Page 73 of Vanessa’s Bravery

Samson let his gaze sweep over the assembled vampires and hybrids. “The hybrids will be teamed up, and they will go to the incels’ homes during the daytime. They won’t expect you to come, thinking they are safe in their homes during daylight. We think that most of them don’t even know about hybrids, and aren’t aware that they can brave the sunlight. This will give us the advantage. You’ll take the blackout vans and all equipment necessary to get the newly-turned vampires into the vans and transport them back to HQ. We’ll be locking them up here for now.”

“How about the incels that haven’t been turned yet?” Benjamin asked.

“They will also need to be brought in, since they are at risk of being turned. We don’t want to give Milo any more easy targets.”

“But won’t that show our hand?” Cole asked, lifting his hand. “I mean, won’t that give away that we know what he’s up to?”

Samson pointed to Cole. “Everybody, this is Cole. He’s Vanessa’s mate.”

Some of the vampires turned to Cole to look at him, before Samson continued, “That’s a good point, Cole. The fact is that by showing Milo that we’re onto him, we’re forcing his hand. He’ll have to do something that he might not be ready for, so he might make a mistake. In any case, it will give us a better chance of finding him. And by locking up the incels, we’re not only making the streets safer, we’re also in a better position to get information out of the incels. One or more of them will have seen Milo’s car, or where he came from. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a good lead as to where he’s hiding. And then we’ll come down on him with everything we’ve got.”

Vanessa understood what Samson was saying. Milo wouldn’t get out of this alive. She glanced at Thomas, and noticed that his jaw looked tight and his body rigid. Guilt and regret rolled off him in waves.

Her attention snapped back to the lectern, where Gabriel now cleared his voice.

“There are still ten incels we haven’t captured or killed,” he started. “Quinn and I put a list together of who’s assigned to which incel. Each team will consist of two hybrids. Grayson, Monique, and her two brothers are on their way here from New Orleans. Virginia is bringing them through the portal shortly.”

Vanessa felt Cole tug at her arm.

“Portal?” he asked, his brow furrowing.

“I’ll explain later,” she whispered.

“Unfortunately, since we only have sixteen hybrids available, it means that the teams that bring in their incels first, will be sent out again to bring in remaining ones.”

“Can’t we just go in alone?” Ethan asked. “It really wasn’t hard to snatch Mike Harris. He was totally hapless.”

Gabriel instantly shook his head. “Out of the question. Nobody goes in alone. We can’t take the risk.”

Vanessa noticed how her brother let out a breath, but he didn’t protest, even though she could tell that he wanted to.

Gabriel lifted several sheets of paper for everybody to see. “You can find your partner on these sheets together with the corresponding incel with his photo and home address. Sunrise is at six forty-seven. Get yourselves ready to go in at seven a.m. sharp. Make sure you’re armed. Quinn will assign you your vans, and Amaury, Haven, and Yvette will help you equip them with everything you need.”

Vanessa looked at the clock on the wall. They had a little over an hour until they needed to leave HQ.

“Once you’re outside the incels’ homes, send a message to the command center so we know you’re in place,” Gabriel added. “Be safe out there.”

Everybody began talking at the same time, while some of the hybrids already headed for Gabriel to pick up their assignments.

Cole put his hand on her arm. “I’m coming with you.”

Vanessa automatically shook her head. “You can’t. This is a mission for the hybrids only. It’s too dangerous for you.”

“But I can’t let you go out there unprotected. What if you get hurt?”

Patrick interrupted them, “Don’t worry, bro, I’ll make sure she doesn’t get hurt.” Then he looked at Vanessa. “You’re on my team.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes at Patrick. “Yeah, and I’ll make sure you won’t get hurt.”

She reached for the piece of paper and looked at the information and the incel’s photo. “This is our incel: Jeff Cramer. Five foot six and a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet?” She made a dismissive hand movement. “Easy-peasy.”

Cole looked over her shoulder at the paper. “Yeah, but he’s a vampire. The one that attacked me wasn’t much bigger.”

She could hear the worry in Cole’s voice, and took his arm. “Give us a moment, Patrick.” She brought her face closer to Cole’s, and lowered her voice, though she was sure that some of the people in the room would still be able to hear their conversation.

“Please, Cole, trust me on this. I can handle myself. You know it. You’ve seen it. And Patrick is a strong guy. And we both are as well trained as anyone at Scanguards. We’ve got this. I don’t want you anywhere near this mission. I would only have to worry about you, and that would take my focus off the task at hand. And when I lose focus, things go wrong.”

She noticed Cole take a deep breath. At first, it looked like he wanted to protest again, but then he nodded. “All right. Be careful out there.”