Dougal had been grateful to Jean-Luc, too. In spite of his busy schedule, Jean-Luc had taken the time to teach Dougal how to fence with his left hand. And then two years ago, when he had received his first prosthetic hand, Jean-Luc had trained him once again.
Now Dougal could fence equally well with both hands-a rare talent amongst the employees of MacKay S&I. So why was he still working as a glorified babysitter? Why wasn't he being sent on field work? The boredom was becoming increasingly hard to bear. Maybe he should just retire.
And do what? Sit in his cottage on the Isle of Skye and stare at the sea all night? There would be no one there, no sound other than the plaintive cry of birds and the rhythmic beating of waves against the cold rocky shore. One night would follow another, a hollow, desolate refrain stretching into eternity.
His friends here might pester him with painful questions, but at least they cared. He wasn't left alone with a half-empty soul.
He lifted the bottle for another drink.
"Dougal?" Angus's voice boomed down the hallway. "What are ye doing out here?"
He swallowed so fast that his eyes watered. Angus and his wife, Emma, approached him, their gazes shifting from him to the bottle of Bubbly Blood in his hand. Damn, they were going to think he was drinking on the job. Well, technically, he was.
"We've been looking for you," Emma said with an amused twinkle in her eyes.
"Aye," Angus agreed. "We need to talk." He motioned to the security office.
"I'll be there in a moment." Dougal glanced at the restroom door, his face growing warm. "I-I'm waiting for Bethany so I can escort her back to the party."
Emma smiled. "I'll take her. You two go on."
Dougal nodded and accompanied Angus to the office.
Inside, Phineas's younger brother, Freemont, was seated behind the desk, munching on a donut. He jumped to his feet and saluted with the donut still in his hand, leaving behind flakes of sugar on his brow. "Everything's cool in the building, sir. Robby did a perimeter check ten minutes ago. The grounds are clear."
"Good." Angus strode across the office, his kilt swishing about his knees. "And our guest downstairs?"
"The weird psycho dude?" Freemont gestured at the wall of security monitors opposite the desk. "He's still in stasis."
A weird psycho dude? Dougal studied the screens. The party in the ballroom was in full swing. In the hallway outside, Emma was leading Bethany back to the ballroom. The foyer was empty. Same with the cafeteria and Roman's laboratory. Laszlo was in one of the labs. He appeared to be cleaning and organizing. No activity in the parking lot and front entrance.
On the bottom row, Dougal spotted an interesting scene, and he leaned over for a better look. It was the silver room in the basement, a room designed for imprisoning vampires. A man was laid out on a stretcher, unconscious, with his arms and legs buckled down with restraints. "Who is he?"
"A more likely question is what is he?" Angus replied.
Dougal straightened. "He's no' a vampire?"
Angus shook his head. "No' exactly human, either. We have him in the silver room so none of his vampire friends can teleport in to rescue him. He has superstrength, as strong as we are. And since he's normally awake during the day, I was worried he would overpower our mortal guards. The only safe way to hold him was to put him in stasis."
"You should have seen it!" Freemont's eyes sparkled with excitement. "The psycho dude is so strong, it took three Vamps to hold him down while Abby gave him the injection."
Dougal searched his memory. He'd been out of the loop for too long, stuck in Texas. "Abby is Gregori's wife?"
"Aye. President Tucker's daughter. Luckily for us, she's a biochemist who earned her Ph.D. on stasis research." Angus patted Freemont on the back. "Ye can go to the party now."
"Cool!" Freemont headed for the door, stuffing the last of the donut in his mouth. "I think they're about to cut the cake."
When the door shut, Angus took a seat behind the desk. "I just came from a meeting with Jean-Luc and Roman."
"Aye." Dougal sat in one of the chairs facing the desk and set the bottle of Bubbly Blood on the floor next to him.
"Phineas and Austin have been in charge of security here at Romatech," Angus began. "Austin wants to continue when he's no' needed on missions, but Phineas wants to take an extended leave of absence. He's verra busy with the twins and his ranch in Wyoming. And I think he prefers the country now that he has to shift every month."
Dougal nodded. It must have been difficult for Phineas to make the transition to his new hybrid status of half vampire, half werewolf. He was fortunate to have a werewolf wife to help him adapt.
Angus leaned back in his chair. "So that leaves a position open here. I asked Robby if he was interested, but he wants to be transferred to Texas. His wife, Olivia, has family there. She wants her grandmother to help her with the bairn."
Dougal wasn't surprised. It had to be tiring for the mortal wives when their vampire husbands were dead all day and unable to help with the children. "So Robby is going to do security at the Texas Romatech?"
"He'll oversee that, but he'll also be in charge of Jean-Luc's security." Angus sat forward, his elbows on the desk. "He's taking his old job back."
Dougal blinked. "Ye mean-"
"Aye. That leaves you without a job."
I'm being let go. Dougal rose to his feet. "I understand. I was thinking of retiring-"
"The hell ye are. I need you." Angus motioned for him to sit, but Dougal was too tense to comply. "Jean-Luc tells me ye can fence equally well with both hands."
"Aye."
"He thinks yer talents are being wasted. Roman and I agree. So how would ye like to be head of security here?"
Stunned, Dougal sat. "Here?"
"Aye, and I'd like to put you back on the mission roster." Angus's gaze shifted to the prosthetic hand, then back to Dougal's face. "Can ye do it?"
"Aye." When Angus continued to stare at him, Dougal figured he needed to sound more convincing. "I can do it. I want to do it."
Angus smiled. "Good." He motioned to the bottle on the floor. "How about a drink to celebrate?"
"Aye." Dougal grabbed the bottle and poured Bubbly Blood into the two coffee cups Angus retrieved from the sideboard. "When do ye want me to start?"
"Right away." Angus drank from his cup.
Dougal glanced at the monitor showing the silver room. "I need to know more about the . . . guest. Who is he?"
"We doona know his name. He's refused to say anything other than curse at us in Chinese. J.L. and Rajiv brought him back two weeks ago. I'd sent them to China again to hunt for Russell."
"Did they find him?" Dougal asked.
"Nay. But they think he found them." Angus took another sip from his cup. "A group of Master Han's soldiers ambushed them. They were in serious trouble, when a barrage of arrows took out half the enemy."
"Russell?"
Angus nodded. "It must have been him, but when the battle was over, they searched the vicinity and couldna find him."
Dougal motioned to the monitor. "So this is one of Master Han's soldiers?"
"Aye. He's mortal, or started out that way, but he now has some of the superpowers that we possess. We're no' sure how Han is transforming the mortals, but it has something to do with the demon Darafer and some drugs he made."
Dougal frowned. They'd defeated villainous vampires before, but never one who had teamed up with a demon.
"The problem with hunting for Russell is that he's hoping to kill Master Han," Angus continued. "So in order to find him, we also have to search for Master Han."
"What's wrong with that?" Dougal asked. "Should we no' be trying to kill the bastard?"
"We need to, aye, but 'tis verra hard to actually find him. He's taken over a large portion of southern China, Tibet, and the northern portions of Thailand and Myanmar. 'Tis a huge area to canvas. J.L. and Rajiv have spent months there, and they've discovered thirty outposts, each one heavily guarded. As far as they can tell, Master Han teleports from one fort to another, and they never know where he'll pop up next."
Dougal winced. "Like playing whack the mole."
"Aye. Master Han has nearly a thousand soldiers now, spread over the thirty outposts. J.L. and Rajiv are so outnumbered that they try their best to avoid any confrontations." Angus sighed. "I was discussing this with Roman and Jean-Luc. We find ourselves in a moral dilemma."
"How so?"
"They may be the enemy, but they're mortal." Angus extended his cup toward Dougal so he could refill it with Bubbly Blood. "We never felt guilty about killing Malcontents. They're a bunch of rotten bastards who've spent centuries killing mortals and enjoying it."
"Aye," Dougal muttered. "And they're already Undead. They simply turn to dust after ye skewer them." Just like his hand, once it had been sliced off in battle.
Angus nodded. "But when we kill Master Han's soldiers, they doona disappear. Their bodies remain. And so does our guilt. As far as we know, their souls go straight to hell."
Dougal winced. "I dinna know that."
"Our guys learned about it on their first mission to China. The mortals enjoy their superpowers as a gift from Darafer, but when they die, their souls belong to him forever." Angus dragged a hand through his hair. "We doona know if the mortals agree to the bargain, or if they are coerced through vampire mind control. Roman and I have discussed it at length, and we're reluctant to engage in battle with these mortals. We doona want to kill them."