CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

A ri sat stone-faced and clenched his jaw while he and his team listened to every single word of Sage’s conversation with Sandy. The logistics room was packed with his tech team and assassins. Sage had signed the contract and was about, they assumed, to learn vampires existed.

Shit.

His heart pounded, and he knew everyone in the room could hear it and probably had questions. He didn’t get anxious when they conducted operations.

But Sage was not an operation.

Hello... she was Sage.

Ari cursed. He should be fucking happy. This was what they wanted and needed, especially now they’d learned Callan, of Project Callan, was their missing vampire and there was a high probability he was being kept in Sage’s building.

Earlier in the day Ari had barged into the logistics room after Travis had called him in urgently.

“What is it?” he’d snapped.

Oliver and Travis had been leaning over Darren and Frankie’s screens. “Project Callan. We’re ninety-nine percent sure it’s our vampire,” Travis said and Ari had cursed.

“Show me.” He had dialed Brayden at the same time. “You need to get over here.”

“What’s up?” the prince replied.

“We’ve found the missing vampire,” Ari said.

Callan belonged to the king. This was royal business, and Ari was doing his part by letting them know immediately. Plus, he wanted them to be a part of this.

“Be there in five,” Brayden said, as Craig had cursed.

He knew exactly how the big guy felt. All of them had felt heavy knowing one of their own was trapped in the hands of experimental scientists. They just hadn’t known where he or she was. For Craig, it was even more difficult. He’d been inside one of the labs and spent time with the survivors.

“Teleport into the lobby and my team will let you into the logistics room,” Ari had instructed them.

“God damn it. That poor bastard,” Oliver spat out while Travis ran a hand through his hair in that fucked-off way.

“Patience. We have to do this right,” Ari said, feeling just like his team but needing to be a strong leader. “We have no idea what state Callan is in, or exactly where he is.”

Faces were rubbed and boots kicked walls.

“Yeah, and they could also move him before we get in. We can’t fuck this up,” Oliver said.

“The problem is, getting in,” Darren, his head technician, said when Brayden and Craig entered the room. Brayden had nodded at them and found a seat.

“What do we have?” Craig asked, getting straight down to business. Ari gave Darren a nod, and he’d updated them on the details.

“We’re still digging while Sage is inside her office, but this is what we have so far.”

“So far,” Frankie had emphasized. “People think this shit happens in twenty keystrokes because of TV. It can take days or weeks, you know.”

“We don’t have days; we have to get that vampire out fast,” Craig said firmly.

“Bring up the building blueprint and compare that with what intel we have,” Ari said, nodding to his team. “Grab a chair.”

“I’ll lean,” Craig said, and Brayden smirked as he pulled a chair around. For the next two hours, they’d studied the data and building and reviewed a number of different strategies.

“Go back to the other image,” Brayden said, standing and walking closer to the screen. They all knew it wasn’t because he couldn’t see clearly. It was one of those unconscious things one did when they wanted to think.

Darren clicked a few things and the image of BioZen’s building reappeared. It was an architectural layout of the floors.

“Something isn’t right with this.” The prince crossed his arms, lifting one hand to his chin. “Here.” He used a finger to circle one area.

Oliver leaned closer.

“The bathrooms,” Craig said, and Brayden nodded. “There are two sets in that section. No one needs to crap that much.”

Travis snorted.

“It’s not big enough for a lab,” Oliver said, shaking his head.

Ari stood and stopped next to Brayden. Alex was likely right, but it still raised a question.

“We need to get into the cameras. You guys are on that, right?” Craig asked Darren.

The vampire nodded. “Yeah, but I have to tell you, these are some serious security walls we’re talking about.” Darren shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Fucking pharma.”

Craig pressed his lips together and nodded slowly.

“Well, we have a few more hours, so keep going,” Ari said.

“How does this tracker work? Does it have a distance limit?” Brayden asked.

Darren shook his head. “Kind of. It’s a little like a modem. It connects us when Sage is there and disconnects when she’s out of range.”

“So, we need to get a tracker into the building and leave it there.” Craig shrugged.

Ari glanced at Craig. “Getting in there during daylight is the problem, and without being recognized. We have good reason to believe they know exactly who you two are.” He looked at Brayden. “Not to mention we’re not sending in the Moretti prince. We still don’t know how they’ve been able to weaken vampires.”

“I’ll make that call if the opportunity arises.” Brayden stared at him with his powerful silver stare and Ari shook his head.

“Don’t bother with the prince shit. If he wants to throw himself in front of a bus, trust me, he will,” Craig said. “I’ve long since given up.”

Interesting.

So Brayden put his role as captain before his royal status. That was something Ari could respect even if it was stupid as fuck.

“If one of my vampires is being tortured in that building, I’m not going to sit back and paint my goddamn nails.” Brayden planted his hands in his jacket pockets. “If our intel is tight and we are confident, then Craig and I are going in.”

Oliver cleared his throat and Ari looked at him. The rest of the team had now joined them and appeared restless.

“Okay, everyone, settle down. We are not going in guns blazing.” Ari looked at his watch. “Let’s get comfortable and see what the rest of the day brings. Sage hasn’t been offered the promotion yet. That will give us all the information we need to start making some decisions.”

Famous fucking last words.

Now here they were listening as Sage walked through the BioZen building into the Project Callan division where they were now absolutely sure the missing vampire was being held.

His Sage.

His fucking Sage.

Ari glanced at the faces around him, noting the anticipation and hope lining their faces when all he felt was dread. He wanted to teleport over there and stop Sage from going in. If she was going to find out about vampires, he wanted to be the one to tell her. Ari wanted to show her they were living, breathing beings just like humans. They loved, they hated, they cried, they made love, they had families.

Instead, she was about to see a sample she would be asked to experiment on. A living being who had been used to obtain data through pain and suffering. Someone who had had all his freedoms and choices taken from him.

Ari rubbed his jaw for the hundredth time. He could barely breathe as they listened to Sandy rattle on about the contract and how exciting it all was.

Sandy would die.

They would all die.

No one involved with this project would remain breathing once they had all the information required to completely destroy it. Until they got to the root of it and learned all they needed, there was no point randomly killing off scientists. They’d just replace them.

Ari didn’t go around just killing people—okay, fine, they did. That was what The Institute was hired to do. They caught the bad guys and eliminated evil from this world.

These people were evil.

Unless Callan was living the life in some swanky apartment and had given them permission to do what they wanted with him—he doubted it—then they were evil.

They had seen what these scientists had done to the others, and it was horrifying.

So yeah, Ari was happy to rip a few heads off.

His stomach lurched.

Sage may be about to join that list of enemies, and Ari felt like he was going to vomit.

He knew why. All night he’d been pacing the mansion, trying to ignore what he knew deep down inside.

Sage was his mate.

Or at least he strongly suspected she was.

He’d never felt like this about a female before and over the years of his life, he’d seen enough males carry on like a lunatic to know the signs.

Ari had given up hope his mate would ever come to him and, as the fates would have it, she could be about to become the most despicable enemy he could imagine.

Fuck you, Fate.

As far as they knew, a vampire only got one mate in his lifetime. Sure, he could have taken her from BioZen and never known what Sage would choose, but he’d lived a long enough life to know that sort of shit would fuck with your head. He’d never trust her. He’d always doubt her. It would eat at them until they hated each other.

In any case, if Sage was his mate, and they were bonding, then her death or separation from her would literally drive him mad. Either way, his days were numbered now.

Fuck that. She is mine.

He looked around the room and made a decision.

“Whatever happens, Sage is mine to deal with. You got that?” he said darkly. Everyone muttered quiet yups while Brayden stared at him for a long moment.

“Agreed,” Brayden finally said, but Ari wasn’t asking, so he simply looked away.

“Shit, not again.” Craig cursed and ran a hand over his face.

Yeah, they knew.

Both Craig and Brayden had recently mated and knew the signs. They’d be feeling pretty bad for him right now, but they could fuck off.

Despite his pessimism, there was a possibility Sage would be as disgusted by this as they were.

First, she’d be shocked. They’d all seen humans learn about the existence of vampires and lose their damn minds, before their memories were wiped. Or turned if they were a mate. Then when she came face to face with Callan, the reality would kick in, what was being asked of her.

That was when the metal hit the road and he’d have his answer about his mate. Or potential mate.

The voices started up again and Ari leaned unnecessarily closer to the speaker.

“This area is where our offices are. You will have your own.” The woman, Sandy, spoke. “You can move now or tomorrow if you have work to finish up.”

“Thanks,” Sage replied, and Ari thought she sounded quiet.

“You getting anything?” Craig asked Darren, who shook his head. “Nah, man, they’re jumbling everything. How are they doing it?”

“No camera?” Ari asked.

“Every time I catch a connection, it drops,” Frankie said. “Mother trucker. Let me try something else.” Dave leaned in and the two of them seemed to be tag-teaming the keyboard.

Ari began pacing as they continued listening to Sage’s tour and he felt Brayden’s eyes on him. He ignored him.

“Okay, let’s go in here and we will get your biochip put in,” Sandy said, and they heard footsteps and a door swish open.

Ari’s hands clenched and his eyes flew to Darren, but Craig spoke the words on his mind first.

“Are they going to find her chip?” Craig asked. “Is she in danger?”

Darren shook his head. “Unlikely they’ll scan for one. They’ll assume she’s clean.”

Ari’s brows shot up. “Not real comforting.”

Darren shrugged. “It’s all I’ve got. The answer is yes, if they scan, they will find it.”

Fuck.

“Or if they try to put it in the same spot,” Oliver said, looking nearly as unhappy as he was. “I should have put it in a less popular entry point, fuck it.”

“The chances of that happening are about a million to one,” Travis said.

Dave snorted. “Not a statistician then.”

“No, but I could snipe your head from a hundred miles so shut it, tech boy,” Travis replied, smirking.

Ari rolled his eyes and Craig grinned.

“Focus.” Ari growled.

He knew they all needed a tension break, but they could go out and fuck later. His Sage was in a potentially dangerous situation, and he couldn’t leave the goddamn property to help her if something happened.

Fucking sunshine.

Over the speakers, they heard a little noise, which Ari recognized as Sage. He knew all her sounds, which only made him cringe. “Oh, that kind of tickled,” Sage said with a little laugh. “So, can I get it removed one day?”

“Not really,” a man replied. “We can just disconnect it, though.”

“Sure,” Sandy said, coughing and shutting the man up. “If you ever left, but I’m not sure you will once we show you what we are working on. Let’s go through here.”

Ari glanced at Darren, who mouthed, we can remove it.

“Oh, hi Dr. Phillips,” Sage said, and Ari picked up a strong note of respect in her voice.

“Sage, welcome aboard. It’s great to have you on the team. I’ve been impressed with your work in our animal health division and think you’ll be suitably challenged in this project,” the man, Dr. Phillips, said. “Please take a seat.”

Chairs scraped and then there was silence.

“What I’m about to share with you will come as a big surprise,” Phillips said. “A shock.”

“Oh?” Sage replied. “Now I’m excited.”

Ari cringed.

“Let me preempt what I’m about to tell you and say this isn’t a candid camera moment.”

“Okayyy.” Sage let out a small, uncomfortable laugh. There were some clicks, which Ari assumed was a presentation of sorts being brought up.

His stomach curdled. One glance at Oliver and he saw the vampire wasn’t faring well himself. Their eyes met.

Fuck, Ari. Oliver said.

I know. Fuck, I know. Ari responded.

Dr. Phillips cleared his throat. “Recently we became aware of a new species. Not uncommon, but this is rather different. The team and I have been working with a sample and researching this new life form.”

A sample? Fucking asshole. That sample was named Callan. And Anna, and the other dozen or so vampires they’d kidnapped.

Sage made some ooh and ahh sounds.

Ari was fucking close to punching another wall while the vampires around him growled low in their throats.

“Give her a break, guys, she doesn’t know it’s a vampire yet,” Oliver snapped.

“Is it a plant or marine life? This is exciting,” Sage replied. “Although, as you know, my specialty is animal health, but I’m totally open to diversifying.”

“You do the honors, Douglas,” Sandy said, and they could all hear the smile in her voice.

Ari glanced across at Darren. “Douglas Phillips. Look him up.”

“Sage, you will be working with the first team on earth to study the vampire race,” Phillips said with great pride.

Ari closed his eyes and held his breath.

There was a long silence.

“What?” Sage finally said.

“Vampires,” Sandy replied.

“Here?” Sage asked, her voice shaky. Ari stiffened as he waited for a reply, but whatever it was, it was not voiced.

“Holy shit,” Sage said, shock lacing her words.

They’d heard it all before, but from here he couldn’t comfort her or show her the full truth and it made every damn muscle in his body tighten to the point he thought he might snap.

“Remember your contract, Sage. Now you must understand the extreme nature of the security around this project,” Phillips said.

“Are they dangerous?” Sage asked.

“Very,” Phillips answered.

“Dangerous to you, motherfucker,” Craig growled. “I’m going to rip your head off and feed it to the fish.”

“I’ll help,” Oliver said. “Asshole.”

The conversation and questions continued, but Ari got no real sense of Sage’s feelings. If anything, she was in a state of shock and very quiet. Neither of those things he could fault her for.

“Tomorrow, we will show you our test subject and you will learn much more,” Sandy said. “For now, that’s a lot to process. Head back to your lab and start moving to your office. You start tomorrow.”

Chairs scraped.

“Thank you. My mind is blown,” Sage said. “Wait, did you say test subject?”

Someone must have nodded.

“I can’t believe they’re volunteering. Wow,” Sage ignorantly replied, and Ari felt his heart twitch in hope.

“Well... we can go through all that tomorrow,” Dr. Phillips replied.

The next thirty minutes was just noise and chatter as Sage returned to her office and received congratulations from her colleagues. Ari had heard enough. He stood and walked to the door. “Call me if there’s anything of interest,” he instructed everyone. “Take shifts and get some rest. You’ve all been up for a long time.”

It was late afternoon when they would usually be asleep and though it wasn’t their first daylight rodeo, this was a tough one.

He turned to Travis. “When are Alex and Logan returning?”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Indeterminable at this point. Their check-in is at midnight, so I’ll update you then.”

Ari nodded. “As soon as they are finished, tell them to get their asses back here.”

“We have a team with us if you need more bodies,” Brayden said, standing and stretching his back. “Let me know when you want to do a combined briefing and we’re ready to move.”

Ari nodded when Darren looked up for confirmation. He was pleased his team were clear on who the authority was in the room. The prince may be more senior than he in the royal family, but at The Institute Ari was the boss.

“Until we can access their security, no one is going inside. I don’t know how long it will take. I’m sorry,” Darren said.

Ari stared at the prince a long moment. “It’s not my call, but I think you should bring the queen and your mates closer.”

Brayden turned to Craig and then nodded.

“You think they’ll make a move?” Craig asked.

“Yes,” Ari replied honestly. “Or at least I don’t trust they won’t and until we know how they’ve been able to weaken vampires, I believe we need to take all precautions.”

If the royals knew how it was being done, they hadn’t shared it with him. Regardless, if it was him, he’d either return to Italy—which he knew neither of the vampires would do—or move them back under his protection immediately.

“They may not have anything planned,” Oliver said. “But once we go in and get Callan out, then they may act. I’ve seen their security firsthand. They’re good. Who knows if they have eyes on the queen right now? I agree with Ari. Bring your females close.”

And that was why Oliver had been promoted to head assassin. Among other things.

“I’d add Ben to your list. Not that he’s a girl. Don’t tell him I said that.” Ari grinned.

“I’ll tell him.” Craig grinned back.

Brayden cursed. “Shit. Then we might have to move in here. Our security isn’t good enough where we’re staying. But first I need to speak to Vincent. God, he’s going to be furious.”

“So, a new mood for him, then?” Craig said sarcastically, slapping Brayden on the shoulder. Ari let out a small laugh despite everything. Vincent was a strong and capable king, but he was known to be moody.

“You’re just happy you’re going to get laid again,” Brayden replied, punching him playfully in the stomach. Craig didn’t even flinch, his abs of steel doing their job.

Ari was impressed.

“Damn right I am.” Craig grinned.

Ari glanced around the room. Things were about to change around here, and fast. Since the beginning of The Institute there had been a no-female rule policy, except for those who worked here. Which was about five female vampires.

If he was about to mate with Sage, things would need to change. Such was life. Ari had learned many centuries ago the way to survive in life was to adapt.

“This is probably the safest place for you to be,” Ari said to the prince. “The king and queen are welcome, as are your mates.”

“Thank you,” Brayden replied.

“Time to pivot, team. The royals are moving in. Frankie, set up the Moretti party with any security access they require.”

“Got it,” Frankie replied.

Brayden nodded at Craig and the two teleported out.

“Travis. Update Matteo and Alice. Get ready for a new world with females in the mansion,” Ari said.

He glanced over at Oliver when no smartass comments followed. His team were somber, and he understood why. This was some serious shit. The team knew Sage was his without him saying so. You didn’t work this closely as a covert security team and not know your colleagues fucking well.

Sage doesn’t deserve this. Oliver telepathed.

I’ll make sure she’s okay.

Oliver nodded. Ari... is she your—?

I think so. Keep it to yourself. Ari returned to his quarters as they telepathed.

They know, Ari.

Yeah, they did, but still, it was his private business and until he had a sense of where Sage’s mind was at, Ari was going to protect her as much as he could.

If she thought she’d had a surprise today, he was about to be the cherry on the top.

Then the decision was hers.