Bonded by Blood

chapter TWELVE

“NERVOUS?” DOM HANDED Lily the projector remote as everyone in the field office’s conference room took their seats around the huge mahogany table.

She tried imagining everyone in their underwear, but since she’d seen several of them naked anyway, the trick didn’t do much to calm her jittery stomach. Especially considering she was on live with all the other North American Regions, as well.

“A little. I’ve just never spoken to this many people before.” Not everyone knew how she had gotten the job at the Agency, so at least some of them might think she had something worthwhile to tell them. And for those who did know, she just hoped they’d keep their mouths shut and their comments to themselves.

“You’ll do great. You’re the one with the intel, not them. Everyone listening wants to know what you know. Nice suit.” Dom turned to face the group and Lily ran a hand over the light gray wool skirt, the most conservative item of clothing she owned.

“Okay, people. Listen up.” At the sound of Dom’s commanding voice, the side-chatter ceased and all eyes in the room faced forward. Jackson, who’d been crunching ice from his water, swallowed and pushed his glass away. Cordell, Sadie, Mitchell and a couple of fresh-faced rookies she hadn’t met yet—even Santiago—swiveled in their chairs around the large oval table. “Lily, it’s all yours.”

Her black heels clicked on the wood floor as she walked to the podium. “Thanks, Dom. Good afternoon, everyone.” Lifting her chin, she looked into the webcam and knew similar groups all over the country were watching her, as well. “For the next half-hour, I’m going to cover what we know about the current state of Darkblood operations and what we believe to be the direction they’re heading.”

She pressed a button on the remote to start the Power-point presentation and a map of North America popped up on the screen. “Until now, the Darkblood Alliance has been loosely organized into cells in major cities around the world, with the primary purpose of capturing and subsequently draining-slash-killing humans with Sangre Dulce.” She clicked to the next slide.

“The Sweet they collect locally is sold locally. Supply has always been unpredictable and the price high.” A few more clicks, a few more slides. Her nervousness faded away as she explained each image. Yes, she did know her stuff and she slipped into a rhythm.

“My sources tell me there has been tremendous pressure within their organization to figure out a way to increase supply. As you all know, several weeks ago, the Seattle field team uncovered data suggesting the Alliance has moved from haphazard blood collection to a capture and release operation. Instead of kidnapping the sweetbloods they stumble upon to drain them of their blood, they’re now recording the whereabouts of those with Sangre Dulce. They do a catch, drain, and memory wipe, then return these people to their regular lives to be available for another round of draining later. As you can imagine, it requires a tremendous amount of restraint not to kill them.”

While everyone in the room nodded their heads and made sounds of agreement, Dom sat stiff and frozen in his chair, eyes fixed on his clasped hands, probably thinking about how he’d nearly killed Mackenzie. Yeah, he knew from experience it was hard.

“Of course, some may still die in the process, but this new course of action shows their desire to control the flow, pardon my pun, of Sweet.” That got a few laughs, none from Dom, and Lily strolled to the other side of the screen.

“How is this change worse for humans?” someone from the Spokane field asked. “They go from draining and killing to just draining. Capture and release—sounds better to me.”

Dom banged his hand on the table and everyone in the room jumped. “Because they’re still killing. Maybe not the first or second time. But eventually, they’ll slip and people will still die.” He stormed to the front of the conference room to look into the camera. “For a minute, let’s forget about the simple fact that this collection bullshit is wrong, that they’re treating these people like a herd of oblivious cattle, that the experience itself must be terrifying. Let’s just forget about all that for a moment. By increasing the supply of Sweet, more vampires will have access to the stuff. More will get addicted. The Darkblood Alliance will become more powerful.” He pounded his fist again, this time on the podium, and the remote fell to the wood floor with a clatter. “And that is just not acceptable.”

“Fair enough,” Spokane said.

As Dom strode to the back of the conference room, Lily picked up the remote, thankful the thing didn’t break, and clicked through a few more slides, pointing out trends and patterns in each major U.S. city.

“Here in the Seattle office, we’ve not noticed a spike in the supply levels yet due to this new program of theirs. In fact, it’s decreased and we’re not sure why. But it’s just a matter of time until there’s more Sweet on the streets. If they’re doing this here, they’re most likely doing it in your areas. But word has it that this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Although everyone in the local office was quiet, Lily heard mumbling from the other offices through the audio feed. “My source tells me the Alliance is planning something big. Their researchers apparently are looking for a genetic link or marker among known Sangre Dulce.”

“What for?” someone else asked. “You don’t need a test to tell if someone is sweet.”

“We’re not sure,” she answered. “All we know at this point is they’re telling their people to get ready for large influxes of Sweet to hit the market over the next few years.”

“What do you think is going on?” San Diego this time. “With your ears on the inside, you must have some sort of idea.”

Leaning against the edge of the table, she crossed her legs and picked off a piece of imaginary lint from her slim skirt as she collected her thoughts. When she lifted her head to look directly into the camera, in her peripheral vision she saw Dom pacing in the back of the room. This was eating him up.

“Well, although this is purely speculative, my source tells me they want to move from harvesting to creation.”

As voices erupted in the room and over the speakers, Lily’s eyes met Dom’s hardened gaze.

A woman’s clear, crisp voice sounded over the video feed and everyone hushed. “Do you suspect they’re developing a synthetically created Sweet product or are you talking cloning?”

Oh my God, was that Roxanne Reynolds? She was the lead scent-tracker instructor for North America.

Lily looked directly into the small camera. “I’m not sure yet, ma’am. Perhaps, but I’m waiting to hear more details from my contact.” She paused to give Ms. Reynolds a chance to reply, but when the woman said nothing more, Lily cleared her throat and continued. “Until then, we need all of you to keep your eyes and ears open. We don’t know where their research facility is located, but we need to find it soon. My source tells me they’re going online within the next few weeks.”

“So your source claims to know the Alliance is conducting some sort of testing but doesn’t know where?” It was the San Diego field office again, but this time she recognized the skeptical voice.

Her euphoria from having Ms. Reynolds ask a question of her evaporated into irritation. “They’re being tight-lipped within their organization. Apparently only the researchers and Pavlos know the whereabouts. It could be anywhere.”

“How do we know you’re getting accurate information?” the same voice asked. “Maybe they’re trying to distract us from what Serrano uncovered. We’re spread thin, Ms. DeGraff, and they know it. If we’re out looking for a quote unquote testing facility, they’ll be able to conduct their C and R operation with much less interference from us.”

It was a fair enough question, but coming from Gibby, she knew he was trying to trump her, to express his doubt in front of everyone. Did she expect anything different from the a*shole? No, definitely not.

Santiago cleared his throat. “Ms. DeGraff’s source is extremely reliable.” He didn’t bother to identify himself or move in front of the camera. Everyone knew that gravelly voice. He tossed his pencil onto the tabletop and brought his steepled fingers to rest against his mouth, his tall-backed chair squeaking as he leaned back. He appeared relaxed and in control, but Lily knew he was pissed—she saw a glimpse of his fangs and his brown eyes were almost black. He had an unfailing confidence in her source. “We’re not here to question the validity of her intel, Gibson. If you have any issues with that, you take them up with me. Understood?”

Yeah, the guy could be a major dick sometimes, but right now she loved her CO. Knowing the camera still focused on her, she kept her face composed and tried not to let that smug smile play out on her lips as Santiago continued.

“Most likely the tests are being conducted down south, so Serrano is relocating to your area to head up the search teams. Don’t worry. Your region won’t be thin, ours will.”

Dom moved to the front of the room and Lily stepped aside. “Thanks, Lily, for that detailed analysis. In the Seattle field, although we don’t believe the facility to be located up here, we’re putting the known sweetbloods on our patrol swings in order to catch any Darkbloods who show up. You’ll all need to hack into your local Darkblood systems to get their lists of registered sweetbloods. Cordell faxed each field office with instructions. Lily, keep us up-to-date with what your contact tells you and let us know the moment you learn anything new. And when any of you discover any information about the location of their research facility, let us know ASAP. San Diego, I’ll be seeing all of you shortly.”

Lily cut the live feed and wondered how long ago he’d accepted the transfer.