“There is no God, Jess. You’re a scientist. You should know that by now. The only thing keeping us from our full potential is the fear of a higher power. It sickens me to think that you, a woman of science, is afraid of the what ifs. New London aside, those creatures, those descendants of the Sin’khari, they could have cures for diseases and hunger.”
“Don’t pretend that you’re being noble.”
“Do you honestly think that your own government isn’t already trying to figure out how to use those creatures? Super-soldiers are being bred while you sit here and argue over your soup.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it so hard to believe? I didn’t open the gate, Jess. Someone else had that pleasure. I’m just here to capitalize.”
“Are you suggesting that our own governments are at fault?”
“Don’t look so surprised. The truth is always so much more horrifying than we anticipate.” He rose from the table, dropping his napkin in his plate. “You sit over there, all holier-than-thou, glaring at me, thinking that I’m the grand architect of some sick chess game,” he said, pacing. “But I didn’t start this, Miss Addison. I’m just the only one smart enough to have a plan.
“The end is coming, whether we want it to or not. Whether it’s the end of the world or just the dawning of a new regime isn’t certain yet, but the only ones who are going to survive are those of us with level heads. That key that you stole, I’m not the only one looking for it, you know. According to reports I’ve heard, your sister is being pursued all over the world by various government agencies. And I fear that she’s taken up with a dangerous man. He offers her help, but I’m afraid in the end he’ll betray her. Your sister’s only safe option is to bring the key to me.”
Jess looked down at the table, not wanting to make eye contact with Machine as he came around the table and knelt at her side. What in hell had she been thinking when she sent the damn thing to Phoe? Jess knew her sister wasn’t the most stable of people. Ever since they were children, Phoe had been the fragile one. The little girl who would run and hide if you said an unkind word. She wouldn’t be able to handle such a dangerous and important task.
“Do you promise not to hurt her?” she couldn’t stop herself asking. “Do you promise to let us both go when she brings you the key?”
“Of course,” he said, a serpentine smile on his lips. She knew it was a lie. She already knew too much, and Phoe was much too fragile to fight back. “Though I hope that you will consider my offer,” he said, his voice almost a purr as his cool hand stroked the tiny veins that lined the back of hers.
“I have no wish to be your pet.”
“Better to be the right hand of the devil than in his path.” The arm of the chair blocked her escape, and she wanted to get as far away from this man as possible. Just the thought of his hands brushing her skin made Jess ill.
He grinned as she jerked her hand away, as if he knew what she was thinking and delighted in her disgust. “Wouldn’t you say that’s true, Eve?”
Jess looked up to see a tall, lanky woman with short, silvery-blonde hair. She was attractive but had a hardened look that undermined her delicate features.
“You’re hardly the devil, Derek. God wouldn’t be so lazy.”
Machine stood as the woman strolled across the room, and he met her in the center. Brushing a fingertip along her jawline, he leaned in and kissed her gently. The woman barely allowed his lips to brush her own before she pulled back, nearly making him stumble forward.
“Don’t try to woo me with sweetness. You and I both know you’d be glad to feed me to one of those creatures without a second thought if I’d outlived my usefulness. A painful truth that Miss Addison might want to consider carefully.” The blonde dropped herself into his chair and began picking at the food on his plate.
Machine chuckled, turning back to Jess. “She really is a beast, you know. But most useful.”
Jess shook her head. “Using people is what you do best.”
Machine ignored her comment and turned his attentions back to Eve, who was helping herself to a glass of wine. “What say you about our friend Miss Addison, the younger?”
“They’re on the move,” Eve said. “My brother was right. The girl got on the wrong Maglev, so they’re behind schedule. An inconvenient coincidence to say the least.”
“The universe is rarely so cooperative, Eve. You know that. Obviously the IU steered her onto the wrong transport.” Machine leaned on the table beside Jess, taking an apple from the bowl in front of her and the knife at her side. Slowly he began to peel the apple with his dexterous fingers. Jess watched him, fascinated by the strategic way in which he held the apple and slid the razor-sharp edge along the skin so that it came off in one continuous spiral.
“Your sister doesn’t have much sense of direction, Jessie.”
“She’s never been more than fifty miles away from home in her life, and you want her to come to New London,” Jess snapped, looking away. “How the hell did you expect her to make her way on her own?”
“Oh, she’s not on her own. That’s what I came to tell you.” Eve swallowed the remaining wine in her glass. “That kidnapper that Oliver was on about? It’s Macijah St. John.” She looked up at Machine and smiled, clearly waiting for his reaction.
* * *
Derek’s hand slipped and the apple he was peeling rolled out of his palm and across the table. St. John. Machine could feel the blood in his veins turn to ice at the mention of Macijah St. John. They’d crossed paths before. Manning’s particularly valuable science experiment that so far Derek had been unsuccessful in finding. If The Others were the army, then surely Macijah St. John was the general. He was a dangerous man, probably the most dangerous man in the known world. His exploits in London were well known to those of a certain class.
Though he hated to admit it, Derek admired St. John. If only because he was the only man in the whole of the universe that could strike fear into Machine.
“How the fuck did St. John get involved?”
“That, my love, was indeed coincidence,” Eve said, reaching for the apple. “He just happened to be passing through. Of course, I’m sure once he heard that your name was involved in her plight, he was all too eager to help. We know how you love one another so.” She laughed a throaty giggle and put the peeled apple to her lips.
Before she could take a bite, Machine threw the knife with surgical precision, stabbing into the apple.
“Jesus, Derek,” she exclaimed.
“Why are you just sitting there?”
“What would you have me do, lover?” Eve sighed, pulling the knife from the apple. “It’s not as if I planted him there. Like I said, coincidence.”
“You’re supposed stop these little coincidental incidents,” he snapped. “Find him. Trace his mobile.”
“You are kidding, right? Macijah is a master spy. I don’t think he’d be so stupid as to have a traceable mobile unit. St. John is the kind of man who can only be found if he wants to be found.”
“I don’t care how you do it. Just do it.”
“Look, Derek. I’ve known Cage since before I was shaving my legs. Do you really think I’d rat him out even if I knew where he was? I’ll bring you the woman and that’s it.”
Machine paused. For a moment he mulled over the effects of splattering her pretty brains against the back wall, but unfortunately he needed her. He took a deep breath and began to pace. “When I so generously offered my friendship and the benefits of my scientific discoveries.”
“Oh please.” she snapped, rising to her feet so that the chair wobbled dangerously behind her. “Generous? You promised me the splicing and only did half the job. I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to and have even gone so far as to act as your fucking concubine and still you can’t give me what I want.”
Jess watched them, her eyes wide as she took in every word.
They stood nose to nose. “Oh really?” Derek hissed. “I’ve given you mo
re power than you probably deserve. As for being my whore, feel free to leave whenever you’d like. Of course, you can also take your treasonous brother with you. See what sort of deal you can strike up with the IU.”
Derek whipped around, his fists balled at his sides as he stalked to the door. Over his shoulder he growled, “I don’t care what you have to do, Eve. Fix it. Get Miss Addison’s sister to us, lest you find yourself on the losing side.”
8
Phoe woke with a start. The room was spinning, and she held her head in an effort to ease the nauseous feeling that was settling in her stomach. She tried to sit up, but that only made it worse. The room was too bright and the air around her too close. She could smell the dust and antiseptic of the bed on which she lay. The room was reminiscent of her bedroom, and for a moment she thought everything had been a dream. There was a split second of relief and she lay back, cradling the pillow to her chest.
“You awake, child?”
Phoe gasped. She’d thought she was alone.
A small, round woman peered through tiny glasses perched on the end of her nose. Her gray hair stood out in a wild halo around a hard face, deeply gouged with wrinkles. The old woman waddled across the room carrying a tray. As she got closer, Phoe could see it held a glass of iced tea and a sandwich, cut diagonally the way she’d liked it as a kid.
“I think so.”
“Well, are ya or ain’t ya?” the woman grumbled, setting the tray down on the bedside table.
“It would seem so,” Phoe said. Her head throbbed with every noise. “Where am I?”
“My house. Meridian, Oklahoma. Name’s Sadie Quade.” She roughly jerked Phoe’s arm from beneath the sheet and pulled at a bandage, tearing off the light hair and top layer of skin with it. Phoe bit her lip to keep from shrieking.
“How did I get here?”
“Well, it wasn’t easy, I’ll give ya that.” The old woman began washing out the deep, jagged gash on Phoe’s arm. The water was a bit murky and stung when it hit the wound, but she didn’t have the strength to protest. “Had to drag ya most of the way, but I got ya here anyway. Good thing I did, too. Goddamn zombies.”
“Zombies?” Phoe’s memory of the last few hours was clouded, and the creatures that had attacked them on the street before were a blur of teeth and claws. She’d almost convinced herself it never happened. The last thing she remembered was lying beside an unconscious Cage, waiting for death. “Is that what those things were?”
Sadie nodded. “You mustn’t think bad on me, girl. It was just me left here after the attack. I had to do somethin’ to protect myself.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Them dragon hordes come through about three months ago. Burned out Mercer Village down the road. Folks ’round here got scared and left. Can’t say as I blame ’em. I was pretty spooked myself. But this here’s my home. I ain’t never lived nowheres else. Don’t think I could survive anyplace else.” Sadie opened the drawer on the nightstand and pulled out a bottle that looked like an antique inkwell. “And that’s the real trick, ain’t it? Survivin’?”
“I suppose so.” Phoe watched as the old woman painted the wound with a salve that smelled of eucalyptus and cinnamon. The thick, oily substance was cool against her burning skin, and it felt good.
“Anyway, I took some of the folks that was dead or dyin’, the fresh ones, at least, and conjured up a little magic. Saved their lives and probably mine too.”
“Those things are your protectors?”
“Such as they are.”
“But they nearly killed me and my friend.”
“Well now, they wouldn’t be real good protectors if they hadn’t, now would they?”
Phoe’s heart dropped. Cage. “My friend?” She started to get up, but Sadie pushed her down. “Let me go. I need to see my friend.”
“Your friend is safe, Miss,” Sadie soothed, patting Phoe’s arm. “You just rest now.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s here. Asleep and healing. You both been out a good long while. Two days. A little blood and rest, and he’ll be just fine. Vampires are easy to heal.”
“But I saw them. I saw those things devour him.”
Sadie smiled. “You think a couple of zombies could take down a vampire?”
“Well, he’s not like other ones.”
“Well, you sure said a mouthful, din’t ya?” Sadie laughed, slapping a fresh bandage on Phoe’s arm. “He got bit a couple of times, sure, but he probably did more damage than they did. I’ve seen a lot of strange shit in the last few years, but not much quite as vicious as your friend. Good thing he was there, or I might have been sewin’ you back together tonight.”
“It lives.”
Phoe looked up to see Cage framed in the doorway. His lean frame cut a long shadow across the room. A cigarette was perched between his lips, the glowing ember illuminating the lines of his cheekbones and the alabaster smoothness of his brow. She couldn’t help but admire him as he strolled into the room.
Tattered jeans clung to his hips, barely hanging on to the corners of his pelvis. As he came closer, she tracked the crisscrossing of scars across his torso. He was battle-worn and weary with lines carved around his eyes. But to Phoe, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned in, brushing hair away from her brow as he examined the deep gash over her eye that extended almost to the corner of her cheekbone.
“I do,” she whispered, shifting to sit up a little on the pillows behind her.
Cage scrutinized her wounds. His touch was careful and gentle. It was almost unnerving. “I’m okay,” she said.
He looked up and their eyes met. She tried to look away, but the intensity of his gaze held her. She had become lost in those strange steely aquamarine pools.
Sadie cleared her throat. “I’ll leave you two alone.” She whispered something to Cage on the way out, but Phoe couldn’t hear. He nodded and pecked Sadie’s cheek affectionately.
As soon as the door closed behind the old woman, Cage pulled Phoe into a desperate embrace. It took her by surprise, and she wasn’t sure how to react.
“Phoe. I’m so sorry. I thought I’d lost you.”
“It’s all right,” she whispered, winding her arms around his shoulders. “You didn’t lose me.”
“I should have listened to you back there. I didn’t think. Please forgive me.”
He sank to his knees beside the bed, laying his head in her lap. Those luscious curls that fell so haphazardly across his brow were splayed against her stomach, and she couldn’t help but run her fingers through them.
“I won’t fail again. I promise you.”
“Hey,” she sighed, taking the curve of his jaw in the palm of her hand and raising his eyes to meet hers. “I’m okay. You saved my life. For like the millionth time.” He didn’t move, so she didn’t pull away.
His jaw was tense as he stared at her with those dusky, changeable eyes, and Phoe could feel him tremble. A fear lurked beneath that hard exterior she would never have expected from a man like Cage.
“I’m fine,” she promised in a hushed breath.
“And what in hell were you doing?” he said, snapping his head up to glare at her. “I told you to run away and you did exactly the opposite of what I said. You could have been killed. Or worse, bitten. You don’t understand, Phoe. I’m supposed to protect you, and I didn’t protect you. I can’t lose another…”
Phoebe could tell he wanted to say more but wouldn’t. She held his gaze, but he looked away, as if he were hiding a weakness he couldn’t stand for her to see.
“What are you talking about?” she said. “Help me understand.”
“I can’t,” he said, pulling back and shaking his head as if to clear it. “I won’t.”
“But why?”
He rolled back on his heels and stood quickly, and in an uncharacteristically clumsy movement, his shoulder brushed against the bedside table and nearl
y toppled the glass of tea.
“Just leave it alone, Phoe. My demons are my own.” The weakness was gone, and now that hard-edged, barely contained anger had returned.
She knew if she pressed him he would lash out. She was starting to understand, to be able to read his moods that had seemed so random and mysterious when they’d first met. There was a scab, healed over, but beneath the surface it still burned in his soul.
“Rest up,” he said, turning to walk away. “We’ll leave at sunset. Sadie has a car.”
Swallowing her nausea, Phoe threw back the blanket and stumbled out of the bed toward him. “Wait. Cage.”
He stopped but didn’t turn.
“Look, I don’t know what’s happened in your past, but we all have demons. Some of us more than most. I get it.”
She laid a hand on his shoulder, feeling the quiver of muscles pulled tight. The sensation of gentle touch had evidently become foreign. His head turned, staring down at where her fingertips rested against him. Such a profile, his eyes gazing downward and the faint glisten of a single tear resting just under his eyelashes.
“You can trust me.”
“I do trust you, Phoe.”
She slid her arm along his shoulder, and he turned, enveloping her in a gentle embrace. He brushed a hand over her brow, smoothing back the stray locks that fell around her face.
Being so close to him, she felt small and skittish. If he loosened his grasp even a little, she feared she would retreat.
He took her hand, bringing it to his lips then pressing her palm against his cheek.
Instantly his body relaxed, as if her touch were some sort of calming drug. Phoebe could actually feel the tension melting from his muscles.
His eyes were full of fire and his breathing labored. Phoe couldn’t believe that it was her doing this to him. That all of this was for her.
“I don’t trust me,” he muttered in a low growl.
She was mesmerized by the curves of his lips as he spoke, and without even realizing, she’d moved closer. Only a breath between them, and then their lips touched.
At first he kissed her lightly, but when her tongue slid across the seam of his lips, he became insistent. His sumptuous mouth caressed her lower lip and it made her bold. Instinct kicked in and she kissed him back with equal intensity. Cage stole her breath and then offered his own. His arms tightened around her waist as he pulled her in against him, his hands rested on her hips as their kiss deepened.
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