Back down the other fork, the left-hand fork, that I hadn’t taken the first time around. Maybe I could find somewhere to hide. A storeroom or guardroom. Something.
Anything.
Only there was nowhere to hide. No handy storage room. No convenient nooks and crannies that I could wait in while guards and scientists rushed past me so that I could sneak out afterward and search for an escape from this nightmare.
Crazy as this was, this was reality, and reality is rarely as kind to the fleeing protagonist as fiction. Endless lines of smooth-walled corridors weren’t exactly the ideal place to hide.
And then reality took another turn for the worse as I smashed into a wall that wasn’t there – literally – and fell to the ground, momentarily stunned.
The corridor was empty dead ahead: no guards, nothing in my way except clear space and a corridor that stretched out tantalizingly ahead, but my own momentum had caused me to splat, like an insect, against some kind of invisible barrier.
I sat trembling on the ground, feet burning, head throbbing, nose bleeding. My mouth felt numb and I lifted my hand to my mouth, checking to see if either of my fangs was loose. Everything was still intact and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I heard Dr Stark’s voice behind me, giving orders. ‘Use the tranq gun, not the crossbow.’
‘But—’ a male voice began to argue.
‘I said, the tranquilizer gun. Double dose. Now!’ That was Stark again. She didn’t sound much like the mild-mannered, vaguely scatterbrained biologist I’d figured her to be. Maybe she should take up acting as a second career.
I turned to face the two guards who were stalking me with their, weapons raised. The man had a crossbow with a silver-tipped bolt locked and loaded. The woman had two hands on another one of those strange-looking guns.
Helena Stark was standing behind them, further guards at her shoulder. ‘Marie, just stay still. Nobody wants to hurt you.’
I almost laughed at that, but I was still stunned and fading fast.
The male soldier, who clearly wanted to hurt me with his crossbow, looked like he was about to say something but he kept his mouth shut.
I pulled myself into a crouch, hissing at him – at all of them – letting my fangs extend all the way and giving in to the wave of terrified anger that washed over me, giving me a last injection of strength. My limbs shook, but this time from adrenaline and the desire to strike back.
There’s only one thing worse than facing a predator, and that’s facing a predator who’s been backed into a corner. They were making a serious mistake.
‘Shoot her!’ Stark yelled as I leaped onto the woman who was holding the so-called tranq gun. Nobody was drugging me, not today.
At least, not without a fight.
Her eyes were comically wide as I struck at her throat with my fangs. I wasn’t intending to do her any real harm, just scare her into releasing her weapon. Mission accomplished, I crushed the end of it in one hand and tossed it the length of the corridor. I had the satisfaction of watching it hit Stark in the shoulder.
I tackled the moron with the crossbow, rode him all the way down to the floor and enjoyed the scent of fear coming off him in waves. His breath exploded in a startled whoof when we hit the ground and the bow clattered across the corridor.
I was on top. I straddled the guard and grinned, showing him my fangs. It was so tempting to feed from him, but even before I could have that moral argument with myself the others were on me.
All three rushed me, and I threw myself at them in a final bid for freedom. I dropped low, spinning and hitting as many as I could like a wild thing. Blood splashed my face as my nails caught exposed flesh. I felt someone behind me, a hand grabbing my hair. I punched and kicked, spun again and tried to bite the hands clutching at me. The blood-scent seemed extra potent in the close quarters of the corridor and I felt something monstrous uncoil in my gut. I was so hungry.
She was hungry.
I sank my teeth into warm flesh, losing myself and reveling in it. They’d asked for this and now they would pay. They couldn’t hold me.
Nobody could hold me.
Then someone shot me in the back – and it was over.
The burning freeze of an unfamiliar drug hit me like a fist in the face. I twisted around, releasing the man struggling in my clawed hands, trying to get a look at the razor-tipped dart. They’d hit me with something even worse than silver – at least silver would have been the end of it. The end of me. Freedom, of a sort. I tried to reach around behind me, fingers grazing what might have been a dart. I really wasn’t sure, having never been shot by a freaking tranq gun before, but that’s what I imagined it was.
Man! Unconscious twice in one day; somehow that didn’t seem fair. The next moment, a wave of darkness crashed over me, taking my wounded pride along with it.
I fought to breathe for a moment, down there in the cold dark, forgetting that I didn’t need to, then just let it go. Let myself not breathe and be OK with that. I lay there, waiting for them to come for me, feeling their hands on me and hating it, but waiting . . . just a little longer. I could hold onto consciousness if I didn’t panic. If I was patient. Just. A. Little.
Longer.
One of the hands drifted too close to my mouth and I struck, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick, sinking my fangs into flesh.
‘She should be down by now,’ a male voice yelped. I heard him clearly through the rising rush of blackness in my awareness, but still I managed to pull myself to my feet.
‘We already doubled the dose we normally give Ten,’ a woman replied.
Ten? The corridor spun around me, but I was certain I hadn’t misheard that. Was she still here?
My legs buckled and I fought it, fought the roaring in my ears and the numbness that filled my body. Then every thought in my head scattered, like they were cards in a deck slipping through my fingers. I could no longer even feel the dart in my back or taste the blood in my mouth. I couldn’t feel much of anything.
I fell to the ground one last time, crashing hard against the smooth surface.
Chapter Eighteen
Wolves Among Sheep
It felt like only moments had passed when I opened my eyes, head pounding and mouth so dry I would have done anything for a bottle of cool water,
Dr Stark entered the room – the same room as before – all brisk efficiency, as though everything was totally normal. Clearly, she’d been watching me from outside (I didn’t doubt for a minute that there were hidden cameras in here), waiting for me to wake up so she could torture me with more of her nonsense. She waved away the two guards who’d come in with her, a dumb move on her part that maybe I could capitalize on. I tried to move–
Then I realized that this time they had chained me, hand and foot. With silver.
I was still numb from the tranq, otherwise my wrists would be burning. Small mercies? I snorted.
‘Have you come to tell me all about your evil plan for world domination?’ I probably shouldn’t taunt her, but I couldn’t help myself. Also, it took my mind off how the blood craving was starting to creep back into my awareness.
Dr Stark raised her eyebrows and smiled. I hated her smiles. ‘World domination is underrated.’
‘Did you just make a joke?’ I eyed her suspiciously.
She shrugged. ‘You’ll have to make up your own mind about that.’
I groaned. ‘Are you ever going to answer any of my questions?’
‘I will, in time. As to your first question, there really is nothing “evil” about Project Nemesis,’ she said. ‘That’s so reductive, and not at all a useful assessment of what we hope to achieve here.’
‘Sorry,’ I said, not even remotely sincerely. ‘I didn’t mean to be reductive. I guess you’d lose your government funding if you really were a baddie. I see they already took away the cat you’re supposed to be stroking while telling me all your plans.’
‘Our project here isn’t government-sanctioned,’ she said, as
though that was a good thing. She ignored the part about her Bond-baddie cat.
I widened my eyes and waited, silently urging her to say something I cared about. Like, maybe, where this so-called Facility was. Now, that was information that I could use. It was certainly information that Theo might be able to use.
‘Marie, you’re far better off with us than with anything government-run. Trust me.’
‘The government doesn’t know about the presence of vampires. Not in any kind of official way that counts,’ I snapped.
‘Don’t be naïve,’ she replied, her tone the sharpest I’d heard it.
‘Wait, they do know about vampires?’ My head was spinning. I was certain that she was toying with me, trying to confuse me in some way.
‘A certain section of them, yes. Beyond the “Top Secret” level of classification, but it exists and they are watching.’
I thought about the United Vampire Alliance, a vamp-run organization that supposedly supported the reintegration of vampires into human society. The wolves among sheep, so to speak. I agreed with Theo: it couldn’t possibly work. How could we all just get along?
There was nothing gentle about vampires. Much as I hated it, I had to be realistic about that. Vampires were predators. Living side by side with our main food source? There’d be anarchy. Plain and simple. Why is it that a fanged newbie like me understood that, but nobody else seemed willing to accept it?
Helena Stark pulled up a chair as though we were having a nice little chat. She didn’t seem concerned about the fact that I was trussed up, vampire-Thanksgiving style, in chains that were slowly taking a layer or two off my skin.
The good doctor smiled at me. ‘There now, isn’t this better?’
‘Yeah,’ I deadpanned from my half-reclining position on the bed. ‘It’s awesome.’
‘You’re right to have concerns. Vampires have been approached by government agencies who claim to know who and what they are. They were threatened with exposure if they didn’t cooperate.’
‘Cooperate with what exactly?’
‘Tests. Experiments.’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t get it.’
She tilted her head. ‘Immortality is no small matter.’
‘Blackmail won’t work against vampires, though,’ I said with more certainty than I felt. ‘We’re talking about beings who can live for centuries. They don’t have the same sort of concerns as humans, because they’re not human.’ We’re not human.
‘Are you so sure of that?’ she asked, her voice silky smooth and laced with something dark that I didn’t even want to understand. ‘UVA, who I assure you we are in no way affiliated with, believe that if the vampires announce their existence, blackmail won’t be an issue. Neither the government nor the terrorists will have any ammunition. But it won’t work.’
Honestly I didn’t think so either, but I wanted to keep her talking. ‘Why not?’
‘Vampires aren’t civilized enough to pass as human. I know you do it all the time, that’s what you’re about to say.’ She smiled. ‘But you’re very new to the life, and that makes it easier for you. The older vampires get, the more dangerous they become. Not only are they a danger to society, they are, in many cases, terrifying. They lack the appearance of humanity. The illusion that would be necessary to convince the general population that they really meant no harm.’
‘But vampires can use a glamour of sorts – hypnotism, influence, whatever you want to call it.’
‘Compulsion,’ she said, nodding and making a note on her handheld tablet screen. ‘Do you think it could be done on a large enough scale? A worldwide scale?’
I shrugged. Maybe I’d said too much. She was interrogating me, drawing me in and digging for new information. I had to be more careful. My brain was still foggy.
‘Can you compel others to do your bidding?’ Her expression was eager and I couldn’t hold back my natural inclination to recoil. I truly did find her more monstrous than the vampires, and I didn’t even know what her agenda was. Yet. Did she want eternal life? She’d mentioned immortality once already. Was that was this was about? I hoped not. That seemed so unoriginal.
‘How about I answer your questions if you start answering mine?’
‘This isn’t a negotiation, Marie,’ she said. ‘I thought we already established that.’
‘We could play quid pro quo. Pretend that you’re Clarice Starling, and I’m Hannibal Lecter.’ I rattled my chains and smiled sweetly. ‘It’s not exactly a stretch.’
‘Neither is this a game.’
‘But wouldn’t it make things easier if I cooperated with you?’
Her expression softened. ‘Well, yes. Of course it would.’
‘In that case, what are you doing here?’ I asked, trying to make my voice sound as bored as possible. ‘Building the ultimate supernatural weapon? Finding a way to infuse soldiers with strength and speed? Increase reflexes and healing?’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘Immortality?’
Stark smiled a half-smile that didn’t instill with me confidence. ‘You think that’s what this is about? Building an army?’
‘You have soldiers here, don’t you? Why wouldn’t it be a military operation?’
‘Private contractors,’ she said, waving her hand and dismissing the concept as though they were nothing more than janitors. ‘They are simply very highly paid security. Nothing more or less.’
I gave her my most challenging stare, trying to seem way more fearless than I actually was. I’d already figured out that I couldn’t get all vampire gaze-y on her. Whatever the drugs they kept pumping me full of were, they were affecting my ability to do anything like that. Stark knew that, which is why she kept looking at me so intently. She didn’t need to worry about me trying to grab hold of her mind.
‘So what are you doing?’ I asked, pressing her. ‘What’s Nemesis for? What’s the point? If you don’t want immortality and you don’t want to transfer the so-called benefits of vampirism onto humans, what are you hoping to achieve? And what about Subject Ten? Where does she fit in?’
‘I wasn’t planning on telling you all of this quite so quickly,’ Stark said, her expression thoughtful. ‘But perhaps this is the only way.’
‘Whatever it is, I’ve probably heard worse,’ I said, forcing a smile.
‘“Worse”?’ That’s not the word I would have chosen. Nemesis is all about building something better.’
‘Is it all about killing vampires? Is that the better future you’re working towards? This is all just about figuring out a way to destroy us?’
Stark sat upright in her chair, an expression of naked shock on her expressive face that looked so genuine I almost believed it. ‘Why would I want to destroy you? Vampires are part of our world. An important part of the natural order of things.’
Well, I’d never heard that argument before. Not even from Theo.
Doctor Stark continued. ‘If you were simply a monster, then I could understand the desire of some people – perhaps even the need – to exterminate you. All of you. But monsters are outside of nature; that is the very definition of what a monster is.’
‘And I’m not a monster,’ I said, trying to understand. ‘Is that what you believe?’
‘I absolutely believe that. Which means that to cull an entire sub-species of humanity simply because we fear you . . . that would be a crime.’
I frowned. ‘Then what does Nemesis plan to do with all this knowledge? What are you going to do with me?’
She leaned forward, her face shining with the sort of evangelical light that made my stomach hurt. ‘We’re trying to cure you, Marie.’
Chapter Nineteen
Who Wants To Live Forever?
Either Dr Stark was nuttier than Caitlín’s favorite candy bar, or she was telling the truth. Personally, I was willing to put money on Option One, but considering the position I was in I figured I’d be better off just chilling and listening to what the lady had to say. Worst case scenario? I bought myself some more time.<
br />
‘You can’t cure me,’ I said flatly. ‘That’s impossible.’
‘You’re so certain of that?’
‘Vampirism isn’t a disease.’
‘But what if it was,’ Stark said, her voice trembling with zeal. ‘What if that very fact has been hidden for decades? Centuries, even!’
I was so not buying this, even if she was some fancy biologist with a list of awards that I’d never heard of. ‘Who would want to hide something like that?’
‘Who else? Think, Marie! Who has something to gain from the aura of power created around the notion of untouchable, “undead” creatures? Whose agenda would be served by all the myth and magic that surrounds vampirism?’ She sat back and waited, clearly expecting me to participate.
‘Vampires,’ I said slowly. ‘I guess vampires themselves would want to seem as mysterious and magical as possible.’ I didn’t like that she was beginning to make sense. Maybe. It went against everything I understood about my existence, when it came to vampires and the undead, but right now I was a captive audience.
Stark nodded. ‘As soon as we learned of your existence – all of your kind, I mean – scientists began studying you. We’re talking about almost one hundred years of research, looking for the building blocks of what makes it possible to live on after death. Searching for the cause. There has to be a cause – for everything.’
I shrugged. ‘Cause and effect. I get that. So?’
‘Exactly!’ she cried, as though I’d just discovered the meaning of life. ‘Cause and effect. Or cause and consequence, as I prefer to call it. And vampirism, what of that? Is it a virus? Some kind of bacteria? What causes the cells to change in the way that they do? It shouldn’t be possible . . . and yet it is.’
She sounded more than a little passionate about her subject. I wondered how long she, personally, had been involved with Project Nemesis. Judging by the email that Ten had given me – the one from Nicole – Dr Stark had been doing this stuff for well over ten years. If that was the case, how long had this particular group of scientists been aware of our existence, studying us and pulling us apart to figure out what makes the monster under the bed tick?
Hunting the Dark Page 18
