On the Edge of Humanity (19 page)

I rose from the couch then fell back down. Ben jumped up from his chair and sat next to me.

“You okay? Is it from that snack? How did it taste?” he asked.

“Shut up. Who told you?”

He nodded at Webb.

I looked over at Webb, but he was engrossed, reading something from a white sheet of paper. What else did Webb tell Ben?

“You’re not a vampire, Jo.” Ben started laughing.

“When I am one, you will be my first victim.” I licked my lips.

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Ben said.

I wasn’t sure what Tripp had explained to Ben either, but I wasn’t ready to tell him what I learned from Webb.

“Okay, you two,” Webb said from a distance. Then he strode over and placed his hands on the back of the empty chair.

“I guess I should thank you for not…well, thank you,” I said as I looked at Webb.

“Ben is part of this now. He’s going to help us as much as he can,” Webb said.

How was Ben, a human, going to help the Vampire SEALs?

“I’m going to be one of your bodyguards.” Ben’s brows lifted as he spoke.

“You?” I chuckled.

“Why not me? I swing a mean baseball bat,” he said in a serious tone.

“We’ve been through this. You know how that turned out,” I reminded him.

“Can you two get along, or not?” Webb asked.

Ben nodded. Webb stared at me. I guessed he was waiting for my answer. I contemplated whether to be a smart ass, but I decided against it, so I nodded.

“Good, now that we agree, we’ll head back up to the mess hall. After dinner, you two will meet me in the war room. Tripp will show you where it is.”

Ben and I looked at each other. I had no idea what a war room was or why I would need to be there. I wasn’t at war with anyone, at least not yet. Maybe they were going to anoint me into the vampire community after drinking that blood. Whatever it was I was, about to find out.

Chapter 12

A
fter we walked out of
the mess hall, Tripp wanted to use the stairs instead of the elevator, which had a line waiting to board it. Ben and I followed behind the tall, muscular vampire to another hallway, which pitched down to the back of the building before climbing down the stairs to the second floor.

A strange odor hung in the stairwell and I inhaled, trying to identify it. It smelled like a cross between blood and vinegar. The tanginess of it made my eyes water. I grabbed the banister before stepping off the last riser and my hand landed on a sticky substance. The rail had splotches of red stains on it. I wiped my hand on my jeans and lingered for a brief second. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened in here.

“We’re going to be late. Move,” Tripp commanded.

His hand urged me through the door. I turned left and Ben was standing with one knee bent, foot on the wall with his hands in his pockets.

“What’s with the tortoise walk?” Ben asked.

I wanted to give him the finger, but instead I ignored him and waited for Tripp to show us the way.

“Not talking to me now?” Ben asked.

I shook my head.

“What did I do?”

I raised my finger to my lips. During dinner Ben and I had argued. He teased me about the juice incident, wanting to know how the blood tasted. I thought it was rude he was asking all those questions in front of Tripp who’d seemed uncomfortable with the conversation. My patience was walking a tight rope and, at any moment, I was going to unleash my anger.

“Are we in church?” he whispered.

“God, you can be just as annoying as Darcy,” I snapped.

“Watch your tongue,” he replied.

Tripp stopped, turned and wagged his finger between Ben and me. “When we get into the war room, you two will sit in the back row next to me. You will not speak, not one word. You’re there to listen and that’s it. If I hear you two arguing, I will personally lock both of you up for the night. Are we clear?”

Whoa! Where did that come from? I was going to follow through on my promise later and kill Ben. The most time I had spent around Ben was during the past week. I didn’t know he could be this annoying.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. The war room was located at the very end of the second floor hallway, which was about five doors down from the restroom. With my stomach still teetering on the edge, I wanted to make sure I knew where my refuge point was.

The war room was lit up like an airport runway. The brightness blinded me for a second until my eyes adjusted. The chairs rose in a pattern similar to an amphitheater with elongated steps cutting through two sections, which led down to a large conference table. On top were a couple of books and a stack of papers. Behind the table a movie screen hung from the ceiling.

Tripp directed Ben and me to the last row, which butted up against the back wall. I thought Tripp was going to sit between us, so Ben and I wouldn’t talk, but he sat down in the aisle seat and instructed me to sit in the middle.

Several people were already seated in the rows below us chatting. I scanned the room and didn’t see Webb, but Olivia, her partner from earlier today and Sloan were seated in the front row directly below us. Dr. Vieira walked in from a side door adjacent to the conference table with a binder in his hands and placed it on the table. He opened it, thumbing through the pages, searching for something.

Tripp sat in his chair, stoically looking straight ahead while Ben had his feet up on the chair in front of him, leaning back. I tapped his leg and he just glared at me.

“Feet down, Ben,” Tripp commanded.

He dropped his feet and sat up. I stuck my tongue out at him. I thought he was going to hit me; instead, he narrowed his eyes and scowled.

Ignoring his gaze, I turned and faced forward. Webb had entered, standing by Dr. Vieira who was reading something from the binder. According to the clock on the wall in the far left corner, it was six fifty-nine. The people seated wore their black military uniforms similar to the one Webb was wearing. Other than Ben and me, there was one other person in civilian clothes, a woman who sat in the far section on the other side of the aisle in the front row. She wore a gray pantsuit and her brown hair was in a bun.

When the large hand on the clock slid on the twelve, Webb whispered in Dr. Vieira’s ear, then cleared his throat.

“Okay, settle down,” Webb said, his voice booming, filling the room.

The chatter stopped as abruptly as if someone had slammed on the brakes.

He held a remote control in his hand and pointed it at the projector. A slide appeared on the movie screen.

The word
Agenda
appeared, with a list of seven items typed below it. The first was
Breakdown and Crest and Skylark
. Item number two—
Endotoxin
. Three had the name
Dr. Patrick Mason and Edmund Rain.

My eyes rested on the name and I began tapping my foot.

Tripp placed his hand on my knee. “You don’t need to be nervous.”

Was he kidding? Did he know what I had been through in the past week?

I leaned in. “Is Patrick Mason any relation?”

“It will all be explained shortly,” Tripp said.

I continued to tap my foot as I read item number four.
Plutariums.

“What’s with the planet names around here?” Ben asked.

I shrugged. I wanted to know the answer to that one myself; even the tattoos were still a mystery to me. Olivia did explain why she had hers, but she didn’t elaborate as to why the vampires had to be branded.

Number five on the list read,
Update and new information
. Excitement stirred as goosebumps peppered my arms. Maybe Webb had some news about Sam.

The last two bullet points were
Plan for tomorrow
and
Wrap up
. After reading through the list, I had a feeling we were going to be here all night.

Webb shifted his gaze between the audience and the screen.

“Tonight we’ll recap the events of the past few days and look at the path forward. First, I want to make everyone aware that we have two civilians in the room. In case you’re not aware, one of them is Commander Mason’s daughter, Jo, who is sitting next to Petty Officer Tripp. The other is Ben Jackson, a friend of the Masons.” He pointed in our direction.

A sea of vamps turned around and looked at me.

“You’re famous,” Ben said. “The daughter of a commander and a Navy SEAL. Wow, impressive. But the vampire thing, not so much.”

I dropped my gaze and ignored Ben.

Tripp leaned over and whispered, “Breathe. They need to know who you are. It’s pertinent to the mission.”

I raised my head and all but one person had turned back to face Webb. The lady in gray was staring at me. I scanned her face. Her burgundy lips pronounced her pale features and her eyes were a deep blue. I focused on Webb and tried to ignore her. As he spoke, she shifted her position forward.

“The breakdown at Crest and Skylark can’t happen anymore. Brock and Fehherty were ambushed as if the Plutariums knew their route. I’m not sure how this happened, but while we’re looking for both Commander Mason and his son Sam, it is imperative that we’re paying attention to detail. Every one of you has been trained not to be complacent. We cannot, for one second, let our guard down. They’re becoming stronger as the days go on and their army is getting larger as well. Is that clear?”

The room vibrated as the group of vampires all said in unison, “Yes, sir.”

“Second, the Plutariums now have access to an endotoxin, which Dr. Vieira will discuss in a second. I want each of you to pay close attention to what this toxin can do. But before we talk about the toxin—” The screen flashed and a picture of two men appeared. “—I want to make sure everyone is aware of these two men.”

The one on the left was tall with short, slicked back brown hair and wore a blue long-sleeve button-down shirt, which accentuated his sky-blue eyes. The other was slightly taller with a short black military issue haircut.

“The man on the right, as most of you know, is Edmund Rain. He was part of our team four years ago. The other is Dr. Patrick Mason. He’s a renowned genetic scientist and was recently recruited by the Plutariums,” Webb said as he scanned the room. “He’s also Commander Mason’s half-brother.”

The audience drew in a collective breath, sucking in all the air in the room.

I inhaled and my throat tightened as if someone were choking me.

“Your uncle bats for the enemy?” Ben asked, shock laden in his tone.

I shrugged. I didn’t even know I had an uncle, but it was sounding that way.

“We’ll discuss their status in a minute, but first let’s talk about the toxin. Dr. Vieira, the floor is yours.” Webb nodded at Dr. Vieira, then took a seat.

“Thank you, Lt. London.” Dr. Vieira fiddled with the computer until a picture of a needle appeared on the screen.

It was a horse needle just like the one Jonah tried to stab me with.

“This needle was confiscated at Crest and Skylark earlier today. One of the Plutariums who managed to grab Jo Mason was going to use this on her. The contents of the needle contained an endotoxin, which is a bacterium. A couple of key points on what this substance can do.” He paused and took a sip of water.

The entire audience stilled, waiting for Dr. Vieira’s next words.

“Once this toxin enters your blood stream,” he continued, “it can cause the blood to coagulate, causing a host of issues, but most importantly leading to blood poisoning where the toxin settles in and attacks the DNA and white blood cells. While most of you in this room may be immune to something like this, some of the younger folks may not be. However, if this needle had been used on Jo Mason, it would certainly have ended our mission, or at least in part made our mission more challenging. This is a lethal weapon, folks. We don’t want to mess around with it.” Dr. Vieira clicked a button on the remote.

The next photo depicted a row of body bags on the ground in front of a brick wall.

The vamps in their seats rustled and adjusted their positions as if they were nervous.

“This is getting weird.” Ben leaned over and grabbed my hand.

I agreed. But I wouldn’t have said
weird
. It was getting spooky.

“Our sources within the human government tell us that the missing person rate for the city has doubled over this time last year. In fact, their phones have been ringing off the hook with humans disappearing. Our own government has also documented an increase in missing vampires during the last few weeks. We speculate that the Plutariums and Dr. Mason have something to do with all this. Our government has confiscated these body bags and are running autopsies on them. We’ll have more information during tomorrow’s meeting.” Dr. Vieira took another sip of water.

What did he mean it would have ended their mission? Why am I so vital to what happened?

Webb took control of the projector as Dr. Vieira sat down. The screen went blank. I stole a glance at Ben. His left hand was covering his mouth.

I tapped him on the leg. “You okay?”

“Uh-huh,” he whispered as he placed his hand in his lap. “This is some deep shit. These guys are serious mother—”

I had to agree with him, but unfortunately, I was part of that deep shit.

“If you have any questions on this toxin, see Dr. Vieira after the meeting,” Webb said. “Now, back to Edmund and Dr. Mason. We discussed this in our meeting last week, but it begs repeating here. The natural-born vampire population is dwindling, and some vampires in our community believe that the world needs vamps as part of the evolution of life. With that said, we have many problems with this belief, but two that are important to our short and long-term missions.

“Let’s start with the bigger issue and drill down. We know that the Plutariums are building an army so they can infiltrate the government and rise to power. But we’ve learned recently that the Plutariums want to engineer a vampire army. And with our race fading, they’ve hired Dr. Mason to fabricate a serum to do just that. But before Dr. Mason develops a way to change humans who don’t carry the vampire gene into vampires, he’s taking care of the low hanging fruit first and experimenting on himself. It will be the ultimate test to prove to the Plutariums that this can be done. We also know that Patrick wants revenge against his half-brother for a host of personal reasons, which we won’t discuss here. Whether Patrick is successful or not, we have a few problems on our hands.” Webb opened a red folder, shuffled the contents around and pulled out a piece of paper.

My mouth fell open. This was the guy partly responsible for trying to kill me? My own uncle? First my father threw Sam and me away like pieces of trash, now I had an uncle trying to permanently dispose of me. Blood rushed to my face. My muscles tensed, bracing for Webb’s next words.

“We believe that Patrick has figured out that he needs his half-brother’s blood to have any chance of becoming immortal, which means he needs Commander Mason alive. In addition, we have it on good authority that Patrick will also need the DNA, blood and marrow of a male family member to run his experiments.” Webb scanned the room.