He clicked his tongue and came over to crouch beside me. “You’re never useless.” He petted my hair off my forehead, his smile soft and loving. “Your mere presence saved several lives tonight.”
It took me a moment to understand his meaning, and then I wasn’t so sure I wanted those government goons to survive. “I’m hoping that SUV the statue hit was full.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “My blood-thirsty little mate…”
“Any chanceyou’reblood thirsty?”
“Yes, dear.”
Hamilton leaned in and nuzzled my neck for a second before his fangs sank in.
Chapter
Ten
UNTIL MY LAST BREATH
Using the desk phone, I called Liana’s mobile. As the office manager for the Tactical Division, it was my hope that she would know exactly what was happening at Headquarters and why.
“Rokin? Did you reopen the office?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.
“It’s not Rokin.” Though I was terribly curious about who that was and why she knew someone who worked in a concrete cube inside a storm drain. “It’s Hamilton Fawkes.”
Wiley stood beside me as I sat on the desk, our ears pressed to either side of the receiver since the phone didn’t have a speaker function. I’d restrained myself and only drunk enough of his blood to remove the tranquilizer, but having him so close made me want to start again.
“Oh, my goddess!” She made shushing noises and everything around her quieted over the line. “Lord Fawkes, I can hardly believe it! How did you find Rokin’s office? Is he there?”
“It wasn’t my destination—” when I impulsively flew out a window— “but it seemed like a good place to hide from our pursuers. I must ask, though, who is Rokin?”
“Gnome monitor. North branch. They’re up in the mountains at this time of year, so he would’ve locked up and left months ago.”
“Yes, it is rather bare bones.” Did Rokin bring office supplies and literally anything else to make this place look less like a crypt? I worried for his sanity if he was here so long that he needed a cot.
Wiley leaned away to give me a wide-eyed stare and a nod at the phone. I knew what he meant.
“Liana, what’s happening there? Who were those people?”
“It’s local police and federal agents demanding access to the building. They claim they have warrants to search for illegals, but we all know that’s a lie. A few humans have gone out to talk with them—and see the warrants—but they’ve all been apprehended! We’re organizing an evacuation now. Oh! We’ll be using the tunnels and going near you, actually. Representatives from Saint Jude will meet us with vans and trucks at an abandoned warehouse to get us to their facilities.”
It didn’t surprise me that Coalition members from the state capital were getting involved given the high visibility of events so far. Events I’d contributed to.
“Are there repercussions from my exodus?”
“Oh, my, yes,” she said breathlessly. “You made the nightly news locally and it’s getting picked up online and nationally. That’s partly why they’re evacuating the building—which I don’t mind at all, thank you. One exposure is quite enough.”
I sighed. There were a few supernaturals—not many, but enough—who couldn’t shift to hide what they were. Those who chose to work in headquarters like the one there in Parnell lived there as well to keep their very existences a secret from the humans of the world. I’d exposed my true nature and had risked exposing them should those agents breach the building.
“What about Quillan?” I asked. “Has anyone heard from him?”
“I probably shouldn’t say, but I’m really not in the mood. The last update we had was six hours ago when he reported in that the Barnabas lab had been abandoned. They were tracking what scents they could follow toward the coast.”
While it was good that the lab was shuttered, the time lapse was suspicious. Six hours ago? I had to assume they’d run into a conflict of some sort that was preventing them from communicating. Hopefully, it was for stealth reasons and not anything more dangerous.
Switching gears, I said, “Tell me about these tunnels. This is the first I’ve heard of them.”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure how they connect, but if you go out the back of that office, you should see several labeled doors. You’ll want the one with ‘maintenance’ and ‘hazardous’ on it—don’t worry about that last bit as it’s just to keep the curious away. From there, you’ll want to keep moving East. I’m sure you’ll be able to find us at some point.”
I would’ve preferred more detailed directions, but my echolocation had gotten us this far. I had to assume it could continue to do so.
