“Thanks, Abe. I mean that,” I said. “I am scared and I have no problem admitting it, especially since this isn’t just about me. If my levels are dropping, then it’s very likely Cynda’s are too.”
“They are, but not as fast as yours. I pulled up the data on her monitor when we realized my mistake. She’s currently sitting at just over four hundred.”
“Wow. Why are mine going down so fast?”
“I’m not sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say you’re probably putting a strain on your system every time you try to change your appearance.”
“That’s not a bad theory,” I mused. “Any thoughts on how we can fix that? I mean, I’m not trying to be shallow or anything, but you know, on top of everything else I’m dealing with, looking like this full time isn’t going to make my life any easier.”
“Yes and no,” Abe said hesitantly. “The possibility exists that if you were exposed to another traumatic experience, like the pain you felt when your ankle was healing, it could force you to transform back. But I wasn’t going to suggest something that at your healthiest and I’m certainly not going to suggest it now.”
“How traumatic are we talking?” I didn’t like the direction he was heading in. “Can I just maybe stub my toe real hard or do you have to break my legs with a baseball bat?”
“None of the above,” he assured me. “There are ways to trick the neural pathways into thinking a traumatic event occurred, but I’ve yet to find a way to do this without actually triggering the pain receptors.”
“Good god, that sounds horrifying!” I gasped. “People could use that as a torture method!” Abe leveled me with a pointed look. “Seriously? Please tell me our government isn’t doing this.”
“Where do you think I got the idea from? It’s not just our government, Lucy, it’s most governments.”
“I could have gone my whole life without knowing that,” I said, feeling thoroughly disgusted. “On that sobering note, I’m going to bed. Let me know if you find out anything. You know, that doesn’t involve killing me with my own brain.”
Chapter 18
Just as I had suspected, Abe had told Evan about the issue with my enzyme level and the following night, I was taken off duty. I protested this, of course, but failed to change his mind. It didn’t help that Abe, Andre, my father, nearly the entire team of hunters, and even Dara all agreed that it was for my own safety. Since this left me with nothing but time, I decided the best way to use it was to hide out in the security office, rereading the reports to see if I could draw any parallels between clues. If nothing else, this at least made the night fly by quickly.
By the time the sun came up, my head was swimming and I was exhausted. I headed towards Andre’s old room so I could wake Ben for school before going to bed, but Andre was already there. When he saw me, he paused and gave me an odd look.
“What are you doing here?”
“Same thing you are,” I said. “I was going to get Ben up for school.”
“I… ah,” he looked at me with a somewhat puzzling expression. “That might not be such a good idea right now.”
“Why not?” I asked before I realized what he was saying. “Oh. Yeah, sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” The last thing Ben needed was to see me in my current condition. “I guess you should probably explain what happened before he sees me.”
“Yeah,” he said with another odd look. “Actually, Lucy, I don’t know if we should worry him with this.”
“What are you saying?”
“Well,” he looked uncomfortable. “I’m sure Abe will come up with a solution soon. It might be better if you maybe just…”
My heart sank. “You want me to hide, don’t you?” I should have known something was up when he didn’t come to bed the day before.
“No, not necessarily hide,” he said carefully. “Maybe just keep a low profile until we get this sorted out. The less we have to explain to Ben right now the better.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right,” I said, keeping my voice as steady as I could. It wasn’t an unreasonable request, considering the lengths we went to in order to make Ben’s life as normal as possible. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel as if Andre was somehow blaming me for my appearance and I was hurt. “I’m going to bed then. I’ll see you soon?”
“Yeah. Maybe,” he said with an air of distraction. “I’ve got a couple of things I need to check on in the lab. I’ll be up after that.”
“Don’t work too hard,” I said and leaned in to give him a kiss.
He flinched.
It was barely noticeable and he recovered by actually kissing me back and mumbling, “Love you,” but there was no mistaking what I saw. Despite his previous protests to the contrary, Andre was repulsed by me. I tried not to let it get to me. When he didn’t come to bed, I made the excuse that he must have had something important to work on. However, when I didn’t see him again at all for the next several days, it became harder to make excuses.
It was proving to be even harder to keep my sanity intact. When I asked Evan if I could see Dr. Hayward, I was given almost the same answer that Andre gave me about Ben. Yes, Evan and my father had sat her down and revealed the whole truth about our organization and vampires, but they didn’t feel she was ready or accepting enough to see me. In an effort to make light of what was becoming a soul-crushing experience, I took to wearing an oversized sweatshirt with the hood up and humming certain songs from The Phantom of the Opera every time I had to navigate lesser-used corridors to get around.
I kept myself busy and out of everyone’s way by holing up in the security office. At least Mike and Holly never treated me differently and didn’t complain when I pretty much took over the white board with my scribbles and charts or nearly depleted their supply of sticky notes. But I would be lying if I said my status as a social pariah didn’t affect my ability to concentrate and use my time productively.
After one particularly fruitless evening, I nearly had a mental breakdown.
“Lucy, doll,” Mike said, setting his coffee mug down with a sigh. “What you are trying to do is admirable, but for Pete’s sake, love, take a break before I have a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry,” I grumbled. “I just know there’s something here that I’m missing. I mean, what if we’re looking at it all wrong? Some people are claiming it’s the Daughters, others are claiming it’s the ES and both sides are claiming LaLaurie is at the head of the other. What if both groups are working together, or against each other?” I suddenly reached a fever pitch. “That’s it! Mike, I think we’re on to something here.”
“I think you could be, but Lucy, you’ve been in here for ten hours. Go grab a cup of coffee or take a nap and come back to it. I’m worried about you overworking yourself. It’s not healthy under any circumstances and besides, it could provide you with a fresh perspective.”
I hated to admit it, but he was right. Abe had given me access to the data from the monitor I wore and the last time I checked it, my enzyme levels were under one hundred. At least they seemed to slow down the lower they got, but there was no sign that they were stopping. What made that even scarier was the fact that I could potentially end up with an extremely weak, if not nonexistent, immune system. Already I was beginning to suffer from annoying little ailments that I had been mercifully free from my whole life, such as sinus issues and sore throats.
“All right,” I said. “But don’t let anyone touch that board until I get back.”
I checked the hallway on my GPS to make sure it was free from folks I could potentially traumatize, and headed down to the kitchen. At least most of the kitchen staff were vampires themselves and either shrugged off my appearance or made lighthearted jokes. Halfway there I changed my mind. Seeing a completely clear path to the exit, I decided that I had been cooped up long enough. Damien hadn’t made any attempt to contact any of the other team members and I had to admit, I was quite curious to find out if the information he supposedly had was v
alid. As long as I was being honest with myself, I couldn’t ignore the fact that Andre’s absence came on the heels of his run in with Alex.
“Going somewhere?”
I made it down to the parking garage before I was caught by my father.
“Can you blame me for trying?”
“At the moment, yes,” he said sternly. “Lucy, I absolutely understand how frustrated you must feel, but you have to know how dangerous going out alone would be.”
“Fine,” I said sharply. “Then come with me.”
“If I knew one hundred percent that I could keep you safe, then yes, I would. But you’re vulnerable right now, not just to attacks, but also to accidents and even diseases. As your father, I can’t risk any of that,” he reasoned.
“I can’t take it anymore!” I cried. The frustrations that had been building in me finally reached maximum capacity and I broke. Collapsing against the wall, I buried my head in my hands and began to cry. “I have to do something, anything! I’m tired of being treated like a circus freak! Do you know how hurtful it is to be told to stay hidden because you might scare someone?”
“Sweetie, yes, of course I do,” he said and put his arm around me. “Your mother was afraid of me, remember? Do you know how much it hurt me to know that I not only lost the woman I loved, but my daughter as well?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” I sniffed. “But mom came around, didn’t she?”
“She did, but she still shielded you for years. Lucy, you’re still my beautiful daughter, nothing has changed. Look, do I repulse you now?” he changed his appearance to match mine, complete with the same dull black hair and weird eyelids. “Am I not your father just because I look like this?”
“No, of course you are,” I said. “But at least you can change back. Andre said it doesn’t bother him either, but he isn’t exactly acting like it doesn’t bother him.”
“Andre is just trying to protect Ben,” he countered. “He still loves you. That hasn’t changed.”
“Then where is he?” I asked. “I haven’t seen him in three days and the last time I did, he flinched when I kissed him.”
“Honestly, I haven’t seen him either. But how is that unusual? Ever since he was a young boy, he’d get so caught up in a project that he’d forget to eat and sleep if someone wasn’t watching over him. He’s probably been down in his office. Wasn’t he working on a way to make the hemograph recognize the invisible vampires?”
“I’ve checked,” I said. The truth was that Andre had barely been at headquarters at all. When he was there, he was either in Evan’s office or in his old room with Ben, making it impossible for me to see him and still honor his wishes to keep Ben in the dark.
“What are we going to do about Dr. Hayward?” I asked, changing the subject before I upset myself further.
“She’s been asking to see you,” he replied. “She’s started to come around and realize that we’re not all crazy after all.”
“Then why have I been sneaking around?”
“Well, she did get a little spooked when I changed my own appearance, so Evan thought it would be a good idea to give her a little time. But if you’d like to see her, I think she’s still awake.”
I did, but I wasn’t in any mental condition at that moment to deal with any more negative reactions to my appearance. “Maybe in the morning.”
“I’m sure she’ll be pleased to see you,” he said with a reassuring squeeze of my shoulder. “You’re not going to try to go anywhere tonight are you?”
“Just up to the kitchen,” I said with a sigh. “What about you?”
“I think I’m going to go talk to Tanya,” he said with a sly smile. “You know, I’ve never intentionally tried to look like an ES, but I’m wondering if I could make this work to our advantage.”
“You mean like luring out other ES if they’re in the area?”
“Specifically, your new friend who has been suspiciously absent as of late.”
“Oh my god,” I said when I realized what he was intending to do. “Dad! Are you seriously going to try to imitate me?”
“It could work,” he said with a shrug.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Miles.” I shook my head. “You’re like what, almost a foot taller than me? I think even Damien would notice that.”
“You may have a point,” he admitted with a chuckle. “But I do think I want to see what we can do with this. There, you see that? You’re a bigger help than you thought.”
“We’ll see,” I grumbled. “Just don’t do anything crazy or dangerous because I’ll be really mad at you.”
With my head at least a little clearer, I was ready to once again tackle my charts in the security office, but first, I stopped in the kitchen for a recharge.
“You’re up late.”
I wasn’t expecting to see Ida in the kitchen. Normally she left in the early evening and came back in the early morning as the team was returning.
“At my age there ain’t no such thing as early or late,” she muttered, thumbing through her enormous and ancient cookbook. “The older a body gets, the more restless it becomes. I figure I got plenty of time for lying still soon enough.”
“Ida, don’t you dare talk like that,” I admonished only half-jokingly. Though she was almost ninety-three, nearly twenty years older than my biological grandmother was when she passed away, I had a hard time accepting that Ida was anywhere near the end of her life.
“Ah Lucy, don’t you worry,” she said, tucking a pencil in between the pages to hold her place before looking up at me with a smile. “As long as I have you all to look after, I ain’t going anywhere.”
“Good,” I said and poured myself a generous mug of coffee. “Just out of curiosity, has anyone reported anything strange down at G2?”
“Define strange, Lucy.”
“Weird characters hanging around, stuff like that. I’ve just been thinking. Cynda and I both fell ill around the same time and other than here, the only other place that both of us go with regularity is over there.”
“Nobody has reported anything, but I’ll ask around. Abe still don’t know what happened?”
“No,” I said and shook my head. I wasn’t sure if she had heard the latest developments, but I wasn’t about to add to her worries. “It was just a thought.”
“Well, I’ll tell them girls to keep their eyes open anyway.”
“Thanks, Ida,” I said and went back to security.
“Feeling a little better?” Mike asked.
“A bit. I had a small nervous breakdown, but I got coffee, so I’m better now,” I half-joked and went back to my chart. Barely a minute later, I ended up erasing the whole thing. Half my earlier theories were illegible anyway, and those that weren’t were more than a little flawed. But something did strike me as odd, so I left the last part of my theory on the board. “You know what?” I said after taking a look at the scattered mess of papers on the desk. “I can’t even look at this right now. I think I’m going to try again after a full night’s rest.”
“I think that’s the best idea you’ve had yet,” Mike said with a wink. “Sweet dreams, Lucy.”
“Dr. Hayward?”
When I got back to residential, I was surprised to see my former professor outside my room, apparently waiting for me to show up.
“Oh, there you… oh!” Her words cut off with a gasp and her eyes widened when she saw me. “Lucy?”
“It’s me,” I said flatly. While I couldn’t blame her, it still stung. “My father said that Evan explained the truth to you, including the information about my transformation.”
“He did, yes,” she said, still eyeing me cautiously. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you think I’m quite rude. And it is, yes, rude to stare, that is,” she fumbled over her words and finally gave me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, it has been a lot to take in, you know, vampires and all of that.”
“I know,” I said with what I hoped was a disarming smil
e. “It could be worse though. When I found out that vampires are real, I also found out that I was one. Talk about a shock. Um, do you want to come in and sit down? I’ll understand if you’re not comfortable around me.”
“Oh no, not at all,” she said just a little too quickly and stepped away from the door. “I’m really sorry again to be bothering you, but I’ll be honest, I just wanted to make sure you were actually here and okay. Every time I asked to see you, everyone either tried to change the subject or said you were busy. By the time your father got around to explaining your absence, well, to be completely honest, I didn’t believe him.”
“I can’t blame you,” I said and gestured to the living room. “Have a seat. Would you like some coffee?”
“Just a glass of water would be fine,” she replied, looking around. “Quite amazing, these rooms. They’re nicer than my own condo back home. Is it strange though, living in a secret compound? I imagine it’s got to be a little exciting.”
“Honestly, it can get annoying,” I said and handed her a glass. “My fiancé and I have an actual house, but we’re almost never there because it’s too dangerous.”
“Interesting,” she said, still looking around kind of nervously. In fact, she was beginning to make me nervous.
“Do you want to sit down?” I asked.
“Oh, no, that’s all right,” she said and set the water, which she hadn’t touched, on the counter and smiled at me, but it was an odd smile.
“Dr. Hayward, are you feeling okay?”
“Me? I’m fine,” she said, still looking at me strangely. “I’m worried about you though.”
“Me?”
“I want to help you.” She put her hand on my arm and gave me a concerned look.
“Help me? What do you mean by…? Ow!” I felt a sharp sting in my arm and tried to pull away, but her grip was surprisingly firm. All of the sudden, it felt as if my blood was on fire and I began to scream, but Dr. Hayward’s other hand came up and clamped over my mouth.
“None of that, now. You’ll feel better in just a moment.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 80