by Amy Patrick
I lifted my head to look at his face. “You think Imogen is behind it? You think she sent someone else here to kill Sadie?”
“Maybe,” he said. “She might have suspected—and rightly so—that my plans had changed. But Sadie had a lot of enemies. Her sister was only one of them. The anti-vamp extremists are growing more and more aggressive, and they aren’t limited to one country. President Parker didn’t help things, though. He’s high on my list of likely suspects.”
“You think he had her assassinated?” Larkin asked.
“I don’t know if he was directly involved or whether he inspired it, and it was just some nutjob who carried it out in response to all the fire-and-brimstone rhetoric. Either way, I’m betting that arson investigator’s report will turn up some accelerants. A ‘faulty wood stove’ right on the heels of a terrorist bombing is just too coincidental.”
“I’m worried about you now,” I told Larkin. “I don’t think you’re safe here. If someone followed Sadie, they probably know this lab is connected to her work.”
She grimaced. “I’ve thought about that. I even advised the other researchers and staff who use this building to take a few days off just in case. But I hated to stop when we’re so close. This is the culmination of my life’s work—it’s my masterpiece. And the Canadian government promised us a lot of willing vampire volunteers to test the formula when it was ready. I was just about to get the trials started.”
“How much time would you need for that?” Reece asked.
“A few weeks maybe? I mean, it would probably take only days to work, but I’d need to replicate the results in lots of vampires before it could be offered to the general public as a cure.”
Glancing over at Reece, I saw my grim thoughts mirrored in his face. “We don’t have weeks,” I told Larkin.
Imogen had made it clear if the two of us didn’t return—with haste—my friends Kelly and Heather would pay the price. They might be imprisoned or maybe even killed. Shane would definitely die.
If Sadie were here, she could have helped us think of a way around it. She might have even agreed to be part of our coup and replace Imogen as the queen of the Crimson Court.
As things stood, there was no other choice. We had to go back.
After a moment Reece said, “I know of a place with a large supply of test subjects. How soon could you be ready to travel?”
“The formula is stable enough to move now—all it needs is a cooler with some ice packs—but I’d have to leave all my equipment. It’s too much to transport on short notice,” Larkin said.
“Pack up what you can and be ready to leave at first dark tomorrow night. Just tell us what to do, and we’ll help you. Then I think all of us should get some sleep. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us.”
22
Good News and Bad News
Reece
Larkin went home to pack her personal belongings and gave us her address so we could pick her up at nightfall.
Abbi and I spent the daylight hours in a hotel. This time, we slept.
On the way to Larkin’s cottage that night, Abbi seemed consumed by her thoughts.
“You doing okay over there?” I asked. “Thinking about Sadie?”
“Actually, I was just thinking about Imogen. Do you really think she’s going to be okay with us bringing a vampire ‘cure’ to the Bastion? I know her, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t see vampirism as something to be cured. She loves being a vampire. If it wouldn’t mean the end of our food supply, she’d be happy for vampires to take over the entire world and let humans go extinct.”
“I think you’re absolutely right on that last part. As far as whether Imogen will approve of the cure or not, it doesn’t really matter. Whether she loves it or hates it, she’s going to want it—in her possession. And you can bet she already knows about it. So we have no choice. We have to take it to her. Or else.”
“Larkin will be heartbroken if Imogen destroys the formula she’s worked so hard on. She called it her masterpiece.”
“I don’t see that we have any choice—not if you want Kelly, Heather, and Shane to keep their respective heads on their respective shoulders.”
“Point taken. Larkin can just recreate the formula... maybe. Actually I don’t know that much about science, so I’m not sure if that’s even possible.”
“We’ll have to take the chance.”
When we arrived at Larkin’s address, it was immediately obvious something was wrong. Her front door stood wide open, and the glass in it was broken.
“Oh my God,” Abbi wheezed.
We both got out of the car and ran for the cottage, calling Larkin’s name. Inside we found more glass on the floor and other signs of a struggle.
“Stay right behind me,” I said to Abbi, extending an arm to prevent her from moving past me and farther into the house.
Drawing my weapon, I moved from room to room, alert and ready in case the intruder—or intruders—were still here.
There was no one, and it was a good thing because when we reached the kitchen I wouldn’t have been able to keep Abbi behind me no matter what. Larkin was lying on the floor bleeding from a head wound.
“She’s been shot,” I said.
Both of us knelt at her side.
“Larkin. Larkin, can you hear me?” Abbi said. Tears streamed down her face at the sight of her friend’s grave wound.
Larkin wasn’t dead. I could hear her heartbeat. It was weak but there.
I pushed up my sleeve, preparing to rip my wrist open and offer Larkin my blood, but Abbi stopped me.
“No. Let me.”
She bit her own wrist and placed it at Larkin’s mouth. Her friend drank, feebly at first then with increasing energy and enthusiasm.
After a minute, I said, “That’s enough. You’ll weaken yourself.”
Abbi shot me an annoyed look. “I don’t care about that. She needs it.”
Grabbing her arm, I pulled it away from Larkin’s lips. “I care. She’s had enough. Her pulse is strong now. She’s going to be okay.”
Sure enough, within minutes, the bullet pushed its way to the surface of her skull and fell to the floor. A few minutes later Larkin was fully conscious and sitting up.
“Did you get him?”
“No. Did you see who did this?” I asked. “Human or vampire?”
“I’m not... sure. I heard your car stop outside. I was getting ready to take some last-minute stuff out of the fridge. I turned around, and someone was behind me. Male, I’m pretty sure. He shot me before I could get a good look at him.”
As if just now thinking of it, she lifted a hand to her forehead and probed the healed wound. “You gave me blood?”
She looked from one to the other of us.
“Abbi did,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Good. A little woozy still but a lot better than I should be considering I was just shot at point-blank range. Thank you.”
Abbi looked embarrassed. “At least this alleged ‘queensblood’ of mine is good for something.”
Now that Larkin was out of danger and thinking clearly, it was time to figure out what was going on.
“Do you think it was an assassination attempt?” I asked, looking around again for signs the cottage had been ransacked.
Larkin shook her head. “I don’t know why anyone would want to kill me. It’s not like I’m some kind of leader or a famous figure like Sadie. I’m a science nerd—I practically live in the lab.”
“It had to be about the cure then. How many people know about it?”
She shrugged. “A handful? It wasn’t a secret, but we hadn’t published anything about it yet either. We were waiting on the clinical trials so we’d know if it actually worked or not before we contacted the medical journals. Everyone at the lab knew about it, but outside of that, there were probably only a few people, like their significant others.”
“Do you have a boyfriend you might have told?” Abbi asked.
“No. No
one since Curtis, and I haven’t talked to him in a while. He has a new girlfriend.”
“I know,” Abbi said. “I saw him in San Francisco. He helped us.”
“We really do have a lot of catching up to do,” Larkin remarked.
“Well, we’ll have plenty of time to do it. It’s a twelve-hour drive to Northwestern Virginia. You feel okay to travel? Where are your bags?” Abbi asked.
She looked around, obviously planning to carry Larkin’s things to the car for her. There were no suitcases or even an overnight bag near the front door or anywhere else I could see.
“Are they in your room?” Abbi asked, standing and turning toward the doorway to the bedroom.
“No. I set them in the foyer so I’d be ready to walk out the door when you arrived. You don’t see them?”
Larkin joined me as I walked through the entire cottage, checking to see if she might have placed them somewhere different from where she remembered. There were no packed bags in sight. The house was not ransacked, and she said nothing else seemed to be missing.
“The intruder must have taken them. Wait...” She jogged back into the kitchen and looked around.
“I had a cooler on the island here. I’d just put some blood bags in it for the trip. It’s gone, too.”
“Your intruder must have come here looking for the cure. You did bring it home from the lab last night, right?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I bet he assumed it was in one of your bags—or the cooler,” Abbi said. “So he grabbed them all and ran when he heard us coming.”
Larkin smiled. “Well the bad news is that scumbag made off with my Doc Martens and my favorite pair of jeans. The good news is I hadn’t packed the formula yet. I was waiting till the last minute to make sure it stayed cold enough.”
She opened the refrigerator door and squatted to reach into one of the drawers at the bottom. It was filled with blood bags. Moving them, she grasped something and stood up, turning around with a smile. In her hand were three capped hypodermic needles.
“Ta da!”
“Great. Now I have a little good-news-bad-news scenario for you,” Abbi said. “Which do you want first?”
“The good news?” Larkin said.
Abbi grinned. “I have some clothes in my suitcase you can wear. I’m pretty sure they’ll fit.”
“And the bad news?”
“They’re your clothes—the ones from Fangers—and they’re really, really slutty.”
23
You Promised Me
Abbi
Larkin and I spent the drive reminiscing about Sadie, and Reece and I tried to prepare her for the Bastion, which she’d never visited.
When we arrived at the caverns, there was something... off. I felt it immediately.
First, the smell of human blood hung in the atmosphere like a heavy fog. And there had been a change in the mood of the place. It had never exactly been “the happiest place on earth,” but tonight there was a sinister feeling in the air, a dark, charging energy.
Which was odd considering we hadn’t seen anyone yet, apart from the guard at the entrance. He’d waved us through, and Larkin and I had followed Reece down the staircases to the cavern floor. Now we stood surveying the abandoned space.
“Where is everyone?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“I’m not sure. At this time of night, the place should be bustling,” Reece said.
A uniformed figure entered the torch-lit chamber from the far end, striding toward us. As he approached, he pushed back the hood of his black Bloodbound cloak, revealing a head of unmistakable long blond hair.
It was Kannon. He broke into a wide grin. “You’re back, brother. And I hear your mission was a huge success.”
He and Reece embraced in a quick man-hug then Kannon stepped back and looked at me.
“Good to see you, too, squirt. Who’s your...” His booming voice died off into a whisper as his eyes locked with Larkin’s. “... friend?”
Kannon stared at her like a man lost in a desert who’d stumbled upon an oasis. Or maybe someone seeing a mirage of an oasis because he stared at her as if she wasn’t real. Did they know each other?
Apparently not because she let out a nervous sounding giggle and extended a hand to him. “I’m Larkin Spurling, a friend of Abbi’s from California. It’s nice to meet you.”
Still looking like he was in a daze, Kannon took her hand and shook it. And kept shaking it.
“Kannon,” he mumbled. “Friend of Reece. And Abbi’s. You’ve... never been here before, have you?”
She looked up and around at the calcite formations on the ceilings and walls surrounding us. “No. First time. It lives up to the hype—and that’s based on just this first chamber. I hear the caverns cover sixty-four acres?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be happy to give you the grand tour later if you’d like.”
She beamed. “I’d love that. I guess I should meet your leader first though. Imogen? I have something to show her.”
At this his awed expression abruptly changed, as if he’d been yanked out of a pleasant dream by the annoying beep of an alarm clock.
“Yeah... about that...” Kannon turned to Reece. “There’s a sort of... party going on in the Grand Dome.”
He didn’t look thrilled about it.
“A party?” I asked. Was it time for another Inception Ball?
Kannon grimaced and nodded. “Imogen’s celebrating.”
I looked from his face to Reece’s pained expression. What was I not getting? “Celebrating what?”
Reece answered for him. “Sadie’s death. I called it in before we left Sudbury.”
The bear trap was back, gouging my heart again with its steel jaws. “Imogen is celebrating Sadie’s murder by throwing a party?”
She had no feeling at all for her sister. She truly was a monster. I wanted to turn around and leave right then, but of course I couldn’t do that. I had to get Shane out of here—and ensure that this time Reece would be coming with me.
“It’s more like a feast, actually,” Kannon clarified. His brow furrowed, and he swallowed hard, as if struggling to keep down a surge of bile. “Imogen sent the Bloodbound out last night to gather some... provisions.”
We were all quiet for a minute as the implications of his words sank in.
“Do you mean humans?” Larkin asked, apparently just now getting it. “She had a bunch of humans brought here? For their blood?”
Kannon nodded grimly. “Everyone’s there—the whole population of the Bastion—at Imogen’s orders. Things are... I don’t even know what to say. Things have kinda gone off the rails in the past couple of days.”
He rubbed his forehead and let out a tired-sounding breath before turning to Larkin. “If you’re used to Sadie Aldritch’s way of doing things, you might want to just go directly to the guest chambers. You probably won’t like what you see at the feast.”
That’s when it hit me. “Kannon... where’s Shane? Is he still in the medical clinic?”
Kannon looked down at me with sad eyes. “Sorry squirt. I know you had a soft spot for him, but, you know, he’s human, and we had orders—”
“Where is he?” I demanded.
“He’s in the Grand Dome. I’m sorry, Abbi. I did try—”
I didn’t stick around to hear the rest of his excuse. If he’d let my friend—who’d saved my life—become a human hors d’oeuvre, there wasn’t one good enough. I’d never speak to Kannon again.
Taking off at a full sprint, I weaved through the interconnected caverns toward the Grand Dome. The artfully lit stalactites and stalagmites all resembled teeth and jagged knives to me as I passed beneath them in a life-and-death race toward the Bastion’s largest community gathering space.
At least I hoped there was a life left to save.
Sweet, kind Shane. How could I have brought him here?
A blur of motion beside me drew my eye. Reece had caught up to me and was running at my side.
“Let me handle it,” he said between breaths. “When we get there, let me do the talking.”
“You promised me, Reece. You promised me he’d be okay here.”
“I know. We don’t know anything yet. Let’s just wait and see the situation before you assume the worst.”
We reached the Grand Dome and threw open its heavy double doors.
What I saw inside was far, far worse than anything I ever could have imagined.
24
A Choice to Make
Reece
Red. Everywhere I looked, the Grand Dome’s signature white flowstone was stained dark red.
Blood covered the floor, dripped from the walls, and splatters decorated the room’s ten-story-tall stone columns, darkening their usual rose-colored tone.
The feast must not have been going on for long because many of the human “guests” were still alive. Screams of terror echoed through the room.
They were punctuated with laughter from some of the vampires who watched their partially drained victims try to escape only to slip and fall in pools of their own blood.
To their credit, many of the vampires in attendance were not participating in the massacre. They stood off to the sides looking troubled, horrified in some cases. A few even cried. Clearly they weren’t there of their own will but at Imogen’s command.
Reaching for Abbi, I drew her against me, attempting to shield her eyes and turn her away from the nightmarish sight.
Imogen had gone mad. That was the only explanation for this. Now that Sadie was dead, there was no one to challenge her.
No one but Abbi.
I had to get her out of here.
Surveying the macabre scene in front of us, I knew there was no way Abbi would ever agree to be Imogen’s heir now—which meant Imogen would see her as nothing but a threat. Which, in turn, meant she’d have no further interest in keeping Abbi alive.