Why didn’t you warn me, Gran? Telling me that they want to use me is a bit too much of a vague statement.
They didn’t want to use me; they wanted to fucking clone me, or at least clone my DNA, and here I was, strapped to a damn table, letting them do it.
I forced back tears as Lance stepped into the room. His pale grey gaze landed on me, and my gut turned as I looked at the Vampire behind him who held a tray of beakers filled with blood; each appeared to be a different shade. My eyes travelled over every Vampire in the lab as they all stopped for the briefest of moments and inhaled the metallic smell that so quickly invaded the air.
“And how are you today, Heather?” Lance stopped in front of me.
I coughed. “Peachy. Took a dip in the pool, had a facial.”
My vision began to blur slightly as the scent of blood roused my thirst. If I hadn’t been strapped to a stupid table, I might have passed out from the smell alone, and as usual, Lance didn’t miss a beat.
“Your body is undernourished. It has been three days since you last fed.”
“I don’t feed.” I blinked back the mist that covered my eyes.
“Now, we both know that is not true, but since you refuse to co-operate—”
“Fucking co-operate?” I snapped. “What the hell d’ya think I’ve been doing?”
“I think you have been behaving for the sake of your dog.”
“Where is he? What have you done? I swear t’God, Lance, if you have done anything to him—”
“You will what? Shout at me some more? Your body is failing you, Heather. Your wounds are not healing. You’re ill-nourished and exhausted. You are in no condition to make threats, let alone follow through with them, so I would just bite my tongue if I were you.”
“I will kill you,” I promised, before I dropped my head against the table.
My throat felt dryer than a desert, every part of my body—inside and out—hurt, and I couldn’t concentrate. All I could sense was blood; in my mouth and my nose. I felt like claws scratched inside of me, because something dark and hungry wanted to break free. To rip out and consume all the blood on that damn tray. All the blood it could find.
I flinched at the feel of cold glass pressed against my lips. My eyes snapped open, to see Lance holding a beaker to my mouth.
“Smells good, doesn’t it?”
“No.” I hated the way my body shuddered as the human blood invaded my senses. “I am not drinking that.”
“Not even a little drop? Your rib isn’t looking too good.” And just to prove it, he grabbed my right side.
I screamed.
“It doesn’t look good at all, I’m afraid. You should drink. It will help you heal, regain some strength.”
I had no doubt it would, but I also had no idea what would happen to me if I drank it.
I took deep, shallow breaths, trying to ignore the agonizing pulse stretching through me as his hand remained on my side.
“Why do you need me alive and kickin’ to do your little tests?” I asked through clenched teeth.
Lance grinned and then took a sip of the human blood; his grey eyes turned black when he looked back at me.
“I only have one more test for you, Heather, and you’re already undergoing it. How long do you think you can last without blood? Another day? A week? What do you think will happen to you?” He placed the beaker back on the tray and retrieved another one, the blood a little thinner than the human blood. “Your body will starve, your senses and strength will weaken, and your sanity, well, say farewell to whatever sanity you currently have.”
The smell of soil and metal met my nose and I realized the blood in the beaker belonged to an animal. Animal’s blood was better than human blood; I drank it all the time, but only diluted. What would happen if I drank it at full strength?
“I am stuck between force-feeding you and letting you starve. Although I have to admit, watching the rate at which your body deteriorates would be most interesting, but I do find myself wondering what would happen if you drank human blood.” He raised the beaker to his nose and inhaled. “Animal blood doesn’t taste as good. Doesn’t give our bodies the nourishment we need, but it does the trick, and my guess would be that you drink animal blood. It would be the only explanation for why your body isn’t as strong as it could be.”
Now, what the hell is he on about?
My confusion must have shown, because he smiled and continued his little speech. “Oh, you don’t know? How exciting. It is an honour to be the one to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” I grunted as he finally moved his hand off my right side.
“I believe—if your results are indeed right, and we we’re to actually test my theory—that if you consumed human blood, you would have our heightened strength and senses. Isn’t that fascinating? Unfortunately, your heal rate would still be a tad slower, but blame that on your human side.”
“What the fuck are you trying to tell me?”
“That you are not actually an Infected but a living Vampire.”
My heart jumped into my throat.
I forced a laugh. “That’s impossible. Vampires are dead, well, un-dead or however the hell you want to spin it. You aren’t alive.”
“And yet here we are, walking and talking. The only difference between you and my kind is that you have a heartbeat and the need to breathe.”
I shook my head, regretting it when my sight blurred again. “I don’t believe you.”
He smiled, showing me his full set of teeth. “The Vampyrric virus has evolved and reconstructed your DNA, merging with your genetic make-up. The virus is now a part of your natural structure. You are simply unique, Heather. A rare gem.”
“You’re lying.”
His smile vanished.
“I never lie.” He stepped closer to me and placed the beaker at my mouth. “In fact, I promise you that what I say is the truth.”
“No.” I tightened my lips and stared straight ahead.
“Yes.” A faint smile played on his lips. “Now drink. If you don’t, your body will starve and you will fall into bloodlust. That, I can promise, and believe me, it is one trip you don’t want to take.”
I clamped my teeth together. My entire jaw tensed as I fought to keep my mouth shut. If he was right about all of this, and I did drink, then what? What did I become? What did it make me?
Why didn’t you tell me, Gran? You knew what I am. You knew it for thirteen goddamn years, maybe longer. You knew they would bring me here; you saw this bastard telling me this. If it is the truth, then you have always known what I am. You should have been the one to tell me.
Why the hell didn’t you tell me?
Lance sighed and removed the beaker. “I need you to tell me how you have managed to survive, Heather. Food has obviously kept your body nourished, but what else? Three days later, and you’re only beginning to weaken, so I won’t believe for one second you don’t feed.”
“What does it matter t’you?”
He put the beaker on the tray. “Jackson? Kane? I wish to go for a little walk with Heather down to the west wing. Will you be so kind and help her?”
Kane and Jackson unstrapped me from the table. Once my feet hit the stone floor, my knees gave way. Kane held me up as Jackson brought a wheelchair and placed me in it. I hissed as fresh pain shot down my right side. Kane strapped my wrists and ankles to the frame.
“Are the straps really necessary?”
They ignored my question.
It’s not like I’m able to run off at the present moment.
Jackson pushed me along after Lance as he walked through the lab doors.
“In answer to your earlier question, the information on your body’s requirements, whatever they might be, does not really matter to me.”
I looked past him at a set of dark grey double doors at the end of a long corridor. My stomach turned as a strange familiarity swam through me. I had been here before, but that didn’t make any sense. If I had ever been in this
building before—in my usual condition—all the Vampires would be dead.
My head snapped to the right, and I caught sight of a small wooden door set back in the wall, completely out of place within the rusty metal corridor.
There is something about that door...something familiar.
A strange noise met my ears as we drew closer to the double doors; a steady beat. Ongoing. Never changing.
“However, your body’s requirements, and the knowledge of your survival, matter to them,” Lance said, as he pushed the double doors open.
“Them?” The air caught in my throat as Jackson wheeled me through the doorway. The steady beat of a heart—no, a unison of heart monitors. We walked between rows of patients in their beds, each of their machines beating steadily, all together.
“They need your help, Heather, if they are to survive.”
“Who are these people?” I already know, but please God, let me be wrong.
“These are my patients. Infecteds that we have managed to keep sedated for over ten years.”
“Why have you kept them this way? Why not change them or kill them? Why keep them here?” Another lot of questions I already knew the answers to.
“Oh, come now, Heather. Stop pretending you don’t know what is going on. You must have figured it out. You know very well why we have kept them, just like you know deep down why you are here. Why Brendan is still alive.”
Brendan. God, I hoped he was okay. He shouldn’t have been dragged into this. We didn’t even know each other, so how the hell could my Gran have seen him with me? He’s only here because of her. None of this makes any sense.
“I guess you want to clone me. Is that it?” I laughed bitterly. “Is that your master plan, you sick fuck?”
Jackson punched me square in the jaw. Pain embraced the side of my head as colourful dots winked in my watering eyes.
“Easy, Jackson,” Lance said calmly. “I suppose that is one way of looking at it, Heather, but naturally, cloning means to create a subject identical to the host and you are not a person I would want to see two of, let alone a hundred.”
There are a hundred Infecteds in this room? Christ.
“Why not? I’m unique, after all.”
“For now, yes, but not for too long.” Lance smiled. “Soon, there will be a whole new species of Vampire, and it will all be due to us.”
“You really know how to make a girl feel like shite.”
Lance knelt in front of me. The blackness drained from his eyes, lightening to the familiar cool grey. “What is your secret, Heather? What do you take? I would hate to have to kill all of these Infecteds, knowing there is a way to save them, to give them a normal life.”
I laughed sharply. “They won’t have a normal life. And the one you would give them wouldn’t be their own, so don’t try and feed me your bullshit, Lance.”
“Very well.” He stood up with a sigh. “It looks like I will just have to test my theory, then. Now is as good a time as any, perhaps better, considering your body’s current state. You have blood in your system, somehow; I just need to figure out the daily dose.”
Jackson grabbed my chin with his beefy hand then hooked his thumb and index finger into my mouth. He hissed as I bit down on his fingers, but continued to hold me steady. The wheelchair rocked as I struggled to break free of my bindings, but Jackson stood like a wall behind me, locking me in place. My eyes snapped to Lance just in time to watch him pour the small test tube of blood into my mouth. Jackson removed his thumb and finger and clamped my mouth shut, tilting my head back in one swift movement. The cold, metallic liquid slid down my throat; the soil-like, coppery taste killed the burning thirst as it pooled in my stomach.
It’s animal’s blood. Thank Jesus! Why wasn’t it human blood, though? He could have just as easily force-fed me human blood, so why didn’t he?
“There we go,” Lance said. “I seriously doubt animal blood will do much, but we shall just have to wait and see.”
The sting from my fresh wound faded as feeling in my limbs resurfaced. I felt a little better. My muscles relaxed and although I wanted to be mad, a strange calmness overtook me.
“If that doesn’t work,” Lance said, stepping around me, a smile in his voice. “Well, I won’t ruin the surprise.”
There won’t be a surprise, you thick bastard. You just gave me blood. What a fucking mistake.
I just needed to get out of the damn wheelchair.
I did promise I would kill him, after all.
Chapter Twelve
~ Brendan ~
The smell of blood and chemicals roused me. The mismatched scents, strong enough to make me want to retch, sent an electric ripple of pain through my sinuses and up my spine.
I tensed; worst fucking mistake. Every inch of my body felt bruised, like someone had repeatedly kicked the shit out of me, and then some. I seriously hadn’t felt this fucked in a very long time, which meant I had to be in trouble, because whenever I woke up feeling like this, it meant bad news. The clunk of metal vibrated all the way to my marrow as the sharp barks of some cocky bastard invaded my eardrums, the same voice that had been clattering around in my head for ages. A voice I had an overwhelming urge to silence.
“What do you mean, it didn’t work?”
My concentration zoned in on the familiar male voice.
“Consuming the wolf’s blood gave a surge of adrenalin and strength to the first two Infecteds. Anna is currently monitoring their vitals. I injected the blood into the second two, just like you asked.” A Scottish, female voice replied.
Chemicals. Blood. Test results...fuck. What the hell is going on?
“Good. What happened?”
“Nothing, yet; I injected them only ten minutes ago. Arthur is monitoring them. I told him to page me the instant something happens.”
I slowly tried to open my eyes but the simple action seemed fucking impossible. Each attempt sent pain pulsing round my head until my temples drummed. A deep growl rumbled in my chest.
“Brendan,” the male said happily. “It’s so nice of you to finally join us. You took your time coming around, didn’t you?”
My body felt so drained and so heavy, as if the slightest move would knock me on my arse.
“Where...am...I?” I asked breathlessly. My head hit the table I had been strapped to. “What the fuck...have you done to me?”
“You’re at my facility. As for the second question, well, I just made you a little more co-operative, that’s all.”
With a deep breath, I opened my eyes slowly. My teeth ground as each pulse of agony pounded in my temples, until I could see the arsehole standing in front of me. My sight blurred, but I didn’t dare blink.
“Tell me, what is the last thing you remember?”
I took one deep breath after another and tried to sift through the blurred memories that sat in a sloshed pile in my mind. The image of Heather standing next to me with a lump sum of cash in her arms popped into my head. The thought quickly vanished as a flash of silver cut through the fog. Then, the memory of burning pain as it flooded through my back and gut, thanks to the daggers forced deep into my flesh by Vamps.
The blood house.
Heather.
Without thinking, I whipped my head to the side, regretting the action as a fresh burst of pain burned my neck.
“Where the fuck is she?” I growled, sucking in breath after ragged breath.
“She is around,” he replied, a smile in his voice.
They’d ambushed us at the blood house. Some Leech had embedded daggers into my back and stomach. “Special daggers,” the Vampire had told Heather when she tried to get them out after they’d thrown us in a van. My body couldn’t push out the silver. I had fought to stay awake but she told me to stop fighting.
I peered down at the bandage plastered on my abdomen. My focus moved to the bindings strapped across my bare chest and waist, and I struggled against the ones around my ankles and hands.
Somehow, I doubt we got pi
ssed last night and booked ourselves in for a little plastic surgery.
A Werewolf in a laboratory equalled bad news. A Werewolf in a Vampire laboratory had to be the start of a stupid joke, but Heather in a Vampire laboratory—that was a fucking nightmare.
Anger burned through me. “Heather?” I shouted as loudly as I could.
Slowly, my focus returned to the Leech in front of me. “Where the fuck is she?”
He evaluated me, his eyes beady and grey; damn right glacial.
“Don’t overexcite yourself. You’re tired. Dehydrated. Here, have some water.” He picked up a black beaker and held it to my lips.
My Wolf snarled.
I sneered as the potent tang of monkshood met my nose. “Fuck you!”
He chuckled and placed the beaker back on the table. “Your senses are back online. Excellent.”
“You haven’t answered my question, Leech.”
His smiled flattened at the insult.
“Where is Heather? What have you done to her?”
“Heather is in her quarters resting, and you shall see for yourself what we have done.”
I pulled against my bindings, ignoring the fresh wave of blistering pain as it flooded my body. I couldn’t even break them. “If you have hurt her—”
His smile reappeared. “You are in no position to make threats, dog, and you, would do best to remember that.”
“Lance?” The Scottish female stepped into sight. “Arthur paged me. I have the results.”
“Give them to me.” The redhead handed her clipboard over to Lance, whose gaze wandered over the form, before he looked back at his colleague. “Is he sure? Did he check?”
“They aren’t strong enough. Mixing the blood caused a reaction. He double-checked their heart rate, which increased slowly before it went off the charts. After they flat lined, he waited five minutes to see if a natural restart would occur, and then he gave them both electroshock. He couldn’t restart their hearts.”
Lance looked down at the paperwork. “Cardiac Arrest?”
“You’ve been using my blood on your own kind? Why?”
“Inject some into patient F and feed some to patient N,” Lance said.
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