* * *
Winkler had his cell glued to his ear as he punched the code to get back into the safe house. Bill had called out the National Guard, in addition to anybody else available, including all four branches of the military. Then he'd called Winkler, asking him to pass the message to Gavin and the others—he wanted their help. Camp David had been taken over by Admiral Hafer and a contingent of vampires and their human sheep. He did say that the President was safe and on his way back to the White House, along with three foreign dignitaries. Bill didn't elaborate on that. Gavin was growling as Winkler appeared in the basement of the safe house just as he was ending the call. Roff was directly behind the werewolf, his eyes huge and frightened.
"Hafer and those vampires tried to take the President and now they have control of Camp David," Winkler muttered. "Bill is sending a helicopter for us but we have to be at a helipad nearby as quickly as we can get there. Lissa saved the President and three others—they're safe at least, but she went back into the whole mess as soon as she got them away from there."
Gavin started cursing again until René intervened. "Cousin, she is doing what she can in a volatile situation. I know you worry for her, as do the rest of us. Let us go and see if we can offer assistance." Gavin quieted after that, nodded at René and motioned for Winkler to lead the way out of the safe house.
"Roff, do you wish to go?" René asked quietly. "I warn you, it will be extremely dangerous."
"I will stay here. Please keep the Raona safe," he whispered.
"That will be our top priority," René smiled at the comesula and followed the others out of the basement.
"You look an awful lot like Director Hancock," an FBI agent commented when Tony, Gavin and the others piled out of the van near the helicopter.
"He looks like no one you know," Gavin growled out compulsion. The agent nodded, his eyes going blank for a moment before leading them to the helicopter, its blades already whirling swiftly in preparation for takeoff. There were headsets for all of them and they climbed aboard and settled in.
* * *
This had turned into a waiting game—at least fifteen minutes had passed while Hafer and his cronies, surrounded by elite Navy guards, combed through the main building and then went on to the next, and the next after that. I hovered over their heads; they were frantically searching for the President and the others, sure that I'd be with them.
It was likely they intended to kill the President and the others, in order to cause an international incident. They'd made an attempt on the Vice President already; if that had succeeded, and then they'd succeeded in this attempt on the President and the others, the entire country would be in chaos. Gavin had been correct—Xenides wanted to destroy countries, along with getting his hands on me.
It was fortuitous that I'd sent mindspeech to Bill as he and the President were preparing to fly to Camp David. The fact that I'd agreed to come along with them was almost too good to be true. Too bad I couldn't get inside Hafer's brain to see what he or the two vampires who weren't mist were thinking. As it was, I was afraid to go lower, not while the other three were still mist. I wondered how long they could remain mist. I think I was about to find out.
One of the vampires began to rise higher inside the building currently being searched, so I was forced to hover next to a fluorescent light, hoping he wouldn't be able to distinguish my white mist from that of the artificial light. He couldn't, and I heaved a mental sigh of relief. He did search out every corner of the room, though, carefully checking to see if I was there.
There was sudden shouting and a commotion outside—evidently the cavalry had arrived and more compulsion was about to be placed for the Navy guards to fire on their fellow soldiers. I misted through the ceiling while the others rushed for the door—they hadn't discovered that they could mist through walls—another advantage I held over them. The two vampires that weren't mist were shouting out orders laced with heavy compulsion for the guards to start shooting. They did. And if something wasn't done soon, then this would likely turn into a bloodbath.
Hafer was hiding behind his two vampires as well as he could, the jerk. He was doing his best to get honest, loyal soldiers killed just so he and Xenides could get what they wanted. Bullets were now flying indiscriminately, several of which zinged right through my mist. Yeah, I wasn't crazy about being shot at again, even if the bullets didn't do any damage. I heard a helicopter in the distance and figured more troops were coming.
I misted toward the ground troops that had just arrived to see if I could help them in any way. They were down low, completely puzzled over why their own were shooting at them. I found Bill and a few other important people at the back of that crowd. I dropped toward them at an incredible rate of speed.
Bill, I'm right beside you, I sent.
"Lissa, come on out, we'll cover this up," Bill said, still bending low with the three others with him. Bullets were still flying overhead.
"I sure hope you can cover this up," I muttered dryly, materializing next to him in a kneeling position. "Three of theirs are invisible right now."
"Can they hurt any of ours?" Bill was worried, and I now had three sets of eyes trained on me. Looked like bigwigs from the Army, Navy and Marines. I figured the Air Force were the ones flying around the perimeter of the camp.
"If they figure out what they can do before the effects wear off," I grumbled while a bullet cracked into a tree limb over our heads. Honestly, I was about to get pissed and go after those schmucks anyway, mist or no mist.
"Lissa, what will they do to you while you're mist?" Bill asked while more bullets whacked into the tree over our heads. Somebody had our location, looked like.
"You know, I don't think they can do much at all," I smiled sweetly at Bill, gave him a kiss for pointing out the obvious, (which shocked the hell out of him, I'm sure) and misted away in a heartbeat.
Two vampires died swiftly, their heads and bodies separately turning to ash in seconds. Three research biologists under compulsion were then gathered and dropped in the midst of the advancing soldiers; they were disarmed and restrained quickly. Admiral Hafer was then jerked up and hauled straight to Bill; I dropped him from ten feet overhead, breaking a few bones when he hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Hafer's gun flew out of his hand and he yelped as he fell. Now, the three that were mist were chasing me; they'd seen me finally and I was about to see how long they could remain mist. I flew straight east as fast as I could go while they tried their best to keep up with me. I had experience being mist—they didn't.