Secret Unleashed

It was nice to know I could still be surprised.

It was also a good thing the collar had been removed. “Jesus fucking Christ, are you fucking shitting me?”

Emilio coughed into his hand to cover his laughter and clapped Tyler once on the back. “I’ll give you two a minute, go get us some coffee before we start the interview, okay?”

He didn’t wait for our response, just vanished into the hospital.

“Tyler?”

“Hi, Secret.” He looked different. I was used to seeing him in dress pants and button-down shirts, but in his FBI suit he appeared less beaten down. The stubble normally coloring his jaw was gone in favor of a clean-shaven face. This was the Tyler I’d gone on a blind date with years ago. This was Tyler the way I’d imagined he’d been before he met me.

“Special Agent Tyler?” That was more of a mouthful than Detective Tyler. It might take some getting used to.

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag.”

“How are you an FBI agent? I just saw you in New York less than two weeks ago working at the police station.”

“That’s my cover now.”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. I couldn’t make sense of this. “Now? So you were a cop first and then a special agent, or a special agent pretending to be a cop?”

“I used to be just a cop, then after the incident with Gabriel Holbrook, and that…thing pretending to be you? I know you did me a favor by not taking my memory, but I had a hard time accepting the truth. I started doing some searches online. Turns out the FBI don’t just monitor the Internet for assassination threats and bomb recipes.”

“They came to you?”

“They came to me and asked what I knew. I left you out of it, but I told them I’d seen vampires, told them what I’d witnessed in the basement of the precinct. Told them about those murdered teenagers at Christmas. Everything. I thought they would think I was insane and lock me up, but they gave me a job instead.”

“What kind of job?”

“Primarily informational. We investigate reports of supernatural activity based on web searches similar to mine. Usually the people are crackpots, but sometimes something real comes up.”

“Why keep your day job?”

“Because of you.”

“Me?”

He sat on the edge of my bed, his hip against the side of my leg, but I didn’t pull back.

“You saved my life when you could have let that monster take Mercedes and me. I know what you did, telling your vampires I was yours. That’s akin to putting me under your protection. You took a big leap letting me in.”

“And you went and told the government.”

“The government already knew, Secret. You think vampires don’t like to dirty their hands in politics? Are you honestly so naive you think no one knows about vampires and werewolves and all the rest of it?”

Apparently I had been naive because I had believed this entire time our secret had been kept. Now I was finding out everyone seemed to know. Military, FBI, whack-job psycho doctors.

“So why isn’t it public knowledge?”

“You think the public could handle knowing something like that?” He shook his head without waiting for my answer. “No. I consider myself a levelheaded, educated guy, and even I didn’t take the knowledge well. I don’t know how Mercedes did it for so long without going nuts.”

“She’s not…”

“No, she didn’t register a blip. If she’s Googled the word vampire, she must have been looking for Twilight reviews, because she never showed up on the system.”

Discovering my best friend wasn’t in the mix on this multi-leveled lie relieved me somewhat. “You said you stayed because of me.”

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.”

“Okay?” I wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but if he was about to make a confession of love, I wasn’t sure this was the time or place for him to do it.

“You are a magnet for trouble.”

“I… What?”

“You draw things to you. In the few years I’ve known you, from what you’ve allowed me to remember, you killed a creature who was dismembering teenagers, you beheaded a demon who was able to steal human forms, and you almost died at your own wedding because of a jealous werewolf. Can you think of a better place for me to get field experience? Because I sure can’t.”

“You stay in New York, working as a police detective, because you like how much trouble I get into?”

“More or less.”

“Will things change now that the FBI has a file on me?”

Emilio announced his return with a polite warning cough and handed Tyler a coffee. “I asked the doc if you were allowed one, but he said no dice.” He gave an apologetic shrug.

“Thanks for trying.”

“Secret is asking me about her file,” Tyler said, catching Emilio up on the only pertinent fact he’d missed.

“Did you get to the good part?”

“There’s a good part about having the federal government know you’re a super- freak?” I asked.

“There is,” Tyler assured me. “I’ve convinced my supervisors on the project you’re more useful to the good of humanity if you’re kept on the streets as opposed to…” His voice trailed off, gaze drifting over my broken arm and the choir of machines.

Studied. The word he couldn’t say was studied.

“I’m guessing The Doctor’s notes might prove to be more information than they need for the next while,” I said quietly. “Thank goodness for small favors.”

“It did help,” Tyler admitted. “What he did to you is horrible, and I know nothing I can say or do can help make up for what you’ve been through.”

“If you did anything to keep it from happening again, you’ve done more than enough. Thank you.”

“There’s more to it…”

“My freedom comes with an asterisk?”

“A small one,” Emilio said. “Teeny tiny.” He held his fingers so close together light could barely pass through the gap.

“I don’t have a list of spies I can give them or anything.”

“We’re not the CIA.” Emilio sneered and sipped his coffee with a loud slurp.

“What’s the catch?”

“Well…you’re sort of a government asset now.” Tyler stood up as if he was afraid I might slap him, which would have implied he said something bad, only I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.

“An asset as in an employee or an informant?” I asked.

“More like an asset we could stick a label on that says Property of the US Government.”

I struggled to sit up, because surely even in my condition there had to be a way for me to strangle two smirking government employees to death with my bare hands. “What?”

“It’s a formality, just a paperwork thing. This way you can be incorporated into the project but you don’t show up in any personnel documentation. Your asset tag is assigned solely to us.” Tyler pointed from himself to Emilio. “We’re your handlers.”

“I’m not totally sure you heard me the first time, so I’m going to say it again. What?