Bill was now staring at Tony, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. Tony, I'll get you for this, I sent to both of them. Agent Bill Jennings was on his feet in a flash, nearly knocking the chair over in his rush.
"He heard you," Tony smiled, cut another chunk off his steak and chewed. "Sit down, Jennings. See if you can send your thoughts back to Lissa."
Bill tried. I'll give him credit for that, he just couldn't do it. "Don't worry about it," Tony told him. "It would be great if you could but I didn't think it was going to happen. I think Lissa may be able to send to just about anyone if she concentrates on them well enough." Tony was extremely happy with his little experiment. "Jennings, I hope you know not to let this get out," Tony cautioned. "Now you know why she's so valuable and can get away with a bit of insubordination now and then. She's on loan to us so don't f**k this up. We might need to borrow her again."
"I can see that," Bill was nearly breathless at the information he'd received. Tony and Bill finished their meal; I was grateful when it was over and we rode the elevator upstairs. Bill glanced speculatively in my direction several times, thinking, I'm sure, just how my talent might be exploited. He also wondered where I'd come from, since he'd never been informed of anyone like me. Plus, I had no idea how Wlodek would react if he knew Tony had given out a piece of my information. Naval Intelligence was already knocking on the door; they'd gotten a little taste, too. I doubted if Madam Secretary even knew how close she'd come to being jumped by a vampire. I guess some things are just better left unsaid.
* * *
"Merrill, I'm positive it was one of Saxom's turns," I insisted. I'd called him when Tony and I had gotten back to our rooms. I shut the connecting door, too, since I wanted to make my calls in private.
"He had the taint? You're sure of this?"
"I'm sure. Merrill, Tony took me to a house while we were in Atlanta and I scented three humans and two vampires there. Both vampires had that smell about them."
"How old was this one? Could you tell that?"
"Yes. He was older than the one the Council sentenced."
Merrill blew out a frustrated sigh. "Lissa, this is frightening. If there were some way I could pull you back from all this I would, but we made a promise. Please let me know if you find something like this again and I'll inform Wlodek about this one."
"All right." I wanted to do a little sighing myself but held back. We said our goodbyes so I dialed the next number on my list.
"Lissa, are you well?" Weldon was on the phone.
"Yeah. How about you?"
"I'm good; I'm a proud Grampa, now."
"Hey! Congratulations," I said.
"Two weeks ago. Daryl Harper Junior," he said. I could picture him, standing there about to pop the buttons off his plaid flannel shirt, he was so proud.
"That's great. Is Kathy Jo doing all right?"
"She's fine. That baby can't even snuffle without one of his parents being right there," Weldon said, a grin coming through in his voice.
"And I'm sure Grampa is right behind them," I teased.
"Maybe," he admitted.
"Weldon, I need a favor if it's possible," I said.
"Little girl, all you have to do is name it and if I can arrange it, it's yours," he replied.
"Wait and see what it is before you say yes," I said. "Have you heard about those kids that are coming up missing in Wales and Great Britain?"
"That's been on the news several times," he said. "What about it?"
"Weldon, I need somebody with a good nose to go to the next crime scene, and I'm thinking there will be a next one, just to see if there's any vampire scent. Better yet, if they find more dead bodies, see if there's vampire scent around those."
"Baby, don't you think you ought to go to the Head of the Council with this?"
"Weldon, do you think they'd listen to me?" I said. I'd already told the Head of the Council what I thought and he hadn't listened.
"All right, I have someone that can arrange to send a wolf out to check things over. I'll have the information passed on to you if they find anything. How's that?"
"That will be fantastic," I said. "Thank you, Weldon. I'll be forever grateful."
"Little girl, you don't owe me a thing."
"Kiss that baby for me, okay?" I said. Weldon was laughing as we hung up.
My next call was the one I dreaded to make because I didn't know what mood he'd be in and also didn't know if Merrill had managed to pass on information yet. I dialed Gavin's number.
"Lissa?"
"Hi, honey."
"Cara, how are you?"
"I'm fine now. I got into a little bit of a scrape last night but everything is good now," I repeated.
"What kind of scrape?"
How I wished I could confide in him without setting him off or making him curse. That was impossible, so I just forged ahead with my news. "Gavin, I was at the Chinese Embassy last night and a mister came in—somebody that the Council doesn't know about. He had the same taint as the one that the Council took care of last time."
"Lissa, what did you do?" Gavin growled.
"I killed him, Gavin. He's dead now. I sneaked up on him and managed to do it."
"And you were harmed." I could hear the anger in his voice.
"It's all fine now," I said. I'll give him this, he didn't curse as long or as loud as he normally does but he did curse. I felt like crying at the end of all of it. Why couldn't he be sympathetic? Just once, when I needed him to be? I wiped a tear off my cheek. "I love you, too, honey," I said, my voice getting thick. I hung up before I started sobbing.
* * *
"Wlodek, this is sounding more and more like a carefully laid plot," Merrill said over the phone. It was nearly dawn and they didn't have long to talk. "Lissa swears that this mister had the same taint. She knew about the last one. If this is true, there's no way to tell how many of them are out there."
Wlodek was tapping the gold pen against the blotter on his desk. The problem hadn't gone away when Saxom was eliminated, and now his turns seemed bent on causing chaos and destruction. Wlodek and the Council were at a loss, however, to discover just what Xenides and Saxom's other whelps truly planned. Wlodek had eyes and ears in many places, but Saxom's turns remained cleverly hidden. This was becoming worse by the minute. Two Assassins and twelve Enforcers were not enough to send out against an enemy that might number in the hundreds at the very least. Who knew how long Saxom had been making turns? "We must to be quite vigilant from this point forward," Wlodek said. "Quite vigilant indeed."