Drawing Bloodlines (The Princeton Allegiant Series Book 1)

by Deborah Garland

  I do as he says and we get into the lobby with ease. I was never here and am in awe of the open feel of the atrium. It’s freezing outside but thanks to the sun shining down, it’s quite warm inside. I already miss how cold Alex makes me feel and would rather be outside again.

  Even from far away, I can see what-the-fuck spreading across Stephen’s face.

  His steps quicken and his mouth is tight. Teeth gnaw his thin lips. Everything is a reflection on him. Surprise visits, especially a mother dropping off a kid raises questions. Given that the military still prosecutes for adultery, their tolerance level for any kind of domestic bullshit is low.

  Annie blissfully distracts him. “Daddy!” she shouts with her arms outstretched.

  With his eyes locked on mine, he hugs his daughter. Taking her hand and my arm, he pulls us into a corner. “What’s going on? What the hell happened to you?”

  I forget he knows me very well. My cheeks are still puffy and my neck is so stiff from Christiana grabbing me, that I can’t turn my head properly.

  “Hello to you too.” I shrug out of his hold.

  He smiles warmly at Annie, then turns to me with an icy glare. “I thought we were meeting at the base around six?”

  “I got here early.” I fold my arms. “Is that a problem?”

  “Surprises are always a problem.”

  He brought Annie to work with him before. That’s not the problem. Me being here is the problem. His ex-wife. The woman he divorced and kicked off the base with his child. He caught hell for that move.

  “Hang on.” He steps away with the squared confident shoulders of a Marine. At the inside security desk, he picks up a phone, speaks briefly into it and puts it down. When he walks back, he pops his chin up at me. “So, where’s your boyfriend?”

  I close my eyes and offer a gentle shake of the head to imply it’s over.

  Annie doesn’t get subtlety, though. “He’s going to marry some woman in Philadelphia.”

  Stephen’s jaw drops. “What?”

  Chapter 29

  “Cecilia!” Annie spots Stephen’s assistant and gleefully cries out, diffusing the tense moment.

  Dressed in a crisp white suit, Cecilia strides toward me. Her long chestnut hair is pulled back and her eyes lock with mine. Black, shiny black. I step back and hold my chest. My gaze zeroes in on her hands, covered in white gloves. Stephen explained once that she suffers from terrible eczema.

  Not likely. She’s a fucking vampire!

  Her steps falter as she approaches me. She must smell my fear. And Alex. Oh Christ, and Loren. I cough to distract her and to get my emotions intact. This is DC. Every vampire submits to the commander of their state. Just as Alex pointed out the differences between Francisco and Christiana, whoever runs DC has their own way of doing things. It’s not something I care to find out.

  “Mommy. Ow. You’re squeezing my hand too tight.”

  “Oh sorry.” I loosen Annie only slightly. “Hi, Cecilia. You look amazing as always. Funny how you don’t ever seem to age.”

  “Elizabeth!” Stephen scolds me.

  Cecilia studies me. Somewhere beyond the difference in our species there must be common ground. Perhaps she was a mother before she was turned. She finally smiles and smacks a gloved hand against Stephen’s chest. Too hard because he winces.

  “Captain Kastner, it’s quite all right. She’s complimenting me.” After the awkward silence, Cecilia reaches for Annie. “Want to come see Daddy’s new office?”

  “Is it on a higher floor?”

  “No, we’re beneath ground now.” Which I’m sure suits her fine. “Do you have everything?”

  “Wait!” I say before Cecilia takes her. With Annie’s hand in mine, I step away and kneel down. “I’ll call you later and every day. Okay?”

  “Okay.” She hugs me. “Mommy?”

  “Yes, my love.”

  “Are we really never going to see Alex again?” The pain in her eyes breaks my heart.

  She hasn’t brought him up until just now. Has she thought about him this whole time and only now has the courage to ask me?

  “I’m sorry, Annie,” I choke out and stifle my emotion. “No, we’re not going to see him again. But you know what? That’s okay. We had a wonderful time with him. You have good memories of him and that’s important. He cared about you very much. He just had an obligation.” I make sure her eyes are on me. “And gentlemen keep their promises and do the right thing.”

  “Is Daddy a gentleman?”

  “Yes.” I smile and nod. “He’s the most important man in your life. Remember that. You will always have your father. He will always be here for you.”

  She hugs me. “I love you, Mommy.”

  I give her one last squeeze. “I love you. You’re my world, Annie-bug. I’ll see you soon.”

  Stephen moves toward us and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, honey, go with Cecilia. I need to talk to Mommy for a minute.”

  “Have a wonderful holiday, Cecilia,” I say as she walks off with my daughter and then add, “Oh, and Loren is in Maryland.”

  Her shoulders tense up and she spins around. I touch my neck to signal his blood runs through my veins. To let her know I’m under his protection.

  “Who’s Loren?” Stephen’s head swivels back and forth between me and Cecilia.

  When she and Annie disappear, I answer, “He’s a mutual friend.”

  “How do you and my assistant have a mutual friend?”

  “You’re one.” My gaze slides over him.

  Stephen scrubs a hand on the back of his neck. “Seriously, how—”

  “Are you wearing any kind of wire or recording device?”

  “No.” He steps back, stunned. “Why would you ask that?”

  I pick up the vase on the coffee table next to us. “Is there a bug in this?”

  He puts his head down and takes my arm. “Let’s go outside.”

  I’m grateful for the few minutes to collect myself. We get to a mini reflecting pool, a memorial for fallen soldiers. The ceramic benches around it are empty.

  But I don’t sit.

  Once I’m sure we’re a safe distance away, I stare at Stephen dead in the eye and say, “Alex is a vampire.”

  The emotion drains away from his face. With his teeth gnashed, he says, “Are you out of your mind?”

  “I’m only telling you this so you’ll keep an extra eye on your daughter.” I grab his tie and ignore his freaked-out face. “Don’t let anyone you don’t know near Annie. And watch out for Cecilia. I’m pretty sure she’s one too. Letting her know about our mutual friend should be enough of a warning. Still, be careful with her.”

  Stephen steps back and folds his arms across his chest. “Has it all really been too much for you? Raising her by yourself.”

  “Yeah, that’s it. I’m so tired that I imagined the man I love is a vampire.”

  “Stop saying shit like that. Damn it, Lizzy, it’s me.” There was a time it was just him and me. There were no secrets, no hard feelings, no distance, only love and even good sex. “What the fuck is going on with you? You get involved and expose my daughter to a man who had a secret fiancée and now you tell me he’s a vampire.”

  “You don’t think there’s even the slightest possibility, given all that you’ve seen in the military that vampires exist?”

  “No,” he snaps. Just as it took me several days to fully comprehend what Alex is, I don’t expect Stephen to accept this on its face. “So what about this woman he’s going to marry?”

  “It’s complicated. They swear allegiance to commanders in each state. The female was just given command of Philadelphia and she needed a mate. She chose Alex.”

  “Sounds very medieval. And made up.” His eyes bore into me. “Yo
u know there are people who pretend to be vampires. This guy conned you.”

  “I really wish that were true, but I saw his powers. He carried my sofa with one hand and moved it to the other side of the room.”

  I choose to keep the mind-reading talent to myself. I suspect Alex would rather a few more humans know he’s a vampire, than other vamps know he inherited some of Loren’s gifts.

  “Sounds like he’s on PCP or something.”

  “Do you really think I would get involved with someone who did drugs?”

  Stephen throws his hands down. “Well if you got involved with a vampire, who knows what you’re capable of.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I pull my handbag over to my shoulder and walk away.

  There’s no way I’ll let Stephen see how devastated I am by all this. He’ll turn it around and accuse me of being a bad role model for my daughter. ‘Be strong and suck it up’ was always the silent message I got from other military wives.

  “We’re not done talking.” He grabs my arm. “I can have your parental rights terminated, Lizzy, if I think you’re unstable.”

  I glance at his hand on me then the building a few feet away. Appearances. When he lets go, I say, “Unlike the myths, they’re not blood-sucking savages. They lead ordinary lives with fake IDs. But they’re dangerous if crossed. So do not say anything to Cecilia about this.”

  “You really believe all this, don’t you?”

  I nod and lose myself for a moment in the memorial. Human wars must seem really pointless to vampires.

  Stephen shakes his head and crosses his arms again. “So where are you off to now? Going to find some werewolves to hang out with?”

  “I’m glad you’re amused.” I lean in and kiss his cheek. “I’ll call Annie tonight.”

  Stephen grasps me again. Much softer this time. “You can stay on the base with us you know.” He swallows. “For Christmas. Perhaps longer?”

  The offer floors me. His eyes have that glow I haven’t seen in so long. “Thank you. But I can’t.”

  He steps back and I see his expression slowly shatter, that welcoming spark snuffed out as easily as it ignited.

  “Stephen, I have a life in Princeton. A job, a house, a mortgage.” When he doesn’t say anything, I turn and walk away. “Take care of our daughter.”

  The drive home from DC is nothing short of excruciating and I was never so relieved to be on the New Jersey Turnpike in my life.

  My house is unusually warm when I get home. Without Annie here, the thundering silence will slowly drive me mad. I need this time to face reality, and get my life back on track.

  With a sharpened sense of awareness, probably a side effect of Loren’s blood, a faint trace of cologne captures me. Slams me. Alex’s scent will be even stronger in the bedroom along with the lingering traces of our lovemaking. I can’t bring myself to go in there just yet.

  Paralyzed in my living room, I sink to the floor like a week-old helium balloon. On my knees, I rock and begin to cry. I haven’t allowed myself to grieve about this yet. I had to be strong. For Alex. For Annie. Now there isn’t any point in holding back the tears or fighting. There’s no one to fight for. I lost. I’m alone.

  Warm, wet tears flow down my cheeks and my cheap mascara stings my eyes as all the emotions I repressed tumble out of me. They come hard and fast until I can hardly breathe and I choke on sharp, anguished sobs.

  A noise on my front porch startles me to sit up. Is it? Could it be? Alex? I turn my head and exhale. “Hi, Dad.”

  He rushes inside and falls at my feet. “What’s wrong? Is Annie okay?”

  I won’t lay on him the same information I gave Stephen. “Alex and I split up.”

  “Oh, honey.” He holds me and I wait for him to ask what happened. Instead, he lays an evil grin on me. “Does that mean it’ll be just you and me on Christmas?”

  I nod. It was going to be he and I anyway. For dinner, at least. My plan was to make my dad a nice meal while Alex . . . While Alex pretended to be at the hospital. That’s what my life with him would have been like. Sucked into telling lies to everyone all the time.

  My dad lifts me up and brings me to the kitchen, where he makes me a cup of tea. “It’s a little unorthodox, but I have an idea of what we can do Christmas Day.”

  As I rub my tired eyes, I’m intrigued enough to ask, “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Armand buzzes me into the building and then his lab.

  “What the hell happened to you?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “Armand, have you gotten any further with your experiments? Did the last piece of information I sent you prove useful at all?”

  Armand doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, then grabs his binder. “Alexander, I don’t know how to tell you this. It’s going backwards all of a sudden.” He steps further into the lab. “The latest data runs were terrible. The results are, would be, horrific.”

  With a shaking hand, I reach out to see the computer printouts. He wrote notes on each one in the margin and translated the chemical results to what would happen to a human body. Even I have to sit.

  I believe in the theory, though. I believe in science and the human body.

  “Armand, some of these say if you replace the major organs the probability is quite high.”

  “Organs are very difficult to cull.” Armand rolls his eyes. “Especially a heart.”

  Taylor who was quiet in the corner, speaks up. “Actually, there’s a body in Building A being processed for organ removal.”

  Armand spins toward her. “How do you know this?”

  “I’ve been monitoring the donations list for months.”

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Does it matter?” she responds.

  “Taylor, why?” Armand’s scent reacts to the signs of stress her body releases.

  The woman’s face contorts and her voice strains when she discloses, “I was hoping you would want to be human again. I know you’re smart enough to figure this out. I just wanted to know where and how to get the organs if you decided it was what you wanted.”

  “Is this what you want, Armand?”

  “Maybe,” he says and puts the binder away.

  I stagger back. “I can’t use those organs. I won’t take your chance away.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not ready to do this today, Alex.”

  Organs have a pretty short shelf life. Getting my thoughts together, I step up to the glass surgery room that was under construction the last time I was here.

  “It’s military-grade glass.” Armand stands next to me as I touch the panels. “In the event the experiment goes terribly wrong, he, she, it can be locked in here. And not get out.”

  “Then what?” I ask.

  Armand steps back to a control panel and points. “The room is oxygenated. I can turn off the air supply.”

  I cross my arms. “But if the subject remains vampire, it wouldn’t need air.”

  “We have poison pellets as well,” Taylor adds. “Sarin has the necessary elements to be effective.”

  This reality pauses me. I thought the worst thing that could happen is death. There are other variables they planned for; like a subject turning into a vicious uncontrollable monster. One they would kill with a poison that melts faces off.

  The thought of Christiana touching my face makes me blurt, “Let me be your first subject, Armand.”

  “No. Let me try to find some kind of volunteer.”

  “Armand!” I grab his shoulders. “You have a volunteer, right here.”

  “I don’t want to sound cold blooded or amoral, but I’d rather take this risk with some random control case and not a vampire made by fucking Loren. Because if this fails, like I’m sure it will—”
<
br />   “Then we’ll have a body to analyze to fix the process.” Taylor tugs on his lab coat.

  “Loren will know this is my decision. He knows why I have to do this. But I don’t have time for you to go through several attempts.” I take off my jacket.

  “Alex, this whole thing will take a few days.”

  “Then you better get moving.” I kick off my shoes.

  “Son of a bitch. Here we go.” Armand nods and Taylor runs out of the lab, presumably to find the status of that organ donor.

  I may only have hours before Christiana tracks me down. But it’s a risk I have to take.

  Chapter 30

  Dull, clanging bells follow me around as I move from machine to machine while the smell of cigarettes makes me sick.

  Playing slots in Atlantic City on Christmas Day feels so sleazy. What’s even scarier is this place is packed. “Did everyone drop their kid off to an ex-spouse for the holiday?”

  To all the woman walking around alone, looking miserable, I’m dying to whisper, ‘And did your vampire boyfriend leave you for a stunning woman?’

  An image of Alex and Christiana standing side by side in her command, mated and beautifully glamorous together kicks me in the stomach so hard, I double over from the pain. Even if it’s a lie. Every minute without Alex feels like my hand is held down on a burning stove. I refrained from hard crushing tears only to spare my father the heartache of seeing me so upset again. With him sitting at a blackjack table and me here surrounded by strangers, it’s as good a place as any to have a complete breakdown.

  “What’s wrong?” a man in a suit asks me and tugs on my arm.

  “I’m fine.” I thought of all places, I could cry here in peace. “Just a little sad for the holiday.” I wipe my eyes and step away, but his hand stays on my elbow.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” He moves closer to me. His suit looks expensive, and he’s clean-shaven and smells nice. “Or perhaps a drink when my shift is over?”