"Fuck," Tony growled, pacing a little more.
"I'm leaving. I have to see if there's another flight I can get out of here tonight." I brushed past Tony on the way out the door and he stood there, watching me leave.
Chapter 14
I landed at La Guardia two hours after I'd originally been scheduled to land. The airline was able to get me on a later flight and Tony didn't try to stop me. At least not then. I was a little concerned; he had eyes and ears everywhere, I recalled, as I took a cab to the first address Merrill had given me. It wasn't the actual address of the safe house; it was a building nearby where I could pay the cab and then make my way to the safe house after the cab left.
My bags had to be piled one on top of the other so I could lift them and mist to the safe house. It was a bit awkward getting it all there but I did it. My entire flight had been spent wiping my eyes. I'd cared for Tony and he'd done this. I still couldn't believe it. It was one thing to ask my permission, another to violate me while I slept, just to keep it secret.
Merrill got a voice mail message and an email, as did Gavin. They'd both be asleep. Blood was in the fridge so I helped myself to some of it before going to bed. I watched television for a while; the news network was doing an article on the fears of the World Health Organization over a new strain of flu cropping up and that the manufacturers of the flu vaccine might not be able to produce enough to meet the demands of the population as a result. The journalists were interviewing the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies in Scotland and France, along with someone from the company in Georgia. I turned the program off after a while. I was still upset with Tony and the more I thought about the whole thing, the more upset I became. Where had they punctured me? How much had they taken? It was enough to make me to feel weak and tired. Now I knew what had caused my symptoms. They'd taken from me twice and may have been planning other draws before I left. What the f**k had Tony been thinking? He certainly hadn't been thinking about me except as a means to an end. That hurt more than I can say.
* * *
I'd been awake maybe three hours the following evening when I heard the door into my little basement safe house open. Not knowing who it was, I hid myself and waited for the intruder to come down the stairs. I shouldn't have bothered; I'd know those scents anywhere. Merrill and Gavin had both come. Gavin had me in his arms in two blinks and he was murmuring soft words as I had my meltdown. If I'd been coherent, I might have worried that I was choking him; my arms were so tight around his neck while I sobbed. What I remember most through all of that was Gavin telling me, "shhh, cara, shhh."
"Sweetheart, do you know how much he took?" Merrill sat across from Gavin and me later in the small, safe house living area.
"I don't know. I felt weak both times and since I didn't have any other way to explain the weakness, I thought I was coming down with something." That caused Gavin to snort but he didn't say anything.
"How did you discover what he was doing?"
"Merrill, he was carrying me into his bedroom so that other man could take my blood there. That way the scents wouldn't be inside my room," I was back to wiping tears again. Gavin drew me tighter against him. I pulled my knees up and huddled against him as close as I could. "I was going to strip all the sheets off the beds and wash them but the minute I walked inside his bedroom, I smelled the other man and my own blood."
"What is he doing with it? Do you know?" Merrill asked gently.
"Tony called the other man Larry and said that Larry started out compounding the ash from the mister I killed in Los Angeles and injecting it into a lab chimp. I didn't know he was doing that until I found out he was taking my blood, too. I got the idea that they were doing this with humans by the time I figured things out."
Merrill rose and cursed. In quite a few languages, too. He wasn't loud and I hadn't heard him go off like this before. Something was terribly wrong; I could tell by the way he paced angrily in front of Gavin and me. Gavin pulled me into his lap and settled my head in the hollow between his neck and shoulder.
"Gavin, take her to the bedroom," Merrill ordered after a while. Gavin carried me in, rising in a blur almost.
"Cara, Merrill must make a call," Gavin told me as I heard Merrill's footsteps going up the stairs to the outside. "He will be back soon." I nodded, taking off my shoes. I wanted to crawl into bed and try to shut everything out for a while.
"Come here, love," Gavin gathered me up, kissed my hands first and then kissed me, nuzzling my neck before moving on to other things. He was a gentle lover that night, as well as the best lover I'd ever had, but then I'd only had two in my lifetime. "We will return to London tomorrow evening; Merrill's jet is at the airport," Gavin covered me up later after settling me in his arms. Yes, I felt safe with his arms around me right then. He angled his body over mine just as dawn was breaking, protecting me as much as he could while we slept.
Merrill had a limousine service pick us up and take us to the airport an hour after sunset the following day. It was May twenty-third and my birthday. I didn’t mention it and neither did Gavin or Merrill. Vampires don't celebrate the occasion, I suppose. I merely made a mental note that now I was forty-nine and that was just a drop in the bucket to what Gavin and Merrill were.
If Tony thought he was going to convince me to come back with him or make things right between us before I returned to Great Britain, he should have thought again. His car was waiting when our limo pulled up near the jet. Tony and Agent White both got out of the car as Gavin, Merrill and I arrived. Gavin pulled me against him, his eyes going red when he saw Tony. Merrill allowed Tony to approach until he was ten feet away. He stopped when Merrill informed him that was close enough.
"I want to talk to Lissa," Tony said.
"My child does not wish to speak with you," Merrill said calmly. There was no expression on his face. Sometimes, not often but sometimes, I wish I had that talent too.
"She can't talk for herself?" Tony crossed arms over his chest.
"Gavin." Merrill's voice was soft and deadly.
"Come, cara," Gavin led me forward until we both stood next to Merrill.
"Is there anything you wish to say to this man?" Merrill asked. I looked at Tony, standing there alone, ten feet in front of me. I'd cared for him once. Thought he was fun to be with, once. Now I knew his motives to be self-serving. That sad look in his eyes? I had no idea where that was coming from.
"Go to hell, Tony," I said.