“What can we do for them when they wake for the night?” Sheridan asked.
“There are only three options,” I said.
“Kill them,” Edward said.
“Yep, that’s option one.”
“What’s option two?” Sheridan asked.
“Lock them in a coffin or cell with holy items all over it and contain them. Though you need to make sure that whoever guards them is religious and wearing their holy item of choice, because even baby vamps can capture you with their gaze and make you their bitch.”
“And the third option?” she asked.
“Do nothing and let them keep attacking people,” Edward said.
“Okay, four options, then,” I said.
He looked at me. “What fourth option?”
“You get a vampire strong enough to control them.”
“I don’t think we want to give the Brady family over to Damian’s creator,” Edward said.
“No,” I said.
“She’s the only master vampire in Ireland.”
“Not anymore, she’s not,” I said.
We looked at each other. “Shouldn’t you talk to your vampires before you volunteer them for babysitting duty?”
“Yes, but I can’t talk to them until after dark and by that time the vampires in this room will rise, too, and it’ll be too late to ask.”
“Catch-22,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I don’t understand,” Sheridan said.
“Anita brought more than one vampire with her.”
“Are you saying your vampires might be able to control the new ones?”
“The three in this room maybe, but since they didn’t make them, and they aren’t related to the vampire that did make them, I’m not sure how much control they’ll have over them.”
“Then we’re back to three options,” he said.
“We won’t let you execute them,” Sheridan said.
“Two options,” he said.
“We can’t let them feed on whoever they want,” she said.
“Option number two, it is.”
“How strong are your holding cells and do they all have windows?” I asked.
41
I DON’T KNOW who had Nolan’s back in the government, but whoever it was had clout, because the police gave the three sleeping vampires over to him. Pearson and Sheridan didn’t like it. In fact, we got to hear Pearson yelling on the phone that it wasn’t right, that Helena and Katie Brady and Sinead Royce were still Irish citizens and deserved better than this. He said other things, but that was the big part he kept repeating in different ways. None of it made any difference. Nolan, Brennan, and Donahue—Donnie—put the three women into body bags like the corpses they almost were and loaded one vampire per vehicle, which meant there were two vampires per, because we’d brought our own. Edward told Nolan that if he valued his expensive toys he shouldn’t lock us in the back once we were inside them. I was glad he’d said it, because it saved me having to threaten his old friend. Admittedly, it would have been Nicky or one of the other wereanimals that actually tore the door off, but I’d have given the order.
Dev was soaked by the time we walked back down to the trucks so that when he got inside water streamed from his hair down inside his rain jacket. He was so wet that Nathaniel kissed him but asked him to sit on the other side with Kaazim and Jake. It also gave us enough room on our side to not be quite so cramped. We still had Damian in his duffel bag at our feet, but now Nolan and Edward had a body bag full of vampire at their feet, too. They’d tagged the vamps on the outside of the bags, so we knew it was Helena Brady with us.
Nolan’s phone sounded and he looked at the screen. The lines in his face seemed to deepen as if some extra burden had been added. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Pearson sent me baby pictures.”
“Of his kids?” Dev made it a question.
“No, of the vampires.”
“He sent you baby pictures of Katie and Sinead?” I asked.
Nolan nodded. “Want to see them?”
“No,” I said.
Edward just shook his head.
“Why would he send you baby pictures of them?” Dev asked.
“The text with the pictures says, ‘Whatever you do to them, remember they’re someone’s babies.’”
“Pearson thinks it will make it harder for us to kill them,” I said.
“Harder for me,” Nolan said. “He didn’t send the pictures to you.”
“He doesn’t have my phone number,” I said.
Edward’s phone sounded. He shook his head but got it out and checked. “Pearson,” he said, but put the phone away without swiping it open.
“You’re not even going to look at it?” Dev asked.
“No.”
“It doesn’t matter if they were adorable babies if they wake up trying to tear people’s faces off,” I said.
“Maybe it does,” he said.
“Are you saying that if someone’s cute as a baby, we shouldn’t kill them?” Nicky asked.
“I’d rather not kill anyone,” Dev said.
We all looked at him, even Nathaniel. Edward said, “You do know why we’re here, right?”
“To figure out why vampires are suddenly able to spread in Ireland as fast as anywhere else in the world, and to stop it if we can.”