Vampiric: Chapter Twelve, Part 4

Months passed like hours. The first couple were spent between sleeping and drinking. Against my personal desires, Drei helped me build up a resistance to my thirst, ensuring it would become easier over time. When I was awake, he brought news as I still wasn’t strong enough to leave the room.

I was shocked to hear Caroline’s revolution faltered and failed, withering away until only the bloggers vaguely remembered it had ever existed. Drei had said after she believed me dead, she began to lose heart in her project, blaming herself. Not even Ian could pull her from her guilt long enough to finish a broadcast. Slowly, she lost supporters as the call to action failed to be delivered and the news played it down as a joke. I was somewhat disappointed not even that insult could pull her from her depression.

With that came the truth regarding the shooting. In short, it was an anti-C group led by Martin—bitter at having not been given leadership over the camp—and Conan—sore about being found out as a snake. The long version: they had convinced a group of people that what Caroline was fighting for was far more sinister and would result in the extermination of “the pure.” Those poor dopes were talked into setting up a hit, but not for Caroline. With both of their leaders having a score to settle, and Martin too stupid to realize the revolution wasn’t remotely air-related, they set the hit for me. Martin had convinced Conan I had never been apprehended or killed and thus was the leader, with Caroline simply playing the front woman.

As much as that should have angered me, I felt sorry for them. Drei didn’t say anything explicitly, but I knew he was plotting something. It was against my better half to let him plan, but I overlooked it. They had, after all, shot me three times, even if they hadn’t been the ones to pull the trigger.

Drei also brought me magazines and papers so I could keep up with the rest of current events. At first I ignored them, not wanting to know what was happening, but was soon drawn into the tragedies of the world. It helped to re-motivate me. I had more time, but I wasn’t utilizing it, and I felt somewhat guilty about sleeping it away.

He was ecstatic I still had my element; he had been worried I would have lost it in my turning. To be honest, I had wondered the same thing until I began experimenting. If anything, I felt stronger and more in control. It seemed my turning had worn away any fears I had blocking my full potential. Either that, or it was having death nearly inhabit my body.

Even after I was physically strong enough to leave the room, Drei wouldn’t allow me to leave the apartment. He insisted I couldn’t for a while longer; not until it had all blown over. So to keep me entertained, he would encourage my experiments and shower me with gifts, occasionally kisses—but that was only rarely as he feared my new condition might cloud my judgment. Though often disappointed, I was grateful. It felt like a new entity lived inside me alongside my element. But this one came forward at his touch and terrified me. Drei promised I would adjust to that as well, learning to eventually control it.

One evening, after nine months of healing and adjusting, I sat watching the news; Drei was in the kitchen. They were covering a protest over a newly endangered rainforest and a recent natural disaster in a Pacific Island nation. Somewhere between the stories and everything else they reported, something clicked in my mind. Something rather unexpected.

“Drei?” I called, trying to determine how I felt. My mind raced between excited, frightened, serious, and calm.

“Yes?” he replied, handing me a mug of blood. I could feel his eyes taking in my mind’s dilemma before finally deciding on serious excitement.

“I think I know what I’m supposed to do,” I whispered, saying it aloud causing a bubble of excitement in my chest. I could barely contain myself. After so long, it seemed ridiculously easy to not have discovered forever ago.

“Truly?” he asked, measuring my response and not wanting to be taken in by a false alarm.

Staring at him, almost unable to see him for watching my idea bloom before me—taking definite shape and seeming to smile back at me—I knew it was too right to be wrong. I couldn’t be wrong; not this time. Not about this.

“I’m certain.”

End Book Two

Vampiric: Chapter Three, Part 4

Suddenly, I caught a hint of conversation.

“So what are we doing?” a hushed male voice questioned.

“Taking out some dangerous people or something like that,” a feminine voice answered brusquely. “Something about a threat to national security.”

“Over a broadcast?”

“Quiet in the back!” a cruel voice shouted, shushing the two people immediately.

Dashing back to the party, I sifted through the noise for Caroline's voice. She was talking with Conan and Ian in a side office. Their conversation stopped when I appeared in the doorway.

“Everyone needs to get out now,” I asserted, fully realizing how overly dramatic the statement sounded. Caroline just stared at me and I could have sworn Conan was throwing darts in my direction. “A whole bunch of government troops are on the way here right now.”

“How much time?” Caroline asked. She knew better than I realized how important it was to act, whether the information was valid or not. I was grateful, not because she didn't need verification, but because I didn't have the time to prove any of it. Unless they wanted to wait around.

“Minutes if we're lucky.”

“Not enough time to evacuate,” Conan said very matter-of-factly. I couldn't help wondering why he would be so negative. He was her secretary and in as much danger as the rest of us, if not more.

Ian shook his head at Conan, sharing a look with Caroline. “Get the passage open,” she said after Ian had already started on his way out of the room. She cursed under her breath a few times before leaving as well. Conan followed me out to see the table by the door had been moved aside and now revealed a black space with stairs leading downward.

“We built it in when we first decided on this place,” Caroline said, though I wasn't sure if it was for my benefit or Conan’s. Turning to the party guests—who had stopped to stare curiously at the gaping passageway—she barked, “If you want to live, you'll get your carcasses down those stairs now!”

I stepped back into the small office as people stampeded past, unquestioning but panicked. Conan stepped beside me and whispered in my ear, “If you'll be mine, I can protect you.”

Stepping back, I stared at him. He was serious. I’d had my suspicions but I couldn't believe he would make such a remark at a time like this. “I have someone,” I said bluntly, suddenly wondering where Drei was. “You should join the others.”

“You'll regret that,” he warned, turning away suddenly and forcing his way past everyone else and down the staircase.

“Someone needs to stay behind,” Caroline said as Ian and Drei made their way to where we were standing.

Before anyone else could say anything, I volunteered. Drei, Ian, and Caroline stared open-mouthed at me.

“No,” Drei said, shaking his head emphatically. “I will stay behind.”

“Be logical, Abs,” Caroline said. “We need you.”

Ian recovered just as I was about to turn away their objections. “She knows what she's doing, C. Let her do her part.” He looked at me, saying, “All you have to do is push the table back over and it'll close tight.”

“What if—”

“It’s almost impossible to open if you don’t know how,” he said hurriedly, trying to be kind but niceties weren’t really available with the current time constraint.

“She's saved our asses twice now,” she argued, looking as though she would set Ian on fire for agreeing with me.

“Do not be ridiculous,” Drei chided, reaching to pull me toward the last few people cramming into the opening.

“You can't change my mind. I need to do this.”

“Come on, C,” Ian said, dragging her away. She didn't stop staring at me until he started pulling her down the staircase.

“It's Conan,” I confided, knowing I didn't have much time before I had to force Drei to follow everyone else. “Either he tipped them off or they followed him.”

“You cannot be serious; I am not letting you stay.”

“I've made up my mind,” I said simply, forcefully. “Besides, who knows what they'd do to you.” He pulled me into his arms, squeezing me until I felt like I would suffocate, but I didn't complain. I was sure he thought this would change my mind, but it only reinforced my resolve. “Promise to find me.”

“That will not be necessary.”

I kissed him, praying it wouldn't be the last time I was able to. Then I pulled together a wall of air—hearing heavy footsteps outside—and shoved him into the passageway. “Find me,” I repeated, closing the entrance before he could escape and argue the point further.

I felt empty as I turned to face the desolate, disarrayed room. The footsteps were on the stairs now, so I didn't have long to wait. I walked to the middle of the space, not sure of how I was feeling; I knew I had to be the one to stay, I just wasn't sure why.

Being taken didn't scare me knowing Drei would come—I had no doubt he would. What scared me was the feeling I'd been having since we first met Caroline. It had dissipated slightly now that this second scrape had come to light, but it was still there. I didn't know what else it could be warning me about, though. And that was the worst part.

The door flew open and a few dozen people poured though, dressed in combat black, pointing blinding lights attached to weapons of which I caught only glimpses. A burly guy in a black suit stepped through the doorway last and stood behind the troops.

“Where did everyone go?” he questioned in a deep, booming voice.

I stared at his shadowy face, trying to determine what he wanted to hear. But the only thing filling my mind was Drei and my hope I would see him again. When I didn't say anything, he turned away, ordering, “Take her.”

It hadn't occurred to me what might have happened when he gave that command. I had just assumed there would be someone reading the Miranda Rights as someone else slapped on a pair of handcuffs and stuffed me into a car downstairs.

They weren't the police, though.

I felt something hard crash into my head. All I knew afterwards was a spiraling darkness.

Vampiric: Chapter Three, Part 3

“To us!” Caroline shouted over her team, standing on a table, now dressed in a hippie skirt and wrap blouse. We all quieted as the last of the champagne flutes were passed around. The gold in her eyes shined brighter as she gazed around, seeming to compliment everyone’s efforts in turn. “To a successful first broadcast. To everyone here. And to Abs, for getting us out of there before a run-in with the wrong people.”

Drei smiled at me from across the crowded room on the top floor of the warehouse. My cheeks flamed as everyone else turned and smiled, those nearest me giving a friendly pat on the back. I tried shrugging it off as though it were no big deal, but the attention was quickly returning to Caroline, so it didn’t matter.

“Let’s drink to a better tomorrow!” She downed the flute’s contents.

Someone started up some music and more drinks were passed around. While people paired off to dance or grouped to talk about the night and anything else, Caroline made her way towards me, Conan and Ian not far behind her.

“Conan doubled back after everyone cleared out,” she said, barely audible over the music. “Gov goons. If you hadn’t noticed it, we all would have been locked up by now…” She let her voice trail off, but I knew what was coming.

“You don’t owe me anything,” I said before she could say what she wanted. Personally, I didn’t want her to owe me anything. It would make when I left her operation that much easier.

Confusion and then some version of relief crossed her features, followed by her business-like demeanor. “You say that now, but everyone wants something sooner or later. I don’t forget my debts.”

I nodded for lack of something better to do; I wasn’t going to say what I was thinking.

Caroline stepped closer to me so her next words were spoken directly into my ear, her breath warm and unnerving. “I'm glad you signed on. I was wrong about you.”

She walked away. I knew what had prompted the compliment; that was obvious. But it felt like there was something else Caroline had been insinuating. Something I was missing. It worried me it might be something that could make a mess of things, too.

“Congratulations,” Drei praised, appearing beside me and interrupting my thoughts. He had left his flute behind somewhere; I didn't blame him. The moment I found a table, I was ditching mine. Alcohol was not what I needed; my thoughts were jumbled enough as it was.

“Thanks.” We were back to appearing together but not in a relationship, and it wasn't easy. Part of me wanted to let go of all the pretense and kiss him right there.

“I better head back that way,” he said before I could talk myself into anything.

“Okay;” I offered a weak smile. I knew he needed to bond with the other bodyguards if he wanted to be accepted by them, but that didn't mean I wanted him to go. The words “stay with me” were on the tip of my tongue, but I held them back. Part of not being together in public was not giving people an excuse to think you were together. I think that was the hardest part for me. I wanted so badly for us to be whoever we wanted to be, and the kiss yesterday didn't help things any either.

Drei sauntered across the room, gracefully slipping through the crowd as if the room were clear.

“That was amazing how you knew they were coming,” Conan said from behind me. I turned and was greeted by his sea-green eyes studying me curiously. “How did you know?”

“Ask C,” I said, having picked up on the fact she ultimately knew everything. “If she'll divulge that information.”

“Why can't you just tell me?” he flirted, moving to clear hair off my shoulder and brushing my cheek in the process.

Before I was unable to hide my discomfort and disgust, I excused myself and walked away. Conan wasn't a bad guy as far as I could tell, but I didn't enjoy the close proximity he took with me. As far as I knew, I hadn't done anything to suggest I was interested, but who knew? When you couldn't show off your boyfriend—or he you—things became complicated.

There was a table of refreshments I hadn't noticed earlier. That's where I left my champagne flute as I left the room. The hallways on this floor were pleasantly dark and quiet, the noise of the party muffled. Walking to the end, I leaned against the wall by a window, the panes frosted slightly and fogging over upon impact with my breath. I drew a heart in the condensation, remembering when my dad and I used to draw out whole comics on the windows of our rooms during ski trips. Not for the first time, I wondered how he was doing. He seemed to pop up in my thoughts every once in a while and I felt guilty leaving him in the state I had.

After he had shared everything he knew about my mom, he was a mess. The memories were still painful, even after all these years. The next day I left without telling anyone, and I wondered if he was as destroyed by my absence as he was by my mom's supposed death. My real mom, not my adoptive mother who put me through the paces of high society.

I reached out my senses, hearing the ocean roar in the distance. It took me a moment to realize there was another sound that shouldn't be there.

I tried to remember if there was anyone who hadn't showed up for the celebration. Counting the cars parked below, I knew everyone was here. So then why were there cars approaching? This stretch of the dock was pretty much abandoned, and I couldn’t fathom why a caravan of vehicles would be coming out here so late.

I pulled the conversations from the vehicles and found nothing but silence. These definitely weren't party goers. It didn't seem possible the government would have been able to locate the headquarters so quickly. Not after all the precautions they had taken.

Unless they had seen Conan circling back and had someone follow him.

Vampiric: Chapter Three, Part 2

No one was outside as far as I could see or hear. I was relying more on my ears than my eyes—the cracked windows along the north side of the building looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in forever—which was probably closer to the truth than I cared to know.

About an hour earlier, we were all loaded into various vehicles—so as not to appear suspicious—and arrived in this other building. There were three other lookouts, each of us patrolling a different cardinal direction. Mostly everyone else was in the broadcasting room. Being an air elemental was great for me. Though most people would remain in the dark, I used my gifts to figure out what I wanted to know. In a few minutes it would be 8:30 and Caroline’s broadcast would be on every television screen within fifty miles, and I would be tuning in while keeping an ear open for anything strange.

A minute ‘til, I pulled the conversations from the broadcasting room to me. They still weren’t ready and I could hear Conan trying desperately to keep Caroline calm amongst the chaos so she could still go through with the broadcast. A few people were babbling about a traceable signal and the bodyguards were itching, just as nervous as everyone else that this would fail.

“I thought you worked out the—”

“C,” Conan chided. “Language please. The equipment will be running in twenty seconds whether the signal is traceable or not. We can’t back out now or people are going to be staring at a blank room for ten minutes.”

“I know!”

“Five…four…three…” a female voice said, silencing Caroline.

I knew the program had started, but no one said anything. For a moment, I thought it was all a waste; she wasn’t going to go through with it. Drei had been wrong about her and, after all her talk, I was disappointed.

“Fellow citizens,” she started, and there was a wave of relief from everyone in the room. “Our government has lied to us.”

The line was intended to provoke incredulity at the accusation. Our government, founded by the people, couldn’t be against us. There was no way. The gut reaction was inescapable.

“Our government stopped caring about we the people ages ago when it started redirecting funds for education to wars abroad; wars to intimidate others into falling in line. It has fed us bile and manure about why we must solve the world’s problems, why we must sacrifice our brave men and women, why we need to be the bringer of peace. Under our government, there is no peace. There is no contentment without an enemy or a cause. We feed the war machine which in turn feeds the wealthy. And while the rich become richer, the poor can barely scrap together enough to live.

“The truth is before your very eyes. The career politicians do less and less every year and still earn more than the hardworking families who keep this economy going. They sit in gilded luxury while some people work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. They tout the benefits we provide to other nations in pursuing conflict and war while we underpay teachers, underprepare students, and consistently fail to provide any solution to random acts of violence plaguing campuses, schools, and public establishments domestically.

“Ask yourself why?” She paused, letting her words sink in and the audience ponder her question. “To keep the people weak, the very people who give power to the government, gives them greater strength. If we are weak and distracted by our everyday struggles, our fight for survival, we cannot organize successfully to demand change. If we are divided along party lines, believing someone else cannot possibly support the same causes, we provide a reason for change to stall. And if we buy into the lies we are fed about our involvement abroad, we will not question the lack of attention paid at home.

“Our government is cunning. It has done well to distract, divide, and bully us into a silence, claiming we are unpatriotic or socialist or heathen if we attempt to break free of the illusion. We have been misguided; worse yet, we perpetuate the falsehoods and misguide each other.

“But it is not too late to change the future. We need change in our society, and the only way we can do that is to demand it—”

There was a staticky noise outside. I tuned out Caroline’s speech—which, if she played this last part right, would anger the general public into following her religiously—and focused on finding that strange noise. Reaching my hearing out as far as possible, I could just make out a vehicle and murmurs inside about following something. The conversation was too broken up.

I ran, searching for Caroline’s voice in the building again, hoping we could all make it out of here safe. My biggest fear was that it was too late, that she wouldn’t be able to wrap up the broadcast soon enough to evacuate. She was halfway through her lengthy conclusion when the outer ring of bodyguards let me through.

“—we’ve started over before; we can do it again—” Caroline was saying as Conan crossed the large room to me. “What is it?” he whispered shortly, as if more annoyed I was there than worried about why I was there.

“Someone’s headed this way. They’re following some trace or something.”

“How far off?” he asked, not even bothering to ask how I knew. I was grateful because there wasn’t time to explain it, and I certainly wasn’t going to be captured because of this.

Running some quick, more than likely inaccurate, calculations in my head, I guesstimated, “About eight minutes, less even.”

Without hesitation, Conan swirled around and made the guillotine motion. It amazed me at how quickly everyone jumped to work. Most of the crew started cleaning up their computers as quietly as possible so as not to interrupt Caroline’s crash ending.

“This revolution has been long coming, and it’s time we bring it out into the open. We’ll be back, and if you want to see a brighter future, you will be, too.”

Someone capped the camera and Caroline slipped into her coat, speed walking out the door, the rest of us following her. We split up into the different vehicles and they all took off in different directions. Ian sped off into the heart of the city. I didn’t know where Drei was, but those people who were coming scared me more than not knowing where he was. We would find each other. The drivers were supposed to drive in circles for an hour before converging on HQ again.

Ian said, “Don’t worry, love. We gave them the slip thanks to you.” He winked a sapphire gem at me in the rear view mirror.

But that wasn’t what worried me. That might have been the bad feeling I was having all night, but the feeling wasn’t gone. Something else was going to happen, but I dared not say anything without knowing what first.

Vampiric: Chapter Three, Part 1

Chapter Three: A Time for Everything

“Nervous?” Conan asked. He had been walking around assigning specifics to jobs that had been kept a secret until now. No one knew all of what was happening, just his or her own part. Drei and I had been standing in the warehouse for an hour, waiting for someone to tell us it was starting…whatever it was.

Conan had just directed Drei to a group dressed in black from head to toe and practicing serious faces between jokes. I guessed that was the rest of her inner circle, and it was even more obvious how Drei stood out from them all. For starters, most of them were shorter, and though a few had some bulging muscles, their dispositions were too cheerful to be threatening—though I had no doubt they could possibly intimidate someone.

“Why do you ask?”

“You keep looking around, like you’re trapped or something,” he answered, marking something on his clipboard. I noticed for the first time his hair wasn’t brown, like I had thought, but it had an orange tinge to it. Strange how it seemed kind of important now. Maybe that was because I was hoping he would go away without forcing me to be rude.

“I like to know my surroundings,” I lied, hoping it satisfied him. “And I like to know what’s going on, but that doesn’t ever really happen.”

He laughed at that. I didn’t like his laugh; it was a harsh barking sound that better resembled a cross between yelling and howling. “C never likes people to know everything; too risky.”

“I figured as much.” I wished he’d stop talking to me.

“Well, you’re pretty much one of the only lookouts. We don’t group you all together since you need to stand off on your own anyway. So…just wait here I guess until we’re ready to go.”

I nodded, turning away from him slightly. Not taking the hint he should move onto whoever was left, Conan laid a hand on my forearm.

“It’ll be fine;” he shrugged. “We planned it out really well and nothing should go wrong.”

“That’s not what I was thinking.” I stared at his hand and wished it away; I resisted the urge to brush it off or move away from him. That would be rude and might give him the wrong idea. Not just about how I treated people, but possibly—since he wasn’t taking the hints—that I was playing “hard to get.”

“It’s on everybody’s mind. But if you need someone to talk to, I’m here; I’m told I have a good ear, too.”

I forced a strained smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He finally sauntered off to a group of blonds in the corner. I couldn’t help noticing he didn’t bother them as he had me—and they wanted him to flirt with them, too, from the way they were constantly touching his arm and adjusting their hair.

Conan didn’t know what he was talking about. I wasn’t nervous about tonight; I was worried about what would come after. I couldn’t shake the feeling something would go terribly wrong. And these feelings hadn’t been wrong before.

Vampiric: Chapter Two, Part 1

Chapter Two: Learning to Live

The drive was longer than it had to be, in my opinion. But everything Caroline did seemed to be done with the utmost care and secrecy. I had just finished the thought when Drei commented that she was an intelligent person, seemingly for no apparent reason to our driver. Not for the first time, I reminded myself not to think so loudly.

We circled various sections of the city until I thought it was a joke and some movie star was going to jump out screaming with laughter. The thought of punching said movie star in the face crossed my mind briefly, before I realized we were driving in absolute darkness. Looking back through the rear window, I saw the city lights twinkle in imitation of the stars.

Drei took my hand, gazing at me in a way that seemed to say wait. He knew I was impatient—though it contradicted the common nature of air elementals—but he also knew I could wait if he reminded me to.

It seemed hours later—I cannot begin to explain how numb my rear end was or how badly I needed to stretch—we finally pulled into a pier with rundown warehouses and a shabby looking dock. Ghostly tugboats rocked fitfully against their ropes, wishing to drift aimlessly into retirement.

He stopped the car outside of a stoic warehouse, a soft light falling through one of the broken windows at the top momentarily before flitting away inside again.

“We’re here;” the driver climbed out of the car.

Drei and I followed suit, walking next to each other a few paces behind him. Pulling a strand of air towards me, I heard voices inside. Though soft, I could hear them perfectly.

“—they’re here, C,” a masculine voice said.

“About time,” she replied in her smooth voice, a note of irritation apparent.

“You never told Ian she’d be difficult to locate.”

“Well, I didn’t know,” she snipped back.

We entered through a side door then. From the inside, it became obvious the windows of the lower level had been covered with black paint, explaining why this warehouse also seemed disused.

Caroline stood in the center of the room, a black, long sleeved tunic and blue skinny jeans covering her thin frame. Her hair was down, the natural curls framing her sharp features.

“Finally,” she huffed, crossing her arms. “Ian,” she nodded in our driver’s direction, “and Conan,” she said, motioning to the other man standing beside her. He was medium-height—just slightly taller than I—with crew cut brown hair and sea green eyes. A few other people dressed in dark colors moved around behind them, but she didn’t bother introducing them. “We’re the only ones you need to know;” she signaled us to follow her. “Now we get down to business.”

She walked from the large front room and jogged up a set of stairs, disappearing into another room. This one was smaller, containing a couple of file cabinets, a desk, and three chairs. She sat on the far side of the desk, shuffling the haphazard piles of paper out of the way. We sat in the chairs opposite her.

“Give me a moment,” she said, still shuffling through papers. “Conan was supposed to clean this up for me and now I’ve lost your stuff.”

The room was cold, the chilly tendrils of air burrowing into my skin. Drei stood momentarily, removed his coat, and dropped it over my shoulders. He shook his head as I opened my mouth to object. There was no arguing with him, at least not on this, and most definitely not here.

Caroline watched the exchange, slightly interested, as if trying to figure what had happened or why. She then cleared her throat loudly to draw attention back to herself. “Sign these,” she ordered, handing us each a pile of papers. “The first one is your waiver paperwork, since I can’t guarantee you won’t be injured. Signing it means you won’t hold me accountable for anything that happens, though we do try to prevent injury.”

I skimmed over the packet of possible injuries—one of which was death through various means (electrocution and shooting for two)—slightly shocked at the list. Drei signed his, handing it back, so I did the same. If I died doing this—I couldn’t think about that. It was like setting myself up for it. Besides, the thought was actually pretty bitter, and not towards the person rubbing me the wrong way.

“The next is an agreement to follow all of our policies, rules, regulations, and to keep your traps shut on matters concerning our operation,” she said, filing the waiver forms into separate folders.

The policies and such were straightforward, including regulations on apparel while working and tips on how not to have your head burned off, though it didn’t explain how the burning would occur; so while it was useful to know, it was apparent Caroline wasn’t letting everyone know about her secret. As for the confidentiality agreement, it too was blunt—I was beginning to think she didn’t know how to do things any other way.

“Don’t say anything about our operations, ever. Don’t question motives or activities. Don’t even think of whining. Not when you’re alone, and not when you’re at work. If you can’t hold your liquor, forget about drinking and find an AA group to join.”

I signed both forms, handing them over before I could change my mind and shred them. Drei had been watching me as I read through everything; I think he was scared I would change my mind about this. He should have been, though. It wasn’t something I really fancied doing at all; but he had asked me to.

Caroline filed them separately again, leaning forward when she was done, fingers laced and set before her.

“Jobs;” she sighed and grimaced. “I’ll find the actual descriptions in a moment;” she waved dismissively at the file cabinets, probably not wanting to think about dealing with them at all. “Both of you will be backup. I run the show because I am the show; everyone else just gets to help. Buddy—Drei was it? You’ll be on my security team, inside circle. You look tougher than most of the guys I have now.”

He nodded, as though he had expected this. I guess he kind of had. If looking around downstairs had been any indication, he was the tallest and strongest person she had currently. Then again, if that was everyone she had downstairs, this wasn’t as big of a setup as Drei had led me to believe.

“What exactly that entails, you’ll see when I get you the description sheet Conan drew up for me.” She turned towards me. “You are on my lookout team. Your talents would be most useful there from what I can guess. If not, tell me now so I can reassign you.”

“I can do it,” I said firmly. She was not going to intimidate or insult me. I wasn’t in a very generous mood, especially not towards her. There was just something about having your evening ruined with a ridiculously long car ride and being talked down to that didn’t sit well with me.

“Not what I asked,” she snapped, her eyes cold and her features hard. Maybe she was used to making people do what she wanted by intimidating them, but it made it that much more apparent she underestimated me. I wasn’t scared off as easily as most—not in situations like this anyway. “I asked if your talents are good for it.”

“They are,” I replied flatly, wishing I knew some way to shut her up. She might have been older and whatnot, but that did not give her the right to snap at me.

“Good.”

While she searched through the cabinets to find the job descriptions, Drei whispered into my ear, “You gave her the right when you signed the agreements. She is the boss now.”

“Be in the same place you were tonight in one week, at five. Don’t be late.” She handed us our respective descriptions. “You aren’t needed now, so you can do whatever.” She waved a hand toward the door, settling back down to glower at the mess of paper surrounding her.

Ian herded us through the now busier warehouse and out to the car.

“Welcome aboard,” he said, tearing away from the pier and taking a different route back to the city.

All I could think about was how I was going to survive taking orders from someone as hotheaded and infuriating as Caroline. I didn’t care who she thought she was, but she wasn’t so great I couldn’t live without her.