“Christian Henry, as I live and breathe. What the hell could you possibly want from me?”
Eliza was sitting in a conference room along with several other members of her team, going over a strategy to locate the blonde Vampire from the other night and see if they could bring her down. Mila continued to talk about tactics, and Eliza pretended to listen, but curiosity had the better of her, so when her old pal who’d ended up getting her in a hell of a lot of trouble, popped up on her IAC, she had to find out what he could possibly want.
“Well, if it isn’t the Rambo of Guardians. That video everyone’s been passing around is pretty impressive. When did you learn the type of skills it takes to end six Vampires all by yourself, and the long-lasting kind, for that matter?”
She tried not to laugh since it likely wouldn’t fit with whatever Mila was currently talking about. “I don’t know. After I left you assholes, I guess. I didn’t realize anyone had seen that, outside of my team. But then, if there’s a scandalous video to be had, I’m gonna guess you’ve seen it.”
“Come on, now, Eliza. I might make some borderline unethical videos, but you’re the one who shares them with people."
“Did you need something, Christian?” If he’d just contacted her to talk about old wounds, she had plenty of other things to do with her time.
“I think you can, but I need to have your absolute confidence before I tell you anything else.”
Intrigue infiltrated her mind. In all the years she’d known him, Christian had come up with some pretty hair-raising schemes, some of which she thought were absolutely ridiculous, but he had a way of pulling them off. “What?”
“Do I have your confidence?”
“What does that mean? Will I keep whatever the hell you’re about to say to myself? As long as you aren’t planning on killing anyone, sure.”
“I’m not planning on it, not anyone good anyway. It might happen, though.”
“Listen, Christian, I’m in the middle of a meeting, so will you either shit or get off the toilet?”
“How did you know I’m on the toilet? Are you watching me.”
Eliza gagged, getting the attention of Sergio, who was sitting next to her. His eyebrows knit together in concern, and she nodded that she was fine before taking a drink from her water bottle. “Please tell me that’s an attempt to be funny on your part.”
“Please tell me I didn’t accidentally grant you visuals.” Eliza closed her eyes, praying he really was joking, and trying to come up with a response, but he didn’t wait. “I think I’m going to go after him myself.”
Confusion washed over her. “Who?”
“Him.”
“Him who? Are you trying to be obtuse or are you speaking secret code?”
“Yes. And I need your help.”
Shaking her head before realizing what she was doing and trying to cover it up before anyone noticed by shrugging her shoulders, like she had gotten a sudden chill, Eliza thought about who Christian could possibly be referring to. There really only seemed like one answer. Since Hannah had recently revealed to Mila they might be after the most diabolic Vampire at all, the two scenarios had to be related. “Daunator?”
“Yeah. But I can’t handle him and the others, his minions. I’ll need you to steer your team in their direction to take them off of my trail.”
“What minions?” She really had no idea what he was talking about, unless he thought this blonde woman and the others she’d taken out the night before were related to Daunator, which made sense if the bastard was suddenly active again, but they didn’t really know that for sure, did they?
“I’m going to send you a spreadsheet that identifies six of the Vampires that are responsible for the great deal of undead Mila suddenly has in her jurisdiction. It should help you figure out who your enemy is. She can’t know where this came from, so you’ll have to figure out how to let her know. At any rate, I can vouch for its validity. Find these monsters and get rid of them so I can go after him, or at the very least, keep them busy.”
The document in question appeared in her IAC. “Christian, you’re really not making a whole lotta sense. Where did this come from? How am I supposed to let Mila know about this if I can’t tell her where it came from?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. Just do it, all right? You’ll look like a rock star, and I’ll be able to get the satisfaction I’ve been looking for for a really long time.”
“What satisfaction? Christian, what are you talking about?’
“And do not tell anyone about this, all right? When I go, I’m doing it off radar, no one else knows. Only you. So if I find out Aaron is aware of what I’m up to, I’ll know whose ass I need to kick, got it?”
He didn’t wait for Eliza to agree before he clicked off, and she was flung back into the meeting, catching only the last part of Mila’s sentence which happened to be, “Feeling all right, Eliza?”
She looked around. Everyone was staring at her, worried expressions on their faces. It had been a while since she’d been caught not paying attention at a meeting, and it had never happened since she’d been on Mila’s team. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I actually just got a tip from an Independent, someone I’ve never heard of before. His IAC was really odd, too. Said only... GIMU.”
“Gimu?” Sergio repeated. “I’ve never heard of such a person.”
“Me neither. But... he said this woman is named Honey.” She was reading from the document Christian had sent her now, or “guy I made up,” as it were, and detached the visual and sent it along to her teammates. “Looks like she’s been around for a while. Funny that we missed her on the raids. At any rate, I’ve got some stats about her we might want to look at, assuming this person’s information is correct.”
“Gimu?” Mila questioned, and Eliza nodded, like she believed it herself. “I guess it can’t hurt.”
Eliza filled them in on all of the information Christian had passed along, praying it was true and this wasn’t just some weird way he was seeking revenge for Eliza getting him in trouble with Aaron and Cadence. If it was real, and he could give her this sort of data on the other Vampires he’d mentioned as well, her team should be able to take each of them out relatively quickly, which wouldn’t help with Daunator necessarily, or the legion of minions they’d been putting together, but it wouldn’t hurt. And maybe it would get her a first class ticket back to the States, something she’d be grateful enough to earn she might even agree to star in one of Christian’s little videos.
