Recombinant

by Shannon Mayer

  His brow lowered as he studied the car. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  There was no doubt it was a good place to take a kidnap victim. A fifteen-foot chain link fence surrounded the property. Not that it had deterred the taggers from spray painting designs on the dilapidated building. Stairs led up to a slightly ajar door.

  “I bet you ten dollars they’ve gone up there.” I pointed to the door. “How do we want to do this?”

  “We aren’t doing anything,” he grunted, pulling out his revolver. “You are staying in the car.”

  “What? You really expect me to wait in the car? Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  His eyes burned with intensity when they met mine. “This isn’t a game, Rachel!”

  “No fucking shit it’s not. I just outran government goons while getting shot at. That was my second clue. The first was when those same goons sacked my apartment.” I opened the car door and grabbed my messenger bag. “Let’s go.”

  The passenger door opened as I walked around the front of the car. He stumbled out, grabbing the top of the door for support.

  “Derrick?” I hurried over to him, surprised to see he’d bled through the shirt-bandage again. I tried to grab his arm to help him up, but he pushed me aside.

  “Just give me a moment.”

  “You shouldn’t walk on that leg.”

  “I’m fine.” Anger drenched his words. “Just give me a minute.”

  Movement on the stairs caught my eye. “Get down.” I pushed him back into the car. “They’re leaving.”

  I squatted and quietly pushed the door closed, then moved around to the front of the car, keeping an eye on the two figures making their way down the front steps, about a hundred feet away. One was unmistakably the woman from the park even though a hood covered her head. The other figure, a man, confused me. While the woman moved with stealth and grace, he hobbled down the stairs, taking his time as he maneuvered a broken step. When he reached the bottom, his face was illuminated by the moonlight and I blinked in surprise.

  He was old.

  That didn’t make sense. I’d caught a glimpse of the woman, she couldn’t be much older than twenty-five, but this man had to be close to eighty. Was he her co-worker? Her grandfather?

  They walked soundlessly across the lot from the old building to the chain link fence. She was in the lead, so she grabbed a portion of the metal and lifted it, letting the older man duck through before following him to the car.

  He opened the car door, but she stopped, standing perfectly still, and slowly pivoted around, lifting her face to the air. Then she turned toward the car and got inside before the old man drove away.

  Where was the guy she’d thrown into her trunk? He could still be back there, but I stood by my assertion that the abandoned building was the perfect spot to interrogate him. Had she gotten her information already? Was the informant already dead? Only one way to find out.

  Once I was sure they were gone I hurried to open the passenger door. “I’m going inside.”

  “What?” He pushed the door wider and swung out his legs. “I’m going with you.”

  “Not a chance,” I said. “You’ll only slow me down.”

  His face twisted with anger. I knew it was a low blow, but I had to get through to him.

  “This isn’t your fight, Rachel.” But his words lacked the bite they needed. His body was tense with pain.

  “If this involves bioterrorism, it does involve me. It involves all of us.”

  Derrick cursed under his breath, then reached into his jacket and pulled out a voice recorder. “His name is Caine. He has red hair, pulled back into a ponytail. He is dangerous, so if he’s restrained, do not release him.”

  I held up my Glock. “I can take care of myself.”

  He shook his head. “No. If what he says is true, you’ll need this.” He reached into his coat again and pulled out a handgun.

  I snorted. “My gun works just fine.”

  “No,” he insisted. “This one has silver bullets.”

  “What?”

  He pushed the gun into my hand. “If you’re going in there, you have to be prepared. This gun has silver bullets.”

  I laughed. “Do you think there’s a werewolf down there?”

  His serious eyes met mine. “I don’t know.”

  My jaw dropped. “Oh, my God. You really think there might be one.”

  He rubbed his head. “No. I don’t know. I’m not sure if they exist. But he’s something else.”

  “Did you suffer some brain injury I don’t know about?”

  “No,” he groaned. “Be alert. They move silently, so be on your guard.”

  “So now they’re ninjas.”

  “This isn’t funny, Rachel. This is serious. You need to be ready. Find Caine. Ask him where the facility is. Who’s running it. Ask him if they are close. Get it all on the recorder. And hurry. I suspect his kidnappers won’t be gone long.”

  I took the gun and tucked it into my messenger bag. “Don’t worry about me,” I called back as I made my way to the fence. “I’ve got this covered.”

  As I crawled through the chain link fence and then strode across the overgrown parking lot, I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

  CHAPTER 9

  LEA

  Caine writhed at my feet, the pinchers wrapped in four feet of his guts now. Not a lot, really, when you consider how many feet of intestine are in a human body. I knew I was running the facts to keep myself calm. As much as he deserved what I was doing to him, that didn’t keep me from feeling like a monster.

  “I have to tell you, I thought you would have spilled your guts by now,” I said, then covered my mouth. “Sorry, bad pun.”

  He grimaced. “You won’t get me to speak.”

  I looked up to see Calvin staring at us, completely dispassionate. In some ways, he was better at this than I was. “Did you bring the blood?”

  He gave a tight nod and carefully went through our bag of tools. I crouched beside Caine and drew in a deep breath. “We don’t have time for games, my friend. So that means we’re going to do this the even harder way.”

  He spit a gob of blood at me¸ hitting me in the throat. “Fuck you.”

  I wiped the blood off, flicking it to the floor. “No, Caine. This most definitely will not fuck me. You, on the other hand...”

  Calvin handed me a silver flask. My gloves kept the metal from burning me. I unstopped it with my teeth, spitting the cork across the room. I took a long sniff of the contents and wrinkled my nose. “Blood of an alcoholic priest. Do you know what that means, Caine?”

  His eyes widened and he tried to scoot away, but I pinned him to the floor with ease. “It’s a myth.”

  “No,” I leaned over him, knees on his arms and one hand on his mouth to hold it open, “it’s not.”

  I poured the blood into his mouth, and while he fought to spit it out, we both knew his efforts were in vain. Our bodies absorbed blood the instant it touched our mouths. Like leeches, we took it in; that was what we were designed to do. A vampire expelling blood would be like a human trying to reject air. It just wasn’t possible. I handed the empty flask to Calvin.

  Caine swallowed the last of the blood, gagging. I sat on his chest, drumming my fingers lightly on his bare skin. “You know, for years I wanted to find a way to make you assholes speak the truth. To say things you were bound by vows to your master not to say. But the blood of a priest is a cleansing thing, and even better, an alcoholic...well, you can imagine the combination. Do you feel it now, Caine?”

  I peered into his eyes, which were going misty as the blood coursed through his veins. I should know; Calvin had used the blood on me in a trial. He never spoke of what I’d said while...well, under the influence...but according to him, it had worked. I chose not to think about the questions he’d asked me or what he might know of my past.

  Caine gave a low groan under me.

  “Why were you talking to the reporter?” I eased up
a bit, sitting further down to give him the illusion I trusted him.

  “The government,” he mumbled. “The government is helping us.”

  I kept my face straight. A part of me had seriously doubted his earlier words to Derrick. “The human government?”

  Caine tried to nod but only managed a shift of his head. “They’re protecting us from you, actually.”

  Calvin sucked in a breath. “Explains why you elders have gotten so hard to find lately.”

  Snickering, Caine rolled his hips under me. “I’d really, really like to fuck you. Seriously, that should be taken for the compliment it is. Because we all know I’m not into full-fledged women. You, though, I’d do you in a heartbeat. Especially if I could tie you up and take you from behind. I’d lay money down that your ass is still virginal, isn’t it?”

  I slapped him hard, the crack of his vertebrae making me more than happy. “What else do you know about the government helping the vampires?”

  His eyes rolled. “They keep us in a safe place. Safe from you.”

  Calvin leaned over Caine’s head. “Where?”

  “Close by, with all the other monsters,” he snickered. This was a bad side effect of the blood. It made vampires fucking goofy, and while they still spoke the truth, the longer it was in their system, the harder it was to get that truth to make any sense.

  “Give me a name. Someone who’s helping you.”

  He grinned at me, his teeth still pink from the blood. “Oh, I have a name, and it’s a good one. A perfect name just for you. Are you ready for it?”

  I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up so we were face to face. “Tell me.”

  He licked his lips. “Victor.”

  I reeled back, anger lighting me up as I let out a scream. “That fucking bastard. I’m going to rip out his throat and watch him bleed at my feet.”

  Calvin grabbed my hand, a dangerous thing to do when a vamp was worked up, but he knew I would sooner cut off my own arm than hurt him. “Easy, Lea. Victor is your patron. Maybe he has information for us. We don’t know what kind of ‘truth’ this is from Caine.”

  Hearing his name, Caine rolled on the floor snickering. I kicked him in the back for good measure. “Get the net, Cal. We’re going to speak to Victor and we can’t have Caine leaving before we’re done with him.”

  Call it a hunch, but if something was going down with the vamps, then Victor would be here in New York as well.

  “Oh, not the net,” the vamp whimpered, holding a hand up to me.

  I grabbed the pincers still wound around his guts, using them to lift him into the air. A silent scream opened his mouth as he bounced on the end of his intestines like a fish on a hook. “You’re lucky I don’t shoot you full of liquid silver.”

  Calvin handed me the net and I wrapped Caine in it, and then hung him from the ceiling. His hands were bound behind his back, his guts pressed against the net. Everywhere the filament touched, his skin sizzled and the scent of cooking meat slowly filling the air. Calvin stuffed a rag into the vamp’s mouth and slapped a piece of duct tape over it.

  I pointed at Caine. “Don’t you fucking move. I’ll be back.”

  His eyes rolled back into his head. By the time we got back, the priest’s blood would be completely out of his system. Hell, it was probably almost gone now. That was the problem; such a small amount burned out so fast.

  I strode out of the building, tugging my cowl around my head. Calvin was much slower, but he would never allow me to help him. A long time ago, he used to lead the way. But now...now he had no choice but to follow. To sit back and let me do the lion’s share of the work. We both knew what was coming, though neither of us talked about it. I needed a new helper and he was going to have to train them.

  I paused as I opened the car door and tipped my head to scent the air. There was no sign of any other vamps; no one was coming to rescue Caine. My diversion also gave Calvin time to catch up with me again without creating the impression I was waiting for him. I slid into the backseat of the car; Calvin took his place in the driver’s seat. I said nothing, but then, we both knew.

  “Say it,” he grumped at me.

  “No. Not yet. Let me believe you will be with me forever,” I said softly. “You are my one friend, Calvin. Let me pretend for a little while longer.”

  He pulled away from the curb. For a split second, I thought I saw headlights across the way, but nothing moved in the darkness and there were no other flickers of light. Seeing things was not a good sign in my world. When vamps went crazy, people died. A lot of people.

  “Do you know where we’re going?”

  I nodded. “If Victor really is a part of whatever’s unfolding, he’ll be in town. And if he’s in town, he’ll be at his restaurant.”

  Calvin jerked in his seat as if I’d goosed him. “Love of Blood?”

  My jaw twitched. “He named it for me. Thought I’d appreciate it.”

  A laugh bubbled out of him. “Did he think you’d suddenly spread your legs for him?”

  My mouth twisted. “Apparently.”

  I gave him directions, and before long we had reached Amore Sangre. Calvin waved at me. “You go in, I’ll follow.”

  The thing was, the restaurant was at the top of a twenty-story building and exclusive in that hoity-toity way Manhattan restaurants had down to an art. I took the stairs. Bolting up them, I was faster than any elevator. Once I reached the top, I pushed the door open and approached the bouncer at the front of the restaurant.

  “Reservations?”

  “I’m here to see Victor.”

  “The boss is eating with a companion tonight, and he’s not to be disturbed.”

  Like that was going to stop me. I strode forward and the bouncer blocked me.

  Or tried to. The moment he stepped in my path, I grabbed his arm and flung him into a wall across the hall. The restaurant hummed with low voices that came to a grinding halt the moment I stepped into view.

  I had to admit, swathed in my black cowl, weapons at my side, I probably looked like a hitman. I scanned the crowd, finding Victor with ease. Mid-thirties, the body of a young Adonis, blond hair, and bright green eyes that saw far too much. Victor wasn’t just a billionaire, he was an intellect, and that was what made him dangerous. His father had been my patron—basically funding my hunts because he believed wholeheartedly in killing the ‘demons’—before him.

  Victor Senior had always stayed out of my way. His son, on the other hand, was a complete pain in my ass who need to be put in his place once and for all. He could dabble with the government all he wanted, but the second he put his toe into vamp-infested waters, that was my territory. And if what Caine told me was true, then Junior was playing both sides of the fence. Paying me to kill the vamps, while he funded a government program to keep them safe like endangered animals.

  The person sitting with Victor confirmed Caine’s accusation.

  I strode across the room, heading straight for them.

  Their conversation came to a stuttering stop as I slammed my hands onto their table. She had the smarts to try and back away, but I snaked a hand out, circling her throat. She bared her fangs at me and hissed, which seemed to shock the hell out of my patron, if his widening eyes were any indication. I tightened my fist, but my eyes were on him.

  “Victor, how many times have I told you not to play with vampires?”

  His jaw dropped and I had the satisfaction of watching him squirm. “I didn’t know.”

  She glared at him and hissed out, “Bullshit.”

  The thing was, I was inclined to believe her over him. Which meant this was about to get interesting.

  CHAPTER 10

  RACHEL

  As I made my way up the rickety steps, I asked myself once again: What the hell was I doing? Derrick was right. This wasn’t my story…or at least it wasn’t the story I had thought I was pursuing. I barely knew anything about it. The responsible thing to do would be to call 911 and let the police handle the w
hole mess. But I hadn’t ever been known for taking the safe road. Maybe it was all that influence from my older brothers.

  Even in the Middle East, I’d been known as Risky Rachel, willing to rush into danger to get a good story. If I were completely honest, I was an adrenaline junkie. I loved the rush of danger. Still, contrary to what people thought when they first met me, I didn’t embark on fool’s errands. I always had some idea of what to expect. I had multiple scenarios and escape routes sketched out in my head. There was always a plan.

  This time I had none.

  At the top of the stairs, I slowly nudged the door open, my gun drawn in my right hand and a flashlight in my left, my senses alert. I let my eyes adjust to the light and crept into a trashed room. It looked like a grand hall with wide stairs going up and down. The ornate railings hinted that this place had once been something grand. Now it looked like the perfect setup for a haunted house.

  The question was, which way to go? Then I silently groaned. I’d seen enough horror movies to know the answer.

  The basement it was.

  My pulse kicked into overdrive, a dull beat in my temple. My body was primed for fight or flight, and the hyper awareness that came with it was such a rush. God, I’d missed this.

  But I pushed the horror of that realization to the back of my mind. I’d psychoanalyze myself later. Right now, I had to find a man named Caine.

  I crept silently down the stairs. A soft light fanned out from a door at the bottom of the stairs. When I pushed it open, the smell hit me first—a combination of urine and feces and another distinctive scent, one that I knew all too well.

  Blood. A lot of it.

  My throat tightened and I forced myself to take a deep breath and confront the very real possibility that Caine was dead. Either that or I was entering the torture chamber I had suspected from the outset. As I crept closer, the smell of blood grew stronger, and I decided it was probably both. Then I heard a muffled moan of pain that confirmed he was probably still alive…in some form.

  For all I knew it was a trap, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw as I rounded a stack of shelves.