The Vampire's Surprise - Stormy Glenn Page 0,35

more dangerous. The number of attacks against humans have increased as well."

"We need you to tell us everything you know about the rogues, Quinn," Marcus added. "We're not interested in the ones just trying to get by. We want to know about the dangerous ones, the ones who truly are rogue vampires."

"You need to talk to Dr. Webster if you want to know about rogues in the city."

"Why is that?" Nikolas asked.

"Because he is one."

Chapter Thirteen

Dmitri was absolutely positive this was not a good idea, but he couldn't seem to talk Quinn out of it. It didn't help that Prince Nikolas and Prince Marcus were in total support of Quinn's choice to accompany him back down to the clinic.

He was just glad that Louis and several of his enforcers were coming along for the ride. Of course, they kind of had to. The princes were coming too.

It was a headache of epic proportions.

"You really think this doctor will be willing to talk to us?" he asked as he glanced at the man sitting beside him in the SUV.

Quinn nodded. "He's as upset about this whole synthetic blood thing as I am. If there's a way to fix it, he'd talk to the pope."

Dmitri's eyes narrowed. "Just how well do you know this guy?"

Quinn chuckled and bumped their shoulders together. "Not that well. Dr. Webster has been drawing my blood for a few years now. There's not much to do while you have a needle hooked up to you than talk, so we talked."

That sounded reasonable, but Dmitri still couldn't squash the little bit of jealousy he was feeling. "What did you talk about?"

"The kids mostly, but sometimes he'd warn me if there was an increase in rogue activity in the neighborhood."

"How does he know?" Marcus asked. "Is he involved with them somehow?"

Quinn shook his head vehemently. "No."

He seemed very sure about that, but Dmitri understood the prince's question. How did the doctor know when things were heating up in the neighborhood if he wasn't involved on some level? It wasn't like the rogues took ads out in the local paper. He had to be getting his information from somewhere.

"I think it's because of the clinic," Quinn said. "Business always picks up at the clinic when there's trouble in the area."

Okay, that did make sense.

Sort of.

"How is this clinic funded?" Nikolas asked. "I assume it is a free clinic for the poor?"

"Well, like I said, the doc accepts donations from those who can afford it, but he also does fundraisers. A lot of people in the neighborhood get involved in it. They have bake sales and car washes, stuff like that. It isn't nearly enough, but Dr. Webster keeps the doors open anyway."

"And he treats humans and vampires alike?" Marcus asked.

"He does."

"Do his patients know he is a vampire?"

"Well, I assume the vampires do," Quinn replied, "but not the humans."

"What about his staff? Are they vampires, too?"

"A few of them are. The rest are humans, and I don't know if they know about vampires. It's not something we discuss publicly. There's sort of an unspoken rule that you don't discuss it in front of other people."

"I don't wish to create issues for the good doctor by appearing in his clinic out of the blue. The vampires there will no doubt know who Marcus and I are. Is there another way we can meet him?"

"Oh." Quinn frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."

"We could wait in the car and have the doctor come out to us," Marcus suggested. "As long as we stay behind the darkened glass, no one would know we were here."

Dmitri snorted. "Yes, they would. We have four SUVs. There's no way they couldn't know it was us. Besides, the last SUV—" Dmitri snapped his fingers. "That's how we get in. The SUV I requested earlier was blown up. It only makes sense that I would come back to investigate the explosion and search for my men, and bring more enforcers with me."

Just as quickly as the great idea came to Dmitri, the flip side hit him. "Stop the car!"

Brakes screeched as the SUV instantly slid to a stop.

"Dmitri!" Marcus shouted. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Anyone who knows me or Louis would know we would report to you and then come back to investigate, bringing more men." Dmitri swallowed tightly. "I think this is a trap."

He was almost positive of it.

Marcus frowned. "What would you suggest?"

Dmitri winced. "I don't suppose I could convince you and Prince Nikolas to return to