by Amy Sumida
Kent kneels, taking my hands in his as Ash answers me. “Yeah, sweetie. He’s the one we took out. He was raving like a lunatic.”
My eyes meet Kent’s, and I relax at the sincere concern in them.
“Did you know him?” he asks. I nod, and he grimaces. “He’s dead now, Guine. You’re safe.”
“Thank, God!” I blurt out. The corner of his mouth turns up in a smile, and I impulsively pull him into a hug. “Lyle always made me nervous. The mistress kept him around as a lover, but he was freaking creepy. Lately, he’d been worse.” Shivering, I recall my most recent encounter with him. I don’t want to remember the way his hands felt on me, and I force the memory to the back of my mind. Dropping my eyes to stare at the vial of black blood, I frown. “I guess now I know why.”
Kent picks up on my mood, and thankfully, lets it go. Then he straightens with alertness. “Wait. Do you mean the vamps that kept you are the same ones this Lyle worked for?”
A million thoughts race across his face, and I nod again, then realize those on the phone won’t see the movement and say out loud, “Yes.”
Genji swears in the background, and Ashton’s voice comes through the phone. “He ranted about a mistress and how he was going to get magic pussy for finding y—“ Ash cuts off and clears his throat. Kent glances away, the tips of his ears turning pink with embarrassment.
“Don’t worry about it.” I say dismissively. “Lyle’s the dumbest creature I’ve ever met, and I know what he called sex with the Mistress. He said it all the time.”
Relief washes over Kent, eliminating the tiny creases in his forehead, and I inwardly laugh. Who’d have ever thought Lyle’s disgusting habits would be the reason the tension would leave the room? Kent keeps hold of my hand while thanking Ashton and Genji, and ends the call.
He pulls me up beside him to explain the machines and what kind of tests he wants to run. I tell him what I know about the Black Plague, and talking about it, I realize my old Mistress must be infected as well.
“She’s crazy, sure,” I mutter. “But I didn’t notice the symptoms on her like I should have. Either she’s really good at hiding it, or it’s a recent affliction.”
I continue to mull over it as I help Kent prepare slides. The repetitive action is meditative, and I don’t pay close enough attention, accidentally cutting myself on one.
“Crap,” I cry out, dropping the offending piece of glass on the work surface. Despite the gloves, blood flows freely from the wound, and I hold it over the table to minimize the mess.
“Oh, no!” Kent rips off his lab coat and wads it against my hand. “Will this heal as quickly as before?”
I smile as his inquisitive nature shines through even the strangest moments. I peel the ruined garment away and pull off my glove. Sure enough, the blood has already stopped flowing. and the cut is scabbing over.
“That’s incredible.” He takes a blank slide and smears it with my blood in an automatic gesture. “Can I look at it under magnification?”
I shrug. “I don’t see why not. Genji already took a sample to send for tests.”
As I move to clean up my mess, I see something that doesn’t make sense. I reach blindly over and grab his wrist.
“Kent,” I whisper.
He turns his head away from my sample and catches me staring at the mess on the table. “Don’t worry about that right now, we’ll get it later.”
I shake my head, and with a trembling hand, pick up the slide that cut me. His eyes narrow as he studies the sliver of glass grasped between my unsteady fingertips. He sucks in a hissing breath when he realizes what he’s seeing.
The black smear on the sample has a small streak of my own bright crimson blood touching it along the edge. As we watch, the black slowly lightens to dark maroon, and then to a light plum. It continues to change in hue until it’s only a shade or two darker than my own.
“But there isn’t a cure,” I croak.
“That you know about,” he corrects darkly.
Kent pulls out his phone and types a quick message. While we wait, he does something near the wall. Soon Genji and Phoenix rush into the room and crowd around the table with us.
“Let’s do this again, Violet, but more controlled.” Kent uses his sweet nickname for me and hands me a finger-stick and pipette. I recognize the tools from when I got to clean the infirmary on rotation.
I quickly prick my thumb and draw the blood. He prepares a new slide with the black ichor from Lyle, and places it under a microscope with a camera.
The image projects onto the wall, and carefully, Kent adds a drop of my blood. We watch in fascination as it changes in color.
“Try it with some of mine,” Genji suggests.
We do, but with drastically different results. His blood changes color until it becomes black with infection, but then rapidly lightens to the previously unaffected state.
“Well, that’s interesting, but not entirely unexpected, given what we know of the disease,” Kent remarks. “Let’s try it with each of our blood and see if the results change.”
With his and Phoenix’s samples, nothing happens.
“Something in Kitten’s blood fights the disease,” Genji ponders. “Can we look at it again?”
Kent puts the first slide back up and it’s darker than before. I’m not the only one who notices, and Phoenix swears, running the video back. He puts the two images up side by side.
“There’s a definite reaction, but it’s temporary.” Kent takes my hand and examines the cut. “I wonder if the same properties in your blood make you heal rapidly, or if it’s the blackthorn. Tell me, Guine, do you always heal this fast?”
I shake my head, but don’t want to explain the specifics in detail. There are memories I’d like to forget. “My veins don’t close as quickly as my flesh.” Phoenix’s eyes well with sadness, but he doesn’t say anything. “Bites don’t heal nearly as fast either. It would’ve been helpful if they did.”
Genji shakes his head and kisses the cut without a thought for whether or not it’s hygienic. “I’m sorry you have to know that, Kitten.”
We continue to hypothesize, but eventually everyone needs to get back to their tasks and I’m left alone once more with Kent.
I return to cleaning, and he picks up a rag, joining me.
“How did you all come to be a team?” I ask.
It only seems fair that I learn a little bit more about them if I’m going to be his lab rat.
His eyes plunge into a dark and stormy green, and he glances away from me. “They brought me into the Hunters around the same time as Genji. We were both placed with Auntie May and Ashton, and not too long after, we found Nix. Hawk joined us within six months, and a couple years later, I got to go with a council member to Ireland on a mission and came back with Declan in tow.”
Wow. What a way to say nothing!
“What happened to your family?” I slap my hand over my mouth in horror. I didn’t mean to actually ask him!
Maybe Phoenix can install a filter!
Kent shakes his head, and I let the matter drop. I open my mouth to ask another question when his phone buzzes. He answers it, and after a few words, hangs up and hauls me to my feet.
“The rest will have to wait. Ash needs our help, if you’re up for it. He went back out to map the woods around where you were found, but he’s hit a dead end. If you can recognize anything in the area, it’ll help us pinpoint where the missing girls might be kept. Once we do that, we can put surveillance on the Old Ones who kept you enslaved. If this works, Guine, we may be able to take them down.”
I really like the sound of that. “Let’s give it a try.”
Kent takes me upstairs to clean up and change, and I put on the other training outfit Phoenix left for me. As we leave, I pause in the living room and grab the belt of daggers Kent gave me during training from the cabinet.
He nods in approval.
Kent takes a set of keys off of a hook just inside the door and grins while
spinning them around one finger. “Want to learn to drive?”
Chapter Nine
It takes about an hour to reach Ash, the last fifteen minutes of which we do on foot. We leave the SUV when the trees get dense. While Kent concentrates on an electronic map on his phone, I stay quiet. I don’t want to distract him and get us lost. Steps silent, I keep my mouth shut and take the time to enjoy being outdoors.
How did he get this far out so quickly after we talked on the phone? Our experiments must have taken longer than I realized at the time.
Fifteen minutes later, as we near our destination, a twig snaps behind me.
I whirl around with my brand new bo staff as Ash appears out of the brush. Relaxing, I glare at him. He shakes his head and puts one finger to his lips, signaling silence, before he beckons us to follow.
The guys tread lightly, and I do my best to imitate their movement. Ash crouches beside a patch of foliage and wiggles his fingers at Kent.
“Do you think this is it?” Ash points to something I can’t see. “It’s concealed, but my gut tells me I’m right.”
Kent glances over and signs, “I’ll ask her. Give me a moment to backtrack to a place where we can talk.”
I roll my eyes and kneel beside them. “Or you can ask me now,” I sign, unsure how I know their language. Maybe I learned it in the compound?
Ash slaps his hand over his mouth to silence his laughter, and Kent’s eyes go wide.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Kent pulls me close, and I lean in to take a look “Is this yours? Does it look familiar?”
I gently reach in and extract the strip of bloodied cloth. Rubbing my fingers against the rough weave, I nod to him. This was most definitely torn from my old shirt. I turn to Ash and ask, “Where did you find me in relation to here?”
He indicates to the northeast, and I turn away, to face the opposite direction. I walk a couple of feet and find a small droplet of blood crusted against the base of a tree. When I point it out, Ash gives me a smile in return.
“I came from this direction,” I keep signing. If Ash wants us quiet, I’ll stay quiet. “I ran for less than an hour before I passed out. I was trying to get away quickly, so I probably didn’t veer much.”
Ash pulls a paper map out of his back pocket and lays it flat on an overturned trunk. “This is where we found you.” He takes a pen out of his pocket and marks a spot in red. Holding the pen in his mouth, he signs, “And this is our current location.” Another crimson ‘x’ goes down.
Brow furrowed in concentration, Kent leans over the map. “Supposing you had adrenaline fueling you, you probably made the first mile in around six minutes. The average human running speed is eight miles per hour, and I’m thinking with your blood loss, you probably only went for forty minutes before losing consciousness.” He smiles at me. “You’re far from average, so I bet you actually ran faster than the norm while your energy was up.” He takes the red pen from Ash and draws an oval covering a seven mile stretch before sticking it behind his ear. “This has to be the area of your origin.”
I stare at the map and pluck the pen from its perch. I cross off two spots close to water, and another one marked as higher in elevation. Momentarily, I wonder when I learned to read maps, but push it aside into the pile of things I don’t know about myself.
“None of these have the traits of the land I remember; we can eliminate them.” I turn to the guys and sign, “Are any of these locations dense forest with road access, and at least a mile away from housing in all directions?”
Kent pulls up his electronic map on his phone again, and Ash nudges my shoulder. “Good job, Sugar Plum.” He dances from side to side. “I knew it was a good idea to ask him to bring you!”
Kent leans over the map and makes a few more notations after stealing the pen back from me, and narrows it down to a five mile radius. At the sight, I finally experience the satisfaction of doing something helpful.
“We should go back and report this. Guine, I want you to return with Ash. I need to run ahead and make a call to the Council and relay this info.” He rushes in, folding me into a quick hug. As he steps away, he signs, “See you at the briefing tonight, Violet.”
Heat stains my cheeks as he takes off at a run.
Ash and I walk in a companionable silence for about ten minutes, enjoying the uninterrupted scenery and each other’s company.
Without warning, unease grips me. The hairs at the back of my neck prickle. Something’s wrong. Trying to maintain my calm, I reach inside of myself to tap into my heightened senses and discover what unsettled me.
Someone watches you.
I try not to give anything away, and slowly scan our surroundings as we continue to walk.
To your left, behind you.
I move closer to Ash until our bodies almost touch and boldly take his hand in mine, holding them together in front of us. Leaning into him to sign, I use our torsos to shield the communication from view. “We’re not alone.”
His hand tightens around mine. “Where?”
It floors me that he so easily takes my word for it. My heart warms, despite the danger we’re in, and a smile creeps onto my face. “Trailing us. Twenty paces to your left.”
He squeezes my hand one more time and nods. “You’re about to get some real-world training, Guine. Trust your instincts and follow my lead.”
His fingers countdown, and my adrenaline surges.
“3...”
“...2...”
“...1...”
“Now!” A crashing sound comes from the trees, and he races toward it.
I do as he suggested and follow my instincts.
Flank him.
I slip into the brush and unhook my staff. Like Phoenix’s, it snaps together silently. The sounds of a brawl come from ahead of me, spurring me forward.
“The Mistress will be happy when I bring her little bitch back with a bonus treat,” a familiar voice snarls.
My blood runs cold. I recognize Zane, a vampire who tormented me in my captivity. I slow to creep up behind one of the most disgusting creatures I’ve ever had the displeasure to meet.
Ash is magnificent. He would’ve had everything in hand on his own if Eric hadn’t joined in the melee. Something glimmers in the second vamp’s hand, and I remember clearly his weapon of choice.
A gun.
Time slows as I watch him take aim at the back of Ash’s head.
“No!” I scream.
I grab one of my daggers and hurl it at Eric while on the run, tackling Ashton to the ground at the same moment the firearm goes off. My bicep stings, and the satisfying screech of a vampire in serious pain cries out when my dagger finds its mark.
Jumping off of my friend, I spin around on Zane, the vamp who battled Ash.
Hatred glows from his eyes, and he licks his lips when he sees me. “Aw, the little human wants to play?”
In the background, Eric’s crying drops off to a strangled whimper, and I trust Ashton to take care of the foul beast.
I don’t answer Zane. Instead, I drop into a ready crouch and wait for him to make the first move. He doesn’t disappoint. He launches at me, and with a cold smile, I crack my staff against the side of his skull with enough force to knock him sideways.
“You bitch!” He dives for me with his hands outstretched.
I flip over his head and kick him hard in his backside. He stumbles and whirls around with a snarl.
Was I really held captive by him? My new senses make this child’s play. It may be easy to score a hit on him, but I still thoroughly enjoy every chance I get to strike him.
“It’s time I teach you how to respect your betters,” he spits.
I smack him on the other side of his head with my staff, and he falls to his left. “When you find them, let me know.”
He snarls and takes an angry swipe at me, missing by a wide margin thanks to my heightened reflexes. I crack him on the shoulder with my staff, and his arm goes limp at his side.
“Stop toying with him, Guine,” Ashton calls from the sideline. A quick glance shows he has Eric bound and gagged. It overjoys me that he decided to leave my dagger protruding from the vampire’s groin.
Zane takes advantage of my distraction and swings a tree branch for my head. I easily duck and roll away, while using my own weapon to take his legs out from under him. I tumble us over, and we land with my knee to his throat.
A mirthless laugh escapes me at the shock on his face. “What? Didn’t think this blood bag could defend herself?” I unsheathe another dagger and press it to his jugular. His eyes go wide and my voice turns hard. “You’ll find I’m not a victim anymore, Zane.”
Disgust crosses his face when I speak his name. He used to like to punish me when his food source dared to address him.
With a wicked smile, I move my dagger south. “Or maybe you’d like to have matching wounds with your friend? It’s the least you bastards deserve after what you did to me.” Fire surges through my veins, replacing the icy calm with rage that tints my vision red.
Zane squeaks, shaking his head, and Ash approaches from behind me.
His hand wraps around my wrist, and he gently pulls me away from one of my most cruel tormentors. “Not this way, Sugar Plum,” he croons. “Don’t become like them. Whatever their crimes, rest assured you’ll have justice.”
My vision wavers, clouded by furious tears, and his arms wrap around me as he whispers, “I’ve got you, Sugar Plum.”
Though his voice soothes me, his eyes reveal a rage that matches my own thirst for revenge. Trusting Ashton to take care Zane, I nod and stomp away. I hurl my dagger into the woods out of frustration and smile at the distant thump as it buries itself in the trunk of a far off tree. When a pained screech comes from Zane, I turn and raise an eyebrow at Ash. Zane now sports a similar wound to Eric.
“What?” Ash feigns innocence as he kicks the downed vampire. “I never said I wouldn’t stoop to this level, just that you shouldn’t.”