The moment I walked into his bedroom, it hit me. I knew who'd been there and what he'd been doing. Tony must have let him in the back door through the garage; I hadn't smelled him in the rest of the house. The man I'd rescued from the pirates had been there and he'd taken my blood. The scent of it was all over the room. I'd been wounded often enough that I knew my own blood when I smelled it. Tony had hauled me into his bed so the other f**ker could put his hands on me and take my blood. I thought my head was going to explode, I was so angry. Tony and I were done. He wasn't Winkler—he couldn't blackmail me. I could and would get the hell away from him. I stripped the top covers off his bed and left them lying in a heap on the floor. Then I went to get a bag of blood out of my cooler; one of the partial ones would do nicely. I painted my message to him in blood on his bottom sheet and left it there to dry while I threw my clothing into suitcases and called Merrill.
"Go straight to the airport, Lissa," Merrill said, anger in his voice. Not at me—at Tony. "I'll have a first class ticket to New York waiting. Don't go to the apartment; I don't want Franklin and Greg frightened." He gave me the address of a safe house. I was afraid I'd cry but I managed to get a cab to come to the house without blubbering. The cabbie was nice and loaded my bags in the trunk. I carried the laptop and my purse and we drove to Dulles as quickly as we could.
The flight wasn't scheduled to take off for two hours. In an effort to keep my mind away from the anger and betrayal, I bought a book and a magazine from a small shop in the airport and sat down to read. The magazine had an article about the kidnappings in Great Britain. That's when I got my first look at Paul and the other two werewolves. Their photographs were splashed on a page of the periodical in full color. Paul looked like a nice man. Not that tall—maybe five-ten or so—with medium brown hair and nice eyes. I wished I could talk to him sometime. Maybe have a cup of coffee or tea with him. That opportunity would likely never come.
* * *
Tony went home early; he'd been so short with Lissa lately and now the First Lady was asking to see her. She wanted to thank Lissa for saving her life. The President, too, wanted to do something for her. Tony called her name as he stepped in the front door. He was prepared to take her straight to the White House, jeans and all, so she could meet with the President and his wife.
"Lissy?" Tony didn't find her in the media room where she normally was at night, either reading, watching television or both. She wasn't there. The kitchen was empty, too. He peeked into the laundry room and found Lissa's sheets lying on the floor beside the washer. A horrible thought crossed his mind and he raced toward his bedroom.
What are you doing with my blood, Tony? Was scrawled in blood across his bottom sheet. Tony moaned and pulled out his cell phone. "Just hold her. Don't fight with her and don't hurt her. If you do, I'll have your head," Tony shouted into his cell phone as he drove like a maniac toward the airport.
* * *
"Take your hands off me," I jerked my arm away from the TSA guard who was shoving me inside a small interrogation room. I couldn't refuse to go with him as he and the half dozen other guards insisted. They'd surrounded me where I sat, waiting on my plane.
"Just sit down, someone will be here in a minute," the guard growled. I hadn't hurt him or done anything to deserve that growl. Yet. And three guesses who the someone was going to be. I hoped the room wasn't bugged because I wanted to let Tony have it. At least they hadn't taken my purse or my laptop. I might have fought with them over that or placed compulsion. My flight was called when Tony walked into the room, looking like a thundercloud.
"You're making me miss my flight," I said sullenly, refusing to look at him.
"Lissa, you will sit there and let me explain and then we'll go home," he said.
"Tony, I won't be going anywhere with you. I've already called my sire. He set this ticket up for me. Merrill was very angry and very concerned when I told him what happened. I pulled that f**ker out of a boat full of pirates for you, Tony, and this is how you both pay me back. Is this how you reward everybody who saves your ass, or Madame Secretary's ass or the First Lady's derriere?" I swung around to look at him then.
"Lissa, you have to believe me when I say that this wasn't my intention or the reason I brought you in," Tony said, a deep frown on his face. "I just sent the ash from the vampire mister in Los Angeles to Larry and he discovered that some of your particular talents could be duplicated by injecting a compound of the ash into a lab chimp. That was too good to pass up, Lissa, but we didn't have enough of the ash to continue with the experiments. When we took your blood the first time, the results were amazing. It all happened so fast, Lissa. The possibilities are profound and overwhelming. You can't imagine what we could do with this." Tony was pacing.
"I can imagine that you'd drain me dry just to get what you want, Tony. We're done. Don't ask me to help you again. And keep that f**ker away from me." The tears started then. "You let him put his hands on me, Tony. While I was unconscious. What kind of man are you, anyway?" I turned away and sobbed. I'd trusted him; he'd been one of the few I had trusted. That no longer held true and the betrayal hurt. Big time.
"Lissa, I did this the wrong way, I know that. Try to see reason, baby. We can help the country, you and I." Tony was pleading but it wasn't going to work. Not with me. Not this time or any other time.
"If I hadn't accidentally found out, how long would you have been helping the country without my knowledge?" I was still wiping tears. I could barely see him, my sight was so blurry.
"Come back home with me please," Tony begged. "We'll work this out, I promise."
"No." I stifled another sob. "Stay away from me, Tony."
"Where are you going?"
"Home. Just as fast as I can get there. And you've made me miss my flight."
"Lissa, come home with me now. You're upset and I understand that. There's no reason for you to walk away. You're scheduled to go home in a few days anyway. We'll talk this over and you can go home then."
"I'm going home now. Get out of my way, Tony." I stood up. "If you try to stop me, Merrill and the others will know. What do you think will happen then, Tony?"
"I have no idea. Come home with me, Lissa."
"Tony, I can't trust you. Ever again. How do you think I'd feel, going to sleep and not knowing what you'd do to me? Or what you'd allow somebody else to do to me? Do you even have a conscience, Tony? Does the f**ker who did this have one? God knows he doesn't appreciate what I did for him. Stand there and tell me I shouldn't have just dropped him in the ocean and let him drown."