Crimson Death (47 page)

“How do you know Bobby Lee?” he asked.

“I'll answer you in the car once we get moving,” I said.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Brennan asked.

I looked at Edward, who gave a tiny nod. It was his go-ahead nod. “Because we are wasting daylight and one thing you learn quick about hunting vampires is you want to use every bit of daylight you can.”

“We know the job,” Brennan said.

“Then let's get moving to Dublin, or are we not hooking up with the local police right away?”

“We need to talk about Bobby Lee before we decide where we're going, Blake,” Nolan said.

I looked at Edward. “How honest can I be with him?”

“I'd like to know how he knows Bobby Lee before I answer that question,” he said.

I put down the bags I was holding; no reason to hold everything if we were going to be there for a while. Most of the guards followed suit. “Fine. We play twenty questions and then we get our asses moving.” I turned to the men. “How do you know Bobby Lee?”

Brennan narrowed his dark eyes and went from speculative to nearly hostile. “We don't owe you an explanation.”

“Then we're at an impasse,” I said.

“Impasse?” Brennan said.

Griffin said, “It means the situation can't progress, that we're stuck where we are until we agree to move forward.” He was fighting not to smile at me or at Brennan's discomfort, one or the other. I'd take any lightening of the mood.

“I know what it means,” Brennan snapped at him.

Griffin just smiled pleasantly at him. He was teasing the other man and not in a buddy kind of way, more an “I almost don't like you” kind of way.

“You aren't going to share information until we do, are you?” Edward said.

Nolan just stared at him, which was answer enough.

Edward smiled his Ted smile at me. “Anita, you be the grown-up and tell the captain how you know Bobby Lee.”

“Me the grown-up, that's different,” I said.

“Answer the question, Anita, please.” He didn't say
please
for much of anyone, not when he meant it, so I did what he asked.

“Bobby Lee is one of our bodyguards.”

“Our?” Brennan said.

“Jean-Claude's bodyguards,” I said.

Edward said, “We all look for work once we get out of the service, Nolan. Now, your turn: How do you know Bobby Lee?”

“We met someplace warmer, and a hell of a lot drier,” Nolan said.

“Once you've gone private contractor the military won't take you back,” Edward said.

“Bobby Lee can't go back, even if he wanted to,” Nolan said.

“I meant you.”

“I've never left the military.”

Edward looked at him like he didn't believe him, but finally said, “Did you move back to mainstream military?” There was very little Ted in his voice when he asked.

“I put together teams for special assignments.”

“You mean like the teams we were assigned to back in the day?”

“Yes.”

“If I tell Anita she can trust you, am I going to regret that?”

“Why did it bother both of you that we all know Bobby Lee?” I asked.

“Regular military doesn't work with shapeshifters, not even as private contractors,” Edward said.

“Then how did Nolan and Brennan get to work with Bobby Lee?” I asked.

“That is the question, isn't it?” Edward said in a voice that was cold and almost threatening. Ted wasn't going to last as a disguise if he couldn't do better than this.

“What are you afraid of, Forrester?” Nolan asked.

“Regular military doesn't play with shapeshifters, but there are other people who wear the uniform. People I don't want Anita involved with.”

I had a thought. “You mean Van Cleef, don't you?”

They both looked at me as if I'd said too much. Nolan looked shocked and walked the two of us out away from the rest of the group. The guards on their four-point formation tried to follow me, but I shook my head and let Nolan lead Edward and me a more private distance up to the front of the Humvee line. When Nolan thought we were far enough away, he turned on us angrily. That otherworldly energy danced in the air and around my skin. I had to swallow past it and tell my inner beasts to stay put and not react to it.

“Forrester, I heard the rumor that you and she were . . . Pillow talk like that will get you in jail for treason.”

“She knows the name because I brought her to his attention, or her hanging around with me did. I don't want her to ever meet him, or be involved in anything he's doing, and I need to know right now, Nolan: Is he involved with your unit?”

He looked at me. “Why does Van Cleef want to meet you?”

“I'm not sure he wants to meet me, but I've heard from more than just Ted that he's interested in the fact that I carry lycanthropy but I don't shift.”

“She heals almost as well as a lycanthrope, is almost as fast, and has their heightened senses, but she never changes shape,” Edward said.

Nolan looked from him to me. “If that's true, then you'd be right up Van Cleef's alley.”

“You see why I want to keep her away from him,” Edward said.

“You aren't denying that you're a couple with her, then?”

“Couple?” He looked at me. “Anita, are we a couple?”

“Not last I checked.”

“Fine. You want blunt. Are you lovers?” Nolan asked.

“No,” we said together.

“Why don't I believe that?”

“Because no one wants to believe that a man and a woman can be best friends without sex being involved somewhere,” I said.

“A lot of the men in our line of work hate the fact that she and I are better at the job than they are, so it makes them feel superior to spread the rumors.”

“It makes me Ted's girlfriend, not an equal, I think.”

“What does it give them over Ted?”

I looked at Ted. “Good question.”

“You're out of step with the younger set, Nolan. Men can be sluts, too. If I'm sleeping with Anita, then I'm getting supernatural help from her, and I'm cheating on my fiancée, which gives some of the jealous bastards a sense of superiority.”

“It's a way of explaining why you're better than they are,” Nolan said.

“And then Anita isn't good in her own right; she's my protégée, or trainee, or some bullshit.”

“To be fair, you did help train me to be a better hunter,” I said.

“Monster hunting has always been an apprentice system, Anita, no shame in that,” Edward said.

“Who'd you apprentice to?” I asked, because it just occurred to me.

“Van Cleef,” he and Nolan both said, at the same damn time. They stared at each other, and it was only partly friendly.

“Are you still his boy?” Edward asked.

“That summer was a long time ago, Ted.”

“Answer the question.”

“This isn't one of his projects. I swear that.”

“But you are in touch with him.”

“And you called him in for help just a few years ago, and he came. He sent people to rain hell down on your enemies, helped you save your fiancée and her kids.” It was the first time I'd met Donna and
the kids; bad guys had kidnapped them, and Edward had turned to the mysterious Van Cleef for help, because the bad guys had known the name, and Edward, too.

“Because some of the men involved were old friends of ours, and of his,” Edward said.

“They weren't military anymore; they'd gone more rogue than you have,” Nolan said.

“I cannot believe I did not ask you if you were still in his fucking pocket before I got Anita on the plane.”

“You call him in when you need him . . . Ted.” And there was something about the way he hesitated on the name, as if there were another name he was almost saying. I knew that Van Cleef knew Edward was Edward, and not just Ted. I wondered if he'd shared that with Nolan.

“If you want a call sign for me, Nolan, just call me Death.”

“Yeah, I know the other Marshals nicknamed you after one of the Four Horsemen.”

“Yeah, he's Death, and I'm War, and why does Van Cleef scare both of you so much?”

“I'm not scared of him. That's Ted's issue. I stayed in when he got out; this isn't one of Van Cleef's pet projects, but I've worked with him over the years, while Ted here was trying to hide from him.”

“If you didn't hide from him, Nolan, then you must have said yes when I told him to go fuck himself.”

“And yet you called for his help in New Mexico to save your family, and he sent the help you needed, ungrateful bastard that you are.”

“Bootlicking toady,” Edward said.

“Put the weapons back on the plane, Forrester. I'm not letting you into my country with an arsenal.”

“Stop it, both of you. I don't know what sort of pissing contest we walked into, but I will not let your history together hurt this investigation.”

“You're free to join the investigation and let your pet vampire give all the information he has on the locals, but not with the weapons in those bags, because without my help they're illegal as hell.”

“You haven't changed a bit, Nolan,” Edward said, and it wasn't a compliment.

“You have, Forrester, but not for the better.”

“Guys, guys.” I finally waved my hand at them and they both gave me unfriendly stares. I didn't care if they got mad at me. “I thought vampires were killing people in Dublin.”

“They are,” Ted said.

Nolan nodded.

“Ted said that there are new missing people almost every night now—is that correct, Captain Nolan?”

“That's correct.”

“Then why the hell are we not on our way to Dublin? We can help you find the rogue vampires. We can help you kill them.”

“Not without your weapons, you can't.”

“Are you really willing to have more people die because you and Ted are old friends turned old enemies? Or because you're both being horses' asses?”

“He's still working with Van Cleef, Anita. Don't you understand what that means for not just you, but all the people with you? Once you come up on his radar, you never really get off it.”

I looked back at the men and women with me, then called them over to us.

“What are you doing?” Nolan asked.

“Unlike the military, I run a more democratic house,” I said.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

When everybody was there, I looked from Nathaniel to Nicky, and then the others, and did what I thought was right. “You all know the name Van Cleef,” I said.

“Sweet Mary, Mother of God, Forrester, did you tell all of them?”

“His name came up in another case,” I said.

“What case?” Nolan asked.

“We'll talk in detail later, promise, but right now we need this settled.” I turned to my people, looked at them one by one. “There's a chance that this assignment could bring us up on Van Cleef's radar again. He is one of the few men that I've ever seen spook . . . Ted, so if you want to get back on the plane and go home, I won't hold it against you.”

“Are you coming home with us?” Magda asked.

“No, I came to save lives and hunt vampires. I'm going to stay and do that.”

“Then I will stay, too,” she said.

“None of us will leave you unguarded,” Kaazim said. The rest of the Harlequin shook their heads.

“I know you think I failed you once,” Domino said. “I won't make it twice.”

Nicky said, “You know it's not an option for me, Anita.”

“I'm making it an option.”

He gave me the look, and I moved on. “Dev, Ethan?”

Dev grinned at me. “Even if I were willing to leave you here, how would I ever explain it to the rest of the men back home? No, I'd rather take my beatings here than explain to Jean-Claude and Micah that I left you and Nathaniel here facing some scary top secret spook without me.”

“Do you really think I would run away and save myself but leave you in danger?” Ethan asked.

“No, but I wanted you to know that I wouldn't hold it against you.”

“You say that, but you don't mean it,” Domino said.

“He's right,” Dev said. “You say you don't hold it against us if we aren't as brave as you are, but you do. I panicked a little in Colorado with all the zombies, and you decided I wasn't as strong and brave as you needed me to be.”

“I asked you to come this time, didn't I?”

“Only because some of your favorites couldn't come along, like Bobby Lee.”

I didn't know what to say to that, because he was right.

“We're staying,” Dev said.

“We're all staying,” Fortune said.

“Nolan says that Van Cleef isn't directly involved in this one; do you believe him?” I directed this question at Edward.

“Yes, I do,” he said, but not like he was happy about it.

“Then we stay, solve the vampire problem, and we help Nolan work the kinks out of his new unit, and then we go home.”

“You don't understand, Anita. Just because this isn't Van Cleef's unit doesn't mean it's not his handiwork.”

“What difference does that make?” I asked.

“It means nothing is simple, nothing is what it seems, and the monsters won't be the only ones we're fighting against.”

“Come on . . . Ted, you know I bring my own monsters to the party.”

“If half of what I read in your file is true, Blake, you are one of the monsters.”

“Don't believe everything you read, Nolan.”

“I thought monsters were taller,” Donahue said, smiling at me.

“The rest of us are all taller than Anita,” Dev said, smiling back at her.

Donahue frowned, then looked at all of them. “So you're all monsters?”

“Oh, yes,” Kaazim said, “we are all monsters.”