What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 9)

by Kristine Cayne

  And then the words were out before she could stop them. “I can help, I’m a doctor.”

  It wasn’t necessarily a dangerous secret to spill, but her original intention had been to remain neutral. Don’t get involved, don’t care about anybody. The more she got involved, the more real the place would become—and she didn’t want to have to worry about anybody when the time came to make a dangerous move.

  Marcus was still, his gaze frozen on her. There were questions in his eyes, but they never made it into words. Instead, he turned around towards Miles.

  “Go check with the guards. Find out where the breach happened.”

  When he returned his attention to her, there was a spark of something different in his eyes. Something that looked like… concern? She shook the idea off before it took hold.

  “Stay close to me at all times,” he ordered her, and she nodded.

  For once she was glad to be surrounded by vampires.

  Marcus whispered something to Miles and he disappeared again into the night.

  The compound was quiet but she didn’t have much time to contemplate the quietness, because Marcus was already marching towards the door. A chill ran down her spine and she swallowed hard.

  “Stay close,” Marcus repeated when they stepped out into the courtyard.

  She hadn’t paid much attention to the sounds of the compound the night before because she’d been in Marcus’ arms. It was hard to take notice of the world around when his hands were on her and her skin was on fire. However, she was almost sure the compound had never been this quiet. Even during the day, when most—humans and vampires—slept, you could still hear the buzzing of words and fabric moving around in the corridors. But there was nothing like that going on at the moment. Silver eyes were everywhere, but vampires moved about in whispering sounds. Unless you were expecting them to be there, you would never hear them. Humans, on the other hand, were scarce. In fact, she didn’t see a single person until they stepped into a smaller courtyard she had somewhat missed when surveying the compound.

  There, the scene was very different. There was a small body lying on the ground. An older woman was sobbing while another figure hovered nearby. Neither person seemed to be panicking, and that made the whole scene much more difficult to absorb. Isabelle’s mind flew back to the beginning of the invasion, when she’d lost people she loved. She remembered the panic, the desperation, the pain raging inside. The fact that these people weren’t feeling that was a clear sign of how things had changed. The loss of human life was no longer a major tragedy. It was something people had come to accept as inevitable, as something you witnessed daily.

  She rushed to the group, startling them in the process. The second figure, a frail-looking teen girl, stumbled back in surprise when she noticed the king standing there.

  “It’s OK,” Isabelle whispered without looking up.

  The body on the ground was a teenager. Her blonde hair was covered in blood and her clothes were half torn. She had major battle wounds, as well as lots of cuts and scrapes, probably from trying to fight her attacker. Belle suspected it hadn’t done much good, as there was blood everywhere. In fact, she couldn’t even find the source of the bleeding, because the girl was covered in blood.

  She looked up towards the two people standing there.

  “What’s her name?”

  “Lori,” the older woman whispered.

  Belle looked down, trying to get the girl’s attention.

  “Lori, can you hear me? Lori?”

  But Lori was in shock, her gaze frozen into the night.

  She looked up towards Marcus. “We need to get her somewhere inside, so I can check her wounds.”

  Before she could say anything else, Marcus picked the girl up without effort. He winced, and she wondered how much the smell and sight of blood was affecting him.

  The teen girl, on the other hand, was panicking, her eyes frozen on Marcus. “Don’t take her, don’t take her.”

  Isabelle reached forward and grabbed the girl’s hands. “I’m a doctor, I’ll do what I can.”

  And although it wasn’t exactly a lie, she wondered just how much she could do. Marcus was standing right by her side, loyal to the idea of not letting her out of his sight. She was wasting time trying to console these people, so she let go of the girl’s hands and turned to the king. There was an aura of power around him. He seemed bigger than usual, towering over all of them. At that very moment, there was nobody else she would rather have standing right beside her. And the realization was both incredibly powerful and scary.

  He nodded and started marching towards her building. His steps were effortless, as if the wounded girl weighed nothing in his arms. Belle wasn’t sure where they were going, but Marcus had an obvious destination in mind. When he got within feet of her bedroom door, he quickly turned left, confusing her for a second.

  And then he pushed the wall and a panel slid open. Belle’s heart skipped a beat. More secrets, she thought. So that was how they were all able to move around and turn up in different places unexpectedly. Suddenly all the extra space in the long, empty corridors made sense.

  She had been looking for answers in all the wrong places.

  The passageway behind the door was narrow and dark. Claustrophobic was an even better word for it. At any other time, she would have had trouble breathing because of the walls closing in on her. Right now, she could barely keep up with Marcus, so she had no chance to think about anything but trying not to trip in the dark and fall flat on her face.

  The corridor went on forever, and while she couldn’t exactly tell, it seemed like the floor was slanted downhill. Underground. She was going underground.

  “Marcus?”

  “We’re almost there,” he answered from a few feet in front of her and she picked up the pace.

  She was about to ask how much longer when she heard a soft click and then bright lights blinded her. She hurried into the new room and waited for a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the brightness. A soft metallic tang hung in the air, mixing with the smell of… antiseptic?

  As the blurriness slip away, the first thing she saw was the gurney in the middle of the room. Her gaze swiveled around, stopping for brief seconds on the metal instruments and the oxygen tanks. Where the hell was she?

  Marcus placed the girl on the metal table and drew back a couple of steps. She reached for the girl’s neck, searching for a sign of life.

  “She’s still alive,” Marcus said.

  “I can’t find her pulse.” She frantically probed with her fingers on the girl’s cold skin.

  “It’s there, I can hear it.”

  She searched for scissors in nearby drawers and started cutting the girl’s clothes as soon as she found a pair. She could hear her own heavy breathing in the quietness of the room. It was such an alien sound, it made her uneasy. To her, emergency rooms had a heavy buzzing to them—doors sliding, the squeaking and beeping of machines coming to life, the rattle of metal instruments hitting the trays. Here, it was just her. Lori was too far gone to make any sounds, and Marcus was breathing softly, no other sounds coming out of him as he observed her work around the table.

  “Can you tell where the blood is coming from?” she asked him.

  “Abdomen,” he responded, and she could hear the heaviness in his voice again.

  The thick smell of blood permeated the room.

  She reached around for rubber gloves and slapped them on, then slid her fingers over the girl’s pulsating stomach. There. A gash at least five inches long. Maybe more. She cleared the blood as best as she could, then examined the opening. It didn’t seem deep enough to have reached any organs, but without the proper equipment, it was impossible to tell.

  Lori’s breath was slowing down. She was slipping through Belle’s fingers and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Marcus couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He had been hoping for a glimpse of the real Isabelle, the one she had been before coming to the compou
nd—and this was a bright flash into her world. Truth was, he was a lot more interested in what she was doing than in the girl on the gurney. Probably because the girl on the gurney wasn’t going to make it.

  The smell of blood held many clues. It could tell you when somebody was sick or full of life. It could give you clues into a person’s past and future.

  In the case of the girl in the room, the smell said death was close.

  Maybe a massive blood transfusion would save her. Maybe. But blood was in short supply and he wasn’t about to share what little they had. He didn’t know the girl well, but that wasn’t the reason why. In the end, his loyalty lay with the ones like him. He had a slightly better opinion of humans than Patrick did, but when it came time to make a choice, there were no questions as to where his loyalties were.

  Death took a step closer.

  Belle was still frantically trying to work a miracle, but the flow of blood was constant. It was also slowing down. Not because what she was doing was helping, but because the girl was running out of blood.

  Marcus shook his head. “Let her go, Belle. There’s nothing else you can do.”

  “No.” The certainty in her voice was in part conviction and in part challenge. She was telling him to stay out of it, to let her make her own decisions. But Marcus knew it was all just a waste of time and he just wanted to get her away from there.

  He wasn’t used to women—or to anybody, for that matter—telling him “no.” And right now, with all the chaos of the attack, it was the last thing he wanted to deal with. He had to get back to Miles and figure out exactly what had happened. He also needed to get her into a secure area so he could go out to attend to his business without having to worry about her.

  He stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “Belle, let her go.”

  “No!”

  She tried to jerk her arm free, but Marcus anticipated her move and held on to her tight, dragging her towards him and away from the table.

  “She’ll be dead in a minute,” he told her and that seemed to work, because Belle stopped resisting and eased back against his chest.

  He wrapped his arms around her and felt the soft tremor running through her body. He half-expected Belle to start crying, but the slight shivering was the only indication of how she was feeling.

  He remained still, holding on to her and feeling the warmth of her body slipping into his. She fit perfectly against his body, every curve sliding into the right place and producing the right amount of electricity. Her body was struggling to remain still and it was obvious she was making a tremendous effort not to show any emotions.

  Without letting go, he leaned his head forward, moving his lips towards her ear. Even now, her smell was intoxicating, the softness of her essence sending an electric pulse down his body.

  “It’s OK, Belle. You don’t have to be brave.”

  Her body tensed for a second, then relaxed back into his arms.

  “I want to get out of here.”

  He let her go so she could turn around to face him. “I’ll get somebody to take care of this.”

  She swallowed hard and took a step backwards. “How?”

  “We have to burn the bodies,” he explained. “Burying them would attract the rabids. They can track smells underground.”

  Her whole face contracted in a gesture of revulsion, but she said nothing. Instead, she looked at the girl one more time, frozen forever in a gesture of pain and desperation. She extended a hand forward, as if she was planning on checking for a pulse one more time, but the movement stopped before she reached the bloody skin. “I want to get out of here, Marcus.”

  He didn’t have to be told again. “Let’s go.”

  Before she had time to think, he grabbed her hand and walked towards the tunnels. She flinched for a second but made no effort to get free. Instead, she moved closer to his body as they approached the darkness of the underground.

  And Marcus found himself thinking that he actually relished the protector role much more than he had expected.

  Chapter Eleven

  The idea first crossed his mind the second he had seen her working on the girl on the gurney. Now that she was back in her room and he had a chance to think things through, the idea was back and stronger than ever.

  Not that he needed to explain his decisions to anybody, but Miles wouldn’t be happy to hear what he was thinking.

  Because he was seriously considering bringing Belle into the lab.

  He had a lot of great scientific minds working in the lab, but none of them was a trained physician. In fact, none of them was truly an expert in the human body.

  Up until this very moment, there had never been any alliances between vampires and humans—and with good reason. The more humans knew about vampires, the more chances they had to fight against them. A few centuries ago, he wouldn’t have even considered letting a human into his secrets.

  But these were different times. Desperate times. And letting a human work alongside his scientists could be the only hope both species had for survival.

  He grabbed the back of his neck and sighed. He could feel things slipping out of control a little bit more every day. If he didn’t find an answer soon, everybody would be in trouble.

  He groaned and sat back against his chair.

  This was far from his dream of a vampire-run world. It was a lot closer to his idea of a nightmare.

  A soft knock on the door brought him back to reality.

  “Come in.”

  Miles had two guards with him when he stepped into the room. They looked somber and Marcus could smell the blood on his clothes. Vampire blood.

  “What happened?”

  Jaco took a step closer. “Two rabids got into the compound.”

  Marcus stood still, absorbing the news.

  “How?”

  The guards wavered slightly under his gaze.

  “We don’t know, My Lord. We have guards on every corner. And the rabids are not exactly the quietest, but we still didn’t hear them getting in.”

  Marcus turned to Miles for an answer.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Miles answered. “Jaco’s right. We have no idea how they got in. Unless…”

  “Unless they got in through the tunnels somehow,” Jaco interrupted.

  Marcus’ expression hardened. “How could they get in through the tunnels? There are only two exits to the outside through the tunnels and they can only be opened from the inside.”

  Then he paused and studied Miles’ face for a second. “Are you saying somebody let them in?”

  “I don’t know,” Miles said. “Maybe.”

  Jaco shook his head. “And if that’s the case, we have bigger problems ahead, because we found two more rabids right outside the compound, near the east wall.”

  “They put up quite a fight,” Miles added. “And we lost two humans in the chaos. Shredded to pieces in seconds.”

  “Three humans,” Marcus corrected, remembering the girl on the gurney.

  Miles studied him with interest, but said nothing. “We managed to kill all the rabids we found, but unless we figure out how they got in, I don’t think this will be the last time we have to deal with them.”

  “They’re getting desperate, My Lord,” Jaco added. “And the hungrier they get, the bolder they’ll get too.”

  Marcus knew it. It could only get worse from then on unless something changed. It was time to stop waiting and start moving.

  “Miles, put a search party together and send them out. Make that two groups, actually, and send them in opposite directions. Canvas the surroundings and search for hiding places. They’re hiding somewhere, so let’s find out where before they decide to attack again.”

  Miles nodded. “I can take a search party up north…”

  “No,” Marcus interrupted. “I need you here. I want to spend some time figuring out the safety of the tunnels and the walls. Jaco can take one of the groups, and find somebody to lead the second one.”

 
Miles groaned softly but said nothing.

  “Grayson would do,” Jaco said.

  Miles nodded. “I agree.”

  Marcus got up and walked towards the window. The compound was quieter than usual. He figured all the humans were hiding, trying to cope with the events.

  “What’s the nearest town?” Marcus asked without turning around to face the guards.

  “Franklin, I think,” Miles said. “About four hours away, but it’s been abandoned for years.”

  “Even more reason to search it, then. The rabids who are still somewhat lucid should be looking for safer sleeping places, so search in dark basements and attics. The sicker ones might be less careful, so look in houses. They’ll be following any remaining human smell they can catch. Look in schools and hospitals too.”

  Miles looked at Jaco and a silent acknowledgement passed between them.

  “Drive, don’t walk,” Marcus added. “I don’t want you to take any unnecessary risks.”

  Miles groaned. “Cars will just slow the groups down.”

  “They will also serve as shields. I don’t want the groups to get to town only to discover there’s a hundred rabids there. Park near the edge of town if you’re worried about noise. And if things get tough, get out. We’re not looking for war right now. We’re not ready.”

  “Kill only if we have to?”

  “Kill if you can,” Marcus corrected. “But not at the risk of anybody in the group. I’m more concerned with finding out what we’re up against.”

  He turned around and backed away from the window.

  “Send the groups out and then come back here,” he told Miles. “We’re going to go on a little exploring trip inside the tunnels. I’m ready to make somebody pay for this.”

  Miles gave a short nod. “All I need is thirty minutes to get things ready.”

  “Go,” Marcus said. “I’ll be ready when you get back here.”

  The guards turned around and marched right out of the room.

  The truth was that he was glad for the little time alone to get his thoughts in order. Belle. Even now, the memory of her skin, feverish under his touch, kept looping through his mind. What he really wanted was to head over to her bedroom and get into bed with her. Hold her, fuck her, drink from her. Over and over again.