Carpathian 21 - Dark Peril

“They’ve got people coming in from all over and they don’t seem right. I thought maybe you were one of them.”

    Dominic smiled easily. “Yeah, I got the vibe, too. They all seem a little arrogant, like we’re beneath them or something.” He held out his hand. “Dominic. Hopefully I won’t be here that long.”

    “Felipe,” the guard said, taking the extended hand.

    Dominic tested his resistance. This man would have the security code to get into the room where the computers were housed. “I can see why everyone is on edge. Who are these people? Why are they here?”

    Felipe shrugged. “Brodrick tells us who is coming and when they’re going.”

    Dominic sent him a wave of camaraderie, a subtle testing of the man’s acceptance. Felipe grinned at him and clapped him on the shoulder.

    “Are you keeping count?”

    Felipe nodded. “Damn straight. I want them all gone as soon as Brodrick gives the word. They make everyone nervous. Sooner or later one of the boys is going to accidentally shoot one of them.”

    “Yeah, that would be terrible,” Dominic said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He pushed a little deeper into the guard’s brain. The man really didn’t like the visitors, and that could be used to Dominic’s advantage. Felipe was head of security and the vampires hadn’t thought to protect his brain—of course, none believed a Carpathian hunter would infiltrate their meeting.

    “Brodrick’s got a couple of his men guarding him. He calls them the ‘elite’ and they certainly think that entitles to them to do whatever they want. Every time a woman gets brought in, they’re all over her. And they like to hurt her. They’re cruel bastards. We just keep away from that side of the lab when they’ve got one here.”

    Dominic felt Solange’s reaction, her sick, churning stomach, her racing heart, and the sorrow that she couldn’t prevent the jaguar-men from kidnapping women and bringing them to a place where others allowed their atrocities. We will make certain Brodrick cannot continue. He sent her the reassurance even as he pushed deeper into the guard, planting more seeds of friendship. Felipe would come to believe they’d known one another a long while and that he could confide in him.

    “Brodrick’s got a lot of men coming in,” Dominic said, pushing uneasiness into the guard’s mind.
    “Something big must be going on.” He amplified the uneasiness, glancing toward the room where the computers were housed.

    Felipe’s gaze followed and he frowned, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “I counted seventeen big shots, and a few that seem to be serving the others.” The guard took a few steps toward the door, obviously growing worried enough to check on what was likely his main responsibility.

    Dominic gleaned from his mind that three computer techs worked around the clock on their research, finding psychic women and tracking lineage. Now was his moment. The guard was going to open the door, and he would have to be in two places at one time. Dominic separated himself from his own body, leaving his clone to step away from Felipe, to stand across the room in plain sight of all the researchers and Felipe, lifting his hand as the guard glanced around to make certain that when he punched in his code, no one else could see the complicated numbers.

    Dominic allowed his real form to dissolve into molecules, lighter than air, floating around Felipe like dust particles as the guard punched in his code and opened the door to peer into the main room. Dominic simply floated inside. Satisfied that the tech was working and no one had disturbed him, Felipe closed the door.
    Dominic heard his footsteps receding.

    Josef was a young Carpathian, considered a wild teenager, although he was in his early twenties, and he was obsessed with computers. Dominic had contacted the boy for aid, knowing the information in the computers would be vital to the Carpathians. These women were potential lifemates. They were also in need of protection. Before the entire operation could be destroyed, they needed that information. Josef had developed a virus that would destroy the entire network the jaguars and vampires were using. Once uploaded, the virus would spread like wildfire and destroy everything, filtering from one computer to another without detection until it was far too late for anything to be saved.

    Dominic floated across the room until he was hovering around the tech. The man was engrossed