Illumination (The Penton Vampire Legacy Book 5)

by Susannah Sandlin

  The man in black turned to Mirren, but not before Will slipped up behind him to slice a neat line across his throat. Whatever he wanted to say would have to wait until he healed, unless daylight got him first.

  Nik walked into the clearing. “I got the other one trying to run.”

  Cage untied Mirren, who broke the handcuffs open with little effort.

  And then they waited.

  The biggest weakness in Omega had been the limited exit options, and it still was. Only now there was a single exit, and this was it. Anyone coming out had to use the ladder, leaving their vulnerable head to be the first body part out of the hatch.

  Shaven Head was the first to try. A hand came out, holding a pistol.

  Cage picked up a pine cone and lobbed it to the right of the hatch. Shaven Head shot in that direction, then stuck his head out to take a quick look. Will was waiting for him. He twisted the man’s head around until it snapped, then jerked the rest of the vampire from the hole.

  “Terrence? Is it clear?”

  They’d heard Shaven Head’s accent well enough for Will to answer in a Southern drawl: “Clear.”

  “I hope the Slayer is ready for a trip to Atlanta and a dose of our brand of hospitality after that trick with the recording.” Marianne groused her way up the ladder, then gasped at the sight of a free Slayer and his four companions waiting for her, and her own men on the ground.

  “I think you’ve earned some of our hospitality instead.” Mirren nodded to Nik, who snapped his own silver-coated handcuffs on her, then slapped a length of duct tape over her mouth.

  “Secure her feet as well,” Mirren said. They wouldn’t underestimate this vampire again.

  Nik used silver-laced rope and dodged her kicks until he finally pulled her to the ground, sat on her, and tied her ankles together. Then he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Where you want her?”

  “I want her cold and dead, but Aidan said to put her in the cell next to Greisser.” Mirren holstered his pistol. “Misery does love company.”

  Chapter 37 * Shay

  Shay flipped on the lights and, as she had for the past two weeks, marveled at the state-of-the-art research lab that had been constructed in the wing of the old Penton Clinic that had remained undamaged and still had electricity.

  Will had designed the space next to the former blood bank, which had refrigeration already installed, and Mark had supervised the human crew, who’d spent two weeks moving walls, installing tables and cabinets, and bringing in box after box of equipment that Gadget had picked up in Atlanta.

  How he managed to get everything on that list, he wouldn’t say. He’d only respond: “Thank Nik. He did the magic.”

  After a little nagging, Nik admitted he’d called Randa’s father, the semi-retired U.S. Army colonel who had been responsible for setting up the original Omega Force teams. He was ready to revive them as soon as the “vampire problem” was solved, so he’d agreed to get everything on Shay’s list, even a few vials of the pandemic vaccine itself. Which meant the colonel had some pull at the CDC.

  Shay had finished an early dinner and had her night of work planned. Working both all day and into the night seemed the least she could do. Her work now was far from theoretical. It was far from the research she’d done to find cures for diseases half a world away, for people she would never meet.

  This was literally life and death for people she cared about, vampires and humans. And there were more of them in Penton every day now, it seemed. Aidan had just begun recruiting scathe members again, but only if they came with established human familiars who’d been with them at least two years. Nik helped him vet the applicants using his psychometry, and even Hannah was helping, to see if touching any of the recruits resulted in a partial vision.

  A month had passed since she’d first talked to Mark and Gadget about the lab, and now she was up to her ears in research notes.

  “Need any help?”

  Shay turned to see Nik standing in the doorway. Part of her hated the way her heart sped up at the sight of him, especially after he admitted he could feel it from the way her blood rushed toward the surface of her skin. The other part of her loved it because she knew he loved her. Krys and Glory had joined her in the lab when they were first setting up, and had given her a primer on mated vampire males.

  Hovering. Overprotective. Using any excuse to touch. More hovering. Nik had all the signs.

  Except she and Nik couldn’t be mates because it required an exchange of blood, and her blood would kill him.

  “You can stay ten minutes,” she said. “Then I need to get to work.”

  He grinned. “Fifteen, because then I have to go on patrol.”

  “Deal.”

  He looked around at all the equipment and shook his head. “You really know how to use all this stuff?”

  “Yes, and don’t you forget it.” She laughed as he wrapped her in a hug and stopped laughing when his light kiss became deep and urgent. He’d learned to control his fangs very well; they’d had no more accidents.

  Nik also hadn’t tried to take things further, which frustrated Shay and made her wonder if he really wanted her the way she wanted him, although she’d certainly felt him harden against her. “You know what Krys told me last night?” Shay’s heart raced at her own boldness, and hoped it wouldn’t sound like she was begging.

  Nik pulled away from the line of kisses he’d been trailing down the side of her neck. “What?”

  “That it’s perfectly safe for us to have sex. I mean”—Shay’s skin was in danger of combusting—“it won’t hurt me or the baby unless, well, unless it turns you off because I’m pregnant.” At twenty-one weeks now, she was feeling very pregnant.

  Nik cocked his head and looked down at where a definite baby bump showed. He slid a hand under her sweater and caressed the soft skin there. “I can feel her heartbeat when I hold you. Does that creep you out?”

  Shay smiled. “No, although I’m a little jealous.” She had seen it, though. Krys had done a sonogram as soon as the equipment arrived, and everything was normal, even that rapid pulsing motion of her daughter’s heart. The baby was moving more every day, which helped make up for swollen ankles and backaches.

  “That makes us even. I wish every single day that she was mine, that I was her father.” Nik’s voice was soft.

  Shay wanted him to be in her daughter’s life. Maybe be her baby’s father in every way except biologically, but how would that work? If Nik were still a human Army Ranger, no problem. But he was a vampire now, and Penton was where he fit. “We’ll find a way,” she said. It had become their mantra.

  “Will we?” He looked at her, his want and need turning his dark eyes a deep gold even though she knew he’d fed.

  “We will.” Shay wished she felt as sure as she sounded. Truth was, she hadn’t come up with a solution. “As soon as I find our cure.”

  Nik groaned. “Okay, that means time’s up. But let’s have a talk about that thing Krys told you. Soon.”

  Yeah, Shay had decided if Nik didn’t make a move soon, she’d borrow the key from Mirren, lock him in that room again, and seduce him. Which was so not her M.O.

  As soon as he left, she pulled out the notes she’d been making. Three microscopes had been set up side by side, each with a different type of blood: vampire, vaccinated human, and unvaccinated human.

  Last night, she had finally isolated the difference between the two human blood samples—one small protein cell from the vaccinated blood that, when she had inserted it into the vampire blood, began destroying everything around it.

  Bingo.

  Shay was close to an answer; she could feel it. So she did what she’d become adept at—compartmentalizing. Nik had a mental compartment. The baby had one. Nik and the baby together had one. And there was this: her work. The place where she got lost for hours.

  Which is why, when Krys stuck her head in the lab at 3 a.m., Shay was still hunched over a table, studying her notati
ons from the previous weeks.

  “Shay, as your unofficial doctor, I’m ordering you to go to bed. This is not good for you or your baby.”

  Shay dropped her pencil on the lab table and rubbed her eyes. “I know. It’s just that I’m so close now.”

  “Are you?” Krys sat on the stool next to Shay, her dark brown eyes sparkling, her voice excited. “Can you tell me what you’ve found?”

  Shay filled her in on the details. “Now that I’ve isolated the offending cells, the question is whether to try and come up with a way to remove them permanently, which will take longer. Or find a way to temporarily neutralize them, which will be faster but, well, it would probably mean an injection before feeding or else feeding from a vial instead of a vein.”

  Krys laughed. “Well, I can tell you the last option won’t go over unless it’s very short-term. Both the vampires and the feeders enjoy the physical part of feeding, as strange as that might sound. …What’s wrong?”

  Shay hated the bundle of hormones that was pregnancy. She was not a cryer—ever—or at least not until recently. Yet she had teared up at the idea of not sharing that intimacy with Nik. Which was just pathetic.

  “I’m being silly. It’s just…” She trailed off. It was too embarrassing to admit.

  “When Aidan and I were first falling in love, I wasn’t vaccinated but I was resistant to the whole idea of feeding. Melissa tricked both of us so that I ended up watching him feed from her.” Krys laughed. “It was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and I was so damned jealous. Mel knew exactly what she was doing.”

  Shay laughed. “Apparently, my resistance is low. I watched Nik feed from Robin in the van on the way back from New Orleans and, yeah, it was sexy. And that was before. …Well, never mind.”

  “Before you fell in love with him?” Krys reached over and squeezed Shay’s hand. “It’s mutual, you know. And it’s not like you guys are total strangers. You cared about each other a long time ago.”

  “Yeah, accent on long time.”

  “Most teenagers are jerks. Good thing we grow up.” Krys’s voice softened. “Have you thought about the baby? What you’ll do?”

  Then the tears really began. “I feel as if I have to choose between Nik and my daughter, and it’s killing me.” There. She’d said it out loud. If she chose her daughter, she’d always regret losing Nik. If she chose Nik, which meant choosing Penton, she’d have to give up her daughter, and she didn’t think she could live with that decision.

  “Talk to Aidan before you make a decision. He’s really good at helping put things in perspective.” Krys got off her stool and headed toward the door. “And go to bed soon, please.”

  Shay tried to imagine how a conversation with Aidan about her love life and her baby might go, and couldn’t. She barely knew the guy.

  Instead, she followed her usual pattern and compartmentalized. Talking with Krys had helped, at least. Shay ditched the idea of anything that would require the vampires to feed from a container.

  The short-term solution needed to come first. It might bring the violence to a stop long enough to find a permanent solution.

  The next question: who’d be more likely to take an injection—the vampire or the human feeder? The vampires would no doubt say it should be the human, but it was the vampires who had the most to gain.

  Next on her to-do list: come up with a temporary vaccine that would neutralize the altered protein in vaccinated blood long enough for a vampire to feed. After that came another big question:

  Who would be the guinea pigs to test it?

  Chapter 38 * Nik

  Tonight’s patrol had been long and boring. An hour before dawn, Nik headed down the clinic hatch into the hall of subsuites. He paused outside Shay’s door, but resisted the urge to disturb her. Knowing Shay, she’d probably worked in the lab until midnight, and she needed her rest.

  So he bypassed her door and went into his own room. There was really no reason for him not to find a secret daysleep space like the rest of the vampires, but no one had suggested it and neither had Nik. He liked having Shay so close.

  He stopped short as soon as the door to his room swung all the way open. Shay sat up in his bed, her back propped against the headboard. He wasn’t sure what she was wearing since the quilt was pulled up to show only an enticing set of bare shoulders.

  He opened his mouth, then closed it.

  Shay blushed. “If you don’t come into the room and close the door, I’m going to have to walk into the hall wearing nothing but a t-shirt and will never recover from the humiliation.”

  Nik still didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t been with anyone in a long time, and certainly never as a vampire. Would it be different?

  “Oh, God. What have I done? I misread this whole situation.” Shay leaned over to grab her t-shirt from the bedside table, giving Nik a glimpse of a smooth, bare back.

  “No you didn’t. Don’t go.” His stupid tongue finally came unstuck. “I just, well, it’s been a long time for me. I’m kind of rusty. And I’m a vampire now.”

  Shay settled back against the headboard. “Seriously, Nik? I know you and Robin were together before she met Cage.”

  Well, yeah. “But I didn’t love her.”

  That blunt statement shut both of them up. Don’t screw this up, Dimitrou. Not after she’s put everything on the line for you.

  Nik tossed his jacket on the sofa and pulled his sweater over his head. He felt awkward undressing beneath the heat of her gaze, but he couldn’t exactly ask her to turn her back. To hell with it. He’d never been self-conscious about his body and this was no time to start.

  He ditched the fatigues, kicking them aside, and paused with his hands on the waistband of his black boxer-briefs. “You sure about this?”

  Shay laughed. “Nik, I’m practically having to seduce you. Do you think I’m having second thoughts?”

  Nik grinned, shucked the briefs, and let her look at him a moment in case she had any doubts that he wanted her, and wanted her badly. He was so hard his balls ached.

  He crawled beneath the quilt and held her. She felt soft and warm in his arms, and he could feel her heart beating all the way through his chest, and the baby’s heart against his belly. “You sure Krys said this was okay?”

  Shay kissed him. He’d gotten so good at avoiding the fang issue he might try his mouth elsewhere. “I’m a doctor too, remember? I did my research and found lots of things we can try. Even missionary is okay as long as I have some pillows behind me.” She paused. “I have quite a lot of pillows behind me. I want to see your face.”

  He gave her a gentle kiss, but she didn’t want gentle, judging by the way she grabbed a handful of his hair in each hand and pulled him to her, opening to him, their tongues tangling. He kissed his way down to her breasts, testing their sensitivity with his tongue and loving the taste of her skin. Nothing flowery, just clean and fresh.

  He paused, resting his forehead on her chest. The urge to taste her—to really taste her, as a vampire male would—left him gasping for air.

  She stroked his hair. “I wish you could too. Everybody thinks I’m trying to find a cure to end the war. I’m finding a cure for us. Are you okay?”

  He slid fingers into her hot, wet heat to get her ready, then slowly slid into her. “Oh, I’m okay.”

  She grinned. “Then get a move on, soldier. Dawn’s coming.”

  He started slow, careful to angle her on the pillows so he didn’t press his weight on the baby. Again, gentle wasn’t what Shay wanted. She matched him stroke for stroke, but finally dug her nails into his back. She pulled his head down so that his ear was in front of her mouth. “Fuck me like you mean it, buddy,” she whispered. “I’ve waited sixteen years for this.”

  He lost himself in her then, holding nothing back, with no thoughts except an awareness of her heat, and her mouth, and the way he felt inside her until their rhythm faltered and he felt her tighten around him.

  He followed her over the edge, his
breath ragged, the flush of building sensations spreading over him, his body pressing into hers and holding a long, breathless moment of pure, agonizing pleasure.

  It made him want to cry. In fact, when they’d caught their breath, he rolled to his back and pulled her with him, holding her close so she wouldn’t see his face. Vampires could cry for their first year or so, but that didn’t mean he wanted Shay to see it.

  But she did. She raised up on her elbow and stroked a hand across his cheek. “Are those good tears, I hope? Because you are amazing and if it wasn’t dawn, I’d want to try out one of those other positions. I found more than twenty.”

  He laughed, sending one tear streaming down the side of his face and into his hair. “It’s just…before I met Robin and then the vampires, I couldn’t touch anyone without my head being filled with ugly images. The only way I could even stand to be with a woman was if I got so damned drunk I could barely get it up.”

  He looked at her, leaned over, kissed her—soft this time, slow and sweet. “This was the first time I ever really felt as if I had made love to anyone. Not sex, but love. That’s…pretty damned amazing.”

  She settled back into his arms, and as daysleep crept into Nik’s muscles and mind, her deep, steady breathing was the last thing he felt.

  Chapter 39 * Aidan

  For the first time in more than a year, Aidan felt a sense of hope.

  Tempered with anger, yes, at what had been done to so many of his people.

  Tempered with guilt, over insisting that he stay in charge without giving either himself or Krys time to heal.

  Tempered with regret, for not taking care of the vampires and humans who’d put their trust in him.

  But there was hope.

  He climbed the ladder from the subsuites into the clinic and walked toward the lab, where Shay waited with Mirren and Keys.

  Almost eight weeks had passed since the night in Atlanta when Greisser had been taken, five since Shay had begun working on her temporary fix for the pandemic vaccine problem. She thought a permanent fix could be found within a year if she had someone to help her and all the materials and equipment she needed—whether than was done in Penton or elsewhere.