Finally, I was able to say, “God, if you are there, I think you’re a cowardly son of a bitch and you’ll never have my devotion. Not that I imagine you care. Know I’m doing this for humanity, and certainly not for you.”
Anger mingled with grief and an overriding sense of unreality. Slowly, I pushed myself to my feet, opened my bedroom door, and sneaked out of my room. Dizzy and struggling for breath, I made my way as quietly as possible down the hall to Jesse’s room. Carefully, I removed a blade from its sheath. Opening the door, I could hear his steady breathing. A muted wall-mounted TV was on, throwing flickering light against the darkness. He lay on top of the covers, flat on his back and dressed only in jeans.
Bile threatened to rise. It’s not my Jesse, I told myself. Not really. Tears continued a steady trek down my face, and I swiped at them angrily. It’s not Jesse.
Approaching the bed, I brought the knife up and plunged it toward his heart. At the last moment, his eyes flew open and terror filled me. He grabbed my arm, twisted it, and yanked me over onto the bed beside him. Wresting the weapon from my fingers, he glared down at me with an expression of utter wrath. Through clenched teeth he said, “Don’t test me, Glory. I’d rather see you dead than lose.”
CHAPTER TEN
† † †
Zane woke up to the intoxicatingly sweet smell of human blood. He was on the floor of Kate’s apartment, cowboy hat over his face to block out the light, and a warm body was using his chest as a pillow. The drunken party of the night before came back in flashes of disjointed memories.
The blood was close, and the enticing scent caused his heart to gallop. Slowly, he lifted up his hat and looked down at Erica’s head on his chest. Dead to the world, long disheveled hair covered much of her face. It was her hand, wrapped in a white bandage, which the monster wanted. Badly. Fresh blood leaked from underneath the dressing and awakened the wild beast in him. “Ah, hell,” he whispered. “I hate when this happens.”
He recalled she had cut her hand on a broken bottle, Kate had cleaned the wound and bound it, and no one had given the tightly controlled blood lust in him a second thought. The blood hadn’t bothered him much while intoxicated because the liquor deadened his senses. Now he craved his next drink, and it wasn’t whiskey that he wanted. He struggled to steady his sudden shakes. “Damn.”
Erica’s wounded hand lay just a few inches below his chin. It didn’t help his growing blood lust to smell a hint of Glory’s blood in Erica’s.
He didn’t dare move. His stomach clenched, every cell in his body came alive with desire, his mouth salivated. Sweat covered him. The monster hovered, and he pushed back.
When Hope had been dying—bleeding out onto the ground—she insisted he drink her blood. He too was dying because he had hardly been feeding, and somehow she knew that. Her final act of love saved his life. After that, with the encouragement of the Goth Girls, he ramped up the hunting and bleeding of wild animals. The Goth Girls drank human blood, donated to them from their myriad of adoring friends. He, however, never partook of their stash. The only time he had ever consented to human blood was while recovering from severe injury. In the hospital, he took transfusions. Beneath the nursing ministrations and coercion of worried Goth Girls, he drank. But he had otherwise managed to keep his monster at bay. He may have lost his soul, but he was determined not to lose his honor.
Now his body screamed for fresh, human blood rich with life force. The animals he drank were a poor substitute.
With a trembling hand, he wiped the sweat from his face.
“You really don’t think you can fight me forever, do you?” the inner beast once again taunted.
“I can fight you now.”
“Can you?”
“Always have. Always will. One battle at a time.”
“You’re an arrogant bastard,” the beast said.
“I am. And I’m coming to get you.”
“Your hubris will be the death of you, son.”
“Hubris is arrogance toward a god. You aren’t my God. My God is so much stronger than you are.”
“Your God turned His back on you when you became unclean. I’m the one who’s never forsaken you. No matter what happens in these laboratories, do you really think you’ll be welcomed back into those divine arms again? Hell, you’ll likely not even be welcomed back into Glory’s arms. You’re damned, and you know it. You might as well just enjoy the life you were given.”
Before Zane realized what was happening, he drew Erica’s wrist up to his mouth and ran his tongue over it. Aroused by her strong pulse and cut palm, he moaned.
Erica stirred. Looking down, he saw her eyes staring at him. “Are you planning to seduce me with that soft tongue of yours?”
Please God, I need your help here. I’m so tired; I don’t know how much longer I can keep up the fight. If you can’t take pity on me, at least show mercy for this girl. Sucking in a deep breath, he summoned every bit of inner strength he could muster, and finally managed to shove the monster back.
He covered his relief by offering Erica as charming a smile as he could manage. “Just admiring your perfume.”
“I’m not wearing perfume.”
“Hmm. Must be your blood then.”
Her eyes grew wide.
“Don’t worry. I can appreciate the heady bouquet of wine without indulging.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re incredibly sexy?”
“Oh, yeah.”
She managed a weak grin. “And an arrogant bastard?”
“Surprisingly recently.”
She reclaimed her arm and shoved the hair out of her face. “I feel like I’m going to die.”
“It’s the middle of the night. You’re still three sheets whipping in the wind. It’ll get way worse before it gets better—hangovers are a bitch.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
“Come here, princess.” He pulled her up to lie next to him. Ignoring her surprised look of expectation and rising smell of desire for him, he simply relinquished his pillow, stood, grabbed a blanket off the bed, and knelt to tuck her up in it. “Sleep it off. You did good for your first drunk. I’m proud of you.”
She regarded him from beneath heavy-lidded eyes. “I should tell you that I don’t give a damn about your approval, but for some crazy reason I do.”
“Maybe because we’re destined to be family?”
“Kate? Glory? Not my family. That ship sailed forever ago.”
Zane noticed that in her alcohol-slogged hanging-over state, the icebergs were once again swimming in the stormy depths of those brown eyes.
Despite that, he bent to kiss her forehead. “Sleep tight. Don’t let your demons bite.”
“Come on, Zane. I’m sure you can do much better than that with those strong arms, nice lips, and velvet tongue.”
“These arms, lips, and tongue have big plans, as soon as I win my bride back.”
“Some girls have all the damn luck,” Erica whispered before her consciousness winked out again.
Still shaking from the battle just fought, Zane stood and retrieved another blanket from the bed. Kate had passed out on a big pile of floor pillows. He knelt to cover her, but as he was standing up her hand darted out and grasped his. “I can’t imagine what it’s like when your demons bite you,” she whispered.
Before he could respond, her eyes closed and she was gone.
Great, he thought. My possible future mother-in-law just saw me almost drink her daughter. Way to make an impression.
Trembling, Zane needed to walk it off. Grabbing Kate’s key fob from the table, he shrugged on his jacket and slipped out of her apartment into what passed as the outdoors in this strange underground world.
Despite the artificial environment, its design mimicked a twenty-four hour cycle and it was deep into night. At least they hadn’t gone so far as to create a fake moon, but there was some illumination provided by strategically-placed security lights. However, Zane found it easy to stick to the shadow
s. He wanted to lose himself in one of the parks, but wasn’t sure where they were. The rail service didn’t run at night, and it seemed that people were discouraged from roaming because he didn’t encounter anyone.
He pulled out his pocket flask to sip on cougar blood while he walked toward what he deemed to be the outskirts of the city. At least it was the most dimly lit area in sight. His night vision was excellent, and he recognized the huge building that perched on the edge of the void as the science building where Kate and Erica worked. His pace slowed when he heard voices on the building’s far side.
“I’m slipping,” a girl’s frantic voice said. “Don’t let me fall.”
Zane took off at a run and managed to catch a little girl before she took a header while climbing out of one of the windows.
Startled, the redhead only stared at him with bright twin-moon eyes. She looked to be around six years old, and something in her arms wiggled.
“Awesome catch, dude,” a boy a few years older than Red said.
He set the girl down, and she clutched the squirming rabbit more tightly.
“Thank you,” she said.
Zane tipped his hat. “Always happy to help a damsel in distress.”
“The window’s high so I tried to climb out onto that, but slipped.” She pointed to a thirty-pound tank of Halon fire suppressant located next to the window.
He squatted to her level. “I’m Zane. Who are you?”
“Tessa.” She held up the white rabbit for his inspection. “And this is Alice. She’s a lab bunny and they were hurting her and so we rescued her.”
Zane ran his hand through the creature’s soft fur. He could smell the bitterness of toxic chemicals on its breath. “What a nice thing for you to do.”
“I’m Sage,” the boy said. “You’re that visiting cowboy.”
Zane nodded.
“Heard about how you wouldn’t go native.” He raised his hand to give Zane a high-five.
Zane grinned and returned it.
“I like rebels,” Sage said. “I can totally relate.”
“I can see that.”
Sage shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jumpsuit and shifted from foot to foot. “Our mom cleans the labs and we overheard her talking about things they do to the animals. Tessa nagged me until I agreed to help. We stole Mom’s keys and got in okay when the guard station was empty, but then we thought we heard them coming so climbed out the window.”
Zane looked through the open window and listened, but he couldn’t hear any human activity.
“There’s another bunny we didn’t have time to get,” Tessa said. “I dropped Mom’s keys when I ran for it.” Her bottom lip trembled and tears pooled her eyes. We’ve gotta get Alice’s boyfriend out of there.”
Sage groaned. “We’ve got to get those keys back or they’ll blame this on Mom.”
“That would be real bad,” Tessa said.
“Yeah, around here they don’t fire people like out in the world,” Sage said. “They really fire people. In the crematorium.”
Startled, Zane looked at the boy’s face and saw that he was serious. “Don’t they have surveillance cameras in this place?”
Sage assumed a cocky expression. “My geek friend, Ruby, disabled them tonight. She’s the man.”
“With such a harsh regime here, don’t you think it’s a mite foolish to be involved in this sort of thing?” Zane asked.
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
That made Zane laugh. “Exactly how old are you, son?”
“Old enough. The price for every repressive regime is anarchy. I’m not one for following the rules.”
Zane admired the kid’s brass. “Okay, then. Let’s fix this. I’ll go in and grab Alice’s friend and find the keys, then you two need to skedaddle.”
Tessa tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. “First can you tell us something about the outside?”
Zane gave her a quizzical look. “Never been out there?”
Both children shook their heads.
Zane couldn’t imagine never having seen the world and his heart broke for them. “It’s beyond beautiful. It’s God’s masterpiece.”
“God?” Sage asked. “Talking about God here will get you fired faster than stealing rabbits will.”
“Why?” Zane asked.
“They want to make science the new religion.”
Zane looked around and realized that they certainly had the power to force their agenda on those trapped down here. But why would they want to control people’s faith?
Tessa tugged on his arm. “So, anything else about the outside?”
Zane patted the pockets of his jacket. “Maybe I have ... yeah, here.” He found a heart-shaped cockleshell and a hunk of blue topaz. He offered the shell to Tessa. “Picked this up at the beach while shelling on Jekyll Island with my goddaughter, Joy.”
Her eyes grew wide, and she snatched it from him.
Zane tossed Sage the topaz. “From my ranch in Texas. Maybe I’ll see you there someday.”
He caught it and gave him a solid nod. “Count on it.”
Zane climbed in the window. It was a large lab, but the animal cages were all empty, except one. When he opened it, the rabbit cowered and Zane felt its terror. Whether the terror was from the creature sensing his vampirism or because of abuse at the hands of humans, Zane didn’t know, but a wave of shame overcame him on both counts. He grasped the trembling creature by its neck scruff and carried it to the window, where he gently lowered it into Sage’s waiting hands. The dropped keys were easy to find, and he tossed them onto the ground next to the kids.
“You go on, now,” Zane said. “I’m going to poke around a bit.”
“Be careful,” Sage said.
“Thank you so much,” Tessa added.
“Stay safe,” Zane told them.
Sage said, “Our dad’s called Junkman and Mom’s Megan. If you’re going to be around a while, look us up.”
“Will do.” Zane tipped his hat to them and turned away to begin exploring.
The building seemed practically deserted, but down the hall from the lab Zane did hear a heated conversation between a man and woman. Because of his superior hearing, he didn’t need to get very close to make out their words.
“Dr. Templeton disabled our listening devices prior to her visit with the vampire,” the man said. “We can’t let her get away with such defiance.”
“Well, Kate’s always been a loose cannon. Look at what she did at Scorpio Pharmaceuticals.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t know of our affiliation with Scorpio. She doesn’t know our true objective with the vampire virus research.”
“Maybe she simply wanted to have a private conversation with the man Glory loves?”
“She shouldn’t even have known about the bugs. But we did send in Erica to plant new ones, so we’ll find out what’s going on with her soon enough.”
“If Kate’s trial is successful, I suggest we eliminate her immediately. Once she discovers we’re really going to use her research to create super soldiers, she’ll become our worst enemy.”
“I agree. We’ll need to kill both Kate and the vampire as quickly as possible once their work is done.”
“My concern about offing him right away is that Erica thinks he’s hiding something about the time travel experiment.”
“Well, once he’s human, we can compel him to reveal whatever it is.”
“It’s a shame things went so badly with Glory or we might have gotten the information from her. But after Erica murdered that witch Kaia in the alternate timeline, any goodwill from Glory went right down the toilet.”
“Erica is her own special type of wild card, isn’t she? Killing Kaia was a strategic misstep. A troublesome family. Eventually, we should eliminate them all.”
“Time travel as a weapon is right up there in priority with the super soldier project. We need to uncover any facts Zane and Glory are holding back from us before we kill them. �
�
The man sighed. “We’ve tried to collect information on Glory’s activities, but it’s been difficult. Most of what we’ve gotten has been from the dark supernaturals, and I’ve always worried about their own agenda in this.”
“Exactly. We implode the world religions to give them an advantage in their work at turning souls, and we trust them to return the favor by helping us?” The woman’s laugh was harsh. “What were we thinking when we made that deal with the Devil?”
“We did what we had to. We always have. Always will.”
Zane had heard enough. Quietly, he returned to the lab, climbed out the window, and closed it behind him.
† † †
Zane never panicked. It wasn’t in his nature. Whenever faced with imminent danger, his mind became incredibly clear and his nerves steady. As he walked back to Kate’s apartment, he devised a plan.
Zane let himself back into Kate’s, where he was glad to find that Erica had already left. A pot of coffee scented the air and, from the sounds from the bathroom, Kate was in the shower. Zane rifled through some drawers, came up with a notepad and pen, and wrote Kate a note.
Erica planted new bugs.
Wonderland is NWO, just like Scorpio was.
Secret agenda with vampire DNA data is to create super soldiers. Plan to kill us both following successful trial. Must escape with what we can and destroy what we can’t. Must get info to Evan in case we’re captured/killed. Must act today.
Shred and flush this note.
Zane searched until he found where she stored her linens, grabbed a clean bath towel, and slipped the note inside. Then he knocked on the bathroom door. “Kate! You okay in there?”
“Just shoot me now, cowboy,” she replied.
“I would, but they took my gun away from me when I checked in.”
She laughed, and then groaned. “Worst. Hangover. Ever.”
“Did you remember to get a clean towel? I think the ones in there got mucked up last night when Erica cut herself.” They had actually used kitchen towels, but Zane hoped she’d get his drift. He wanted her to have time to figure out a plan.
Genesis (The Legend of Glory Book 3) Page 12