The Progeny

by Shelley Crowley

  “Zoloft is used to treat a number of disorders such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress,” explained Nico after a long silence.

  “I know what Zoloft is,” Alexander replied, cricking his neck at the doctor’s obvious patronisation. He ran through all of the disorders Nico had reeled off as a list in his head and ticked off every one. “Okay, I’ll be your guinea pig,” he said and got to his feet. “But seriously, you need to think of something better than prescription drugs to get back on top.”

  “Your concern is touching, Alexander.” Nico’s eyes crinkled with his smile. “But I do have something up my sleeve. I’ve been slaving over it for the past few days.”

  “A super drug?”

  “It’s nothing for you to worry about.” The doctor opened the bottle and shook out a pill into his hand. “You just focus on getting yourself better.”

  Alexander crossed the room. “One pill? Oh, in case I try to OD by any chance?”

  Nico just held his flat palm higher. Alexander rolled his eyes and took it, his skin itching where it brushed with Nico’s. “You do know the side effects of Zoloft don’t you, doctor?”

  Nico nodded. “I’m well aware. That’s why I am not distributing it out to the rest until I am satisfied with the result.”

  Alexander understood exactly what he meant. I don’t mind if you succumb to the effects and try to kill yourself. Better you than the others. You’ve been a pain in my arse since the start.

  He curled his fingers around the tiny pill. “May I leave now?”

  Nico nodded. “You know where to find me if any of those nasty side effects take hold.”

  Alexander showed him a snarky smile and slotted the pill into his jeans pocket. Like you care.

  Out in the corridor, the tiny pill felt like a brick. He drew up a pro’s and con’s list in his head as he walked.

  No more anxiety and stress. Pro. Possibly severe suicidal thoughts. Con. He may think this new life sucked and that his future had been warped indefinitely - but he was still rooting for having a future. It was his fear of death that had kept him around for so long. Sure, his fear of death had caused him unbelievably agonising heartbreak but it had also led to his amazing life with his beloved sister. And now his new humanity – as much as it sucked – had brought him to Seb. And the idea of this pill distorting all of that made bile rise up in his throat. He choked and fell back against the wall, wheezing.

  After collecting himself a little, he managed to get as far as the main hallway.

  With his head spinning, he skidded to a halt and hid behind a doorframe as the door to the basement opened. The basement where he had been caged in when he had first arrived. He had never seen that door opened since. But now a man was stepping out of it, a spark of recognition lit inside Alexander when he caught sight of the man’s profile.

  He had not aged as well as Nico, was Alexander’s immediate thought. He looked weary and drained. But it was definitely him. Scrub away the wrinkles, the salt in his pepper hair and the scruffy beard, and it was definitely the man in the photograph.

  “Joseph Turner.” Alexander stepped into sight.

  The man turned, his key still in the lock of the door. He was dressed in a bleach-stained navy shirt and a pair of jeans that had seen better days. He looked Alexander up and down curiously. “Yeah?”

  Alexander pointed. “You’re the guy from the booklet. The one that Nico said was compromised.”

  Joseph’s eyebrow quirked up wryly. “He said that, did he?”

  “Well, it was written down by your profile.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess you could say that.” He took the key out of the lock and slotted it into his pocket. It was then that Alexander noticed the bandages around the tips of each of his fingers. Alexander had seen that before after people’s fingernails were ripped out. The typical torture technique of back-alley thugs.

  Suddenly, everything fixed together and Alexander was overwhelmed with blinding clarity.

  Joseph Turner, compromised.

  Evie’s strange phone call before Nico’s men surrounded them.

  And the name of the man that made said strange phone call…

  “Joe!” Alexander started stabbing his finger at him as the wool was pulled from his eyes. “It’s you!”

  Startled by Alexander’s exclaiming giddiness, Joseph took a step back. “Yeah… people call me Joe.”

  “No. You’re Joe. Evie’s Joe.”

  Joe’s brown eyes brightened. “Evie? You know Evie Graham?”

  “Yeah! I mean, I don’t know her last name. But red hair. Kinda cute. Vampire.”

  To this, Joe spluttered. “She’s a vampire?”

  “As of about two weeks ago. My sister Turned her.”

  “Is she okay?” Joe stepped forward as if the conversation was literally reeling him in.

  “Yeah, no thanks to that phone call of yours. It nearly got us all killed.”

  Joe cringed and scrubbed his hair. “I know. I’m so sorry about that. I didn’t want to do it but… he made me.”

  Alexander studied his fingers and understood exactly what had happened. Nico had tortured him until he had made the call. Well, not Nico himself, probably one of his suited little helpers.

  “So, you were with her when it happened? Was it you who killed his men?” asked Joe. He didn’t sound angry or upset, he just sounded hollow.

  Alexander shook his head. “No. A friend of mine did.” A friend. Ah yes, Robin. He sure did miss that kid.

  “Oh,” was all Joe said.

  Alexander studied him a moment. “What does Nico mean by you being compromised?” He looked to the locked door of the basement. “And what were you doing down there?” Looking back at Joe, he just didn’t seem to fit. With his stained clothes and dead eyes. It was as if he were like Alexander. Here against his will. Was he here against his will? But he had been part of the project. It didn’t make sense.

  Joe eyed him up. “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “So I’ve been told. And I get answers.” The sharp edge to Alexander’s tone faltered into something more subservient. “You almost had me and my friends captured. I know I still ended up here but it could have been all of us. Evie included. Just tell me. Give me something.” Something else to think about.

  Joe sighed, his brown eyes glittering with empathy. Usually the look would have made Alexander clench his jaw, but now he accepted the pity. Because he knew that was what he was now. Pitiful.

  “I’ve overheard that you are already on Nico’s bad side, fraternising with me would not help you with that.”

  “Maybe I don’t mind being on Nico’s bad side. He’s not my favourite person, either.” Alexander’s eyes were wide and desperate. He wished he had a gun. It would have made the scene look a lot more impressive.

  Not that he wanted to hurt Joe at all. In fact, Alexander found himself quite drawn to the guy. He looked as helpless as he felt. He was a victim of Nico’s power yet the reason why was still out of his reach. And he hated not knowing things.

  Joe was watching him as if calculating something. “What seems to be getting you in trouble is your mouth.”

  “It has found itself in places it shouldn’t have been on a number of occasions,” Alexander admitted. “That’s why I got banned from most of the Dial-a-Bite services. How was I supposed to know that the term blood whores wasn’t meant literally?”

  “I meant you talk a lot.”

  Alexander shrugged. “Okay, and that too.” His gaze roved Joe. “Who are you afraid I’d tell? Nico? Because I’m pretty sure he’s the one that did that to your fingers.” Joe curled his fingers into his palms to hide the ruined tips from view.

  “It’s not about who you’d tell. It’s just about telling you, period. The whole reason I got in this mess was making friends with the wrong people.”

  “Then we don’t have to be friends,” said Alexander. “I don’t want to get people into trouble. I just want to know what the hell I’m in the mi
ddle of.”

  Joe clenched his jaw and then nodded firmly. He pulled the key from his jeans pocket and Alexander’s heart surged at the small triumph. He turned and unlocked the door to the basement. “What you’re going to see stays between us. If word gets around to the Cured, there is a possibility that they could rebel. And you’ve already managed to tarnish Nico’s name and make them question his credibility. But order needs to stand. If they lose faith in Nico and they start acting up, who knows what he’ll do.”

  Alexander felt the pill in his pocket and a chill ran down his spin. He was the voice of the possible brewing rebellion and what other way to silence him then him to commit suicide? No blood would be on Nico’s hands. It would seem like he had been trying to help Alexander by giving him treatment. The side effects? Well, they were just out of his control, weren’t they?

  Joe opened the door and Alexander followed him down the stairs.

  Chapter 28

  Alexander was openly gaping. He’d been standing in front of the bloody cell for a good minute and his throat was as dry as the Sahara Desert. The female vampire in the cell had that strong, confident look about her that Alexander always found himself drawn to in a woman. Dominant women could mould him like putty in their hands, and he loved it.

  She had her back against the tiled wall and her legs outstretched, crossed at the ankles. Her plum coloured dress - with its plunged neckline and over the knee hem – hugged her voluptuous curves, making her look incredibly appealing. Bloodstains splattered the front of it which just enticed Alexander more. Even now that he was human, he still liked the look of women covered in blood.

  Her black hair flowed in waves just passed her shoulders and her lips were stained with fresh blood.

  The vampire’s dark eyes studied Alexander and she cocked her head inquisitively. “Can you not speak?” she asked.

  “This is Alexander,” Joe answered for him, and Alexander was finally able to close his mouth.

  “And why is he down here?” the vampire asked. She sniffed the air. “He’s one of the Cured?”

  “How did you know that?” asked Alexander, stepping towards the glass.

  The vampire’s imploring gaze roved over him. “I can smell you. You smell… strange.”

  Alexander’s heart plummeted at the notion. It must be the virus. She could smell the virus in him. Smelled the wrongness of it. Of him.

  The vampire smiled wickedly. “Maybe I could have a taste and then Nico would have to cure me.”

  “Or he’ll let you die,” added Joe testily.

  Her gaze swung to him. “And then you’d be free.”

  “There’s no point in me being free if it’s without you.”

  The intensity of their gaze made Alexander shrink back. The stark longing in it was almost enough to flush his cheeks. And Alexander wasn’t the type that blushed easily. “Are you two an item?”

  The vampire smiled and looked down at her lap but said nothing.

  Confused, Alexander looked to Joe. “What’s going on?”

  Joe heaved a sigh. “When I was first recruited for Project Revive, I was part of the squad that abducted the vampires off the streets so they could be tested on. Vanessa was the first to be captured on my watch. I brought her in.” His eyes fell to the floor, ashamed. In the corner of his eye, Alexander saw the vampire – Vanessa – look to Joe with the tight look of shared pain. “And she made me realise how stupid I had been to be led into this narcissistic hate group.” He clenched his teeth in anger. “Vanessa made me realise what a mistake I had made. I had been blinded by their hate and made it my own. Vampires aren’t the monsters we were taught they were.” He looked to the cell, to the vampire behind the bars, with tears shimmering in his eyes. “Vanessa isn’t a monster.”

  Vanessa smiled and a bloody tear ran down her cheek.

  “You fell in love,” said Alexander.

  Joe winced as if pained and nodded.

  “And Nico is keeping her here for leverage?” Alexander hedged.

  “Nico has his fingers in a lot of pies. Doctor Weilms allowed him to keep the project open as long as the remaining team were still on board. If not, he was going to cut his funding.”

  “And you’re the only one left on the team.”

  Joe nodded. “He keeps Vanessa locked down here but I’m able to bring her blood. He said that once he perfects the cure, he will cure her so we can be together.”

  “You know that’s bullshit, right?” said Alexander. “He’s just doing this to keep your wrapped around his little finger.”

  Joe squeezed his eyes shut. “What other choice do I have? I have to hold onto that hope.”

  Hope. Alexander longed for that feeling again. Even if it was an unobtainable hope. It was the belief that mattered, and he had lost that.

  “How does Evie fit into all of this? Why does she think you’re her friend?”

  Joe’s eyebrows pinched. “That was completely accidental. I had been out and had run into her after she had escaped. I didn’t even know who she was. Nico doesn’t let me anywhere near the vampires he experiments on now. But he had managed to tap into the CCTV footage of the pub we were at and he saw us together. I thought that if I brought her in, I could get on his good side. He got back up and I told her to meet me but I backed out last minute and helped her escape.” He scrubbed his hair, looking agitated. “He wasn’t happy, hence the missing fingernails.”

  “He was a bloody mess,” said Vanessa with a hate-filled hiss. “I had to use my blood to heal him so he didn’t need hospital treatment.”

  “But even vampire blood can’t grow back fingernails,” said Joe with a sad, twisted smile.

  “And he tortured you so you’d make the phone call, too?”

  Joe nodded.

  Alexander felt like the ground had been yanked from under his feet. He stumbled and clutched his chest. “I thought Nico was bad,” he whispered, feeling numb and cold and lost, “but I had no idea he was this bad.”

  “That pretty face of his sure does hide the ugly underneath,” said Vanessa, and all Alexander could do was nod in agreement.

  “You can’t tell anyone about this,” warned Joe. “Don’t confront Nico or he’ll be painting a target on your back. And none of the Cured either. You can’t rile them up any more.”

  Alexander nodded. “Can I ask you something?” He looked from Joe to Vanessa then back again. “Do you honestly think this cure could work? As in, we’d go back to being normal functioning humans? You’re a scientist, right?”

  Joe pursed his lips into a thin line. “I don’t know. My heart wasn’t in the project as much as Nico’s was and I wanted out pretty much as soon as it began. I don’t know what goes on in his lab, I’m sorry. But if there is a way to fix the cure, I know Nico isn’t going to stop until he finds it.”

  Alexander followed Joe back up the stairs after awkwardly waving goodbye to the entrapped goddess of a vampire. “I see why you abandoned everything to go after Vanessa, she’s smokin’.”

  Joe paused at the top of the stairs with his hand on the handle. “I haven’t abandoned anything. If I had, I wouldn’t still be here.”

  Alexander felt the ice in his tone and for once didn’t get a kick out of pushing someone’s buttons. Was his humanity making him soft? “True,” he mumbled.

  “Don’t make me regret telling you all of this.”

  “My lips are sealed.”

  Joe looked back and gave him an incredulous look.

  “I mean it,” said Alexander defensively. “I promise. And I don’t make promises I can’t keep. But-” He jerked his thumb down to the corridor. “We did walk past three guards on our way, if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “They won’t tell.”

  Now it was Alexander’s turn to look incredulous. “What makes you so sure?”

  “I have friends within Nico’s workers. Not enough to overthrow him but enough to not get myself killed.”

  This was getting more and more interesting by the se
cond. “So, you’re not the only one in his inner circle who hates Nico’s guts?”

  Joe’s eyes flitted anxiously down the stairs before he lowered his voice. “Not all of Nico’s staff are here just for the big fat cheque at the end of each month.”

  Alexander’s blood ran cold at the stark fear in his eyes. “You’re not the only one he’s playing dirty with are you?”

  Joe dropped his gaze, almost in defeat. “People’s families are at risk.”

  “Their families?” Alexander jabbed a finger down the stairs to indicate the three guards at the doors.

  Joe nodded. “Tuck’s, at least.”

  “And you trust them not to rat you out?”

  Their eyes locked. “They don’t have to do anything. Just bypass a small truth. My friend changing the reel of the camera footage every time I go to visit Vanessa is the one who will get in real shit. But anyway, you being down here is breaking rules but it’s not the end of the world. Nico already knows you’re not his biggest fan and all this information is just more stuff to hate him for. I’m guessing he’s past the point of trying to win you over.” Joe eyed up the door. “But as I said before, don’t make me regret this.”

  “And as I said before, I won’t.”

  Joe nodded firmly and opened the door. He poked his head out and looked around before grabbing Alexander by the scruff of his shirtfront and yanking him out. When Alexander stood there in the hallway, flattening the creases in his t-shirt, Joe shoved him in the shoulder. “Go. You don’t know me.”

  Alexander gritted his teeth at being manhandled and shrugged Joe’s hand off his shoulder. “I’m going.”

  He turned the corner and began heading up the stairs to his room, for once not feeling in the need of constant company. The way Joe had discarded him like he was unwanted trash made him suddenly feel empathy for all those men and women who he’d treated exactly the same way after a moment of fiery passion. Adding that to the memory of Seb pushing away from his kiss was really doing a number on his ego.