Over My Dead Body

by Michele Bardsley

  I wouldn’t know the extent of the damage until much later, but I couldn’t hang around to help.

  Didn’t I mention that four million things could go wrong? I didn’t want to think too hard about what would happen if I failed.

  Now it was time to do something much worse.

  I had to kill Brady.

  I crept into the woods.

  “Simone,” whispered a man’s voice.

  I turned right, toward the words, and froze. The shadowy figure that separated himself was the last person I wanted to see in this world or the next.

  Jacob.

  Chapter 30

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed.

  “Making sure you do what you’re supposed to.” Jacob sounded bored, like he was stuck babysit-ting his sister on a Saturday night instead of going out with his friends. Aw, poor Jacob. He couldn’t pillage and kill with his ETAC pals.

  He made me sick.

  “I’ve done everything the General asked,” I said. “I don’t need you to remind me what else I have to do.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “I know that you’ll do exactly what you’re told. You’re very good at that.”

  I gritted my teeth and swallowed my retort. He was wasting my time. Was he doing it on purpose? Trying to make me fail? Was he really the General’s insurance? Or was he the cleanup crew? Fear stroked my spine with chilly fingers.

  “If you or the General harm Glory, I will kill you both.”

  “She’s my daughter, too,” he said.

  “You’re a sperm donor. That’s all.”

  His eyes flashed, but I couldn’t believe he was really angry about my comment. He didn’t give a shit about his daughter. Never had. His whole method of operation was fear, intimidation, and control. He didn’t have that power anymore.

  “I’ll be watching,” he said.

  No, he wouldn’t. I couldn’t bear the threat of Jacob reentering my life. After I thought I’d killed him in Las Vegas, underneath all that guilt and self-immolation was relief. He could never hurt me or Glory again. We were free.

  And then the bastard had the audacity not to die.

  I turned on the cone in my pants pocket, hoping the General would remain clueless. Was I using it too often? No way to tell, and now the stakes were too high not to risk.

  The object I’d stored with my other tools was in the front pocket of my overalls. I hadn’t thought I would have to put this idea into play so quickly, but at least I was prepared. Jacob looked disinterested when I pulled out the silver letter opener.

  I used my vampire speed to zip to him and shove it into his heart. He looked down, surprised. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Ruadan!” I cried. “Ruadan!”

  Jacob grabbed the opener and fell to his knees.

  Staking doesn’t kill vampires, but the heart is still a vulnerable spot. Damaging it slows us down. Way down.

  Ruadan sparkled into sight on my left. He looked at Jacob.

  “I ban thee, Jacob Mack McCree,” he said. His voice held the judgment of gods. “I ban thee from our world. We will never hear you. We will never see you. We will never know thy presence on this Earth so long as your heart bears any ill will.”

  “Fuck you, vampire!” sneered Jacob. “I’m not like you. Your magic bullshit won’t work on me.”

  His exclamation made fear dance through me, but Ruadan remained undeterred.

  “Walk in the place between worlds, Jacob. This is your punishment for cruelty and for murdering innocents. So do I will it, and so mote it be.”

  Jacob snarled, trying to climb back to his feet. I don’t know who was more shocked when he started to fade—me or him.

  Within seconds, he was gone.

  Ruadan turned to me, then one black eyebrow winged upward. “Well, love? You’ve more work to do.”

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  I put on the vamp speed and kept going until I reached the clearing where Brady waited. Had Jacob been my ETAC contact? If I believed that the General had a sense of humor or even irony, then I’d think he’d get a kick out of sending my asshole husband to guard me. But somehow, I think Jacob was a wild card—following his own urges instead of orders.

  So long as the General had my daughter, I had to follow through—or at least appear to follow through. I remembered that I’d used the cone to cover up what we’d done to Jacob. So I turned it off again.

  Brady was already in the clearing.

  “You said you wanted to meet me?” he asked, following the script we’d set up last night.

  “Yeah. I know where Glory is.”

  “Where?”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  I pushed him onto the ground and sat on his chest. I hadn’t fed yet, in preparation for feasting on Brady. I was a vampire now, and certainly had the hunger. I felt it building inside me, a beast I had controlled. A beast that sensed it could finally take all that it wanted from its prey.

  I pinned Brady’s shoulders, put my fangs against his neck, and drank.

  I knelt before my sacrifice, penitent and yet darkly thrilled by what I’d just done. My gaze drifted up past the pine trees. The moon was out. It shone down through the feathery branches like the bright eye of the goddess, the one the lycanthropes worshipped. She had surely witnessed my act and was passing judgment on me. Could a deity that wasn’t mine punish me?

  The black wolf skidded into the clearing. Damian, the leader of the guardians. He sniffed Brady, his big furred face swinging toward me. He barked at me, his jade eyes glittering in accusation.

  It hadn’t taken them long to find Darrius. To track me.

  Then he lifted his snout into the air and howled. Patrick and Ruadan sailed into view and landed between me and Brady. Patrick crouched near Brady, but there was nothing he could do. I’d made sure of it.

  I returned my gaze to the sky. A circle formed around the moon, its red glow staining the white orb just like the blood I’d just spilled. It was almost time. I just had to wait a little while longer.

  “Why, Simone?” Patrick asked quietly. “Why did you kill him?”

  I was hollow inside, but at the same time, the power within was an uncurling viper, readying to strike. Brady’s blood throbbed inside me, giving me more strength than I’d ever had before.

  It was his gift. His sacrifice.

  “We’ll take her to the hospital,” said Ruadan. “Dr. Merrick wants to see her.”

  Patrick and I arrived in the secured hospital room. Scrambling my atoms across time and space was the opposite of fun. He let me go as soon as we appeared, and I stumbled backward, still trying to assimilate our arrival.

  Dr. Merrick took charge of me, guiding me to the examination table. The wax paper crackled as I climbed up to sit.

  “You didn’t have to do it.” Patrick’s voice held such sorrow. After everything, he still felt pity for me. He nodded to Dr. Merrick and sparkled out of sight.

  Dr. Merrick studied me, then went to the cabinet that occupied the left corner of the small room. She pulled open a drawer. She took out a rubber tourniquet and a syringe with a long, wicked needle.

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Simone?”

  I nodded. I was, if anything, resolved. “It’s too late to go back now.”

  “That’s always the problem with choices,” she said softly as she inserted the needle. “There’s no going back if you’ve made the wrong one.”

  I flipped on the cone in my pocket. No need for the General to hear the rest of my conversation.

  “You really think my blood can help cure the Taint?” I asked as she filled up the tube.

  “The nanobytes replicate quickly. If we can figure out a way to combine the nanobytes with the royal lycan blood, we might be able to create a viable cure. One that doesn’t mean a full transfusion.”

  “At least some good will come out of this mess.”

  Dr. Merrick filled up thre
e tubes, which seemed to take forever.

  “Do you think Ruadan Turned Brady?”

  “Yes.” Dr. Merrick removed her latex gloves and put them into a red bin. “He’ll take Brady to a safe place and Turn him.”

  “Okay,” I said. But I wouldn’t believe it until I had seen Brady undead and well with my own eyes.

  “Are you ready?” asked Dr. Merrick.

  I nodded. I flipped off the cone, and we picked up the earlier conversation. I unloaded all the contraband Brady had given me, and put it next to me on the examination table. “It’s not a wrong choice, Dr. Merrick! You have to let me go.”

  “So you can hurt more people? No.” Then she flew backward as if someone had punched her. She hit the wall and slid down it.

  I stared at her in amazement.

  Her gaze met mine, widening a little, and I realized I was supposed to be making a break for it.

  I left the room and stood in the hallway. I pulled out the electronic device given to me by the General. It was the same shape as the signal disrupter, but smaller.

  When all three tasks are complete, use this to return to base. You’ll be reunited with your daughter and given your freedom.

  I pressed the button.

  It felt like my whole body was set on fire. For a terrifying moment, I thought the General had detonated me. Then I found myself in the same interrogation room I’d been taken to before.

  The device in my hand glowed and pulsed and got so hot, I tossed it onto the table.

  It exploded.

  I scrambled back as a puff of smoke wafted toward me. Damn. I walked to the door and tried to open it. Locked tight. No surprise there, not really. I looked over my shoulder at the chains on the wall. My stomach flip-flopped.

  I was trapped.

  Okay, Simone. Relax. Think.

  The General had eyes and ears in this place, I was sure. However, I had to take one final risk.

  “Flet,” I called. “Come to me.”

  The pixie arrived in the blink of an eye. “We must rescue Glory,” he said, his voice vibrating with impatience. “I do not like that awful place!”

  “Go get Dr. Merrick. Show her where Glory is.”

  “Who’s Dr. Merrick?”

  Oh. Right. He’d never met her. “She’s at the Broken Heart hospital. She’s a Fate.”

  “If she’s a Fate, then I can find her,” he said. “What about you?”

  “Save Glory, Flet. Please.”

  “As you wish.”

  The door opened, and the General strode into the room. “It won’t matter who your pixie friend brings back,” he said in that awful monotone. “No one can save you.”

  Chapter 31

  “I did what you wanted,” I said, turning to face him.

  “I want my daughter!”

  The General’s gaze pinned mine. “It seems Braddock Hayes has disappeared.”

  Woo-hoo! I looked down at the floor, lest I give away my joy. “So what? You didn’t say I had to babysit him.”

  “You really think you can fool me?” asked the General. He gave a humorless laugh. “The bomb didn’t kill anyone but Reiner. And that waterworks show you put on? Weak.” He shrugged. “I admit, I expected better from you, Simone. Don’t worry. I always have contingency plans. ETAC teams are already sweeping Broken Heart and wiping out the paranormal threat.”

  God, I hoped not. I didn’t exactly trust the source of the information, either. If the General was telling the truth, then all our planning and sneaking around wasn’t worth a damn.

  “I’m terminating our agreement,” said the General. He didn’t look smug, just resolved. He was the most single-minded man I’d ever met. “And your lives.”

  If my life was forfeited, then it totally sucked, but okay. Whatever.

  But the bastard couldn’t have Glory.

  “You’re a mother,” he said, almost conversationally. “So you understand that actions have consequences. Because you chose treachery over your daughter’s life, you’ll have to watch her die first.”

  We stood in the room where Glory and Adaulfo slept artificially. I hurried to the bed where my daughter rested peacefully. I looked at the machines pumping drugs into her and I wanted to weep.

  The General stood about a foot away, letting me soak in the situation. I knew he wanted me to suffer and fret and mire myself in guilt. Then he would kill my kid. And me. Then probably go have a bowl of Wheaties.

  Where the hell were Dr. Merrick and Flet?

  Then . . . blink, blink . . . they appeared. In the middle of the room. Flet zipped to Glory, hovering anxiously above her. Dr. Merrick looked around calmly, like no one was in actual jeopardy of losing their lives.

  “How do we get them out of here?” I asked frantically.

  “You don’t,” said the General. If he seemed surprised by the sudden appearance of a Fate and a pixie, he hid it very well.

  “You have no power here, mortal,” said Dr. Merrick. The Fate pointed one hand at each of the children. They disappeared. Just . . . gone. The General actually had a moment of surprise before he pressed a tiny button on his collar and called in additional men.

  Four black-garbed soldiers rushed into the rooms with guns pointed at us.

  Dr. Merrick reached for my hand. Her fingertips grazed mine as several beams of blue light issued from the guns. It was as if someone had flipped off the light.

  There was no sparkling, no dizziness, no weirdness. The Fate had some serious juju in the power department.

  Blink. Dark.

  Blink. Light.

  Good thing we ended back at the hospital. I don’t know who held me or where I was being taken. My shoulder, chest, and stomach burned like hell, like someone was dripping acid in ever-widening circles.

  “Simone.” Brady’s voice. But how? He was being Turned. “Why aren’t the wounds healing?”

  “I don’t know,” said Dr. Merrick. “Those weapons are obviously designed to work against paranormal beings, even vampires. I had the same problem with George and Elaine when they were shot.”

  “Well, do for her what you did for them!”

  Vampires weren’t big on temperatures. Once your body shuts down, hot and cold don’t mean much. All the same, I was feeling as though my insides were icing over. My teeth started to chatter.

  “She has too many wounds,” said Dr. Merrick. “A blood transfusion saved George, and Elaine was Turned.”

  I could barely make out the two faces above mine. Dr. Merrick. And yes, Brady. He was okay. Relief flooded through me.

  I was lying on something soft. A hospital bed. Damn, the room was so cold.

  “Glory,” I whispered.

  “She’s all right,” soothed Dr. Merrick. “She’s with Elaine.”

  “Brady.”

  “I’m here, sweetheart,” he said.

  “I think I love you,” I said. “Even though we haven’t had our second date.”

  “Oh, baby.” He kissed me. “I love you, too.”

  My vision was graying on the edges. The voices continued talking, but were fading in and out. So was I.

  I knew that something was very, very wrong.

  “Save her!”

  “I’m sorry, Brady.” Dr. Merrick’s voice got softer, fuzzier. “I don’t know how.”

  I woke up and realized two things. First, I was not in my bed. And second, I was not alone.

  I turned to face my companion and found myself gazing into the blue eyes of Brady.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey.” I licked my dry lips. “What happened?”

  “My debt is paid,” piped a voice above me. I looked up and saw the gold sparkle that was Flet. “I saved your life as you saved mine.”

  “Thank you,” I said sincerely. “But you know if you wanted to hang around . . .”

  Flet nodded. “I’ll keep Glory company. She’s doin’ just fine.”

  He popped out of sight before I could respond.

  “Glory is okay?”


  Brady nodded. “And Adaulfo. And the queen. The whole bomb incident started her labor. She had her triplets last night: two boys and a girl.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Are they . . . human?”

  He laughed. “They’re loup de sang. But lycans are typically born in human form.”

  “And ETAC? Did we kick their butts?”

  “From what I understand, yes, we did. Although a few got away, including the General.”

  Well, that news sucked. A lot. But we’d get the Invisi-shield working again, and even if ETAC or the General tried to come back, they wouldn’t be able to breach the borders.

  “Zerina gave me an idea,” I said. “I think we should combine our technology with magic. Otherwise, ETAC might find a way to breach the Invisi-shield. It’s not like they don’t have the same kind of devices.”

  “Good idea.” He kissed me.

  I really loved it when he did that.

  “I really want to see my daughter.”

  “She’s resting in a room down the hall.” Brady stroked my hair away from my face. “Your grandmother’s with her.”

  That reassurance made me feel better. But still I wanted to hug her and kiss her and make sure she was all right.

  “How did Ruadan Turn you so quickly?”

  Brady shook his head. “He’s Ruadan. And the nanobytes probably had something to do with it.”

  “I’m just glad you’re okay.” I kissed him. “Everyone else is safe?”

  He grimaced. “All but Reiner.”

  Of course, I had already known that. What I would never know is if Reiner meant to sacrifice himself or if he’d just made a mistake. I think I’d rather believe he did it to make up for all the bad he’d done.

  Brady helped me sit up, and I was relieved to see that I was wearing a pair of my own pajamas. “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go see our girl.”

  When we arrived in Glory’s room, Gran stopped reading the storybook. She put it down, gave us both a hug, and left, promising to return later.