Mika Ito hung up her desk phone and slid the burner phone she’d been given a week ago out of the bottom drawer, looking around to make sure no one else at the newspaper was watching. In all of her years as a Vampire, never once had she broken a single rule, and she wasn’t about to start now. There was no sense angering a group of people who could easily hunt her down and destroy her without a second thought. Yet, something about using a specific, untraceable phone to contact the man who’d gotten in touch with her about the Eidolon Festival seemed shady, and she didn’t want anyone at all questioning what she was up to.
Of course, none of her coworkers were aware of what she was. She’d hidden it well over the last five years. Originally, when she’d been infected at a night club right out of college, she’d thought the world was over, that she may as well turn herself in and let a Hunter destroy her. Luckily, the man who’d accidentally turned her had been responsible, showing her how to contact LIGHTS to get tagged and caught up on the rules. He hadn’t been aware that something so small as a scratch could cause such a catastrophic reaction, but because of his honesty, he’d been allowed to continue on his journey as an undead as well. It was too bad Dustin had been killed recently when LIGHTS had determined it was time to take out all Vampires, even the Compliants. Mika hadn’t stayed close to him, despite the fact that he was technically her father, but she did feel bad for him. As far as she knew, he’d never purposely harmed anyone.
So maybe that was one of the reasons why she’d agreed to this. From what she’d been told, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. But she wasn’t sure that was exactly true. The instructions she’d been given by a man calling himself Bruce were simple. Contact Aaron McReynolds and ask permission to organize an Eidolon Festival on August 29 in Shepherdstown. When she’d asked why, her connection, Bruce, had noted her clean record, that she was just the type of Vampire who could talk McReynolds into it, make him feel guilty if she had to, make him understand that this was necessary—on that night, in that location. Mika had hesitated, but when Bruce swore she was doing nothing wrong, she’d gone along with it. Really, it wasn’t complicated, and she had always enjoyed Eidolon Festivals. It had been almost two years since they’d had one in North America. Why not give it a go?
Bruce’s number was preprogrammed into the phone, and she’d been instructed not to use it for any other purpose. Nor was she to speak to anyone else about the fact that he’d contacted her. If anyone from LIGHTS asked why she was the one calling, she was to say that she had several friends in the Washington, DC, area who were ready for a get together. Aaron hadn’t asked, though. She thought it was odd, but then, maybe he knew most of the others who might’ve been the ones to contact him in the past were dead now.
The phone only rang once before Bruce’s deep voice filled her ear. “Yeah?” he said, short, to the point.
“We are a go.” That was the answer he’d told her to give, that or “no go.”
“Thank you.”
The phone went dead in her hand. Mika looked down at it in surprise, wondering if she should call him back. But she had a feeling he wouldn’t answer if she did. Whatever Bruce’s reasoning for keeping this secret was, she wasn’t about to find out. And she didn’t want to. If someone else was up to something no good, she’d want as much distance from it as possible. When this was over, if heads were going to roll, she’d just as soon hers stayed firmly on her shoulders where it should be for the next couple of hundred years if she played her cards correctly.
* * *
Bryce Emerson slipped the burner phone head used to contact Mika Ito into his jeans pockets and pulled out another, almost identical one from his other pocket, dialing the only number the device contained. It rang only once before he gave the same simple message. “We are a go.” He hung up before his contact could say more and put the phone back in his pocket.
The coffee shop in downtown Shepherdstown was as quaint as the picturesque little city itself. Even this time of year, when the grass everywhere one looked was a dismal shade of brown, the town was still the sort that made one feel at home, despite the centuries old idea that Shepherdstown was one of the most haunted places in America.
Bryce sipped his coffee, not really tasting it. Having been a Vampire for going on twenty years, he’d learned how to look human when necessary, but for the most part, he preferred to spend time with his own kind. The only blood he drank was of the animal variety, most of the time. There’d been an occasion or two when he’d travelled into one of the larger cities late at night to procure the taste of a criminal, which was completely permissible. But for the most part, he tried to avoid humans. There was just something about seeing the life drain out of their eyes that haunted him.
He wasn’t exactly sure what this entire arrangement was truly about. He’d been contacted a couple of weeks ago, given specific instructions, told to alter his name, which he had done—telling Mika his name was Bruce--and to only speak to her. Bryce understood that he was just a cog in a wheel, a link in a chain, and that his part in whatever was happening was fairly small. But it was significant enough that he was needed, as was the person he had just called after hanging up with Mika, a woman who called herself Nina—but that probably wasn’t her real name. On up the chain the calls were being made, he was certain. Where they’d stop, he didn’t know. What the purpose of being so stealthy was, he didn’t quite grasp either. But he’d lost some friends in the recent raids on Compliants, and he wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity to help, even if he had no idea what it was he’d just done. On August 29, he’d still be here, in Shepherdstown. Maybe then, all of the pieces would come together.
