After ten minutes, we were over the Atlantic. I didn't want them dropping into the ocean and possibly living over this, so I turned and headed toward land. Good thing, too—the injection of my blood wore off and the first one materialized, dropping right out of the sky, screaming all the way down. I swooped in and gathered him into my mist. Let me tell you—he could curse in as many languages as Gavin. The second one rematerialized and dropped. We picked him up as well. The third one was misting toward the ground when he turned and I still managed to get him. Now, what to do with them?
Tony, is Gavin still having a rant? I sent. My mental voice sounded weary, even to my own ears. Karzac had been correct—I hadn't waited the extra day to get over my bullet wounds to the chest and I was tiring.
He is, but we're here at Camp David, now, Tony replied.
Tell me where you are, I have the three misters, I informed him mentally. You guys need to be ready; we need these dead as soon as I dump them on the ground. Tony described where he, Gavin and René were, so I headed in that direction.
I didn't dump the vampires gently, either, opting to fling them onto the ground. Gavin, Tony and René didn't take long to remove heads from bodies, and Bill and his buddies were there to witness the entire thing. Gavin was growling and had my upper arm in a tight grip as soon as I appeared. I didn't expect anything else, to be honest.
I heard René placing compulsion on humans as Gavin hauled me toward a nearby stand of trees. "Lissa, I want an explanation and I want it now," Gavin's eyes were dark and his fangs were showing.
"Gavin, I don't have any excuse. You're right as usual. I'll try harder next time." I'm not sure what he wanted to hear, if anything. I was terrified and exhausted at the same moment. Anybody else would be terrified, too, with Gavin like that. I'd seen anger before—killing anger. Alcohol-induced, crazed and irrational. Watched my mother die as a result, and then took blows meant to kill me afterward. I had no desire to wait for Gavin to deliver any blows of his own, so I was shaking and prepared to go to mist in a blink. Yes, I was watching Gavin's hands, now, and not his face. That would be my signal—when those fists clenched or the claws formed. I took a step backward. Gavin followed, still shouting and cursing. I'd stopped trying to translate the words; I was watching his body, waiting for the blows to come. When I saw the fists clench, instinctively I raised my arms to ward off the inevitable punch. I think I was crying by that time.
* * *
"Lissa, stop crying. Please." Winkler was kneeling beside me, an arm around my shoulders. I don't know what happened—I'd dropped to the ground while Gavin had been shouting, expecting him to hit me at any moment, he was so angry. And then I couldn't stop sobbing. Couldn't. I heard someone nearby, telling someone else that drugs had no effect on me so the tranquilizer should be put away. I heard René's voice, quietly talking to Gavin, who wasn't saying anything, now.
"Lissy, you can't have a breakdown now," Tony was kneeling on my other side. "Baby, we need you. We can't do this without you. He didn't mean it, he was just upset. He wasn't going to hit you, pretty girl. I promise."
"Come on," Winkler coaxed softly, drawing my arms around his neck and lifting me up. I was sobbing against his neck, now. He carried me toward Gavin, René, Bill and a few others standing there on the leaf-strewn grounds of Camp David on a September night, quiet now except for my sobs.
* * *
Gavin and René were on a conference call with Wlodek. Gavin was a wreck. "I have not seen this before, not in a vampire," René sighed. "She believed that Gavin was going to strike her. As soon as his fists clenched, she dropped to the ground and we could not stop the weeping. She cried herself out after four hours, when sunrise came."
Wlodek's fingers stilled on his gold pen. Gavin and René were in Director Bill Jennings' office. He'd set up the conference call for them. Charles had set up the webcam from their end and Gavin and René both watched Wlodek's face. It held no expression, as usual. "I can do nothing about this from so far away," Wlodek said after several moments of silence.
"We were hoping that Merrill, perhaps, or even Lissa's father, if he could be contacted," René suggested.
"No, Merrill cannot be disturbed at this time," Wlodek sighed. "Gavin, I have never seen you allow your temper to run away with you like this," Wlodek went on. "This is your mate. You know how fragile she can be in this respect. What were you thinking?"
"And I did this in a public place," Gavin reluctantly admitted.
"He didn't say anything that would reveal the race," René offered. "He was shouting as an angry husband might. Well, as some angry husbands might," he amended.
"Will she be able to function after this?" Wlodek asked quietly. "Where is she now and what is she doing?"
"I left her in bed at the safe house. I wanted her to sleep as long as possible. I think the recent injury as well as exhaustion may be playing a part in all this since she has been awake so much during the day," Gavin muttered. Wlodek had already been advised regarding Lissa's adventures during the day. He understood now what Griffin's blood had done for her.
"At least she was able to eliminate Xenides' minions," Wlodek remarked, staring at the gold pen in his hands. "But there are others still out there and the threat in Kansas has not been dealt with. We need her help with this. If this is not possible as a result of this breakdown, I expect to be alerted immediately."
"We will let you know," René promised and terminated the call.
* * *
My head was pounding when I woke and Roff was there, waiting for me to wake, a glass of ice water in his hands. "Roff, I feel sick," I scooted up in the bed, my head in my hands. It felt like a migraine, to be honest, and I wished that aspirin or something actually worked right then.
"Raona, will a bath help?" Roff was trying to coax me off the bed.
"Roff, my head feels like it may explode," I muttered.
"Weeping will do that," he pulled my head against his chest and stroked my jaw. Roff pushed and pulled, coaxed, begged and cajoled until he had me soaking in a bathtub full of hot water, a cool compress over my forehead and eyes. That's where Gavin found me when he came in. I don't know where he'd been and at the moment, I didn't really care. He'd frightened me the night before, causing something to happen that hadn't happened in a long time. Don was the only one who'd ever seen one of those—some sort of breakdown. I'd had several in the first few years after Howard Graham nearly killed me, but nothing in the past decade or so—until now, that is. I suppose it was the injury, the stress and the exhaustion, all weighing in at once. Roff left the bathroom quietly. I didn't make a move, leaving the compress over my eyes. I knew Gavin was there by his scent. He knew I knew as well.