Blood Revealed (30 page)

Eloise suddenly remembered she was pouring coffee and jumped to finish the job.

From the table where Jake had settled behind the laptop once more, almost like a defensive position, he said, “You don’t drink coffee, do you, Patrick?”

Dominic lifted his finger. “I do. I am dying for a cup.” He moved over to the island, where Simone was finishing up the pouring. “Is there one for me?”

As Simone pushed a mug of coffee over to him, Patrick moved over to the table and sat on the chair next to Jake. “How are you doing?”

Jake’s gaze cut away from him. “Fine,” he said quickly.

Patrick put his hand on the table. “I know why you phoned me. You did it for the wrong reasons, only it turned out, anyway. So thank you for that.”

Jake searched Patrick’s face, his gaze flickering over him. “Really?” He sounded uncertain.

Patrick smiled and it was the warm expression that Blythe had learned to associate with Patrick at his most relaxed, when his guard was down and there were no members of the public anywhere near. She had begun to think of that smile as the real Patrick. “You’ve seen the evidence,” he told Jake. “I’m sure you’ve figured it out.”

“Simone and Eloise have,” Dominic said.

Eloise blushed right up to her hairline, while Simone kept her back to them, busy at the sink.

Jake’s gaze moved around the room, before settling back on Patrick. “You three are together?”

“Yes, we are together,” Blythe made herself say. Speaking it aloud was the only way to avoid being a complete hypocrite—even though these were her kids and it felt wildly appropriate to be discussing it with them. Dominic was right, though, they were all great kids and they deserved the truth. Besides, there wasn’t much left of their childhood, anyway. They were growing up at a rate of knots and were old enough to handle this.

Jake was hammering at the keyboard with his forefinger and it was a nervous mannerism. He wasn’t actually doing anything productive. His gaze was moving around the room, absorbing the fact that there were two men there. “Is it some sort of deviant sex thing?” he asked.

“Jake!” Simone hissed from the sink, chiding him.

“No, it’s okay,” Patrick said easily and there was no offense in his voice. “Think it through Jake,” he said gently. “If it had been just kinky sex, do you think we would be sitting here talking to you now? If it had just been the sex, then your mother would have bundled us out the door before you arrived and you would never have known.”

Jake licked his lips.

Blythe was startled. That was one of her mannerisms.

“Then…?” Jake begun.

“Good question,” Dominic said. “We are still trying to figure that out, ourselves.”

“Mom.” Eloise held out a mug toward her.

Blythe grasped it gratefully. “Thanks.” It gave her something to do with her hands instead of standing there twisting them together and worrying.

Eloise glanced toward Patrick. “Can I ask a question?”

Patrick crossed his leg over the other and sat back. Blythe realized that he was in public figure mode. He was being truthful…and wary.

When had she got so good at reading his body language?

“Sure,” Patrick told Eloise.

“Have you stopped being an actor now?”

Patrick hesitated. He shook his head slowly. “I haven’t given up the trade,” he said, his voice even and without emotion. “I’m pretty busy these days with everything else on my plate. Besides, I don’t think Hollywood wants me anymore.”

“Assholes,” Simone murmured. Her back was still to the room, as she bent over the sink.

“Simone!” Blythe spluttered as she coughed over a mouthful of coffee.

Dominic just grinned.

Patrick looked just as startled as Blythe felt.

Simone turned around to face everyone and shrugged. “He’s brilliant in the movies. That makes everyone else idiots.”

Patrick looked pleased. “To be fair,” he said, “it’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated about it? Jake demanded. “They won’t hire you because you are a vampire and had the guts to say that in public.”

The room was silent while everyone absorbed that.

Then Eloise shoved the coffee pot back onto the hotplate with a decisive click and turned around to face everyone. “Mom, what’s for supper?”

“Any requests?” Blythe asked.

“I want Patrick to stay for dinner,” Jake said.

“And I want Dominic to stay,” Simone said.

“I meant requests for food,” Blythe said weakly.

“I’d love to stay for supper,” Dominic said.

Patrick uncrossed his legs and stretched them out, relaxing. “I’ll stay, too.”

“To eat?” Blythe said, her voice rising in surprise.

“I’ll sit at the table with everyone,” Patrick said. “I’ve gotten used to watching people eat now.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting back to the house? You have to hunt tonight, don’t you?”

“Hunting! Yeah!” Jake said with enthusiasm. “I saw you on TV this morning. Very cool.” Then his gaze swiveled to Dominic. “And you’re a hunter, too. That’s so cool.” His eyes were shining.

“And so is your mother,” Dominic reminded him.

“I bet Mom is better than both of you combined,” Eloise said.

Blythe looked at her, startled.

“Your mother has no competition,” Dominic said. “Including either of us.” He nodded toward Patrick. “Patrick is far better than me, too. I just sniff them out.”

Simone shivered delicately and turned to open the fridge, checking for contents and possible supper menus ideas.

Jake looked at Patrick. “You will stay, won’t you?”

“I think that’s up to your mother to decide.” He looked at her directly and frankly. “Your squad’s numbers are down. I was thinking that, if you don’t mind, I should hunt with you. It will help prop up your numbers to have a vampire with you.”

Tallying the strength of men available to her was automatic and Blythe didn’t even have to think about it. “More people would absolutely be good. A vampire would be even better. Don’t tell me that you carry your sword in your car with you?”

Patrick shook his head. “I’ll borrow a knife or two. I’ve had training with those, too.”

“Wow!” Jake studied Patrick with open admiration.

“Your mother and Dominic are the heroes,” Patrick said flatly. “They’re hunting night after night, despite being weaker, vulnerable and the Summanus’ most favorite food. I am a vampire and hunting the Summanus is what I was made for.”

He glanced at Blythe and Dominic. “It’s all starting to make sense now that I’m hunting. We have better hearing, can see better in the dark and can smell a scent signature half a mile away, if the wind is right. We can move silently and faster than a human. And even though Summanus toxin hurts like hell, we heal faster than you do. We don’t need sleep, so we can hunt at night and still have time during the day to live as a human and move among them.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Blythe said.

“What about acting?” Simone insisted.

“If it happens,” Patrick said, “it will simply be a bonus, now.”

“Because you’re a hunter now,” Jake finished.

Patrick shook his head. “Acting used to be everything I lived for. Not being able to act would drive me into the deep end of a bottle and worse. It was my entire life.” He looked at steadily at Blythe and Dominic as he finished. “I have something else to live for, now.”

The silence was profound. Blythe was afraid to breathe. Not even her kids moved or made some sarcastic comment or otherwise ruined the moment. They all just stared at Patrick.

Then Jake cleared his throat. “I vote for pizza.”

“A really hot ginger beef for me,” Dominic said.

“Salad!” Simone sang out from the fridge and Jake groaned.

“There’s all that leftover stew in the freezer,” Eloise said. She didn’t sound the least bit enthusiastic.

“Summani steak, cooked rare,” Patrick said loudly.

“Oh, gross!” Simone said clutching at her stomach, as everyone else laughed. And just like that Blythe found herself preparing supper for a room full of people who had increased by two.

She didn’t mind, which for her was really saying something. Perhaps Winter’s tinkering had done more than relieve her stress symptoms.

As she prepared supper, she watched Dominic and Patrick talk and laugh with her kids, settling in at the table as if they had always belonged there. Her kids had been won over by Patrick almost instantly and Dominic had made his impression that morning. So now they blended in together like it was meant to be.

Perhaps it wasn’t Winter who had worked magic at all.

When his phone started ringing for the third time in three minutes, Roman swore and untangle himself from Garrett’s arms and legs. “Sorry, Mikey,” he muttered and picked up the phone.

Garrett rolled onto his back with a heavy sigh. “So much for a lazy afternoon.”

The caller ID made Roman’s brows rise. He looked over his shoulder at Garrett. “You’re not going to believe this.” He answered the phone.

“Hi Roman. It’s Max Balfour. I don’t know if you remember me.”

“Max Balfour,” Roman said aloud, for Garrett’s benefit, although Garrett could hear Max as clearly as he could.

Garrett sat up, his attention snagged.

“Of course I remember you, Max,” Roman said into the phone. “President of the SG4 group. I think we met a few years ago.” He made himself shut up, so that the head of the most powerful private security firm in the country would be forced to make the first overture.

“Our paths don’t cross very often,” Max said. “I know you’ve been running with the Hollywood crowd for many years.”

“I’m married to one of them,” Roman reminded him.

“And to Calum Garrett, too, I believe.” It wasn’t a question. Max had been doing his homework. However, their lives had been public fodder for so long that he wouldn’t have had to try too hard to find that much out.

“How’s business these days?” Max said.

Roman hesitated. Business was in the basement. Just like Patrick, he had been excommunicated
in absentia
. Hollywood had turned its collective back on him, for the crime of speaking the truth. “With the Summanus taking bites out of us every night, I don’t think anyone’s business is doing particularly well these days,” he said carefully.

“I’m glad you mentioned that,” Max said. “I may have a proposition for you.”

“Go on.”

“SG4 is the largest security group in the northern hemisphere. We do corporate security, corporate espionage, drone work, paramilitary, we’ve even been hired to help run a military coup. There isn’t too much we don’t have a finger in, but guess what our biggest contracts are these days?”

Roman nodded. “Security forces against Summanus encroachment?”

“Right in one. So you can probably figure out now why I called.”

“Why don’t you spell it out for me?”

“I’ve been watching you on TV and I had my Chief of Staff pull up some videos and interviews that you’ve done, too. You know these bastards.”

“Even among the vampires, I’m probably one of the top three experts,” Roman said.

“And I think you’re being modest. I’ll be frank, Roman. I need your help. I need your expertise. We hire the best of the best, only this is a whole new world we’re in. My guys do their best. They just don’t know the Summanus the way you do and they don’t know vampires. They can’t make an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, or even the strengths and weaknesses of allies like vampires, if they don’t understand them. You could educate them.”

Roman thought quickly. “I haven’t worked for anyone for hundreds of years. You’re not offering me a job?”

Max replied smoothly. “I’ll hire you as a consultant, if that’s the way you want it. This is a big job, though. You probably wouldn’t be able to spare the time for anyone else for quite a while.”

“No kidding. You’re talking about orchestrating an entire cultural shift of your corporation. Change doesn’t come easy, not even these days.”

“I think you’ll find it easier than you’re anticipating. My guys know they’re outflanked for as long as they don’t understand who it is they’re fighting. That’s going to make them eager to learn and more willing to change than the average Joe on the street.”

“Almost every average Joe on the street is hunting Summanus now, too,” Roman pointed out. “So am I.”

“I’ll make this worth your while. Once you’ve trained my boys, they can train others. You just have to get the ball rolling.”

“They’re not going to mind taking instructions from a vampire?”

Max didn’t hesitate. “If they do, they’re out. I don’t have time to deal with that sort of bullshit, anymore. Everyone needs to wake up and smell the new reality.”

It was a refreshing attitude and Roman could feel himself unbending. “Where are you located these days?”

“At the moment, I’m in Sydney. They’re having a bitch of a time down here. I’ll fly to wherever you want to meet.”

“I’m not committing myself. Not yet. Let’s make it Boston, next Wednesday. That’s seventy-two hours from now, which gives you time to get here. Do you have any objections if I bring Garrett along?”

“The more vampires the better,” Max said.

Garrett snorted.

Roman settled the time and place with Max then hung up. He tossed the phone on the bed between them and looked at Garrett. “It occurs to me that you have the second biggest security firm in your portfolio.”

“So that’s why you suggested Boston.” Garrett shook his head. “Most of my portfolio was decimated when they forced me out of the boardroom. That doesn’t mean I still don’t know people.”

They looked at each other.

“The Libertatus were filtered throughout most of the world’s military,” Garrett said slowly, which told Roman that he had been following his chain of thought almost exactly. “You couldn’t sell contracts to the military, because they already have their own experts. That is, if the Libertatus have come out for them.”

“It doesn’t matter if they have or haven’t,” Roman said. “As soon as news of a contract for consulting services makes the news, they’ll come out just to protect their positions and take advantage of the fact that they’re vampire.”