A Darker Shade of Dead

by Bianca D’Arc

  She couldn’t see through the tears filling her eyes as she sobbed. Strong arms closed around her tentatively at first, then more securely as Matt drew her against him. One big hand rubbed her back as she trembled, her emotions getting the best of her after so many days of keeping everything bottled up inside.

  “I’m so sorry, Matt. I never meant for you to be hurt, and now you’ve been infected. All because of me.”

  His arms felt so safe, so warm. His voice rumbled against her as he spoke in a low voice.

  “I’m also immune to the contagion because of you, sweetheart. You literally saved my life.”

  Both his words and tone surprised her. She had expected him to be really angry with her. Instead he sounded almost forgiving and somewhat indulgent. She pulled slightly away to look up into his eyes.

  “Then we’re even because you saved me, too. It was sent to kill me.”

  “But it wouldn’t have killed you. You’re immune.” His gaze narrowed.

  “Nobody knew that. Even so, that thing still could have ripped me limb from limb.”

  “You could’ve outrun it. Retreated and called for help from the combat troops. Why didn’t you?”

  She fought the urge to look away. He was treading too close to the secret she desperately wanted to keep. She’d have to brazen it out.

  “I couldn’t let it escape the lab. That happened once before and a lot of good men died. I knew I had to keep it in the lab if at all possible.”

  “Foolish,” Matt whispered, his gaze growing more intimate as he held her. “Brave, but foolish.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me.” She’d meant her words to be amusing, but they dropped to a whisper as Matt drew closer.

  His mouth hovered over hers so that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. She wanted to taste him, to know his kiss. She wanted it like she wanted her next breath.

  Finally, his head dipped that final short distance and his lips took possession. It wasn’t a kiss so much as it was the staking of a claim. His arms enveloped her while his mouth plundered hers. This was no exploratory joining of lips. This was a full-body kiss that rocked her world off its axis.

  The temperature in the room went from comfortable to steamy in fractions of a second. Sandra pressed against him, reveling in the strong arms that imprisoned her, the warm body that made her feel so womanly, the hard ridge of flesh pressing against her that made her feel so wanted.

  He was aroused. Just like that, there was no doubt in her mind that he wanted her. Just as she wanted him. Had wanted him for days now. Weeks. Since the moment she’d first seen him, Matt had fueled her late-night fantasies and made her yearn as no man had before.

  His hands slid lower, cupping her butt as he rubbed against her. She strained against him as well, wanting the clothes between them to be gone. She wanted to feel his skin against hers, his body inside hers.

  Matt took her lips with a fierceness he’d never used for a first kiss before. Somehow it was appropriate. She’d brought out the barbarian in him and she didn’t seem to mind one bit. She answered his demands stroke for stroke, nibble for nibble, and drove him even higher with her innocent response.

  He put all his energy into turning the mere acceptance of his desire into flashing hot, eager demand. He wanted her to want him and within moments, he felt the leap of her pulse under his fingers. She grew hungry for his touch, pushing her body into his. He felt the softness of her clothing against his bare chest and longed to feel more.

  He was hard for her and they’d barely even begun to explore each other. She was dynamite in his arms, but he was wary of being burned. He didn’t want this whole situation to explode in his face. He had to tread lightly, especially now that he knew she’d been keeping secrets from him. If she’d omitted to tell him about her immunity and the continued harassment from Rodriguez, what else had she kept from him?

  Her every movement told him she wasn’t being completely honest with him. Whether the information she held back was as serious as what she’d already admitted remained to be seen. He hoped it was something simple. He didn’t know what he’d do if it turned out she was withholding something even more serious.

  The idea of it made him angry, but it was hard to hold on to his anger when Sandra was in his arms. In fact, it was impossible. She fired his blood, as she had from the beginning. From the first moment he’d met her she’d piqued his interest, and now that she was in his arms, responding to his demands, it felt even better than he’d imagined. She made him want more.

  He raised one hand, edging toward her breast, wondering if she’d protest his possessive touch. When she moved closer, practically offering herself to him, he grunted in satisfaction. Covering her soft mound with his palm, he squeezed gently, feeling the weight and size of her in his hand. She was perfect. And the little peak that rose under his palm tempted him to do so much more than merely feel.

  He wanted to taste, to learn the flavor of her skin, the contours of her under his tongue.

  But not yet.

  For now he had to content himself with just this. There was too much yet to be resolved between them. Too many questions unanswered and too many feelings he didn’t have the time to deal with right now. Damn, this woman was distracting.

  Matt had been a loner for years and never worried about what any of his girlfriends might be thinking or feeling. He hadn’t been in any truly serious relationships since he was a young soldier and even then, he’d kept himself firmly in check. At the first sign that his girl was getting too serious, he was gone. Now, it seemed, he wanted nothing more than for Sandra to be serious—to commit fully to this mission and to him.

  A startling thought.

  Startling enough to make him draw away from her tempting softness, the fire of her desire, the pulsing arousal of her presence.

  He had to get out of here. He wasn’t sure who he could trust anymore—not even himself, if he couldn’t keep his head together when Sandra was in his arms.

  He stepped away, seeing the hurt confusion on her face. He steeled himself against it. Matt couldn’t be sure of her at this point. She was still hiding something. He didn’t know what it was, but he’d bet his left nut that she wasn’t telling him everything. Until she came totally clean, he had to be wary.

  Without another word he stalked out of the room. He had work to do.

  Matt was in no mood to deal with Beverly when he arrived at his office. He was early, which was a good thing. He closeted himself in his office and closed the door—a clear signal he didn’t want to be disturbed. He needed the time to get his anger under control and to regroup physically from the night before.

  He wasn’t one hundred percent up to his peak of performance, but he didn’t need to be. He only had to convince the spy in his office—and any others who might be watching for any sign of weakness—that everything was as it had always been. He was riding a desk. It shouldn’t be too hard to pretend to be operating at full speed. If he’d still been working in the field, that would be another thing, but luckily he didn’t have to deal with that challenge.

  He just had to tough out a day in the office.

  Along about lunchtime, his peace and privacy came to an end. Beverly knocked on his door and Matt made a pretense of being engrossed in paperwork before he allowed her to enter.

  “Would you like me to bring lunch back for you, sir?”

  The offer was innocent enough, but Matt wouldn’t trust a viper like Beverly not to drug his food.

  “No thanks. I’ll be going out in a bit. I’ll get something then.”

  He hoped Bev would take the hint as he turned back to his paperwork. No such luck. She hovered in the doorway long enough he had to look up.

  “I heard there was a bit of a fracas on base last night. Something about Dr. McCormick’s laboratory.”

  Yeah, Bev was definitely on a fishing expedition. Matt had to play it cool. He also recognized an opportunity to misdirect the spy in his midst.

 
; “Yeah, we had a little disturbance over there. Beats me how the creature got into her lab without anyone seeing it, but these things are good at stealth.” Matt hoped he wasn’t over-playing his bewilderment, but Bev seemed to be buying it. It was time to make his next move. “Do we have any reports of personnel AWOL from base?”

  Bev didn’t betray her surprise at his question by anything other than a slight widening of her eyes that he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been watching her closely. She was good. But Matt had to be better.

  “No, sir. I’ll double check but I’ve been keeping a close eye on duty reports from every sector of the base. Nobody’s missing. Or at least, nobody’s been reported missing as yet.”

  “We’ll have to keep an eye on that.” Matt grimaced, hoping she would go that extra step that would expose her and give him an opportunity to mislead both her and the people she worked for.

  “Did anyone see its face? I mean, was the zombie recognizable at all?”

  Bingo. She’d opened the door. She’d also just incriminated herself.

  “Dr. McCormick saw it clearly, but she didn’t recognize him. We know it was male, but that’s about all as far as identifying characteristics. She said his face was unrecognizable and the combat team didn’t waste time. They just finished him off before he could infect the doctor.”

  “Tough break,” Bev said as if she really meant it. All the while, Matt could almost hear the gears turning in her mind.

  Matt got the feeling that Bev knew damned well who’d been sent to destroy Sandra. Jennings had been one of Sandy’s colleagues. There was no way she wouldn’t recognize him. Matt wanted Bev to think that Sandra was playing along—that she wasn’t identifying Jennings for her own purposes. Perhaps that she was hedging her bets so she could play both ends against the middle. He wanted to keep them guessing as to Sandy’s allegiances if at all possible.

  Bev had tipped her hand. She wasn’t just spying on him for Chester. She was in league with the ones who had killed Jennings and sent him after Sandra. Bev was definitely wearing a black hat in this gunfight. It was up to Matt to use that knowledge to his best advantage.

  Beverly left for lunch and Matt was fairly certain she’d be reporting to her masters on the morning’s developments. Matt gave it forty minutes before he stopped shuffling papers, got up from his desk, stretched, and left the office.

  Tempted as he was to go check on Sandra, he resisted, opting instead to check in with Simon. A quick call informed him that Simon was having lunch with Mari in the base hospital’s cafeteria. Matt decided to drive the short distance because he was still tired as hell from the ordeal of the night before.

  He couldn’t let it show. Nobody could know what had happened to him in that laboratory. Only the inner circle that now consisted of Sandra, Mari, and Simon knew and he wanted to keep it that way. At least for now—at least until he had rooted out the rats in his kitchen.

  Matt arrived just as Simon and Mari were finishing up their lunch. He grabbed a sandwich to go and went with the couple to Mari’s private lab.

  “Are we clear in here?” Matt asked Simon as soon as the door closed. Simon had already gone to work checking for listening devices.

  “I checked before lunch and found nothing. I also recoded the electronic locks. Only Mari can get in. Not even our cleaning crew has access now.” Simon did a thorough recheck of the small space while Matt did his own survey of the inner office.

  There were no windows, which negated the possibility of someone listening from far away using a parabolic mic. The air system was independent of the rest of the building because this lab had been built to study infectious diseases, so there was also very little chance of anyone listening through ducts or other access points into the room.

  “We’re clear,” Simon reported as he took a seat on one of the lab stools. Mariana had already seated herself on a rolling desk chair. Matt commandeered another stool.

  “How are you feeling, Commander?” Mari asked as Matt seated himself.

  “Tired,” he admitted. “Very tired, but otherwise okay.”

  “How’s your back?” she probed further, concern in her gaze.

  “To tell you the truth, I haven’t thought much about it. It doesn’t hurt if that’s what you’re asking. Haven’t had a twinge all day, which is kind of surprising, really. I’ve had to get used to blocking the pain, but every once in a while a spasm would still creep up on me. I haven’t had any of those today yet.”

  “If I’m right, you probably won’t have spasms at all anymore.”

  “Now that would be something.” Matt didn’t want to talk about himself or his injury anymore. He had bigger fish to fry. “There’s a leak in my office. I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s Ensign Bartles, but I want to know who she’s working for and who else might be involved.”

  “Think she’s reporting back to Admiral Chester?” Simon asked.

  Matt knew there was bad blood between Simon and Chester from years ago when Chester had been captain of a ship that had fled an engagement, leaving Simon’s SEAL team high and dry. Chester had weaseled his way out of responsibility for that fiasco because he was politically connected even then, but Simon had never been shy about saying why he disliked the admiral and had told Matt the entire story.

  “I have no doubt Chester’s getting regular updates from her. He positioned her in my office without my being able to object. It was too convenient the way she showed up right before Tim disappeared.”

  “You think she had something to do with his going AWOL?” Mari asked.

  “It looks like Tim ran off when Bartles came in to investigate. That’s a little too simple an explanation for my tastes. The more likely possibility to my mind is that Beverly sent him away or did away with him.”

  “You think she’s capable of murder?” Mari seemed shocked by the idea.

  “I wouldn’t put anything past her.” Matt backed off a little. “However, if she’s simply reporting back to Chester, then Tim might’ve been the real problem and he took off on his own. If she’s working for someone else in addition to Chester, well, that’d be the real problem. Frankly, I never thought Tim was bright enough to be much of a spy. Bev, on the other hand, is a snake.”

  “Why so adamant?” Simon’s eyes narrowed.

  “The conversation I just had with her. I’m convinced she knew the zombie waiting for Sandra was Jennings—or at least someone Sandy should have recognized. Bev was too curious. She came right out and asked if Sandra recognized her attacker.”

  “Not a question that would have occurred to me right away,” Mari admitted.

  “That’s what I thought,” Matt agreed.

  “You think Chester is working with the rogue scientists?” Simon asked, clearly concerned but skeptical. “The man is an ass, but I doubt he’d try to sell a secret with this kind of destructive power. He’s all about covering his own ass and moving up in the chain of command. I don’t think he’s got the balls to do something like this.”

  “Having worked with Chester for a while now, I’d have to agree. He’s got delusions of grandeur, but not megalomania. He wants to chair the Joint Chiefs. Power and prestige are more important to him than money. He probably wouldn’t sell secrets just to get rich.”

  “So then who is Bev working for?” Mari looked troubled. “You think she’s passing information from your office to someone from the original science team, don’t you? A rogue member of the science team is the only one who could’ve put that poor creature in Sandra’s lab last night.”

  Simon and Matt exchanged grim looks. Mari had put together the scenario that seemed most likely.

  “So how do we find out who her contact is and how she’s passing the information?” Simon asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Matt admitted. “I didn’t let on that Sandra had identified the zombie as Dr. Jennings.”

  “Why not? You want to use Sandra as bait?” Simon’s eyes narrowed. Mari looked appalled.

  “I’
d rather not, but I also want to preserve the possibility of doing so. No sense tipping our hand. I’d rather keep Bev guessing.”

  Simon shrugged. “Makes sense.”

  “You two are the only ones who know about what happened last night, and I want to keep it that way for the time being. You are also the only two who know about Sandy’s immunity.”

  “We’re the inner circle?” Simon sent Matt a quick grin.

  “By default, but I’m glad it worked out this way. Both of you have been in on this with me since the beginning. I trust you not to let this go any further. Plus, it works out well since Mari and Sandra will be working closely together. If you’re up to it, I’d like you to keep an eye on her.” Matt knew what he was asking. Mari could possibly be in even more danger by sticking close to Sandra right now, and she was newly pregnant. If he’d had any other choice Matt would have taken it, but they all knew what was at stake here. This mission was too important to humanity.

  Mari was up to the challenge. “I’m not much of a spy, but I don’t mind keeping my eyes open.”

  “You know now that she’s immune, so don’t take any chances, Mariana. If more creatures show up, you get yourself out of there.” Matt didn’t like telling the other woman to leave Sandra on her own, but it was necessary. He wouldn’t be far. If Mari could sound the alarm, he’d be nearby to help Sandra.

  “Do you expect more late-night visits from the undead?” Simon asked.

  “She’s still in danger. She admitted she’s been approached twice before. Dr. Rodriguez asked her to join his team. He’s apparently the one behind the problems we’ve been having here at Bragg. He’s got a lab somewhere nearby and he’s been working to perfect his formula, sending out the resulting creatures one by one to test against our defenses.”

  “He told her that?” Simon’s eyebrow rose in question.

  “Not in so many words, but I put it together after she finally told me the truth. It makes sense. He’s trying to build a zombie soldier formula. It would only be reasonable to test the resulting creatures against real soldiers—especially since we’ve concentrated the troops here at Fort Bragg that have faced them before. What better place to test his new creations?”