3 Hit the Road Jack (23 page)

He walked ahead of me and opened the door giving me a second to compose myself. Inside I was a mess.
What the heck have you done to me Sir Staten?

I looked up and found Kellan at the door glaring at me.
“What happened?!”

Oh crap. I guess I accidentally projected that last thought, probably hoping to get it to him wherever
the vampeen
was by that point.

“It’s not important.”

“What did he do to you?”

“Please don’t push. I can’t… don’t, want to share it right now.”

”Clearly. You’re using your will power to block it from me.”
He frowned, muscles tense; jaw taut.

I felt only slightly guilty. I knew in a relationship there weren’t supposed to be any secrets, but until I knew what Sir Staten did to me with his blood, I wasn’t sharing anything.

He continued to stare at me with appraisal in his eyes. He was deciding whether to let it go for now or push. He must have seen something because he sighed and turned back towards the others. I exhaled not realizing I’d been holding my breath. I closed my eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. I needed to focus. What’d happened couldn’t be changed. I needed to focus on what could be changed, and that was the outcome between us and Jack’s army.

“A penny for your thoughts,” Aunt Claire chimed as I sat down at the table.

“They’re worth a bit more today so sorry, but no.” She smiled and nodded taking no offense to my secrets which I was grateful for.

I turned my attention to Gabi between Kai and Al near the opposite end of the table. As if sensing me she lifted her head right at that moment. “How are you?” She offered me a small smile and shrugged. “I’m here.” She nodded.

“Muffin sticks! These gufters have gator!” Craig exclaimed officially breaking the tension at the table. I chuckled. He was looking at the paper menu with a look of pure joy, like a child on Christmas day.

“I take it you like gator?”

“He loves it,” Kellan snickered. “We always said the crocodile hunter was his cousin because his parents always had gator meat.”

“How long did you live in Australia Craig?” He was lost in gator revelation still.

“He moved to Seattle when he was four. That’s why he’s got the accent but none of the actual Australian dialect,” Kellan said.

“I don’t think he even has the English dialect,” I
sai
d. Kellan laughed. I observed him staring down at his best friend with true brotherly love in his eyes. I knew he would do anything for Craig and vice versa, which was proven in Craig risking his life to be here.

“Ready?” the server asked. He was a rugged athletic looking guy; messy chestnut brown hair only added to his boyish good looks. I could see him attracting a lot of women, but he seemed a bit more interested in sports by the way he kept staring at the match on the TV.

“Gator!” Craig yelled. “A gleaping glub of the fried fritters.”

The guy cracked a smile. “How many orders is a gleaping glub?”

“Four orders,” Craig promptly replied. He seemed so animated; truly a kid in a candy store. I was definitely going to have to find some gator in Charleston when we returned.

The rest of us ordered fish and chips or sausage and chips. As soon as the waiter walked away, again watching the TV as he did so, the mood changed at the table. It was time for business.

“There’s been some activity on the south
end
of the city,” Kalel announced. “Flashes of movement have been spotted. Can’t make out the identity or identities though so for now we need to take extra precautions.” He stopped and looked directly at me. “No going out alone for anything. We need to do better than pairs even. We have a better chance in groups of three or larger, but should try to stick with
one
larger group as much as possible.”

“I’ve contacted the army and was assured that back up is in the area should we need it, but there would be a delay from the time they were notified to arrival,” Al stated.

I noticed John narrowed his eyes at Al. Thinking back to what he’d text me I knew what he was concluding: that Al was the leak. Looking at it from this new angle though, perhaps he was inadvertently. The way Auggy threw me to the sharks at the vampeen embassy didn’t sit well with me.

“Who are you reporting to?” I asked.

“Auggy.”

“Does the back-up know about the mission details?”

“No. They’ve just been ordered to roam the area and stay low.” Something wasn’t adding up to me. The more I thought about the embassy and Auggy the more uneasy I became.

“What’s wrong?”
Kellan pressed, taking hold of my hand beneath the table. I looked up at his emerald eyes gazing down into mine.

“John knew where we were because we have a mole in the group or a leak. I think your dad may be inadvertently leaking the information to the real mole: Auggy. How he handled the embassy just doesn’t sit right with me. I think there’s more to it; to him. I don’t think he’d set us up to fail a mission on purpose, but he certainly hasn’t been quiet about what we’re doing this time around. With the Bladangs, no one knew.”

Kellan tensed, squeezing my hand so hard I was surprised he didn’t break anything, vamp or not.
“What’s in it for him?”

“What do you mean?”

“There has to be something in it for him. That’s the only reason he would broadcast it. Auggy seems petty so it could be as little as pride to have the people who shut down the oldest vamp on his payroll, but we don’t know for sure.”

“I don’t want to blast your dad, but I want him to stop all communication with the army. No company credit cards, no updates; nothing. We’ll move hotels, go to the outskirts or to another city entirely if we need to, but I want to see. The fact that John works at the vampeen headquarters eliminates a lot of assumptions with this guess.”

Kellan nodded his agreement. He and his dad locked eyes, silently communicating, though I didn’t know how much was fully passed. Al shook his head, glancing at me; he had a stern look upon his face. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling; if he was angry at me or even angry at all.

“Don’t worry babe. He’s not mad at you. He’s mad at Auggy. I’ll talk to him after, but I’m pretty sure he has the same conclusion you have.”
It was my turn to nod now.

“Anything exciting happen since the last time I saw you love?” John asked
, this time choosing the native accent
. He winked at me, eliciting a growl from Kellan.

“Hm. Let’s see.” I tapped my index finger on my chin. “I died; Kellan revived me somehow. We killed a room full of black ninjas. Our dear friend Rafi died at the hands of the bastards. Oh, and we discovered we have a mole in the group.” I squinted my eyes, staring off in the distance. “Yup, that’s it. Nothing major.” The sarcasm was dripping off my voice.

“Well damn. Aren’t you just a pot of rosey?” he lightly chuckled, though it was clear he was now uncomfortable. Luckily they brought out our food right at that moment.

John stared down at the food before him, a war between skepticism and curiosity playing out in his eyes. I promptly opened a few blood packets into an empty dipping container and set it in front of him.
 
He looked at me, silently gauging my offer.

"Try it. You can't turn your nose up to what you haven't tried," I said.

He stared down at his platter once more. After another glance around at all of us, including Al and Aunt Claire, whom I'd turned onto the notion at Christmas with all my delectable treats
, he seemed more open to it
. We were all absorbed in our consumption with random chatter filling the space between our smacks.

"Just do it!" I shouted.

He narrowed his eyes at me, silently screaming 'Challenge accepted.' He gazed into my eyes, holding my attention as he dipped a piece of sausage into the blood and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed slowly, never losing his focus on me. The moment he swallowed, I saw him wa
iting, anticipating, the regurgitation
that didn't happen when we ate food. It was as if our bodies recognized the difference.

After a few seconds with no reaction, he finally beamed with delight at the revelation. "Whoa! That's bloody awesome!" he exclaimed, British accent in tow.

"Told you," I smirked.

He winked, oozing with charm. Kellan cut his eyes at John, but he just shrugged him off. "Don't get your nickers in a bunch. She still reeks of you."

Kellan visibly eased at that while I struggled not to tense. I looked down the table at Kai, who'd pushed his food away at the reminder. How did I ever end up in a Jacob - Edward triangle? I hated the tug and pull Bella endured, but could absolutely understand her hesitation. Unfortunately, for Kai, at this point, he was clearly Jacob and clearly the loser in this game of hearts.

One of the good things about my predicament was it distracted me from Sir Staten. I struggled not to think about what was coursing through my veins. I didn't feel any different, but then again I didn't know what I was expecting or even
what
to expect.

Chapter 23

As we walked out of the pub, Kellan leaned in close, taking my hand in his. “Are you sure you’re ok?” I gently nodded, always touched by his awareness of me. We both knew I wasn’t ok, but we also knew I didn’t want to talk about it.

Abruptly Kalel stood at attention in front of our pack. Nose up, he sniffed the air, almost how I pictured a werewolf to. The second his nostrils flared and eyes darted to me, I froze.
Oh crap.

He was in front of me in a split second, my wrist to his nose. Kellan growled a low, harsh warning; he was tense beside me prepared to spring any second. Kalel inhaled my scent deeply. His eyes narrowed in their focus on me.
Oh God, he definitely scents it.

“Where were you?” he demanded, no softness in his tone.

I looked beyond his dominance
,
overwhelming the space in front of me
,
to find the others copying his investigative sniff. One by one their eyes landed on me accusatively. I yanked my wrist from his grip and took a shaky step backwards. Kellan cocked his head, as if he was finally picking up on what the others already had.

“That’s you?” he asked. He tried to lift out entwined fingers towards his nose but I
pulled
back my hand before he could. “Where were you?” His tone was colder than Kalel’s, invisible barriers all around him. It’s not that
t
he
y
instantly thought I’d betrayed them, but they were looking at me as if I was the definition of trouble.

I swallowed the serum quickly rising to my defense and took another step away. “The marina,” I replied, no confidence in my voice.

“With who?” Kalel pressed. I felt the earth, the air, closing in all around me, growing thicker with each second that passed under their scrutiny.

My eyes flashed to Will who immediately pieced together my secret. I didn’t think the man could look more horrified.

“No… Really? No…” he stumbled, flipping through the pages of a binder like a mad man. “It… it just can’t. Oh dear heavens.” He was physically shaking.

“Will you stop muttering nonsense and tell us?!” Gabi interjected.

“I… I… it just can’t be. I mean it’s not possible,” he continued mumbling, now writing with a vengeance.

“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on and why I have this intense urge to drain Lexi?!” Gabi yelled, a huff quickly following her outburst.

Kellan promptly settled himself in front of me. I looked around, grateful that there wasn’t much human traffic around at the moment, but still all the more uneasy with the situation.

“Let’s just go to the club like we agreed,” I said, hoping they’d forget about my new scent.

I flashed back to the second Sir Staten’s blood hit my tongue. The merriment of delicious flavors danced around on my tongue; his warmth sliding effortlessly down my throat. It felt so real.

“Lexi!”

My eyes snapped open to find I’d bitten Kellan’s neck. In public. In front of the restaurant windows. I jumped away from him, my hand flying to cover my mouth and any blood on it. My pulse raced so loud I could barely hear my own thoughts. They all gaped at me in horror. Al and Craig had positioned themselves to block whatever view the diners would have had.

The concern on Kellan’s face nearly broke me. He held a hard hand on the vein below my bite to stop the blood. The serum regurg
itated
in my mouth. I quickly covered my mark and ran away. I heard someone hold Kellan back while a few others argued over who should follow me. I didn’t stop or even slow down. I ran at the quickest human pace in no general direction, just wherever the wind carried me.

What’s wrong with me?!
I’d never lost consciousness like that before. I was always in control, or at least to the degree of keeping myself in check in public. This mission was testing me. I was either going to crumble or come out stronger than before. Thus far I wasn’t doing too well. I was a mess; a whining whimpering pot of disaster with no back bone left.
Where the hell is my courage?!
Where was the brave vampeen that started this mission?