“No. I’m not from this town. Clarissa sent me and a number of other vampires here to help Theo after the attack on the recruit facility failed. I was quickly made Theo’s second because of my,” he paused, “abilities, and he shared this information with me. Anyway, at first Calissa was making Theo send out vampires to test your new security system. But when we kept failing and losing more and more vampires, she changed her strategy.”

  “Turn as many humans as possible,” Chen said.

  Nathaniel nodded. “Yes. She is obsessed with taking the facility. Partly because she believes it will be a death blow to the program, but also because,” he paused, “she’s angry that it didn’t work the first time. She’s like a little kid, pissed off that she can’t play with her favourite toy.”

  “The facility is her favourite toy?” Selena said.

  “Yes. And Hannah.” Nathaniel glanced at Hannah. “She’s obsessed with you too and has been ever since you killed Samuel. She knew of Samuel’s talents and she can’t believe Hannah not only survived in a fight against him but bested him.”

  Nathaniel leaned forward, staring intently at Jordan. “Look, I might be one of her seconds in command, but I don’t actually know that much about what she has planned. We’re given some extra information but not much more than the average vampire in the nest. Calissa trusts no one and that includes me.”

  “She has to have someone she trusts,” Selena said. “One vampire can’t run the entire operation on her own.”

  “Anna,” Nathaniel said. “She’s Calissa’s personal assistant.”

  “A vampire with a PA,” Reid said. “Fuck me.”

  “She’s more than that. She’s been with Calissa for a long time and they’re close. Which is weird for vampires to begin with,” Nathaniel said. “But where Calissa is, so is Anna. Calissa is incredibly old and incredibly powerful which makes her extremely dangerous. Anna may not be as powerful as Calissa, but she is just as much of a threat.”

  “How is Calissa being funded?” Jordan said. “Is she glamouring humans to get money?”

  “One human,” Nathaniel said. “Some billionaire oil tycoon from Texas. Calissa has been promising him immortality for years and in exchange, he gives her all the money she needs. Theo told me that Calissa brokered a cash only deal for the house we nest in.”

  “You seriously just have some house out in the fucking woods?” Ryder said.

  Nathaniel nodded. “Yes. It had been on the market for years. Apparently, it was hard to sell because of the remote location and because the previous owner had murdered his wife and three children before committing suicide. Also, the Wi-Fi signal sucks most of the time and there’s a swamp only a mile or so away that emits some rather disgusting smells on very hot days.”

  “How did you know about the lab that had the serum to create vampires with souls?” Hannah moved forward onto the edge of the couch. “It was attacked by vampires. How did Calissa know about it?”

  “A human,” Nathaniel said.

  “From the program?” Jordan said.

  “I don’t know. I was Theo’s second at the time and all he said was that a human told Calissa what you were doing. She had Theo send in the vampires to destroy the lab. They came back and told Theo the job was done and that no one had escaped.”

  He glanced at Clem. “They either lied about Olivia escaping or they didn’t realize she’d escaped.”

  “So Calissa has no idea that we are still turning vampires to our side,” Jordan said.

  “No. At least not that I’m aware of,” Nathaniel said. “There’s the possibility that she knows and hasn’t shared the information with me.”

  “But?” Jordan said.

  “But I don’t think so. She doesn’t share shit like her location or her overall plan for enslaving the humans, but something like this, she’d let the seconds know,” Nathaniel said.

  “Good,” Jordan said. “At least I have something good to share with the Board.”

  “Except we still don’t know if it was one of our people who shared the information about the lab with Calissa,” Hannah said.

  “If it was, don’t you think they’d have told her it wasn’t dead in the water?” Selena said.

  “True,” Hannah said. “But who else could it be? The odds of it being someone outside of the program is pretty much impossible.”

  “What else can you tell us about Calissa?” Jordan said.

  “Not much. Her base is in New York, but she does travel from nest to nest. Normally, we don’t hear from her unless she has new orders. Right now, our orders are to keep turning humans, to keep building her army.”

  “So, she can attack the facility again,” Ryder said.

  “Yes,” Nathaniel said. “She will attack the facility again. There is no doubt of that. She wants this place destroyed and she wants to kill Hannah.”

  “Man, what is it about all these vamps who are obsessed with you,” Reid said to Hannah. His tone was teasing but he looked sick to his stomach.

  “What happened to Theo?” Clem glanced at Nathaniel. “How did he die?”

  “Calissa killed him because he questioned her decision to keep sending vampires to the facility.”

  “So, she killed him for asking a question?” Clem said.

  “Basically,” Nathaniel replied.

  There was quiet for a few minutes before Chen said, “So, now what?”

  Jordan studied Nathaniel then glanced at Will and Hannah. Clem stiffened and actually jumped out of her seat, standing between Nathaniel and the others. “You’re not killing him. He helped you willingly, Jordan, and he saved my life. You’re not fucking killing him.”

  “Clem,” Nathaniel said, “don’t -”

  “No.” She squeezed his hand. “Don’t ask me not to demand they let you live. I will not stand by and let them murder you in cold blood. I won’t!”

  “No one is murdering anyone,” Jordan said. “Sit down please, Clem.”

  With a final look at Will and Hannah, Clem sank back into her seat. She refused to let go of Nathaniel’s hand, staring defiantly at Jordan as he rubbed at his forehead.

  “We’re sending you back to the nest,” Jordan said.

  “What?” Clem’s hand clamped down on his. “Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t send him back there. Sooner or later, they’ll figure out he’s different, they’ll realize he has a heart beat and a soul, or that he’s…he’s kind, and they’ll kill him. And your little secret about the good vampires will be exposed.”

  Jordan stared at Nathaniel. “Yes, it’s a risk but the reward far outweighs the risk.”

  “For you, maybe,” Clem said. “But there is nothing in it for Nathaniel.”

  “Redemption,” Jordan said. “Atonement for his sins.”

  “You can take your fucking atonement and shove it up your ass,” Clem spat. She jumped out of her seat again, pulling on Nathaniel’s hand. “Let’s go. You’ve told them everything you know. They don’t need you anymore. We should leave, Nathaniel. Please.”

  He stood and cupped her face. “Clem, let him speak.”

  “No,” she said. “Don’t let him convince you that you need to do this. What you did as a vampire, it wasn’t your fault, honey.”

  He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the palm. “Let him speak, sweet one.”

  Her face twisted and she pulled her hand away from his before sitting down again. Her face red and her eyes bright with tears, she stared at her lap as Nathaniel nodded at Jordan. “Go on.”

  “You’ll continue to be Calissa’s second in command and help us set up traps to lure the vampires in so we can kill them. Our ultimate goal is to lure Calissa herself back to the nest.”

  “And how is he supposed to do that without Calissa killing him? You heard what he said, she kills people just for asking questions,” Clem said.

  “As soon as she says she’s coming to the nest, Nathaniel can contact us. We’ll have our people in place round the nest to kill her before she even walks through the door,” Jordan said.

  Clem snorted angrily but Jordan continued to stare at Nathaniel. “As her second, Calissa will have you turn more humans, yes?”

  Nathaniel nodded. “Most likely. The vampire who was put in charge after they believed me dead, has not done well at his assignment. He’s been sending out yearlings on their own and they’re being slaughtered by your team and,” he hesitated, “apparently there’s another group of humans killing vampires. Ones that are mistakenly killing humans.”

  “Yes, we’re aware,” Jordan said. “We’re looking into it.”

  “Before I was,” Nathaniel hesitated again, “turned by Olivia, Calissa spoke to me about expanding beyond the town. The attention from local police and FBI was growing and she thought it best to concentrate our efforts outside of the town for a while. I was supposed to start sending vampires to the more rural areas and the smaller towns that bracket this one. I sent some vampires out toward Eastville, but they got too close to Lycan territory and most were destroyed.”

  He studied Clem who was still staring at her lap with her arms folded stiffly across her chest. “I knew Calissa was growing tired of my failures, and I was well aware that sooner or later she would kill me like she’d killed Theo. So, I took eight of my oldest and most powerful vampires from the nest and took them to the strip club. I wanted you to show up. My hope was that we would destroy the hunting group and that killing some of the recruits would get me back into Calissa’s good graces for a little while. If I wasn’t successful in destroying the recruits hunting us, I was dead either way. I figured being destroyed by the recruits would be less painful than how Calissa would kill me.”

  “Bet you had no idea you’d walk through door number three, huh?” Reid said.

  Nathaniel glanced at him, happy to see that the hurt and the anger on Reid’s face had faded at least a little. “No, I did not plan for a ‘have your soul returned’ scenario.”

  “People are still disappearing from the town,” Hannah said. “We see vampires in the bars and clubs every time we go out hunting.”

  “More and more vampires,” Selena said. “It’s almost to the point where there are more leeches than humans.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Nathaniel said. “Perhaps Calissa has changed her mind.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jordan said. “With you there, you can send the vampires to the locations we want you to send them to, or you can tell us where you’re sending them, and we’ll be waiting for them. We know that eventually Calissa will return to the nest to deal with your failures and that’s when we’ll kill her and end up the uprising.”

  “How?” Clem said. “How is he supposed to communicate with you? The cell service is patchy at best at the house, and he can’t keep leaving during the day. He’ll be caught. It’ll be too suspicious if he takes off at night and refuses to tell them where’s he going.”

  “Leeches are not friendly with each other,” Ryder said. “I doubt they’re keeping track of everyone’s whereabouts at every moment. Hell, they can barely stand to be in each other’s sight.”

  “Will they find it suspicious if you leave?” Clem said to Nathaniel.

  “No,” he lied.

  She scowled at him. “You’re lying. Why are you lying?”

  Jordan studied him. “Are you? Because lying to us is a very quick way to be turned to ash.”

  “Don’t be an asshole,” Clem said to Jordan.

  Nathaniel caught her hand and rubbed his thumb along the base of her wrist. “Leaving the nest to hunt at the club was an act of desperation on my part. The second in command isn’t supposed to leave the nest. Calissa relies on us to keep the others under control and it takes a powerful and older vampire to control them. She doesn’t like to have to replace us and with the number of vampires we were losing to you, the risk of me dying on a hunt was even higher. So, she kept me in the nest.”

  “If she doesn’t like replacing the seconds, why’d she kill Theo?” Ryder said.

  “She has poor impulse control and a short temper,” Nathaniel said.

  “Great,” Reid said. “Just what we need – a vampire with poor impulse control.”

  “So, it won’t work,” Clem said. “He can’t leave the nest and texting you is risky and won’t work anyway. You’ll have to come up with another plan.” She stared triumphantly at Jordan.

  “You leaving at night is a risk we’ll have to take,” Jordan said briskly. “I’m sure you can come up with a reason for leaving once a week at night or you can sneak out during the day like you did this morning.”

  “Are you forcing him to do this or does he have a choice?” Clem said.

  Jordan stared at the others before he said, “He has a choice.”

  “And if he says no?” Clem said. “You’ll kill him, is that it?”

  Jordan shook his head. “No.”

  “Then he says no,” Clem said.

  “Clem,” Nathaniel said.

  She turned to face him, her eyes widening at the look on his. “Nathaniel, no. Don’t do this. Please.”

  “I have to,” he said.

  “No, you don’t,” she said.

  He kissed her hand again. “I do. If I can get Calissa here, it will end the uprising. Without her, it will fall apart. I promise you.”

  “She will kill you,” Clem said. “She’ll show up at the nest and kill you.”

  “I have to do it,” Nathaniel repeated.

  Clem’s face was pale but determined and Nathaniel’s stomach did a painful lurch when she said, “I’m going with him as his familiar.”

  “No,” Nathaniel said.

  “Well, that’s just the worst fucking idea I’ve ever heard,” Reid said.

  “It isn’t,” Clem said. “Nathaniel said that familiars come and go during the day. So, I’ll be the middleman. It’s the perfect plan.”

  “It is not the perfect plan and you’re not doing it,” Nathaniel said.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I will stake myself into ash before I let you go back there,” Nathaniel said.

  “Stop it,” she said. “Don’t say shit like that.” She turned to Jordan. “You know I’m right, Jordan. It’s the best way to keep him alive so he can lure Calissa back her like you want.”

  “It’s not worth the risk,” Hannah said. “Will, tell them.”

  “It isn’t,” Will said. “Familiars don’t tend to last long. They’re either killed or turned, and with you being bitten, you’re even more of a target.”

  Ryder shrugged. “I agree with the human.”

  “Thank you,” Clem said.

  “Jesus, Ryder,” Reid said.

  “Look, I said I agreed with her, not that I think it should be her,” Ryder said. “Send someone else. We have plenty of female recruits who can act as his familiar. Mallorie would do it, you know she would.”

  “It has to be me,” Clem said. “I’ve already been there with him. Sending someone else would look strange.”

  “No, it wouldn’t,” Nathaniel said. “I can simply say I killed you and found another.”

  She glared at him. “So, are you going to let Jordan and the others know that this recruit will definitely have to let you bite them? Let you feed from them?”

  “What?” Will sat forward. “Nathaniel fed from you last night?”

  “Oh, please,” Clem said, “I think we have bigger things to worry about than the fact that Nathaniel fed from me last night to keep the others from killing us. But I highly doubt that one of your recruits will want Nathaniel to publicly feed from and fuck them, even if they are undercover.”

  “Whoa,” Reid glanced at Selena, “now there’s public fucking?”

  “No,” Nathaniel said. “I didn’t… that is, we didn’t have sex in front of the others.”

  “Not last night we didn’t,” Clem said. “But how many times do you think you can take me to a separate room when the orgy starts without them growing suspicious? You can’t tell me that before you didn’t fuck humans in front of the other vampires.”

  He glared at her and she said, “Glare all you want. You know I’m right.”

  “I knew those fucking leeches had orgies,” Reid said to Selena. “Didn’t I tell you they were having orgies, sweetheart?”

  “You did,” she said.

  “Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Jordan said to Clem. “The possibility of death is,” he paused, “extremely high.”

  “She’s not doing it,” Nathaniel said. “You’re going to let a woman fight your battles?”

  “It would help keep you safe, which in turn would help us end the uprising in a timelier manner,” Jordan said. “Having Clem act as the middleman is a better idea than you sneaking out.”

  “A timelier manner?” Nathaniel snarled in disgust. “Send someone else. An actual fucking recruit.”

  “It’s better if it’s me. I haven’t been here long. I know very little information about the facility and what they do. If I’m tortured, I’ll have no damaging information to tell them, unlike an actual recruit,” Clem said.

  “Tortured? Clem, are you listening to yourself?” Nathaniel said. “Jordan, you have to see that this is insane, right?”

  “She’s willing to go, and since she’s already been to the nest with you and been bitten by you, it’ll be less suspicious than if you bring someone else,” Jordan said.

  “She isn’t trained for this,” Nathaniel said before baring his fangs at Jordan. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  Will and Ryder growled, and Nathaniel hissed at them. Hair growing on his cheeks, Ryder started toward Nathaniel. He stood up from his chair, pushing past Clem to stand in front of her.

  “Hey, okay, everyone calm the fuck down.” Reid stood between Ryder and Nathaniel, placing his hand on Nathaniel’s chest. “No one needs to wolf out or start waving their fangs around.”

  Nathaniel stepped back and turned to Jordan. “She’s not doing this.”

  “It’s not your decision,” Jordan said.

  Nathaniel stared down at Clem, desperation making his nerves zip and zing. “Clem, don’t do this.”

  She stood and took his hands. “I’m not letting you go back there without me.”

 

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