that would be enough to keep the monsters at bay. It might have worked against the risen, since dead fingers weren’t very adept at picking locks.

Too bad I didn’t have the patience to pick it.

I withdrew my gun and shot the door, fracturing the lock. Keaty gave me an unimpressed glare and I shrugged, keeping my weapon out in case we ran into any gun-happy residents inside. “What?”

“Thanks to your signal, I think we ought to keep some people down here in case someone comes to investigate.”

“The dead, you mean? We don’t know how finely tuned their senses are when it comes to sound.”

“No better way to find out than to shoot a door, hmm? Were you out of flares?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but I did feel guilty. I should have known better than to act in such a rash manner. “Too late to do anything about it now.”

He was right about leaving people downstairs, though, since this was nothing more than a snatch-and-grab mission. I didn’t need a gaggle of relative strangers coming with me to collect Sutherland. He was likely going to find this situation upsetting as it was, considering what he’d gone through with The Doctor—much like Holden and I had. But he hadn’t been sane to start with, so going through hell hadn’t
made
him crazy.

It just hadn’t helped make any improvements.

Sutherland hadn’t met Desmond yet, and this didn’t seem like the ideal time to introduce my eternally teenage father to his future werewolf son-in-law. “Holden, will you come with me? Everyone else can stay.”

Though he might have been hurt, in typical Desmond fashion he didn’t complain or question my decision. Holden, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to say no.

“Please,” I added. “Sutherland knows you. It’ll make things easier.”

“Fine.” He sounded as if I’d asked him to drink blood from someone with a disease. “Let’s make it quick.”

He followed me inside, and I debated with myself whether it was worth my time to call him out on his attitude. Yes, things were hard with us right now. Yes, I’d hurt him. But our current situation made me think he might set aside those feelings. In the past we’d always been able to focus on the problem at hand, and that was when we were at our strongest. If he couldn’t overlook his broken heart for a little while, I didn’t know if we would pull through this.

“We’re in a tough bind,” I started, hoping he’d understand what I was trying to say and fill in the blanks himself.

He stared at me.

Okay, this was going to be worse than pulling teeth.

“Holden, I—”

“We can talk about it later. Can we find Sutherland and get out of here, please?”

He said
later
, not
never
. I’d take what I could get.

No one came to meet us in the stairwell, touting a long-untouched rifle or a baseball bat. Apparently everyone in the city had come to the general consensus they should either flee or hide, because no one was getting in our way. When we knocked on Sutherland’s door, it took him a few minutes to answer, and in that time Holden and I stood awkwardly next to each other in the hall, neither of us saying a word.

When the door opened, my father—forever seventeen—blinked out at us. He was wearing
Star Wars
pajama bottoms and a rumpled black Henley shirt. His blond hair, something he’d passed on to me, was sticking up in the back like he’d just rolled out of bed.

“Hello,” he greeted, as if this were a perfectly normal social call.

“Dad, you need to get changed and come with us.” He could have stayed in his pajamas if he wanted to. It wasn’t like he’d be cold outside. But I had to draw the line at letting him wander around barefoot. Only Sig could get away with doing that, and even he tended to put shoes on when he was on the street.

“Are we going somewhere? Did you bring your mother with you?”

My heart clenched. Right before I’d killed Mercy, I’d called Sutherland and put him on speakerphone for her. It was a low blow on my part, meant to catch her off-guard, and I hadn’t taken time to consider the impact it might have on my dad. He was already unstable. What would happen when I admitted to him she was dead?

And I’d killed her?

Perhaps now wasn’t the best moment for that particular revelation.

“No, she’s not here.”

“Where is she?” He wasn’t going to make this easy on me, was he?

“She’s in Louisiana.” Her head was, anyway.

“That’s too bad.” Turning his back to us, Sutherland walked into his apartment. I nodded Holden forward, and we both followed, shutting the door behind us.

The gloom inside was total. Sutherland hadn’t bothered to light an emergency lamp or find candles, since being a vampire meant he didn’t need any light to see by. When he emerged again from the bedroom, he’d changed his pajama bottoms for a pair of jeans and some beat-up brown boots. His hair was still an uncombed mess, but I didn’t bother to point it out. He was the supposed parent here, not me.

“I was watching
Friends
, but the TV stopped working. I waited an hour, and it still wasn’t working. So I got bored and lay down,” he explained.