Blood Royal

"How will they come here?" The King thought of a major obstacle.



"The Queen of Le-Ath Veronis has offered payment to several Karathian Warlocks to accomplish this. They are standing by if you give consent, Raoni."



"What say you all?" The King set the question before his Council. He had a nearly unanimous decision in a very short amount of time. The High Demons saw profit in bringing the comesuli, although they refused the subsequent request to harbor some of the vampires as well.



"We do not need those creatures," the King waved a hand in dismissal and the fate of Le-Ath Veronis was decided on a beautiful afternoon, upon the planet named after a god. I was weeping when I woke at dusk. Thankfully, Gavin was already awake and out of the bedroom. How could I tell him what I'd seen? I was still wiping tears as I had my blood and took a shower.



* * *



"Raona, Gavin said to bring you to the main dwelling as soon as you were up and dressed," Roff was in the bedroom, waiting for me to come out of the bathroom. I nodded at him. He would probably know the answers to the questions I had, but they would have to wait until I could ask them without crying. I followed Roff down the stairs to the ground and then over the green and well-kept yard to the main house. Bill was there with Tony, René, Gavin, Michael, Winkler and a pile of luggage. Gavin or Roff had packed for me while I slept. Bill seemed grim and Tony looked angry. René and Gavin had no expression, which was normal. Winkler didn't really care, I could tell.



"What happened?" I asked.



"Lissy, we need your cooperation on this, even though we know how you feel about him," Tony said, working to get his anger under control.



"Feel about whom?" I was getting a bad vibe about this, whatever it was.



"Lissa, Lawrence Frazier has been taken," Bill supplied the information. The news caused me to draw in a painful breath. Larry—Tony's friend who'd taken blood from me while I'd slept (and that after I'd pulled him away from a boatload of pirates in the Arabian Sea) had been kidnapped.



"Taken by whom?" I was now attempting to stop the quivering of my skin; I had no love for Dr. Lawrence Frazier.



"We think either Rahim Alif's colleagues or those associated with Xenides. Agents White and Townsend said they had both vampire and human scents from his home in Maryland. Lissa, we can't allow his knowledge and expertise to fall into the hands of the enemy," Bill was pleading with me to understand the urgency of the situation.



"You know what he did to me?" I was hugging myself.



"I know, Lissa. I was briefed by Director Hancock," Bill nodded in Tony's direction.



"Cara, think," Gavin said. "If Xenides controls Frazier, he could cause a great deal of damage to all. With Frazier's knowledge backing these rogues, the influenza vaccine could only be the beginning of more terrible things."



"Dear God." I shuddered at Gavin's words.



"Little rose, we will be with you," René offered, his brown eyes smiling kindly and his fingers brushing my neck briefly.



"Lissy, this is important," Tony said. "Larry could be forced to supply a vampire DNA solution to kill presidents, heads of state, diplomats, world leaders—anyone that Xenides or Rahim Alif's contacts and associates desire. It would be easy if vampires were involved. Only a small amount of compulsion and they can get in anywhere. You and I have seen this already." Tony was begging me to get on board with this.



"Fine," I muttered. "Where are we going? I see I'm packed already."



"Maryland first, and then wherever the leads take us," Bill replied. "Our jet is waiting; we just have to get to the airport."



At least the flight was uneventful and we landed at Dulles in four hours, leaving enough time to drive to Larry's home in Chevy Chase to sniff around.



"Two vampires," I said, as we walked inside the house. It was a nice house—a two-story brick that had been renovated. Both vampires had Xenides' scent about them, not Saxom's. Therefore, these would be younger. Three humans were with the vampires; their scent hung heavy in the house. I didn't smell blood or death, so Larry was alive when they'd taken him away. I let Bill know that. He and Tony both breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure how I felt about Tony's reaction. The guy must have been a friend, but after what he'd done to me, I wasn't feeling charitable toward Tony or Larry at the moment.



 "He was taken yesterday," Bill explained as we concluded our search. It was now Wednesday, September eighth; Roff (and his watch) made sure I was updated as we boarded the plane in Oklahoma City. "As near as we can figure, between two and six in the morning," Bill was giving the particulars on Frazier's kidnapping. "He didn't leave the hospital until after his rounds were finished at midnight, and we have records of an email sent after one a.m. from here at the house."



"Bill and I have checked all the flights out—there weren't any commercial or private flights scheduled during the time he was taken," Tony said. Now I knew why he and Bill had been huddled around Bill's laptop during our flight. Even I knew the vampires would have to hole up somewhere for the day unless they were willing to be hauled around in body bags. Somehow, I couldn't see that happening with Xenides' bunch.



"Larry the lizard still has patients?" I stared incredulously at Bill and Tony. That bothered me—a lot.



"He has some of the cases that come back to us; potential germ warfare and that sort of thing," Tony frowned and coughed into his hand. He hadn't appreciated the lizard comment. Gavin was now frowning at me as well—I wasn't being circumspect. Again.



"And how much of that sort of thing is Frazier responsible for?" I snapped at Tony. Germ warfare? That sounded right up Frazier's alley.



"Lissa, we understand that you dislike this man," Gavin placed an arm around me, pulling me against him in a tight grip. He was silently telling me to shut up. I shut up. For the moment.



"Where do you think we might start looking?" René asked.



"Any dead bodies?" The words just came right out of my mouth as I pulled away from Gavin.



"We will be looking for slashed throats or for those who are listed as missing," Gavin added, pulling me against him again. "Or reports of weakened conditions with no medical explanation."



Bill made calls, asking for updates. "Does a burglarized blood bank interest anyone?" he asked, terminating a call. I slapped a hand over my mouth before Gavin could.



The blood bank was near the National Naval Medical Center, where Dr. Lawrence Frazier's patients were hospitalized. No doubt, the vampires were using his knowledge to their advantage. Bill got us into the building after hours by flashing his ID. The Deputy Director of Operations met us there, although he had no idea why the newly appointed Director of the Joint NSA/Homeland Security Department was interested in his break-in. Bill wasn't about to tell him, either.



"The door was forced," the Deputy Director informed us after we were led to the break-in site. It was a metal door at the back of the facility, where employees came and went.



"Was anything taken?" Bill asked as we examined the replacement door.



"Some medical equipment—needles, bags, IV poles, tubing, just about anything necessary to take blood or give a transfusion, plus frozen blood from the freezer. Those vandalized rooms are still taped off, but the military police have already processed everything. We were going to clean it up tomorrow." The Deputy Director was military, with a buzzed haircut and neatly creased clothing. He didn't appreciate the mess left behind and wanted it gone as quickly as possible.



I learned the blood bank was one operated for the armed services and that was why military police had investigated the crime scene. All of us examined the vandalized rooms. Equipment and supplies had been flung recklessly about, but the scents inside both rooms told me that the vampires, one of the humans and Lawrence Frazier had been there. Winkler moved behind me—his nose was good, but he couldn't separate the scents as well as I could while he was human.



"I'll see about making contacts and running any fingerprints and other evidence in the morning," Bill said, thanking the Deputy Director and shooing the rest of us away from the building.



"It was them," I told Bill as soon as we were inside the van he'd commandeered for us. "Both vampires, Larry Frazier and one of the humans."



Bill grumped a little—if he released that information, NCIS would come in to investigate further on the blood bank break-in. I figured he was going to call the President as soon as the man was up and coherent in the morning.



We had a hotel set up for us, and Roff and Michael's room connected to ours while Tony and René's room was across the hall. Winkler's was down the hall a bit. Bill called in day guards, just so nobody would disturb or attack us. Winkler, Michael and Roff were going to sleep part of the day, too—they'd been up most of the night, just as we were.



* * *



"Lissa, wake up," Winkler was shaking my shoulder. Bill, Michael and Roff were standing right behind him. I figured Winkler was the brave one of the bunch; the one willing to wake a vampire during daylight, anyway. Thank goodness, I'd gotten my PJs on again after Gavin's amorous advances before daybreak.



"Winkler, I hope there's a good reason for this," I slapped a hand over my face, trying to convince my eyes to open. Yeah, I knew he and the others were there by scent only.



"Bill needs you," Winkler said as I removed the hand from my face.



"What's up?" I asked, blinking at the four faces staring down at me.



"Admiral Hafer has been abducted," Bill answered my question.



"My other favorite person," I grumped. "If you tell me a senator from Oklahoma has been abducted next, my life will be complete." I sat up with help from Winkler and pushed hair away from my face. I couldn't begin to imagine what I looked like right then. I allowed Winkler to help as I slid out of bed as quickly as my sluggish brain and body would allow, running into the bathroom and almost slamming the door. There's nothing like a male committee watching you wake when you have bedhead and are wearing rumpled pajamas.



I cleaned up and dressed as quickly as I could, scribbled out a note for Gavin and left it with Roff (he and Michael were staying to watch over Gavin, Tony and René) and off we went. It was three in the afternoon and hot in the D.C. area as Bill drove us to the site. Admiral Hafer had been abducted from his home, just as Larry Frazier had. The same scents from the blood bank were inside Admiral Hafer's house.



"Did Frazier and Hafer know each other?" I asked, after telling Bill what I'd scented.



"It's possible—Larry Frazier worked with most branches of the military," Bill acknowledged. "NCIS is definitely involved now, and I have to share information as much as I can, although the President is keeping all of you out of it for the moment. I had to agree to this in order to get the information exchange from them."



Bill didn't sound terrible happy over that revelation and I wondered what Tony was going to say about it. He knew Larry Frazier better than any of us. Maybe he would know if Hafer and Frazier knew one another.



"Lissa, do you want a drink?" Winkler herded me into a bar a little while later after Bill dropped us off at our hotel.



"I'd rather have a cinnamon roll," I said. We found one at the hotel coffee shop on the main floor. My cell phone rang while I was wiping gooey frosting off my face. It was Merrill.



"Lissa, sweetheart, I didn't expect you to answer. I was going to leave a voice message," Merrill scolded lightly.



"Didn't you have the talk with Griffin?" I asked, licking more frosting off my fingers.



"Lissa, what are you doing right now?" Merrill asked.



"Eating a cinnamon roll," I answered honestly.



"Perhaps Griffin needs to provide more information than he has," Merrill muttered. "He can be cryptic at times and this was certainly one of those times. He can't interfere, but from the conversation we had, I got the idea that Director Jennings needs to contact a friend of mine—a werewolf named Daniel Carey. He was working with Admiral Hafer not long ago. He may be back in Corpus Christi; he's the Second for the Pack, there."



"I've met him," I nodded. "He's Shirley Walker's Second."