The Vampire's Wolf

by Jenna Kernan

  “Sir, I—”

  The colonel interrupted. “You said you’d watch him. You said he listens to you. Tech Support tells me you two don’t even share the same quarters anymore. What the hell is going on?”

  Mac stood at stiff attention. Why had Johnny left his post? “I don’t know, sir.”

  “Clearly, you can’t handle him, so I’m shutting you down. Johnny comes back into custody as soon as we catch his furry ass.”

  Mac lifted his gaze to meet the colonel’s. Mac hesitated. He had to get to Bri.

  “You are a Marine, MacConnelly. You swore to follow orders, and you are about one step away from the brig. I saw something on that video. You know what it is. So you tell me or we sweep the area with orders to kill anything that moves.”

  They’d catch Johnny, but Bri might get away. Was he willing to bet her life on her ability to control her unpredictable speed? Was he willing to toss Johnny back in a cage for her sake?

  Mac stood before the colonel, motionless against the current that swept beneath his feet, dragging him under. He recognized the danger of this darkness and realized that if he let it swallow him up then he would be of no use to anyone. Not Johnny and certainly not Bri.

  “All right, then.” The colonel lifted the radio off his belt. “Lieutenant, call the MPs. We’re taking MacConnelly into custody.” He leaned toward Mac and glared. “And Johnny goes back in that cage, and this time he doesn’t come out.”

  Sweat popped out on Mac’s brow. Johnny hated the cage. It would kill him.

  “No, sir, please. I can track him. I’ll bring him back.” Were there bloodsuckers near? Was that why Johnny went outside perimeter?

  “We’re past that. Get in.” The colonel pointed with his radio to the backseat, behind his aide and driver.

  Mac hesitated.

  “Direct order, son. Don’t be stupid.”

  Mac took a step backward, then turned, leaped over the fence and galloped away, hurtling through the forest at speeds no human could match. He had not gone far when he heard Johnny’s roar coming from his right. He slowed. The next sound was one of feral pain. Johnny again, howling as if mortally wounded.

  Mac needed to find Bri. But Johnny might be facing those bloodsuckers alone right now. He headed toward Johnny, tearing up saplings and slashing at greenery as he blazed through the woods only to come up short as he flung himself from the forest onto the jeep trail.

  He glanced around trying to make sense of it. There was a flatbed truck with two cages bolted down tight. A jeep held two large speakers on tripods and the agonized scream came again from the speaker.

  Mac felt a wash of panic make his knees wobble. A diversion. They didn’t want him going toward Bri.

  They knew.

  The minute he slowed he saw the Marines moving in behind him, closing him in a circle. He knew they couldn’t stop him, but instead of rifles, they held sticks, each tipped with a metal dart. Did the colonel know that if he bit any of these men, they’d turn?

  Was that exactly what he wanted?

  Mac waited as they closed in, weighing his options. He wasn’t getting darted in the gums. That was certain.

  Colonel Lewis’s jeep appeared and stopped just outside the perimeter of Marines.

  “I gave you a chance to come clean, MacConnelly. We already know about her.”

  Her? Mac’s stomach dropped.

  The colonel continued on as Mac wrestled to control the urge to vomit.

  “I just didn’t know how long you’ve had her. Female vampire. That’s what they tell me from the lesson we caught in the woods. You teaching her how to use her tricks, Sergeant?”

  Bri was in trouble. He turned in her direction.

  The howl came again from the speaker and the colonel covered his ears. “Turn that shit off.”

  The cry ceased, and Mac now heard only the shifting of nervous soldiers awaiting orders.

  “That was Johnny during the grenade study. We tape them all. I was afraid you wouldn’t follow orders. Women do cloud a man’s judgment. Though she’s not a woman. You know that, right?”

  Mac roared, the change already on him.

  “You are getting in that cage and coming in to base right now, soldier.”

  The pain at transformation lit through him like a flame to gasoline. His clothing shredded as he lowered his shoulder to sweep away the closest Marines and their silly pointed sticks. A moment later he bounded away but the colonel’s voice followed him.

  “You’re too late. We got her already.”

  * * *

  Bri came awake, drifting in and out of consciousness and finally recognizing that the bright light above her was a large, rectangular fluorescent fixture in the ceiling. She was groggy and weak. She turned her head, but felt stiff and awkward. Medical equipment stood behind her to the right. Numbers. Her blood pressure, she realized, and heart rate. On her left a metal stand held a clear plastic IV bag, but the writing on the bag was too blurry to read. With slow deliberation she turned her head to stare down at her arms, carefully arranged on either side of her hips, above the thin cotton blanket that covered her. She wore a hospital gown, blue and white.

  Where was she?

  Bri stared dumbly at the IV needle protruding from the skin of her right hand and secured with clear tape. The vein ached from the intruding metal. How long had it been there? How long had she been here?

  She tried to move her hand and the throbbing ache intensified. Inside the clear tubing a thin line of dark red blood flowed. Were they giving her blood or taking it?

  She tried to turn her head and her vision swam. She found her body slow and sluggish as if the world had sped up and she had slowed.

  But she managed to look back at the plastic bag on the metal stand. The IV fluid was clear. She glanced back to her arm, seeing the second IV disappearing beneath medical tape at the crease of her left elbow. Here the tube was filled with clear fluid.

  They were taking her blood and replacing it with whatever was in that bag.

  She reached with clumsy fingers, her muscles slow to respond to her command. Her hand halted as the circle of metal jangled against the bed rail. Bri stared at the handcuff. The skin on her wrist was puffy, red and itched. Her heart pounded; she glanced up at the machines and watched her blood pressure climb.

  Bri tried and failed to sit up as tears streamed down her cheeks. She wondered if she deserved this treatment as penance for what she had done to Matthew and Jeffery.

  The curtains drew back with the scrape of metal on metal, and there stood a tall, slim man in his late forties with startling blue eyes and a weathered face. This Marine had spent most of his life out of doors, she thought. His uniform looked like Mac’s: the same tan color, crisp folds on the pockets and an identical belt that circled his hips. Only in place of the chevron she’d seen on Mac’s sleeve, there sat an eagle with wings spread wide.

  “I’m Colonel Noah Lewis,” said the officer with the eagles on his shirt. “I run this show.”

  The officer glanced past the curtain to someone Bri could not see. She looked at the two-foot gap between the curtain’s hem and the sparkling white tile floor, and she saw another pair of legs sheathed in a similar pair of creased trousers and the distinctive shiny black dress shoes. A moment later the man stepped into view and cast her a smile that clashed with the predatory glint in his eyes. He was younger, African-American, with light mocha skin and pale green eyes. He wore a white lab coat over his uniform and stepped right as the other went left.

  “So, she’s awake at last,” he said. His voice held a very distinctive drawl, and he spoke as if she wasn’t there or could not understand him.

  The man’s smile held charm, yet it froze her to the spot. She was afraid to even draw breath.

  Bri eased back to the pillows as a chi
ll settled in her lungs like ice crystals.

  Lewis motioned toward the man in the lab coat, who loomed across the bed from him. “This is Dr. Sarr. He’s been overseeing your care.”

  Dr. Sarr gave her a bright smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, Brianna. Let me bring up the bed. Make you more comfortable. You’ll feel a little dizzy. That’s normal. Nothing to be concerned about. That’s the anesthetic wearing off. Hopefully we won’t need to sedate you again.”

  Again?

  How many times had they sedated her so far? How long had she been here—hours, days? She realized that she had no idea. Her insides turned icy cold, and she tried to draw up her legs to roll into a ball, but they only twitched and her feet lolled to the side.

  “Paralysis will also abate. Just be patient.”

  Is that why they call us patients? she wondered, as a wave of dizziness rolled through her. She couldn’t think straight.

  Dr. Sarr inched forward as if drawn and repelled all at once. “My, she is a beauty. Intel certainly got that right.”

  Bri jerked her hands reflexively toward her body and found them both cuffed to the raised rails.

  There was a whir of a motor as the bed rose, lifting her into a semireclining position. She didn’t know if it was his overzealous smile or his tone, but something about this guy sent a chill right up her neck. She shuddered and recoiled from the horror of this nightmare.

  “You’ll be thirsty. Let me get you some water.” Sarr spun sharply away.

  She’d be thirsty because they were stealing her blood. How much had they taken? Mac’s words came back to her.

  The only way to kill a vampire was to drain them of all their blood. They healed too fast to kill any other way.

  Were they killing her now—taking all of it? But then why give her the IV?

  “We know what you are, Brianna,” said the Colonel. “Don’t be alarmed. We aren’t going to hurt you. Just running some tests.”

  “You can’t keep me here,” she whispered.

  “Legally, I can, since you’re a threat to national security.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Perhaps not intentionally. But I’ve looked into your past. There was a Mr. Matthew Solomon.”

  Bri hunched at the mention of her fiancé. The colonel lifted a brow and waited. When she said nothing he continued.

  “And then there’s Jeffery Martin. Mr. Martin is out of the hospital, by the way. He’s made a miraculous recovery since your departure. I’m sure you’re not surprised. But you overstayed your welcome with Mr. Solomon.”

  The air left Bri’s lungs in a whoosh. Her skin crawled as she lay impotent—trapped. She tried and failed to draw up her legs as her breathing grew erratic.

  Lewis’s smile broadened at his victory.

  Dr. Sarr returned now carrying a small blue plastic cup of water in two hands, as if the contents were a precious gift and then offered it to her.

  Brianna lifted a hand reflexively to accept it and was restrained by the handcuffs again. Her raw skin throbbed at the movement.

  “I’ll do it,” said Dr. Sarr, holding the cup to her lips. He grinned at her, a foolish smile that she’d seen on the faces of many men in her lifetime. She’d even seen this stupefied expression on the faces of total strangers. Men, mostly, but women as well. She never understood it. Now she did, because Mac had explained her power. She was irresistible to them—humans.

  They all found her appealing. At least now she understood why.

  Delight flashed in the doctor’s eyes as he continued to grin at her and slipped one hand behind her to cradle her neck.

  She started to lift her head and then that little voice spoke in her head. Was she crazy? No way was she taking anything to drink from this guy.

  She turned her head away.

  “No?” said the doctor. “I’ll set it here. You just let me know if you need anything.” He hovered, keeping his gaze on Brianna as if he could not or would not take his eyes off her.

  She lay on the bed, restrained and nearly naked, as she faced the two sharply dressed, confident Marines and was unable to keep her body from quivering. Her teeth tingled and her jaw clacked. She clamped down, setting her teeth to prevent them from seeing her utter terror.

  Helpless, she realized. They could do whatever they liked to her and she could do nothing to stop them.

  The colonel’s tone was conversational and his smile genuine as she lay before him cuffed to the bed. “We need to learn more about your kind,” he said.

  Her kind. The words fell hard. She was not human. Not like them. She knew it, had known it for some time but still the words pierced her like thorns. She was other, outside. Bri’s chin sunk to her chest and her words were a whisper. “What are you going to do with me?”

  He didn’t answer. She lifted her chin and met his gaze and held on as if the contact of his eyes might somehow keep her from drowning. By slow degrees the colonel’s features softened, but he did not look away. Something was happening. She felt it in the tingling of her belly. Bri remained still and alert. The colonel began to speak.

  “I don’t know what Sergeant MacConnelly told you, but we have had some trouble with vampires. The males are nearly impossible to neutralize, though my werewolves succeeded with the two on the road, confirming they make effective bodyguards. I have a theory that they were after you.”

  Bri glanced away.

  “Yes, I thought so. The males have proved impossible to capture. This has pressed us into the enviable position in the past of being forced to hire them.”

  She recalled Mac saying that she needed to look at a man to be most persuasive and so glanced at the doctor and found he was sweating in the cool room. He reached for her and then froze, his hand hovering there in midair for a moment before he redirected it to smooth over his short brown hair. After which, he shoved his wayward hands into his pockets as if to trap them. Bri turned her attention back to the colonel to find he had inched closer to her side. Dr. Sarr now stepped hastily away from her bedside, backing toward the curtains.

  The colonel paid Sarr no mind, nor did he seem to note his odd behavior as he continued. “We’d much prefer to have our own unit. I dislike dealing with mercenaries. You will be our first operative and the mother of all the rest.”

  Bri’s eyes bulged and her words were barely audible. “What?”

  “Your cooperation on the first part is necessary. But not on the second, surprisingly. We can harvest your eggs or use in vitro and then implant the fertilized egg to a surrogate. Do you have a preference?”

  Bri’s head swam and she closed her eyes at the horror of what was happening. Whatever she deserved for her past mistakes, this was not karmic justice. In that instant she made up her mind to fight back.

  She tugged at the handcuffs, feeling the burn of metal and knowing she could not escape. They had imprisoned her to this metal bed. She needed to get out of here. But how?

  “I can’t,” she whispered.

  “Oh, you can. You’re young and healthy. It’s a minor procedure. Surrogate might be better. You’d be free to train, and it’d be a shame to spoil your figure.”

  She blinked away the hot tears that rolled to her hairline and saw Dr. Sarr had reached the curtains that ringed her bed. Sweat now rolled down his face. He stepped outside her line of vision. Bri looked to Lewis to find his smile bright, as if he had just brought her flowers instead of his terrible plans. He seemed elated and slightly mad. The colonel’s smile widened, euphoric now. From beyond the curtain Dr. Sarr cleared his throat. Lewis looked annoyed.

  “What is it?”

  “Should you be telling her that, sir?” asked Sarr.

  “Telling her what?”

  “Your objectives?”

  The colonel scowled at Dr. Sarr, whom he could ob
viously see from his position, then his eyes widened. He rubbed his face with both hands. Then he glared at her. “God damn it!”

  He hadn’t intended to tell her anything. She’d influenced him, just as Mac had said she could. A tiny spark of hope tingled inside her. She could do this. She could get out of here.

  Lewis spun and retreated, dragging the curtain closed behind him. “No one goes in there,” he ordered.

  “I have to remove the IV from her right arm.” That was Sarr, she knew. If he looked at her, she might persuade him to let her go.

  “Sedate her first. And figure out a way to sedate her from out here. Don’t let her look at you.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Her hopes withered. She couldn’t influence anyone if she was unconscious. She shook her wrists against the bed rail as panic welled inside her. She glanced to the red tube where her blood drained away, and it was all she could do to keep from screaming.

  “Colonel! Colonel Lewis. I have to talk to you.” Her voice held a definite edge of panic.

  Next came the sound of those boot heels striking the linoleum tiles as the colonel retreated. The footsteps came again and she shook her head in an effort to clear the fog that still captured from her brain.

  The curtain drew open.

  “Colonel.” But it wasn’t Lewis. It was Sarr. The doctor approached carrying a needle, his gaze fixed on the IV.

  * * *

  Mac raced over the uneven ground, the vegetation blurring as he reached top speeds, and still it wasn’t fast enough. The colonel’s words echoed in his mind. They had her already. Did they? What had they done to Johnny, because sure as shit Lam had not left his post. To get to Bri, they would have to have gone through one pissed-off werewolf.

  He and Johnny were still leathernecks. Semper Fi. Always loyal. But now they were loyal to each other.

  He jumped the trunk of a downed tree, staying low, building speed. The worry made him stomach sick. What were they doing to her?

  Maybe they wouldn’t even be able to catch her. She was fast. So damned fast.

  Run, Bri. Run like you never ran before. Remember what I taught you.