A soft humming started and I stared at the first body as her eyes opened. As if on cue, her two companions started to sing a song I recognized all too well.
Ring around the rosie
A pocket full of posy
Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall...down.
They sat up in unison with the word ‘down.’ Dead eyes stared at me.
Zombies if ever I had seen them.
“Madre de Dios,” I whispered, backing right into a large set of arms that wrapped tightly around my upper body.
“You’re going to die, Cazador.”
“Someday,” I kicked out behind me, nailing my would-be captor in the kneecap and snapping his leg backward, “but not today.”
CHAPTER 34
RACHEL
After I finished my conversation with Lea, I hung the walkie-talkie back on my jeans and continued releasing the captives with my key card.
I was almost done with the first row and about to start on the second.
“You have to save the people back there. Please. My friend Valerie’s back there,” pleaded one of the women I had released. She was pale and could barely stand.
“What’s back there?”
“I don’t know. People go in there and they never come out. Sometimes we hear their screams.”
I resisted the urge to shudder, but she must have sensed my hesitation.
“Please. She saved my ass when I first got to prison. We got each other’s backs.”
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to find her.”
When I’d gotten everyone out—many of them weak and ill—the corridor between the cages and the small open area by the door was crammed with people. I searched for the man who’d taken charge. When he met my eyes, I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Rowland grinned, then turned to the crowd. “Okay, we’re doing this in groups of ten. Amber, you take the first group up to the first floor.”
“I’m going to check the back room.” I scanned my card and reached down to turn the handle and push the heavy door inward. There was another door at the end of a short four-foot corridor. I looked back at the people gathered in the area behind me, then scanned Sean’s card on the door. The lock clicked, and I pushed it open, then closed the door behind me.
The overhead lighting was dim in the large room, but it was plenty bright enough for me to make out the horror within.
There were close to a hundred naked bodies arranged on medical tables, each surrounded by machines with multiple tubes coming from their noses, mouths, and arms.
I walked closer to a table and looked down in horror. This person wasn’t human. His facial features looked melted, like a blank slate waiting to be created. The fingers on his hands had fused together and his skin was slightly scaly.
What the hell was going on here?
Then the man’s eyes opened, revealing red pupils.
I jerked backward.
The man sat up, panic in his eyes. His lips pulled back, allowing me to see the multiple rows of pointed teeth in his mouth.
“Let me help you,” I said.
He hissed and ripped the tubes out of his face and his arm.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, then turned to run back to the door.
He leapt off his medical table. I rushed to the door, desperate to make my escape.
Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. “Derrick?” I could have sworn it was him—standing behind a machine, an IV pole trailing behind him. But I didn’t have time to get a closer look, because the creature I’d awoken was determined to hunt me down.
Was that why he had been created? As a hunting weapon for the U.S. government?
But I could think about that later. Now I needed to get the hell out of there, especially since several of the thing’s buddies had been roused from their slumber.
I swiped my card and made it through the first door, which closed behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief when the second door opened, but the sound of shattering glass startled me. I looked back to see the monster’s hand punching the window, then it leapt through the opening. I ran through the second threshold but was tackled from behind, the impact shoving me through the door and into a metal cage wall.
People behind me screamed as the creatures rushed into the room and grabbed their prey, ripping out flesh with their teeth. I swung my horrified gaze to the monster who had me pinned to the metal bars. I spun around and tried to dart to the side, but the creature grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me back, pressing me into the bars.
His mouth opened, his teeth looking even scarier than they had from a few feet away. A burst of anger exploded in my chest.
I’d be damned if it ended this way.
CHAPTER 35
LEA
The bastard who’d grabbed me from behind was more than familiar. He was a vampire from my past...one of the few who’d gotten away.
The one who made me into a monster.
“Peter. Long time, no see.”
I spun, flinging him off my back toward his three undead lady friends as they rose from the tables. His body knocked down two of them, but the first lady, the one with the curls, managed to dodge the impact.
Curly Sue slunk toward me, her body hunched and twitching as her muscles jerked in an odd rhythm. In a blink, she was right in front of me. Faster than a vampire? This was not good.
Stumbling back, I barely avoided her first swing as she swiped a clawed hand toward my face. Her speed more than matched mine. In truth, she was faster.
“What’s the matter, Lea? Finally met a vamp who you couldn’t take out?” Peter spoke in my native tongue, the Spanish rolling fluently from his lips.
I dropped to my knees and struck at Curly Sue, dragging her legs out from under her and jerking her to me. She bucked and fought as I climbed up her body. Snagging a stake from the top of my boot, I yanked it out and drove it through her right eye. Her body spasmed once and then went still.
A whoosh of air was the only warning I had before Curly Sue’s friend tackled me to the ground. Her teeth snapped at my face, but I held her off with ease. Yes, they were fast, but they weren’t any stronger than they’d been as humans.
“Peter, did you make these ladies?” I bit the words out, as I reached up and twisted the woman’s neck with a sharp snap. Her tongue flopped out and she bit it in half, spewing blood all over my face. Some got into my mouth and I gagged.
“They taste like shit.”
Peter laughed and pushed the last lady at me as he approached me from the other side. Tag-teaming me. “That they do. They aren’t like us, Lea. They aren’t real vampires. Undead, fast, stupid. Easy to dispose of.”
“Not nice, Peter. What are you and Stravinsky up to?” I growled, pushing the body off me; her boneless limbs flopped and her head hit the floor with a meaty thump. I had noticed that Rachel always managed to distract her marks by talking them down. I had nothing to lose by trying her methods.
“What are you doing teaming up with the Pol? You two hated each other, if I remember correctly.” Standing, I sidled sideways, keeping the two of them in front of me. I managed to get one of the tables between us. “Can’t be because you’ve had a change of heart, is it? Gone soft in your old age?”
Peter grinned, his fangs fully extended, yellowed with age. “Stravinsky is looking for a cure, Lea.”
“Yeah, yeah, the humans and all their diseases.”
Peter shook his head. “No. A cure for us. A way to be human again.”
I’ll admit, my jaw dropped. “That’s not possible.”
He put his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Are you sure?”
I heard the lie in his voice a split second too late. His hand was around my throat before I could get away from him. He dragged me across the table as I fought with everything I had. But matched as we were with speed and strength, he was still bigger.
“You were my best creation, Lea,” he said softly as he drove his fingers deeper into my thro
at.
I ran my tongue over my lips, and his eyes followed, his hands easing up so I could speak. “And yet you’d kill me?”
Peter shrugged. “You have been a pain in my ass ever since the day you were turned. Perhaps I should have just killed you then, but I wanted you as my own.”
As he spoke, I slowly lifted my legs up, moving them incrementally so he wouldn’t notice. “And now?”
He tipped his head to one side. “Now, I’d still like to fuck you, but—”
I kicked out with both feet, driving them into his gut and sending him flying away from me. The woman launched toward me, her teeth burying into my side. With a scream, I grabbed her hair and ripped her off me, wrenching her head so hard I nearly pulled it off. As it was, it hung lose by a few vertebrae when I let her go.
Peter laughed, shaking his head as I stood. “I really should have killed you.”
I straightened up. “There are days I wish you had just slit my throat and been done with me. But here I am, and I am still a Cazador, Peter.” I pulled a silver stake. “And that means you and I are on opposite sides.”
He flexed his hands. “Time for one of us to die, I think. There can be no other way.”
I flipped the stake into my right hand and pulled the second one from my other boot. “Come, then. Let us be done with this.”
It felt like my first hunt again, the words so formal and familiar. I hadn’t said anything like it in centuries.
With Peter, though, it felt right. He was my creator—there should be some formality before I killed him.
In a blur of movement, Peter rushed me. I stepped toward him, slashing upward, catching the side of his face. He let out a roar as he slammed his shoulder into my chest, sending me flying backward and into the far wall. I hit hard and slid down, but was up on my feet a split second later.
Peter was gone.
“What the fuck?”
He knew I was here. He was going to tell Stravinsky. Son of a bitch, Rachel and I were in deep shit.
A loud scream of pain snapped my head around. I knew that voice. I was running toward him before I thought better of it.
Under my breath I cursed him, and my need to protect him, even now. “Calvin, what the hell are you doing all the way down here?”
CHAPTER 36
RACHEL
The creature’s razor-sharp teeth were dangerously close to my neck. I dropped to a squat, ripping out some of my hair the monster still had in his grip, and pulled the knife from my boot.
It took a step back, thrown off and bewildered.
I spun on my heels and rose, holding the blade at an angle. There used to be a person in that body. I had to try one last time to reach him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
The creature studied me for a second with vacant eyes. By the time he lunged, I knew this was just a shell. I wasn’t killing a man. I was showing mercy to an empty soul. I jammed the blade deep into the creature’s chest, between his ribs, jerking the weapon at an angle to make sure I reached his heart.
Surprise filled his eyes as he dropped to his knees and then fell face forward, his blood spilling onto the tile floor.
The screams of the people behind me formed a dull roar.
Get your shit together, Rachel.
I took a deep breath and spun around to face the melee. Rowland had a piece of metal and was beating the creatures off their intended victims.
One of the monsters had tackled a woman and was eating from her torso. I barely registered the dull look of death in her eyes as I leapt at his back, slashing his throat with my knife. The thing made a gurgling sound and collapsed on its victim as blood poured over my hand, making my hold on the knife slippery.
I got to my feet, resisting the urge to vomit.
Rowland and two other men had pummelled two creatures into submission, but they were still alive, albeit weak.
I stomped toward them. Leaning over the first one, I grabbed what was left of its hair and slit its throat with a cold calculation that shocked me. I made quick work of the second, then turned to look at Rowland.
“What are the damages here?” My voice shook, betraying my fear.
The men stared at me wide-eyed, no doubt shocked to see a blonde, blue-eyed woman do such a deadly deed.
Rowland looked around. “Looks like we have three dead and five wounded. About half of our number ran out of the room.”
“Shit.” I tried to focus. I had to think, trying to ignore the fact that I was covered in blood. If I let myself stop and think about what I’d just done, I’d probably fall to pieces. And I definitely didn’t have time for that. “I don’t think we have to worry about security finding out you all are free. They seem to be gone as far as I can tell. If they weren’t, they’d already have swooped down on us.” But staying here for any longer was not an option. I had to help them escape, and then I had to get all the information I had to the public.
I glanced up at Rowland. “Time to get everyone out of here.”
He nodded. “Agreed.”
I grabbed my walkie-talkie. “Lea. Things have turned to shit.”
Talk about the understatement of the year.
CHAPTER 37
LEA
I hit the button on the walkie-talkie. “You’re telling me. Calvin is here.”
“I thought he was going to hang back.”
“He was.” I took a slow breath. “Meet me back at the hangar with the prisoners. If you aren’t there in ten minutes, I’m coming to look for you.” I turned a corner and slid to a stop, my finger slipping off the call button.
Calvin was on the floor, his back against the wall next to an air duct, a puddle of blood around him. He lifted a hand to me, and the corner of his lips raised for a split second. I ran to him, skidding to the floor on my knees in my eagerness to get to him.
“Lea, not how I wanted to end things.”
“Hush.” I searched his body, stopping when my hands found the wound under his shirt. His belly had been opened from hip to hip.
“You can’t fix this,” he said. “Victor did it.”
Fix it... Calvin was wrong, I could fix this. “I can drink you down, Calvin. You could hunt with me for the rest of—”
“No. Go after Victor.” His eyes drooped. “Go, Lea. And forgive me. I did...love you. I just couldn’t admit it to you. Hell, not even to myself.”
I leaned forward and kissed him as gently as I could. How long had I waited for those words? Too long, and now it was too late for anything but goodbye.
“There is nothing to forgive, my friend.” His breathing was ragged as I backed away from him, the taste of his blood on my lips.
Emotions raging through me, I had to fight to center myself and find Victor’s scent. There it was, under the smell of Calvin’s blood and my own pain. Expensive cologne and a whisper of pine. With a snarl, I raced down the hall, hardly seeing the doors I passed. My entire being was focused on one thing.
Finding Victor and ripping his fucking head off.
The stairs were a gray blur as I raced down them, leaping down the final flight to land in front of a door. Distantly, I recognized it as the thirteenth floor. I kicked the door open and strode in, still following Victor’s scent.
I was in a hallway that looked like an apartment building in New York.
And the smell of vampires was overwhelming. I booted the first door on my left and it clanged open.
The room featured hardwood floors and granite countertops, and was furnished in high-end materials—big-screen TV, leather couches, and china dishware. What few clothes were left flopped over the backs of the furniture were designer brands.
I pushed open a closet to see several orange jumpsuits hanging inside, Rikers Island stamped on them, along with the inmates’ numbers.
This had to be where they’d been keeping all the vamps. Most likely they were pairing up a newbie with a mentor to try and train them a little.
Stepping out into the hall, I checked all the rooms. Victor
would die soon enough, and Calvin would want me to make sure not to miss any other assholes.
I found someone in the last room.
Her headphones were on, and her fingers flew across a game controller. Her back was to the door, so she probably hadn’t seen the blinking red light.
I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped, then turned to look at me with a guilty look on her face. “Holy shit, you scared me.”
I grabbed her shoulders with both hands. “They are evacuating the site. Do you know where they’re going?”
Her jaw dropped. “Shit, for real?”
I nodded. “Where are they going?”
“Oh, man, there’ll be a chopper up top, but you mean after that?” She pushed past me and grabbed a designer bag, stuffing it with various items.
“Yes, after the chopper where will...we...go?”
She shrugged. “Some place in Iraq, I think. It was the original facility.”
When she turned to face me, I drove the silver stake into her heart. “Thank you.”
Her lips paled, moving soundlessly as she slumped to the floor and off the stake. Her body lit up with a burst of light, sending the grey ash of her remains floating into the air before settling on the hardwood floor.
I turned and headed to the door at the end of the hallway, catching another whiff of Victor. From Sean’s memories, I knew it was the main laboratory where all the experimentation had been done. It was where Stravinsky spent the majority of his time.
[I opened the door and…walked in? burst in? snuck in and stood silently?] The scene was surreal, as if all the worst assholes I’d ever dealt with in my life had decided to form a brotherhood. Victor was speaking rapidly to Peter, and Stravinsky stood behind them.
“You don’t get it,” Victor said. “If Calvin is here, Lea is here.”
“I know she’s here, you whiny little shit,” Peter snapped. “You killed her helper?”
Victor nodded, and I could almost feel the satisfaction roll off his smug-ass face. “I gutted him. It’ll be a slow death.”
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