Recombinant

by Shannon Mayer

  He stood upright. “You don’t say?”

  I was hitting too many right buttons. I needed to take the heat off him. I waved my hand. “He read all about it on some weird website.”

  He released a breath, then said again, “You don’t say.”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. I set it in my lap and peeked down at the screen, relieved to see it was a text from Tom.

  No ID on the print, but I have some interesting results on the pill. Call me.

  I gave Brian a pleading look. “Can you point me in the direction of the bathroom?”

  “Yeah. It’s down the hall.”

  As soon as I rounded the corner I called Tom’s cell. “I got your text.”

  “I’ve got some results on that pill.”

  “Already? I thought it would take longer.”

  “The guy working on it was intrigued enough to keep going.”

  “And?”

  “It’s nothing they recognize, but from what they could tell, it looks like a suicide pill of some sort. Nothing could take this and survive.”

  Could the vampire have offed himself? Was it even possible? I needed to talk to Lea as soon as possible. I wasn’t sure this could wait until our prearranged time.

  “Where did this thing come from?”

  “That’s the question of the hour.” I’d already told him about finding it under the Dumpster, but I was sure that wasn’t what he meant.

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something else.”

  “Thanks, Tom.”

  I hung up, figuring I should go home and hope that Lea showed up soon, but just as I headed back to the bar to pay Brian, the front door opened and a man walked in.

  And damned if it wasn’t the last person I wanted to see.

  Sean.

  CHAPTER 19

  LEA

  Victor held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you what I know.” If he’d been any other person, I would have just bitten him and read through his memories. But that would be giving him exactly what he wanted. With the vampire blood he’d been drinking, if I drained him now he’d turn. The last thing I needed was Victor as a vampire.

  I tightened my hold on him.

  “You have exactly one minute to tell me what I want to know, and then I’m going to start removing body parts.” I grinned. “Actually, please stay silent. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a blood bath.”

  He paled and his mouth dropped open. “You wouldn’t. I’m your patron. My father helped you for over fifty years!”

  “You can be replaced, Victor. Forty-five seconds left.”

  “I’m funding a government project. I don’t have all the particulars.” His eyes darted with the lie, but I knew I would get it out of him later, so for now I just let him talk. “There have been some problems.”

  “Because they are using vampires?”

  His throat bobbed as he tried to swallow. I tracked the movement with my eyes.

  “No, that’s not a problem.”

  “Then what is?” I had a hard time believing that whatever vampires they were working with weren’t a problem.

  “Security mostly, guards going missing, they can’t seem to keep the staff together. Issues with leaks. If this gets out to the media, the whole project could be pulled. I can’t have that. The work is too important, and too many lives are at stake.” His eyes were almost sincere enough for me to believe him.

  Almost.

  “Where is all this taking place?”

  “Little town called Johnsonville in Ohio.”

  I tightened my grip on him, pulling his face close enough to kiss. Or bite. “Bullshit. Where in New York is it happening?”

  His body shook. “I can’t tell you. I don’t even know myself.”

  “How does Rikers Island play into this?”

  His eyes twitched and darted away from mine again. “I don’t know.”

  I pushed him, sending him flying across the room. His body smashed hard into the far wall and he slid down without even a whimper. “Lying prick.”

  Taking my time, I ransacked the room. Secret compartments were a specialty of mine and it didn’t take long for me to find the one in the pedestal, under what had to be a three-hundred-pound, half-century-old vase. I lifted it and the tiny button below it depressed, opening a panel within the pedestal.

  There was money, which I took, and a few jewels, which I also removed. Payment for all the shit he’d put me through. I didn’t need the money, but it would be nice if Calvin could retire in style.

  But none of that was what I wanted. Under it all was a single file folder. I pulled it out and opened it.

  Asclepius Project was stamped on the inside of the folder.

  But there wasn’t a single fucking sheet inside it. “Son of a bitch.” I slapped the paper down and ripped the pedestal out of the ground, throwing it and the vase across the room and through the main door.

  Two guards came flying in, guns raised. I knew they would have silver bullets in the chambers. It looked like my time with Victor was up.

  I had no choice but to leap toward them. Rushing them, I went for the guard on the left with the missing teeth and the dead eyes. Driving my elbow forward, I slammed it into his throat, taking him out with ease. The second guard swung toward me and I kicked back with my right leg, sweeping the weapon out of his hands.

  He backed up. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

  It occurred to me that these two might have some information I could use. “You won’t feel a thing.” I grabbed him and yanked him to me. Burying my fangs deep in his neck, I took a huge gulp of the coppery warm blood. His memories flickered through my mind: sex with his girlfriend, sex right after that with her best friend, standing on guard, masturbating while on his last lunch break. Nothing about the project, though, nothing at all.

  I let him go and he slid to the floor, his eyes closed. “I hope your girlfriend caught you.”

  He smiled in his sleep and rubbed at himself, then slowed his movements as his heart slowed. Even as he died, he was trying to get himself off. Pig. I shook my head and left the underground bunker. Whatever information I needed I wasn’t going to find here. But if not here, then where? Rachel was pumping her leads for information, but my gut said it wouldn’t be enough. The only way we would crack this conspiracy was if we both gathered information from our individual sources.

  I strode along the street as the night fell. Calvin had headed back to Rachel’s place like I’d asked, so I was on my own.

  I scanned the thin crowd around me. While I was dressed in an unusual manner with my tall leather boots, leather molded chest armor and hooded cowl, no one in New York even batted an eye at me. “Great costume,” one guy said. “You here for Comic-Con?”

  I nodded, and kept moving. Whatever they thought was fine with me.

  The streets blurred as I walked, my mind going over the miniscule details we had collected. A government conspiracy involving vampires. There could be no good end to that. But where were they hiding the old vamps? And who was making all of these young, inexperienced vamps?

  Peter could be behind this whole game. It was his style to work from the shadows. My maker would find a great deal of humor in watching me try to find him. Games were all the bastard knew.

  I clenched my fist, barely resisting the urge to smash the wall beside me.

  “Where are you?” I whispered into the empty night air.

  A faint whisper tickled at my nose, like a perfume I could almost smell, could almost taste. Blood and chocolate and cologne.

  Drawing in long deep breaths, I scented the air. There it was, a vampire. And a relatively new one by the scent rolling off him; still very human under the vamp smell. Tracing the scent, I wove through a box-filled alleyway to a less busy street on the other side of the block. There he was, twenty feet ahead of me. Sauntering like he didn’t have a care in the world. Young and blond and built like a linebacker. He seemed to be searching for someone. Most
likely, dinner.

  My natural instinct was to rush him, take him down fast and hard, but I held back. Maybe these new vampires were the key to whatever mystery surrounded Victor and the Asclepius Project. So what if I befriended one, made him believe I was with him, and then pumped him for information? Young as he was, he probably hadn’t even been warned about me yet. It was a chance I was willing to take. Worst-case scenario, I would just torture him for the information.

  But this way, he would spill his guts without effort. Especially if he thought he was going to impress not one, but two pretty women.

  A slow grin spread across my face. Yes, that would work.

  Following him was easy, and I let my steps take me at a slow pace so I didn’t close the gap between us. The last thing I needed was for him to get suspicious while I worked the details out in my head. I tucked my weapons away so they weren’t visible, and swept the cowl off my head so my long dark hair flowed around my face and down my back. I knew the effect it had on men.

  At the next corner he paused to lift his head and scent the air. This was my chance.

  “Hello, my friend,” I called out and he slowly turned to face me. I let my hips sway as I approached him, even going so far as to run my fingers through my hair. “I see you’re looking for a place to eat?”

  He was young, even in human terms. Maybe nineteen at the most. Baby-fine blond hair dotted his chin. It wasn’t helping him look any older, if that had been the intention. He rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “Yeah, maybe. You want to eat together?”

  I slipped an arm around his waist and he put one across my shoulders. “I have the perfect place to eat. You’ll love her.” I gave him a wink and he laughed. If I could get him back to Rachel’s place, we could interrogate him, maybe even make him think Rachel was going to be turned. Yes, that would work well.

  “God, I love this life,” he said as he tightened his arm around me.

  “Don’t we all,” I whispered. “Don’t we all.”

  CHAPTER 20

  RACHEL

  I hid around the corner of the hall, watching as Sean methodically began to check the booths and tables. Had he followed me? Or did he know the connection between Derrick and Brian? I felt bad about ditching the bartender without paying, but there was no way I could deal with Sean right now. I literally had seconds before he’d turn the corner to the hall. I had to act now.

  I hurried to the door marked Private, thankful the bar’s security measures were lax. It was easy to slip into the alley. I pulled a wool scarf out of my bag and pulled it over my head, tucking the ends under the collar of my jacket. My first priority was to escape Sean, but I still really wanted to find out what Brian knew.

  I hid behind a trash bin, not surprised when the back door to the bar opened and Sean’s head popped out of the opening. He glanced around before heading back inside.

  So he knew I was here. He’d had me tailed.

  Shit.

  I should have known better. I should have been prepared for it. Did he know I’d talked to Tom?

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly called him. “Tom,” I whispered as soon as he answered. “I’m being followed by the Feds.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know if they saw us together or not, but you need to be prepared.”

  “Okay.” His voice was tight.

  “If they come to you, blame it all on me,” I said, trying not to sound panicked. “Do whatever it takes to clear your name. Tell them I blackmailed you.”

  “Rachel, I’m not going to do that.”

  “Tom, listen to me. I’ll sort it out on my end. Just take care of yourself.”

  “Call me later. Let me know you’re okay.”

  “Okay.”

  I hung up and stuffed the phone into my front pocket, then waited for fifteen minutes before heading back inside. By then, a light drizzle had begun to fall and the sky was getting darker. Keeping my scarf wrapped over my head, I inched down the hall and peered around the corner. No Sean.

  Brian was surprised to see me when I sat at the opposite end of the bar, still wearing my head covering. I pulled it lower and his eyes widened.

  “Oh, fuck,” he groaned. Panic filled his eyes and he backed up, banging into the counter behind him and knocking over a glass. The one guy in the place, sitting at the opposite end of the bar and nursing a beer, never even looked up.

  I held up my hands. “Brian, I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to talk.”

  That only pissed him off. He slid back over, leaning down toward my face. “I’m not worried about you hurting me, little girl. It’s the big bad wolf that’s gonna get us. Literally.”

  My chest tightened. “What’s that mean?”

  He released a bitter laugh and shook his head. “You don’t know shit, do you?”

  I put my arm on the bar and lowered my voice. “I know you know something about the Asclepius Project and I know you’re scared because the government is running it.”

  “You still don’t know shit.”

  “Then enlighten me. What do you know?”

  “The less you know, the better.”

  I banged my hand onto the counter. “They killed my friend, Brian, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to let them get away with it. I need to know what you know. What you refused to tell Derrick.”

  He blinked. “Wait a minute… You know Derrick Forrester?”

  “I’ve known him for seven years…knew him. They killed him.” I swallowed the grief that followed those words.

  But Brian seemed dazed by my news. “Derrick…” His reaction to Derrick’s death seemed a little strong for a stranger.

  “You two were friends?”

  He shook his head with a blank look. “Sort of. I started talking to Derrick about a year ago…all online. We met in a forum.”

  “What kind of forum?”

  He shrugged, trying to gather his thoughts. “Conspiracy theory stuff. I’d gone there looking for answers about things I’d seen.”

  “What did you see?”

  He sucked in a breath, then released it. “I used to work at a place owned by a man named Victor. Amore Sangre. It was upscale, tips were good, but the clientele was…eccentric.”

  “How so?”

  He grimaced. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but some of them liked to drink blood.”

  “They were vampires.” Did I really say that un-ironically?

  He nodded, then moved on. “But that wasn’t even the strange part.”

  Of course it wasn’t. “Then what was?”

  He licked his lower lip. “Some of them disappeared, and I’m pretty damn sure Victor had something to do with it. I didn’t think much of it, until I saw something in storeroom.”

  “What?”

  “One of our clients, but a non-vamp. One of the vamp tramps…” He shrugged at my blank expression. “Women—or men—who hung out with vampires for the thrill of it. They get off on the whole blood-sucking thing.”

  I shuddered recalling my own up close and personal experience with Caine. No thank you.

  “I hadn’t seen her in over a month, but the vamp she hung out with hadn’t come to the restaurant for at least that long, so I didn’t think anything about it until I saw her.”

  “Why would she be in the storage room?”

  “She wasn’t there of her own free will. She was locked in.”

  “Why?”

  “She wasn’t herself. They changed her.”

  “Changed her how?”

  He licked his lips again. “She was a monster.”

  I was about to ask him what in the hell he meant when Sean burst through the front door, his eyes wild.

  Goddammit. This really wasn’t my fucking day.

  I expected him to give me a hard time, but I wasn’t prepared for him to grab my arm and drag me down the hall.

  As I recovered from the shock, I tried to pull loose. “Get your hands off me.”

  He gav
e me a hard shake. “I’m trying to save your life. Come on.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “They know you’re asking questions. You have to go!”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you until you give me answers.”

  “Rachel, listen to me. You have to go.” He pushed the back door open and shoved me out, then I heard crashing and shattering glass from the front. The yelling started next.

  “Too late,” he said, rushing into the alley with me. “Come on!” He grabbed my hand and took off running toward the street.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere to hide.”

  I didn’t have time to wonder if I should trust him. There didn’t seem to be much of a choice. Self-preservation kicked in and I pushed to keep up with him as we crossed the street and continued on down the alley.

  He stopped next to a derelict door and threw his shoulder into the wood, busting it open.

  “Why are you running?” I asked. “Weren’t those your people back there?”

  He turned back to me in surprise. “No. They definitely were not.” He pulled me into the backroom of what appeared to be a bakery, then into a windowless office in the middle of the building.

  Adrenaline had kicked in, making it difficult for my complex reasoning skills to work, but I knew none of this made sense. “Do you know about the Asclepius Project?”

  He groaned. “Oh, fuck. You know about the Asclepius Project?” He kicked the desk. “Damn it all to hell. I prayed Derrick hadn’t told you about it.”

  “So you’re not denying it?”

  His face hardened. “It’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?”

  “Then what do you know about it?”

  He grabbed my hips and pulled my body in front of his, not touching but close enough to spike my hormones. “It was created by a terrorist group. The ultimate bioterrorism—taking civilians and turning them into fighting machines.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “We don’t know. But people started to go missing. Inmates started to die at a fucking crazy rate. And then the murders…” He paused. “We think the group has taken their experiments out of the lab and into the wild.”