“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know I’m back from the hospital. I apologize for my tardiness. There were some problems tonight and I had to stay late.”
“Problems?” Ida asked before I could.
Juliet stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. She locked it before turning back to me and Ida. Juliet knew that I trusted Ida with everything. She was my right-hand man, so-to-speak.
“We’re missing blood,” she said bluntly.
“Are you serious?” Ida paled. “Missing blood? How?”
I was instantly alert. Missing blood was different from there simply being less than usual. Donation amounts could vary based on how a person’s health was. A slight shortage wasn’t a huge deal, but missing blood? As in, someone stole it? That was concerning.
“I have no idea,” Juliet said. “We went back through the books for the last month, but everything has been normal. There have been occasional attacks around town lately, but you already know about that. The tensions between vampires and humans have been rising ever-so-slightly. It’s not enough to be a huge problem yet, but it’s enough that we’re all aware of this issue.”
“It’s Norman,” Ida’s head swirled around to me. Her eyes narrowed. “He has to be behind this. I warned you about him.”
“He was here all day,” I countered. “How would he have done anything like this?”
“He brought people with him,” she reminded me. “Humans. Maybe one of them went out and stole from the hospital.”
“Do you have security footage?” I asked Juliet. Somehow, I knew the answer before she sadly shook her head.
“It was deleted,” she said. “Mysteriously.”
“Strange,” I muttered.
Great.
This was just what I needed.
It was going to be a political fiasco for sure. There was a reason I kept my city under a tight rule. It was because when you fucked around with the system, people got hurt. If anyone found out that someone had stolen blood from right under our noses, they were going to freak. The vampires would start catching humans or robbing the hospital. The humans would try to hide, or they’d flee the city. The biggest problem with them running away wouldn’t be that we’d struggle to eat. No, the problem was that the world outside of Darkvale’s walls wasn’t safe for humans.
It wasn’t safe for anyone.
“What do you want us to do?” Juliet asked.
“What’s the hospital’s contingency plan?” I wanted to know.
“Keep going on like usual,” she said. “And we’re trying not to raise suspicion, but people are already starting to notice that there are shortages. We haven’t been able to fill every order we’ve received, at least not to capacity. It’s been a problem that’s been happening for a little while, but today was worse than usual. The missing blood made a big difference, and not in a good way.”
“Fuck,” I growled.
“Can you wrangle up extra donations?” Ida asked. “Maybe ask humans if they would be willing to give an extra serving of blood?”
“Yes,” Juliet nodded. “We can do that.”
“Good,” Ida said. “It’s a start. In the meantime,” she looked at me. “Talk to Nolan. I promise you, he’s behind this.”
“I can’t pass judgment that quickly,” I told her.
“I can.”
Ida left the room, and then Juliet and I were alone together in the office. I looked over at her and did a more thorough assessment. Yeah, it was fair to say she’d worked her ass off. She was tired and sweaty. Her clothes were wrinkled, and her skin looked damp with sweat. Her hair was sticking out at odd angles. While I was certain she’d looked beautiful when she left the house that morning, she looked worn out now.
“You need a bath.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“That wasn’t an offer,” I told her. “Let’s go to my room.”