Goodbye Normal

To say I was reluctant to speak up is a huge understatement. But, even knowing it would change my life, or at least career, forever, I thought of Mira and said, "I'm a vampire."

Unfortunately for me, nobody heard my confession. Still, David recognized my decision and shushed the rest of the group.

My mouth had suddenly gone dry and, yet, I tried again, "I think the reason they want me is because…" I took a deep breath, "I'm a vampire."

I was met by silence. Annoyed, I sighed and used my fingers to pull my cheeks back and give everyone a good look at my growing fangs. "Shee?" I mumbled.

Wordlessly, Katja rose and left.

Badger just grinned and said, "Huh."

Carter said, "Cool, I wasn't expecting that."

And MJ said, "Nah, not unless you're some sort of special day walker."

I let go of my cheeks and said in a moment of great eloquence, "What?"

He continued, "In fact, based on the way they talked about you and your sister both being 'chosen', I'd say it's more likely you're something like a dhampir. That would explain why you have the fangs, but can still walk in the sun. Hmm, does your father have an unusual aversion to the outdoors or maybe your mailman?"

I repeated, "What?"

David tried to clarify, "You said she might be a dam-peer, what is that?"

MJ said, "In fiction, dhampirs are the children of a male vampire and a human woman. They tend to inherit some of the vampire's abilities, but at weaker strength."

Badger chipped in, "Wasn't there something about van Helsing being descended from a vampire?"

At which point the two devolved into nerd talk, with more than a few references to Dungeons and Dragons.

Whilst they argued, Maria was glaring at me.

"Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I didn't think it was relevant."

"You do a lot of 'not thinking'," she stated unfairly.

"Hey, nobody knew that it mattered until Juan told us. If I'd known it might be important to the people who took Mira, it would have been the first thing I mentioned."

Thankfully, David interjected, "She has a point. Whatever their reason, the people who abducted the girls want Alex."

Going completely bitch mode, Maria flippantly commented, "Maybe we should give them what they want."

"If it gets my sister back, I'm fine with that!" I yelled back at her.

"Actually," Badger said, apparently reaching a detente with MJ about fantasy creatures, "maybe she has a point."

At which point, everyone went quiet and Maria glared at him.

"I'm just saying, our original mission was a bust because we no longer have our person inside. What if we could get another person inside?"

"Meyers-Jimenez is not replaceable," Maria snapped.

"And I'm not saying she was, just that, maybe, Agent Douglas might be our backup plan."

"Meyers-Jimenez would have had the leeway to move about and gather the photos we need. Besides, Douglas would make a terrible undercover asset."

"But she's what we have," Badger said, finally trying to soothe the raging bitch.

"I can do it," I blurted.

David looked at me, "Are you sure?"

"For my sister, I can do it."

With a sigh, he said to the group, "If we want to make this work, we have to do it right now. The meeting will take place in about twenty four hours, which is a terrifyingly short amount of time."

"It's too little time. She’d need to be taken by the hound immediately to ensure he has time to transfer her to the meeting site."

"We know the meeting is on the peninsula, so there's time if we act quickly," Badger said. "We just need to make sure Miss Reinder’s insects can follow her and sneak the recording equipment to her."

"We should just use the bugs and forget about using Douglas," Maria grumbled.

"We already covered that and Katja says it won't work. So, please, Maria, let's try the backup plan."

Maria wrinkled up her nose in annoyance and pointed at me, "Come with me, we need to talk about this ridiculous notion of a cover."

With a sigh, I followed her to our room in the hotel.