I didn’t wait for any of them to speak and fixed Giselle with a death glare instead. My thoughts stilled and coalesced around the threat. “I know you didn’t break into my house and touch my things. I know you didn’t do that.”
“We’re investigating whether you’ve aided and abetted a vampire.”
I clenched my fists as a buzz of awareness drifted through me — the vampire blood, connecting somehow to the blood in the evidence bag and — faraway — to Dragomir himself. Whatever she saw in my eyes made hers narrow.
Before I got a chance to show her what I meant, Archer cleared his throat and eased to his feet next to the bed. He’d pulled off all the tubes and wires. “This is serious, Ada. Very, very serious. I don’t think we’ve ever had someone help a vampire before. There are minions and revenants, but no law-abiding —”
“Stop right there.” I got my “I mean business” finger out and waved it under his nose. “There’s a tree stump in Georgia with a higher IQ than you if you think for a second I’ll just sit back and let you talk to me like that. Last time I checked, you all aren’t the law.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken,” Archer said. He gestured at his teammates and Ryan reluctantly pulled a black wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open so I could see a badge and identification card. I refused to react and kept my arms folded over my chest. Probably fake. Their little private organization printed that nonsense out, just like a bunch of cryptid hunters made their own unions and badges. Archer looked a little too ridiculous to take seriously as he balanced there in a hospital gown flapping open around the back and a rumpled pair of socks with rubber grippies on the soles. “Ada, we are the law when it comes to cryptids and similar creatures. So we absolutely cannot turn our back on someone aiding a vampire.”
“He helped me first. He saved my life.”
“Having it done to you is one thing,” Giselle said. “Doing it of your own volition is something else entirely.”
RUN. They will kill you if you admit it.
“You want to ask me something, ask me.” But I looked at the door and debated if I could knock Ryan out of the way long enough to escape.
“Did you drink his blood, Ada?” Archer didn’t blink as he watched me, and for a second it felt like Dragomir himself stared me down.
I couldn’t blurt out that I’d sucked it right from his wrist. “It saved my life after the attack. It was the only way I survived.”
“And tied you to him forever,” Giselle said slowly. For once she didn’t look like she chewed her own face; something like pity filtered through her gaze. “Once they’ve bitten or exchanged blood with someone, they can always find them. Always. That vampire can track you around the world without even trying. It gives them a mental link, telepathy where they can control a blood bag’s thoughts and emotions. It never goes away.”
I definitely didn’t like being referred to as a “blood bag.”
I shook my head and moved to the door. “Great. I’ll let you know when that starts.”
Giselle blocked my path. “Not so fast.”
“You know, there’s a special place in hell for women who get in another woman’s way.” I stared down my nose at her. “So move aside.”
She didn’t budge. “You’re contaminated. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m going to help my brother,” I said. I looked at Archer and watched all the promise of that flirting fade away. Not just professionals instead of more, but professionals fundamentally at odds with each other. “If that means helping this vampire, then I’ll probably do that, too. I just hope you have the good sense God gave a goose and stay out of my way.”
Even if the implication that I’d been contaminated with vampire cooties for the rest of my natural life was a little distressing.
Archer shook his head. “It isn’t that easy, Ada. It’s never that easy.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It isn’t easy. But I couldn’t wait around for someone else to find my brother. I don’t know if you can understand that, and frankly, I don’t really care. I’ll have to make my peace with what I’ve done, and I’m fine with that, too. I hope you’re never in my shoes. I’ll protect my brother from the world and you for as long as it takes. I won’t stop, even if it takes another ten years. I’ll get him back.”
“Ada —”
“That’s all I’ve got to say to you all,” I said. It felt like a goodbye. “We’ll figure out how to keep the balance out here without your help, just like we have been all along. You can leave my money at the hardware store and I’ll pick it up later.”
None of them said a thing as I walked out. I focused on getting to my truck. I needed to find Dragomir and figure out what the hell we were going to do about Jamie, about Archer’s team, about everything. I never thought I’d see the day when cooperating with a vampire seemed a better option than siding with some human cops.