I was still smiling when I woke up at dusk…although that might have been because the sneaky sod was suckling on a nipple. Once again, he teased me half to death – he even used the fur-lined cuffs and chocolate body spread that Ava had bought me for my birthday – before making me come repeatedly. It was hard and fierce this time, and it was what we both needed.

Having washed, dressed, and downed a few NSTs while munching on toast, we were just about to teleport to the arena when there was a knock at the front door. Opening it, I found Antonio, Luther, and – of course – the guards and pit-bulls.

Antonio’s mouth curled into a slight smile. “Notice that we knocked this time.”

Luther’s smile matched his. “It avoids any further awkward situations.”

Had they turned up fifteen minutes earlier, they would have interrupted something that no amount of knocking would have stopped. I gestured for them both to sit on the sofa, extremely curious about their early visit. The dogs came for a brief stroke before settling at Antonio’s feet while the guards lurked in the background.

No sooner had Luther sat down beside Antonio than Jared rounded on them. “If you’re here to talk about Paige West and get me to change my mind”

Antonio raised his hand, palm out. “Be assured that that is not why I am here. I respect your decision. After all, it would devastate me to place Lucy in any form of danger, so I understand. And I do not want Sam in danger any more than you do. I am here because Quentin has been in contact.”

I tensed immediately; his tone had suggested that this really wasn’t good. “Oh God, what now?”

“As you know, he has been tracking stray tainted vampires. Following different clues, he eventually tracked them to a small village located within a rainforest that housed vampires and humans. He believes that this is where The Call originally surfaced.”

Well that was one question answered.

“We have two problems.”

“Only two?” I said dryly. Jared snorted in amusement.

“Firstly, the tainted vampires have slaughtered almost the entire village.” His tone was sad, regretful. “The vampires who are not dead are tainted.”

Oh bloody wonderful. “And secondly…?” I prompted.

“Quentin’s intention would obviously be to kill all of the tainted. Unfortunately, these deaths have not only come to our attention. Others have also gone to investigate. A human military team was sent to deal with the matter.”

“Fuck,” Jared bit out.

“Quite.” Antonio sighed. “In Quentin’s opinion, these humans know they are dealing with vampires, going by their weapons and equipment. They are most likely part of the government agency that investigates things like this. From what he has seen from their other belongings, he suspects that this group of people has been posing as a team of medical volunteers inside the rainforest and that they responded to the many rumours of the suspicious locals. Many such rumours are ripe there.”

“Other humans might have dismissed them,” Jared pondered, “but a government agency that believes in our existence would be interested in following any lead.”

“Yes.”

“Did the military team wipe out the tainted vampires?”

Antonio’s expression hardened. “The humans did not attempt to kill them. They attempted to sedate and capture them.”

Jared gawked. “Are they f**king brainless?”

“It would seem so. In a few cases, the humans succeeded in confining them to small, iron-barred cells. The Pagoris, however, were able to break out. They savaged many of the military team, but another team simply came at the orders of whoever is ‘running the show’, as Quentin put it.”

Jared folded his arms .“I’m guessing Quentin fears trying to attack the remaining tainted vampires, since it would risk exposing himself, his vampires, and Commander Rodney’s squad to the humans.”

“Indeed.” Antonio’s mouth twisted as his expression morphed into one of anger. “But he did it anyway.”

Another gawk from Jared. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wish I was. The humans were able to capture a small number of Quentin’s vampires and also some of Rodney’s squad; they are all now being held in the military vehicles. The humans have not yet left the area because they want to capture more vampires first. That cannot be allowed to happen. Those humans cannot be allowed to keep any of the vampires that they are holding – not the tainted or the untainted.”

No they bloody well couldn’t.

“This whole thing just keeps getting better and better,” Jared muttered sardonically, running a hand through his hair.

“This particular assignment will be extremely difficult because you will have two purposes. Number one, all of the tainted vampires must be destroyed. Number two, each and every one of the vampires that have been captured by the humans need to be freed.”

“What about the humans?” I asked. “Do we let them live?” I didn’t relish the idea of killing them for simply being curious and downright stupid, but there weren’t a lot of options.

“This is where it gets tricky. The secret of our existence needs to be preserved at all costs, but it is clear that this agency already knew of our existence prior to the attack on the village. They most likely have other evidence somewhere. From what Quentin has told me, they do not seem to know enough about vampires to suggest that they have ever captured one before. That, at least, is good news.”

“Killing them wouldn’t really fulfil a purpose, then, would it?” I shrugged. “They already know our secret. Even if we kill them, others from the agency will know, so it achieves nothing.”

Antonio nodded. “Exactly. We can do one of two things: kill them all to deliver a message to their superiors that coming at us will only end in death, or we could free the vampires without being seen and deliver a different type of message. A message that although we are powerful, we are not senseless killers and we are only interested in our own.”

“The latter might be for the best,” Luther offered.

“I agree.” I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my combat pants. “If they see us as evil beings, they might become set on finding and destroying us all. Right now, they’re just curious. Stupidly curious.”

“Quite right. It is imperative that every last tainted vampire is destroyed,” stressed Antonio, his gaze intense. “If not, The Call will continue to spread and soon enough we will have another situation like this on our hands. I know it feels wrong, in a sense, to kill them. But we have tried to find some way of helping them and we have had no success. And there are so very many of them. The best thing we can do for them is end their suffering.” Antonio’s gaze danced from me to Jared. “I would like to send you, your squad, and another six squads along with their commanders. I am not taking any chances this time.”