Free The Onyx Talisman by Brenda Pandos Page B

up more numbers and come after us. They’ll all know our scent. I need to call the office.” Dad turned to me. “After Phil died, did you have any more problems? Any more sightings?”
    I sucked in a deep breath, hating to lie, but he’d majorly freak if he knew how deeply entrenched I was with vampires. “No.”
    I wouldn’t know where to begin to explain, let alone that Nicholas was a half-breed. But Dad didn’t even seem to notice. He was lost someplace else, his mind whirling too fast with questions and fear.
    “It doesn’t matter. We’ll leave your car here and sell it. Or get new plates. I’m going to have to take you with me when I travel to be safe, so I can keep watch over you. No. Better yet, we’ll all go to the detention facility in Tulsa for the summer. Maybe we can fly out tomorrow. I can’t have you kids wandering around unprotected. There’s a training facility there. We’ll get you inducted into the protection program. The VPP.”
    He jumped up and grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the elevators.
    Protection program? Training? Moving?
    “Whoa, Dad,” I said, stopping him. “Sell my car?”
    “They saw us. They can easily break into the mind of a DMV worker and get our address. Wait. I used the P.O Box for your car’s registration. So, that’ll be okay. We can keep the car.”
    He pressed the button to summon the elevator. I started to breathe faster. Dad was going overboard. “Everything has been perfectly fine in Scotts Valley. They can’t possibly discover where we live once we leave,” and never showed up when I was here the last time.
    The door opened and he ushered me inside. Once the doors shut, words flowed from his mouth about uncovering a huge operation where a rogue vamp was creating drones—sterile vamps. They were about to close in on the leader and now he would have to hand it off to someone else.
    “Wait, you know about Cain?” I interrupted. “Where is he?”
    Dad stopped; his eyes widened. “How do you know about that? That’s top top TOP secret information, Julia. Did you find my room?”
    “Room? What room?”
    Dad grabbed my arm. “Tell me the truth. How do you know?”
    “’Cause one told me. It’s how they came into being. The serpent’s bargain for his soul.”
    “Stop.” Dad held his finger to his lips. “We shouldn’t talk about this here. Did Phil know? Did he tell the others he told you? Never mind.” When the doors opened on our floor, he took my hand.
    I staggered to stay up with him, frustrated we had to stop talking. Drones? Sterile vamps? Did this have anything to do with the venom dealer?
    “Later, I’ll tell you everything. Let’s get to the room and get some rest. We’re leaving at daybreak.”
    He opened the door and left me standing in the hall. The vomit odor spilled out of the room, I staved off the urge to heave as Luke’s snoring followed the sound of the bathroom door closing. I plugged my nose and entered the room, headed straight for my toiletries. I sprayed everything down with body spray and wiped my hands with anti-bacterial lotion. Dad’s muffled voice could be heard through the wall, apparently talking to his boss.
    I kicked off my shoes, put on my jammies, and crawled under the covers, everything hitting me hard. Sam hadn’t texted at all and I just wanted to hear someone cared, anyone. I plugged in my earbuds and cranked on my trance music. Today was quite possibly the worst day of my life.
    Luke and Dad slept the entire night while I lay awake, thinking. Every time I almost fell asleep, Alora’s voice cackled in the recesses of my brain, haunting me that I hadn’t gotten the resurrection instructions to save Katie and that she’d erased Nicholas’s mind.
    I couldn’t believe Dad had known about vampires all along and had a job where he hunted them, of all things. But my troubles grew to insurmountable levels now that the L.A. fang gang had supposedly tagged me. Though the vamps could have smelled Dad’s