In Her Blood

by Janice Jones

  His stomach growled so loud, it shocked him. Giselle just giggled.

  “Hunger,” he groaned. “How can they stand being so weak all the time? They are slaves to such miserable desires as hunger and sleep. What happened to this age of man? There’s no passion left in them! No craving for blood and pain! I miss the old days.”

  He picked up a pair of slacks and slipped them on. Once his white dress shirt was buttoned, Tristan slipped his long feet into a pair of loafers and turned to Giselle again.

  “Find Sasha and Creed and have them report to me in Las Vegas once we return,” Tristan sighed. “I guess I’ll have to eat regular food to get this to stop.”

  “Well you only have to endure such agony for a few hours more,” she laughed. “And then you will truly be yourself again. Then, God help us.”

  After he tucked in his shirt and made himself presentable, he leaned into her and placed his lips inches from hers.

  “Yes,” he whispered as his tongue licked at her red lips. “God help you all!”

  Chapter 30

  She’d been quietly pacing in front of them for the last ten minutes. Every time she stopped, Sebastian held his shallow breath hoping she’d speak, but then she started pacing again without one word. Kai and David looked like they would pass out from the boredom and from the looks of it, Xavier was about ready to shoot her.

  “Umm . . . Al? You gotta say something,” Xavier finally gathered the courage to say. “We got your back. Just tell us what to do.”

  Alex stopped, went down on her knees as if she were going to pray then looked at them. Her gaze stopped on Sebastian and his cold flesh goosed from the chill.

  “How much do you know about Night Command?” she asked calmly. “I mean the old program.”

  They all looked at each other and nonverbally elected Sebastian to speak. Maybe it was because she seemed to trust him or that he was a vampire, but he cleared his throat and adjusted his posture on the couch.

  “We know you guys were on a similar formula as we . . . not me, but you know. And that the formula was flawed. The med team didn’t find out until the others started exhibiting side effects.” He felt the sweat rolling down his spine as she stared at her hands with a strange frown on her face. “Dr. Carlisle changed the formula, but it didn’t last long. Coop is or was pretty sick. If he hadn’t been killed, he would have died anyway, probably.”

  Alex looked up into his eyes and he felt his body tense. “Of what?”

  “Cell degeneration,” Xavier answered tentatively, drawing her full attention to him. Sebastian was relieved to have her focused on someone else for a few minutes. He couldn’t explain why though.

  “Cell degeneration,” she whispered to herself mostly. With her eyes back on Xavier, she looked sad all of a sudden. “And is that happening to you too?”

  Xavier just nodded and the twins followed when she turned her eyes on them.

  “Just not as bad,” David replied. “The new formula seems to be slowing down the process in us, correcting it even, but we don’t know for how long. Coop and the others weren’t so lucky. Becker,” he shook his head like he didn’t want whatever image Becker’s name conjured up to stay in his mind. “He got the worst of it.”

  “Meaning?” she asked as she moved closer to him.

  “The way his body just started to fall apart,” Kai interjected. “It was really bad, Alex.”

  “Why? What did Dr. Carlisle say was the reason?”

  “They were too human,” Sebastian jumped back in the conversation. He felt confident again. He wanted to show her he was strong.

  When his friends turned to him too, confusion smeared over their faces, he knew he’d said one word too many.

  “Too human,” David and Kai said in unison. Then they looked at Alex. All of them.

  “And you’re not too human?” Xavier asked.

  Sebastian could smell fear, but not his fear or his friends’. It was her fear he could smell. Rich and full, her fear, like her scent, fascinated and excited him. Although, to look at her, his companions couldn’t possibly know she was afraid, but he knew and that made him more afraid.

  She stood and put some space between her and the team. Walking over to the window, she stood there, still and silent. Sebastian wanted to turn off his sense of smell for now the fear had turned to something else. It grabbed his heart and squeezed tight. He felt his chest seize and his heart struggled to get free. Sometimes, if he went too long without real blood, he’d get this way, but he wasn’t hungry. Then the thought dropped in his brain and he jumped from the couch before he knew what he was doing.

  “You’re not human at all,” he croaked before he passed out.

  _______________

  Alex focused her energy around his heart. The others caught him as his knees buckled. She didn’t want to, but she had to stop him. Unfortunately, Sebastian was smart. He had put it together a lot sooner than she thought. Now she had to figure out how to erase the whole conversation from his mind and theirs without too much pain to herself.

  She thought about just telling them what she was, but they wouldn’t understand, she decided. How could they? They still believed hybrids were created in labs with drugs. If she told them the truth, she’d have to tell them the supplements were created from her DNA, not by a man everyone thought was a freaking genius. Dr. Carlisle used her blood to create those pills and had never told anyone, except for Ben, the truth.

  He never talked about her mother or where she disappeared to. Never once did he ever mention her name outside of their brief affair and Alex being the result. She remembered asking questions only to be shut down at every turn. He erased any trace of her mother from the records. Ben knew very little about her or where she came from, but he agreed to help Alex find those answers. That’s why she cut the deal to train and monitor the hybrids in the real world. So she could at least have access to the program and maybe find some answers. But the more involved she became in the assignment, the less time she had to investigate her own existence. Then her own company needed more attention, so, for a fee, she agreed to do other things.

  What she knew about her own abilities, she learned through trial and error. Most of what a full vampire could do, she could do. She did, however, learn she had telepathic abilities early on and that talent always came in handy. It was especially handy tonight.

  _______________

  “Dude,” he heard a familiar voice from a distance. “Hey. Sebastian. Open your eyes.”

  He forced his eyelids open as they all stood over him. Kai held a small glass of blood under his nose; moving it back and forth. His stomach turned at the scent.

  “You okay?” Xavier asked as he and Erin helped Sebastian to a seated position on the couch.

  Alex sat next to him, taking the glass from Kai’s hand. “Maybe you should drink this. It might make you feel better.”

  Sebastian shook his head and it felt like his brain rattled around inside. He pushed the glass away, he tried to stand, but he just fell back against the cushions with a moan.

  “What the hell happened?” he was finally able to whisper.

  “Well,” David replied. “You passed out.”

  “Why?” he asked once he was poised with his head in his hands.

  “You tell us,” Xavier chuckled.

  Kai stood, dropped to the floor then laughed. “Like a sack of blonde potatoes.”

  They all laughed but he felt like someone had just beat him over the head with a sledgehammer.

  Alex began to rub his shoulders. “I think you might have gotten some bad blood. Jason’s doctor said you should probably sleep it off.” She placed the glass on the table in front of him. “Sip that. It’ll make you feel better.”

  Chapter 31

  Nothing could be better than this.

  A beautiful day gave way to a more beautiful evening
in the deep woods of Montana—fresh water stream, crisp mountain air and no one for miles—just the way he liked it.

  Benjamin Palmer, ex-Tracker Commander and all around boy next door type, scratched at his five o’clock shadow and his honey colored buzz cut as he watched the sun begin its descent.

  He whistled a cheery tune as he chopped more wood for tonight’s fire.

  It looked like one more round of snow, but he didn’t mind at all. He had enough food, water and José to last another week or two.

  After he split the last log, he stacked the pieces in the sack and slung it over one shoulder. He swung the ax over the other as he made his way back to his cabin.

  Some night bird mocked him from above as a doe kept pace with his stride and Ben took it all in with a smile on his face. This life was good and he was right where he wanted to be.

  The only thing missing was . . . there wasn’t anything missing, nothing at all.

  At first, the smell of burning wood filled the air. Then the steaks he had grilled earlier.

  But what stopped him dead in his tracks was something else; something that wasn’t supposed to be here, in the deep woods of Montana, not now, not tonight or ever.

  He dropped the sack of wood and tightened his grip on the ax. The snow at his feet crunched as he distributed his weight evenly between them. The night began to glow from the two inches of snow cover that had fallen only this morning.

  A hint of musk found its way up his nostrils and they flared. A sweet smell of perfume chased it and the hair on his arms stood up.

  Very still, Ben rolled his blue eyes up when a shrill giggle rustled in the leaves and sent a sprinkle of white powder down from above. When she touched down in his path, the girl smiled from ear to ear.

  “Well, you’re a hard man to find,” she giggled again. “Even for me.”

  “If I’d known you were looking, I would have made it a little harder,” Ben replied. “Just for grins.”

  “I like a challenge, Major,” she laughed. “Gets my juices flowing.”

  Ben smiled and let the blade end fall toward the ground. One stroke up and he’d cut her in half before she blinked.

  The young girl continued to smile, but kept her distance.

  Her pallor was dull, but that only made her easier to see in the growing darkness.

  The worn leather of her brown boots matched the belt holding the baggy jeans around her waist. Soft cable knit sweater, cream colored from the looks of it, swallowed her even though she was built almost like a linebacker he’d known once, but with more curves.

  Ben imagined she’d just stepped off the bus from some place nobody had ever heard of when she was taken and turned into a creature with a lust for blood. And at her age, any kind of blood would do, even that of the innocent.

  Her stringy brown hair was pulled back and knotted at the base of her long neck—pieces of it picked up by the breeze. Acne scars hadn’t yet disappeared, so she was newly turned. Poor kid, he thought.

  “That’s Lieutenant Colonel,” Ben replied. “But I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

  She bowed politely in his general direction, “Sasha. And it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Palmer.”

  Ben bowed back. “You can call me Colonel Palmer, if that’s easier for you.”

  Sasha smiled and took two steps toward him, then stopped.

  Ben wanted to be polite and give her a chance to state her piece and go. When he shook her off, the smile disappeared. “So, Sasha, what can I do for you this fine evening?”

  The low growl came out of nowhere.

  A twig snapped and Ben swung the ax backward as hard as he could. The young vampire only had enough time to blink once before he exploded into fiery ash.

  When Ben turned back, Sasha was gone, but her laughter echoed over his head as he ran.

  At top speed he reached the cabin in no time. He slammed and locked the door, even though he knew that probably wouldn’t stop her.

  The front room had been ransacked—papers, clothes, and broken glass were everywhere.

  Ben grabbed his keys, phone, and anything he could use and shoved it all in a backpack.

  Before he could stand up straight, a fist to his chin sent him sliding down the wall a few feet away. He could hear Sasha’s laugh somewhere in the dark.

  Ben’s eyes adjusted when the lights popped on, but he was in her grip again before he knew it. One head-butt and Sasha dropped to her knees as blood poured from her nose through her fingers. Ben picked himself up, still seeing stars.

  “That was not nice,” she laughed then licked at the blood that slid from her nose. “You haven’t even asked if I wanted a drink.”

  Ben’s feet left the floor again when she kicked him in the center of his wide chest.

  His nice wooden table splintered like toothpicks when he landed on it. He looked up just as Sasha wiped her nose and popped the bone back in place.

  “I’m afraid I don’t keep your brand around,” Ben moaned as he stood in the pieces of his table and shook his head like a dizzy dog.

  Sasha smiled and cracked her knuckles.

  “I prefer my meals fresh. The fake stuff doesn’t have the same bite, you know?”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

  “Look, I just want to know where to find the hybrid,” Sasha sighed. She dropped down in the big chair and crossed her legs as she wiped her bloody nose clean on the sweater. “If you tell me the truth, I’ll let you keep some blood just to be fair.”

  “Hybrid? I drive a pickup. Sorry, darlin’.”

  “I’ll run you down with it if you don’t tell me what I need to know,” she frowned.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ben shrugged. He took a stool from the bar and sat down a few feet in front of her. “Now, I don’t wanna sound rude, but I’ve got some stuff to do, so if you don’t mind . . .”

  Sasha’s slightly pretty face became an inhuman mask right before his eyes. Bright yellow pupils, long white teeth, and her spicy scent made Ben’s mouth go dry. But he just smiled at her and waited for her reply.

  “I’ll leave when I get what I came for. I could just start removing limbs if that would get this over quicker.”

  “If you were gonna kill me,” Ben smirked. “You would have done it already. My guess is you were given specific instructions. No goin’ off script, right?”

  “Whatever,” Sasha sighed. “You’re not being very cooperative Colonel. It’s a simple matter of telling me what I need to know and then I’m out.”

  Ben laughed as he stood to pick up the bottle of tequila from the floor. Thank God it didn’t get smashed or he’d really be pissed.

  He took his seat again, cracked it open and took a long draw. It stung going down, but that only lasted a few seconds before the cut in his mouth sealed itself.

  “Who’s asking anyway?”

  “My boss, I mean sire,” she giggled. “Still getting used to that word.”

  “Oh yeah? What house?”

  Sasha smiled and caught the bottle he tossed over to her. She matched his draw and tossed it back.

  “Hellclaw.”

  Ben almost dropped the bottle, but his knee helped him save it. The booze wasn’t going to help his dry mouth this time. He just hoped she didn’t notice his hands as they shook.

  “That’s . . .,” he swallowed the lump in his throat as his eyes locked on hers. “There’s no one left to start that up again. Those practices have been forbidden by the Council anyway.”

  “Really?” she teased as she pulled her feet into the seat underneath her. “I guess no one told my sire.”

  The ax lay only a few inches away, but Ben didn’t think he’d beat her to it.

  “Whatever. Why are you looking for this hybrid anyway?”

/>   “My business,” Sasha snipped. “You gonna tell me or not?”

  “Probably dead,” Ben replied. “That’s what I was told anyway.”

  He stretched his legs out long and folded his arms over his chest.

  “Where’s the body?” she mused as she stood to reach for something in her pocket while she approached him.

  “Bones by now. That was almost twenty years ago.” A wad of money landed in the crook where his ankles crossed. “What’s that for?”

  “You can keep that, if you tell me where to find any descendent that might exist,” Sasha purred again. “We’d like to be sure. You understand, right?”

  “Not really,” Ben laughed. He stood and kicked the money back at her, “But helping you kill a human being . . . for the chump change you just tossed down . . . it’s insulting really.”

  His laughter angered her. He could see the change in her body and even smell the anger like smoke in the air.

  Sasha stepped back and sat down again. “How much then?”

  “Let’s see, betray my country and give up classified information that could get me life in Leavenworth? What to do . . . what to do?” he rubbed his chin and turned his eyes to the ceiling.

  “I’ll let you live out your pathetically short life for the information and we’ll call it even,” she yawned.

  “Even?”

  “The things you did,” she frowned. “An entire clan destroyed and for what? Myths, fairy tales.”

  “If that were true,” Ben sighed. “You wouldn’t be here trying to cut off my arms and legs for information, now would you?” He scratched at the stubble on one cheek, then smiled at Sasha. “How about you go back to your sire and tell him I said he can crawl back into whatever hole he came out of. There is no hybrid and there is no Hellclaw. Not anymore.”

  At the front door he waited for her with a hand in his pocket and a grip on the phone inside. “You sure you wanna do this, Colonel?” Sasha asked as she passed him. “I mean, it’s a one-time offer. Once I’m gone, it’s off the table and open season on you.”