just draining. Capture and release—sounds better to me.”
Dom banged his hand on the table and everyone in the room jumped. “Because they’re still killing. Maybe not the first or second time. But eventually, they’ll slip and people will still die.” He stormed to the front of the conference room to look into the camera. “For a minute, let’s forget about the simple fact that this collection bullshit is wrong, that they’re treating these people like a herd of oblivious cattle, that the experience itself must be terrifying. Let’s just forget about all that for a moment. By increasing the supply of Sweet, more vampires will have access to the stuff. More will get addicted. The Darkblood Alliance will become more powerful.” He pounded his fist again, this time on the podium, and the remote fell to the wood floor with a clatter. “And that is just not acceptable.”
“Fair enough,” Spokane said.
As Dom strode to the back of the conference room, Lily picked up the remote, thankful the thing didn’t break, and clicked through a few more slides, pointing out trends and patterns in each major U.S. city.
“Here in the Seattle office, we’ve not noticed a spike in the supply levels yet due to this new program of theirs. In fact, it’s decreased and we’re not sure why. But it’s just a matter of time until there’s more Sweet on the streets. If they’re doing this here, they’re most likely doing it in your areas. But word has it that this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Although everyone in the local office was quiet, Lily heard mumbling from the other offices through the audio feed. “My source tells me the Alliance is planning something big. Their researchers apparently are looking for a genetic link or marker among known Sangre Dulce.”
“What for?” someone else asked. “You don’t need a test to tell if someone is sweet.”
“We’re not sure,” she answered. “All we know at this point is they’re telling their people to get ready for large influxes of Sweet to hit the market over the next few years.”
“What do you think is going on?” San Diego this time. “With your ears on the inside, you must have some sort of idea.”
Leaning against the edge of the table, she crossed her legs and picked off a piece of imaginary lint from her slim skirt as she collected her thoughts. When she lifted her head to look directly into the camera, in her peripheral vision she saw Dom pacing in the back of the room. This was eating him up.
“Well, although this is purely speculative, my source tells me they want to move from harvesting to creation.”
As voices erupted in the room and over the speakers, Lily’s eyes met Dom’s hardened gaze.
A woman’s clear, crisp voice sounded over the video feed and everyone hushed. “Do you suspect they’re developing a synthetically created Sweet product or are you talking cloning?”
Oh my God, was that Roxanne Reynolds? She was the lead scent-tracker instructor for North America.
Lily looked directly into the small camera. “I’m not sure yet, ma’am. Perhaps, but I’m waiting to hear more details from my contact.” She paused to give Ms. Reynolds a chance to reply, but when the woman said nothing more, Lily cleared her throat and continued. “Until then, we need all of you to keep your eyes and ears open. We don’t know where their research facility is located, but we need to find it soon. My source tells me they’re going online within the next few weeks.”
“So your source claims to know the Alliance is conducting some sort of testing but doesn’t know where?” It was the San Diego field office again, but this time she recognized the skeptical voice.
Her euphoria from having Ms. Reynolds ask a question of her evaporated into irritation. “They’re being tight-lipped within their organization. Apparently only the researchers and Pavlos know the whereabouts. It could be anywhere.”
“How do we know you’re getting accurate information?” the same voice asked. “Maybe they’re trying to distract us from what Serrano uncovered. We’re spread thin, Ms. DeGraff, and they know it. If we’re out looking for a quote unquote testing facility, they’ll be able to conduct their C and R operation with much less interference from us.”
It was a fair enough question, but coming from Gibby, she knew he was trying to trump her, to express his doubt in front of everyone. Did she expect anything different from the asshole? No, definitely not.