From the moment he walked through the door until now, Blade had remained completely silent, not making a single move.
But just as Phil Coulson was about to lead his people out, the vampire hunter finally stirred.
He swept right past Coulson, completely ignoring Walter Hermann.
With his gaze locked forward, he walked straight toward Locke.
Jack raised his thick brows and immediately stepped in front of Locke.
Brown did the same.
The two men stood like a pair of hills, one large and one small, blocking the fast-approaching Blade.
“Move.”
“Boss.”
“Locke…”
“It’s fine.”
Locke, hands casually slipped into his pockets, smiled and gestured for Jack and Brown to let Blade through.
Jack and Brown exchanged a look, then warily eyed the vampire hunter before stepping aside.
Ignoring their warning glares, Blade walked straight up to Locke.
Then…
Locke saw a bare dark hand, stripped of its black leather glove, extended toward him.
At that moment, Blade finally spoke.
“Hello.”
“…”
Locke glanced at the dark hand, keeping his own hands firmly in his pockets as he stared at the vampire hunter who wanted to shake his hand.
Over by the door, the SHIELD agent Hawkeye Barton finally reacted to the scene.
“Eric—”
“Shh.”
Coulson cut Barton off.
Barton went silent instantly.
Black Widow, with her striking fiery red hair, watched the scene with curious, silent interest.
Locke looked at the right hand extended toward him, having absolutely no intention of pulling his own hands out of his pockets.
He knew Blade must have noticed something.
After all…
This guy was a half-breed himself.
But how did he start suspecting Locke?
Was it by smell?
If so, why hadn’t Locke detected any scent of “his own kind” on Blade?
Was his sample size of data just too small?
Locke wondered silently.
Right then, seeing that his boss had no intention of shaking hands, Jack took the initiative.
He reached out and grabbed Blade’s right hand.
“Our boss isn’t in the habit of shaking hands.
Take care, we won’t see you out.”
Who did this guy think he was, trying to shake hands with his boss?
Didn’t he know their boss absolutely detested this sk—
“Shit!”
Before Jack could even finish the thought, an icy, bone-chilling cold pierced through his right hand.
“Damn it, did you just pull your hand out of a freezer?”
Blade ignored Jack’s cursing.
He didn’t say a word, keeping his eyes on Locke.
His thick, sausage-like lips parted into a grin, and without another word, he turned and headed toward the elevators.
Coulson, Hawkeye, and Natasha exchanged glances before quickly turning to catch up with the fast-walking Blade.
Soon, the four SHIELD agents, who had arrived in such a hurry, departed just as quickly as they stepped into the elevator.
Once inside, Hawkeye Barton looked at Blade, who was far better at acting cool with his style and tone than Barton himself.
Just as Hawkeye was about to ask something, Coulson muttered in a low voice, “Wait until we’re outside.”
Hawkeye Barton shut his mouth again.
A moment later, the four of them emerged from the Sentinel Secret Service building and climbed into their black SUV.
The engine started.
Natasha drove, with Barton in the passenger seat.
Sitting in the back next to Blade, Coulson turned to look back at the receding Sentinel Secret Service building, then turned to the vampire hunter.
“Eric, was there something off about that guy?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean?” Blade sat in the back seat with his hands placed neatly on his knees like a model student.
After a brief pause, he shook his head.
“I suspect he’s a vampire, but I can’t be sure.”
“What?” Sitting in the passenger seat with his ears perked, Hawkeye Barton whipped his head around to stare at the back seat.
“He’s a vampire?”
Natasha, focused on driving, arched her elegant eyebrows and glanced at the rearview mirror.
Blade looked at the leaning Hawkeye and shook his head again.
“I can’t be sure, but he gives off a very similar feeling.
However, he doesn’t have the stench, and…
he’s very handsome.”
Indeed.
Vampires were incredibly smelly.
The older a vampire was, the worse they reeked.
Of course, ordinary humans couldn’t smell it, but Blade could.
That was precisely why Blade couldn’t be certain.
As for why being handsome was a factor?
The answer was simple.
Male vampires were naturally hideous.
If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have had to kidnap human beauties and drag them back to their castles during the Middle Ages.
If you were actually handsome, women would follow you willingly.
But the most important point of all…
It was currently daytime.
In all his years of hunting since his debut, Blade had never seen a single vampire capable of walking in daylight, with the sole exception of a half-breed like himself.
So…
Could that guy be a half-breed too?
Blade, who secretly considered himself a handsome man, recalled the playful, mocking expression he had seen on Locke’s face when he extended his hand, and his suspicion grew.
A half-breed?
Coulson pondered for a moment, then spoke to Hawkeye Barton, who was still looking back at them.
“What was that sentinel’s name?”
Hawkeye Barton shook his head.
“I didn’t catch it.”
Natasha, eyes on the road, spoke up.
“Locke.
Locke Underwood.”
Barton blinked, looking at Natasha.
“How did you know?”
“…That’s what was written on his desk nameplate,” Natasha replied flatly, darting a glance at Barton.
Hawkeye Barton nodded in understanding.
“Locke Underwood.”
Hearing the surname, Coulson felt a strange sense of familiarity.
As he racked his brain, he said, “Pull up his file and let’s take a look.”
Natasha nodded.
Hawkeye Barton frowned.
“Phil, what do we do now?
Do you think he’s really a vampire, or a vampire mutant?”
Coulson frowned.
“Lindsay is our informant.
He is a vampire, not a mutant.
That much is certain.”
“And if they refuse to hand him over, what’s our move?”
“I don’t know.”
Coulson shook his head, feeling a headache coming on.
“If it were any other agency, we could pull strings to get the case back.
But the Sentinel Secret Service…”
The Sentinel Secret Service was also designed to deal with extraordinary entities, and they possessed the legal jurisdiction to do so.
Thus, as long as the Sentinel Secret Service insisted that Lindsay was a mutant resembling a vampire, SHIELD had absolutely no way of forcing them to hand over the case.
And it was highly likely that the Sentinel Secret Service would never let it go.
“Forget it, we’ll deal with that later.”
Deciding to pass the headache up to his superiors, Coulson shifted the topic and looked at Blade.
“When Lindsay met with you the day before yesterday, did he share any information?”
Blade spoke in a deep voice.
“He said he had discovered something huge and wanted to tell me.
But he never showed up that day.
Yesterday, I got his address from you to check on him, but the Sentinel Secret Service was already on the scene.”
Coulson’s brow furrowed.
“Something huge?
What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“…”