“Ah, nice to meet you,” she added as Rick touched the side of his nose and smiled, clearly recognizing that he’d been outed. She should have known right away. The undead bred their living kin like horses, designing entire family lines to be compliant, mentally flexible, and most definitely beautiful. And Rick was breathtakingly handsome. In his midthirties, he was clearly too old to be a plaything anymore. It would make him smart, ruthless, and very . . . subtle, to have survived this long under his undead master’s attention.
Trisk hadn’t dealt with the undead much. Indeed, apart from elected officials and very old vampires regulating human-Inderland affairs, there was a “you go your way and I go mine” mentality that kept the peace. Showing fear, though, would be a mistake. She knew that much.
“I, uh, wasn’t aware we were getting a new boss,” she added, glancing in at the festivities. “Is Dr. Hartsford okay?”
“He is.” Rick’s lips split to show normal-looking teeth. He was wearing caps over his slightly elongated canines, though nothing would hide the truly long versions he’d get once he died. “You might say you invited me,” he said, head inclined in amusement.
“Really? How so?” Her pulse had quickened, and she didn’t like that he probably knew.
Rick leaned in, and she froze as he whispered, “You need to keep your nose out of human progress.”
Trisk pulled back, hating that she had flushed. “I created a drought-resistant tomato.”
“Your boyfriend’s virus?” he asked, thick eyebrows high.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said quickly, wanting to walk away, but turning her back on him wasn’t an option and might invite him to follow.
Rick breathed deeply, and she wondered if he was tasting the emotions that lingered long after those responsible for them had left. “He wants to be,” he said, voice as soft as black silk, and Trisk felt ill, wishing there were a vampire handbook she could consult. “Play with him. You have a hundred years to make more elves.”
Lips pressed, Trisk took a long step back. No sense of personal space. She knew what he was, and he needed to stop trying to pull an aura on her, which was a polite way of saying trying to charm her into being his blood slave. “Why are you here?”
Immediately Rick lost his avarice, glancing into the lunchroom as if it helped him find a calmer state. “You tweaked his virus,” he accused. “There are elven fingerprints all over it. We are in the government as much as you are, and we know it’s been slated for military use. I’m here to make sure you’re not creating something to further your species at our expense.” His eyes found hers. “You elves are tricky little bastards.”
By our expense, he meant the vampires’, and she found her courage, hands on her hips as she leaned into his space, brave here among the humans as she couldn’t be in a dark alley. He wouldn’t dare bite her to try to bind her to him. Not here. “I may have given him some ideas,” she said, smug as he blinked in surprise at her lack of fear. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. If you’d bother to look at the code, you’ll see that I made everyone immune to it. All of us,” she emphasized. “Not just elves. It’s human specific, right down to its mRNA.”
“Mmmm.” Rick dropped back a step, a hand over his mouth. “I can’t read code.”
Trisk’s expression soured. He couldn’t read code, and yet here he was, the new CEO of Global Genetics. “Only those who share a common ancestor with humans will be affected,” she said. “It’s safe.”
“Vampires share a common ancestor,” Rick said, his suspicions returning.
“I took that into account,” she said. “I was the best in my class, Mr. Rales,” she added, proud of her skills. “Even at artificially high levels, Daniel’s virus will do nothing but make you and anyone else sick. Multiple safeguards keep it tactical. I wouldn’t have even bothered to make us invisible to it, but I didn’t want to take the chance that an immune-depressed elf baby coming out of gene therapy might get a pimple from being exposed. Look, you can talk to my boss if you want,” she said, exasperated. “Sa’han Ulbrine, not Dr. Hartsford.”
“I did,” he said, lips parting to show teeth. “Ulbrine is why you and Dr. Plank are alive.”
Threat, threat, threat, she thought, not impressed. The only thing more suspicious than a living vampire was a dead one. “You’re not going to slow down the trials, are you? Rales, he’s worked too hard for this. It’s perfect. I made sure of it. It cannot harm us. I’d stake my life on it.”
“Good. Because you have.” Rick frowned, but his expression suddenly shifted, the hard mistrust falling from him to show a comfortable camaraderie. Shocked at the change, she floundered, at a loss for words as the cafeteria door opened. Clearly he’d felt whoever it was coming before his or her shadow had touched the glass, and it creeped Trisk out.
“Mr. Rales!” Barbara burst forth, clucking like a mother hen. “I should have known you’d be out here hiding with Dr. Cambri. She’s such a wallflower. Come in and meet everyone you missed yesterday. It’s Daniel’s birthday and we have cake!”