Reawakening (28 page)

Geoffrey had done countless deplorable and heinous things over his lifetime and he was under no false illusions that his current attempts to right some of the wrongs he’d helped create would absolve him in either the lords’ eyes or his own. Since he’d discovered the level of Xavier’s depravity, whenever the opportunity presented itself, he’d tried to do the right thing. Shit, there were untold lives he’d tried to save and things he’d done that he hadn’t even told the lords about yet. Because a martyr he definitely was not. But he’d spend the rest of his life, what was left of it, trying to atone for his sins. A vamp had to start somewhere, right?

“Damian, we all know your feelings, but we have business to conduct here and like it or not, we need him,” Rom stated flatly.

Yes, they did need him.

The last twenty-four hours had been spent tracking down information on not only the inner workings of the transportation system Xavier had so intricately weaved together, but the astonishing revelation around the chemicals used in the vamps bloodings, and he was exhausted. It took a lot of effort to hold someone’s form when he mimicked and he’d done it countless times over the last day. So much so, that he’d had to break down and feed from the vein of another female, who was
not
his Moira, so he could continue his efforts. He’d been nearly unable to stomach it. The only way he could get through it was to close his eyes and envision it was Beth’s sweet nectar running down his throat.

“Update us,” Rom commanded.

He bristled but kept it under wraps. He was fucking tired of being ordered around like a dog, but the last thing he needed to do was piss off an entire room of immensely powerful vamps who would just as sooner see his head severed from his body than leave him breathing.

“The human scientists have created a super growth hormone that not only speeds development of the children at an alarming rate, but also seems to give them the bulk, size and skills of an advanced vampire.

“They were successful at developing this formula fifteen years ago and first started experimenting at fifteen and twenty, the second and third bloodings. Just in the last six years they’ve extended those experiments to the babes, but only the ones kept in two smaller locations. They’ve been tweaking the potency to where they can now develop a full-grown vampire within six years’ time, but it has less than a thirty-percent success rate, which is why they don’t inject all the babes, only a small percentage of them. And most disturbingly, the next iteration, they have developed, are for full-blooded vamps to bring them into full power well before age one hundred.”

There was one far more disturbing thing he’d discovered that had been developed decades ago, but he needed to vet that out a bit further before divulging to this group. Because if it were true, it made what he’d just shared seem like a bouquet of freshly cut roses about ready to bloom.

“Christ,” Damian breathed. The look he shot Geoffrey would make lesser vampires cower. “You knew about this, didn’t you, fucker?”

Geoffrey held his glare with one of his own. “No. I did not. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, but not one vampire is privy to everything, including me. I suspected something was going on, yes, and that’s what I’ve been working to uncover so I could shut it down. But until this week, I’ve been unable to find anything concrete.

“Xavier has singlehandedly created a very complex and siloed system. All locations work in isolation from each other and, no one, vamp or human alike, are even aware there are but one or two additional compounds. Babes are taken from their mothers after birth and are moved from place to place. That was all part of the ruse, of course, to throw everyone off.”

“And how could children be transported from various places without someone figuring this out before?” Devon asked.

That’s what had taken Geoffrey a while to uncover. “Of course Xavier won’t let the humans leave the compounds, so vamps have to transport the children. As I said, everyone involved has only a couple pieces of the puzzle. Let’s say vamp one moves babe one from location one to location three. Vamp one is only ever privy to locations one and three. When it’s time to move babe one to another location, vamp two steps in and moves from location three to location two, for example. Vamp one knows nothing about location two and vamp two knows nothing of location one.”

“Unbelievable,” Damian muttered.

“There’s more. The reason it’s taken me so long to piece things together is because Xavier is as paranoid as a conspiracy theorist. He’s been moving compounds.”

“Christ,” Ren spat. “This just keeps getting worse and worse. How are we supposed to catch a fucking ghost?”

“It’s complex, yes. But I think we can all agree at this point that we’ll simply need to develop a strategy based on what we know
today
and pull the trigger. Cut off the head, the snake will die. So our primary objective is the fucking head, but we’ll decimate as much of the body as possible and have to deal with what’s left afterward. Circo, review what you’ve put together,” said Romaric.

“There are one hundred twelve women spread out among fourteen locations. Each compound is noted on your maps as W one through W fourteen and as you can see, they are spread out in fourteen different states. The other seven locations are boarding houses for the children, eighty-nine heads in total, if the records are accurate. On your maps, the locations marked I one and I two appear to be only for the infants, as Geoffrey already discussed, and there are only a dozen infants between the two. At some point, they spread them out to the locations marked I three-I seven. Between all twenty-one locations, there are also between two and fifteen other humans. That information is a little more sketchy.”

“We have to hit all locations at once in order to take Xavier by surprise,” Ren said. “And that’s going to be pretty fucking hard to do, given they are all in different states.”

“Does Xavier have a witch?” Devon asked, looking at him.

Devon would probably kill him on the spot if he found out who was helping Geoffrey, so he simply nodded. “But she is in
my
pocket and that’s all you need to know.”

“I decide what I need to know, rogue. And we need to understand how powerful this witch is and if she’s going to fuck you, and consequently us, over.”

“She won’t. She’s trying to right as many wrongs as I am.”

The tension in the room increased and Geoffrey felt the not too subtle power Devon and Damian painfully threw his way. He internally grimaced, not wanting to show any outward sign of weakness.

“So with all of the intel now gathered, why do we need you any longer?” Damian snarled.

“Who said you have
all
the intel?” Probably not the smartest retort, but, Jesus, that vamp got under his skin. If the lords wanted to ensure Xavier was destroyed, along with the compounds, they’d best keep him alive because only he would know his schedule.

The smile Damian gave him was pure evil. “I’m getting hard at the thought of killing you, rogue.”

He scoffed. “I can’t wait to see you try.”

Romaric interrupted. “Christ, Damian. Set aside your ambivalence for once. Geoffrey’s still on the inside and is our best chance at tracking Xavier’s whereabouts. We need to be absolutely certain that he’s killed in this next raid, because I, for one, am tired of chasing his sick fucking ass all over the goddamn country and worrying about our mates.”

Yes, Geoffrey had not missed the brand spanking new mating mark around Rom’s left thumb, and now that he’d found his own Moira and could do nothing about it, seeing Rom’s made him unreasonably jealous. And he didn’t like that feeling one goddamn bit.

“We need a few days to pull together enough resources for the raid,” Devon said, looking at Geoffrey pointedly. “And to make sure we have all of the information necessary to kill this fucker once and for all.”

Geoffrey nodded sharply. Once his suspicions were confirmed, he’d have no choice but to divulge the other compound, because of anything more critical than destroying Xavier, destroying this place was a close second. And the clock was ticking, because Xavier expected something concrete regarding the lords or his daughters within the next few days, so he was going to have to come up with something creative to buy himself more time.

As they dispersed and he steeled himself to meet with Xavier next. He prayed to a God he didn’t believe in that they could end this once and for all.

And he would finally be free.

Chapter 46

Mike

“When are you coming back?” Jake asked. Same question, different day. Since he’d taken his “leave of absence” several months back, they’d met up regularly to shoot the shit and throw back a few beers. They’d hung out occasionally when they were partners, but hadn’t socialized too often, and he now had to wonder why he hadn’t let Jake in before now.

But he knew. Mike had made a sport out of keeping people from getting too close to him. Jake always tried and Mike always pushed back. And no one had gotten past those roadblocks … until Giselle. She’d changed him in ways she didn’t even realize.

He wanted to be a better man.
For her.

He wanted to get his shit together.
For her.

And he desperately wanted to unburden himself from this fucking boulder of revenge that had been weighing him down like a permanent set of cement shoes for the last eleven years.
For both of them.

He loved being a cop. It was in his blood, but he’d been doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Danger.

Revenge.

Guilt.

Mainly guilt. A feeble attempt to make up for his past transgressions with regards to Jamie. So he wasn’t sure he was ever going back.

“I don’t know, man,” he finally responded.

“What the fuck do you do all day? Eat bon bons and watch soap operas?”

Jake didn’t know anything about vampires. There were days he longed for that ignorance again, but those days were now further apart, because had it not been for vamps, he never would have met the woman he was now head-over-heels in love with. Even if she didn’t feel the same way.

Not for the first time he had to wonder if what had happened with Jamie had somehow led him to Giselle. And that guilt tore him apart inside because she’d suffered so much at the hands of the devil himself.

“Pretty much. Young and the Restless is getting pretty good. Billy’s daughter got killed in a hit and run by none other than his wife’s brother, Adam. Now Adam’s gone missing, presumed dead, but he’s not. They never recovered the body. It’s some twisted shit, bro.”

Jake gaped at him. “Wow … you’ve really gone and grown a pussy.”

He laughed. “I’ve always had one. I’m just embracing it now.”

“Waitress!” Jake yelled. When she sauntered over to their table, in her too low cut tiny white tee and almost indecent black skirt, Jake ordered. “Two shots, please. Wild Turkey. This guy’s dick clearly needs regrown. And keep ’em comin’ sweetheart.”

He hated this dingy, dirty bar, which some stupid fuck with absolutely no creativity had named
The Bar
, but it was within three blocks of his house, so it was a quick walk home. Old habits die hard. Cop or not, he wasn’t about to get behind the wheel after having even a couple of beers. And definitely not after shooters. Plus, they did have decent live music, which was playing a little too loudly in the background.

He enjoyed his guys’ night with Jake, but he was also here avoiding one pissed off female. Giselle had called and texted him several times in the last day, but he’d not returned any of them. And he’d kept conveniently away from his house because he had no doubt she would probably stalk him there. And if he ran into her tonight, he hoped to be too drunk to care if she rebutted him again.

A pussy move? Perhaps. But she’d seriously pissed him off when he’d woken up the other day to find her gone. After he’d laid his soul bare, making himself more vulnerable than he’d ever been in his entire life. And he wanted her to suffer a little, like she’d made him suffer.

Yes, he was a vindictive asshole. Or a fucking fraidy cat. Take your pick.

“To our dicks,” Jake toasted, holding up his shot glass.

“May they grow,” he cheerfully replied before throwing the burning whiskey back.

Half an hour and four shots later, all heads turned toward the entrance when a simply stunning curvy blonde walked in wearing clothes that were a man’s wet dream. And his fuzzy brain was immediately on alert. This beautiful, and deadly, creature with the arresting green eyes and porcelain skin was clearly vampire.

A sharp slap to his pec by his former partner’s hand had him wincing. “Holy fuck. Who the hell is that, bro?”

Someone who’s looking for a tasty liquid meal
.

“How the hell should I know? This isn’t fucking
Cheers
where everybody knows your name.” Although Charlie, the bartender, and two of the waitresses knew his pretty goddamned well.

“Dude, she’s coming over here,” Jake whispered excitedly.

Great.

She-vamp sat at their table without invitation. Christ, the gall of vampires irritated the fuck out of him. She may come wrapped in pretty packaging, but she was venomous and deadly as a rattlesnake hiding in the brush, waiting to strike and kill its unsuspecting, innocent victim.

“Buy me a drink,” her silken voice purred to Jake. A demand. Not a question.

Before Mike could tell her to pound sand, Jake piped up. Clearly his dick was enjoying the potent whiskey. “What’s your poison, doll?”

Mike could hardly contain the eye roll. There were so many things wrong with that question he couldn’t even begin to count.

Her gaze flicked to the more than a half dozen empty small glasses sitting in front of them and back to Jake. “Looks like I need to catch up. I’ll have what you’re having.”

Jake tried flagging down the waitress, but she was clearly enjoying the ass fondling currently being given to her by the tatted, wife-beater wearing biker dude two tables over, so Jake went to the bar himself to retrieve the shots.