Blood Cure

by K. A. Linde

  “No,” she moaned.

  A dozen bodies were scattered around the room. Blank eyes, mouths twisted into the beginning of a scream, blood everywhere. Discarded. It was the only way to describe the bodies…no, people. Whoever had done this hadn’t cared about the mass murder implications. They’d drained their blood or broken their necks and simply discarded them like used tissues. Trash.

  Her stomach rolled again at the imagery. Of all the dead Elle members. All of the people she hadn’t been able to save.

  “Breathe.”

  “Oh my God. Drew,” she gasped. “What if it’s Drew? Or Laura?”

  “I didn’t see them, but I will check for you.” Beckham stood in front of her to block her view. But even he wasn’t big enough to cover it all. Or to scrub it from her memory. “Keep breathing, Little One. In through your nose and out through your mouth.”

  “How could someone do this?”

  Beckham didn’t respond. He just rubbed her back as she retreated into herself at the sight of the carnage. Her stomach twisted and no amount of careful breathing could change it. She turned away from Beckham and vomited up everything in her stomach. She coughed until her eyes watered and tears rolled down her cheeks. Her eyes burned, her heart ached, and she was burning up. She threw up again and again until she had nothing left.

  This was the world she lived in.

  Vampires massacred a dozen innocent people for shits and giggles.

  Or worse…just to send a message.

  “We should get you out of here. Why don’t you wait outside? I’ll check for your brother and comb through to see if anything was left behind.”

  “Becks,” she whispered. Her red-rimmed eyes stared up at him in horror. Such senseless murder.

  “I know. We’ll stop him.”

  Reyna nodded and then teetered out of the room. She felt like a coward for leaving him in there alone, for not being able to face it. But the day that she was okay with what was in that room was the day she lost her humanity.

  She leaned her back against the wall in the hallway and waited. A minute later a crackle sounded in the empty hall. Reyna nearly jumped out of her skin before grabbing for the two-way radio in her jacket pocket. She fumbled it out with shaky hands and pressed the button.

  “Reyna, here. What’s up?”

  “Reyna!” Meghan’s muffled voice shouted into the speaker. “Reyna, is that you?”

  “Yes, Meghan. What’s going on? Everything okay?”

  “No. You need to get here now! Ooph!”

  Reyna’s eyes widened as she stared down at the speaker, willing it to say more. But the line was filled with static.

  “Meghan? Are you okay? Tell me what happened.” No response. “Meghan? Tye? Anyone? Answer me.”

  Panic set in.

  Beckham appeared in the hallway, yanking the door closed behind him. “We need to leave. Now.”

  “Meghan and Tye are in trouble.”

  “I heard.” He gestured for her to move.

  “What about the bodies?” Reyna whispered nervously. “Drew? Laura?”

  Beckham shook his head. “They weren’t there.”

  Static cut through whatever else he had been about to say. Then one word from Meghan broke through the line.

  “Everett…”

  Chapter 10

  Reyna ran for the stairs.

  Everett.

  Everett was alive. He was at one of the safe houses. He was there with Meghan and Tye. This was a disaster. A massacre and the spy returned from the dead.

  When she had last seen Everett, he had been comfortably housed in one of Elle’s more secure rooms with an around-the-clock guard. He’d turned her in to Harrington the day that she’d been kidnapped. When she’d escaped, he’d admitted that he was a spy for Visage and had been researching Beckham for over a year to keep track of him for the enemy. He had delivered pertinent information about the reconnaissance mission her brother Brian had been on though. Information that could have stopped Brian from being captured and MIA. Everett had claimed he’d done all of this because they had his brother, Edmond, as collateral. She understood that, but it didn’t make it okay. And it made his next move unpredictable.

  Beckham didn’t try to slow her down as she took the stairs two and three at a time, barreled out of both doors, and into the open. The cold hit her like a two-by-four. They hadn’t been upstairs that long and somehow the temperature had already taken a nosedive.

  “Harrington left a note,” Beckham said once they were in the SUV and far enough away from the safe house.

  Reyna steeled herself for it.

  “It said ‘I’m watching.’ It was written in blood near one of the bodies. I think he’d had the building monitored.”

  “Fuck.”

  Beckham nodded as he glanced hastily at the rearview mirror. “I don’t want to get away only to bring him onto our doorstep.”

  Reyna craned around to look through the back window. But she didn’t see anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

  “Do you think Harrington would suspect where we’re staying?”

  “Honestly?” Beckham asked. “No. I couldn’t even believe it as I was following your trail. I never thought Washington would step foot in that house again. Let alone bring other people. He kicked us all out and didn’t even let us take a single thing with us that wasn’t already on our person. That’s why my room is still full of papers. There’s no reason for Harrington to suspect Washington’s mansion.”

  Still, Beckham meandered them through the city for a full twenty minutes before angling toward the other safe house. Better safe than sorry.

  “I don’t know if I should be more uneasy because no one has followed us or if someone had. At least with the latter we would know,” Beckham said. “But we’ve wasted enough time. We need to get to the others.”

  Beckham continued to check the rearview mirror often all the way across town. The tension was thick. It only made Reyna more nervous when he finally pulled over and killed the engine.

  “Stay close to me,” Beckham told her.

  She nodded. No argument there.

  Reyna jumped out of the passenger seat and fingered the guns strapped to her thighs and ones hidden in holsters against her ribs. Her new security blanket.

  As they approached the house, Beckham nodded his head toward an alleyway. They found a back set of stairs around the corner and Beckham moved forward first, keeping himself in front of her.

  He paused on the threshold, preparing himself for what was to come. Putting away the Beckham who made jokes about teaching her to drive, pulling out the animal. She could feel the shift and the stillness that resonated. She loved both feelings. How easily he could become the person he needed to be. She tuned in to his calm and it seemed to radiate through her. She took a deep breath and tethered herself to it.

  Beckham snuck a quick look back at her in surprise. As if he’d read what had just happened. She flashed him a grin. She was composed again. Composed and ready.

  He could see it. Feel it. Sense it.

  Beckham burst through the door without warning and barged into the house. They entered a scant kitchen where two girls who couldn’t be older than fifteen had their heads buried in the refrigerator. They took one look at Beckham, screamed, and then ran for the living room.

  Reyna would have laughed if their fear wasn’t so genuine. Beckham was imposing and these girls had just been ousted from their house. Perhaps a little more tact would have been better.

  When they entered the living room, Meghan had both girls by the arms. “What do you think you’re doing down here? We told you to stay in your room until we have this all sorted.”

  “We were hungry,” the blond girl complained.

  “We sent someone out for provisions. Now go back to your rooms and stay
there until we come get you,” Meghan commanded. Then her eyes swept over to Reyna and Beckham. They warred between relief and frustration. “Thanks for scaring the girls.”

  Reyna frowned. “You seem all right. Why didn’t you respond to our calls?”

  Tye was seated in the corner. “Radio is messed up. Sorry. The safe houses sometimes mess with them.”

  “Drew and Laura?” she asked, looking at Meghan.

  She shook her head once. Reyna sagged. Still no Drew and Laura. She didn’t even want to think about the possibilities. One more house at least.

  “Where is he?”

  Tye nodded his head toward what appeared to be a closet under the stairs. “We restrained him and kept him out of the way until you got here. We didn’t want him to get any funny ideas.”

  “That was smart. Do you know how he weaseled his way in?”

  Meghan and Tye shook their heads.

  “Let’s find out, shall we?” Beckham asked, wrenching open the closet door.

  Everett sat on the floor of the dark closet like a trussed-up turkey. His hands and legs were tied. A gag was in his mouth and he had a black eye. He arched his eyebrows when he saw Beckham standing in the doorway. If he could have spoken, she knew some smart-ass remark would have flown from his mouth. Beckham reached in and hauled him up with one hand. He dumped him like a sack of potatoes into a chair. Then yanked the gag from his mouth.

  “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you,” Beckham said in his most threatening tone.

  “Hello to you too,” Everett drawled lazily.

  Beckham punched him in the face. Everett’s head snapped to the side and a sick crunch sounded. Beckham had broken Everett’s nose. Blood spurted out and down over his lips.

  Everett coughed twice. “Always thought I’d look better with a bump in my nose. A little more devil-may-care.”

  “Let’s try this again,” Beckham spat.

  “Oh, I do love second chances.”

  “Everett,” Reyna snapped. “Just talk to us. Why are you here? How did you get out? Why the hell should we trust you?”

  “Never trust a spy,” he said with a lopsided grin in her direction.

  “This is how he went on with us too,” Tye grumbled.

  “If he doesn’t speak, then we don’t need him,” Reyna said callously. She wanted to believe that Everett had changed. But he was dangerous and a liability.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Beckham said.

  Everett just laughed. It was more pain than anything.

  Reyna could sense that Beckham was about to break his neck any second for the audacity of it all. His patience wore thin when it came to people who had hurt her.

  She rushed forward and batted Beckham aside. His surprise was evident. She liked keeping him on his toes.

  Reyna slid one of her guns out of its holster and leveled it at Everett’s head. “We’ve been here once before. You all bloodied up after a beat down you deserved and me questioning you. But unlike last time, we don’t actually need anything from you right now. You had something we wanted—information. You don’t have that this time. I’d wager the only reason you’re here is to save your own skin and hide out as long as you can. Because you’re not just on our shit list, you’re on Visage’s too. Must feel great to be hunted by everyone. And now we’re here and you’re cornered and you think your bullshit posturing will save you. I’m here to tell you that it won’t.” Everett’s expression shifted from laughter to a hint of fear. “So again, why shouldn’t we kill you?”

  “We’re on the same side,” Everett ground out. “You know that Visage has my brother, Edmond. I’ve been gone too long. He’s probably already dead. You think I want to work for Visage? That I ever did? I’m not pro-Visage.”

  “We’re not pro-Visage either. But you still haven’t told us how you’re in the safe house. Or even what you’re doing here.”

  “An announcement went out in the bunker. A woman on the speaker issued an evacuation. My guards disappeared. I followed a crowd of people and made it here with them. I was on a low enough level to get to the vehicles. Look, I’m not super into joining your whole lot, because it seems like a good way to die. But the way I see it, I have resources, you have resources, we can work together.”

  “No,” Beckham said.

  “I know a place we can take these people,” Everett went on. “I have some friends. They’re not too keen on the whole vamp equality thing, but they have a facility big enough. They’re kind of hoarders too, so food isn’t an issue. Unless you have a better plan.”

  Silence followed his statement. They didn’t really have a plan for the people in the safe houses. Washington’s home couldn’t house enough people and it didn’t have the resources. And after Harrington’s blood note, they couldn’t just leave the people here.

  “Why should we trust you?” Beckham demanded.

  “Don’t,” Everett said with a shrug. “But I have no reason to offer to help.”

  “Exactly. So are you going to turn on us at a moment’s notice? Will these friends of yours keep our secret too? There are too many unknowns.”

  “We need as many allies as we can get,” Reyna said.

  “They’re not allies.”

  “Send someone in that you trust to scope the place out before dismissing it. I know that you have people in the city.” She’d overheard him send Philippé and Katarina in after them for backup.

  “Fine,” Beckham said, then disappeared into the kitchen, his phone to his ear.

  “Don’t fuck this up,” Reyna told Everett.

  “Do you think this is a good idea?” Tye asked.

  “Do we have a choice?” Meghan asked.

  “When you put it that way…” Tye said with a shake of his head.

  It was only a couple minutes before Philippé and Katarina appeared at the safe house. With both Beckham and Philippé in one tiny living room, everything felt as if it were a miniature. Reyna couldn’t imagine having more people here. The two of them alone was imposing. And while Katarina might be small, she strutted into the room all cool grace and wicked smiles. Her blades secured to her back. Her hips swaying exaggeratedly.

  “This the runt we have to babysit?” Katarina asked, checking Everett out. “Oh, look, you already got him ready for me. I love my men all tied up.” She nipped at him suggestively.

  “My friends are not going to like having two vamps tailing me,” Everett said. “They’re not exactly a vampire friendly kind of people.”

  “Tough shit,” Katarina said. “We’re what you’ve got.”

  “I’d listen to her,” Philippé said.

  “And what are you going to do?” Everett asked.

  “Enough talking.” Philippé hoisted Everett casually over his shoulder and hauled him out of the room. Reyna snickered.

  “We have to go check on another safe house. Our first one…didn’t exactly go as planned,” Reyna told Meghan and Tye. She explained the situation they’d found themselves in. They both paled.

  “Go,” Meghan said, drawing her into a hug. “Be careful.”

  Reyna nodded and then followed Beckham outside and into their SUV.

  “You knew I had my circle with me,” he observed.

  “Yep.”

  He reached across the car and drew her mouth to his. Her head went light and fuzzy at the intensity of the kiss.

  “What was that for?” she whispered when he pulled back.

  He arched an eyebrow and put the car in gear. Her body hummed to the tune of the engine. This thing with Beckham was pure magic.

  The safe house was about ten minutes away. Same kind of neighborhood, with medium-sized houses and relatively nice streets. This was her last chance to find Drew today.

  Beckham put a steadying hand on her back and they both shuffled forward. They
had just made it to the back door when a voice called out from inside.

  “Oh my God, who left the door open? It’s freezing in here,” a soft female voice said.

  Reyna heart stuttered to life and then she was dashing through the back door. “Laura!”

  “Reyna!” Laura gasped. Reyna threw her arms around her pregnant sister-in-law as tears flowed freely down her face.

  “What’s all the commotion—?” someone said.

  Reyna nearly collapsed at the sound. “Drew?”

  And there he was. Her brother. Soft brown hair and eyes nearly identical to her own. The boyish features and flannel shirt.

  “Rey?” he gasped. He scooped her up and swung her around in his arms. “You’re alive! God, it’s so good to see you. We were so worried.”

  Reyna held on to her brother for dear life. This was home. This had always been her home.

  Beckham followed in behind her and closed the door. Laura gave him a quick hug of welcome.

  “Are there others who made it?” Drew asked.

  “Yes. So far we’ve gotten in touch with another safe house with about twenty people. We lost another house. How many do you have here?”

  “Fifteen.”

  “So few,” she whispered. Then something dawned on her and she pulled back to look at Drew. “Gregory?”

  Drew shook his head once. His boyfriend was gone. Just like that. Poof.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he lied. “So, what’s the new game plan? What are we doing to get Brian back? Is that what Penelope is announcing today? She’s in on it, right?”

  Beckham and Reyna glanced at each other. Uh-oh.

  “Penelope is announcing something?” Reyna asked carefully.

  “Yeah, at City Hall before the storm hits.” Drew glanced between them. “What’s going on? Why the somber looks? That’s why you finally came to get us, isn’t it?”

  Reyna shook her head in dismay. “Penelope turned coat.”

  “Fuck,” Drew spat. He rarely cursed. It had always been Brian with the hot temper.

  Laura pressed a hand to her stomach. “What are we going to do?”

  Beckham crossed his arms over his chest. “Trip to City Hall?”