Kraft swore. “I’ll kill the man who did that to you.”
Crysta tapped him on the chest. “Not now, vampire.”
“Get in the van and go,” I said to the three of them. “I’m not going in until you guys are on the road. Oh, and there’s a note in the console on where to meet my dad. Hurry.” I wanted to get the show started.
While Kraft and Kodiak hurried to the van, Crysta touched my arm. “The only way to get around inside is with someone’s eyes.”
I pinched my eyebrows together, but I didn’t get a chance to ask her what she meant before Edmund’s voice peppered the air.
Edmund rushed up, dressed in jeans, boots, and a turtleneck sweater that enhanced his sharp features. “Jo.” The vampire’s tone was almost giddy as though he hadn’t seen me in quite some time.
“Go,” I said to Crysta.
She hurried to the van, where Kraft was waiting behind the wheel. Kodiak sat in the back with his arm hanging out the door, ready to pull Crysta inside.
When the van’s engine began to fade, I ambled in through the gate with Abbey’s hand in mine.
Edmund squatted down as he scanned Abbey from head to toe. She wore a winter coat, scarf, and a furry pink hat, while her black hair hung freely.
As I witnessed a loving expression on Edmund’s face, I realized how much Abbey and Edmund looked alike. They had the same straight nose, thick lips, and thick eyebrows. The only difference was the color of their eyes. Abbey had big blue eyes, and Edmund’s were a muted brown color, almost yellow, depending on the light.
“Hi,” Edmund said in a sugary tone. “I’m Edmund.”
Abbey’s cotton-candy-colored cheeks puffed out. “I’m Abbey.”
“Well, Abbey, would you like to go inside?” Edmund asked. “I have your room ready with dolls and toys that you can play with.”
“Only if Jo can come with me,” Abbey said.
I narrowed my eyes at Edmund. “Where she goes, I go.”
Edmund popped to his feet. “I’m glad you’re here, Jo. I want you to help me train my new soldiers. Remember, we discussed you doing that very thing.”
I swayed on my feet for a split second at the sincerity in his tone. Actually, I was suddenly speechless until a voice in the back of my mind told me to snap out of it. He’s still an enemy and a demon.
We walked toward the warehouse in silence, Abbey holding on to me tightly. Edmund kept glancing at Abbey every now and then. Maybe with Edmund’s fatherly and loving state of mind, I could talk some sense into him. You’re here to kill him, not get him on your side.
My subconscious was spot-on. But first, I had to dance with the devil before I sent him to hell.
18
Webb
I walked into a ballroom in the motel where we were staying, which was five miles north of Edmund’s complex. For me, the distance was too far, but the motel had been the only one that would accommodate our request to rent out the entire property. We wanted complete privacy as we planned our next move. We couldn’t take any chances on having Edmund’s men snoop around or pretend they were guests in the hotel. Steven had even casually read the minds of five workers to be certain none of them knew of Edmund or worked at his warehouse.
Sam stalked in with bags of what smelled like hamburgers and tons of grease. My stomach rolled once at the idea of eating grease. As vampires, we needed protein, but my hunger was non-existent. Kraft followed Sam as though he was a starving vampire.
Kodiak trickled in too, sniffing the air. “I’m starving.”
After Kodiak, Kraft, and Crysta had picked us up, we drove straight back to the motel. I wanted to grab a sleeping bag and head back out to keep an eye on the warehouse, which I would do once we knew what our next steps were.
Sam placed bags on each of the white-linen-covered tables on both sides of the aisle. Kodiak and Kraft plopped into chairs in the last row and began eating.
Steven and Olivia had grilled them on the way to the motel, but sadly, Kraft and Kodiak hadn’t seen much. Crysta, on the other hand, had. We’d learned all the doors had top-of-the-line security with retina scans. Most of the large complex was empty, save for a section where supplies were offloaded. None of what we’d learned shocked me or gave me any reason to lose sight of our mission. Any one of those doors could be opened with a little C-4.
Sam dove into a bag and began eating his burger. In between bites, he said, “Webb eat. You’ll need all the fuel you can get.”
The only fuel I needed was adrenaline, and I had plenty to go around. In fact, I wouldn’t relax until Jo was back in my arms. Hell, it had taken every ounce of willpower not to pull the trigger on the crossbow Olivia had given me and take out Edmund as he’d swaggered up to Jo and Abbey. The asshole had almost seemed human as he’d squatted down to talk to his daughter. But the minute they’d started for the building was the minute my heart sank to my feet and a deep coldness set in. I knew Jo could take care of herself, but the odds of her living through another dagger to the chest weren’t high, at least not in my book. We had to get inside as fast as we could.
The rest of the team started to spill in, snatching burgers and fries as they found a seat at one of the classroom-style tables.
I poured a cup of coffee as Steven sidled up to me and did the same.
“Sawyer is working on hacking into the warehouse security system and their computers,” Steven said. “If he can do that, then we won’t need to carve out anyone’s eyes to get in. I would like to get into that warehouse in the early morning hours when everyone is asleep. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow night, and that is too damn long.”
Boy, did I agree.
With his coffee in hand, Steven sauntered up to the PowerPoint projector that sat on a small table at the top of the aisle. “While everyone is eating, we’re going to get started.”
I hung back, standing near the last of the tables, where Kraft and Kodiak were sitting. Victor, Howell, Olivia, Tripp, Ben, Matthew, Sam, Crysta, and Dr. Vieira filled in the chairs ahead of me. The only person missing was Alia. She’d only tagged along to take care of Abbey.
The movie screen lit up, showing the blueprints of the building. “Crysta,” Steven said. “Since you have the most knowledge, please come up and take us through these plans.”
She followed orders, taking a laser pointer that had been on the table and pointing it at the screen. “I only can speak to what I saw, but before I was captured, I spoke to a couple of the locals about this building.”
I still hadn’t asked how she’d ended up in Edmund’s custody. “Crysta, explain how they captured you,” I said. Knowing how would keep us from walking into the same trap.
She nodded her red head. “A guard spotted me in my car with binoculars. I drove off before he had a chance to question me, but I was followed. As soon as I got out of my car at a bar in town, I was shot with a sedative. But the sedative didn’t work that long. I might have been out for, at most, five minutes. When I woke up, we were driving through the gate of the warehouse. I did act like I was groggy in the event they decided to blindfold me.”
“So,” Dr. Vieira piped up. “Only five minutes?”
“Yeah, I suspect it’s my wolf blood. Not a lot of drugs work on me unless I drink my cousin, Tripp’s, vampire blood.” She grinned at Tripp, who was sitting in the front row.
“Mmm,” Dr. Vieira said. “I’ll give you a shot of the antidote anyway before we leave.”
Crysta pointed the laser at the screen. “They threw me in a room adjacent to these doors right here, which lead into the mountain. I only know that from listening to the people outside my door. The entire warehouse I think is a decoy in the event the law shows up. If they did, all they would see would be empty rooms and shelves with toilet paper, paper towels, drinks, etcetera. The bottom line is nothing in the warehouse says there’s a medical lab, an army of humans turned vampire, or anything of the like. Edmund’s operation is in the mountain. Probably deep in the mountain.”
>
“So blowing up the building wouldn’t get us far?” Victor asked. He was sitting next to Tripp.
“Kodiak and I were in a sterile room with thick cobalt doors,” Kraft said. “When they escorted us out, we passed through a large empty room with high ceilings. That was it.”
Steven folded his arms over his chest. “But the outside doors we can see are governed by retina scans?”
Crysta nodded. “That was how the guy who captured me got inside.”
“How are we going to get my sister and Abbey out?” Sam asked from where he sat in the back row, opposite Kraft and Kodiak.
I cleared my throat. “First, Edmund knows we’re here. He knows that we’re going to do everything possible to get Jo out. Second, he’s a former SEAL. So he’s learned not to barricade himself in. That tells me two things. One, he’s probably getting ready to take Abbey and Jo away from here, which leads me to the second. He has another entry point in and out through the mountain.”
The room dropped into a dead silence.
Tripp rose, gathering his trash. “Then Webb and I will go hiking. Because no blueprint is going to show us a mountain access.”
I had to love my best friend. He was a take-no-prisoners kind of vampire.
Steven dipped his head once at me. “Victor, Sam, Olivia, and Ben, take two vehicles and head out toward the complex. The four of you replace four of the vampire guards and patrol the area. I don’t want to call attention to their security just yet. Leave the human guards intact. In the meantime, Kraft and Kodiak, Viking II will be rolling in within the hour. I want you both to bring them up to speed then take them a mile outside the warehouse and do some surveillance. Matthew, I want you to help Dr. Vieira. He’ll be administering the antidote to Viking II.”
Howell raised his hand. “Commander, what would you like me to do?”
“You’re with me,” Steven said. “You know the area. Let’s head into town and snoop around. If anything goes down, then alert the team.”
Ben stalked up, all six feet of him. “I’m ready,” he said as he regarded me.
I slapped him on the arm. “I know you are. Listen to Olivia.”
Steven joined us as his phone rang. “I’ve got to take this in private. Tripp and Webb, if you find anything in the mountains, call in.” He ambled out of the room.
With the orders doled out, everyone scattered, including Tripp and me.
Within five minutes, Tripp and I were on the road. He drove while I navigated.
“If we find any access, we’re going in.” I wasn’t waiting. The longer we sat, the more of a chance Edmund had to flee.
Tripp turned down a dirt road. “If we do, we call the commander, then we go in.”
I scratched my neck. “Good. Because when we call the commander, he’ll tell us to wait for his orders.”
Tripp pulled off and parked the SUV in an opening between two large tree trunks. “Every time we do things by the book when it comes to Edmund, we walk away empty-handed or someone gets killed. That isn’t happening tonight. Tonight, we go rogue if we have to.”
I was his leader. I should be correcting him. But I didn’t see any other way to get Jo and Abbey out alive, kill Edmund, and destroy Patrick’s research.
We gathered our gear and weapons then headed out into the night.
19
Jo
Abbey was asleep in my arms as Edmund gave me a tour of the facility. An odd sense of weirdness settled in my stomach as my number one enemy pointed out different areas of his fortress as though he was leading a group of tourists through a museum. Nothing he showed me was fascinating. I’d seen walls made of rock, felt cold air, smelled dirt and must, and sadly, I’d seen glass rooms that had humans strapped to tables. As we traversed the part of the complex that was embedded in the mountain, that weirdness in my stomach morphed into nausea. Innocent humans were about to be or had been experimented on. Not only that, memories of when I’d found my brother, Sam, in a glass room on his deathbed shot the nausea in my stomach off the charts.
I ground my teeth, tempering my anger and willing the bile creeping up into my throat to go away as we stopped at a thick steel door.
“Why don’t I hold her?” Edmund asked. “It appears you need a break.”
I mentally scratched my head at his kind voice, his warm expression, and how proud he was of his operation. The latter didn’t surprise. After all, Edmund had boasted about how he would build an army. And I shouldn’t have been that shocked that he was being nice. He’d been kind to me at the lab on the Indian reservation. But at the moment, his warm-hearted demeanor was overly excessive. I was also shocked that he wasn’t nervous about my dad and his team lurking outside his complex. Maybe Abbey’s presence was triggering a side of Edmund no one had seen.
Edmund waved a hand in front of me. “Jo?”
“Why are you so nice?” I asked. “You know my father is going to try and get me out of this place.”
He took Abbey into his arms. She stirred for a second before snuggling her head into the crook of his neck.
He briefly closed his eyes as though Abbey was the drug he needed. “First, my daughter needs to see the real me. And as far as your father, there’s no way in. I know how he thinks, so I’m prepared. He can force my guards on the outside for information. He won’t get it. He can blow up doors. He still won’t get in.”
I guessed I shouldn’t have been too surprised at how prepared he was for my dad’s onslaught. But I was definitely thrown off track by his thick sweetness. “You’ve been an evil man since I met you. Abbey will see through that.”
He rubbed Abbey’s back. “We all have an evil side, Jo, even your father and Webb.”
“They act in self-defense or to protect innocent humans and vampires,” I countered.
Edmund positioned his eyes into a scanner adjacent to the steel door. “And how is that any different? Killing someone is all the same.”
With a whoosh, the door slid open. Stark white lights spilled out as a gust of sterile air washed over me.
“After you,” Edmund said.
I hesitated as I searched the inside of the room. In no way was I getting locked up. But the lab benches, beakers, a large oven, and my uncle Patrick standing over a microscope didn’t portray a prison cell. Then again, the setup did give me the willies, especially with Abbey present. Dad had suspected that Edmund would use his daughter as a lab rat, and I couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m not taking your DNA or Abbey’s,” Edmund said, as though he could read my thoughts. But I knew he couldn’t since I’d taken the mind-blocking potion. “I told you when we walked in earlier that I would show you around. And your uncle wanted to see you and meet my daughter.”
A hysterical laugh broke out in my head. The only reason my uncle wanted to see me would be to take a sample of my DNA or Abbey’s. “Then give me Abbey.”
Edmund cocked a dark eyebrow. “I give you my word.”
“And that’s supposed to mean something?” I asked.
My uncle Patrick wiped his hands on his lab coat as he crossed the cement floor. “Jo, it’s so good to see you.” He raked his sky-blue gaze over me. “How’s my brother?” His tone was disgustingly sweet.
I had to be in an alternate universe or dreaming. “My dad wants you dead.” I didn’t see a reason to lie.
A condescending laugh rumbled out of Patrick before he banked his attitude. “So this is Abbey?”
Edmund’s lips tipped upward as he clung to his daughter.
“Why did you kill her mother?” I asked Edmund.
He ushered me inside, and I went willingly, although I stayed close to the door.
Abbey stirred then blinked several times before she pushed away from Edmund. “I want Jo.”
Edmund didn’t protest as he handed her to me, seemingly not the least bit hurt from what I could tell.
Immediately, Abbey locked her arms around my neck as she set her sleepy blue eyes on my uncle Patrick. “You’ll die soo
n,” she said so seriously.
Bewildered expressions swept over Patrick and Edmund’s faces. I was sure I had one of those looks too. I knew Abbey had visions, but to hear her say those words with such conviction sent a chill down my spine—a chill coated with equal parts sadness and excitement. After all, Patrick was kin, but he was a bad seed in our family lineage—a jealous boy who had grown up to hate my father because my dad was a vampire and he wasn’t. Needless to say that in order to keep our existence as vampires out of the hands and knowledge of the human government, Patrick needed to disappear, die, or have his memories wiped. At the very least, we had to erase his memories and destroy all physical data.
Patrick shoved his hands into his lab coat. “How do you know this, Abbey?”
“I see into the future,” she said with the cutest smile.
I resisted the urge to kiss her cotton-candy-colored cheeks or jump up and down for joy at how she’d rendered them speechless. I didn’t want to do anything that would upset Edmund to the point that he would take Abbey away from me.
Slow and sharp, Edmund’s fangs elongated. “Not possible.”
Abbey buried her face in my neck.
“Put the fangs away. You’re scaring her.” I walked deeper into the lab, holding on to Abbey as though her life depended on it. I should’ve been walking out the door. But one, I didn’t have a way out or know where to go. And two, my throat was parched to the point that if I didn’t get blood, I would collapse. I opened the small refrigerator that sat on a counter along the right wall, hoping they kept a blood supply.
Small bottles of blood lined the top shelf. I grabbed one then turned back to face the gaping duo, who were staring at Abbey and me. Wow. If a vision of Patrick’s future was all it took to stop them dead in their tracks, then Abbey needed to tell them more about how neither of them would live to see tomorrow.
I examined the label on the bottle. All signs said the contents had come from a blood bank in Anchorage, so I didn’t have to worry about drinking poisoned or drug-laced blood.
On the Edge of Infinity (A Vampire SEAL Novel Book 5) Page 15