Free Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) by L.C. DeCarlo Page B

chair and I drank from your wrist. Nothing else. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Ma’am.”
    “I release you Mark.” He shook his head a little, but otherwise gave no indication he realized anything had just happened.
    “Goodnight, Ma’am.”
    “Goodnight, Mark. Thank you.” He looked a little taken aback that I had thanked him, but then he left as ordered.
    As soon as he was out of the room William looked at me, “What was that about?”
    “I think he’s a spy.”
    “What? For who?”
    “I don’t know yet?”

Chapter Eight
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “I’m going to go check on my family, do either of you want to come with?”
    William and Ana were sitting at the kitchen table looking at the screen on one of their touch pads. When I came into the room William tapped the corner of the screen closing whatever it was they were looking at. I could make out that it was a list and map, but that was it. Really, I didn’t care what they were doing. I didn’t want to know anything about vampire business that could get me into any more trouble than I had already gotten myself into. The only thing I did know, from over-hearing snippets of conversations, is that they were looking for someone. Ana had been mentioning an increase of vampire attacks coming in to the ER that she had diagnosed as animal attacks, but that was all I knew.
    “Look, guys, I know you are busy and under a lot of pressure. I just need to see them at least once before we go to New York. I won’t be out long. You can keep working, and won’t have to keep trying to hide that you’re working,” I told them with a smile.
    “No, let’s all go. We could use the break,” William said grabbing his keys for the Range Rover.
    “Fine.” I grabbed my bag and followed him out to the garage, Ana trailing behind me.
    “Why do you insist on walking behind me, Ana, are you afraid I’m going to run?”
    “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
    “Very funny, it’s like you guys are my own personal guard or something. I used to go home alone all the time, what’s going on?”
    Neither one answered, but they both stopped and looked around before going into the garage. William climbed into the driver’s seat and Ana waited to get in until the car was started, and I was securely in the car. We all sat there in silence as William pulled out of the drive and headed toward my house. Surprisingly it was Ana who broke the silence.
    “I have been seeing more and more attacks coming in to the hospital, and the morgue is reporting multiple deaths per night. We still can’t locate a single one of our contacts within the Coven. Even with William’s connections they just disappeared, even though they are still here in the city somewhere.”
    William had pulled into my neighborhood and parked just around the corner from my house where we wouldn’t be noticed. He turned sideways so he could see us both as we spoke.
    “We need to be extra cautious; we didn’t think they would go underground for this long.”
    “It’s only been a few weeks,” I replied.
    “Yeah, well when you’re trying to recruit an army for a war two weeks is a hell of a long time.”
    We all climbed out of the SUV and took to the shadows making our way to my house. We took the usual route taking the street directly behind mine, and leaping over the dividing wall in one seamless bound. Normally the house was empty except for a time or two when I was supposed to be missing when my neighbor Talia had come over. Tonight however I was surprised to find there were a few children running around playing, and several adults gathered in the kitchen talking and sharing a bottle of wine.
    “What the hell is this?” I asked angrily to myself.
    I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; there was a stack of birthday presents on the kitchen table and an elaborately decorated cake off to the side. No other indication there was a birthday going on.
    “This isn’t a child’s birthday party. There