“Frenzy?” I asked, immediately thinking of the vampire who had attacked Thatch.
“Yes,” Lucas answered. “Something akin to a psychotic breakdown with a desperate thirst that addicts found unable to quench.”
I winced. “Damn. It must have been a nightmare.”
“It was,” Kent said, her voice strangely neutral. “Thousands of humans and shifters were killed when it was on the streets, and addicted vampires had to be eliminated.”
Wide-eyed, I stared at her, wondering why I’d never heard about this drug before.
“I recall the case,” Thatch said, his brows scrunching and creasing his forehead.
“How? I’ve never heard of it.” My eyes connected with his.
“You don’t have security clearance. It was one of several cases over the history of the SICB that they pulled from the main records. After such a catastrophe, there was the fear that someone would try to replicate the drug, though not necessarily for its intended purpose.”
“Are you thinking terrorism?” All too clearly, I could see how effective a drug like that could be at sending vampires into a drug-fuelled frenzy to the point they could wipe out whole towns or cities. The idea chilled my veins.
“Yes.” Thatch nodded solemnly. “I hadn’t realised it was Lentwood linked to the drug. I don’t recall all the details. How did he get off?”
Kent navigated to a different page. “A vampire called Timothy Garrison ended up taking the fall and cleared Lentwood’s name.”
“Do we have a link between Brent and Lentwood?” Thatch asked, his gaze travelling to Kent and Lucas.
Lucas shook his head while Kent backed it up with “No. But give us time.”
Thatch nodded in response and looked at the time. I followed suit and saw it was midday. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and keyed in a number before placing it on the table and putting it on loudspeaker. “You’re on loudspeaker,” he said in greeting. “You in position?” His deep voice rumbled through the room, and goosebumps broke out across my skin immediately. Of course, both of the bloody vampires in the room noticed and sent me a smirk—Kent’s teamed with her fingers in an L-shape on her forehead.
I simply shrugged. I didn’t give a rat’s arse that they knew how much he affected me.
“That is an affirmative.”
I straightened at the voice. Bloody Jamison. He was everywhere it seemed, doing all sorts of favours for Thatch.
“What the—” I jolted back at the hard kick at my shin.
Kent gestured in my direction, a mixture of amusement and disgust on her face. “You were growling. It’s not a good look on anyone, especially a loved-up operative who’s struggling to keep his dick in his pants.”
Fuck. My eyes darted to Thatch, whose eyes were on me. While he didn’t look exactly pissed off, he wasn’t exactly amused either. The voice, however, coming through the line sounded exactly that. “You holding out on me, Thatch?”
I shut my emotions down fast, carefully blanking my facial expression. My dick needed to behave, and that possessive growl that didn’t like Jamison one damn bit needed to back off. Stat. There was no chance I could be responsible for putting Thatch in any unprofessional position. The knowledge startled the hell out of me. I’d never before given a damn about causing a stir or saying my piece, but when it came to Thatch, apparently, I was willing to play by the rules.
“That’ll be Callen,” Thatch offered.
“Blackheath?” Curiosity was evident in the question, though not the usual disgust. Interesting, considering Jamison’s current location.
“The one and only.” His gaze hitting mine, Thatch didn’t seem quite as pissed anymore.
“Huh. Anyone else see the irony at play here?”
I managed to keep my mouth shut and ignored Kent’s snort.
“Trying to fuck Blackheath senior over while you’re fucking his so—”
“Enough.” Thatch shook his head, and while his one-word response brooked no argument, there was no heat behind the words.
Jamison’s response was loud laughter.
“Considering how loud and ridiculous you’re being, I’m assuming you’re not at location?” Thatch said.
Jamison’s laughter died down. “Not yet. I have a couple shadowing Blackheath, who’s out on the road at the moment. I’m on base and due to head over to pack lands in a few hours. Rogers called in saying Blackheath used a payphone in town, so I’m working on getting that tapped.”
“Just keep me updated.”
“Will do. And, Thatch, you may want to do something so Callen doesn’t need to be so possessive. Not that the growling isn’t h—” Thatch ended the call, his eyes shifting to the ceiling.
“My bad,” I said into the quiet. I didn’t try to contain my smirk. “And just so you know, I’m totally down for whatever Jamison was suggesting.”
Kent gagged, Lucas groaned, and Thatch walked off, mumbling, “Give me fucking strength.”
“Something I said?” I waggled my brows at Thatch’s retreating form before getting back to my research and pulling the headset on when I received an alert saying there was movement in Brent’s vehicle.
The recording of movement kicked in immediately. It did on the opening of the door. Not only did the sensor track location, but it also provided an audio recording. After ten minutes of listening to a dodgy radio station, the music switched off midsong when an incoming call came in.
“You’re late,” an accented voice said. “Is there something I need to know?”
“No,” Brent spoke immediately, a tone I’d only heard once, when he was unsure of himself. “I have an operative out today, so it was necessary to reassign a task. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Tell me who the operative is.”
“Why? You don’t need t—”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Brent hesitated a moment before saying, “Lucas.”
I cast a steady glance at the man in question. We wore matching headsets, and his eyes were on me.
“Mathew Lucas, the vampire?”
“That’s correct.”
There was silence for a few beats before the voice
