Chapter Five

CAMERON

 

As they drove, Cameron said aloud to Syn, “You know, I was considering those sheets you were raving about.”

“It’s happened! My boy is finally nesting,” Syn jibed with a snicker from the front seat.

Through their link, Nathen asked in a worried voice, “Do you think they’re listening?”

“Never know, but this is safer. I just don’t trust them. Impetus and Paradigm—sure they do all this philanthropic work, but then cyber vampires and hijacking a hospital…” Cameron shook his head in disbelief.

Nathen bowed his head. “I still can’t condone their staged cyber security attack on a children’s hospital. Even if it was empty threats to gauge threat response. It’s difficult to admit that I work for them.”

“Not because you want to,” Cameron reminded him. “And as soon as we can figure out a way to extract you, we will.”

“Dude, not to mention Jacks, their new asset,” Syn reminded, eyeballing Nathen in the back seat.

Cameron’s head hit the headrest as he grunted, “Yeah. That. I’ve been scanning, probing everyone! I haven’t found another person like Jacks—another watcher.”

“Doesn’t mean they’re not there, Cam. Might be another vampire…”

Syn’s drawing attention to the fact that Cameron couldn’t even sense vampires summoned another groan, and Nathen slid a protective arm around him. “It’s midday.” He rocked him. “If there was another vampire following us, he’d be all wrapped up like a burrito, as I am. That would make it hard to follow us.”

Mood lightened, Cameron nestled against Nathen, caressing his arm. “Is this okay? I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know about people with autism and overstimulation.”

“Oh no. This is okay. I just don’t like to be touched by strangers.”

“I know I overwhelmed Tommy, my first boyfriend. With all of the cuddling…”

“Tommy was a twit,” Syn interjected, defending Cameron, but then acquiesced. “I mean, a super sweet twit… Okay, okay, not a twit. But, Cam, seriously, he was a first love, and it didn’t work out. It doesn’t have to be because you did something.”

The grief he usually felt when talking about Tommy dampened to a distant memory as he reveled in his newfound love and held Nathen a little tighter, then being rewarded when Nathen matched his hug.

“Cameron, please feel free to touch me whenever you need.” Nathen pressed his lips to Cameron’s, tongue flicking for a brief second before ducking back down in the protective hoodie.

Instantly relaxed, Cameron hummed happily, projecting the day for Nathen to enjoy—the rolling golden hills of the North Bay peppered with green trees and blanketed with the deep blue sky interrupted by a few fluffy white clouds. The GPS led them off US 101 to a two-lane paved road that turned in to a dirt road that ended in a T, with a hand-painted sign.

“Arrow to the left says ‘Goblin City’ and to the right ‘Certain Doom,’” Syn announced, giggling as she swung the car to the left and over a cow guard.

As they bounced over the metal grates, both Cameron and Nathen yelped when a momentary surge of electricity dispersed pain throughout their entire bodies.

“What the fuck!” Cameron almost shouted aloud when, for a split second, fire raged through his entire body but just as quickly was gone.

Syn whipped around, looking over her shoulder. “What?”

“I don’t know! Both of us got zapped or something. You didn’t feel that?” Cameron asked as Nathen concurred.

“No, what?” Syn slowed down.

“I…I don’t know. It’s not still going on. We’re fine.”

Syn bumped along warily. They came to another T with an identical hand-painted sign. ”Oh, that’s disheartening. Well, when in doubt…” Syn turned to the left again and slowed down in front of another cow guard in the middle of the road. “Do you guys think I should go over it? We are in an SUV, could maybe chance off-roading, but no telling what kind of pits or rocks could mess up the tires.” She snorted, “But whatever, it’s a rental.”

“I don’t know. Do you have any idea where we’re going?”

“No, GPS stopped at the main road. Fuck!”

“Just stay on the road,” Cameron gritted, bracing himself.

Syn gunned it, shooting over the guard. Both Cameron and Nathen let out a relieved chuckle when they were not zapped.

“Left turn in twenty-five feet,” the metallic voice of the GPS instructed, and all three jumped.

“Fuck!” Syn groused and rolled along slower than most people in the city walked. “There are no roads, but that looks like a place to turn…” Chancing it, she swung to the left and bumped over uneven ground for about ten feet until, suddenly, instead of a wide-open field they were looking at a huge, beautiful Spanish-style mansion. A circular drive adorned by a three-tiered fountain sprayed water in the middle. Pulling up in front of the enormous two-story home, they were met by a handsome, clean-shaven young man with short dark hair and bright emerald eyes, bouncing down the stairs carrying an umbrella.

“Robbie,” Cameron whispered, recognizing him from the club where they had first met. Robbie and Theo had been making out in the parking lot before they took off on Theo’s bike and Theo had thrown a thumb drive containing info about the hospital to Syn. Cameron had been able to touch Robbie’s mind, and it was Robbie who had talked Theo into meeting with Cameron the night before.

Syn hopped down from the front seat, holding the hard drive.

Nathen asked, “Why is Robbie here?”

Cameron opened the back door and accepted the surprisingly heavy umbrella, holding it over Nathen as they walked up to the stairs leading to the front door, where the enormous Polynesian man with multicolored hair and a tie-dyed T-shirt greeted them. “Fools!” Theo laughed heartily, gesturing for them to follow him.

Syn related that she was also surprised that she knew Theo from her hacker groups, but it made sense that the best decrypter in their circle would also be a technomage who went by other names. Cameron smiled, knowing that Syn had known Theo for years, though it was almost unheard of to meet up in person. He was both nothing and everything he expected from Syn’s description. Big, bold, beautiful, and vibrant in both demeanor and energy, but wearing hibiscus-printed board shorts? Not expecting that.

“Welcome to our humble abode!” Theo exclaimed with mock humility, giving an exaggerated bow.

As they filed into the home, Robbie took the umbrella. “Blocks against UVs,” he explained softly, his voice carrying a beautiful cadence. Robbie cast an almost shy glance toward Nathen, and Cameron picked up an attraction to Nathen and a lesser amount to himself, that Robbie was more than a little embarrassed by. “I’ll go get everyone drinks,” he said, again in a maddeningly distracting way.

Syn didn’t seem to be distracted at all by Robbie, and Cameron read that while Nathen had heard him, he was also not affected. He related to Nathen how attracted Robbie was to him, and how confused he personally was. Nathen hadn’t caught any hint of Robbie’s attraction. To him, he just seemed quiet. He mentally explained that his smell was different however—not human, but not vampire or mage either. Cameron sensed that Nathen was intrigued, though he didn’t voice it.

The home had a large entryway with a pair of personal scooters in it. There was a sweeping staircase on the left side leading to a second level, with walls decorated in pink Spanish tile. The grandeur of the home was sullied by paper streamers hanging from the railings and a kite that appeared stuck in the chandelier.

“Come on, fools!”

Cameron sensed that Nathen had some mild annoyance at being called a fool, and at the tone Theo used. He projected to Nathen that he didn’t think Theo was purposefully trying to insult them and then grabbed his hand to keep him close. Cameron was still blocked by Theo, which was disconcerting. That, plus the confusion of how they arrived at the somehow cloaked house, sent a million questions flashing through Cameron’s mind. But he didn’t focus on them, trying instead to keep his own anxiety at bay for Nathen’s sake.

Theo led the group into a long hallway that opened to an enormous sunken living room that was an gamer’s playpen. There were a half dozen old-fashioned arcade-style video games, an air hockey table, a pool table, two bright-red leather couches, and a hundred different toys strewn about: frisbees, nerf guns, aerosol string cans, fidget spinners, guitars, a drum set, balls of all different kinds with two hoops set up on opposite ends of the room, three or four drones, and a variety of other things. Against the walls were several giant eighty-inch televisions with gaming consoles attached.

Nathen let go of Cameron and started exploring the room, ignoring when Theo flopped onto a couch and Robbie came out from behind the bar with an armful of sodas, which he deposited on a low table covered with half-empty bags of chips, candy, and cookies. Syn grabbed one of the cans, perching on the couch opposite Theo. Cameron followed suit but watched Nathen protectively. He saw in Robbie’s mind how Theo was acting was in no way how he acted with Robbie and more and more it seemed to be theatrical in nature. Then Robbie’s mind came to a screeching halt as if hitting a brick wall. Cameron snapped around to see that Theo had slipped a band over Robbie’s head.

“Uh-uh,” Theo gave an exaggerated finger waggle. “Read your own boyfriend’s mind.” Theo took a possessive grab of Robbie’s chin, pulling him up as he kissed him deeply, keeping eye contact with Cameron as he did so. Robbie’s bashful smile was punctuated by his eyes darting to Cameron, and his cheeks reddened when Theo let him go. Robbie silently ducked away from Theo and went to Nathen.

Looking at the various games, Nathen exclaimed, “Oh, wow! I haven’t seen this one for a long time! Can I play it?” Robbie punched in a key combo that granted him some credits. “Thanks!”

Cameron stayed in Nathen’s mind as he immediately became entranced playing a game he had not seen for years. The last time had been at a pizza parlor that he frequented simply to play their arcades that were set up as two-player games. For Nathen, making friends had always been difficult, but he excelled at playing computer games and solving puzzles. This made him popular with other kids his age who would join and play with him when he was there. His mind became engrossed in the retro graphics, music, and sounds, and Cameron sensed that his emotions were alternating from intense interest to a euphoric, contented calm. His countless hours playing the game contributed to it still feeling like second nature. Nathen talked to Robbie about how far he had gotten without dying and what his other favorite games were.

Cameron turned his attention fully to Theo. He had scanned the house already and found the minds of two others—a live-in housekeeper and her husband who did landscaping, both minor mages themselves. This thrilled Cameron, and he filed away their abilities and experiences to fully process them later.

“Hello X,” Syn laughed, using Theo’s handle.

“Wassup Syn?” Theo replied with mirth, popping a can of soda and drinking, before letting out a loud and almost painful-sounding belch.

“Impressive setup!” Syn turned slowly, appreciating the room.

“Yeah, yeah. Yo, you said you have some sort of thing you want me to look at. This ain’t no Paradigm bisnez, is it? ’Cuz, like I said, I am so not interested in that kind of thang.”

“Sorry, X. We had no idea you were the same person! Nathen knew you by something else online and thought you could use your GPU farm to crack this.” She set the box out on the table.

“Yo, yo! I don’t know why youze guys wanna mess with these peeps. Wha’ was wrong wit’ you? Seriously! You gotta have some death wish. And you”—he pointed at Nathen who was absorbed with a game—“bringing yo’ bugs up in here. Fed from the wrong android or some such? And you”—he pointed at Cameron—“getting bumps from some infected-ass leach. Guess I can’t blame you, being a civilian and all. But man, this is ridiculous.”

What is he saying? But Nathen was too caught up in his game to focus further.

“What do you mean?” Syn interrupted. “I’ve scanned these guys for bugs almost daily, and they are clean. The SUV too. I even have a scrambler. I took precautions.”

Theo fell back laughing as if Syn had related the most hilarious punchline. “Oh, man! Syn, you’re good. Don’ gemme wrong, bro’. One of the most talented humans on the left coast, fo’ sho. But we talkin’ nanites, yo. Bloodsucker there infested with them!” He thumbed over his shoulder at Nathen.

“The electricity?” Cameron asked.

Theo gave a sage nod. “Can’ have those bugs all up in me crib. Fo’ real. They been tracking yo’ every movement. All o’ the place. Any idea who wants to keep that close a tabs on you?”

Cameron shivered. Infested with things that had been tracking and monitoring him? And worse, that Nathen had been the one to infect or infest him!

Syn spoke up. “Yeah…Impetus. They made him,” she divulged, and Cameron shot her a warning thought.

“Syn! Can we trust him?”

“I don’t see that we have a lot of choices, Cam. He’s another mage. He’s helped us out, and he even met with you to give you some information just because he’s nice, if not more than a little strange. I would have never expected this guy in person, and I’ve known him for years. But, then Nathen has also known him for years, too, as someone else. So who knows?”

Theo ran his fingers through his curly rainbow locks that spiked up and out all over his head.

“Listen, X…Theo? We’re likely in way over our head, and you might be our only hope.”

Theo let out another loud laugh that verged on obnoxious. “Yo, I be the Obi-Wan to yo’ Leia? I dig it.”

Syn continued as if there had not been an interruption. “I’ve known both you and Nathen for years. We’ve all played together online, run different missions, made each other money.”

Theo grew more serious, shifting his bulk to sit up straighter on the couch, leaning forward.

Syn matched his pose, speaking seriously. “Listen, I trust the two of you, and Kat, and the others. It’s why I reached out to everyone when this thing went down with the Sons threatening a cyberattack on the hospital. Last Thursday Nathen came over for the meetup at my place. And we found out he was a vampire. But he was created on Wednesday by this company, Impetus, who abducted him and “recruited” him, throwing a ton of money at him, and also, from what I can see, they subtly threatened his family, though he didn’t pick up on that piece. And he was put on the mission to help discover what was going on in the hospital.”

Theo’s eyes lit up with this piece of information, and he set his drink down, then scooted forward on the couch.

“He joined Cam the next day at the hospital, and they found this address that they checked out on Saturday night—some sort of mainframe that was receiving traffic from the remote ransomware service. But it was trap. Thankfully, they recovered the hard drive though I can’t crack it. You and Kat were able to get in and figure out it was Paradigm behind the cyberattack at the hospital. Then the three of us went in and learned something strange. Apparently, Paradigm and Impetus are working together. Not just that—working to create cybernetic vampires. Some sort of half-breeds. Theo—Cam, and Nat are into each other, and we need to know what we’re up against.” She shook her head and Cameron was hit with waves of uncharacteristic anxiety from her.

Cameron explained in a low tone, “They own Nathen. They’ve had him under surveillance for months. Cameras through his house…his bedroom. I went into Impetus and read minds on several floors. I got a lot of info. Like they had a guy following Nathen and ready to kill him; like they’ve got a dozen or more vamps working for them, and they kill just as many more who don’t fall in line. It’s infuriating. I also read that they got in the business of creating vampires in the early 2000s, but they’ve also got some sort of serum that extends people’s ages. And then there was a guy they have working for them who I think is a mage. He blocked me like you did, or Robbie, but he wasn’t wearing a headband. And I could still pick up surface thoughts…”

Cameron paused as Theo stood abruptly and paced back and forth, tugging on his goatee. After a few moments, he smirked and turned to Syn and Cameron. “All right, I’ll help.” He exhaled a long slow sigh, all trace of the exaggerated gangster tone gone.

Theo fixed Cameron and Syn with a stare. “But you need to do something for us first before I even attempt to break this.”

“What is it?” Cameron asked, fighting the urge to stand.

A tickling caressed Cameron’s mind when Nathen’s attention sluggishly swung to the group. The shift in everyone’s emotions was palpable to him, and unfortunately Nathen was picking up on it. His enthrallment with the game broke, and he turned to face Cameron, who was uneasily watching Theo. Nathen hurried to slide onto the couch beside him. Cameron flashed through the conversation for Nathen’s benefit, knowing he had tuned everything else out in service to his distraction. He mentally emphasized the fact that Nathen and he had been infested with nanites.

Theo paused in his pacing to eye Nathen, waiting until he had settled next to Cameron on the couch before walking over to a candy dish, emptying the fun sizes all over the table, and thrusting the bowl at Nathen. “Bleed in it,” he instructed. “I need to figure a couple things out.”

Startled, Cameron took the bowl as Theo stalked out of the room. Robbie tracked Theo until he left and then sat on the arm of the couch opposite the group. His sparkling green eyes roamed over the trio before he opened a soda and sipped, gracefully leaning back.

Nathen sheepishly apologized with waves of confusion and guilt as he ruminated on Impetus and their making him a vampire; and then Paradigm and the role they played in everything.

“It’s okay,” Cameron massaged Nathen’s arm, helping to shake him out of his spiral. “Really, I understand. This whole thing is very confusing for everyone. But we’ll figure it out.”

Nathen took the bowl from Cameron and set it in his lap. His canines extended and he bit down into his wrist, lowering it over the bowl. Blood wept from the wound into the receptacle.

With fascination, both Robbie and Syn watched as Nathen bled. Cameron glanced through the rest of the room, his gaze falling on Robbie. Robbie’s mouth was open, and he had long sharp incisors extended to pinpoints. His eyes were closed, and he was inhaling deeply through parted lips. Cameron caught a brief swipe of black as his forked tongue occasionally shot out between his teeth. When he opened his sparkling green eyes, the pupils had changed to oval slits surrounded by green with no white—any hint of human eyes gone. Robbie fixated on the bowl of blood, then glanced at Cameron and flushed red, tearing his gaze away. When their eyes met once more, Robbie was again a beautiful dark-haired young man with normal human eyes. He was still pink in the cheeks and mouthed, “Sorry,” before averting his gaze to the soda, which he rolled between his hands, keeping his head bowed.

When the bowl was almost half full, Nathen licked his wrist and asked, “Is this enough?”

Cameron glanced at Nathen and Syn, but neither had been looking at Robbie. When Nathen asked his question, Cameron gently lifted the bowl and set it on the table. “I think that should be fine.”

Nathen asked Robbie, “Do you guys know what the nanites are doing? Is Cameron going to be okay?”

Robbie shook his head, his tone soft. “I don’t know very much about all of this. But I’m sure Theo can help you.”

Cameron once again was hit by the rhythm of Robbie’s voice cascading over him in waves and summoning goose bumps over his shoulders.

“Okay, elephant in the room. Damn! Did that hurt?” Syn interrupted to ask Nathen, avoiding looking at the bowl.

Nathen shook his head. “No, my saliva is an anesthetic and my fangs are really sharp. It feels a bit like pressure, and I can feel the blood flow out. No actual pain though, and it’s already healed.” He lifted his wrist to show Syn.

Syn leaned across Cameron to snatch Nathen’s arm and stare at it, finally letting go and sitting back. “Wow. Damn. Was that like vampire masturbation?”

“Umm, no,” Nathen replied, bewildered.

Cameron hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away from Robbie. “You drink blood too.”

Robbie gave a small shy bow of his head in response. He squirmed and moved to the far side of the couch, away from the bowl of blood.

Nathen picked up the body language, which was normally too subtle for him. “Uh. Is my blood being out in the open a bad thing then?”

“It’s okay. Theo will be back soon,” Robbie assured. “It’s infected anyway. So, though it smells really, really good, I can’t touch it.”

Robbie’s long eyelashes emphasized pools of liquid emerald-green eyes. Cameron had the urge to go sit near him, get to know him better. Why the hell had Theo put that headband on him? He should go rip it off in order to speak with Robbie in a more intimate way.

Nathen edged closer to Cameron, wrapping his now healed arm around Cameron’s waist. “Is everything okay? Your emotions… I’m confused.”

Cameron jumped at Nathen’s touch, having been openly staring at Robbie. His confused gaze met Nathen’s, and he shook his head. “You and Syn… You don’t hear it? When he talks. It’s so strange, like a calming effect. It was a lot stronger when I could hear his thoughts. Like…like when you kiss me!” The realization hit, and Cameron sent waves of embarrassment and apology to Nathen.

A large duffel bag landed next to Robbie as Theo rushed into the room, a swipe of his arm knocking most of the non-liquid items on the table off onto the floor. “A’right. Let’s see what we got here.”

Theo tugged various items from the duffel: first a blue disc that he flung at the table. It caught midair, hovering above the surface. Without pretense, Theo took a few drops of Nathen’s blood with an eye dropper and drizzled them onto the blue disc. Instead of falling onto the disc, the blood pooled around a few inches above it, at which point Theo waved a handheld scanner over it.

“Huh…” he grunted. He whisked out a helmet, which he set onto his head, the visor falling into place automatically before a red light glowed.

Nathen watched in awe, and Cameron was torn between following Robbie as he stole out of the room, or staying with Nathen, who was obviously too distracted to notice. Syn’s smack across his shoulder made the decision for him, and he turned his attention back to the show.

“Cool.” Theo’s huge grin greeted them when the helmet was plucked off and tossed on the couch. He snagged a soda, then downed it quickly.

“What is it?” Nathen asked excitedly. “What’s their purpose?”

“So…those bugs of yours are wicked. They are set to monitor your status—health, unlife, everything—what kind of blood you’re drinking, where you go, and a bunch of other things,” Theo explained.

“Can you get rid of them?” Cameron asked, unable to suppress a shiver. Now he was being recorded from the inside in the same way he and Nathen had been videotaped by Impetus?

“Sho’ ’nuff,” Theo responded, reverting to his earlier persona briefly before switching back to normal. “Couple things though. First, it will cost you. Second, for you”—he poked a finger toward Cameron—“it makes sense. Impetus doesn’t need to be tracking you. And as long as you don’t take any more bumps from fang-boy here, you should be fine. But Nathen here? Dude, you’re a construct. The company owns your ass, so until you’re ready to go rogue, I’d suggest not getting rid of the hardware they have in you just yet. Now, I could give you a device to neutralize them—as they’re turned off here. Probably giving anyone monitoring a fit,” he chuckled with overt pride. “But that’ll cost you too. So you’ve got some choices, and I’ve got some info.”

Nathen asked, “Why will it cost us? And are you saying I am the property of the company now? I mean… I still have a working social security number and have all my rights as a citizen. So why can’t I go to the authorities for help?”

Cameron ruminated on the fact that the company was monitoring everything about him, and he bounced his leg nervously, hunching forward as he chewed on his lip. With Nathen’s question, he shook his head.

Theo’s eyes opened wide before he fell back laughing. “You crazy! Yeah, you do that, fang-boy. You go tell the ‘authorities’ that vampires exist, mages exist, fae exist— You see what padded room they put you up in.” He wiped his eyes from laughing so hard.

Cameron sent a soothing feeling to Nathen and wrapped an arm around him. “Gorgeous, this really is beyond what human police could do. Do you really think that cops could help?”

Syn sank into the plush leather with her arms behind her head, appearing as though deep in thought. Like watching a tennis match, she surveyed Theo and Nathen; then, ignoring both, she said, “All right, so this company makes vampires and this other company has fae. And vampires and fae hate each other. And they’re rivals. But we also know that they work together to make some sort of cybernetic vampire hybrid…”

Theo’s laughter died, eyebrows shooting up. “Something else, and it’s why I say it’ll cost you big time. Those little friends in ya—they weren’t created by no vampires. Sorry, dude, vamps just don’t got what it takes. Nah, those were magically created. Only another mage or fae could have created those. And I don’t know any technomages better than me, and I swear that ain’t ego talking.”

“So…simply an extension of Paradigm?” Syn mused.

“Looks it. And those little guys, those are going to be awesome to experiment on. For me, that is. So to answer your question”—he turned his attention to Nathen—“first off, I don’t do nothing for free. And second, I definitely don’t do nothing for free if it means my ass. And this totally means my ass.”

“What’s it going to cost?” Cameron asked.

Nathen shrank into the cushions of the couch, helplessness encroaching. “I keep forgetting I’m a vampire now. I mean, I know I am, but it’s not something you think about often when making decisions…until now. I lost my life, have an illusion of freedom, and have no privacy. And I can’t really do anything about it because I will probably be killed…” He propped himself up and rocked in place from side to side. Soon he needed more movement and got up to stride around the room. Cameron rocked with a chaotic wave of hopelessness, anger, sadness, and frustration, though Nathen’s face remained expressionless.

Cameron stood and captured Nathen, pulling him close and nuzzling his shoulder. “It’ll be okay. If anyone can help us, it’s this guy, right? And, nothing bad has happened from the company…companies…yet.” Cameron sent waves of calm and hope to Nathen, empathetically chasing away his anxiety.

Nathen settled into Cameron’s embrace, his emotions stabilized. “I hope so.”

Ignoring Nathen, Theo continued. “I’m glad you asked.” Suddenly incredibly serious, Theo stood and stalked over to one of the large televisions, picking up an enormous remote the size of a tablet. He tapped and the screen came to life with a picture of a small, beautiful brown-skinned woman with bloodred hair, styled in dreadlocks. She wore a flowing red dress, and her arms were covered in bangles and charm bracelets.

“Don’t think the two of you have ever met her in person, but this is Kat. She was abducted last night. You also don’t know, but I’ll go ahead and out her. She’s a blood mage. So we went into the hospital on Friday, against my better judgment, mind you. First thing I noticed was all the eyes…erm…cameras,” he clarified, nodding toward Nathen and Cameron. “Had to make sure both of us were cloaked. She went into the labs and such, did her thing, trying to look for any telltale sign of magic at play in the people there. She noticed some minor whatevers, but nothing of value. I tapped in and learned a bunch, like I already shared.

“Anyway, last night, after we met up with you lot, Kat and I were hanging out at a coffee shop downtown and, fuck, some vampy decided that’s the time to come in and attack. Fucker was fast. Hit us hard. There was an old-ass black van outside and two guys come out, guns blazing. Now, Kat, against a vamp? She boiled his blood.” He rolled a shoulder as if that was the most logical course of action. “I attacked him with electricity. It was surreal because it was late, and aside from the baristas, we were alone, right? The vamp knocks Kat the fuck out, and then everything went wonky. I got my shields up in time but stayed fighting this dude who was shooting at me and saw them carrying Kat away,” he admitted, deflated and annoyed. “I couldn’t affect the stupid van because it didn’t have a computer system in it, and I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell since then. I scanned the motherfucking vamp. Now, I’ve been up against two other vamps and learned to get the hell away from them. But this vampy wasn’t like the others. My scans of the fucker say this one had nanites.” He fixed Nathen with a stare. “You see, there’s a correlation going on here. Now, I’m not foolish enough to think that correlation equals causation, but this is interesting. Something going on in a hospital that is caused by Paradigm, then Kat and I go into that hospital, you two and I meet up last night, and suddenly vampires, likely from Impetus, come after us? Could be coincidence…but are you picking up what I’m putting down?”

Nathen responded cautiously. “That these companies we now know are working together are somehow stalking you?”

Syn sat forward, frowning.

“What the fuck ever. Seems your kin have my girl.” Theo addressed Nathen, his eyes narrowed. “So, you get her back, and maybe we can talk. I’ll keep the bowl as a down payment. You get my girl, and I’ll look at your stupid box and zap your crabs. And as a show of good faith, I’ll get the ones in you now if you want—” He gestured to Cameron. “Downside though, just so you know. Your Masters—” He shot a look at Nathen. “They’ll know. Because those little guys have been transmitting for however long it’s been since you fed them to him. They will know when they’re all gone. They’ll know some of these are offline now, but that could be due to anything. But if I take them all out of him, now, they’ll definitely know something is up.”

Cameron hugged Nathen tighter. He hated the idea of having something inside him, transmitting data. Especially if they sensed what he was doing magically. But Theo was right, and he didn’t want to put Syn or Nathen in any more danger.

Nathen considered, then honestly offered, “I don’t know. If I remove them, they may want to kill me. But on the other hand, it keeps Cameron from being infected. But he may want to drink my blood in the future. May need to. It enhances his abilities. This is all confusing and weird. I’ll save our friend. She’s the best fire mage I have ever played with in online games, but I don’t know about clearing the nanites just yet.”

“I think I have to agree right now.” There was so much more to say, but Cameron struggled to articulate it. Numbness tickled his fingers, and he found that he was clinging to Nathen, holding onto him tightly so forced himself to step away and relax.

Syn groused. “All right, tell us everything you know.”

Over the next hour, a now somber Theo explained in detail that he had been gathering information almost nonstop for the last ten hours and provided what he had found. He tapped into the nearby cameras and traced the van to a parking garage in the city. After he ran the plates, he learned that the van belonged to a rental car agency that had a space on one of the floors. Unfortunately, the van itself hadn’t been rented for that day, so Theo assumed it was stolen or “borrowed.” He scanned through footage of other cars leaving that garage and reached a dead end. Later he used facial recognition on the guys who had attacked them at the coffee shop and learned that the one who took Kat was Mathis Davidson. But the address on his driver’s license was a generic postal address and after he opened the address, he had never returned: a ghost as far as Theo could tell. The other guys with the guns had been wearing ski masks; and the one Theo had killed with electricity had his mask melted into his face.

Cameron’s brow furrowed with the memory of when he and Nathen had gone into Impetus and read the minds of people in the company. Mathis Davidson was one of the names of the vampires that someone had records on. He was one who rarely came into the office and was generally in the field as a mechanic.

Theo explained that he tracked Kat’s phone to the garage too, and it was still there. “I’d actually forgotten I’d agreed to meet up with you queens today. We’ll stay here and figure out this stupid thing,” he pointed to the black box. “Otherwise, I wasn’t kidding, guys. I gotta get Robbie to safety. But not before we get Kat.”

Syn projected mentally. “Cam, Davidson? That was one of the names you mentioned, right?”

“Yeah, I learned a bit about him and some of the others. If nothing else, we can maybe learn something more if we go into Impetus. That might help us track down where Kat is. I’m sorry, I’m not sure how much of all this I want to share with Theo.”

Nathen chimed in. “I don’t think we should tell him anything, but…” Nathen asked aloud, “Could you give me the IP address of the phone by chance? I can use my own abilities to project to it. Maybe scout the area before we go marching in there…”

Theo pushed another thumb drive into the computer, transferred several files, pulled it out, and tossed it to Nathen. “Sho’ thing, fang-boy. You got a pic of her, everything I found on Mathis Davidson, the van, and her phone. You have the phone you can reach me on if you get her. I can have someone to you, no matter where you are, within half an hour outside the city, ten minutes if you’re in. Don’t bother coming back here. You’ll never be able to find this place once you leave. Anything else?”

“Yeah. So we get Kat, and you bring us info on the drive and cure my friends here,” Syn confirmed.

“Yep. Right. It’s been real; it’s been fun; it has not been real fun. But hey, not every day can be an orgy.” He winked at Nathen.

Robbie returned as if on cue. “Let me show you all out,” he offered softly, turning without waiting for them and heading down the hall to the front door.

Nathen considered, “I’ve never been in an orgy.” He wrapped his hand around Cameron and waited by the archway.

Ignoring Nathen, Syn said sincerely, “Thank you for your help.”

“Stay safe, Syn. Hope to make money again someday with you. Hey, maybe we can all plan to meet up in my place in Maui when all of this is over.”

Syn relaxed and spontaneously grabbed and hugged him. “Yeah, that is a plan.”

“Eww, Dyke cooties!” Theo protested with a good-natured laugh.

“You know it!” Syn thumbed the lapel of her leather jacket, turning to show off the Dykes on Bikes logo of the motorcycle group she used to belong to.

Syn followed Cameron and Nathen out to the front door. Robbie leaned against a banister heading down to the circular drive holding the oversized umbrella. Stepping to the other side of Nathen, he whispered in his ear, “It was nice finally meeting you.” He held the umbrella high to shade Nathen from the sun.

Nathen asked, “Uh…were you waiting to meet me? Did Theo talk about me or something?”

Nathen sensed an immediate ribbon of surprised jealousy flow from Cameron.

Robbie’s smile was hesitant, and he peeked up to meet Nathen’s eyes before he whispered softly. “I can bite too but have never been bitten.” He was so close and speaking so softly that his lips brushed Nathen’s ear.

Robbie slipped off the headband, glancing at Cameron, who immediately dove into Robbie’s thoughts. It was apparent in the conversation with Theo that Robbie had a bite very much like Nathen’s. Many other pornographic images of Theo and Robbie flooded Cameron before he pushed them aside and wrenched the door open, holding it pointedly for Nathen.

“Oh, okay.” Nathen sidestepped with confusion toward Cameron, a mix of worry and apprehension toward Robbie causing Cameron to be even more protective.

Cameron helped Nathen into the car and followed him, shooting a tight smile at Robbie, who said in his beauteous voice that cut through Cameron’s annoyance, “It was really good to meet the two of you.” He handed over the closed umbrella. Cameron read that it was a gift for them and also that Robbie was unerringly kind. An incident earlier in the year where Robbie had needed to overcome a vampire flickered into his mind, and it had left the young man curious about being bitten.

Syn climbed into the driver’s seat and set out. Cameron made sure the silver reflective pads were on the back windows so Nathen was a bit more protected, though he pulled him into his embrace anyway. Robbie flirting with Nathen, recognizing his own jealousy, and the fact that Nathen read all that was going on in his mind did nothing for his mood.

“Sorry, I don’t know what that was, but he was making me uncomfortable. I think he wanted to feed on me or something. But I felt you getting…jealous. Was he being sexual? And the thing with the orgy from Theo… Was he flirting, being nice, or joking? Or was that a threat?”

Cameron sighed, smiling softly and explaining, “He was flirting. He and Theo had been talking about vampires and what Theo knows about vampires, which isn’t a lot. But he does know that your bite is…great, and apparently Robbie’s is too. And he and Theo…” Cameron’s annoyance lifted. “Well, they’re much like you and me. Except Theo is the mage into tech like you, and Robbie is also into computers but, with regard to hacking, clueless like me. Anyway, you aren’t the first vampire he’s met. And I picked up only a fraction; apparently there aren’t a lot of were-snakes out there, Robbie is the only male of his species, and I think Robbie might be hiding from the rest of them. In any case, he was curious about what it would be like to be bitten by you.” Cameron gently caressed Nathen’s arm. “Can’t blame him.” He kissed the top of Nathen’s head.

Nathen’s concerns were mollified, and he relaxed into Cameron. “I would never do anything with them unless that was something you wanted.”

Cameron groused, “Definitely not something I want.”