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acknowledge the request and then turned to address the group in general. "I've taken the liberty of making coffee, and there are cookies left over from earlier."
    "Excellent," Charles said, beaming. "Let's take our conversation into the kitchen. I hope you won't mind," he said to John. "It's my favorite room in the house, and I think we'll be more comfortable there."
    Jess moved with the others into the kitchen and immediately saw why Charles loved the room. Painted in shades of buttery yellow, with accents in green and tangerine, it reminded Jess of an open field of flowers on a cool morning just after sunrise.
    She moved toward the table and was disconcerted to find the only available seat was next to the detective, who looked equally thrilled to be stuck next to her. After Julia finished pouring coffee for everyone, she placed sweetener, cream, and a tray of cookies in the center of the table and then took her seat beside Charles.
    "Now," Charles began. "No more bullshit." He looked at John, letting him know that his choice of words had been an intentional echo of the ones John had used earlier. "John, you are correct. Vampires do exist, and you can appreciate why that's not something we wanted made public. When you first got involved with this, I admit that I purposely misled you. I believed that you would be safer, the less you knew."
    John didn't look convinced. "So, for
my
protection, you lied to me?"
    "It wasn't a complete lie," Mac jumped in. "We might have omitted a small detail, like the killers weren't human, but they
were
terrorists. After all, Burton —the first vampire—did put together a team of vampires to kill the president."
    John shot Mac a disdainful look, before turning back to the admiral. "I don't get it. Where'd they come from?"
    "Originally?" Charles asked with a smile. "Have you ever heard of
El Chupacabra
?"
    John shook his head.
    "Literally translated,
El Chupacabra
means 'the goatsucker.' For most people, these creatures exist only in legend, like Bigfoot. But they are very real. They survive on blood and typically feed off of livestock. However, they do, on occasion, attack and kill a human—when that happens, the venom they inject into the body while feeding turns the corpse into a vampire."
    Jessica watched the detective's face as Charles spoke. A confused look came to his eyes. Knowing what was to come, she knew that confusion was about to get worse.
    "There are two types of vampires—Primes and Progeny. When a chupacabra kills a human, the vampire that rises up is a Prime. When a Prime kills a human, the vampire that results is a Progeny.
    "The Primes, having received the pure chupacabra venom, are more completely converted into the living dead; they retain their human intelligence. Their Progeny, on the other hand, get only diluted chupacabra venom and so their conversion is 'flawed,' for lack of a better term. They retain their intelligence for only a short while and then it deteriorates. In the end, all that's left is a primitive bloodsucking creature obsessed with finding its next meal."
    "Miles Van Home was a Progeny," Dirk added.
    "Miles Van Home was a vampire?" The detective sounded shocked, and Jess wondered who they were talking about.
    "Not at first," Mac hurried to explain. "But there at the end, Patterson—the Prime who was responsible for all those attacks on Bethany ?—killed Miles and turned him into a vampire." Jessica saw Mac rum and look specifically at Dirk. "That's why Miles Van Home had to die. It was just a matter of time before he started killing."
    There was some unspoken exchange taking place between Mac and Dirk that Jessica couldn't figure out, but before she could wonder any more about it, John spoke up.
    "Who the hell is Patterson? How many vampires are there?"
    Jess saw Mac and Dirk exchange looks and could practically hear their thoughts, debating how much to admit. "Patterson was behind the attacks on Bethany last month, but don't worry—he's dead now.