by HELEN HARDT
“It’s like…” He paced around the small room, avoiding Lucy’s equipment, his heels clicking on the cold tile floor. “It’s like I’m not myself. Like something has been transposed onto me. Something…not nice. Something almost…”
Evil?
I didn’t want to say it, but that was the feeling Logan evoked in me. He was not an evil man. But he was not as he seemed, either. He’d been able to resist River’s glamour to a certain extent, and then there was the time when I’d wanted to leave the hospital cafeteria, but he’d talked me into staying.
Chills coursed through me. Something wasn’t right. I needed to go.
I stood. “Thank you for the coffee, but I have an appointment I need to get to.”
“You’re not leaving yet.”
My eyes shot open. “I assure you I am. We’re off duty. I don’t have to follow your orders, Dr. Crown.”
“Sit down, Erin.”
Without knowing why, I sat. I didn’t want to, tried not to. But somehow my ass ended back down on the hard cafeteria chair.
“Thank you,” he said. “I won’t take much more of your time. You’re just…so easy to talk to.”
That conversation was still hazy in my mind. What had we talked about? And why couldn’t I recall it?
Logan’s great-grandfather was a vampire. That made him one-eighth vampire, which shouldn’t give him any special powers. I was one-quarter vampire, and I didn’t have any. Did I?
He seemed truly remorseful that he might have caused another creature harm, even if it was a monster.
Or had it become a monster because of his torture?
We had Lucy to attend to, but I’d come here to help solve this mystery. Logan was clearly part of the key. I just didn’t know how.
“What do you know about the properties of B positive blood, Logan?” I asked.
“Surely they taught you about blood types in nursing school, Erin.”
“Yeah. But you went to med school. Maybe you got more information.”
“There isn’t anything other than what you already know.” He spouted off a lecture I remembered from Biology 101.
Nope, nothing new there.
“But you’ve obviously noticed that the only blood type Bonneville stocks here is B positive. And that all the women here, except Emilia—”
“Emilia?”
“Dante’s sister. The vampire woman. She never told you her name?”
“I haven’t dealt much with her. Bonneville keeps her separated from the others.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why that surprised me, but it did. “Anyway, B positive blood has something to do with what she’s doing here. Do you have any ideas?”
“Vampires are almost always Rh negative,” he said.
“I know. Dante told me. But he’s positive. B positive.”
“So? There are exceptions, as I understand it.”
“I know. But it’s genetically impossible for him to have a positive Rh factor. Both of his parents were negative.”
Logan wrinkled his brow.
“Any ideas?” I urged.
He sighed. “I don’t know. Why would he even know his blood type?”
“Oh.” I nodded. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
Dante was held captive here. For ten years. I couldn’t say the words. Dante probably wouldn’t appreciate me telling his story to Logan, a person he didn’t particularly like. After all, they first met when I was about to take Logan into my bed to get my mind off Dante. Better to change the subject.
“Do you still hear voices, Logan?”
He dropped his mouth open. Yup, that was enough to take his mind off Dante’s blood type.
“What are you talking about?”
“You told me you heard voices. Why do you take lithium?”
He rose and checked Lucy’s vitals.
“Are you going to answer me?”
“This isn’t any of your business, Erin. My mental health is fine.”
“I’m sure it is. You’re being treated. Are you bipolar?”
His lips formed a thin line as he wrote some notes on Lucy’s chart. Then he turned back to me. “Maybe I should ask a question now. How did your boyfriend jump-start Lucy’s heart into a normal rhythm?”
“If I knew, I’d gladly tell you. See? I answered you. Now will you answer me?”
He sighed and sat back down. “Yes, I’m bipolar. Happy now? Keep it to yourself, please. How do you even know about the lithium?”
Good question, and one I didn’t want to answer. I’d been looking in his medical file for his blood type and had stumbled upon the medication by accident.
No. That was a lie. Of course I’d see any meds he was on if I got into his file. No use trying to make myself feel better.
“All right. Here’s the truth,” I said. “When you went missing, I checked the hospital files to see if you had a record. You did. I found an ER visit.”
“You could be fired for that, Erin.”
“I’m well aware of that, but I had my reasons.”
“What were they?”
“I wanted to find out your blood type.”
“Why would you— Oh.”
“Yeah. I wanted to know if you’re B positive.”
“And I am.”
I nodded. “You are.”
“You think she only brings people here who are B positive?”
“That was my hunch at the time.”
“Seems you might be right. Built-in blood donors for all these people.”
“True. Now…I answered your question honestly. Will you tell me about the voices you hear?”
“It’s under control,” he said succinctly.
“I’m sure it is. I’m just trying to figure out why you had such a strange response to River’s glamour. Dante’s father said he’d heard that schizophrenia could cause such a reaction to a glamour.”
“Sometimes diagnoses aren’t accurate. I’m not schizophrenic, Erin.”
“I’m not accusing—”
“Do you think I could have gotten through medical school and two residencies as a schizophrenic?”
“Many schizophrenic people live normal lives, Logan.”
“Normal lives as doctors?”
“Probably. I don’t know. Look, like I said, I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just trying to figure everything out. Why you’re here. Why you and not another doctor? Why you seemed to pull out of River’s glamour.”
“And why did River glamour me in the first place?”
“That I know. We wanted to find out where you were when you went missing and what you did while you were there. Whether it was connected to the missing women.”
“Clearly it was.” He sighed. “The voices are silent most of the time. The lithium controls my mood, and also seems to quiet the voices. I’m a doctor. I know what they are. I’m not delusion—”
“Erin?”
Lucy’s voice.
I turned to regard my friend.
And I gasped.
Chapter Five
Dante
I followed my father’s ghost to another steel door. It was unlocked. I raised my eyebrows.
“Locking isn’t necessary. No one can get through the shield.”
I looked down at the gold pin I’d attached to my shirt. “I guess we’ll see about that.” I opened the door.
My father swept in front of me and through the door.
I stepped through tentatively, almost expecting a jolt of electricity or some other punishment for what I was doing.
My father laughed. “It’s okay, Dante. You wouldn’t have been able to open the door against the shield.”
I nodded and entered. The hallway was dark and dank.
Yes. This I remembered.
“Only you can hear me,” my father said, “so I can speak freely. I’d advise you to speak in whispers.”
“Understood,” I whispered.
“Just follow me,” he said.
We walked through the narrow corridor to another hallway where several wooden doors stood.
Bile clawed at my throat.
I’d seen doors like this.
I’d been kept behind a door like this.
“It’s okay, son. I was here once too. Easy. You can do this.”
I nodded. Had my father gone through what I had? He’d clearly been tortured, but had he been forced to drink her blood? Been forced to give his own to her? Not that he’d ever told me. No. My father had been here for a different reason. One I didn’t yet know. He probably didn’t know either.
Had my sole purpose been to feed her?
And why had she taken my blood? What had it done for her?
As I followed my father quietly, these thoughts pattered in my mind.
Why?
Why?
Why?
I shivered. I was close to finding answers. Close to finding the truth.
Though I wanted that, it scared the hell out of me.
I knew now that I hadn’t killed my opponents in the arena. I hadn’t killed the humans sacrificed for my nourishment.
But what if I’d done something else just as horrid? Or worse?
My father cut those thoughts short, thank God, when we came to one of the wooden doors.
“Are they here?” I whispered.
He nodded.
I raised my hand to open the door, but left it suspended in midair.
“What are we doing?” I asked my father. “How do we get them out of here? We can free them, but what if she has the thugs gather them all up and imprison them again? We don’t have a plan.”
“Ah, but we do,” my father said.
“Mind letting me in on it?”
“You’re going to shield them and lead them out.”
“I’m going to— What the fuck?”
“You have my ashes, right?”
I nodded. I’d brought them with me. I didn’t know why, other than I wanted my father with me. Wanted his protection. Wanted some tangible part of him to hold on to.
“Good. You’ll brush each of their foreheads with the ash and then lead them out the way we got here. Bea assured me you would get through undetected.”
“Bea?”
“Apparently vampire ashes are more powerful than she led us to believe.”
“How many people are in there? What if the ashes I brought aren’t enough?”
“The ashes, along with your energy, will be enough.”
“Will they get through the shield?”
“The shield keeps people from getting in. It doesn’t keep people from escaping. You and I are proof of that.”
“But she let me—”
“That’s what she says. Maybe she did, and maybe she didn’t. But one thing I know for sure is that no one let me escape. I escaped on my own.”
“How do you know?”
He stayed silent for a few seconds.
“Dad?”
“Because I’ve seen my brother. He has paid the price for my escape.”
Chapter Six
Erin
“Logan! What’s happening to her?”
“She was fine a minute ago.” Logan rushed to Lucy. Her EKG was running amok.
“Erin?” she said again, her voice more like a growl.
“She’s changing,” I said. “Lucy, will you be able to understand us if you change?”
She nodded.
White fur sprouted on her cheeks and neck.
“Lucy, are you changing on purpose?”
She shook her head.
“Shit. I don’t know what to do. Logan?”
“You think I do? We didn’t exactly study werewolf physiology in med school.”
“Are you in any pain?” I asked Lucy.
She shook her head. Then she nodded. Then shook it again.
“Can you talk?”
Again, she shook her head.
“The change must happen from the inside out. Her vocal cords can’t produce speech anymore. We’ll take care of you, Luce. Okay?”
She nodded again and then cried out something between a whimper and a scream as her nose began to elongate.
Damn! She was finally conscious, and now we couldn’t talk to her. Why was this happening?
Dante had healed her, fixed the erratic rhythm of her heart. Could that be part of this? I had no idea, but it was the only working hypothesis I could think of.
“This might be a result of Dante’s healing,” I said to Logan.
I tried to close my ears to the pop of Lucy’s bones snapping and reforming as she howled. Definitely a howl this time. A sharp howl. She must be in pain. How could she not be?
Then again, was a caterpillar in pain as it morphed into a butterfly? No, but that happened over many days.
Lucy was changing before our eyes in a matter of minutes.
“What can we do for her?” I asked Logan.
“Nothing. Her heart rhythm is changing, but it could be a normal canine rhy—”
The EKG flatlined.
Panic welled within me, until Logan spoke.
“It’s okay. The electrodes popped off her chest.”
Her chest was now covered in white fur.
A wolf stood on the hospital bed where, just minutes earlier, my best friend had been resting peacefully.
“Lucy?”
She gave a nod.
“Are you in any pain?”
She turned her head to the left. She looked fine, so I figured that was her way of shaking her head no. She’d been badly beaten. Either the pain meds were still working or wolves had fewer nerve endings than humans.
“Did you change on purpose?”
Another head turn to the left. No.
“Okay. We’ll figure this out, Luce. The important thing is that you’re okay.”
The white fur on her face and body covered her bruising and lacerations, so indeed, she looked better than she had earlier.
“Remember, you’re still recovering, so don’t run off or anything,” I warned.
She nodded with a whimper.
“She still needs rest,” Logan said.
“I agree. Lucy, you need to lie down on the bed.”
She remained standing.
“I thought she said she could understand us,” Logan said.
“I think she can. She just has other stuff on her mind.”
Lucy gave another canine nod, looking downward.
“Do you want to show us something?”
Another nod.
“What?” Logan asked.
I scoffed. “She can’t talk, Logan. Geez.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Lucy jumped off the bed, walked to the door, and pawed at it.
“She wants to take us out of this room,” I said.
“She needs to be resting,” Logan said.
“I know, but what can we do? She says she isn’t in pain.”
“How do we even know what she says? I’ve seen dogs move their heads thousands of times.”
“She’s not a dog, Logan. She’s a sentient being. We need to see what she wants to show us.”
“She couldn’t do this as a human?” Logan asked.
“She said she didn’t shift on purpose. Weren’t you listening? Jeez!” I went to Lucy and stroked her soft head and then stopped abruptly. Was that okay? She wasn’t a dog. She was my best friend. Were you supposed to pet your best friend?
She ignored my petting and continued to paw at the door.
“All right, Luce.” I opened the door. “Show us.”
Chapter Seven
Dante
The door was locked with a double deadbolt. Not a problem. I grabbed the small screwdrivers out of my pack and went to work. In less than two minutes, I had unlocked both of them.
“That’s a great skill to have,” my father said.
“For a criminal.”
“You’re no criminal. You’re about to save the lives of the people behind this door. Get my ashes r
eady.”
I sighed as I pulled out the plastic bag containing my father’s remains.
“There will be enough,” he said. “There will always be enough.”
“How do I explain this to them? How do I make them understand?”
“They’ll be thrilled to get out of here,” he said. “Did you like being held against your will?”
He had a good point. Slowly, I pushed the door open.
Abe Lincoln sat in one corner of the dark room. Only three others were in the room. Another man and two women, one who looked like she could still be in her teens. They all wore old and dingy clothes.
If I had to guess, I’d say they were all homeless, picked up on the streets by the Claiborne thugs.
“Abe, you okay?” I asked.
He squinted at the dim light streaming in from the hallway. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me. Dante. Erin’s boyfriend.”
“There were more here earlier,” my father said gravely. “We were too late for them.”
“Do you know where they took the others?” Abe asked.
“I’m sorry. I don’t. We need to get you out of here.” I opened the bag of ashes and dusted some between my fingers. Then I touched my fingers to Abe’s forehead.
“What’s that?”
“You don’t want to know. Just know that it will protect you. Bea says so.”
He nodded. “You’ll get my cooperation. I can’t be sure about the others. The young one only stopped screaming about a half hour ago. Her voice is too hoarse now.”
I turned to them. “I’m here to help. You’re getting out of here.”
The man stood. “Let’s go, then.”
I walked to him and reached toward his forehead.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Protecting you.”
“You some kind of priest or something? I don’t believe in all that laying hands bullshit.”
Do you believe in getting out of here before you’re vampire food? I held back the words. “Just do as I say, and you’ll get out of here. Resist me, and you won’t.”
“Who the hell are you? Why should I go anywhere with you?”
So much for holding back words. “I’m getting you out of here. If you stay, you’ll die. Is that good enough for you?”