Page 26 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Baylin slid an eye in her direction before taking a sip of his energy drink. “I do have a life, you know. It’s not cadre business a hundred percent of the time.”
“Good one, Bay,” she said, grinning. “We all know you only leave this room to go into town like once a month.”
He drained the last of his Red Bull, wadded it up like a paper ball, and tossed the crumpled can over his shoulder, where it sailed perfectly into the trash bin on the other side of the room.
“Whatever,” he huffed out. “I talked to Saiden about the attack when he got home this morning and then pulled some footage from the hospital cameras. I found your vamp in the Ruling Coalition’s database, but I didn’t alert you right away because it honestly doesn’t make any sense.” He tapped a few keys, and a new screen popped up. “Her name is Renata Da Silva, and she was born in Portugal in 1502. According to her file, she has been a model vamp. Five hundred years without a single mark against her. Not even a natural feeding gone wrong before the invention of blood banks. She’s as clean as they come.”
Tressa frowned at the photo on the screen. “Any chance it’s not actually her?”
Baylin spun in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Her ability,” Tressa said, leaning forward to scan the file more closely. “She has some kind of perception filter Gift. She can look like whatever she wants. Maybe she’s just pretending to be this person?”
“Doubtful,” Bay said, pointing to the bottom of the screen. “Her ability is noted right there. Not to mention I caught her on a traffic cam minutes after the attack on the lab. A perception filter doesn’t work on cameras. No, it’s her all right. And if she’s started killing humans, not only is it a recent change, but she’s managed to stay offthe Coalition’s radar somehow.”
Tressa continued to study the photo as if something might pop up and scream, ‘This is why I went rogue.’ When nothing solidified, she sighed and turned to her other cousin who had remained suspiciously quiet. “Derricula, grab me a bag, would you?”
Ignoring his pained groan, she held out her hand and wiggled her fingers insistently. He snagged a blood pouch from the small cooler beside the sofa and tossed it over to her.
Piercing the bag with her fangs, she sipped on the blood and read through the details of the file again. Baylin was right. Not a single red flag to be seen. “What’s her motivation, then?” Tressa mused aloud. “How do you go from five hundred years of squeaky clean to murdering humans and destroying labs?”
Baylin just shrugged, but Derrick scoffed. “Maybe she got dumped and went on a rampage.”
At his bitter tone, Tressa whirled around. “Okay, what is your deal, Derrick? Did some girl reject your advances or something? I know it doesn’t happen to you often because of your Gift, but not every woman is going to fall for your so-called charm.”
Derrick clenched his jaw for a moment, then sprang to his feet. “I’m going to see if Saiden is up for training. I’ll catch you two later.”
He stormed out of the room, and Tressa turned back to her less angry cousin. “What in Lilith’s name crawled up his ass and died?”
Baylin waved a hand. “Not my story,” he reminded her.
A strong part of her wanted to go after Derrick and make him spill the beans about whatever had him pissier than a teenage girl on her period, but that would have to wait. There was a bigger mystery staring at her from Baylin’s computer screen.
“So, any theories?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’ll keep looking, but I got nothing. It mighthelp if we had some idea what Ethan was working on because I doubt it was just a simple heart medication. With Renata going rogue out of the blue, I have to imagine it’s related. If we can uncover that connection, we might be able to figure out her motive and what her end game is.”
Tressa drained the last of her blood bag, then tossed it in the trash. “A great plan in theory, except for the part where Ethan’s staying mum on his research.”
Baylin waggled his eyebrows. “Does that mean we’re back to the idea of you seducing it out of him? Use that mate bond attraction to suss out the dirty deets?”
Tressa smacked his arm hard enough to bruise a human, but her cousin didn’t so much as flinch. “First off, no,” she told him. “Ethan and I are not getting busy any time soon. For multiple reasons. And secondly, don’t say ‘dirty deets.’ I know your Gift is absorbing information at a crazy rate, but can you maybe not adopteverybit of modern slang you find?”
He rolled his eyes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offend your delicate ancient sensibilities.”
“Aren’t you older than me by a decade or two?”
“Maybe. But I’m not delicate.”
Tressa scoffed and rose from the chair. “Whatever. I need to get back to Ethan with breakfast. Everything is in place with the staff?”
Baylin nodded. “Yup. All the rooms with blood storage have been locked up tight, and the human employees have all been compelled to keep the vamp thing under wraps. Anyone he runs into will support your bullshit spiel about this being a group of vampire hunters.”
“I wouldn’t call it bullshit,” she argued. “You even admitted that’s basically what we are. Just… a very specific kind of rogue vampire hunter.”
He laughed and turned back to his monitors. “If that’s what you need to tell yourself to feel better about lying to your mate, then by all means. Keep repeating it.”
“Bite me, Bay.”
