This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(95)

And this wasn’t a regular building that she could just bust through a wall to escape from. The fourth sublevel was built to contain vampires against their will. I should know. I designed it back when I was capturing vampires so Don’s scientists could make a synthetic wonder drug called Brams. That drug, derived from the healing compound in undead blood, had kept several members of our team alive after they’d sustained grievous injury. Then Bones joined the operation, and Don got over his fear that raw vampire blood—far more effective in healing than Brams—would turn anyone evil who drank it. Bones donated enough of his blood for Don to parse out to injured team members as needed, and the vampire cells on the fourth sublevel had remained empty for years as a result.

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t be put back into use, if Don was right and Madigan was here for other reasons than a routine evaluation . . .

Or maybe I’d had so much shit happen lately that I assumed the worst about everyone now, whether I had valid reason to or not. I gave my head a shake to clear it. For all that Madigan pissed me off, it wasn’t too long ago that Don had had the same prejudice about vampires. Hell, it was less than eight years ago that I’d thought the only good bloodsucker was a dead bloodsucker, too! Yes, Madigan’s attitude screamed Suspicious Bureaucratic Bastard, but hopefully spending some time with Tate, Juan, Dave, and my mother would make him realize there was more to supernaturals than what he’d read in the pages of classified murder reports.

“So what do you think of him?” Tate drawled, that former tightness now gone from his tone.

“That he and I won’t be BFFs,” was all I said. No need to say more when the room could be bugged.

Tate grunted. “I’m getting that vibe, too. Maybe it’s a good thing that . . . circumstances are what they are.”

By Tate’s careful allusion to Don’s condition, it was obvious that he also was taking no chances over our words being played back to Madigan later.

I gave a concurring shrug. “I suppose everything does happen for a reason.”