Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

patiently.
    “Oh yes, of course.” Erica replied a bit nervously, as she slowly placed her hand in his.
    Charles closed his eyes as he began to concentrate. Erica felt a light fluttering in her head, then heard his quick intake of air as his eyes popped open. “No wonder you are so upset.” He lightly patted Erica’s hand reassuringly. “No worries, dear. I’ll alert the team of the possible danger, and I promise they will take every precaution necessary.”
    Charles softly called out Rosetta’s name, as if she was standing on the other side of the room, then glancing back over to Erica, stated, “Thank you, Erica. You may have just saved our son’s life.”
    Astounded to hear such a statement, she stuttered, “Do you think the dream actually had some type of real meaning?” Erica could feel the fear sweep over her before he Charles could even respond.
    “I don’t want you to worry about it anymore. That is for me to do. I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to keep them safe,” Charles stated.
    Rosetta breezed into the office and came directly over to Charles. Charles briefly filled her in as to what was happening. Rosetta gently put her arm around Erica and gave her a motherly hug. “Erica, come, let’s get you back in bed and asleep. Charles will take care of the team.” She gave him a pointed look. “Someone will wake you if you are needed.”
    “Of course,” Charles chimed in. Then looking directly at Erica, he stated, “Get some rest, dear. Everything is going to be okay.”
    Charles rolled back over to his desk, and immediately started typing on the keyboard. Within seconds, information began to scroll up on the large wall screen. It was scrolling and changing so quickly, Erica was unable to decipher anything. At that particular moment, she wished she could be a vampire speed-reader. The only thing she did recognize was the “X’s” when they occasionally popped up. She knew they marked the current location of the team members. They were only up for a split second, and then the screen changed with more diagrams, layouts, and information.
    Rosetta ushered Erica out of the office and back upstairs to Kevin’s suite. She guided Erica straight to Kevin’s bed then walked out of the room, just long enough for Erica to climb into bed. When she reentered the room, she handed Erica a glass of water. Erica took the glass without question and drank the liquid, barely realizing it held a funny aftertaste to it. She was practically asleep before her head hit the pillow.
     
    * * * *
     
    Kevin and his team had the house surrounded and were within a minute of moving in when Charles interrupted. Marshall immediately gave the hold signal, stopping all team members in their tracks. Frustrated, Kevin quickly changed back to human form to have a word with Charles.
    “What is going on?” Kevin demanded from his second-in-command as he snatched the earpiece out of Marshall’s outreached hand and shoved it in his ear all in one smooth motion.
    “Charles has new information regarding our target,” Marshall answered his boss smoothly. “Get with him regarding the details.”
    His growl of frustration was hard to miss as Kevin activated his earpiece and all but barked at the man he called his father. “What is this new information and why are we just now getting it?” There was an immediate moment of silence from the other end, which Kevin found very unlike his father. This only added to Kevin’s perplexity and agitation at the situation. He could not recall ever being within a minute of a major sting operation and having Charles interrupt, bringing the entire team to a complete halt.
    Finally, after a long drawn-out moment, Charles spoke, his voice coming through low and calm. “Kevin, I am going on my gut instincts here. Erica just left my office after having a nightmare involving your team. I read her mind and retrieved the nightmare. She had enough information to make me believe it was a premonition. If she is correct, the house is full of explosives. In her dream, your entire team was destroyed.”
    Kevin didn’t know whether he wanted to explode at Charles or laugh out loud. He heard a snicker or two from his teammates. He could just imagine what they were thinking. What, are we flying this mission based on a not-so-pleasant dream from Kevin’s little human girlfriend?
    “And you think she is on to something?” Kevin responded a little incredulously. “Couldn’t this just be