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Accidental Sire(76)



"Turns out that when the sun comes up, we just sort of drop wherever we are, even if we're fully exposed. I mean, we're unconscious, and I imagine that if someone wanted to kill us, they could. But still, we don't burst into flames, which is fun." Ben jerked his shoulders.

"Yaaaay for us," I cheered wanly.

"He locked you in a box and left you for dead?" Jane cried, her eyes bright with unshed tears and hot, seething anger. She threw her arms around us again, squeezing us tightly together. "I'm going to-I can't think things violent enough to meet my need for bloody vengeance, but I'll call Ophelia and get some ideas from her."

And then she launched into a very long, profane rant that eventually dissolved into angry tears.

"Can we just focus on the fact that we found another cool thing that we can do?" I asked.

"No!" Jane sobbed, tucking her face into my neck. "I couldn't find you. I passed out for the day, not knowing where you were or whether you were safe. I didn't know if I would ever see you again! I didn't- You can't do that to me again, OK?"

I put my arms around Jane and patted her awkwardly. "OK."

Ben gave me a little "I told you so" smirk, nodding toward our foster sire. I rolled my eyes and continued patting Jane's back. She sniffed and wiped at her cheeks. 

Her voice went from weepy to steely in a matter of seconds. "Listen to me, both of you. You are not to speak to Dr. Hudson again. If you see him, come get me or an undead emergency response team. If you can't get away from him, keep him monologuing. Evil smart guys love to talk about their brilliance. That will give me time to get to you. With a UERT. I cannot emphasize the UERT part enough. Understood?"

"What's going to happen to him?"

"He is going be fired and disciplined. If he approaches you, he's doing so at his own peril." Jane pushed to her feet and took out her cell phone. She dialed angrily, which cracked the screen of her phone.

"Which is going to hurt him more, being fired or being disciplined?" I asked as she stomped toward the house.

"Disciplined," she growled.

Ben pulled me to my feet, and I finally grasped the sheer number of cars that were parked out in front of Jane's house-Iris's bright yellow Dorkmobile, Miranda's black SUV, Jolene's minivan, Nola's sensible sedan. A big truck with a "Clemson Construction" logo on the door rounded out the collection. I guessed that belonged to Sam Clemson, who specialized in undead-friendly home renovations.

Ben and I approached the porch, only to be treated to another sneak-attack hug from Dick and then Gabriel, who threw himself around Dick's side and wrapped his arms around all three of us.

"I'm so glad you're all right," Dick said, and didn't add any sort of funny quip or defensive joke. That meant this was serious.

"I've never been so happy to see Jane tackle people in our yard," Gabriel said. "Which happens more than you would think."

I laughed as Gabriel stroked an easy hand over my hair.

"From now on, you're both wearing tracking chips. I don't care if we have to implant them under your skin," a tiny female voice said from somewhere near my waist. I looked down to find Georgie's arms wrapped around me.

"You're going to microchip me, like Fitz?" I asked her, even as I heard Jane growling into her phone inside the house.

"Yes, I am," Georgie told me.

"This is becoming awkward, isn't it?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes, it is," Ben said, and we all broke apart. Georgie dragged me through the front door, where I found everybody Jane knew huddled in the parlor. Their cell phones were all plugged into various chargers, as if they'd been making so many calls that they'd drained their batteries. Zeb was holding a stack of neon-green "Have You Seen These Vampires?" fliers featuring the photos Ben and I had used on our employee badges. So I looked especially tragic.

Iris and Sam's girlfriend, Tess, appeared to be passing out mugs of blood to the vampires, while Cal stood in the corner cursing into his phone in . . . Greek, maybe? Andrea had a rolling whiteboard, the kind you would see on Law and Order, where someone had written "Potential B&M Locations" and listed "Lucky Clover Motel," "Got lost in the Council office subfloors," "Bus station," and "Ben's parents' house." Hell, Gigi was on her laptop, typing furiously as maps scrolled across her screen. Gigi's cute Russian boyfriend, Nik, was pinning photos of various Council employees up on a wall marked "Suspects."

At first, people froze when we walked through the door, and then they cheered, rushing forward as if they were going to hug us, too.


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