As I sized up my opponent, my frown deepened. It was wearing clothes, or at least, that’s what I took the tattered rags around its oversized, emaciated form to be. My eyes roved over the shredded jacket and jeans in growing confusion; they had been ripped apart at the seams.
In a very human-like gesture, the Rogue reached up and rubbed its arm.
I remembered watching Leo’s father do the exact same thing earlier. I gasped, not wanting to believe what my gut was screaming at me. “Dr. Rinaldi?”
The Rogue froze, blinking forcefully. When it opened its eyes, they were no longer the color of blood.
They were deep brown.
The monster’s gaze whipped over in Leo’s direction, its slitted nostrils flaring as its breath picked up. “Leeeeeooooooonaaaarrrddddooooo?” it rasped.
It was the eeriest thing I had ever heard, like hearing a ghost’s voice caught on tape in those ghost hunter TV shows.
Suddenly it reared back, gripping its head with an eardrum-shattering screech.
I ran to Leo as the Rogue clawed at its head, slamming into the wall and wailing as it stumbled around.
“Leo, wake up.” I shook his shoulder. It felt like I’d swallowed a brick. There was so much blood everywhere; on his shirt, the sheets, the floor.
Please, please don’t be dead.
“Slo… ane,” Leo mumbled, his eyelids fluttering open.
I heaved a sigh. “Thank God, Leo. I thought you were…”
The words failed me, and Leo reached up to cup my cheek. We sat there for a few seconds, gazing into each other’s eyes, when a shadow moved from the corner of my vision. I stood abruptly, positioning myself between Leo and the Rogue.
I blinked. Dr. Rinaldi stood before me, half naked and shivering. His eyes were wild with fear. I searched his form for any trace of the Rogue but could find none, save for the purpling skin along his arm.
I narrowed my eyes, my upper lip rolling up in a warning sneer. “What really happened that night in the lab?”
Behind me, Leo sat up, wincing as he did. I glanced back for only a second to make sure he was okay. He stared at his father, fear in his eyes.
Dr. Rinaldi looked between us, shaking his head slightly. “It was never supposed to happen this way,” he muttered, his gaze ducking to the floor.
He repeated it over and over again, and Leo and I glanced at each other. Discreetly, I gestured with my eyes toward the door, and Leo nodded, imperceptibly.
As Leo rose and slowly made his way toward the door, I spoke up. “You’re rambling like a madman, Doctor. Please, tell me what happened to you. Maybe I can help.”
He looked up at me with tear-filled eyes, and a part of my heart went out to him. “Nobody can save me, not now,” he rasped. “I am damned.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see Leo inching toward the door. As Dr. Rinaldi’s eyes started to turn upward, I said, “Dr. Rinaldi.”
His gaze flicked back to me, and my shoulders eased slightly.
Hurry, Leo.
Keeping my eyes locked with Dr. Rinaldi’s, I slowly walked forward. My mind worked through snippets of information from my memories, piecing the story together. “You said you were working on a serum that would give humans vampiric abilities,” I said, stopping to look up at him. It was hard to make myself say those next words. “Did someone experiment on you?”
He shook his head, looking very sad. I could hear his teeth rattling, and his skin was shiny with sweat. “The hunter did it,” he said quickly, grasping me by my shoulders. “The syringe was lying on the floor where we scuffled. After he knocked me down, he picked it up and stabbed me in the arm with it.” His hand rubbed up and down his arm furiously as he spoke. “I managed to free myself, but not before the venom had poisoned me.” Though he stared right at me, his gaze grew far-off, like he was looking through me. “I blacked out and when I woke up, the hunter lay on the floor in a bloody mess, ripped apart.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. My ears pricked as I heard the door open behind me. Dr. Rinaldi started to look, but I grabbed his chin and forced his gaze back to mine. “How did you escape?” I demanded.
“I went out the emergency exit. A few of the tenured scientists knew about it, and only a handful of us had clearance. I swiped my badge and dove into the exit as the labs went up in flames.
“I knew where the bunkers were; as some of the government’s most brilliant minds, they made sure we knew where to go should they need to ‘preserve our intelligence.’” He chuckled darkly. “Perhaps it was just as well that workshop of horrors turned to ash.”
The last word cut off abruptly as his eyes widened and he doubled over, clutching at his stomach.
I started to reach for him. “Dr. Rinaldi?”
“No!” he snarled, pushing me back. “Stay away!”
I stared at his hand; his fingernails had lengthened into black claws. Heart pounding, I shot an unsure glance back at Leo, who hovered in the doorway. All the color drained from his face as he watched his father with horror in his eyes.
I turned back to Leo’s father. “Dr. Rinaldi, let me help you.”
It was the weirdest thing; his skin was rippling. The orange light of the fire made it hard to tell exactly, but I swore his skin was changing color, from tan to deep purple. I could hear his bones snapping as the virus reformed him, turning him into a monster.
“There is – nothing – you can – do,” Dr. Rinaldi moaned in a deep voice. He hugged himself tighter, as if trying to keep the emerging predator at bay. “You must – go – before I – lose control – again.”
I started to protest when someone gripped my arm. Leo looked back at me with shining eyes. “Come on, Sloane,” he said, tugging.
“But he’s your dad.”
Leo’s jaw clenched; the raw emotions playing out on his face threatened to tear my heart in two. “I don’t think so, not anymore,” he whispered.
“Son.”
We both snapped around. Dr. Rinaldi was writhing on the floor, his brown eyes – very human eyes – fixed on Leo.
“I love you,” he said, right before the brown in his eyes was replaced by demonic crimson light. He roared, his back arching as his teeth lengthened into fangs the size of knives. His muscles shrank, becoming leaner and exposing his bones, which had grown as well.
“Go!” I shouted, pushing Leo toward the door. I stumbled on the oversized pants legs, swearing as I nearly went down. What I wouldn’t give for a belt…
Leo, clutching the bloody mess on the side of his neck, paused by the door and grabbed a pistol off the floor. He unloaded the clip, revealing several scarlet-colored bullets.
I blanched as I saw them, but my fears were quickly trumped by a surge of pure terror as a familiar tongue-clucking sound filled the room. I looked straight up.
The Rogue was clutching the ceiling, staring back at me with a mouthful of fangs. It hissed, and I darted past Leo as he aimed and cocked the pistol. With a desperate roar, the Rogue leapt off the ceiling, shredding the metal with its claws as it pounced for Leo. The gunshot rang out, and I whirled around as the Rogue screeched, falling to the floor with a smoldering hole in its shoulder.
“Run!” Leo shouted, and we both took off down the tunnel.
Cold air slapped me in the face as our feet pounded the metal and cement walkways. Dim yellow bulbs flickered weakly, barely lighting the path.
“Do you know the way out?” I shouted at Leo.
“No!” he shouted back breathlessly. “But I have an idea.” He took the hand he used to cup his neck and ran his bloodied fingers along the tunnel wall, smearing it with red streaks.
“That’s brilliant, Leo,” I breathed.
He rounded a corner, nearly slamming into me as we both fought for some traction on the ice. Grabbing hold of me, he pulled me along down the tunnel before tugging me to a stop. “Wait here,” he said before taking off the way we had come.
I started to ask what he was doing, and I swore my h
eart nearly stopped beating as he disappeared around the corner. A moment later, he returned. “I smeared my blood on the wall. Get down, over there in the shadows,” he said, pointing.
We both flattened ourselves against the wall as vibrations rang through the floor, sending slivers of terror up through my legs and into my chest.
Trying to stifle my breathing, I glanced to the side and my eyes widened.
“Leo,” I hissed and he turned.
When his eyes rounded, I knew he saw it too.
A ladder, all but hidden by the shadows, stood several feet away, at the end of the tunnel.
I considered making a run for it, but something large and snarling hurtled past the other end of the tunnel. My gaze snapped back around. Neither of us moved as the Rogue stalked past the end of the tunnel, sniffing the air and following Leo’s fake trail. From here, I could smell the scent of burnt flesh and the acidic rot of the bullet as it ate away at the monster’s insides. My stomach turned, and I caught my bottom lip between my teeth to try to muffle my breathing. When Leo took my hand and squeezed, I squeezed back.
The Rogue vanished, growling in confusion, and my shoulders marginally relaxed. The ladder loomed like an escape route to the forbidden Promised Land from the corner of my vision.
When I slowly rose and took one step, the Rogue reappeared, roaring. Spit flew from its mouth as it charged, and Leo screamed, “Go, go!”
We fled down the tunnel, our feet pounding the concrete for all we were worth. Track had never been my strong suit, but after spending the past several months running for my life, I could probably give my high school’s track stars a run for their money.
The snarls drew closer and the animal scent that much stronger, almost to the point I was choking on it.
I reached the ladder first. Leo shoved me, urging me to go. “I’ll hold him off!” he shouted.
I was about to argue when he raised the gun and shot the Rogue in the eye. It reared, yowling, and I scrambled up the ladder. Leo continued to fire on it as he gripped the ladder and climbed up after me. Without stopping, I reached the top and pressed my ear to the exit. A low, rhythmic thumping was pulsing through the floor, like a subwoofer.
The hell?
Beneath me the gun clicked, signaling it was out of ammunition. Leo swore and I frantically pushed against the exit. It barely budged. There was either something very heavy on top of it, or it was locked.
“I can’t get through!” I yelled.
“Try harder!” Leo shouted over his shoulder, climbing up as fast as he could. The Rogue writhed on the ground, shrieking from multiple, smoking bullet holes in its purple flesh.
Facing the door, I gritted my teeth and shoved harder, calling upon my vampiric strength. The hinges groaned in protest, but the door opened as whatever lay on top of it fell over, revealing a dark, messy room resembling a storage closet.
“Leo!” I shouted. “Come on!”
I climbed up and over, holding out my hand. Leo clasped it, tossing the gun onto the cement floor so he could take my other hand. About the time I went to haul him up, he cried out and I felt something jerk him back.
“Damn,” I hissed, bending over him. A single red eye glowed within the darkness of the hole; the Rogue’s teeth had hold of his pant leg.
Fueled by my anger, hot and fresh, I embraced my inner vampire as I reached into the darkness, clutched the Rogue by the throat, and lifted it up to my face. It snarled and snapped, its breath catching as I choked the life out of its scrawny throat.
I could see myself reflected in its good eye. My own irises were red, glowing from within like hellfire, and my face was twisted, like that of a demon.
“This one is mine,” I snarled in a deep voice.
The Rogue stopped struggling long enough to whimper, right before I hurled it to the ground. I heard the sickening crack of its skull against pavement, and then the light in its eye went out and it fell still.
Shaking myself out of my demonic rage, I finished hauling Leo up and crumpled on top of him on the floor. After I kicked the door shut, we lay there, panting hard.
“What the hell – was that?” Leo said between deep breaths, sitting up.
I gazed back at him, catching a flash of my appearance in the cracked body mirror lying on its side behind him. The room was dark, but not so much I couldn’t discern my reflection. It looked back at me from within each piece of mirror. My eyes – my face – looked normal.
I swallowed hard, feeling a dark shroud of foreboding blanket me.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
I didn’t add that every time I blinked, I saw a monster with glowing red eyes lurking in the darkness behind my closed lids. A monster that wore my face and had an insatiable bloodlust.
A monster I was beginning to lose control of.
CHAPTER 17
Stunned silence followed. You’d think I’d be used to being chased by now, but I didn’t think I would ever become immune to near-death experiences.
Licking my lips and taking deep, slow breaths to try to calm my heart, I glanced around. The room was almost dark, except for the flashing neon glow coming from under the closed door on the far wall. Up here, the thrumming pulse of the bass was even more prominent, cranked up so much I could feel it in my legs. The air smelled of dust and alcohol, tickling my nose.
The cinder block walls were lined with boxes and costume racks. Props of castles, fake swords, painted cardboard bushes, and plastic flowers lay strewn about the room. It had to be some kind of playhouse, though I couldn’t tell which one from this room. Pittsburgh had a lot of theater companies and playhouses – up until the Eclipse, when the government began ruling our lives with an iron hand. Entertainment pastimes such as art galleries, plays, and movies had all been done away with, part of the government’s way of keeping a head count and making sure us civilians stayed out of trouble. Usually this translated to “obeyed them at all times.”
Lost in my own thoughts, it didn’t even occur to me Leo was shaking until I noticed my own hands, locked in his, were also trembling. My eyes shot to his, narrowing with worry. “Hey, are you all right?”
I realized what a stupid question that was the moment it left my mouth. He had just watched his father die, and as a monster on top of that. How could anyone be expected to be okay after that?
“He’s gone,” Leo muttered, staring despondently ahead, not even seeing me as I leaned in front of him. “Gone, just like that.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis.
I recognized that kind of shock. It was the same way I felt after my father died.
Gripping his shoulders, I ducked my head, finding his gaze. His eyes shifted, finally looking at me. The amount of pain and grief I saw in those baby browns of his was enough to break the most stone-cold of hearts.
“Leo,” I began, then paused to collect my thoughts. There was no easy way to say this. “I know you just lost your father, but you need to hold –”
Flashing blue and green light flooded the room as the door swung open, and sneakers squeaked against the floor as someone walked inside.
Gritting my teeth against the obnoxiously loud bass, I ducked down beside Leo, huddling against him as we hid in the shadows.
There were two of them, a boy and a girl, both looking about my age, maybe a little older. The guy pointed to a table with a black mesh-covered arm. With his spiky black hair, heavy smeared eyeliner, and spiked choker, he looked like he’d just come from a shopping spree at a Halloween outlet.
“Pick that end up,” he said, slapping the girl on her rear end as she staggered by, causing her to erupt into giggles. After a few attempts, the girl picked up the table and proceeded to stumble forward. The guy’s ankle rolled and he nearly went down. “Jesus, Evie! Try not to run me over.”
“Sorry, Tommy,” she slurred, grinning stupidly at him. Her eyes had begun to take on that glazed over look.
His eyes slipped down to her cleavage, and that slippery smile reappeared on his face.
I wanted to gag. “It’s okay, baby,” he said. His words were like nails on a chalkboard to me, making me cringe. “Just go a little easy, okay?”
“That’s not what you said in the bathroom earlier,” she said, licking her lips before they spread into a grin.
“Classy. Nothing like romping around in a dirty bathroom stall to set the mood,” I muttered, and Leo shushed me.
Someone shouted at them from down the hall, and the guy rolled his eyes. “Come on. Let’s get this out there before Jax has my head. We still need to find the cups somewhere in here.”
They shuffled out, leaving the door open. Taking Leo’s face in my hands, I gently tilted his head to the side. “How’s your neck?” I asked, squinting my eyes as I examined it.
Leo winced, his voice sounding dead when he rasped, “I’m fine.”
Part of his flesh looked like it had been through a meat grinder. “We need to clean and bandage this, before infection sets in. Are you good to walk?”
“Guess I’ll have to be,” he said, standing. “Something tells me you won’t take no for an answer.”
“Nope. Come on.” I took his hand and began leading him toward the door. “There has to be a bathroom around here somewhere.”
Ducking out of the room, I blinked several times and coughed at the chemical fog clouding the air. The smell was ten times worse out here in the open, and it wasn’t just beer and dust either. It was a whole mixture of things: marijuana, cigarettes, and a few other substances I couldn’t quite place but figured were illegal.
My temples throbbed along with the bone-shuddering drone of the bass, the scowl on my face deepening as I realized there wasn’t a bathroom in sight, or at least, not a clearly labeled one. A few people roamed by, laughing hysterically or tripping along like zombies, completely out of it, their alcohol-laced breaths leaving a trail in their wake.
The hell? I thought as we walked down the hall. The noise grew louder until I could make out the whoops and laughter of a crowd, barely audible over the fast-paced dance tune dominating the air. The borderline obnoxious melody echoed off the walls, something sci-fi or techno sounding.
Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) Page 17
