Dougal winced. The shit was about to hit the fan.
Angus frowned. "I have a bad feeling about this. Gregori, call Dr. Lee. Tell him to get to the lab right away."
While Gregori made the call, Leah tapped her hand on the stack of paper. "Your husband could be in serious trouble. He should be hospitalized immediately for observation." Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, you're pregnant with his child?"
"I'm fine, really. And so is Gregori." Abby exchanged a worried look with Laszlo.
He nodded, furiously twirling a button. "There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, I assure you."
"Really?" Leah gave them an incredulous look. "How do you explain it?"
Abby took a deep breath. "My husband is a vampire." Leah's heart leaped into a fast, pounding rhythm. She stepped back, resisting an urge to run for the door. Her gaze shifted from the president's daughter to the so-called brilliant chemist, then back. Did the president know his daughter was insane?
Holy crapoly, the whole building might be full of crazy people. Even the creepy people watching her through the camera - her breath caught. Of course, she was being punked! The camera was recording this, and it was going to end up on the Internet somewhere. It wasn't the first time people had tried to make her look like an idiot.
In college, her young age and genius label had rendered her a target for silly pranks. One time a bunch of frat boys had circled the girls' dormitory dressed as the Living Dead, while the girls had begged her to use her superior intellect to save them from the zombie apocalypse.
So this time it was the Undead. She crossed her arms and acted nonchalant. "You're married to a vampire?"
"Yes." Abby nodded with a hopeful expression as if she expected her to believe this nonsense.
Leah shot the camera a wry look, then turned back to Abby. "How did you reach that conclusion? Did he turn into a bat and fly around the bedroom?"
Abby's eager expression faded into disappointment. "You think I'm kidding."
"Did you expect me to take this seriously?" Leah asked.
Laszlo motioned to the stack of papers on the table. "But we showed you the lab work. And the data - "
"Which can be manipulated," Leah interrupted. "Or in this case, manufactured." She glowered at the camera. "The game is over. I'm not playing." She headed toward the door, but halfway there, it opened.
Dr. Lee rushed inside. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes," Leah replied in the affirmative, at the same time as Abby and Laszlo. She aimed a frown at them. "They're playing a dumb joke on me."
"It's not a joke," Abby insisted. "Vampires are real."
Leah snorted. "Why would you believe that? Did your husband bite you?"
"Well, yes, he has. And he can - "
"What? Leap from one tree to another like a monkey?" Leah lifted a hand to stop Abby. The poor woman was suffering from delusions. "You should lie down and get some rest. Given your condition, you could be experiencing some hormonal fluctuations - "
"I'm not imagining this," Abby grumbled.
"Or it could be a case of being overworked," Leah continued. "I know how it is. When I get really involved in a project, I can forget to eat or sleep. Just this last week, I was so busy, I can hardly remember it."
Dr. Lee winced. "Perhaps a demonstration is in order."
"Good idea." Abby turned to Laszlo. "How about you levitate to the ceiling?"
Laszlo frowned, tugging hard at a button. "If you wish, but it might cause her to panic."
"Go ahead," Dr. Lee told him. "She needs physical evidence."
Leah scoffed. "So the chemist is a vampire, too?"
Laszlo's button popped off and landed on the stainless steel table with a ping. He gave her an apologetic look. "It's not really a bad thing. Just think of it as a . . . an unusual medical condition."