Michael did a double take. “Saved your life?” he repeated carefully. “Is there something you want to share with me, jefe?”
“A thing or two. Who’d you bring with you?”
“Four daylight guards, including two pilots, just in case.”
Vincent nodded. He should have known Mike would come prepared. After all, he’d had the best teacher—Vincent himself.
“Two vamp fighters, Ortega and Zárate,” Michael continued, naming two of those who’d been among the vampires brawling at the club on the night Lana had shown up in Vincent’s office. “I let it be known I needed fighters for some action down South. I didn’t say what for, figuring it’s not that unusual for you to be called in to hand out a little discipline. And since we haven’t exactly advertised your absence, it lets the curious figure that’s where you’ve been. Anyway, Ortega and Zárate were feeling guilty over breaking up the bar. I think they were looking for a way back into your good graces.”
“Assuming they were ever there,” Vincent muttered.
“I didn’t tell them that part,” Michael said, grinning. “But they’re good fighters.”
“Obviously. All right. Here’s what we have going on . . .” He walked Michael out of the hangar, using the noise of the airport for cover as he filled his lieutenant in on Enrique’s latest sins, turning people against their will and then forcing them into slavery for human masters.
“God damn it, Vincent!” Michael swore, shocked into using his Sire’s first name, which he rarely did. “That’s low even for Enrique. Have you ever heard of that happening before?”
Vincent shook his head. “Never. But I know the Council would condemn it, which is why Enrique’s been so secretive.”
“Fucker.”
“It gets worse. You’ve seen Salvio. He was wounded after Lana and I killed the human holding his leash—”
“He defended the human?” Michael asked, frowning.
“No. But when the human died and the binding Enrique had put on him was gone, he got some of his own back. He killed all of his human guards. They were armed and didn’t go down lightly, but it apparently was worth it to him to be free. He was a Captain in the Mexican Federal Police. And Enrique made him a slave.”
“Fuck! That is the worst—”
“Not even close, Mikey. Jerry’s human kept him in a concrete box in the middle of a courtyard during the day. He barely fed him, and if Jerry didn’t behave as expected, they left the shutters open. He slept curled up in a corner like a dog.”
“He told you this?”
“I saw it. That’s when Lana saved my life. I have a feeling Enrique had warned Jerry’s boss about me. So when Jerry happened to see us drive into town, he was compelled to warn the humans. Unfortunately, they figured that if Jerry was a handy slave, someone like me would be even handier.”
“Fuck me! They didn’t?”
“They did. Took me down in a bar, I’m ashamed to say. Used a beautiful woman to get to me. Sliced my neck—”
“God damn it, Sire. I should have been—”
“Lana was there. She saw what was happening and was smart enough to fade into the woodwork. Jerry must not have known she was with me, because he didn’t warn them about her. She grabbed the bitch who cut me, found out where I was, then waited until daylight.”
He faced back into the hangar, watching as Lana stood in the open cargo hatch of the SUV, checking her weapons and probably restocking her handy first-aid kit. He smiled as she pulled the knife from her pocket, the one he’d used to slice his wrist for Salvio, and started wiping it with a cleaning cloth.
“She snuck into the compound, Mike. You know what those places are like—they’re armed camps. But she came over the wall and spent the day in that hot, concrete box with me, putting herself between me and the door, just in case.”
“If you bled out, then—”
“She did that, too. She’d never given blood before, but she offered me her vein.”
Lana looked up and saw him watching. She tilted her head curiously, then shook it and went back to what she was doing with a bemused smile.
“Well, fuck,” Michael said. “You don’t need me, after all.”
Vincent turned and clapped Michael on the shoulder. “If I didn’t need you, you wouldn’t be here. So far, it’s been as much about sneaking around as killing people who need it. But tonight, I’m going to need power and strength, and that’s you.”
“We’re going after another of Enrique’s pet humans?”