Chapter 29
"Quinn vouches for him?" Samson contemplated Gabriel's words.
"He's diligent and ambitious."
"Fine, let's do it," Samson agreed. "Call Quinn and fill him in. Now, we need to keep Zane occupied. Do we have a desk job we can park him at?"
Gabriel shook his head. "Nothing open. I could s.h.i.+ft people around though, unless-" He scratched his head before he continued, "We just got this babysitting job in."
"Babysitting?" Amaury echoed.
"I've gotta hear that," Thomas mumbled under his breath.
"Couple of vampires, moved here about six months ago. A father with his hybrid daughter. She's friends with G's daughter. Goes to USF. Her father is leaving for a business trip for two to three weeks and needs us to babysit her twenty-four-seven."
"She goes to college and needs a babysitter? Where's her mother?" Samson asked.
"Died in a car accident six months ago."
"But the girl is what, eighteen, nineteen?" Amaury asked, confusion pasted on his handsome features as he swept his shoulder length black hair back.
"Twenty, almost twenty-one," Gabriel reported. "But according to her father, she's a wild one: parties, guys, alcohol, the works. She's acting out since her mother's death. He fears she's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He's very concerned about her and worried about leaving her alone. She's liable to hurt herself."
"So what does he want us to do?" Samson asked.
"Watch her and keep her away from any bad influence. No parties, no boys, etc. Piece of cake. I've put Oliver on the days.h.i.+ft. It'll be an easy job for him to take on and get his feet wet."
Samson nodded. "I suppose I can't keep him as my personal a.s.sistant forever. He's got lots of potential." Oliver, a human, had worked as his daytime a.s.sistant for over three years, almost four.
"He'll do well. His a.s.signment starts at daybreak."
"Aren't you guys overlooking something important?" Amaury interrupted.
Samson gave him a questioning look. "Oliver is well-trained. You've seen him in action. He's a great bodyguard. He's protected Delilah many times, and you know I would never provide my wife with sub-standard safety."
"Yes, but your wife is human. This charge is a hybrid. She's stronger than Oliver."
Samson nodded. "I'm fully aware of that. But we can't put a vampire on the days.h.i.+ft. You know that as well as I do. And unfortunately, we don't have a hybrid on staff. They're still too rare. It'll have to be a human."
"And what if she outsmarts him and uses mind control to slip away?" Amaury challenged, not letting the subject rest.
Samson ran his hand through his hair, but was saved from answering when Thomas cleared his voice.
"Samson, do I have your permission to tell them?"
Samson met Thomas's gaze. Vampires themselves weren't subject to mind control, in fact, it would result in a mental fight to the death if two vampires unleashed mind control on each other. However, Thomas had recently figured something out. "Go ahead, Thomas."
"This is still in its early stages of experimentation, but Oliver and I have been working together over the last few weeks."
"What experimentation?" Gabriel asked tightly, clearly miffed that he had not been informed.
"I'm trying to teach him how to resist mind control."
Gabriel gasped. Amaury seemed unaffected by the revelation.
"But how?" Gabriel wanted to know.
"As you all know, mind control is my specialty. So, I've been trying to examine the underlying physical properties to figure out whether there's a way for a human to be able to recognize mind control at its onset, and then break the vampire's concentration."
"You can't be serious!" Gabriel jumped up. "If this works, then..."
"I know what you're thinking, Gabriel," Thomas said calmly, "but this will not become public knowledge. Only our most trusted humans, only the inner core, will know about it. I had the idea when Amaury told me that Nina was immune to his mind control even before they bonded."
Amaury nodded. "And what a pain in the b.u.t.t that was."
Thomas grinned. "As if you would have it any other way."
"You knew about this?" Gabriel asked.
Amaury shrugged. "What Nina knows, I know."
Joking aside, I've had long conversations with Nina to figure out what she felt when Amaury was trying to use his powers on her. And I'm making progress with Oliver. He's very smart and strong willed. That helps."
"So, can he fend off mind control?" Gabriel asked impatiently.
"Not fully and consistently, but I've seen moments in him, where I could feel his mind pus.h.i.+ng against my power. He's getting there."
"In any case," Samson interrupted, "we have no choice about putting a human on the days.h.i.+ft. I'd rather have Oliver do this than any of the other human guards. I trust him. He won't disappoint us."
Gabriel nodded. "And Zane? Do you think this will work?"
Samson contemplated Gabriel's words. The a.s.signment sounded low-risk and low-stress. "How difficult can guarding a twenty-year old girl be?" He caught Amaury's doubtful look. "What?"
"He's gonna flip a lid when he hears that." Then he grinned. "Can't wait to see it."
Thomas nudged him. "You're such a troublemaker, Amaury." Then he looked straight at Samson. "Let's just hope it won't backfire and blow up in our faces."
"We'll keep a tight leash on him," Samson said.
From the corridor, voices drifted to them, mingled with the yapping of a dog. A moment later, the door opened without a knock and Delilah stormed in, a yellow Labrador puppy in her arms.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I just had to show you, Samson." Her face glowed.
Behind her, Yvette and her mate Haven appeared. "Hi, guys."
Yvette looked stunning as ever, and the fact that she had traded her spiky short haircut for long dark locks, made her look softer and more feminine. Haven, the bounty hunter she'd saved from an evil witch, was responsible for Yvette allowing her feminine side to emerge. After Yvette had turned him into a vampire to save his life, Haven had blood-bonded with her. Yet, so far, he hadn't joined their ranks at Scanguards. Samson hoped that he would do so one day. An ex-bounty hunter would be a great a.s.set.
"Hey Yvette, Haven," Samson and his friends responded. "What's going on?"
"Look what Yvette gave us for Isabelle! One of the puppies. She'll have her own puppy to play with." Delight shone in Delilah's face, and Samson's heart expanded. G.o.d, how he loved this woman. He'd never been happier in his entire life.
"Isabelle will love it." He stroked his hand over the puppy's soft head, and the dog licked him enthusiastically. Then he nodded
Yvette smiled. "We have four more, so-" She looked into the round. "-if anybody wants one..."
Amaury's face suddenly lit up. "Actually-" He winked at Samson who instantly caught on to his oldest friend's thinking. "-I think we have another taker. Don't you agree, Samson?"
Samson smirked. "I was just thinking the same thing."
Zane set the two fifty-pound dumbbells on the ground before dropping down next to them. One arm behind his back, he pushed off the floor with the other and started counting. Push-up after punis.h.i.+ng push-up, he performed until sweat dripped from his naked torso. His gym shorts were soaked, but he kept pus.h.i.+ng himself. Forty-nine, fifty. He changed arms and started counting anew.
His body was on auto-pilot, his muscles tearing and repairing themselves as he continued his grueling workout. Tonight, he couldn't stop. His usual two hours of extreme physical exertion weren't enough, because the rage that still ran through his veins like acid demanded that he hurt somebody. And tonight this somebody was Zane.
By the time he counted to fifty, a pool of sweat had collected on the mat beneath him. Zane rose and reached for the jump rope that hung on the wall.
When he moved to San Francisco, the first thing he did was to equip his private gym even before he'd had a bed delivered. Sleeping wasn't important to him. He rarely needed more than three to four hours a day, which left him with plenty of daylight hours during which he was confined inside.
And even during those three or four hours he slept, a part of him remained alert, always listening for danger, aware that just as he was hunting his enemy, the enemy could be hunting him. Because he was the only survivor left who could destroy the man who had escaped justice: Dr. Franz Mller. He'd memorized the name and face just as he'd committed the names and faces of Mller's colleagues to memory: Andreas Schmidt, dead; Volker Brandt, dead; Mathias Arenberg, dead; and Erich Wolpers, dead.
Zane's hands curled tightly around the handles of his jump rope as he remembered their last moments. Brandt had squealed like a pig when he'd found Zane standing over him with murder in his eyes. He'd made sure that his victim remembered who he was and why Zane had come after him before he'd killed him. Not that Brandt needed much of a reminder: Zane hadn't changed a bit since Brandt had seen him last, and it only took seconds for him to recognize his erstwhile prisoner. He remembered how he'd enjoyed the fear that had emanated from Brandt. He could smell it even now, and the scent filled him with satisfaction. But the four men he'd executed had played minor roles in his torture compared to what Mller had done. Their leader, Mller, was still on the run.
Maybe it would be smart if Samson simply fired him. At least then, Zane wouldn't be accountable to anybody and could devote every minute of the day and night to tracking down Mller. But as quickly as the thought came, Zane dismissed it.
Scanguards was his rock. He wasn't suicidal enough to let go of the support they provided him with. Just as he wasn't going to admit to any of them that he needed them to survive, the way he needed blood.
Zane hung the rope back in its place after counting one hundred jumps. He was about to lie down on the bench for more bench presses when a sound disturbed the silence in his bas.e.m.e.nt.
He listened, remaining motionless and forcing himself to stop breathing. A few seconds pa.s.sed before the sound repeated: footsteps sounded on the front stairs leading up to the entrance door.
Zane glanced at the clock on the wall. It was shortly past four in the morning and still dark outside. s.n.a.t.c.hing a towel from the rack on the wall, he hastily dried his upper body and headed for the stairs. His bare feet made no noise on the cold floor as he made his way to the main floor of his two-story house. He skipped the last step, knowing that it creaked, and planted his feet on the landing.
He peered through the darkness in the foyer. Not wanting to draw attention to the odd hours he was keeping, he was in the habit of never switching on lights unless he needed them. He was glad for it now since the darkness around him protected him.
The footsteps were gone. Had the person left, or was the unwelcome visitor still out there, planning to ambush him if he stepped outside to investigate?
Zane moved closer to the door and inhaled deeply, trying to pick up the scent of the person who'd walked up his stairs, but the door was too thick and too well insulated to allow his sensitive nose to pick up anything beyond the smell of his own sweat. f.u.c.k, he needed a shower.
Not a sound came from the outside. Was he perhaps too much on the edge lately that he'd started hearing things? It wouldn't surprise him. h.e.l.l, half the time he was in a world where the edges between reality and fantasy were blurred. Maybe he'd finally lost his grip.
Cursing himself for his stupid thoughts, he reached for the doork.n.o.b and turned it. There was only one way to figure out what was going on out there: confront whatever f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d was trespa.s.sing on his property.
Zane jerked the door open and barreled down the five steps that led to the sidewalk. At the bottom, he pivoted, facing the house. The entire action had taken less than a second. His eyes a.s.sessed the situation instantly. No attacker was waiting for him. The area was empty. Only the faint smell of a vampire lingered.
He drew in another breath and took the scent into his lungs: Yvette. What the f.u.c.k had she wanted, and why hadn't she rung the doorbell like any decent visitor? Annoyed that his workout routine had been interrupted, he stormed back up the stairs when another scent hit his nostrils.
His head veered to the left side of the door where a little niche housed a broom to sweep the stairs and driveway. Tonight, said broom wasn't alone. To its left stood a small cage. From it came the scent that had drifted his way. Zane hunched down and looked inside when the caged animal let out a whining yelp. A dog, more precisely a puppy, was now yapping away at him, his nose pressed against the metal grid.
"Shut up! You're gonna wake up the whole f.u.c.king neighborhood."
But the dog kept on barking, clearly unaware who he was dealing with.
"Ah, s.h.i.+t!" Zane grabbed the handle on top of the cage and carried it inside the house, shutting the door behind him. As he flipped the switch to illuminate the foyer, he noticed a note card stuck to the side of the cage that had faced the wall before. He pried it off and read it.
'My name is Zane, and I'm yours.'
He recognized the handwriting, too. That f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h! She was offloading one of her puppies on him. She should have had her dog spayed if she didn't want to deal with a litter. And the gall she had to even name one of the useless creatures after him! He was ready to take Yvette's head off!
He would return this unwanted present as soon as he'd had a shower. She wouldn't get away with this c.r.a.p. No wonder she hadn't rung the doorbell, because she knew that he would have tossed her down the stairs, cage in hand.
"That's right," he muttered.
The dog yelped, and his big brown eyes lifted and looked straight at him.
"What do you want?" he barked back.
The puppy's paw nudged against the grid.
"No, I'm not letting you out of the cage. You're gonna p.i.s.s all over my house." He gave the dog a stern look, making him understand that he meant it. He wouldn't be manipulated like that.
Zane set the cage on the sideboard in the hallway and headed for the bathroom. The dog instantly yowled in the most miserable way he'd ever heard an animal cry.
"Ah, s.h.i.+t!" he cursed and turned back to the cage. He released the lock and opened the grid door. He reached for the dog and pulled him out, fully intent on setting him down on the floor so he could roam around. But when he felt the soft fur of the Labrador puppy beneath his fingers, Zane instinctively brought the animal to his chest and stroked his hand over its back. The dog turned his head and licked Zane's hairless chest.
Some of his anger dissipated. He couldn't really blame the dog for Yvette's actions. "And don't think I'm gonna keep you. It's just for the day." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "I won't have enough time to get you to Yvette's and back here before sunrise." He could if he rushed, but he wasn't in the mood right now.
The dog gave a soft woof as if he understood.
"And I'm not calling you Zane." He'd call him Z, but only for today. Tomorrow night he'd return the dog to Yvette and be done with it.
As he walked into the kitchen to get the dog a bowl of water, his phone rang. He grabbed the receiver next to the fridge and answered it. "Yes?"
"I believe you've found your gift by now," Samson said nonchalantly.
"I ain't keeping him. You can tell Yvette. She'll take that f.u.c.king dog back tomorrow or I'll dropkick him down her street."
The dog made puppy eyes at him, and Zane rubbed his thumb along his ear. Little Z probably had dirt for brains anyway and didn't understand a single word he said, so why did he get the sense that he'd just hurt the dog's feelings?
"He's part of the package, so treat him nicely, and that's an order."
Zane grunted.
"And a file with details of your next a.s.signment is in his cage. You'll report tomorrow after sunset to relieve Oliver. Good luck."
A click in the line confirmed that Samson had disconnected the call, giving Zane no chance to comment. He slammed the receiver down.
"a.s.shole!"
The dog yelped. "Not you!" Zane stroked his hand over the dog's head and snout. Instantly, the dog rolled sideways in his arms, exposing his belly. Zane got the hint and rubbed his knuckles along the dog's fur.