Page 40 of Patrick’s Seduction (Scanguards Vampires #19)

40

P atrick felt the engine’s vibrations beneath him as they traveled over the Golden Gate Bridge in one of the many black-out vans Scanguards owned. They were vampire-safe, their windows coated with a special UV film that blocked out all sunlight. He sat in the back with Fallon, a metal grille separating them from the driver and the other passenger. This van was normally used to transport dangerous prisoners, the partition preventing them from attacking the other people in the van. Patrick had chosen this van in case Fallon couldn’t suppress her need to shift and attacked his colleagues.

Zane was driving. Damian was in the passenger seat, talking on his phone.

Several other vans were following them. Every vampire and vampire hybrid in their employ was taking part in this mission.

“I don’t understand why we can’t all be going in invisibly like you and Virginia did. Wouldn’t that be easier?” Fallon asked.

“Unfortunately, she can’t make more than three people invisible at any one time, without putting herself in danger,” Patrick explained.

“And she’s the only Stealth Guardian you guys know?”

“No. We know a whole bunch of them. They’ve helped us a lot before, but they’re dealing with some major unrest in Europe, and can’t send us any of their people. We’re lucky that Virginia is available at all. As a member of their council, she should have gone back to help them, but I begged her not to. She’s gonna help us.”

“But if she can’t make the whole team invisible, how are they not gonna see us coming? We might never get close enough to Cameron if they see us.”

Damian looked over his shoulder, removing his cell phone from his ear for a moment. “Just spoke to Thomas. They’ve hacked into the Gallaghers’ security system and are ready to record a thirty-second video as soon as the sun is down.”

She remembered having heard something like this in a heist movie before. “You mean they’re gonna put it on a loop so that the cameras show a recorded video rather than a live transmission?”

“Exactly,” Damian said. He tipped his chin in Patrick’s direction. “I think it’s time. Sunset is in about ten minutes.”

“Alright,” Patrick replied and looked at Fallon. “How are you feeling?”

“I can feel it coming. It’s close,” she admitted.

“Let’s do this.”

Patrick pushed the sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow. He let his fangs extend to their full length, then sank them into his forearm, piercing the skin. When he tasted his blood, he withdrew his fangs and looked at Fallon. She leaned closer, and he held his arm out to her.

“Drink.”

She lowered her head to his open wound and began sucking. Her soft lips felt good on his skin, and he couldn’t help himself and pulled her onto his lap with his other arm.

Damn, her curves pressed to him gave him all kinds of ideas of what he wanted to do with her, but he forced himself to suppress his desires.

To distract himself from the erotic experience of Fallon drinking his blood, he addressed his friend.

“Damian, did HQ get any news from Striker?”

“Not since he called over four hours ago.” Damian shrugged. “And as usual he was just as chatty as this guy here.”

He motioned to Zane, who cast him a warning look and grunted.

“What did he say?”

“Just that he’s working on some sort of intervention.”

Patrick nodded. “Yeah, that’s vague. Guess it’s too late now anyway. I doubt he’s gonna come up with something usable in the next half hour.”

It didn’t matter now. Everybody was prepared for the battle and armed to the teeth. With some luck, they would all walk away alive, all but Cameron.

Fallon stopped drinking from him, and slid off his lap, her cheeks flushed, her eyes dilated. He could feel her arousal, a direct effect of his blood.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

He brought his arm to his lips and licked over the two puncture wounds, closing them with his saliva. When he looked out through the windshield, he saw that the van had turned onto a rural road, heading for an abandoned barn.

One by one, each Scanguards van piled into the makeshift staging area which abutted a forest, just a short distance from the Gallagher estate.

“Sun’s down,” Damian announced.

Patrick helped Fallon exit the van, holding onto her hand to make sure he’d recognize instantly if she was in distress and unable to suppress the need to shift into her wolf form. He glanced around and ticked off everybody in his head.

“What are they wearing?” Fallon whispered next to him.

“Kevlar suits,” he replied. “No silver bullet or knife can penetrate them.”

“Then why are you not wearing one?”

He caught the panic in her voice.

“They’re a pain to fight in. Pretty heavy and a little stiff. I need to be more agile.”

He tipped his chin in Zane’s direction, who didn’t wear a Kevlar suit either.

“Those of us going inside the house can’t be weighed down by the Kevlar suits.”

She nodded, but she didn’t look happy about it. He couldn’t really blame her. He would have liked to stick Fallon into a Kevlar suit, but he knew that eventually she’d need to shift, and the Kevlar might trap her, making her vulnerable to an attack.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two earpieces. He handed one to Fallon while he stuck the other one into his left ear.

“Everybody,” he called out. “Communication systems on.”

Everybody followed his command.

He lowered his voice for his next command. “Identify yourselves if you can hear me in your ear.”

Alphabetically, like they’d learned in their training at Scanguards, they began to say their names.

“Alright,” Patrick said with a nod. “All is good. Cole, you’re running the command center?”

From his position back at Scanguards HQ, Vanessa’s human mate, Cole replied, “Yep, drew the short straw.”

He knew that Cole had wanted to join them in this fight, but if anything happened to him, Vanessa would literally skin him alive. Besides, Cole was an IT genius like Thomas and Eddie and was needed at HQ because both had opted to join them in the field.

“You’re more valuable at HQ, bro,” Patrick said into the mic. “Where are the drones?”

“I parked them down the road from you guys. Ready to deploy them now.”

“Okay, send ‘em out.”

“That’s a go,” Cole said. “Drones are in the air. I’ll keep you posted about what I’m seeing.”

“Thanks, Cole. And the security cameras? Have the Gallaghers noticed that we’re manipulating their feed?”

“Nope. All clear and quiet. I’m logged into their system. So far, they haven’t tried to override my code.”

“Good.” Then he waved to Charles and Wesley. “Wes, Charles, the potions.”

The two witches distributed small spray bottles among the team.

“Wait with spraying yourselves with it,” Wesley advised everybody. “Once in contact with oxygen, the efficacy of the potion will last only for one hour.”

He felt Fallon gasp next to him and looked at her.

“You knew this and didn’t mention it when you went in there with Virginia?” Fallon asked, her voice raised.

Not that she would have had to raise her voice for all of them to hear, because she too wore an earpiece and a mic that transmitted every word she spoke.

“Somebody’s in trouble,” Wes said with a smirk.

Patrick cast him an annoyed look and covered his mic with his hand in an attempt to have a private conversation. “I’m sorry, Fallon, but I didn’t want to worry you.”

She simply shook her head. “I can handle the truth.”

“I know that now.” He leaned in. “Forgive me.”

She sighed, but her eyes already gave him her answer.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

Charles, the witch blood-bonded with Roxanne, a vampire female who’d been in Scanguards’ employ for decades, approached. In his hand, he held several Epi-pens. He looked over his shoulder and waved to somebody.

“Zane? Virginia? A word,” Charles demanded.

Virginia and Zane joined them.

“What is it?” Virginia asked.

“Since you’re the team going into the wolf’s lair, I’ve got a little present for each of you.”

He held out his hand with the Epi-pens.

“I’m not allergic to anything,” Patrick said, bemused. “You should know that better than anyone. Immortals can’t get sick.”

Charles chuckled. “Ah, sorry about the packaging, but I didn’t have time to build auto-injectors myself, so I just grabbed a few Epi-pens from the med center.”

“Still not following you,” Patrick said with a shake of his head.

“I’m getting to it,” he said with a grin. “So, I’ve taken out the epinephrin, of course, and replaced it with a potion that Wes and I concocted. It should knock out any werewolf within seconds.”

“Should?” Zane asked with a tight jaw.

“Yeah, I mean, we didn’t really have any occasion to test it, but we’ve been using ingredients that have worked on werewolves before, so, if we’re correct, and I’m pretty sure we are—”

“Pretty sure?” Zane ground out.

“Yeah, well nothing is 100%.”

To stop Zane from bickering, Patrick asked, “And for how long are they gonna be out, if we jab ‘em with that?”

Charles shrugged. “Don’t know for sure. Maybe a half hour?”

Zane shook his head. “Thanks for nothing.”

“Alright,” Patrick said and took one of the offered auto-injectors.

Fallon stuffed one into her pants pocket too. Virginia did the same.

“Zane, you should take one anyway, if only to have it available if somebody in your team needs a second one,” Charles cajoled him. “You don’t have to use it yourself.”

Zane grunted something unintelligible and shoved the offending item into his pocket.

“Just a quick note on how to use it: I’ve rigged the pens, and taken the caps off already, so, all you need to do is jab the thing into some fleshy spot on your opponent, and press on the back end. The needle is strong enough to go through clothes. Just be careful not to poke yourself. Oh, and it’s a one-time use only, just like a regular Epi-pen.”

“Thanks, Charles,” Patrick said with a nod.

He looked at his assembled supernatural friends. Everybody had small spray bottles in their hands and looked at him expectantly.

“It’s time.”

Everybody began to spray down their body with Charles and Wesley’s potion, and within mere seconds, he couldn’t smell any of them anymore as if the barn was completely empty.

“Remember: we’re not here to annihilate the Gallagher pack. We’re here to make them fear us so that they will never dare retaliate against us for killing one of theirs. Immobilize them, but spare their lives if you can.”

Because the only death he wanted on his conscience was Cameron’s.