The good news was that the woman wasn’t human but a shifter. They always had a distinct earthy dog odor. Nevertheless, I made a mental note to add her to our intel.
A sharply dressed vampire in a pinstriped suit that seemed too small for his broad chest got out of the front passenger side and scanned the area, staying close to Roman and his date.
Once they were inside and out of earshot, I alerted the team. “Our target is headed in. Remember to observe and don’t engage.”
Maybe our info was wrong, and Roman wasn’t in the market for vampire blood but human blood, which was why the humans were there. While that was possible, I shrugged it off. Human blood was readily available at blood banks, and Roman could raid those without a second thought. Besides, he made his money from the vampires who had rare abilities similar to mine.
As natural-born vampires, we carried a gene that would give us two supernatural abilities when activated around our teenage years. If a vamp developed anything more than that, they were considered unique or elite. However, in our world, my sister, father, and I were the only vampires who had been gifted, or cursed in some respects, with several supernatural abilities. No other vampire could read minds like my father and sister, and for that very reason, we were considered powerful. So much so that we’d been hunted by our own kind for our DNA. Vampires like Roman, who were hungry for power and wanted to build armies of vampires, could only succeed if they turned humans into vampires. That was how Ben had become a half-breed. He’d been turned by a former enemy who was now dead.
Vampires began to run out of the club as if there was a fire.
I bolted into action and stopped a heavyset dude who had terror in his eyes. “What’s going on?”
He bared his fangs. “It’s chaos in there. Vamps are passing out.”
I knitted my brow. “From what?”
He stabbed a fat finger at the entrance. “Three humans are shooting darts at vamps like they’re target practice. I’m not hanging around to find out what’s in those suckers, especially if it’s some endotoxin. That shit might not be able to kill some of the elite military vamps, but I’m just a lowlife.”
My slow vampire pulse ramped up to a hundred beats per minute in less than a second. I didn’t have time to question him about how he knew of the endotoxin. That was top-secret government info, but we had our own dark web where info could be found.
If those darts were filled with the endotoxin, then the correct dose could kill any vampire. Even as one of the military elites he’d referred to, I wasn’t immune. But I wasn’t worried about myself. Ben was in more danger since he was part human.
I started to run towards the club when the heavyset dude caught my arm. “Don’t go in there if you want to live.”
“They’re human,” I said. “Surely, a vampire can take them out.”
He laughed, walking away. “It’s your life.”
2
SAM
I was met with ghostly silence as I entered, almost tripping over the bouncer, who was out cold. I could still hear his heartbeat, so he wasn’t dead.
“Olivia, Kraft, we have a problem,” I said into my comm. “The humans are shooting darts filled with some type of drug. Kraft, stay put and detain whoever exits the building. Olivia, get down here and guard the front entrance.”
Both returned with “copy that.”
I pulled out a leather strap from the side pocket of my cargo pants and tied my black hair back into a low ponytail. Then I jogged down the long hallway. The smell of stale beer co-mingled with the humans’ sweet fragrance. My gums throbbed. The thirst for blood was stronger than ever as adrenaline coursed through me at warp speed.
I slowed as I approached the doorway leading into the main part of the club.
“You don’t know what you’re getting into.” Ben’s voice trickled out into the hall, but I couldn’t see him yet.
“Shut up, or I’ll gut you like a fish,” one of the female humans replied.
I stepped off to the side of the doorway to get a glimpse of what I was dealing with. Vampires were passed out on the floor or slumped over tables, and the shorter brunette was pointing a gun at the back of someone’s head who I couldn’t see from where I stood.
I opened up a telepathic connection. Ben, what are we up against?
The three women have dart guns filled with a drug that shuts down limbs and knocks you out. The two brunettes have Roman at gunpoint. He’s not passing out like the other vamps. Not sure why. The redhead who seems to be the leader has a needle primed and ready to jab in my neck, Ben responded.
Is Roman the only vamp awake? I relayed to Ben.
Yep. The bartender is out behind the bar. The owner of the club, Jose, is also slumped over at Roman’s table.
What the fuck do they want?
You, man, Ben replied.
What the fuck do humans want with me? It was a rhetorical question, and the only answer that came to mind was that it had to do with the CIA.
Granted, there were a handful of top human officials high up in the chain of command who knew of our existence. The Council of Elders worked with the human government to keep chaos from erupting. I doubted those humans were behind this. They knew their lives were on the line as well as their families’ if they so much as whispered the word “vampire” to anyone.
The CIA wasn’t one of those groups. However, we’d had a run-in with two CIA agents who had teamed up with our enemy five years ago. But their knowledge of vampires had been erased from their memories.
A popping sound followed by a grunt severed my thoughts.
“Motherfucker. What’s in these darts? Has to be cobalt because my skin is burning from the inside out.” Roman sounded like he was in pain. That had to be him talking since he was the only vampire not comatose.
“Why isn’t he passing out?” one of the women asked with panic evident in her tone.
Roman laughed, evil and murderous. “When I get out of this, you three ladies are dead meat,” he grunted. “What the fuck do you want anyway?”
“Sam Mason,” Red said, “who I suspect is listening to us.” Her airy tone sounded like a siren’s call luring me home on a foggy night.
My dick jerked in my cargo pants. What the actual fuck? No female in my existence as a human and now vampire had ever had that effect over my dick.
“You want Sam Mason?” Roman asked in a shocked tone. “The Sam Mason of the Mason family? Why the fuck would you take out a club of vamps to lure him out?”
That was the million-dollar question.
“Sam Mason,” Red said, “we know you’re close by. Might as well come out, or I’ll gut your half-breed.”
“You have no idea what you’re up against,” Roman said.
“Shut the fuck up, or else I'll pump more drugs into you. Then you won’t be able to move for a year,” the third human said.
“Go ahead,” Roman chided, “but be warned: you three are dead.” His tone was sharp and jagged.
I had all sorts of powers to handle these humans, but none that would bode well for them. I wanted answers anyway, like who hired them.
Red raised her voice, “Mason, if you don’t show yourself by the time I count to three, your comrade will die. We’re not bound by vampire law.”