“Edmund, she is your daughter. Why are you so surprised?”
He shook his head once, his eyes flickering from brown to vampire red. “Supernatural powers are passed down from someone in a vampire’s lineage. There is no one in my family who has been able to see into the future. The only one I’ve ever known to have that power is your grandfather, Jo.”
I set Abbey down on the top of the lab bench in the middle of the room. For a split second, I thought about Edmund’s statement. If that were true, then Edmund was related to me. Dad hadn’t said anything about another brother. Patrick was Dad’s half brother, and while it was possible that Edmund could have been related to the Mason family, I didn’t believe it for a second. Or maybe he was trying to say that Abbey was not his daughter but rather my dad’s child. Still, I had to ask. “So what are you saying?”
“Abbey could be your father’s daughter,” Edmund said.
“Nope. I know for a fact you’re her father. Dr. Vieira tested Abbey’s DNA against yours. Apparently, he had your data from when you were part of the SEAL team. Trust me. I wanted to know if you could be her father.” I remembered asking Dad that very question. “Not only that, look at her. She has your nose, hair, and lips. So someone in your long history of vampires had to have strong supernatural powers. I mean, why do your eyes change to red? With the exception of my dad and me, all vampire eyes are black.”
Patrick went over to the sink. “It’s part of his DNA. It was a question I had as well. And Edmund isn’t related to the Mason family. I also tested his DNA against mine and your father’s.”
“There you have it,” I added with a sigh. Regardless, if he had been related to us, it wouldn’t have changed our mission. He would still have to die.
Edmund waltzed up to Abbey, studying her features. “She does have my nose. And I don’t know my family lineage well.”
Once Edmund’s fangs were no longer in view, Abbey reached out and flattened her palm on his unshaven jaw.
I held my breath. Anytime Abbey touched a person’s face, she showed them a vision.
Patrick gulped down a glass of water. The sound echoed around the room as he and I watched Edmund’s expression flicker from confusion to happiness to shock. When Abbey dropped her hand, Edmund’s face paled to a blinding shade of white.
Edmund gripped the back of his neck. “Impossible.”
Lines dented Patrick’s forehead. “What did you see?”
Edmund plucked his phone from his jeans pocket. “Blow up the warehouse so no one gets in. Do it now!”
My pulse picked up in speed for many reasons, but one stuck out. “What did Abbey show you?” The blood I was drinking curdled in my stomach.
Patrick opened a drawer near the sink, produced a handgun, and proceeded to point it at Abbey.
Holy shit! I dropped the bottle, blood splattering everywhere as I grabbed Abbey.
Edmund threw himself in between Patrick and me. “Put the gun down, Patrick.”
I leaned out to see around Edmund’s big body.
Patrick pinched his eyebrows together so hard, his eyes were barely open. “The girl says I’m going to die. Like hell I am.”
I searched behind me for a weapon but found nothing. I could have used my elemental magic, but then I might risk hurting Abbey.
“She’s too young to know anything.” Edmund’s tone wasn’t convincing. Then he lifted his phone to his ear. “Get to the lab.”
“Edmund, what did Abbey show you?” I asked at his back.
He whirled around. “It appears that my daughter has quite the visions. She showed me how you’re going to kill me.” His expression was blank, but his tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Suddenly, I regretted bringing Abbey in with me. Now Edmund knew how I would kill him. The funny part was I didn’t even know how I would kill him.
Abbey trembled against me. The last time I’d seen her scared was when Webb and I found her in the electrical room beneath the scoring booth of the baseball field on base. She’d been hiding from a man in the woods who had red eyes, but it had turned out to be Ben and not Edmund.
“It’s okay,” I said in her ear. “He’s not going to hurt you.”
“I know, but he’s going to take you away from me,” she cried.
“Shh.” I had to figure something out. But first I needed to know how I was supposed to kill Edmund. “Abbey, can you tell me how I’m going to kill Edmund?”
Edmund plucked Abbey out of my arms and covered her mouth with his big hand. “She will not.”
Before I could do anything, Jonah’s big body graced the doorway. “Sir?”
I snarled. The vampire who my dad had believed and trusted to defect from enemy territory was back and working for his old boss. So many memories accosted me about Jonah. He had always been there to do Edmund’s dirty work.
“Take Jo to a cell,” Edmund ordered, holding Abbey tightly.
She scratched his face. When he released his hand from her mouth, she bit his nose. Edmund pulled her off him, and as soon as he did, Abbey jumped out of his arms and flew out the door, faster than the speed of light.
Once my brain rebooted from the comical scene, I ran too. “Abbey!”
I made it a foot outside the lab when Edmund shoved me against the wall. “Jonah, do as I ordered.”
Jonah’s large paw landed on my arm. “Not so fast.”
Edmund sprinted down the long, desolate hall.
Abbey’s little body faded from view the farther down the hall she ran. When she got to the end, she waved a hand, and a door opened.
Jonah dragged me back into the lab. “Patrick, hand me the gun.”
I laughed. “That gun won’t kill me.” I checked up and down the hall. Edmund and Abbey were nowhere in sight. I swept my hand from right to left, much like Abbey had done. But the lab door didn’t move. I tried again as Patrick tossed the gun to Jonah.
“I told you that won’t kill me,” I said. “You know that.”
He aimed the gun at me.
Again, I wanted to laugh out loud at how bizarrely things were unfolding. Granted, the bullets would slow me down, but Jonah knew better. I balled my fists at my sides, conjuring up anger, which always kick-started my telekinesis. I at least needed a distraction to get out of there. I had a five-year-old to find before Edmund did something stupid to his child.
A shot rang out, piercing my eardrums.
I froze, mentally scanning my body for a bullet. Not a lick of pain coursed through me. I blinked once, then Jonah fired off another shot. This time, the bullet whizzed by my ear. I whirled around to find Patrick falling to the floor.
My jaw hit my feet, bounced back, then slammed into the tips of my boots again. I swallowed hard and fast, gulping down as much saliva as I could. “I don’t understand.”
I listened for Patrick’s heartbeat, and as Jonah crossed the lab, Patrick’s heart stopped.
“I told your father I was on his side, and I never go back on my word.” Jonah bent over Patrick’s dead body. Blood was quickly soaking my uncle’s white lab coat. Jonah dipped into the inside of Patrick’s lab coat and produced a key.
I shook the cobwebs loose. “What is that for? And please explain what the hell is going on.” I wanted to trust Jonah, but what if he had orders from Edmund to kill Patrick? Maybe I’d missed that signal when Edmund summoned Jonah.
“This key is to an office complex where Patrick keeps all his research data. The walls are about to shake like an extremely bad earthquake. So we need to bolt.”
“I’m not going with you.” I ran out of the lab then stopped. I needed him if I were going to get through doors.
He came up beside me. “You realized you need me? I know that you’re skeptical, but I promise I’m here to shut Edmund down. Don’t you think killing Patrick is proof enough?”
He had a point. “Give me the key.” I held out my hand.
He considered me for a long moment, his nostrils opening wide. “If you wan
t to save Abbey, then we should get going.”
“I said to give me the key.”
He loomed over me, showing long canines. “The only person that gets this key is your father.”
I bared my own fangs, deciding my next move. His tone seemed genuine, which didn’t match his predatory look. Regardless, I needed him. “Fine. But if my dad doesn’t get that key, then you’re a dead man.”
He retracted his fangs then ran down the hall. As I put one foot in front of the other, the walls shook and the lights flickered.
“Come on, Jo,” Jonah yelled.
I rushed down the hall as another boom rocked the mountain. Dust from the ceiling rained down. When I reached Jonah, he had his eyes positioned over the security scanner adjacent to the steel door.
With a whoosh, the door slid open. Then we were traveling down another long, deserted hall. The air became colder the farther we ran.
“Where does this lead to?” I asked.
“To an emergency exit.”
I stopped short. “I can’t leave without Abbey.”
Jonah kept going. “The door Abbey went through only leads one way and that’s to Edmund’s emergency exit.”
Great. If they got out of the building, then we would lose them for sure. In vampire speed, I caught up to Jonah. We turned down another hall then another until we couldn’t go any farther.
“I’ll warn you,” Jonah said. “Beyond this steel door is a room full of engineered vampires. Monsters if you ask me.”
I didn’t care about makeshift vampires, but Abbey was human, and in a room full of humans turning vampire, that wouldn’t be good with their blood thirst.
Before he could open the door, another explosion rocked the halls, then the lights went out.
The blood drained from my face. “Um… Jonah? Please tell me you can get through that steel door.”
Within seconds, my vampire vision kicked in. Jonah now appeared grayish in my line of sight.
He was tapping numbers on the keypad. “We’re screwed.”
“No way. We have to beat down that door.”
He sucked in air. “All our vampire strength won’t break down that door.”
Which was why Edmund had said my father wouldn’t be able to get in.
My stomach tossed and turned with nausea. “What is the backup plan when the lights go out?”
“There is none. The keypads and scanners don’t work unless we have power.”
I started to run back the way we came until I saw that the walls had caved in. Regardless, I jogged up as far as I could to see if there was any way we could crawl through. Just as I reached the rubble, the lights flickered on.
“Jo,” Jonah called. “Let’s go before they go out again.”
As I returned, the hall went dark. Not being able to do anything was maddening. “Keep your eyes over the scanner so when the lights come on again, the door will open.” At least I hoped the lights would come on and the door would open.
Jonah didn’t move. I dared not go back and try to find a way out, at least not for the next few minutes. As I waited, I could barely hear moans and cries for help on the other side of the door.
I took in a deep breath of dusty air when, for a split second, the hall brightened. Jonah’s eyes widened, and the door opened at most a foot before the power died again.
“I can get through.” I wasn’t sure about Jonah, but he wasn’t fat so he would hopefully be able to squeeze his broad body through the opening.
As soon as I stepped through, a powerful stench of death and human fear made me choke. “Wow!” I pinched my nose, worried I might pass out just from the rancid odor.
The room was pitch-black, but I could see with no problem. Faint cries of help made their way to my ears.
Jonah came through the opening. “Holy hell.” He fiddled in his pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and turned on the flashlight.
I gasped when my gaze landed on piles of dead bodies scattered around the cavernous room.
“This whole serum and experiment just isn’t working,” Jonah said. “It’s really sad.”
We didn’t have time to mourn. “Abbey couldn’t have come this way.” From where I stood, we were trapped once again.
“She did. As you saw on our way here, no other exits existed,” Jonah said. “And I heard that Edmund had a way out of the mountain through this room.” He slowly waved his phone around.
Each time the light landed on a dead body or a barely moving body, pain gripped my chest. The humans didn’t deserve to die.
“Stay close,” Jonah said.
He and I slowly walked around the room, stepping over body after body until a hand grabbed my ankle. I flinched and squealed before I looked down.
A petite dark-haired girl, whose eyes were protruding way too far out of their sockets, moved her mouth.
I bent down.
“Jo, you can’t help her,” Jonah said.
“Please get me out of here,” the girl whispered.
My heart broke in half as the anger I harbored for Edmund made me growl loudly. I peeled the girl’s hand off me. As much as I wanted to help her, Jonah was right. Her pulse was slowing, and at any second, she would take her last breath.
Jonah nudged me. “Up there.”
I rose and followed Jonah’s line of sight. A small doorway was carved into the mountain high above us. I searched for a way up. All I found was a ladder bolted to the wall, similar to the fire escape ladders on buildings. But from my angle, Abbey wouldn’t have been able to reach that.
“Impossible that Abbey could get up there,” I said.
“She could if Edmund carried her.”
I started for the ladder. Maybe it was movable like those on a fire escape. I didn’t get far, when a bright flash followed by an explosion rocked the earth beneath my feet, sending me flying through the air. My back hit rock. Pain shot through my chest as the wind left my lungs. I fell face-first on top of a dead body. I pushed to my feet only to fall again. Nausea threatened as I tried to orient my vision.
“Jo,” Jonah called. “You’ve got a vampire coming your way.”
I wiped the dust from my face and again rose on shaky legs. A blurry figure moved toward me. The closer he got, the bigger he got.
Grunts ensued off to my left as bones cracked.
Suddenly, a light was shining in my direction. I peeled my gaze away from the unfamiliar beefy vampire and found Jonah stalking toward me.
“Behind you,” I shouted at Jonah.
Jonah spun around and landed a roundhouse kick to his attacker’s face. Grunts sounded once again.
The beefy vampire headed toward me seemed to have problems navigating the dead bodies on the floor. So I took the fight to him. I marched over bodies, my fangs extended, my fists ready to do damage. But I didn’t have a chance against the dagger in his hand. The only recourse I had was my elemental magic. It wouldn’t kill the vampire, but it would slow him down.
I found the floor in between two bodies and stomped my foot hard. The room shook as a jolt of the earth’s power engulfed me. Then, quick as lightning, I lifted both arms, closed my fingers together as though I was gripping someone’s neck, and clamped down on the air. The vampire grasped his throat, the dagger falling from his hand. His black eyes protruded before he collapsed. I turned around and repeated the process on the seven-foot-tall vampire fighting with Jonah.
When he fell to the ground, someone began clapping. “Quite a talent, Jo,” Edmund said from above.
“Jo,” Abbey cried.
I blinked several times, swinging my gaze upward. When I did, my heart stopped. Edmund was dangling Abbey in the air.
“She’s your daughter, for God’s sake,” I cried.
“She’s a means to an end,” Edmund said.
All I could think about was what my grandfather had said about Abbey dying.
I leapt over bodies until I was under Abbey. “Abbey, I want you to be brave.” I eyed the ladder, but I knew that the minut
e I got to the ladder was the minute Edmund would let her go.
It didn’t matter how far up Abbey was. Any fall could kill a human if the person landed the right way.
Jonah darted over to the ladder.
“That ladder won’t work,” Edmund said. “I locked it in place.”
I couldn’t use my elemental magic. If I sucked the air from Edmund’s lungs, it would only cause him to drop her. Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Jonah and I could catch her.
“Jo,” Abbey said. “I’m not afraid. Webb is coming.”
Edmund let out a roar of laughter. “He won’t get past my guards.”
“Edmund,” Jonah said. “It’s all over. Your operation is a bust. I mean, look at all the dead bodies down here that didn’t make it. That serum will never work, even if you start again. You can’t keep killing innocent humans.”
“Traitor,” Edmund said in a disgusted tone. “Why, Jonah?”
Jonah growled. “Because you killed the only girl I ever loved. You weren’t supposed to use her.”
Edmund’s eyes glowed red. “When you were captured by Mason, she begged me to turn her.”
All of sudden, Webb was in my head. Catch Abbey.
I pulled Jonah closer to me. “Open your arms.”
In a blur, a man in black tackled Edmund, propelling them through the air. I focused on Abbey as did Jonah. I was strong enough to catch her, but I wasn’t sure if I had the stamina to stay upright. As she fell, I held my breath until Jonah moved me just an inch and Abbey fell into his arms.
I grabbed Abbey and hugged her to me. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“You need to kill Edmund,” she said. “Hurry. There’s not much time.”
Jonah’s eyebrows went up into his hairline.
I handed Abbey back to Jonah. I didn’t know how I was supposed to kill Edmund, but when I turned, my vision almost blurred. I watched in horror as Edmund stuck a dagger into Webb’s chest. Webb stumbled over bodies. Just as he was about to fall, Edmund grabbed Webb’s sword from his waist.
I screamed as Webb’s blood scented the air. It was all I could do not to let my rage blind me. I didn’t care that Edmund stalked toward me with a three-foot sword pointed at me. I had to get to Webb.
On the Edge of Infinity (A Vampire SEAL Novel Book 5) Page 16