“What—?”
“Hurry, Lisa. There’s no time.”
Rifling through the pile of clothing on the bed, she grabbed a pair of plain white bikini panties. Her face flushed with heat when Brad yanked her gown off. She wore nothing beneath it.
Grabbing the panties, he knelt and held them open so she could step into them. “I’m sorry, but there’s no time to be embarrassed. You do the top half and I’ll do the bottom. My sister always had a hard time seeing her feet when she was pregnant.”
Nevertheless, Lisa knew her face must be as red as a strawberry as she grabbed a white sports bra and dragged it down over her head. Her breasts were so huge from the pregnancy that she could barely pull the tight fabric down over them.
Brad tugged the panties up to her hips, then added black leggings. He was amazingly adept at dressing her.
Next he grabbed socks and shoes off the bed.
More pops sounded, closer this time.
Lisa balanced on one foot, then the other as he shoved the sneakers on, careful despite his rush. “What’s happening?” she asked. Dragging a long maternity tunic over her head, she smoothed it down over her belly and hips. “Are they looking for you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I was still finalizing our plans when all hell broke loose.” Rising, he freed her hair from the back of the dress. “Here, put this on, too.” He handed her a rumpled white lab coat. “I think they were right. I think more vampires have come to break out the ones these dumbasses captured.”
Lisa’s heart slammed against her ribs as she stuffed her arms through the sleeves. The coat was too big, so she pushed the sleeves up to her forearms to hide it.
Pain tore through her stomach. Crying out, she grabbed her belly and doubled over.
Brad clasped her shoulder and steadied her. “You okay?”
She nodded, breathing through it. “It’s been doing this ever since I woke up from the coma.”
He waited in grim silence.
When the hard cramps subsided, she straightened.
“Okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Wait.” She caught his hand when he moved away. “There’s another prisoner here.” They had to save Taelon.
“There are a lot of prisoners here.”
“But I need to find this one and—”
“We don’t have time, Lisa. Those vampires are tearing this place apart. We need to get out while we can. And we’ll be lucky if we make it out alive.” He started to tug her toward the door.
She dug in her heels. “Brad. Even if we can’t save the others… I can’t leave until I see the alien.”
He whirled to face her. “What?”
She shook her head, her whole body trembling. “I have to see it.”
“No.”
“I need to see it.” She touched her belly. “I need to know what’s inside me.”
He cast her a look full of pity. “Lisa, I don’t think you—”
“Please.”
He shook his head. “They keep it in the biohazard section. That’s way at the back of the building. There’s no way we could make it there and make it out alive. The only entrance and exit is at the front. I’m telling you we need to go now.”
Beep.
Eyes widening, he whirled to face the door.
The door swung inward. A soldier in green camo stood in the doorway. As soon as he saw Brad, the soldier raised his semiautomatic rifle and fired.
Brad jerked and stumbled backward, blood spurting from his chest.
A tall, dark, indistinct figure with glowing amber eyes abruptly appeared behind the soldier and yanked him off his feet. The soldier screamed.
The door swung shut.
Brad sank to the floor.
Chapter Four
“Brad!” Lisa knelt beside him.
His shirt bore several holes. A red stain rapidly spread across the fabric. More blood pooled on the floor beneath him, spreading at an alarming rate while he fought for breath.
Panic overwhelmed her. “Brad?”
He stared up at her with wide eyes full of fear and suffering.
Tears spilled over her lashes. “What do I do?” Grabbing the discarded hospital gown, she wadded it into a ball and pressed it to his chest.
“Fr-Front pocket,” he whispered.
“What?”
“Fr-Front p-pocket,” he repeated.
Lisa tucked a hand in his left front pocket and found nothing.
“Other one,” he moaned.
She searched the other and found a key card and a piece of paper that was folded around a wad of cash. The paper bore a phone number. “What—?”
“Help.”
She nodded. “I’ll find help. We’ll get you—”
He clamped a hand on her arm when she would’ve risen. “No.” He glanced at the paper and back. “Help you.”
She swallowed hard. “No. You’re going to help me. I’m not leaving without you.”
He shook his head. “Go.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“Go!” He coughed. Blood sprayed her and speckled his chin.
Blinking, she wiped her face with shaking fingers, then took his hand in her free one. “Brad?”
He stiffened. Then his breath whooshed out in a sigh as his hand went limp in hers.
Lisa stared down at him, her whole body trembling. “Brad?” she called softly, already knowing he wouldn’t respond.
His eyes no longer blinked. His chest no longer rose and fell.
Automatic gunfire erupted out in the hallway.
Lisa lowered his hand and pressed quaking fingers to Brad’s throat but found no pulse.
A sob catching in her throat, she climbed awkwardly to her feet. Stuffing the paper and cash in one of her lab coat pockets, she palmed the key card and turned toward the door.
Her legs shook as they carried her forward. The gunfire was nearly constant now, audible even over the loud wonk-wonk-wonking of the alarm. She touched the card to the lock.
Beep.
Grasping the knob, she turned it and pulled the door open. The soldier who had shot Brad lay dead in a pool of blood in the hallway.
What had killed him? She had seen only a blur of black and glowing amber eyes. Had the… had the alien escaped? Was it out there? Waiting?
Lisa had never been so terrified in her life, but somehow she found the courage to step out into the hallway.
Something clamped around her throat and lifted her off her feet, slamming her back against the wall. Pain rushed through her head. Sparkling lights flickered at the periphery of her vision. The door to her room snicked shut beside her. Fluorescent lights glowed above her as she fought for breath.
Panicked, she clawed at whatever held her.
A hand. It was a hand. But she couldn’t budge it or pry even one of the long, smooth fingers loose.
Gasping and choking, she managed to turn her head a fraction of an inch and looked to her right. Her attacker was a man dressed all in black: black pants, black shirt, and a long black coat. Even his hair, loose and falling several inches below his shoulders, was jet-black, a stark contrast to the white walls, floor, and ceiling.
Standing over six feet tall with incredibly broad shoulders, he paid her no attention at all. He was turned mostly away from her, his head bent to the throat of another soldier garbed in green camo.
That soldier’s eyes stared sightlessly up at the ceiling.
Was he dead? Was that soldier dead?
Darkness threatened. Her struggles weakened as her attacker slowly choked the life out of her. Lisa’s gaze returned to her killer—the dark one—just as he dropped the soldier, who sank to the floor like a discarded rag doll.
The face that loomed over her then was both beautiful and terrifying. He had the features of an Adonis with amber eyes that glowed as brightly as a candle’s flame. Full lips drew back in a sneer that exposed long
fangs stained with the soldier’s blood. More blood coated his firm, stubbled chin.
Vampire.
Brad had been right. There really were vampires. And she was about to die at the hands of one.
A whimper escaped her… the last sound she feared she would make before death claimed her.
The vampire’s snarl abruptly faded, replaced by a look of… concern?
His grip loosened. Carefully, he lowered her until her feet touched the floor, then withdrew his touch.
Her knees buckled. She would have fallen to the floor beside the dead soldier had the vampire not clasped her narrow shoulders and held her up.
“Easy,” he crooned.
Lisa gasped and coughed and gulped in much-needed air.
He glanced at her belly, then noted her white lab coat. “You’re one of the scientists who work here?” he asked in a British accent, his expression grim.
She had a feeling he would’ve already killed her if he hadn’t realized she was pregnant.
Lisa shook her head. “Prisoner,” she blurted, her voice hoarse. She motioned to the door to her room. “We were going to escape. He brought me these clothes so I’d blend in.”
Doubt darkened his features as he reached for the door.
The floor beneath their feet abruptly shook. The walls and ceiling did, too.
Lisa looked around wildly. Was this an earthquake?
The vampire looked down the hallway.
Lisa followed his gaze.
Another vampire dressed all in black stared back as he broke a soldier’s neck. “Seth must have found Gershom,” he called over the din. Dropping the dead man, the vampire darted away in a blur.
The one holding Lisa took her firmly by the arm and began to walk her toward the end of the hallway. “We’ll have to sort you out later. You’re dressed like the other scientists here, so I know you’re probably lying, but… I don’t care how fucked up in the head you are. I don’t harm pregnant women.”
They had almost reached the end of the hallway when three soldiers in green camo raced around the corner. Stopping short, they fired their weapons.
The vampire shoved her to one side and swept forward in a blur to attack the soldiers. A vicious battle ensued in which he rid them of their weapons.
Her heart slamming against her ribs, Lisa slid along the wall and eased past the battling foursome.
“Head to the front,” the vampire called over the soldiers’ screams. One soldier collapsed. A second did the same.
“Wh-Which way is the front?” she asked.
Dropping the last soldier, he frowned and pointed. “That way.”
Gunshots echoed up the hallway, so loud it hurt her ears.
The vampire grunted as blood spurted from his chest, spattering Lisa.
His face twisting in a snarl, he again shot away in a blur and reappeared at the opposite end of the corridor. Lisa fought down more terror as he slew two more soldiers in green, then grabbed the third.
Nausea rose. Her shoulder pressed to the wall, she backed away. Her shoe caught on something that gave a little. But she didn’t look down, knowing it was another body. Deep inside, she fought the urge to scream. After identifying her father’s body, she had hoped to never see another dead person again. Now Brad’s blood was on her hands and more bodies lay all around her.
When she reached the end of the hallway, she paused. The corridor that intersected this one was Jackson Pollocked with blood. The vampire had said she should go left to reach the front.
Instead, Lisa turned to the right. Somewhere in the back lay the biohazard section. Inside it she would find the thing that had fathered her baby. Once she saw it… Once she knew…
Only then would she leave and try to secure Taelon’s release.
Taelon drew in a ragged breath. The day’s torture was at last coming to an end. One of the half dozen so-called scientists gathered around him had mentioned calling it a day. And all were still so distracted that they had forgotten to dose him again.
He prodded their sickening minds for information on Amiriska but had trouble accessing their thoughts. Was his telepathy still impaired?
If so, why was he able to communicate with Lisa with such ease?
Wonk! Wonk! Wonk!
Taelon jerked in surprise as an alarm blared. Pain knifed through him.
The butchers all jumped and looked at each other for several startled seconds. Then they sprang into action, bumping into each other in their hurry. One rushed to finish labeling the tissue samples they had taken. Impatiently tossing her gloves aside, she scribbled on white stickers with shaking fingers and slapped them onto the sealed tubes. Two others began haphazardly closing his chest, piercing him with needles and doing a real shit job of it as Earthlings would say. Another shoved contaminated instruments into a packet to be cleaned and sterilized later. The last two headed for the door and began yanking off their white protective suits before they even reached it, something he had never seen them do before. Usually they were very careful never to expose themselves to whatever harmful bacteria or viruses they feared he might carry.
All spoke at once, overlapping each other and nearly drowning out the alarm.
“Do you think it’s her?”
“—must be time.”
“—wouldn’t sound the alarm for that.”
“—she’s escaping?”
“No way in hell—”
“—couldn’t if she tried…”
“Not in her condition…”
Were they talking about Lisa? What did they mean by her condition? What had they done to her?
“—think it’s the vampires?”
Taelon didn’t know what that word meant. When he tried to discover the meaning of it by peering into the speaker’s thoughts, pain shot through his head and he barely managed to catch a flash of a man with glowing eyes and long, sharp canine teeth.
“—too heavily sedated to—”
“—think it’s more aliens coming for this one?”
All talk ceased as the four who remained shared frightened looks.
“NORAD would’ve picked them up on radar and warned us if it was aliens,” one murmured, uncertainty painting the features behind his mask.
The fools. Did they really believe his people would give them warning before they struck? Or that Earth’s primitive instruments could detect and track his people’s ships if the men or women piloting those ships wished to remain hidden?
More conversation erupted, so garbled he couldn’t latch onto anything solid.
A voice squawked over a speaker but was almost instantly cut off by a gurgling cry.
Eyes wide, faces pale, the butchers abandoned all thoughts of labeling, refrigerating, sterilizing, or stitching and raced for the doorway, pushing and shoving each other in their quest to evacuate first.
Footsteps faded beneath the alarm. Occasional popping sounds carried to him.
Once he was alone, Taelon peered up at the glass panel above the door. The seats up in the observation room were empty. Those who sometimes came to watch his torment were thankfully absent.
At last. He allowed himself a small, triumphant smile. Because the simpletons had forgotten to dose him again, his mental strength continued to grow. It might take days though to regain full use of his telepathy and longer than that to recover physically unless he could escape and contact his ship.
He glanced around. Whatever had led them to sound an alarm wouldn’t distract them indefinitely. He needed to find a way to free himself before they returned.
The butchers had left him strapped to the cold metal table on which they performed their sick procedures. Tight metal manacles at his wrists held his arms in place, stretched out to either side. His ankles were similarly bound a full stride apart. A strip of thick animal hide pressed into his forehead, keeping him from raising his head. More strips secured his upper arms just above the elbow.
How could he free himself from such?
His mind had cleared
enough that had one of the scientists remained behind, he could’ve tricked him into releasing him. He might have even been able to trick two of them, using his unique gift to make them see what he wanted them to. But four or six at a time?
He doubted it. Not as weak as he was. And if he had tried and failed, they would’ve immediately dosed him again.
Taelon didn’t know how long he had been a prisoner in this place, but immobility and repeated injury had left him alarmingly weak. Perspiration beaded on his skin as he struggled to free one arm. If he had to dislocate his shoulder and break every bone in his damn hand to get it through the shackle, he would. This was the first opportunity for escape that had come along.
He ground his teeth as he strained against the hide strap on his left arm, trying to loosen it. His wrist began to bleed as it scraped against the metal cuff.
The door to the larger room beyond this one opened with a familiar thunk.
His gaze flew to the connecting door. No! If the group returned, they would see the blood, know he was attempting to escape, and cloud his mind with their damn drugs again.
Footsteps approached. A single pair.
Hope rose as he listened. Could it be? Only one person? Perhaps sent back to belatedly sedate him?
He curled his lip. Or another curiosity seeker, using the others’ distraction to sneak in and get a good look at the alien?
It wouldn’t be the first time. Another had snuck in… was it earlier today or the previous night? Time was meaningless here since there were neither windows nor clocks in the room to help him track it. But a male with blond hair had snuck into the observation room to gawp at the extraterrestrial creature. Taelon had used the opportunity both to seek a little vengeance and to test his slowly rekindling powers. Delving into the stranger’s thoughts had not been as easy as it was with Lisa. No, employing his telepathy with the curiosity seeker had instead sent agony slicing through Taelon’s mind, but he had managed to succeed briefly enough to uncover the gruesome visage of an alien from an entertainment film the man had seen over a dozen times. When the man had stepped up to the glass and peered down at him, Taelon had made him see not a naked, vulnerable male strapped to a table with wounds that seeped blood, but a dark, horrific, razor-toothed, slime-dripping, bipedal creature that snarled like an animal and spat acid.
The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance Book 1) Page 7