Dark Peril Page 0,156

guard, planting more seeds of friendship. Felipe would come to believe they'd known one another a long while and that he could confide in him.

"Brodrick's got a lot of men coming in," Dominic said, pushing uneasiness into the guard's mind. "Something big must be going on." He amplified the uneasiness, glancing toward the room where the computers were housed.

Felipe's gaze followed and he frowned, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I counted seventeen big shots, and a few that seem to be serving the others." The guard took a few steps toward the door, obviously growing worried enough to check on what was likely his main responsibility.

Dominic gleaned from his mind that three computer techs worked around the clock on their research, finding psychic women and tracking lineage. Now was his moment. The guard was going to open the door, and he would have to be in two places at one time. Dominic separated himself from his own body, leaving his clone to step away from Felipe, to stand across the room in plain sight of all the researchers and Felipe, lifting his hand as the guard glanced around to make certain that when he punched in his code, no one else could see the complicated numbers.

Dominic allowed his real form to dissolve into molecules, lighter than air, floating around Felipe like dust particles as the guard punched in his code and opened the door to peer into the main room. Dominic simply floated inside. Satisfied that the tech was working and no one had disturbed him, Felipe closed the door. Dominic heard his footsteps receding.

Josef was a young Carpathian, considered a wild teenager, although he was in his early twenties, and he was obsessed with computers. Dominic had contacted the boy for aid, knowing the information in the computers would be vital to the Carpathians. These women were potential lifemates. They were also in need of protection. Before the entire operation could be destroyed, they needed that information. Josef had developed a virus that would destroy the entire network the jaguars and vampires were using. Once uploaded, the virus would spread like wildfire and destroy everything, filtering from one computer to another without detection until it was far too late for anything to be saved.

Dominic floated across the room until he was hovering around the tech. The man was engrossed in his work, uncaring that the woman he was gathering information about might end up kidnapped and raped, or dead and thrown away like garbage by the men employing him. Dominic probed the tech's mind. Again, he was astonished that the man wasn't protected. He shimmered into substance, standing behind the tech, burying his fangs in the man's neck. The blood was energizing, and he took enough to exchange, so he could monitor the tech from a distance as well. He allowed a small amount of his own blood to drip into the tech's mouth. The exchange gave him complete control. It mattered little that the tech would ingest parasites, as he wouldn't be alive that long. The tech took the tiny drive from his hand with the program that would allow Josef to take over the computers from a distance. He could download all the data they needed, and when he was done, upload the vicious virus.

Once Josef's program was in the computer, Dominic took back the drive and had the tech open the door. He floated out to reconnect with his body. The computers were now in Josef's more than capable hands. Dominic had other work to do.

You're certain the boy will be able to retrieve all the data and really destroy their network? Solange sounded anxious.

He knows what he is doing, Dominic reassured, sending up a silent prayer that he was right. Josef was wild, but he was highly intelligent and programming was his first love.

Reconnecting with his body sent a tremor running through him, and for a moment his legs shook. He stored that reaction in his mind. He couldn't afford the couple of seconds it took to readjust when he was in the midst of the vampires. One moment of weakness, of vulnerability, and he would be torn to shreds. He was one of the most feared--and therefore the most hated--of Carpathian warriors. And vampires had long memories. They existed on a steady diet of hatred and revenge.

Dominic made his way through the laboratory. It was actually smaller than it appeared from the outside because the walls were thick to withstand an assault