Enigma:What Lies Beneath (Enigma Series Book 1)

by Kellen, Ditter

  The door opened to Abbie’s room, and Hauke watched helplessly as a man entered wearing a white coat with the name, PHILLIPS, on the right breast pocket. “You have a visitor,” Phillips announced, slowly approaching her bed.

  The quickening of Abbie’s heartbeat resonated through Hauke’s mind, leaving anxiety in its wake. He could only listen quietly as the man continued speaking in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “He can’t stay long, so I suggest you make the most of it. Do not think to try anything; we have cameras on you at all times. You may come in now,” Phillips called, glancing toward the door.

  Henry entered the room, wearing the same garment as Phillips. His eyes appeared sunken in, and dark circles lay beneath them. His face looked gaunt and haunted.

  “Abbie?” He rushed forward, stopping next to the bed and taking hold of her hand. “Why is she restrained?”

  “Because she fights us at every turn. She left a gash across Doctor Holbrook’s nose with her dinner tray.” Phillips took a step back. “I’ll leave you alone now, but do not think to release her, or you will be arrested and no longer allowed to see her. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Perfectly,” Henry acknowledged, staring down at Abbie with apologetic eyes.

  He didn’t speak again until the door closed behind Phillips. “I’m so sorry, baby. I had no idea they were planning this. I swear. You have to believe me.”

  Hauke felt Abbie’s emotions shift. “You betrayed me, Daddy. How could you?”

  “It was for your own good, honey. They had orders to kill you. I couldn’t let them kill you.”

  “They are going to kill me anyway,” she cried. “But not before they take my baby.”

  Henry’s gaze left hers to settle on her stomach. “The fetus is not human, sweetheart. It most likely would have caused your death long before you could birth it. Don’t you see? Just give it to them, let it be used for the greater good, and then you can go from here. Leave this place far behind and start a new life.”

  Abbie’s pain at Henry’s words nearly choked Hauke. The anger, hurt, and disbelief. “Get out, Henry. Get out and don’t come back. If I never see you again, it will be too soon.”

  “People are dying, sweetheart; dying from a virus born from the very type of creature you carry inside you. Don’t you care what happens to them?”

  “Of course I care, but I would rather die than give up the life of my child. They don’t even know if my baby is the answer to a cure. And even if he were, do you have any idea how many years of research it would take to know for sure? Find another way because I refuse to hand my baby over to any of you.”

  He gripped her hand tighter. “You don’t mean that, Abbigail. We are only doing what is best for you.”

  “You mean what is best for you!” she shouted, turning her face away from him. “I meant what I said; don’t ever come back.”

  Hauke rested his forehead against the cool glass of his prison, absorbing Abbie’s pain over Henry’s treachery as it rushed through their connection. Her father, the one man she should have been able to trust in, to believe in…had betrayed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Tears tracked down Abbie’s cheeks to disappear into her hair. She’d never imagined in a million years that Henry, her own flesh and blood, would deceive her in such a way.

  “Abbie?” Hauke softly called through their open connection. “Do not cry, my mate. I die inside with every tear you shed.”

  “I’m sorry, Hauke, but Henry has told them everything he knows about you and your people. We are all going to die, and they will have what they desire the most…my child.”

  “Our child,” he gently corrected. “I will not let that happen. I vow it.”

  An ear-piercing alarm suddenly sounded, cutting off Abbie’s connection to Hauke. She lifted her head in time to see a pale-faced Phillips burst inside the room, locking the door behind him.

  “What’s going on?” Abbie shouted over the deafening noise.

  “We have a security breach. Dozens of contaminated people are loose in the lab, all of them in different stages of deterioration!” he yelled, moving closer to the bed.

  “I don’t understand. If they’re sick, why are they in the lab instead of a hospital?”

  Something slammed into the door, wringing a cry from Phillips. He ran across the room and slid open a window.

  Abbie panicked as another crash against the door splintered the lock. Screams could be heard over the blaring of the alarm.

  “Hauke?” she mentally summoned, praying he could hear her.

  She fought against her bonds with everything she had, tearing the skin on her wrists and ankles in the process, but the leather cuffs continued to hold.

  The door abruptly gave way, and three rabid-looking fiends, burst into the room like something from a nightmare. Open sores covered their faces, and foam dripped from their mouths in violent bursts of red with every sound they made.

  Abbie’s throat closed on a silent scream as they ran toward the bed in wild-eyed insanity.

  The feel of teeth sinking into her arm brought her back off the mattress in an attempt to dislodge the rabid man now tearing into her flesh.

  She braced herself for a second attack, squeezing her eyes shut and straining against her bonds.

  A roar rent the air, and the fiend attached to her arm was suddenly ripped away and thrown across the room.

  Abbie opened her eyes in time to see Hauke spin around with the force of a tornado and snap the neck of one while throwing the other through the very window Phillips had recently escaped through.

  Hauke rushed to her side, gripped the leather cuffs that bound her, and snapped them like twigs with his big hands. “We must go!” he shouted, scooping her up into his arms.

  Abbie’s body shook, and her teeth began to chatter. “Your sister?”

  “With your uncle. Keep your head down and hold on to me.”

  Securing her arms around his neck, she buried her face against his throat and held on as tightly as possible. “Where are we going?”

  “Through the window,” he responded, sprinting to the only way of escape and throwing his leg over the sill.

  “I was afraid of that.” Her sarcasm was more for herself than him. Fear always had that effect on her.

  The feel of falling sent her stomach into her throat. She braced herself for impact, only to be surprised when he landed lithely on the ground below with a thunk, taking the brunt of the fall with his knees.

  “This way,” Tony barked, holding an unconscious Naura in his arms.

  Hauke ran in the direction of the dark blue Ford Bronco that Tony had indicated. He didn’t stop until he reached the vehicle, jerked the passenger side door open, and climbed in with Abbie still in his arms.

  Tony laid Naura in the back seat, threw a blanket over her, and jumped behind the wheel. He drove with his lights off for a distance before flipping them on and turning onto a clay road. “We change cars up ahead.”

  “Where are we going?” Abbie couldn’t wrap her mind around their daring escape. There had to be military guarding the lab. She had no idea how Tony managed to get inside the building undetected.

  “The first thing we are going to do is get to safety, regroup, and then get the hell out of here before we all wind up in pine boxes.”

  Abbie rubbed at the burning bite mark on her arm and studied her uncle’s profile. “How did you get us out?”

  “I told you I had a man on the inside. He released some of the more feral patients that were locked in the lab for testing. What they haven’t shown on the news is that the virus mimics rabies, only magnified times God knows how much. Anyhow, sedation doesn’t work on them once they’re that far gone, so they have to be chained down to prevent them from biting and spreading the virus.”

  Abbie’s heart began to pound a painful staccato. “You mean those things back there were victims of the virus?”

  At his nod, she glanced down at her arm. “I may have been i
nfected.”

  “No!” Hauke snarled, gripping her arm and tenderly lifting it. “Abbie, my mate…no.”

  The wound still bled as did her wrists where she’d fought her bonds.

  Hauke reached down and took hold the hem of the garment he wore, ripping off a strip and quickly binding the bite. “I will take you to our healer. You will be fine, soul of my soul. I swear it to you.”

  “The baby.” Abbie covered her abdomen with her free hand. “Hauke, I can’t lose the baby.”

  “You will not lose the baby. Do not fret, sweet love. The healer will do everything in his power— ”

  “But your father said the scrolls didn’t hold any secrets to the virus, Hauke.”

  “I am not entirely certain that I believe him. We will go talk to the healer.”

  “If she’s been bitten by one of the infected, she needs to see a real doctor, not some healer from the Stone Ages,” Tony argued, maneuvering the Bronco off the road and throwing it into park.

  “Zaureth is not from the Stone Ages as you say. He is wise beyond his years.”

  “I’m willing to try anything, Uncle Tony. Our most qualified physicians and scientists have come up against a brick wall where this virus is concerned. The bacteria came from there. Maybe this healer will know something that can help me.” Her voice sounded wooden as if someone else were talking.

  Tony stared back at her for a long moment before blowing out a breath and exiting the truck. “We’ll figure it out after we get far away from here. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Hauke spent the rest of the trip in silence, holding Abbie’s sleeping form close to his heart. She had been exposed to the deadly bacteria that only the Bracadyte carried. If she died… He refused to finish the thought.

  “What troubles you, brother?”

  The sound of his sister’s voice immediately brought comfort to his tormented soul. “Naura, I am happy to see you awake. How do you feel?”

  “Refreshed.” She reached up and laid a hand on Hauke’s shoulder. “How fares your mate?”

  “She has been exposed to the virus. I must take her to Zaureth at once.”

  “How are you going to get her to this Zaureth?” Tony interrupted. “Even an accomplished diver like Abbie can’t go down below eighty feet without special dive gear, and it could take me a while to gather that kind of equipment.”

  “Then I will go and bring the healer to her if necessary.” Hauke would force him if he had to.

  He glanced back at his sister. “Naura? Once we arrive at our destination, I want you to return home and give a report on the others. Perhaps Vaulcron can assemble a party to search for them.”

  “If they still live,” Naura whispered. She shifted her gaze to Abbie’s uncle. “What is this garment that I am wearing?”

  “Okay, first of all, if you’re going to speak to me, try relaxing a bit. This proper English is getting on my nerves.”

  “My apologies. I will try to pay closer attention to your speech pattern.”

  “How did you come to know our language anyhow?”

  Hauke answered for her. “We are familiar with many languages. English happened to be the hardest to learn. Although many of the Bracadyte speak it, Latin is used more frequently than not.”

  “How about trying a little slang on for size?”

  “I have absorbed your slang for the English language. It is not that difficult to accomplish.”

  Tony lifted an eyebrow. “Give it a shot, big guy.”

  “I’d prefer not, but if that’s what you want, I’m game.”

  “Damn,” Tony swore, pulling the car to a stop in front of an older looking log structure. “I’m impressed. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

  Hauke sent him a small smile. The human’s slang actually did feel good rolling off his tongue. He decided he liked it.

  Abbie’s head lifted the moment Tony opened his car door and got out. “Where are we?”

  “I don’t know,” Hauke quipped, enjoying the surprised look in her eyes at his use of the slang. “Let’s go find out.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with my Hauke?” The teasing tone of Abbie’s voice eased some of the ache in his chest.

  His lips twitched. “He’s in the backseat, wearing an ugly dress and no shoes.”

  Abbie’s laughter slid through his body to wrap around his heart.

  She glanced back at Naura with a twinkle in her eyes. “That’s a hospital gown. And he has no room to talk since he’s wearing one also. The scrubs underneath do help though,” she amended with another chuckle.

  Tony emerged from the cottage and marched around to the trunk. “Are ya’ll going to get out sometime today?”

  “Ya’ll,” Naura mimicked with a grin. That means us.” She opened her door and climbed from the vehicle, repeating several slang words as she went.

  Hauke stepped from the car with Abbie still in his arms. He couldn’t bring himself to let go of her.

  “I can walk, you know.”

  “Yes, but I enjoy holding you.”

  She rested her head against his shoulder. “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “I refuse to allow anything to happen to you or our child. Besides, we can’t be sure that you have been infected.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  “Yes,” he lied, keeping his thoughts to himself. He could only hope the bacteria from the man that bit her did not pass into her bloodstream.

  Hauke watched as Naura followed Tony up the steps to the cottage. They disappeared inside with her repeating every foul word that spilled from his lips.

  “Uncle Tony’s teaching her to curse,” Abbie admitted with a shake of her head. “He’s really not a good influence for her.”

  “You do not know my sister very well. But you will.”

  A soft sigh escaped her. “I pray so.”

  “I know so. Now let us get inside and get some food in you.”

  Stepping through the front door removed a weight from Hauke’s shoulders. Abbie and Naura would be safe for the night, and his mate needed time to relax without the constant threat of being caught.

  He trailed over to a large sofa in the center of the room and deposited Abbie’s slight form onto the fluffy softness of the cushions. “Are you hungry?”

  “Yes, I’m starved. I feel like I could eat a dead possum at this point.”

  When Hauke stared back at her with a blank look, she laughed. “It was a joke. You know, you’d have to be pretty damn hungry to eat a dead animal… Never mind. Yes, I’m hungry.”

  Tony meandered over to the couch with Naura in tow. “I had sandwich materials, burgers, chips, soups, and several other items delivered earlier. Go ahead and help yourselves.”

  “I’d like to have a bath. I haven’t been able to shower in days,” Abbie confessed in a soft voice.

  Tony cleared his throat and moved back toward the kitchen, speaking over his shoulder as he went. “The pilot light has been lit, so there should be plenty of hot water. It’s down the hall and to the left.”

  Abbie laid her hand in Hauke’s much bigger one. “Would you like to join me?”

  Would he? He couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but in the water with her. “I would love to.”

  With a gentle tug, he pulled her to her feet and led her down the hall to the small but cozy bathroom.

  “Allow me.” He pulled her shirt over her head and laid it on the sink before dropping to his knees to remove her shoes.

  “Are you always going to be this way?” Her softly spoken question caught him off guard.

  “What way is that?”

  “Attentive, loving, thoughtful. I could go on for hours, pointing out your wonderful qualities.”

  “Do your human men not show affection to their mates?”

  “Not on the same level that you do. Nowhere near it, actually.”

  Hauke couldn’t imagine not giving Abbie the love and respect she deserved. “That i
s a travesty. Women are to be honored and treasured above all others.”

  He stood and unzipped her jeans, pulling them down her thighs with the utmost care. “I do not see any injuries to your legs.”

  His relief was short-lived, however, when she stepped out of her jeans, exposing her ankles. They were raw and angry red.

  He knelt once again. “Ah, Abbie.” Tenderly brushing a thumb over one of the marks, he lifted his gaze to hers. “I will remove their feet with my teeth. They will die a slow and painful death, bleeding out one heartbeat at a time.”

  “It’s okay, Hauke.” She ran a hand through his hair. “They didn’t do that. It happened when I tried to escape the infected ones that came into my room.”

  “They are responsible for binding you.” He leaned over the tub, plugged the drain, and turned on the water. “I want to taste you again, my mate.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Abbie watched Hauke remove the borrowed hospital clothing he wore. The man was so gorgeous he made scrubs and a hospital gown look sexy.

  He’d said he wanted to taste her again, and just like that, her body came alive.

  She thought of everything that had happened over the past two months, from the first time Hauke had kissed her to the bullets he’d taken for her.

  The baby now resting inside her womb would forever be a testament to the love they’d made…. If she lived to bring him into the world.

  “Hauke?” she murmured as he helped her into the tub. “Those people back at the lab, the infected ones? If I become sick— ”

  “You will not,” he interrupted.

  “If I do, promise me that you won’t let me get that bad.”

  He settled into the bath and pulled her down to straddle his lap. “I cannot live without you, Abbie. I would do everything in my power to keep you from harm.”

  “Just promise me. You saw those things back there. They were like rabid animals, out of their minds.” A shudder passed through her with the memory of their blood-filled eyes.