Chapter 11

“So let me get this straight,” Kris grumbled, “she came back with no memory and a thirst for vampire blood?”

I sat up straight, wiped my mouth, and finished licking my lips as the wound on Leo’s wrist closed. The two men acted as if they were talking strategy for some game and it frustrated me. My secret was out, my wound was closed and I had nothing to lose if I got angry. Did they know that they were playing with fire?

“She doesn’t remember becoming a vampire,” Leo answered.

“I just woke up and there were people in my face,” I added as I tried to relax into the couch, realizing that sitting straight was uncomfortable and probably looked strange.

Kris sighed and dropped his head into his hands. There was a moment of silence before Leo spoke again.

“Any ideas about what to do?” Leo tried.

“Would it not be easier if I left?” I added, genuinely wanting nothing more than to run away and start over somewhere that I wasn’t in danger of getting killed.

Both of them answered with a resounding “no” in unison. That added to the confusion already bumping around in my head.

“Why?”

It was Leo who sighed this time. “You’re his favorite.”

“What do we do then?” I asked, beginning to feel panic set in as I begged mentally for my memories to come back and make all of this less complicated.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, Raven. Just shut up for a minute while we think,” Kris grumbled.

I bit my lip nervously, feeling like a child who had been told to go away, and drummed my fingers on the arm of the couch to channel my anxiety. I didn’t like being excluded or treated like a child, but I stayed quiet for them to think, hoping that my silence might lead to a good idea. After a while, it was Leo who broke the silence again.

“Okay, I have an idea, but no one is going to like it and you may have to pull some strings or something, Kris.”

“I don’t have too many left at the moment, but what are you thinking?” Kris sighed.

“Make her a mercenary.”

“What?!” I exclaimed. Pictures of ninja assassins and people with swords in a forest came to mind before assassins from spy movies and I didn’t fit the description of any of those people. There was no way they thought I could actually be a mercenary.

“She would be good at that,” Kris considered.

“What are you talking about? I can’t be a mercenary!” I protested but they weren’t listening. They just kept going like I wasn’t even there.

“She would have to report to you and keep her activities secret. It’s a great cover for her feeding habits,” Leo continued.

“It’s perfect, except that she hasn’t officially finished training yet.”

“You’re the commander, you can declare her training finished, can’t you?”

Kris sighed. “I guess those would be the strings.”

I stood again, waving my arms to get their attention. “Hello?! Are you going to listen to me? I said I can’t be a mercenary.”

Both of them laughed and left me trying to figure out what was so funny. I dropped my arms and held back frustrated tears. This wasn’t fair. I didn’t understand and all they did was laugh. Why couldn’t they just tell me everything?

“She really doesn’t remember does she?” Kris snickered.

Leo shook his head with a smile.

“God damn you both!” I growled finally coming to anger out of my frustrated tears, wanting to leave but not sure where to go.

“Come here,” Leo said as he pulled me into his lap. I resisted but ended up falling onto him anyway and looked up at him in terror.

“You were born to be a mercenary Raven. Warren doesn’t like it because you wouldn’t be at his beck and call all the time. But that’s a good thing,” he explained before kissing my forehead.

I shoved my way out of his arms and off of his lap. Leo kept forcing me into situations I didn’t like and I was beginning to wonder if he was the reason I lost my memory. If he would shoot me, would he take my memory too?

“Would you please stop kissing me? I get that you like me but I don’t know you like that so just back off!” I complained. “Maybe you need a drink to get your brain back from what I took from you.”

“Raven you two are like a power couple. You’re kinda stuck with him at the moment,” Kris explained as he stood to get Leo a packet of blood from his refrigerator. He walked there casually without any hurry or tension that might have reflected what I was feeling. Neither of them was acting right in the head but I didn’t know how to stop them.

“As for the mercenary issue, I’ll talk to Warren and put the plan into motion. It might take a few days but I think you can handle it.”

“She could shadow me when she’s not training. I’ll get her into the computer system and looking at current targets,” Leo added, packet in hand, sipping casually from a straw as if it were the most normal conversation ever and he was sipping on a cocktail.

Kris nodded. “I’ll run a refresher training course starting tomorrow. From the looks of it she’ll be fine but we can at least bring it to the front.”
“What if I don’t remember anything and I just got lucky today?” I tried desperately.

“Then I’ll have to whip you back into shape. Don’t worry. If we have to work all night and day, we will.”

I groaned in defeat. This wasn’t going to work out in my favor no matter how hard I tried. They had my new life planned out for me with no way to wiggle myself free of their grip.