Maxine said, “Again, we didn’t make contact because wewere worried about the link you have to your grandfather. We didn’t want to put you in harm’s way.”
How magnanimous, I thought bitterly.
I didn’t believe her. What I thought was closer to the truth was that Richard’s demented hunting club would be pissed if they learned Richard had been hiding such a huge secret from them. If they were as merciless as Richard was making them out to be, they’d probably kill him for his disloyalty.
I asked, “So then whydidyou suddenly contact me, if you were so afraid of putting me in danger? Because you need my blood?”
“Our reunion has not gone as planned,” said Maxine, delivering the understatement of the century.
“We employ several human spies,” Richard said. “Some of them work at blood banks, but there are also a few like you—humans who appear to be friendly with vampires. When we discovered that you’d started decoying at Dignitary, we just couldn’t believe it.”
“Then we heard that you’d been involved in the murder of that vampire Michael Graves at Dignitary, so we thought you were in support of our cause,” Maxine said, looking me over with disappointment. “Clearly, we were mistaken.”
Richard said, “You must bear in mind, Olivia, that much of the information we received was secondhand. We don’t know the full story about your involvement with Dignitary. No matter what we heard, we could never figure out why you were living with a vampire. We thought you were perhaps gathering intel.”
“Why on earth would you think that?” I asked, floored by their thought process. Did they think bigotry was a genetic trait?
“Well, you were involved with making the anti-vampire serum,” Maxine said.
I shook my head, frustrated. “As I’ve already told you, I didn’t volunteer for?—”
“We didn’t know that until you told us!” Maxine snapped, as if that had been my plan all along, to trick them. These people were out of their ever-loving minds.
I’d reached my limit. “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? You obviously want to use my blood to start making the serum again. Why?”
Richard smiled cruelly. “We’re going to introduce the serum to vampires on a grand scale.”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“You let us worry about the details, dear,” Maxine said.
The odds were not great that Richard and Maxine were going to let me leave their prison. Ever. Still, I had to try. “You were gracious enough to make a deal with my grandfather, so would you maybe consider making a deal with me?”
Richard leaned forward. “What kind of deal?”
“If I give you my blood willingly, will you let me go?” I felt gross bargaining with them, but I figured they were going to get my blood regardless. At least I could alert the VGO of their plans if they let me leave. I added, “And of course I won’t tell anyone about what happened. I would never turn my family in. I’m sure we’re only having a misunderstanding, right?”
“Goodness, Olivia, I can see Greta has had quite an influence on you. You’re just as devious as she was,” Maxine said with a chuckle, as if I’d told a joke. “And you also lie as badly as she did. I’m afraid we have no deal.”
Richard reached inside his coat pocket and extracted an empty syringe. “Now, be a good girl and give me your arm.”
20
“Jason, we need you!” Richard called as I scuttled back against the wall.
Jason ambled into the shed, looking puzzled as he took in our scene, with me shaking my head and holding my arms behind my back while Richard crouched over me menacingly with his gigantic needle. Given Jason’s apathy toward my predicament, he’d likely tuned out most of the conversation I’d had with my great-grandparents, figuring it wasn’t his concern.
“What’s up? Want me to hold her down?” he asked with alarming nonchalance.
“That depends on my great-granddaughter,” Richard said to his hired thug, though he was looking directly at me. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I must say, my hands can get rather shaky when I’m agitated. I’d hate to have the tip of this needle break off in Olivia’s vein if she continues to upset me.”
“You don’t have to bully me,” I growled.
I pulled up my sleeve and turned my arm so that the crook of my elbow was exposed to Richard. I’d chosen the opposite arm that Joseph had used for the VGO’s blood draw in case any signsof it lingered. How would Richard punish me if he found out that I’d been giving my blood to the world’s most powerful vampires?
I was starting to feel like a human pincushion. I wondered how much blood a person could donate in a week without drying up like a mummy.
With the VGO on my mind, and to take my mind off my great-grandfather’s violation, I zoned out and allowed myself to dream that Joseph had located Robert. He was now safely at home, launching a search party to find me. Serena was behind bars, too—or whatever the vampire equivalent was to prison.
