Omega (33 page)

Randa cleared her throat. “This all sounds good, but one thing hasn’t been mentioned. What happens to Penton? What happens to Matthias sitting up there in the ruins of our clinic, in the ruins of our town, waiting to kill us all?”

The silence that followed her questions lingered a good thirty or forty seconds. Cage tipped his chair back and thought about it. He wanted Melissa to get her life back, as near as she could, and that meant rebuilding Penton into a safe place.

His heart sped up, and he let his front chair legs hit the floor with a thud. Damn it, that was the answer.

“Melissa,” he said. “Melissa and Glory can talk to the Tribunal. And Krys. They’ve all been victims of Matthias’s vendetta. If they go with Aidan to talk to the Tribunal—behind Matthias’s back, of course—it will help sway them to our side. Between this potential solution and the testimonies, we might not destroy Matthias, but the Tribunal can keep him away from us.”

Mirren flopped back in his chair and grinned at Cage. He was such a sourpuss that when he did grin, it was sort of unsettling. “And make the pardon of all our so-called crimes a condition of the whole deal. This could be fucking brilliant.”

The colonel grinned, and his happy face also was kind of unsettling.

“Let’s make plans, then,” Aidan said. “I’ll slip out to Atlanta with Krys, Glory, and Mel and set up a meeting with whatever Tribunal members I can. If Omega’s been compromised, getting out could be a challenge, but we don’t have any choice. Mirren, you should probably come as well; they need to see you looking all happy and cooperative.”

He gave Mirren his stubborn, authoritative look, and the big man shrugged. “Whatever.”

“I’ll start calling my team,” Rick said. “Robbie, make a list of the guys you think are best suited to learning about vampires and taking on a new kind of project. We’ll want them in place here in Penton within forty-eight hours. Mr. Reynolds, can you and Randa and Will work with my team on the proper way to kill a vampire?”

Bloody hell
. The enormity of what they were doing hit Cage like a semi to the forehead. They’d have to share tactics, however. No way around it. This was going to require a lot of trust on both sides and, especially in the beginning, a lot of blind
faith. “I will,” he said. He just hoped these new humans, whoever they were, didn’t want to practice on him.

Randa nodded. “Me too.”

When Will didn’t answer, everyone turned to look at him. “I think there’s something else I need to be doing while all these negotiations and meetings take place.” He lifted his gaze to Aidan’s, and some unspoken words seem to pass between them.

Randa reached over and touched Will’s arm, her expression asking the question for all of them. Cage had wondered how much their relationship had progressed, and the possessiveness of that touch, and the way they looked at each other, told him everything. They might not even realize it themselves yet, but another Penton lieutenant was about to go off the market of eligible bachelors.

Aidan nodded. “I don’t like it, Will. Not at all. But you’re right.”

“Right about what?” Randa asked, looking around the table, looking fierce and ready to kick some butt. “What is it Will needs to do?”

“We need to keep Matthias busy so Aidan and the others can get out of here safely to meet with the Tribunal. It also might prevent him from taking another strike at Omega while we get everything in place.”

Will spoke to everyone, but he looked only at Randa.

“I’m going to give my father something he really, really wants. Me.”

“Y
ou really think you need to pack a bag to take with you into martyrdom?” Randa slammed the door into the hallway after following Will into their room. The sharp crack of the door settling into its frame sapped her anger and filled her instead with cold fear.

Will set down the small bag into which he’d thrown a few clothes. “I have to do this, Ran. I’m the only one who can keep Matthias occupied and away from Omega long enough for your dad and Aidan to do what they need to do.”

He tried to slide his arms around her waist and pull her to him, but he wasn’t going to charm his way out of this one.

“Will, you don’t have to prove anything. You took Shelton out. Your dad is going to lose his power over us. We can handle anything he tries to do to us in the next forty-eight hours while my dad and Aidan get everything set up.”

“I know that, but—”

“I’m not finished.” She shoved both hands against his chest, causing him to take a couple of steps back to keep his balance.
“We can’t assume they’re going to be successful. What if the negotiations don’t work? What if none of Dad’s men agree to it and we have to go out and try to erase all their memories—if we get to them before word about vampires starts spreading? What if the Tribunal can’t get enough support? What if they see it as a threat and don’t agree to it? Then you’re stuck with your father and I couldn’t…”

He ignored her protests and tugged her against him, his arms warm, his hands rubbing her back like one would comfort a frightened child. “You couldn’t what?”

She couldn’t stand it, that’s what. She couldn’t live in Penton without him. She couldn’t stand to think of Matthias touching him, belittling him, maybe rebreaking the pieces of his heart he’d finally started mending.

“I couldn’t stand breaking in a new partner.” The hard words cleared her mind. What was she doing, acting like a helpless little woman begging her soldier not to go to war? Her heart settled back into its normal vampire rhythm, and she knew she’d never let him go into this alone. He’d once knocked her out to keep her from following him on a job. This time she’d play it differently.

“You’d manage. Besides, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” He cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her, his tongue mimicking the rhythm of what they didn’t have time for. He was pressed hard against her, and she slipped her hand down to stroke him.

He groaned. “I can’t believe you’re sending me off to meet my father with a hard-on.”

She squeezed him hard enough to hurt and got a satisfying
oof
in response. “That’s to remind you what you’re leaving behind.”

“Just for a while. Promise.” He kissed her again, then leaned over and picked up his leather bag. He looked back at her as he opened the door into the hallway. “Stay safe.”

“You too.” She’d see him again before he imagined it, but first, she had some more good-byes.

After Will disappeared up the ladder of the Omega exit, Randa walked down the hallway to the common room, where a dozen people, vampire and human, sat scattered around the chairs, watching Hannah play with the bloodhound.

She looked up when Randa approached. “Thank you for bringing Barnabas to me.” The child vampire had never looked more human—and hadn’t looked this happy in a while. In fact, Randa realized, as she glanced around the common room, almost everyone wore a smile, even Cage.

“I can’t believe we never thought about getting a dog.” She settled into the chair next to him and watched for a while, wondering if he was house-trained. Too late to worry about that now. “Why Barnabas?”

Cage grinned. “She’s been watching
Dark Shadows
DVDs on Will’s laptop.”

The Penton people’s endless fascination with pop culture’s interpretations of vampires had always amused her. Before Matthias had ruined everything, the
Twilight
movies had been playing back-to-back for over a month at the little walk-in theater downtown. She’d gone a couple of times and laughed as people quoted lines of dialogue with the movie and howled at the glittering vampires. It was like the vampire version of humans doing Saturday midnight viewings of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
.

The thought of Matthias, however, reminded her of why she was here. “Cage, I have to tell you something, but you can’t
breathe a word to Aidan or Mirren or my dad. I’ll be having this same conversation with Robbie.”

He settled moss-green eyes on her, such an unusual color, almost like a dark jade. “When are you going?”

How had he known? “Going where?”

“Don’t be coy, and don’t look so surprised. I figured once you got used to the idea of Will turning himself in to distract his father, you wouldn’t stop him—you’d follow him.”

Hmph
. Sometimes Cage was too damn smart. “You won’t tell?”

“Nope. It’s a good idea.” He watched Hannah holding up Barnabas’s long, floppy ears like they were pigtails. “But be careful and don’t underestimate Will. He’s proven that he’s a survivor.”

“I’m not underestimating Will. I just don’t want to underestimate Matthias.” Randa looked at her watch. “Will can scent me following him if I go too soon. I’ll see the others off, then try to find what Matthias has done with him before dawn. I might have to spend daysleep somewhere else, though.”

She took a deep breath and asked the question no one had verbalized. “Do you think Matthias will kill him?” She thought he might, if Will provoked him enough. Not fast, though. He’d try to break him first. He’d try to break him
again
.

“I don’t think so, unless Will’s mouth gets the better of him and he pushes too hard. My guess is that Matthias will lock him in the suite beneath the clinic where he had Melissa.” Cage lowered his voice as Mirren and Aidan walked past, deep in conversation.

“I’d try to access it from Aidan’s greenhouse. There was a cave-in, but the exit room is clear, and you might be able to tunnel through it. You could even spend your daysleep in the
exit room there. Just be careful. Matthias is staying across the street, and they know about that tunnel. But you’d never be able to get at Will from the clinic side. Why don’t you take Robbie with you?”

“You’re going to need him here.” Randa had thought about taking Robbie, but she didn’t know if the guys on the future Omega Force, whoever they were, would accept the existence of vampires, much less training with Cage. Robbie needed to be there to smooth the way.

This had to be a solo mission for her.

“Anything else I need to know?”

Cage watched Hannah a few minutes without responding, but finally answered. “I think when I’m not working with your brother and his team, I’ll get a crew to start excavating a path through the exit room under the church. I don’t think they’re watching it anymore. If you guys can’t get away through the greenhouse, go there.”

He thought a few minutes longer. “One more thing.”

Randa saw her father and brother heading toward them and knew it had to be quick. “What?”

“Look for a human kid named Evan who’s locked in the clinic if you get a chance—Shelton’s latest victim. And if you get a chance to take Matthias out without risking yourself or Will, do it.”

M
atthias poured a glass of scotch and set it atop the clinic office desk, rubbed his temples, and focused again on contacting Shelton mentally. The lazy sod was either out of range or ignoring him, and neither of those was going to win him his little boy back.

Maybe he’d gone too far with the beatings, but Shelton had been getting obsessed with his little blood-junkie feeder and unfocused on his business—namely, doing whatever Matthias wanted.

Shelton’s last fuckup had been dropping the ball on the dog situation, and Matthias couldn’t let it pass unpunished. All he’d been asked to do was make sure Billy Joe Mickler and his bloodhound arrived, direct them to the area where one of his patrollers had scented Cage Reynolds, and then return to Penton. Instead, he’d never come back, and after making some phone calls, Matthias learned Mickler and his dog were both missing. Had Shelton been killed?

Matthias pushed up the sleeves of his sweater and rubbed his eyes. He’d never paid much attention to his blood bonds with
his people, but he couldn’t sense the bond with Shelton. Had it recently disappeared? Or had it never been strong enough to detect? No answers, but if he found out the weasel was ignoring him, a beating would be the least of his worries.

There was one good piece of news, though. Those two fanged morons he’d put on patrol duty near the poisoned spring had run into some of Murphy’s scathe. One of them had been killed, but the other had made it back to Matthias.