Danger Calls

Sara nodded and turned back to her locker. “Just spooked since the other night.”

Melissa took off her white coat and hung it up, pausing to slip the suspect list into her knapsack. She glanced at Sara, who was easing off her nurse’s scrubs and tossing them into the laundry basket. Her friend seemed calm and no longer worried. Had she misread Sara’s actions? Could there be some logical reason for her to be taking the blood?

Like the reason you do? an annoying voice in her head challenged.

“Were you on the floor when it happened?” Melissa asked as she, too, slipped off her hospital garb and pitched it into the hamper.

“I was with a patient. They’d buzzed me about some pain, so I had to call the resident,” Sara began, part of her explanation muffled by the shirt she was putting on over her head. “You know, I thought I heard something, but it wasn’t all that loud. And I didn’t see anyone come down the hall from the elevator, so I guess they used the stairs.”

Melissa reached for her oxford shirt. “Sounds like they had it all planned out.”

Sara shook her head. “But we were around. We were sure to see them unless…Maybe they wouldn’t have taken a chance if they saw someone on the floor. Maybe they would’ve just gone to another office.”

“Or maybe they would have hurt someone? Is that why you were spooked before?” Melissa offered, hoping to find some reason for Sara’s furtive actions.

“Sí,” Sara answered and gripped the edge of her locker with one hand, facing Melissa. “I’ve been working a lot of hours. If I can’t be safe here…”

“Is everything okay?”

“Mami hasn’t been well.” Sara’s face grew hard and unreadable, her motions slightly flustered. “I’d rather not talk about it.” As they both finished dressing, she remained silent.

As they walked out of the locker room together, Melissa didn’t press, sensing Sara’s unease. When they neared the elevator bank, Melissa laid her hand on Sara’s arm and said, “If you need to talk, if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

Sara gave Melissa a tired smile. “Thanks for the offer, but you can’t even begin to guess the half of it.”

Melissa considered the possibility that she knew exactly what was up with Sara, but she said nothing else. It was safer to go to the source, for if there was one person sure to know more about other vampires and their keepers, it was Ryder.

The journal flew across the room and hit the wall with a dull, but satisfying, thud.

Useless. Totally useless.

The Danvers clan had apparently been guarding some kind of secret for a long time, only this journal hadn’t provided any information on the nature of their clandestine duties or how those duties tied into Frederick Danvers’s recent experiments.

Another lab rat had died. Just one more rat to go and there was still nothing to keep the cell strain going. Nothing to give a clue as to how to activate the frozen samples.

It was risky to try anything else right now. Security had been tightened at the hospital and the surveillance of Melissa’s office had revealed nothing. If she had other journals, she wasn’t endangering them by bringing them to the hospital.

Which meant she might have them at home. Only a home intrusion posed many increased risks, including injury to the inhabitants. Not that collateral damage of that kind was a problem, but if Melissa was the last Danvers with knowledge of the secret, the risk of losing her was too extreme. At least for now.

There was one lab rat and a fresh supply of human blood to inoculate with the cell strain. Maybe this time it would take.

Chapter 7

“Are you sure it was a blood bag?”

Melissa dragged a hand through her hair. “As sure as I could be without checking her knapsack.” With an exasperated sigh, she continued, “Is she like me? A keeper? It would make sense, wouldn’t it? As a nurse, she knows a lot of medical stuff. She could take care of needs like yours.”

“Possibly.” Ryder lowered his gaze as if further considering her question.

Diana, who was perusing the list Melissa had given her earlier, jumped in with, “Sara Martinez. It’s a common name. Anything else you can give me? Birth date? Social Security Number?”

“We’re both Virgos. I think she was born on August 27th.”

“Virgos, huh? That makes you headstrong and intelligent. And would it be so bad if you had fellow-keeper company?” Sebastian asked.

Ignoring him, Melissa shot up off the sofa and paced a step or two before facing Ryder and Diana. “So is it possible? Could Sara be a keeper like me?”

“I know there are other vampires, but I don’t know who they are or where they are.”

Melissa examined him, trying to figure out how he could be so damn complacent about this. But she saw that while his tone sounded relaxed, he tapped his closed fist against the arm of the sofa in a nervous gesture. “How could you not know?”

To stop the growing tension between Melissa and Ryder, Sebastian quipped, “It’s not like there’s some secret organization like VLAD, Melissa.”

“VLAD?” She faced him, a confused look on her face.

“Sí. Vampires, Lycanthropes And Demons. Get it? VLAD. Like the Impaler.” He made a staking motion with one hand.

It brought a small smile to Melissa’s lips and dragged a strangled chuckle from Diana.

“Is it possible that your father knew somehow? Maybe he figured out what Sara was up to? Confronted her about it?” Ryder asked, completely ignoring Sebastian’s attempt at humor.

Melissa seated herself on the arm of the sofa, so close Sebastian could smell her perfume, a scent with a hint of lilacs. So close he could detect the tightness of her body as she answered, “My father was kind of old-fashioned that way. He was a doctor. She was a nurse. There was no reason for him to get to know Sara.”

“But maybe she knew about him,” Ryder replied. “Maybe she wanted something from him.”

“What?” Melissa pressed, her hands fluttering in the air with her distress.

“Information she obviously didn’t get,” Sebastian supplied. Then he asked Diana, “Are we sure someone killed Melissa’s parents? There’s no room for doubt about that?”

“None. The copies of the reports Peter Daly got for me show gross errors during the initial investigation.” She turned her attention to Melissa. “Is there anything else you can think of—”

“Nothing, but maybe there’s more in my father’s journals. Maybe I should get started there instead of with the older ones.”

“Not without some safeguards,” Ryder advised and looked across the small distance to Sebastian, pinning him with his gaze. “Are you ready to get started?”

Sebastian sat up straighter and squared his shoulders, bracing himself for anything else Ryder might say. “I finished all the programming and setup this afternoon. We can scan tonight if you’d like.”

“The sooner, the better,” Ryder confirmed.

“I need a break and even though I’m not really hungry, I need some dinner. After that, Sebastian can get started. Once he’s done with Father’s first journal, I’ll start reviewing it to see if I can make sense of what was going on.”