Recombinant

by Shannon Mayer

  As I took a sip of the water—which turned into several greedy gulps—I tried to figure out how to play this. Might as well start from the beginning. I set the half-empty glass on the coffee table, then asked, preparing myself for the worst, “Where’s Derrick?”

  “Like I said, he’s dead.”

  The ache of loss washed through me, but my distrust tapped it down. “I’m just supposed to take your word for that?” My tone was cold and harsh. I refused to believe her. This could be part of her ploy to convince me to share what I knew.

  “He was nearly dead when I found him outside the building, but he was worried about you. He knew you’d been gone too long.”

  I couldn’t hide my sharp intake of air. “So, he wasn’t dead when you found him.”

  “No,” she said softly. “Someone showed up and finished the job after we were out of the building. Which means they’re probably after you now.”

  It made sense; in fact, I was surprised they hadn’t shown up on my doorstep yet. Yet I still struggled to accept it. “Finished the job… How?”

  “They shot him, then dragged his body away to tidy up.”

  Oh God. She could have been lying, but I knew it was true. There was little chance he was in a hospital somewhere—the men following us would never let him get that far—and he wasn’t here with me now.

  Pain, anger, and a thirst for revenge that caught me off guard flooded me. But I pushed down my grief. This woman had information that could help me find the people who had killed Derrick. I needed to focus on that at the moment.

  She sat up and leaned over her legs. “Who was after you?”

  “Why did you want to talk to Caine?” I countered.

  She released a low growl that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “I think you and I want the same thing, if you’d just cooperate.”

  “You mean I spill my guts or you’ll do it for me?”

  She jumped to her feet, fast and swift, like a predator attacking its prey. But she didn’t attack me, merely released a groan of frustration and began to pace. “You’re not like him. I won’t do that to you.” She stopped and held my gaze. “I have other ways to get information from you, but I hope it won’t come that. I think we can help each other.”

  “I’m not like him,” I repeated. “Somehow I don’t think you mean the child molester part.”

  She remained silent, but the old man shifted on his perch at the end of the sofa. “Lea, tell her.”

  Lea gave him an incredulous look.

  “You know her history. She can help us.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Calvin,” Lea said, shaking her head.

  “You know who I am?” I blurted out without thinking. Obviously they knew who I was or we wouldn’t all be in my apartment having this little powwow.

  Lea held up her fingers, ticking one off for every fact. “Rachel Sambrook, age thirty-one. You spent seven years in the Middle East covering the war. You were known for your impulsiveness and courage. You covered quite a few stories most men wouldn’t take. And you didn’t just report the U.S. military line; several of your stories reported on their faults.”

  I wanted to ask her how she knew all of that, but she beat me to it. “You’ve been out for several hours, and Calvin here is good at getting information. It’s why I hired him.”

  He snorted, but otherwise remained silent.

  I gave a shrug, grimacing at the pain in my neck from where that bastard Caine had bitten me the night before. “So you know all about me, but I don’t know the first thing about you other than that your name is Lea, you’re handy with a knife, and you’re apparently resistant to bullets.”

  She engaged in a several-second stare-off with the old guy before turning back toward me, uncertainty in her eyes.

  “You’re right. I am all those things, and one more. I was trained as a Cazador. A hunter of things that go bump in the night. I fought the darkness until it swallowed me whole. They thought they’d destroyed me by making me one of them, but all they did was make me strong enough to truly have a chance at wiping them out.”

  Letting her look down at me gave her power, so I stood, my eyes nearly level with hers. “Made you one of them? What do you mean? What are you?” I swallowed, suddenly unsure I wanted the answer.

  Lea’s eyes never wavered from mine as she said a single word. The answer that had been dancing in my head since this all began.

  “Vampire.”

  CHAPTER 15

  LEA

  Rachel took a step back; involuntarily, I was sure. Human nature dictated that she run from something that could eat her. Her blue eyes narrowed as quickly as they’d widened.

  “That’s a crock of bullshit.” Her words were strong, but her tone told me something else entirely. She believed me, she just didn’t want to.

  I folded my arms over my chest, a slow smile spreading over my face. “Then explain everything you just pointed out to me. The bullet not killing me, my speed and strength. Rachel, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

  I didn’t think it was possible that her glare could become any harder, but it did, her eyes becoming mere pinpricks of blue.

  “Don’t quote Sherlock Holmes to me.”

  I spread my hands wide, palms up, as if in supplication. “He might be fictional¸ but that doesn’t make him wrong. To the majority of the world, I am also fictional. I do not exist, and yet here I stand. You felt Caine’s fangs. You felt his power as he fought to control you. Your wounds from him are healed already, which to you should be impossible, yet the vampire saliva does just that. It hides the bites. You tell me what he is, if not a vampire.”

  Her scent changed as my words triggered the memories. She swallowed hard. “Let’s say I believe you, for the sake of this conversation.”

  This was finally moving in the right direction. I decided to throw my information to her. If she proved sketchy, I could always drain her and dump her body in the river. “The vampires I am hunting are being protected by the government at a facility, at least as far as I can tell from my interrogation of Caine. You mentioned the Asclepius Project. Calvin tried to search for it while you were out, but didn’t find anything on the project. The name, however, is interesting.”

  Her eyes shot straight to Calvin and the laptop that he now had in front of him. She was easily within reach of me if I’d been so inclined. No wonder she was an ace reporter—she was willing to walk right into danger. Unfortunately, the ones who were willing to risk it all to get the story they were after were also the ones who always ended up dead.

  Calvin tapped the screen. “Asclepius is from Greek mythology. Turns out, he was all about raising people from the dead. Doesn’t bode well for a project named after him, tied to vampires as it is.”

  Rachel looked from the screen to me. “Is that what you think they are doing? Raising the dead?” I could see the conflict on her face. To even ask the question had to gall her.

  “More likely they are turning high-placed, important officials into vampires. Most vamps have the ability to control people to a degree.”

  She nodded. “Caine tried to do that to me.”

  I gave her a tight smile. “The force is strong with you. Those with extreme stubborn streaks and strength of character can resist. We can still force them, but we have to have our own tanks full to manage it.”

  “And now you’re quoting Star Wars. Really?” Rachel headed into the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the fridge. She cracked it open and took a big swig before setting it on the counter.

  Calvin lifted his hand. “I’ll take one of those.”

  “You’re on the clock, old man.” I snapped.

  Rachel took one out for him and tossed it to him when she was partway back to the couch. He beamed at her. Fucking ingrate.

  “So we have a project named for a character who raised the dead, and we have vampires and a government facility we think exists.”


  I put my foot on the green army bag and slid it forward. “And whatever may be in Derrick’s bag.”

  Her eyes popped wide. “How the hell did you find that?”

  I touched the side of my nose. “It stinks like him.”

  She pulled the bag closer to her seat and started to rummage through it. “I can probably break his codes and get into his laptop, but it will take time. I took a quick glance last night, but nothing made sense. It seemed a jumble of papers just thrown in the bag in order to throw people off.”

  “Or completely blacked out,” Calvin said.

  She glared at him and he looked away. I snapped my fingers, and her blue-eyed glare swung my way. An idea was growing inside me that Calvin would not like, especially when he understood my reasoning.

  Before he had just been old and slow, but now he was a liability.

  Rachel was young, eager, and as tough as any Cazador I’d ever known. She would make a great replacement for Calvin. But that meant I had to keep her around, keep her alive, and hope to hell we both survived whatever storm was brewing on the horizon.

  “Here is what I’m going to propose. We both want to find the facility and expose whatever it is the government is doing.” I held up my hand to forestall her as her mouth opened to argue. “Yes, we have different motives, but does that matter when the end result will be the same? You will bring your government to justice and I will kill vampires.”

  Calvin spluttered around his beer, and it was my turn to glare. “You are not a part of this decision, old man.” He paled and clamped his mouth shut. No, it wasn’t nice. But I had to be tough. I had to let him go before the vamp who’d fed from him turned him from the light completely. This would be his last hunt, whether he knew it or not.

  Rachel leaned back against the couch, looking up at me. “Let me get this straight. You want me to work with you? Go in as a team and expose this Asclepius Project?”

  I gave her my best smile. “Yes, that is what I am proposing.”

  I could almost see her weighing the pros and cons.

  “I’ll work on Derrick’s notes, see what I can find. What are you going to do?” Her gaze swept between the two of us.

  “I have a patron who has been a naughty boy,” I said. “He’s gone to ground, but I mean to find him and make him talk. I believe he has ties to this project.”

  A whiff of gun oil and two-day-old sweat wafted under the front door. I spun around and drew in another breath to be sure, then said, “We have company. Your friend Sean is back.”

  Rachel hefted the army bag and all but threw it at me, whispering, “Put this back where you found it and get the hell out of here. I’ll deal with him.”

  I didn’t move. “Tell me we have a deal. Until this hunt is over, you and I will share information and work together as a team. Until the vampires are all dead.”

  Calvin gave a little choking sound.

  She nodded twice. “Yes, yes, now get out of here.”

  I grabbed her hand and brought the palm to my mouth, slicing it with my teeth. I did the same to my own hand and then slapped our palms together. “Now swear it.”

  Her brows tightened and she stared at our clasped hands for a split second. “I swear I will work with you until all the vampires are dead. Okay?”

  I let her go and nodded. “Better than okay. Follow up with your leads today. I’ll meet you back here at eight and we’ll compare notes.”

  Calvin followed me into her bedroom and watched in silence while I stuffed the bag into her secret hiding spot. Grabbing him around the waist, I all but threw him over my shoulder and climbed out the window to the fire escape as I pulled my cowl up over my head. Thank God for dreary fall days with plenty of cloud cover.

  “Put me down, Lea.”

  I did as he asked, then shut the window behind us and started down the metal steps.

  “You replacing me?”

  I stopped on the landing below him and looked up. For just a moment I could see the young man I’d taken on as my helper almost fifty years ago. Fifty years we’d worked together, and there had only ever been one slip-up. One moment of weakness on his part—a night I would not forget and he seemed determined not to remember.

  “Yes. You knew it would be coming, so why are you surprised?”

  “But her? Why her?”

  I tore my gaze from him and leapt from the fire escape, letting my body fall through the open air. As I landed lightly in a crouch, I stared up at the figure slowly making his way down. Calvin would never understand, but the truth was I saw a kindred spirit in Rachel. A woman determined to make a difference despite the dangers around her.

  That was what I needed at my side, as my teammate.

  A force to be reckoned with.

  And, if nothing else, Rachel was surely that.

  CHAPTER 16

  RACHEL

  Sean repeated his knock, sounding more insistent, and the beer cans caught my eye. When I grabbed them and tossed them into the trash, the blood on my palm smeared a little, reminding me that I was still wearing a bloody shirt. I pulled it over my head and threw it in the corner, then dampened a dishtowel and swiped at my neck and chest, getting all the blood off. Lea was right; the bite wounds from Caine were completely healed.

  I realized I had a dilemma—take more time to go grab a shirt or answer the door in my bra and jeans. If it really was Sean, I could use the latter to my advantage.

  I tossed the dishtowel onto the counter, then walked over and opened the door.

  Sean stood on the other side of the threshold, wearing several days’ growth of beard. His eyes widened as his gaze was drawn to my black bra, but he quickly raised it to my face.

  Several things struck me at once. One, Lea had identified my visitor correctly, which only gave her claim of being a vampire more credence. Two, I was taking the news that vampires really walked the earth remarkably well. Three, Sean looked like shit. And four, even looking his worst, Sean still had his hooks in me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding worried. “You’re so pale.” He leaned closer. “Are those marks on your neck?”

  Apparently not as healed up as I’d thought.

  I pulled the hair tie out of my ponytail and let my hair fall around my neck. “I was clumsy. What are you doing here?”

  He glanced over my shoulder. “Can I come in?” I hesitated and his eyes softened. “Please? I need to talk to you about something important.”

  I didn’t really want Sean to come in—the chances were pretty high that he was behind the order to chase us through Manhattan and ultimately kill Derrick. It seemed undeniable that Sean had a connection with the Asclepius Project, and based on what Lea had said, this wasn’t his first visit to my apartment. I could barely stand to look at him, but I might be able to get answers, or at the very least, a few leads.

  “I was about to make a pot of coffee.” I backed away and walked into the kitchen, fully cognizant I was still wearing just my bra.

  He followed me into the apartment and shut the door behind him. “You always did know the way to a man’s heart.”

  “Ha!” I said, filling the pot with water. “I thought that was food.”

  He moved behind me, his chest dangerously close to my back. “For me, it’s sex and coffee, and you were always particularly good at the former.”

  I resisted the urge to turn around and beat the shit out of him even as I felt the tug of the chemistry between us. This man betrayed me two years ago, and he was most likely my enemy now. I couldn’t let myself forget that no matter how he made me feel. If Derrick really was dead, there was a good chance Sean had played a role in that, as difficult as it was to believe.

  I slid to the side and poured the water into the back of the coffee maker. “Ancient history, Sean.”

  “Why is there a bloody towel in your sink?” His voice was tight.

  Dammit. “I cut myself,” I said lightly as I scooped coffee grounds into the machine.

  “That must have been
one hell of a cut,” he murmured, lifting his hand to my neck. “Was it from this?”

  I brushed his hand away and showed him my still-bloody palm. “Just my hand, but it looks worse than it is. I’m fine.”

  He grabbed my hand and used his thumb to brush open my fingers. I ignored the flutter of anticipation in my gut and tried to pull free, to no avail.

  “See?” I asked as he studied the cut. Thank goodness Lea had sliced my palm instead of puncturing it.

  He studied my hand, then looked into my eyes. “Want me to kiss it and make it better?”

  I jerked my hand free. “No, thanks.”

  His fingertips slid down my arm, sending chills down my back.

  “Are you cold?”

  “Yeah, I need to get a shirt,” I responded, but I didn’t dare go into my room. He might follow me there and somehow find Derrick’s hidden bag. I grabbed my jacket off the back of the chair and noticed the Google search on Asclepius was still up on my computer screen on the coffee table. If Sean was part of it, the less he thought I knew, the better.

  After shrugging on the jacket, I walked over and scooped up the laptop, closing the lid and setting it down on the table. “Would you like to sit?” I asked, sinking onto the sofa. “It will be a few minutes before the coffee’s ready.”

  He walked over and I waited to see where he would sit. I still wasn’t sure why he’d shown up on my doorstep at 7:30 in the morning, but I suspected it wasn’t to ask me for a date, or even to screw me. In fact, according to Lea he’d been here before. So when he sat next to me, I knew he was playing me, big time. The question was why?

  “What brings you by my apartment, Sean?” I asked, pulling my afghan over my legs. “How’d you know where I live?”

  A grin tugged at his lips. “Please…”

  “Isn’t using classified information for personal use against the rules?”

  His grin spread. “Finding out your address doesn’t exactly qualify as classified information.”

  “Okay…” I conceded. “That brings us back to my original question. Why are you here?”