Beneath the Skin

16 NEVER PRESUME

ALEXANDRIA, VA

SHADOW BRANCH HQ

March 25

EMMETT SIPPED AT HIS coffee, pretending not to notice that it tasted burnt and bitter, even with three single-serving creamers muddying its color from black-as-hell to black-as-purgatory.

“You’re certain Sheridan never said a word at the site or during the flight?” Purcell asked. His leather chair creaked as he relaxed into it. His eyes, deep set and olive green, slid from Merri to Emmett, then back.

“Positive,” Merri replied. She looked weary and unfocused, strung-out on stay-awakes, her natural rhythms disrupted. “He never answered a single question.”

She’d complied earlier with Purcell’s order to put out her cigarette by dropping it into her untouched cup of coffee. The cool, recycled air in his office still smelled of cloves and tobacco.

“Ah.” Purcell tapped his keyboard and studied whatever appeared on his monitor. “Did you ask him about … Prejean?”

Merri considered for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t believe so.”

Emmett found Purcell’s pause before saying Prejean’s name interesting. He doubted Purcell had forgotten the vampire’s name, and wondered what name he’d almost used instead of Prejean.

“You don’t believe so? The answer is either yes or no, Goodnight,” Purcell said.

“Make that a no then.”

Despite the long flight, Emmett felt wide-awake, alert—a good thing during a debriefing with SOD Underwood’s assistant, FA Richard Purcell, at least according to all the whispered wisdom via the field-grunt grapevine. Emmett had never met Purcell before today, knew of him only through reputation. Another first? This visit to HQ’s underground facility.

“Sheridan seemed to be in shock,” Emmett volunteered. “He never made eye contact with anyone during the flight or at the site. Not deliberately, anyway.”

“He isn’t there,” Merri said. “I looked into his eyes at the site and he was empty.”

Purcell looked up from the monitor and fixed his gaze on Merri. “Empty?”

Merri twirled a finger in the air beside her head. “As in Sheridan has left the building.”

Purcell leaned forward in his seat. “Do you have any thoughts on how or why?”

Merri shrugged. “I’m no psychic and definitely not a shrink, so your guess is as good as mine.”

A smile played across Purcell’s lips and humor lit his eyes. Emmett tensed. He saw nothing pleasant or warm in that smile. His fingers curled tighter around his cooling Styrofoam cup.

“But you are a vampire,” Purcell said. “You have senses we mere mortals don’t possess, not to mention centuries of experience we, as individuals, will never achieve, and you can’t even give me an educated guess?”

Merri stiffened in her chair. “Of course I can,” she said, each word clipped and tight. “But you just want me to tell you what you already suspect.”

Purcell’s smile deepened. “And that would be?”

“That witnessing the events at the Wells compound fried Sheridan’s sanity.”

Purcell nodded. “A possibility, yes. It’s also possible Prejean got to him, fucked with his mind.”

“Judging by what I’ve seen of Prejean’s handiwork, I think he would’ve just killed Sheridan,” Emmett said, placing his cup on the edge of Purcell’s polished rosewood desk.

Purcell’s expression frosted over and he fixed his attention on Emmett. “Never presume to know what Prejean would or wouldn’t do. I’ve seen that little psycho in action. I’ve seen him tear people apart just for the pleasure of it—including a little girl. I’ve watched him for years, Thibodaux, so I know more about that bloodsucker and what makes him tick than you ever will.”

Emmett lifted his hands, palms out. “Just offering an opinion, Purcell, that’s all.”

“Fine. Just so we’re clear.” Brushing a hand through his gray-flecked sandy hair, Purcell pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. “SOD Underwood plans an additional debriefing for both of you tomorrow.” His gaze flicked to Merri. “Tomorrow evening, that is.”

“Lovely,” Emmett said. “Can you recommend a good hotel?”

“I could,” Purcell replied, “but the SOD wants you to remain on premises until after your meeting with her.” He tapped a button set into the surface of his desk. “We have rooms here for agents working long shifts. You’ll be comfortable. There’s a cafeteria if you’re hungry, Thibodaux.”

Emmett glanced at Merri as they both stood. He arched an eyebrow and she answered with a quick, one-shouldered shrug. No understanding the upper echelons.

“Sounds good,” Emmett said.

The door clicked open and a young agent with short auburn hair, a pin-striped skirt suit, and a bright smile gestured for them to follow her.

“At least we’ll save money,” Merri murmured as she passed him.

“Roger that,” Emmett murmured. But his muscles remained wound-up and his inner alarm system seemed stuck on Imminent Disaster.

Purcell’s comment about having watched Prejean for years troubled Emmett. Not tried to apprehend, not tried to stop, but watched. The wrong word choice, maybe? Had to be. Who the hell would just watch a killer work his slaughtering mojo—for years—and do nothing about it?

Emmett scrubbed his face with one hand, felt the rasp of whiskers against his palm. He needed a shower and a shave, some hot chow, and a few hours of sleep. Then maybe things might make a little more sense.

I’ve watched him for years, Thibodaux.

More sense later, yeah. Maybe. But a chill slid down Emmett’s spine.

PURCELL WATCHED THIBODAUX AND Goodnight follow FA Cooper out of his office and into the corridor. Purcell listened as the tap-tappity-tap of Cooper’s heels against the linoleum gradually faded. When the sound vanished completely, he slipped his iPhone from his pocket, thumbed in a brief text message, touched SEND, then returned it to his pocket.

While waiting for a reply, he picked up the Styrofoam cups of coffee that the pair of field agents had so fucking thoughtfully left on his desk. A drowned clove cigarette floated in one. A trace of its perfumed, smoky stink still lingered in the air.

Damned Goodnight. She knew better, but like most vampires couldn’t give a rat’s ass. It wasn’t like they needed to worry about the health effects of first or secondhand smoke.

Dumping the coffee down the sink in his attached bathroom, Purcell tossed the cups and the wet cigarette into the trash can. He paused in front of the mirror above the sink and finger-combed his hair. Straightened his gold-checked blue tie. A beep from his iPhone alerted him to an incoming message.

Pulling the iPhone free again, he glanced at the screen—on my way—before slipping it back into its silk-lined home again. Purcell returned to his desk, his gaze drawn once more to his monitor and the picture it displayed of the Stonehenge of angels guarding the mysterious cave in Damascus, Oregon.

Such a intriguing puzzle. And unsettling.

The statues would soon be on their way to Alexandria. And the cave? To be explored once the site was secured.

One question burned in his mind, searing the edge of each thought: What did any of this have to do with Prejean—with S? And Purcell was sure the bloodsucker was, indeed, involved in some way, shape, or form. Had to be.

Look at what had happened at the Bush Center for Psychological Research in D.C. when S had dropped in for a visit earlier in the month. Purcell presumed that the Bureau’s missing ADIC—Dr. Johanna Moore—was actually dead.

He’d warned everyone in the know about S, warned them to put him down before he slipped free of their leash. Had warned Wells more than once.

He’s a little fucking psycho.

Say that again, Purcell, and I’ll give you to that little fucking psycho.

Purcell mulled over his conversation with Thibodaux and Goodnight and felt reasonably sure that neither agent knew much about Prejean beyond Rodriguez’s murder and what little info they’d been given. He also felt reasonably sure that both agents had answered his questions truthfully.

From what Purcell had observed, Thibodaux and Good-night seemed to work well together. But, to be honest, he couldn’t imagine how Thibodaux—or any mortal—could stomach working with a vampire.

In any case, their partnership would need to be dissolved, and each agent reassigned to different branches. In fact, all field agents and techs at the Wells compound would be subjected to the same process that Thibodaux and Goodnight would undergo during their debriefing tomorrow with SOD Underwood and Field Interrogator Teodoro Díon—memory wipe and reassignment.

They knew too much.

With one last glance at the photo, Purcell strode from his office to his appointment in the medical wing.

PURCELL STOOD BESIDE THE railed hospital bed and studied the man sleeping in it, one wrist handcuffed to the rail. Sheridan had come through surgery just fine, the bullet—a .40 caliber slug—removed from his thigh. It was a miracle he hadn’t bled to death.

Medical monitors on stands beside the bed tracked Sheridan’s vitals, green lights sketching his heartbeat and respiration, beeping at regular intervals. Clear plastic nozzles carried oxygen into his nostrils. The room smelled of pungent antiseptics and, laced underneath, a hint of vanilla spice and yellow dandelions—Díon’s cologne.

“Needs a shave,” Díon commented.

Purcell looked away from Sheridan and up—six three, shoulders as wide as a linebacker’s, hair the color of butter-scotch, late thirties or early forties—to meet the interrogator’s violet-eyed gaze. “So?”

“Just an observation.” Díon returned his attention to Sheridan. “What do you need from me?”

Purcell held up a finger, then bent over Sheridan, leaning down to whisper one word in his ear. “Prejean.”

Sheridan’s heart rate and respiration picked up speed on the monitors. His eyelids fluttered. Purcell felt a smile curve his lips. Goodnight was wrong. Sheridan hadn’t left the building, his body empty—he was still inside.

Terrified.

Lowering his finger, Purcell straightened and looked at Díon. “He’s intact enough to recognize a name and react to it,” he said. “Go in and find out why. Ferret out everything he knows, then report to me.”

The interrogator nodded, then pulled a blue molded-plastic chair up beside the bed. “Hard or easy?” he asked, settling himself into the chair.

“Whatever it takes.”