Recombinant

by Shannon Mayer

  His smile faded. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. I wanted you to hear it from me.”

  “What?”

  “Derrick…” He grabbed my hand. “He was murdered last night.”

  A chill washed over me. I’d accepted Lea’s word for it, yet hearing it from Sean made it feel more real. “How?”

  “Shot. In the head.”

  That seemed to fit with what Lea had told me, but not entirely. I had to decide which one of them I trusted, and at the moment I was going with Lea. She’d said whoever shot him had dragged his body away. If Sean had these details, it meant he had been part of his murder. I resisted the urge to scoot away from him. I had to play this out. “Nothing else? No other wounds?”

  His eyebrows rose. “That’s not enough?” When I didn’t respond, he said, “Yeah. That was all.”

  My shoulders tensed. I was right. He was lying. Why was I surprised?

  “I tried to warn him, Rach. But like I told you—he was obsessed. He was on a bunch of Doomsday forums, telling people to prepare for a zombie apocalypse and that the U.S. government was behind it. He’d truly lost his mind.”

  Doomsday forums? Zombies? “So then who killed him?”

  He paused, as though weighing his words. “I suspect the Russian mafia. He’d been digging around in their business. He thought they were backing it.”

  I was quiet for a moment, trying my best to stay seated next to the man who had likely been behind the order to kill our friend.

  Derrick was dead.

  The reality of it finally hit me like a two-by-four. My eyes burned and I swallowed the lump in my throat. For some reason the truth of it only sank in then, while I was sitting there with Sean. Maybe it was because the three of us had survived so many near-death experiences together we had begun to think of ourselves as invincible.

  “Rach, I’m sorry.” He took my hand, his thumb making a sweeping smoothing motion. “Were you two still close?”

  I tried not to jerk my hand away. I had to play this as though I was clueless about what Derrick had learned, but I couldn’t suppress a tiny flinch. I decided it could be easily explained as a scorned girlfriend flinching at the touch of her cheating ex.

  But a flicker in his eyes hinted that he might know the real reason, although I saw no malice in his gaze, only concern.

  Which side was Sean really on? Hell, I wasn’t even sure what the sides even were. More reason to keep him around and find out.

  I shrugged. “Like I said the other night, we hadn’t talked for a couple of years. But you can’t go through what the three of us went through together and not be close.”

  “I know.” The way he said it sounded more personal than an empathetic agreement.

  I looked into his eyes, surprised and confused by the emotion I found there.

  “Can I do anything?” he asked.

  I shook my head, reliving the previous evening. What could I have done differently to help Derrick? I should never have left him alone in that car. I should have assessed his injury better. I’d left him there weak and defenseless. His death was on my head, and I wasn’t sure I could live with that.

  Sean must have seen the guilty look on my face because something wavered in his eyes. “I want to find who did this to him, Rachel. I promise to make them pay, but first I have to figure out who murdered him. Do you know anything that could help me find them?”

  “You’re going to help find his murderer?” I scoffed. “Since when does the U.S. military hunt down Russian mafia? Doesn’t that fall under the jurisdiction of the NYC police department?”

  “It’s personal,” he said softly. “You’re right. He was like a brother to me. He had some mental health issues at the end with all his crazy conspiracy theories, but I still loved him.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe he’s really gone.”

  My mind whirled. Did he really think I’d buy the Russian mafia angle when he reminded me in the next breath about Derrick’s conspiracy theories? How could I get him to talk about what he knew?

  “Are you sure you didn’t see him after that night I found you in the alley?” he asked.

  I lifted my eyes to his, careful to conceal my thoughts. Lea said he’d been here and his—or someone else’s—goons knew Derrick had shown up at my apartment the night before. “Yeah, he came by yesterday afternoon. Said he needed a place to crash. So I let him sleep on my bed, I fed him dinner, then he took off, saying he had to go to a meeting.”

  “And he didn’t tell you anything about the meeting?”

  “No. He said it was too dangerous for me to know anything about.”

  Ironically enough, I had told him the truth. I hadn’t learned much from Derrick himself. But Sean didn’t believe me. The look on his face confirmed it. “I know you don’t trust me,” he said. “And I understand why. You have no idea how sorry I am for hurting you, but this is different. You can tell me the truth.” When I didn’t answer, he licked his lower lip. My traitorous eyes followed the movement. “I’m worried about you. These guys Derrick was poking into…they don’t like outside interference or attention. If they think you were associated with Derrick in any way…” His hand lifted to my upper arm. “Rachel, let me protect you.”

  Wrong choice of words. I scooted a few inches back, far enough to get my message across. “I don’t need protecting.”

  Irritation narrowed his eyes. “Look, I know you’re tough and strong. And I know you can kick most men’s asses, but so could Derrick, and look what happened to him.” His voice lowered and he reached for the back of my head, the heel of his hand resting on my cheek. “I love that you’re strong. Since you, every other woman has been a pale imitation. I screwed up when I cheated on you, Rachel. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

  I jumped to my feet. “I have an appointment in the city in about an hour and I still need to get ready.”

  A sad smile filled his eyes. “Where’s your phone?”

  “Why?”

  Orneriness spread across his face. “Are you always this suspicious?”

  “Yes.” There was no denying it, and I sure as hell wasn’t apologizing for it. My suspiciousness had saved my ass too many times to count.

  He laughed. “God, I’ve missed you. Now where is it?”

  I continued to glare at him.

  “I just want to make sure you have my cell number programmed into your phone. If you get into trouble, you won’t have time to dig out my card.”

  “Fine. I’ll put it in.”

  His body tensed. “I want to see you do it.”

  I groaned and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “What’s the number?”

  He rattled off the digits and I saved it into my contact list. “There. Happy now?”

  “No. But it’s a start.” The longing in his voice caught me off guard. “I plan on seeing you again, Rachel. Whether it’s about Derrick or something…more personal.”

  I tilted my head to the side, hating the small part of me that begged me to take him up on the latter offer, consequences be damned. I still had a hard time believing Sean would so callously have his friend murdered. “I guess we’ll see about that.”

  He grinned, but it wasn’t his usual cocky grin. He moved closer and pressed his lips to my forehead, leaving a lingering kiss. “If you see or hear anything about Derrick, call me—not anyone else—just me. Please?” When I didn’t answer, he put his finger under my chin and tilted my face up to stare into my eyes. “You don’t have to do this alone, Rachel. You have to let other people in. It’s not such a bad thing.”

  My shoulders stiffened. “Well, look where it got me with you.”

  He dropped his hand and took a step back. “Did you ever consider that if you’d let me in—really in—I might not have been tempted to stray?”

  He wasn’t asking me anything I hadn’t already considered, but between Derrick’s death and the whole finding-out-vampires-were-real thing, I could do without an impromptu therapy session. “Cheating is still ch
eating, Sean. Which makes you untrustworthy.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll do everything I can to prove that you can trust me.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Why?”

  “Because I think your life depends on it.” He paused and his voice lowered. “And because I never stopped caring about you.”

  Then he spun around and walked out the front door.

  I followed and turned the deadbolt, more confused than ever. Part of me wondered if Sean could be right. Had Derrick really lost it? If so, then how did I explain the people shooting at us last night? But Sean had always been able to slip through my bullshit meter. I couldn’t trust him, no matter how many pretty words fell from his lips.

  Derrick hadn’t been killed by the Russian mafia, and I suspected Sean either knew who killed him or was involved himself. He was stringing me along to get Derrick’s research.

  I dug Derrick’s bag from its hiding place in the closet. If I wanted answers, I needed to work Derrick’s trail backwards, and as quickly as possible, so I flipped to the back of his ledger and scoured the last two pages. An entry quickly caught my eye. Derrick had set up a meeting with a man named Brian Morrison. From Derrick’s notes, Morrison worked at a bar in Greenwich Village, but he hadn’t shown for their meeting.

  What if Derrick had scared him off?

  I stood and arched my back, stretching my aching muscles. Brian Morrison might have been leery of talking to Derrick Forrester, but I had a feeling he might spill for Rachel Sambrook.

  Sometimes being a pretty blonde came in handy.

  CHAPTER 17

  LEA

  Calvin was, to say the very least, pissed. His knuckles bulged on the steering wheel, white from the tension in his hands.

  “Head toward the city center. Victor’s father had a safe house there. I don’t think he knows I’m aware of it, so I suspect that’s where he’ll be.” I spoke softly, the words just loud enough for him to hear.

  He nodded, but said nothing. Yes, pissed was an understatement.

  I leaned forward so I could rest my hands on the console between us. This was still not a conversation I wanted to have, yet I knew the time had finally come. “Cal, it’s time. I need to take on a new Cazador. We both know that a part of you has hated me since that night in France, and that was thirty-five years ago.”

  He jerked the wheel to one side, parking the car by jamming it against a curb. His eyes stared straight ahead; his shoulders were slightly hunched. “Lea, we have a break in this, we might be able to find every vampire—”

  “Calvin.” Just his name, as soft as I’d only said it once before.

  “Calvin, please don’t turn away from me. Not this time. I can barely remember what it means to love anymore. If I lose that, I’m no better than the rest of them. I might as well hand you a vial of holy water to pour over me.”

  His hands slid up around my face. “No, this can’t happen.” But he didn’t move away from me. Didn’t walk away as he’d done so many other times.

  The seat creaked under him. “Why now? Why are we having this conversation right now?”

  “Because it might be the last chance we have. If this gets as ugly as I think...I don’t know if any of us will survive.” There, I’d said it. The feeling that had been growing in me for the last twenty-four hours had finally been aired.

  He slowly twisted in his seat, reached over and took my hand. “I don’t hate you,” he said quietly. “I hate that I let anything happen between us. I swore that I would kill every vampire I met after my wife and son were taken from me. And not only did I not kill you, I slept with you.”

  Why, oh, why did Calvin have to be the one my heart picked? There had been other Cazadors, other helpers. Many who would have jumped at the chance to be in my arms. Yet it was Calvin, with his stoic nature and determination, who had caught my eye. And I hadn’t been able to catch his for more than a brief blink.

  I stared at the old man who sat before me, but all I saw was the young, strong man with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes who had stolen my heart even as he told me how much my kind disgusted him. Maybe I was the twisted one. I pulled my hand away. “I will never regret it, Calvin. For as long as I live, however that plays out.”

  A low grunt slipped out of him. “Then we stand on opposite sides of that divide, too, because I will never forgive myself.”

  If he had slammed a silver-tipped stake through my heart, I was sure the pain would not have been as bad. Leaning back in my seat, I struggled to breathe past the hurt in my body.

  But I was disgusting. A monster of the worst kind. What did I expect from him? A sudden and undying devotion? Teeth clenched, I looked out the window at the slow-building storm clouds above us, the sudden splotches of rain on the glass making me wish I could let my own emotions unleash like the storm growing around us.

  Then again, maybe I could.

  Calvin pulled into an underground parking garage, found an empty spot, and turned the engine off. “Am I coming up with you?”

  He never asked. He always did whatever he wanted. “Go back to Rachel’s. Give her a hand if she needs it. If not, see what you can find out about the Asclepius Project online. Surely there is something you can hack.”

  I slid out of the car, hands reaching down to touch the silver stakes tucked into the tops of my boots in a subtle gesture to ensure they were there. Adjusting the cowl around my head, I walked away from the car. The engine started up, and Calvin pulled away. But I didn’t glance back, just went straight to the stairwell on the far side of the dim parking garage. I refused to give him one last look.

  A few moments later, I slowed my steps as the sound of a heartbeat reached my ears.

  Shadows flickered and moved to my right, a shifting of bodies in the darkness. I stopped and turned carefully, lifting one hand. “I know you’re there.” The air was stale and still, which made it hard to scent whoever was trying to hide. A scuttle of feet and a pair of glowing eyes peered at me from around a cement support column. It took all the willpower I had not to gasp and step back because what I was looking at was not human.

  And it wasn’t a vampire either. A bat face was attached to a tiny human body, grafted somewhere around the neck. The thing scuttled forward, bobbing and weaving, its hands held above its head in some sort of weird supplication.

  I made myself hold still, though everything in me wanted to back away. In my time, I’d seen monsters, but none had looked so alien as this being.

  “What are you?”

  Its head tipped to one side and its mouth dropped open to reveal needle-thin teeth. “Kill me.” The creature reached out and touched my left leg. “Please. Kill me.”

  I pulled a silver stake from my boot, whipped it out and across the creature’s upturned throat. The blade edge sliced the creature all the way to the spine, sending blood spurting out and over my hand. At the last second, it lifted its own hand to its bat mouth and then held it toward me. A kissing gesture of thanks, perhaps.

  I brought my hand to my nose and sniffed the blood. Not human. Not animal. I dared a taste and my whole body convulsed in disgust. It was the vilest of blood, like an animal dead for a month, rank and old.

  I grabbed the body and dragged it into the shadows. “Be at peace, little creature.” I whispered the words in Spanish over it, knowing there was nothing else I could do. Instinctively, I knew that somehow this bat/human hybrid had something to do with the facility. The pieces were piling up, but where did they all go?

  Wiping my hands off on the creature’s body, I strode toward the stairwell once more. The door was locked, but a sharp kick was all it took to break through the flimsy attempt to keep people out. Inside the stairwell, it looked as if you could only go up. But I knew better. If you looked carefully enough, you could see a faint outline on the far wall. A door. I pushed in the top right corner of the outlined area while pushing on the bottom left hand corner with my foot. The whole door sucked in piece by piece, like a puzzle being opened up.


  I stepped through the opening, and there was the soft hissing of air slipping out around me. The door closed behind me as motion sensors picked up on me. The near darkness of the long hall would have most humans fumbling for light, but there was enough that I could easily see. More importantly, I could see the dim glow of light thirty feet away at the end of the echoing hall. That, of course, was not something that Victor and his father had banked on when creating their failsafe.

  The steel girder my feet were balanced on was only three inches wide and hung over open space. I walked forward, balancing on the balls of my feet with ease. Only two people had ever breached the safe house, and both were at the bottom of the pit, rotting away.

  But since I was the one who’d helped Victor’s father develop the safe house, it only seemed right that I should be the first one to bypass all the failsafes.

  A few minutes later I reached the next door. Four feet thick and made of fire-hardened steel, this door would be harder to break through. It had to be hoisted with a winch from the other side. I crouched and dug my fingers under the tiny lip I’d made sure was built into the door. With a quick burst of energy, I heaved the door up and shot through the opening as it clanged to the floor behind me.

  I stared into the bright space, taking the scene in at a glance. Victor lounged on a chaise with two of his bodyguards, one on either side of him. A polar bear rug lay on the black tile floor at Victor’s feet, the mouth open and snarling my way.

  “Lea, I’m surprised you managed to find me here.” Victor stood and took several steps back, flustered. He waved his guards back, though the scent rolling off him was full of fear, the flavor heavy on the back of my tongue. The guards melted against the wood grain of the walls, almost as if they weren’t there.

  “Your father never told you?” I slipped the cowl back and off my head, shaking my hair loose, watching from the corner of my eye as Victor stared, his eyes wide and the throb of his heart apparent in the hollow of his throat. At least I still had that card to play if need be.