“I never could figure out how anyone, guy or girl, could fall in love with a man. Guys are all such hairy disgusting pigs. I know how bad they are since I used to be one. Christ I hate relationship drama. . . . So, do you have a boyfriend?”
Darcy looked off into space and smiled to herself. “I did. Before I turned vamp I had a steady. Jimmy. He was a shy farm boy type. Everything about the city amazed him.” Her smile faded with a sigh. “After I turned. . . . Marsala let me go see Jimmy once. He didn’t even recognize me. My body changed a lot when I turned. I never was stacked like this before. Jimmy had thought I’d been killed along with the rest of my family, and he accused me of playing a sick joke when I pretended to be myself. . . . He’s dating my old best friend now. They make a good couple.”
“How did you ever get over the idea of him being with another woman?”
“I haven’t.”
Chapter 24
Arkon saved me from having to face anymore relationship issues at home by calling my team to his room. We all bailed out of the apartment fast enough that I was able to avoid running into Vicki and Anika. As soon as I walked off the elevator, Ren pulled me off to the side down the hall from Arkon’s room so the others couldn’t hear. Or couldn’t hear as easily since everyone in the room had enhanced senses. Between the androids, vampires, cyborgs, and the dragon we would have to leave the state to get any real privacy.
Ren hesitated. I just assumed she was having a hard time deciding where to start, so I did. “Things have gotten weird, haven’t they?”
“Kieran, things got weird the day you took over that body. How are you holding up?”
“I’ll live. I’d been expecting this to happen for a while now. Back when Vicki first moved in I started to wonder how long it would last. Half of the reason she loves me at all is that I’m in this body now. If I would’ve ended up in someone else’s body, I doubt we would have ever been anything but just friends, if even that. So that’s fine. Friends it is then. I think it was the fact that she wasn’t honest with me that really pissed me off the most. And that is something that will just take time to work out. But everything should work out. Hey, by the way, how’s things with you and Tanaka?”
She blushed. “He is quite . . . talented. But you know that already.”
It was my turn to blush. “Yeah. So things are good other than the sex?”
Her face fell. “No. He is having a hard time with Hill’s death. And all he ever talks about is you. He even called out your name in bed with me once. I think he’s majorly crushing on you.”
“That’s . . . weird.”
“I thought we were perfect for each other before. But, now I think he is just a good friend and I only got caught up in the novelty of having a lover I could actually touch without seeing their every thought.”
“A good friend, with benefits, remember. You can’t forget the benefits. Talented benefits.”
She got a good laugh out of that.
“No, mustn’t forget about those. He knows how I feel. I told him last night. He really took it well. We’ll still date for now, but we both agreed not to get in the way if one of us wanted to see someone else.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Vicki still loves you–”
“Like a sister?” I guessed the rest for her. “Yeah, I kinda figured that. And that’s fine. I still like having her around. Do you think she’s gonna move out?”
“No idea. She’s afraid that things are going to be too awkward to stay, but she said that she didn’t want to leave. So I have no idea.”
Any other questions I had disappeared as the elevator at the end of the hall opened. The “Angel of Lust” Sorrow stepped through the doors clad in her trademark chain covered leather bikini and thigh-high boots, and framed by her human-sized raven wings. Her heels clicked on the floor echoing loudly in the empty hall as she walked past Arkon’s door and straight to us. She oozed sex as much as she always did, making my memories of Darcy seem tame.
“Kieran. Detective Michaels. How are things with you both?”
I was shocked not to have the succubus’ voice pouring over me like it usually did. “No voice tricks Sorrow?”
“Not today Kier. I fed on my way here. I sucked off my driver during the last few blocks. He was so excited to be doing it while driving, it was like a double portion of his lust.”
“Performing sexual acts on a person while in a moving vehicle is illegal,” Ren responded in typical cop fashion.
“You gonna arrest me?” Sorrow asked holding out her wrists to be cuffed.
“No. I didn’t see it happen, and I have no desire to fill out that much paperwork. But you still have some evidence on you. Lips, left corner.”
Until Ren brought it up I hadn’t noticed the milky drop. Sorrow scooped it up with her finger then held it out, offering it to us. Ren cringed and stepped away obviously not wanting contact with the fluid. I simply shook my head. Sorrow shrugged and seductively sucked her finger clean.
She wasn’t trying to vamp me with seduction, but I was still a guy in my head and she was damn hot. My body responded to her. Even without all my parts healed, I wanted to crawl all over her.
Sorrow laughed when Ren reached over with her gloved hand and lifted my jaw off of the floor. When I glanced over her way she was shaking her head in disappointment.
“You’re still such a guy sometimes.”
“Yet one of the reasons I kept my voice tricks to myself,” Sorrow added with a far off look.
Sorrow sucked the lust out of men, and that included me for some reason even though I was in a woman’s body. She freaked out the time I had to let her feed from my lust in an emergency. From the look on her face, Yuric’s mind tricks to force us all to accept the feeding and move on hadn’t fully done the job. Or else the power was fading since she was a form of vampire herself.
I was getting so sick of people getting uncomfortable because of something that was said or the situation we were in. Seeing Sorrow with that lost look was almost too much.
“Did Arkon call you here too?” I asked to change the subject.
Sorrow snapped back to reality. “Yes. He wanted me here.”
“Why?”
“Because he found a way to stop the Immortals.”
* * *
The severed head of the immortal was floating in a jar with a series of needles and wires sticking out of it. On the table next to the head were pieces and parts of the immortal we had Swiss cheesed. The stink of rotting flesh almost forced me to leave the room, but with my shields back I simply used them to filter out the smell.
Thank goodness I’m back to normal. Well, something like normal for me anyway.
“We are faced with a powerful enemy almost as old as time itself,” Arkon’s voice boomed as he began. “The Nine Immortals were among some of the first humans. Through the mixing of the Dragon King’s blood with their own, they became the epitome of all evil for mankind. They have murdered relentlessly over the millenniums without anyone standing in their way. But now – thanks to Kieran’s dumb luck – we have found an exploitable weakness.”
Why don’t I feel like that was a compliment?
Arkon clicked a few keys on his oversized keyboard with his claw. The room darkened and a number of projectors turned on creating a hologram of a full sized, intact Immortal. Instinct took over.
Before I knew it, I’d pulled my guns. Through the corner of my eye I caught Cassie’s puzzled look at me. I stopped myself from firing and hurriedly reholstered my guns. If anyone else had seen them they never let it show.
The hologram changed to a close up of the immortal’s head. One by one the layers of tissues peeled away until all that was shown was its brain. Inside the cerebral cortex a single dot of light pulsed.
“Upon investigating the samples we’ve collected, we found the weak spot. In the center of the cerebral cortex is a nerve cluster unlike that in any other living creature. It is about the size of a pea, but it is the single piece of their existen
ce that gives them life. Remove it, or sever it and the body shuts down. It was dumb luck that Kieran’s blade cut right through the center of this nerve core. As long as the core is not intact, the creature is essentially dead. However, allow the core to reconnect with itself, and it instantly reanimates the connected tissues.
“In the case of the one that had been shot in the head, the core was found. Outside of the body, the nerve core will use any organic material within reach in order to rebuild itself. ANY organic material. Plant, animal, human, shifter, vampire, even bacterial and viral organics in the surrounding air. The speed of the regeneration is directly related to the amount of material it has on hand. If you would be to pick up the core with your bare hands, it would only be a matter of minutes before the nerve core would assimilate your body and recreate the immortal it once was.”
The hologram disappeared as the lights came back on. We all gathered around and watched in silence when Arkon activated the machine on the table. In the petri dish was a small grey lump. A robotic arm dropped a single plant leaf on top of it. The leaf turned to a greyish-white color and disintegrated. The ooze formed up on the grey lump and created a coating layer. Again the robotic arm appeared and dropped a live rat on top of the lump.
The rat squeaked in pain as its body started to change and melt where it had touched the core. In seconds the rat had changed to a puddle. Everything formed up to create a shell around the nerve core. Ren didn’t make it through the change. She was soon getting sick in the corner. I took a glance around the table. The group was a mix of fear and determined faces. Cassie stood there and had no emotion on her all business face through the entire process.
“If you will look here,” Arkon said to bring our attention away from the table and back to his computer screen at something that looked like a display for a stereo equalizer. “The active nerve core is emitting a signal on a unique frequency. It took some time, but we now believe this is a distress beacon. Observe.”
Back on the table, a sheet of metal was dropped in the center of the dish with the core on it. Once the core was separated by the metal, the bouncing lines on the screen all stopped.
A motor whirred to life and began to pull out the embedded straight blade from the severed head. Its eyes flew open before the blade was fully removed. The head came alive inside the jar, snapping and snarling. Then the metal sheet was lifted out of the dish.
The instant the bouncing lines came to life on the screen, so did the severed head. It turned all attention to the lump in the dish and tried to break free of the jar. Both the blade and the metal sheet were returned to separate the nerve cores again, and the table fell silent.
“A proper head shot will incapacitate the immortal for a while as it has to regenerate itself, however it will undoubtedly call any others in the area to its aid.”
“So, we just need to shove a knife inside the core, and they’re dead?” Sorrow asked.
Arkon gave a great sigh. “In all appearances they will be dead as long as the nerve core is not complete. But the possibility of severing the core with a blade through the skull is rare. The best attack would be to shoot them in the head, then sever the exposed core directly. That is the only hope any of us has against them.”
“What about the paralysis gas?” Darcy asked.
“We know that the synthetics of cyborgs are immune. With that in mind, Tanaka and Julie and any other fully synthetic people will be immune. For the rest of you, we have a suggestion. Siphon filter implants.”
“Implants? Since when did we have implants?” Sorrow shook her head as she reached down into the top of her thigh high boot. She pulled out the mouth guard device and pointed at it. “How exactly are they gonna implant this into a person?”
“I created a new design, good, better, best–” Creator stepped in from where he’d been hiding behind the dragon away from the table of Immortal remains. As soon as he had started talking, Arkon glared at him. The words froze in his throat, stopping him from chattering on like a speed junky. He swallowed hard, glancing up at the dragon, then skirting around the table to the corner of it furthest away from the severed head. The metal tray shaking in his hands rattled as he placed it on the table. Another glance at the dragon and he started to speak again. This time in a slow, carefully controlled voice. “This new design attaches to the inside of the nasal passages. It monitors the intake through the nose, and adjusts filtration accordingly. Breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth. They will work just like the old mouth piece models. But they are always with you, and always active. Pulling breathable atmo out of almost anything.”
Sorrow huffed at him and stepped closer to look into the tray. “You want to surgically graft those inside my nose?” She pointed at the small rings inside the tray with disgust.
“All I want to know is if they’ll stop us from freezing up when we get gassed.” I was tired of becoming a statue. Even though I had my shields back, I didn’t want to take any chances with the bastards again.
“T-t-they should. As long as you only breathe in through your nose.” Creator looked like he was about to run away screaming as he cringed under the murderous glare of the dragon.
“Arkon, did you threaten him?” Emmy was suddenly acting concerned for the terrified cyborg engineer.
“I only offered to nibble on a toe or two if he could not control his explanations. It has made quite an impact. He tended to prattle before.”
I laughed. No one else thought it was funny, but I just loved the fact that Arkon had used an empty threat to make the little man act like less of a junky. He was joking, right? I mean, he didn’t really intend to eat his toes. Did he? “Sorry. Alright Creator. What do you need me to do?”
He picked up one of the rings from the tray with what looked like a pen. “Just sit down and tip your head back. I-it only takes a second.”
I plopped down in the outer chair of the little waiting area in the corner of Arkon’s room. Then I had to force my shields to drop around my face. I had been so paranoid, and attacked so often lately that it was a struggle to lower my recently returned shields. Once they were down, I leaned back and let my head rest over the back of the chair.
Creator stepped up beside me and held out the pen. “This may sting a little.”
Whenever a doctor had ever told me it might sting, or pinch, or any other gentle description, it usually meant it was going to hurt like hell. I just gave him a nod and a thumbs up. Somehow I knew if I opened my mouth to say anything at all, it would end up coming out that they could all go to hell before I’d let them hurt me in any way. As it was, he leaned over me and placed a hand on my forehead before inserting the pen into my left nostril. It tickled as the pen started to vibrate. The ring on the end of the pen expanded out filling the nostril with vibrations. Vibrating sensations pushed me to the verge of sneezing as the ring settled against the inside of the nostril and stretched to mold itself into place. The sneeze was coming, only to be forced away.
“SONUVABITCH!!!” I screamed, jumping up out of the chair and batting at the fire that filled my nose. The ring had started to burn so suddenly it was like my nose had been blown off by a grenade. I danced around in pain as the ring burned itself into my tissues. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it quit. I shoved my finger up my nose as far back as it would go before I touched the breathing implant. It was stuck in there good and tight. One by one everyone in the room started laughing at me. Then I realized that I was basically standing there picking my nose in front of them. I yanked out my finger and wiped it on my jeans before glaring at the little nerd. “You said it would sting a little, not burn the shit outta me!”
He gave a shrug. “Would you have willingly done it if you knew?” I started to reach out and strangle him only to stop when he held up the pen with another ring on it in front of me. “We still have another side to do.”
Shit! Kill me now!
* * *
My cuts were all scabbed over, but the bath-water still stu
ng. I slipped down into the Jacuzzi tub clear to my ears, leaving just enough of my head out of the water to keep my eyes above the surface. Once I dropped my shields, I felt the little rings inside my nose constrict in reaction to the water. It took three tries before I finally took the plunge and took and experimentally shallow breath through my nose. The siphon filters let me breathe in the oxygen out of the bath water. Just like my shields, the little rings let me breathe underwater.
With the experiment successfully over, I leaned back and forced myself to relax. The warm water eased out a few of the problems of my life.
A cold draft sent shivers down my body when the bathroom door opened. Julie stepped in without knocking and stood there staring at me like she expected me to do something amazing.
“What?! I’m bathing here Julie.”
“Miss Darcy sent me to guard you while she fed.”
Darcy only fed off of blood kept in little pouches in the back corner of the fridge, but that didn’t stop me from imagining her sinking her fangs into a helpless victim. I pushed out the visions of vampiric feeding from my mind and glared up at the android.
“Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?”
“This is the best vantage point within this room of which to guard you.”
“Guard me from what exactly? I’m taking a bath, not exactly a dangerous thing y’know ”
Even though I said it, I had to look down at the three guns I’d placed around the tub just in case. On the floor by my towel, gun; next to the shampoo, gun; by the soap, gun.
If people weren’t actually trying to kill me I would sure think I was becoming paranoid.
“My orders were specif–”
“Fine! Guard me if you want, just quit standing there staring at me. I’m trying to relax.”
Julie’s head twisted to the side as her eyes lost focus. The jewel in her forehead lit up then dimmed away just before she turned to look at me again.
Immortal Death (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter Book 3) Page 23