“Very well. Is there anything else?” Carolyn motioned to the still-open doors, and Claude returned to the grey-tiled foyer.
“No. That was all.”
As Carolyn opened the door, Claude pointed to an empty spot in front of her garage, beside where his own car sat. “There was a car there when I arrived. A sedan. Did I interrupt?”
Carolyn’s eyes darted to the driveway, and for the first time, Claude felt something less than the composure she’d displayed since he’d arrived. It was gone almost at once, but he was positive it had been there.
“No, not at all. That’s my daughter’s car. She went out with friends.”
Claude studied the tic at the corner of her left eye. “That is a shame. I was hoping to meet her. I’ve heard lovely things.”
“Have you?”
He laughed. “Well, no, not really. I’ve heard nothing about her.” He leaned in. “That is why I was hoping to meet her.”
She didn’t smile right away, and when she did, it seemed an afterthought. “Thank you again for bringing these to me. In future, you may email, and we will appoint a time and place to meet.”
Claude bowed. “As you wish, of course.”
He was barely on the porch when she closed the door behind him without a sound. His driver stepped from the car and moved to the back of the vehicle and opened Claude’s door.
“What did you see?” he asked.
“Three young women and two men. They piled in to the car and drove off.”
Claude nodded and slid onto the leather back seat as he removed his phone from his breast pocket.
The map app lit the screen, showing a little red dot moving along the road out of the subdivision.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Mecca
Zoey, Will, and Sara beat them to the apartment complex parking lot—Mecca had texted the grand escape to Will. The level of relief at seeing them came close to alarming her. She shook it off and left the others to get out of the sedan. Sara gave her a huge grin as she approached. The woman’s left arm lay in a blue sling, the upper part wrapped in a thick layer of bandages. Her smile made her seem a lot happier than Mecca thought she should be.
“Hey!” Sara said, nodding down to her arm, a glint in her eye. “Cool, right?”
“Um. I guess?” Mecca couldn’t keep the tiny laugh from slipping out. She didn’t get Sara at all. But she was definitely glad to see her.
More glad to see Will, who’d come across from the driver’s side. “Everything okay?” He gave her a partial embrace. It was the only real PDA they engaged in.
Mecca shrugged. “Nothing is okay. I’ve been with a bunch of Visci all night. Sara got shot. I watched my best friend feed her blood to a human. And a Visci I definitely don’t trust showed up at the house we were at. I don’t think anything will ever be okay again.” As she said it, the truth of her words hit home and an oppressive cloud laid over her, dispelling the relief she’d felt a moment ago.
Will put a hand on her arm. “It’s going to be okay. But…” He glanced over at the other group who were making their way toward the building, Zoey under Jorge’s arm, helping him along. He looked even more pale than he had when they’d left. “Why was Jenny sharing her blood with someone? And who showed up?”
Mecca nodded. “I’ll explain inside.”
They filed into the apartment after Zoey fumbled with the keys and finally got the door open. It was a normal-looking two-bedroom, but the living room had been turned into more of a bedroom. A hide-a-bed was open in the center of the room, with pillows strewn across it and disheveled sheets. A giant television took up one wall. Game controllers lay discarded across the surface of the cheap coffee table in front of it.
“Do you have another roommate?”
“Huh?” Zoey asked as she lowered Jorge onto the bed. He sat hunched over, his back rising and falling with his breath.
“The bed.”
“Oh. No. I use my bedroom for something else.”
As Will closed the door behind them, Jorge said softly, “I’m not feeling…” He tilted forward and toppled to the floor.
“Jorge!” Zoey cried as she dropped to her knees beside him.
Jenny also ran to his side. She looked up at Oliver. “What’s happening to him?”
Mecca felt the concern in the room, but she couldn’t get herself to really care. He was Visci, after all. She watched.
Jorge’s breaths came in shallow rises and falls of his chest.
Will stepped past Mecca and joined Jenny and Zoey. He crouched and pressed his fingers against Jorge’s neck. He looked at Jenny. “Let’s get him up.”
She nodded at Zoey, and together, the two of them lifted Jorge as if he were a child and laid him gently onto the hide-a-bed.
Mecca sucked in a breath. Even more than the blood-sharing, watching Jenny lift a full-grown man… That drove home, straight into Mecca’s gut, how not-human Jenny was. Her breath caught in her throat. How had she never noticed it?
She turned away and moved into the kitchen, past the small island with its pizza boxes piled on the trash can and the empty Chinese takeout containers on the counter. Her heart pounded too fast in her chest.
She stopped in front of the refrigerator, her back to whatever was unfolding in the living room. Sweat exploded across her skin and her vision narrowed, black pinpricks popping along the edges.
Fear—or something very close to it—gripped her heart.
Her breath tried to run away, leaving her gasping with soft sounds. She put a hand on the refrigerator door. The cool metal on her palm felt in stark contrast to the burn of her skin. Panic galloped through her.
“Hey.” Sara’s soft voice startled her. “Breathe with me. Take a breath in.”
Mecca couldn’t get her bearings enough to argue. Or tell her to mind her own damn business. Or even turn around.
She matched Sara’s “in” breath.
“Out now. Slow. Everything is okay. In.” Sara didn’t touch her, but Mecca could feel the woman’s presence at her back. “Out. And in.”
Mecca’s heart slowed, and her lungs didn’t seem like they were controlled by someone else anymore. She breathed with Sara a couple more times. Her vision widened. The black spots went away.
“You’re okay,” Sara said. She moved around so that she was in Mecca’s field of vision but still didn’t touch her. The other woman smiled. “You’re okay.”
Mecca pursed her lips. “Thanks,” she said, her voice weak. She hated that weakness.
“No worries at all. I’ve been there. It sucks. But you really are okay.”
Mecca wasn’t sure whether that was actually true. But she was too tired to argue. And it didn’t matter anyway, did it?
Mecca looked over her shoulder. “Is he okay?”
Sara frowned. “I don’t know.”
“It would suck for you to have gotten shot in his rescue just for him to die on us now.”
“Oh, I dunno. I did get to use my TASER, after all. And how cool is it to have a story about getting shot?” She pushed her slinged arm forward a bit. Then Sara’s grin faded. “But I don’t want him to die. That really would suck.”
A new-agey warbling sound came from Sara’s pants. Her cheeks flushed pink as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hey, Aunt Tea.” She gave Mecca a grin and a little half-shrug. “No, I can’t today. Can it wait til next week? Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know when is good. Love you too.” After she disconnected the call, she said, “My aunt. She needs computer help. I’m pretty much her tech support.”
“I get that,” Mecca said absently. She stared at Sara for a moment. “Why are you helping them?”
Her eyes widened a bit, and an unsure little grin spread across her lips. “They’re your friends.”
Mecca couldn’t stop the shake of her head. Only one of them was truly her friend. “But you hardly know me.”
“Okay, okay. It’s exciting.” Sara leaned in and that little grin turned bigger. “It’s l
ike a James Bond movie or something.” She waggled her brows.
A laugh tried to bubble through her, but Mecca tamped it down.
“But why are you helping them?” Sara asked.
Mecca took her gaze to where Will still hovered over Jorge. “I don’t know.” Jenny sat on the arm of the sofa, watching as Will did whatever medic-y stuff he was doing. “They were easier to hate before I found out that my best friend is one of them.”
“I’ll bet that’s true.”
“Oh, thank God!” Zoey said as Jorge struggled to sit up. Her green eyes met Mecca’s. “Get him some water!”
Mecca didn’t react, so Sara turned away to fulfill the request.
Oliver moved from where he’d been standing against the wall. “No. Wait.” Mecca had forgotten he was even there.
“What?” Jenny said.
“Water isn’t a good idea.” Oliver stood beside the bed, looking down at Jorge. “He fed at the safe house.”
“Yes,” Zoey said. “He was weak. So?”
Oliver sighed, his shoulders rolling forward.
Zoey jumped to her feet. “Why?”
“He’s been poisoned.”
To say Zoey freaked out would be putting it very, very mildly. Quick as a flash, she had Oliver by the throat and backed against the wall. Just as fast, Jenny came behind them and grabbed Zoey’s arm.
“Zoey!” Jorge’s voice came out as a rattle.
“Let go!” Jenny yelled.
“He poisoned Jorge!” Zoey snarled. “I’m going to kill him.”
Oliver gasped and clawed at Zoey’s hand. She’d lifted him so that his feet dangled just shy of the floor.
“That’s not going to help!” Jenny said, still trying to break Zoey’s grip.
A part of Mecca that had remained disconnected from everything found this fascinating. Even with Jenny’s extra strength, Zoey was stronger. And Zoey was tiny. What did that mean?
“He can’t help us save Jorge if he’s dead.” Jenny finally jerked Zoey’s hand from Oliver’s neck, and he crumpled in a heap before them, gasping and clutching his throat.
Zoey stared at Jenny, stone-cold murder in her eyes.
Mecca dashed from the kitchen and was by Jenny’s side fast enough to hear Zoey’s quiet words.
“Don’t you ever touch me again.”
Jenny did not flinch from Zoey’s gaze. “I will stop you if you’re about to do something stupid. And if that requires touching you, then I will touch you.”
“You are not the one in charge.”
“So you want to kill the only person who knows anything about the poison that’s killing Jorge? You’re an idiot.” Jenny took a step back and waved her hand at Oliver. “But be my guest. Kill him. And we’ll all watch Jorge die because you can’t control your damn self.”
Zoey’s eyes narrowed and moved between Jenny and Mecca and back again. She was so short that she had to look up at them. She scowled and turned away.
Jenny grinned at Mecca and squeezed her forearm. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You were here.”
A tightness in Mecca’s chest made her turn away. Why was she feeling guilty? “It’s no big deal.”
“It is,” Jenny said from behind her. “And it’s something we need to talk about later.”
“Yeah.” Mecca moved away as she heard Jenny helping Oliver to his feet.
Zoey had already gone back to Jorge’s side. He’d slumped on a pillow that Will had propped him up with. Mecca had to hand it to Will. He hadn’t let the drama impact him at all. She supposed that was a skill learned by living with Visci for decades.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Jenny
As everyone settled back down, Jenny, her heart still thudding in her chest, said, “How do you know he was poisoned because he fed? Maybe they stuck him with a needle.”
Oliver kept wary eyes on Zoey and shook his head. “No. They don’t have it there in that capacity. It’s only in the lab.”
“Then how…?”
Mecca gave a small sound of surprise. When they all looked at her, she sighed. “The humans. They’re the delivery system.”
They stared. Jenny couldn’t believe that would be true. But Oliver nodded.
“Yes. Doctor Blume had all the human guards injected with the virus. It doesn’t work on us. But it will transmit to you”—he waved a finger around most of the room—“if you draw blood from us.”
“They infected you too?” Jenny asked.
He nodded, looking abashed.
Jenny considered what would have happened if she’d fed from him. Not that she would do that, ever. But if she had… She’d be on the sofa bed right beside Jorge. “How is he?” she asked Zoey.
She gave a shrug. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. If your little lap dog had some of the virus with him, I could probably figure it out.”
She didn’t look over and her voice remained level, but Oliver blanched. Jenny didn’t figure she blamed him after what’d happened.
“Do you have some with you?” she asked him.
“No. I told you. They only have it at the lab.”
Now Zoey stalked over. “Then you should go to the lab.”
Oliver backed away, though Zoey didn’t really make moves toward him. “I—I could.” His furtive glance swung to Jenny for a moment. “But there might be something better. We have some antidotes of earlier versions.”
That animated Zoey. She closed the few feet between them in a second. “That means you’re definitely going back.”
Oliver cringed. “But I don’t know if any of them will work on this version of the virus.”
Jenny stepped between them, and she swore she heard Zoey growl at her. Jenny put a hand up. “Chill out for a second. Oliver, you can get your hands on these antidotes?”
“Yes. I could probably get a couple vials out. But like I said—”
“Just do it,” Zoey snapped before turning and stomping back to Jorge.
“Oh cool. Are we breaking into a lab?” Sara chimed in from the kitchen. Jenny had forgotten she was there. She was such a strange bird.
“Breaking into a lab?” Mecca asked. “No. No, we’re not.” She had that expression on her face that meant she was not fucking around.
“I don’t think we need to break in,” Will added. “Oliver should be able to get in on his own, yeah?” He’d turned his gaze to Oliver expectantly.
The other man gave a small nod. “Yes.”
Zoey pulled a blanket up to Jorge’s chin and said, “How do we know he won’t go in and run to this Blume guy?”
Would he? Jenny wasn’t sure. She didn’t feel any different. How would she know if the blood worked?
“I won’t,” Oliver said, quickly. “I don’t want to.”
Zoey’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I don’t trust you.”
“Oh my God,” Mecca said, her voice exhausted. “Just stop already, would you? Yes, yes, you want to kill him. Yes, yes, he’s terrified. You’re a badass. We all fear you. There. Happy?”
Zoey trembled for a moment, and Jenny didn’t think it was fear. Jenny thought Zoey was barely holding it together. When the short Visci woman began walking, slowly, around the sofa, Jenny made to intercept her before she got to Mecca. Zoey held up one hand to her and moved past.
She got very close to Mecca and said, softly, her tone calm and level, “My best friend is lying there on that couch, dying. So if it makes you happy to be snarky, if it makes you feel like a badass, then go ahead. Do it. But I don’t have time for you. He doesn’t have time for you. Now either add something useful or shut the fuck up.”
She turned on her heel and stalked back to Jorge.
Jenny and Mecca both stood there looking at each other. Jenny had never seen Zoey that laser-focused, that serious, that raw. It was unnerving.
“Sorry,” Mecca said, finally.
Will stepped in. “Okay. So Oliver, you’re going to the lab. I can drive you.
”
“No,” Jenny said. “I’ll drive him.” When both Will and Mecca began to speak, she raised her own hand. “I’m responsible for him. I am driving him.”
The other two closed their mouths and nodded.
“So, if you’re going anyway, Oliver,” Sara said, turning to him, “I’ve got something I’d like you to take with you.”
Now everyone looked at her. She gave a grin and a little wave.
“Yeah, so it’d be useful to get into their network. I’ll need to run home real quick, but I can give Oliver a flash drive with a program that’ll let me basically remote desktop into his machine at the lab.”
That couldn’t be a good idea. It might get him killed. Jenny started to protest when Zoey said, “Yes. Having the data on the poison or virus or whatever it is would help in figuring out how to counteract it, if the antidotes don’t work.”
Jenny could almost feel Oliver’s alarm. “If he gets caught, they could kill him. And then Jorge would die too.”
“It won’t be anything big. It’ll look totally normal on your machine.” Sara was talking directly to Oliver. “I won’t get you killed. Promise.”
He didn’t look convinced, and he ran his gaze to Jenny, as if looking for something. Approval? An order? She had no idea.
“If you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to.”
“Yes—” Zoey began.
“No,” Jenny said, flatly. “He has to get the antidote. He doesn’t have to do this.”
“The antidotes may not work,” Oliver whispered. “I really don’t know if they will or not.” He looked to Sara. “I’ll take your flash drive. But it’s not likely you’ll get anything off the computer. They’re labeled with batch numbers. There isn’t any information on what’s actually in the serums. We only test it. He develops it.”
“This Doctor Blume?” Zoey asked from the sofa bed.
“Yes. I’ve seen nothing on my system that would identify the ingredients. I assume he keeps all of that in his office. He probably has a lab back there. Otherwise, he’d have to do all his experimenting and creation offsite. But he’s always there. So that’s doubtful.”
Visci (Soul Cavern Series Book 2) Page 18