“So what? You think I’m going to trust you because you’re an old lady?”
That’s another thing about teenagers; anyone over twenty is old.
“No, I don’t, but I also know you aren’t going to try to stab me because you and I both know it won’t kill me. But what you don’t know-”
“Well, what’s going on back here?”
I spun around to find the entrance blocked by a hulking vamp who was doing very little to disguise his hunger. I stood up and readied a new weapon, just in case.
“Hello brother.” I allowed my fangs to descend for effect. “I was just enlightening this young woman to the virtues of clean living. Would you care to hear more about how you too can have a more meaningful life by shunning your bloodlust?”
Okay to be fair, my sales pitch wasn’t usually that cheesy. But I didn’t want to get into a full recruitment and risk the girl running off. I just wanted him to leave us alone, but he wasn’t taking the hint.
“Hey, no need to be greedy, we can share her.”
“Look, you really don’t want to do that,” I tried to reason, but he was already trying to push past me. I didn’t have a choice. He wasn’t going to leave and I wasn’t going to let him bite the girl, so I stabbed him.
I turned back to the girl, who was staring past me with a look of horror that didn’t bode well. I spun around and came face to face with yet another vampire. I made a mental note to keep an eye on this alley in the future.
“Can I help you with something?”
To my surprise, this vamp didn’t try to get past me. He looked from the girl and back to me several times before breaking into a very creepy grin.
“Oh you certainly can,” he answered while tapping a Bluetooth headset that I hadn’t noticed before. “I’ve found Lucinda, and the lost one.”
For a moment, I thought my heart had stopped beating. No one called me Lucinda, at least no one alive. My grandmother was the only person who had ever addressed me by my full name and even then, it was only when she was upset with me. I jammed the panic button on my own headset.
“Code Three, right now!”
I didn’t waste any time hitting him with a CPA. I’d deal with my atonement issues later. I turned back to the girl.
“Look, do you trust me now? I don’t know what that was about, but I don’t think we’re safe in this alley. I have a house not far from here. It’s not much, but I can offer a clean bed and a warm meal.”
She shifted uncomfortably. I could see her struggling with the decision to trust a stranger, which was not at all unintelligent, versus the promise of food. From the state of her, food, not to mention a shower and clean clothing, should have been winning out. At last, she agreed. As we walked, I fished out my package of wipes and handed one to her.
“You can use these to get some of the blood off. It’ll start to itch when it dries.”
She made a face. “Do you get covered in blood a lot?”
“Not as much as some people want to think,” I answered a little too flippantly. “But I have had my share of vampire bites. Actually, I had a run in with a vampire about a half hour ago.”
“You did?”
She looked up and peered closer in an obvious attempt to find a wound.
“I don’t see any marks.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” I said with a wry smile. “Just as you don’t seem to have any either.”
“I didn’t think they made any others,” she murmured to herself. That disturbed the hell out of me.
When we reached the side entrance to the safe house, Lance was running up from Decatur to meet us.
“Lucy, what the hell is going on? Evan’s standing guard over that pile of bodies you left and he’s called out the med techs for retrieval. Who’s this?”
Lance gestured towards the girl, who had slunk behind me the moment he arrived.
“This is my Code Ten,” I explained. The Eclipse project used a system of numbered codes to quickly relay information about a situation. Code Ten had been added after I joined the team and it meant an anomaly had been encountered. “Actually, we haven’t had time to exchange pleasantries. My name is Lucy, and this is Lance, he’s human and you can trust him. What’s your name?”
“Cynda.”
Lance held out his hand and smiled.
“Nice to meet you, Cynda. That’s a pretty name, very unusual as well.”
Cynda shrunk away from Lance, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“It’s short for Lucinda,” she mumbled.
I nearly fell over. “Did you say Lucinda?” She nodded. “Did you know that vampire then? He mentioned the name Lucinda.” Cynda shook her head and Lance shot me a questioning look.
“Isn’t Lucy also short for Lucinda?”
“Yeah,” I said with an air of distraction. I was suddenly too aware of the fact that we were standing out in the open. “We should probably get inside. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.”
I buzzed us into the building and headed into the back office of what used to be Knights in Wild Satin, which now served as the security office, to let Holly know that Cynda would be staying. As we entered, Holly stood abruptly and turned towards us with a wide, fang-filled smile.
“Hey, what’d you guys bring? It smells delish…Oh no…Oh hell no!”
Holly clasped her hands over her mouth at the same time that Cynda let out an ear-piercing shriek and dove behind me, shaking like a leaf.
“Holly, what’s going on?”
Holly had long since completed the program to transition vampires from a diet of blood to one that was strictly vegetarian, which was one of the main reasons why she was head of security. Holly usually kept a level head and could easily overpower any new recruit who was having a difficult time fighting off the addiction.
“Compulsion,” Holly gasped. “Lucy, I can smell her! I think she’s been modified to be extremely attractive to us. I’m sorry, Lucy, she can’t stay here. The girls will tear her apart!”
While that explained a lot, it made our situation that much worse. “Is everyone in for the night?” Holly nodded, her hands still clamped firmly over her mouth. I had an idea and prayed it would work
“Okay, Lance and Cynda go in the office and lock the door. Holly, come upstairs with me.”
I grabbed Holly’s hand and nearly dragged her across the empty storefront to the main stairwell that led up to the apartments. I also placed a call to Mike, the head of security for the Eclipse project over at headquarters.
“Mike I have a dire situation that I need your help with.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a few tonight, what’cha need?”
“Give me a second.”
I pushed Holly up the stairs. By this time, she was crying and apologizing and I was trying to get her to quiet down. The last thing I needed was the attention of some of the newer recruits.
“Okay, when I say go, change the security codes on the second floor locks and take away Holly’s override access.”
I gave Holly a shove and pulled the door shut before giving Mike the okay to override the security codes. Once I was sure the doors would not open, I headed back downstairs.
“Must have been pretty bad to take away her codes, Lucy.” There was a hint of worry in Mike’s voice that was understandable. He genuinely liked Holly and because she had a natural talent for network security, he had been training her to be his back up over at headquarters.
“It’s not Holly’s fault, Mike, it was for her protection. You can give all access back as soon as we’re out of here, which will hopefully be soon.”
By the time I got back downstairs, Lance was opening the doors to allow the van to pull up to the loading dock. When he opened the back door, it took a bit of convincing to get Cynda into the van but eventually she crawled in, keeping as close to me and as far from Lance and Evan as possible. Despite the fact that he was my former boss, and part of the reason Andre was in Paris, I don’t think I’d ever been mor
e grateful to see Evan Conroy in my life.
Chapter 3
The ride back to Headquarters was short, but tense. Cynda had grudgingly warmed to Lance, but she was terrified of Evan. What’s more, her agitation appeared to increase as we pulled into the parking garage. Admittedly, I was terrified the first time I was brought to headquarters, but that had more to do with Miles’ driving and the fact that he had been in a completely unrecognizable disguise at the time. Evan was taking us through the secret entrance at a less alarming speed. When the elevator doors opened, revealing the brightly lit medical facility that served as the main entrance, Cynda was positively terrified.
“So that’s what you meant by others. Dammit!” I cursed, smacking my forehead. Of course she was terrified. I should have realized how the facility that I once called home would look to someone who probably grew up in a lab run by psychotic vampires. “Let me guess, you escaped from a lab, didn’t you?”
“There were labs, lots of them,” Cynda whispered with a haunted look.
Evan dropped to a crouch so that he was eye level with Cynda, who reacted by flinching. While I should have expected this, I wasn't prepared for a bony elbow to the ribs. I leveled Evan with a look that I hope conveyed, “You dumbass!” in the most respectful way and laid a reassuring hand on Cynda's shoulder.
“This is a very different type of laboratory. You can trust Evan, I promise.”
Cynda pushed a grimy lock of hair from her face and met my eye with a cold stare. It was all I could do not to flinch at what I saw. Modified vampires are easily recognizable by their light, sometimes luminescent eyes. My own eyes are a pale shade of amber that can’t easily pass for brown. But Cynda’s eyes more closely resembled those of someone suffering from inoperable cataracts. At first glance, it appeared they were entirely white. However, upon closer inspection, there was a light film of silver that seemed to swirl over her iris and completely obscure her pupils. Cynda was turning into quite the mystery and that troubled me for many reasons.
“I think Cynda may want to get cleaned up,” I said to Evan with a look that hopefully told him to back off. “And she could probably do with a healthy meal. Is my old room still available?”
Evan seemed to have taken the hint. “It is, and it’s still your room, so the codes haven’t been changed. Lona’s still up. I’ll have her bring some clothing and a few sandwiches. I’ll wake Dara and meet you in my office in an hour.”
I led a bewildered Cynda back into the elevator and up to the residential area, feeling a little stunned myself. I hadn’t lived at headquarters for over seven months and had a hard time thinking of the room I used to stay in as mine. I was surprised to find fresh towels and a bathrobe, both of which I handed over to Cynda, who eyed me warily.
“You can put your dirty clothes outside the door and I’ll have them cleaned. I don’t think I have anything that will fit you, but Lona will. I’ll also check on the promise of food.”
After showing Cynda where the bathroom was, I went to inspect the kitchen in hopes that I still had some coffee stashed somewhere. To my surprise, there was a fresh bag of coffee beans sitting next to a new grinder and French press with a sticky note attached that read:
The beans are swapped daily. Call it an old woman’s intuition, but if you’re reading this then you are here. If you are here, you are probably up to your behind in trouble, and I know you’re gonna need a cup of magic before sorting it out.
I couldn’t help but smile as I tore open the bag and tossed a cup of beans into the grinder. Ida knew me too well. I couldn’t decide if it was sweet or telling, but at the moment, it didn’t matter. I put a kettle of filtered water on the burner and waited impatiently for it to boil.
A moment later, I was pouring the water into the press when there was a knock on the door.
“Perfect timing, I just made a pot of…Oh my lord, Lona!” Bellona Bishop was one of my best friends, but l hadn’t seen her in a little while, so I was a bit taken aback at how very pronounced her pregnancy had become in the time since I had last been by. I immediately relieved Lona of the stack of what appeared to be workout clothes and a large picnic basket. “Are you sure you aren’t having twins?”
“Why does everyone say that?” Lona asked with a roll of her eyes. “Abe assures me that there’s just one in there. Ironically, he’s got a lot of my DNA, which means he’s going to be tall.”
Considering the fact that Lona stood just less than five feet tall and her husband was only an inch taller than I was, this was ironic. However, had Lona been allowed to grow up naturally, she would have been taller than my own five feet eight inches. Of course, had she been allowed to grow up naturally, Lona would also be fifty-three years old rather than her current age of about thirty-four.
Lona had been rescued from The Eyes of the Sun eighteen years before. At the time, she was chronologically thirty-five years old, but the ES had cruelly used her as a lab animal to test the long-term effects of their DNA manipulation, so she had stopped aging at about fifteen or sixteen. The fact that she was able to become pregnant at all was nothing short of a miracle. Aside from the complications of the modifications done to her, there was also the added uncertainty regarding her husband’s DNA. Miles Bishop carried the hunter’s enzyme and they worried that this would cause the same infertility issues that made my own existence defy logic.
“Can’t be much longer now, is it?” I called out from the hallway, where I placed the clothing on the shelf outside the bathroom for Cynda.
“Less than a month,” Lona replied, “and not a minute too soon!”
“I thought you loved being pregnant?” The last time I had visited, Lona had talked nonstop about the experience. To be honest, it had been kind of annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon happy for her, but I just don’t seem to have that maternal instinct or whatever it is that makes women go crazy over the idea of motherhood.
“Well, to tell you the truth, that was a while ago, Luce. I’m kind of over swollen ankles, heartburn, and a whole list of other unpleasant changes,” Lona said, regarding me with a slight frown. “About that time lapse though, is there a reason you’ve been avoiding us?”
“I’m not avoiding you,” I said a little more sharply than I should have and moved into the kitchen to unpack the food she had brought for Cynda. I might have spent a little longer than necessary artfully arranging the sandwich and chips on the plate, but I had no argument because she was right.
“Lucy, you haven’t been back since the week before Andre left. And don’t try to tell me you’ve been busy either. Your girls are over here so often that I think Evan’s offered them their own quarters. They told me that other than work, you don’t do much anymore. Care to tell me what this is about or would you like me to tell you what I think?”
I should have known I wasn’t going to get off that easy. For as long as I’d known her, Lona had never pulled her punches. “I know what you’re thinking and I can see how you might think that’s what I’ve been doing, but I have been busy. If some of the girls were home more often, instead of over here checking out the staff’s collective butts, they might have noticed the renovations I’ve been having done on the building. I fully expect to have another five off the street very soon.”
Of course, I wasn’t being entirely honest or fair to the borders, but if they were going to sling accusations, I wasn’t above slinging back. At present, there were thirteen vampires in my safe house on Decatur St. Although they did have a tendency to act like teenage girls on their first un-chaperoned sleepover, most had a valid reason to be spending time at headquarters. Evan had generously offered each of the rescues from my branch a job within the organization, either permanently or until they felt it was safe to seek a life elsewhere. Many were currently tagging along with different people, trying to get a feel for where their strengths lie, but there were a couple who were enjoying their newfound freedom a little too much to focus on anything just yet.
I could tell that
Lona was about to bring up the situation with Andre, but I was saved when the bathroom door opened and Cynda appeared in the hallway, looking rather uncomfortable in Lona’s cheerful yellow tank top and neon orange yoga pants. Without the layers of dirt and blood, her appearance was a bit shocking, and I had pretty much seen it all in terms of unusual appearances.
Her hair, which I had mistaken for dirty blonde at first, was completely devoid of color, as was her skin. Were it not for those strange silver eyes, I would have assumed Cynda was an albino. Her neck, now free of dried blood, showed no signs of damage, just as I had suspected. Apparently, Lona noticed as well. She glanced back and forth between Cynda and the pile of bloodstained clothing I had picked up off the bathroom floor.
“Hey Cynda,” I said with a smile, stuffing the clothes into a garbage bag. I wasn’t even sure I should bother sending them to be washed. Beyond the bloodstains, they were little more than tattered rags. “There’s a sandwich and chips on the table. This is Bellona Bishop,” I said with a nod in Lona’s direction, “but everyone calls her Lona. You can blame her for the loud colors, the clothes are hers.”
“Hi Cynda.” Lona lifted herself awkwardly from the sofa. Cynda’s eyes went to Lona’s rather pronounced baby bump and widened with fear. Lona frowned. “Is something wrong?”
Cynda continued to stare for a moment, then closed her eyes and began measuring her breathing, which had become shallow and rapid the moment before. It was an odd reaction, but I realized that if she was a mod, it was possible that Cynda had never seen a pregnant woman before. Vampires of the genetically modified variety were all artificially created and their culture discouraged anything that resembled familial bonds.
“It’s okay, Lona’s pregnant,” I explained. “It’s completely normal for her to look that way.” But my words seemed to confuse her more. “She and her husband are having a baby.”
“Why?” Cynda’s question kind of stumped me, so I glanced at Lona and silently begged her to explain.
“Why am I having a baby?” Cynda nodded and Lona smiled, putting her arms around her belly. “Because I love my husband, and he loves me. We want to share that love with our child.” Lona’s answer seemed to settle her down a bit and she began eating. I turned to Lona who was looking between us with a curious expression.
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 34