“What do you need from me?” she asked.
“I need you to get information.” Lou continued down the hall to the last door on the left.
“What kind of information?”
He unlocked the door and opened it. “I want you to find out who this one really is and what he’s doing here. Peter has been questioning him, but I don’t believe why he said he’s here.”
Evan stepped into the room. It was exactly the same as the other room she’d seen. In the corner lay a man coiled into a ball away from the sunlight.
The hairs on her neck stood on end.
The man’s blue dress shirt and black slacks were dirty and ripped. Her heart sank to her toes. William.
“What did he say?” Her voice barely came out above a whisper.
“He said he was trying to save your life.”
Her throat dried like the Palm Springs sands.
* * * *
“I figured if anyone could get information out of him, it’d be you. Since you’re the one he carried to the gate before he ran,” said the man in the doorway.
William stared at the wall and breathed in as deep as his broken ribs would allow. Evan’s scent floated over to him, and he resisted the urge to look at her though every fiber of him wanted too. For the last days, all he’d wanted to know was that she’d lived.
“Okay. Well, why don’t you give me a few minutes to see what I can find out then?” she said.
“Tommy will stand outside the room. I have some things to attend to. Knock when you’re done. And here. Take this in case he gets any stupid ideas,” said the man.
“Will do.”
There was some shuffling, and then the door closed. He waited, staring at the wall. After several seconds, footsteps rushed closer.
“William?” Her hand fell on his shoulder, and he turned over. She blanched looking at him. “Dammit. What are you doing here? I need to get you out of here.” Her words came out so fast he was barely able to track them.
He sat up and leaned against the wall. Parts of him hurt that he’d never known could. “They ran me off the road. Some of the injuries came from the car rolling down the ravine and me not having on a seatbelt.”
She licked her lips and reached toward him, turning his head to the side. Her soft fingertips brushed the hair from his eyes. “That’s a pretty bad gash.”
“It was down to the bone yesterday. It’s getting better.”
“I thought you’d be healed by now,” she said.
“Not without blood.” He searched her face. “You look a ton better.”
“Thanks to you. I owe you my life.”
He shrugged, sending a pain through his neck.
She cupped his cheek with her palm. “Really. I owe you. I’m going to figure out how to get you out of here. This isn’t right.”
She stood to go, but he grabbed her hand. “You can’t.”
“Why not?” Anger burned in her gaze.
“I’ve learned a few things over the last two days being in here. One, they are working on something big.”
“A vaccine for vamps. It’s not our problem. Right now my biggest problem is you getting beaten for saving my life. I’m gonna kill my cousin.”
“Stop.” He pulled her back down to the floor. “You know there’s another reason I came with you. If they have nukes… We may need them to use against the demons.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “You came for weapons that you say are for use against demons but in actuality you could try to use against us.”
“Us? You, them, me. We’re all us now. With demons attacking, we need to band together. How can you not see that?”
She sat silent.
“I tried to tell the guy who came in with you. I tried to explain about the demons, but he didn’t want to hear it.”
“My uncle Lou.”
“Your uncle?”
“He raised me after my parents died. He’s in charge now.”
William chuckled. “Well that explains why he wouldn’t listen to me. He’s like you.”
She gave him a sarcastic smile. “Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“Okay, look. I don’t want to be beaten and chained up in here, but I came to do a job and you pushing me out just as I got here defeats the purpose. If there are big weapons here, we need them.”
“Man, you’re a masochist.”
“Not normally.”
“Don’t the Vampires have their own bombs?”
“Not that I know of. We have some weapons but nothing big enough to blow up an entire continent.”
She dropped her face into her hands and sat for several seconds. “Then what do you want me to do?”
“I came with a vial. Mason gave it to me. It contains his blood. They took it. If they experiment on it, they’ll see that it isn’t Vampire or human or anything else. Then they’ll have to believe me.”
* * * *
“I’ll see what I can find out.” She searched his face. His eyes were sunken in, and purple bags painted his lower lids. “Have they fed you at all?”
He shook his head. “I’m okay right now. But in a few days…”
“What’ll happen?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been hungry before, starving even, but not a vampyr. I don’t know what will happen.”
“I’ll see if I can find you something.”
She looked at him for another minute and then stood. “They want me to get information out of you.”
He nodded. “They’ve been doing that for days. I’ve told them everything I can.”
She chewed her lip. This wasn’t right. How could they profess to be so much better than the Vampires if they were treating Vampires worse than the Vampires were treating humans? Her ribcage squeezed.
“I won’t hurt you,” she whispered.
“I’ll understand if you do.”
She blew out a harsh breath. “Why are you like that? Why are you so nice to me? So understanding? You should be snarling and yelling and telling me how horrible we are. Hell, you should be trying to kill me.”
He shrugged. “It’s not who I am. It’s not who most of us are. I can assume I’m not the only one of my kind here. Ask your uncle how many have been killed here, beaten and tortured. And then ask him how many fought back, tried to kill anyone or actually acted like the monsters you think we are. I’m not saying there aren’t those out there that are monsters. I’m simply saying humans aren’t all that much better than Vampires. Trust me. I know firsthand.”
She’d never really thought of William as anything but a vampyr before, but he’d been human for over twenty years. She wondered what he was like back then. A dozen questions popped into her mind.
There was a rap on the door.
“I’ll see if I can find you some food,” she said. “And I’ll try to get a handle on what’s going on here. It wasn’t like this when I left, but then, my uncle wasn’t in charge back then either.”
William nodded and then leaned back against the cement wall. “I’ll be here.”
She turned; the urge to hug and comfort and thank William almost overwhelmed her.
This wasn’t right. It wasn’t who they were. She had to find out what the hell was going on.
* * * *
William waited till Evan left before shifting his weight. The broken ribs hadn’t healed yet, neither had the broken collarbone. He held his breath and shifted to lie down. A moan escaped his throat, and he tried to reach some level of minor comfort on his left side. He hadn’t wanted her to see him in pain.
The car wreck had left him dazed and with the gash to his head, the rest had been done upon his arrival. Dragged, kicked, punched, chained, and left in the cell, William had spent the last two days trying to formulate a plan on how to convince the humans that he needed their help. Now with Evan on the mend and her uncle being the one in charge, hope lit inside him at a decent outcome. He just had to last that long.
His thirst wasn’t killing him, but it was becoming agitatin
g. Like an itch he couldn’t scratch that became more persistent the longer it went on. Only the itch wasn’t in one small part of him. It was in his throat that tightened with each passing hour. His fangs that throbbed. His tongue that clung to his dry cheek like Velcro. His limbs that fell weakly at his side, and his legs that had a slight tremor when he tried to stand.
He remembered what Danika had looked like the first time he’d seen her in the slave market. Eyes deep with shadows and sunken in. Skin so pale it was almost translucent. The heavy way in which she’d moved as if every step cost her. He wondered if that was what it would be like for him if he starved too long. Or if it would be different since he was only a vampyr. Would he turn into a raving lunatic that only craved blood, like the rogues?
All he could do was hope. Hope that Danika would realize something was wrong since he hadn’t called her in days. Hope that Evan would be able to talk some sense into her uncle. Hope that it wasn’t already too late and that the demons hadn’t come through the portal and ripped Chicago to pieces.
In all of his hope, he was alone. The world had ended once already. He wasn’t willing to see it happen again.
Chapter 11
“How did it go?” asked Tommy.
Evan glanced around. Her uncle was gone and the guards were out of earshot.
“What the hell is going on, Tommy? Why do we have Vampires locked up and being starved in cells like animals?” She tried to keep her disgust in check, but it wasn’t easy.
“Because they are animals. They eat humans. Prey on the weak and innocent.” His face held confusion.
“And what is this?” she asked. “What do you consider us doing this to them?”
He stared at her as if he didn’t know her. “How can you of all people not understand? After what you’ve been through. What they did to you.”
“I know exactly what I’ve been through. I’ve lived it for the last three years but for all of it they never once tied me up, beat me, and starved me.”
Emotions stormed over his face leaving him staring at her in a state of confusion.
“I need to talk to Lou.” Tommy wouldn’t be able to do anything. It was Lou that was in charge.
He nodded. “I think you should. He wanted me to take you up to the lab anyway.”
Tommy was a good guy deep down, always had been. Growing up they’d been best of friends. But Tommy never had once defied his dad. He wasn’t a leader, a thinker, he was a follower. Which was why she’d always been able to get him into so much trouble when they were kids.
They passed Seth with a nod. Evan’s conscience tore at her like being mauled from the inside out. How could Lou do these things? The man she’d grown up with had been hard, not cruel. She wasn’t an idiot. She hadn’t been blind to the fact that William had barely moved. He hadn’t gotten to his feet, or gestured with his hands or anything. When he’d grabbed her hand to stop her, she’d felt the shake of his touch. She knew pain, and he was in pain. Broken arm maybe, or ribs, maybe both.
They reached the elevator without a word and stepped inside. Tommy produced a card key from his pocket and slipped it into the slot for the top floor. The doors shut and she was grateful there was no music. She wanted to say something to Tommy to smooth things over with him, but she needed him to think about her words. Really think about what they were doing.
The doors opened and she blinked several times as she stepped out of the elevator. The entire floor had been remodeled. The doors and most of the walls had been removed. Instead of a dozen partitioned hotel rooms, now there appeared to be only three or four. All with glass walls separating them. The floor had been stripped of carpet and it was now totally cement.
Lab equipment covered every surface. Computers and machines, exam tables and test tubes. The buzz of electricity pulsed in her ears. How in the world had they gotten all this stuff? Where had it come from? A half dozen people in white lab coats moved around the enormous space.
“There he is.” Tommy pointed to a corner office and headed for it.
Evan followed close behind. They reached the office and Evan found a dark-haired, pale-skinned man sitting behind an immaculate desk speaking to Lou. She swallowed hard as the man’s dark ebony eyes connected with hers. He was a Vampire.
Lou turned and waved them in. Both men stood as Tommy pushed into the office.
“Ah, good. Any progress?” Lou looked between them.
“I think we should talk about that later, Pop,” said Tommy.
Lou’s gaze flickered to Evan and then nodded. “Evan, I want you to meet Nicholas. He’s the one who’s been working on a cure for the vamps.”
Nicholas moved around the desk gracefully and held out his hand. Evan shook it, and he gave her a welcoming smile that struck her as somewhat familiar.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my dear. I’ve heard so much about you.”
She nodded and then shoved her hands in her pockets. “Are you the one who fixed up my leg?”
“Unfortunately. I’m not much of a doctor, so you’ll probably have a nasty scar. Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize,” said Lou. “If it wasn’t for you, she’d be dead right now.”
“So is this where you’re trying to find a cure for the vamps?” she asked.
“Come on,” said Nicholas. “Let me show you around.”
The group walked back out of the office to the lab. Her leg twinged and she rubbed at it with her palm.
“The vamps’ DNA was mutated by a virus,” said Nicholas. “A virus meant for Vampires. We believe that if we can readjust the virus it will be able to bring vamps back from a mutated state.”
“But how can you do that?” she asked. “Do you know anything about the original virus?”
Nicholas’ gaze flicked to her uncle for a moment and then he cleared his throat and stepped up to a computer and tapped on the keyboard.
A chill ran through Evan and she got the distinct impression that Nicholas was intimately familiar with the original virus. Maybe he’d even been the one to create it.
An image popped up on the large monitor in front of her.
“This is vamp blood.” He pointed to the screen. “See how there are these black cells and then there are also the red blood cells?”
“Yup.”
“The black are the Vampire cells, the red are the human cells.” He tapped on the keyboard again. A picture appeared of blood cells, only all of them were white. “This is Vampire blood. All white. No black, mutated cells at all. Now if we can get a new virus, a stronger virus, into a vamp’s body, we are hoping to turn vamp cells on themselves.” A video appeared. A rush of grayish cells merged in with the black and red cells. The gray cells attached to the black cells and the black cells in turn began attacking each other. Soon all of the black cells turned gray and then shrunk.
“So the new cells make the black cells kill each other off, but then what?” she asked. “The cells are still in there.”
“Then we have a full blood transfusion and hopefully wash all the dead cells out,” said Lou.
“Have you tried it yet?” she asked.
“Oh yes,” said Nicholas. “Dozens of times.”
“Has it worked?”
“Not yet. But we’re almost there,” said Lou.
“So what do the vampyr in the basement have to do with this?” she asked.
“We need their blood, and we need to try different serums on them as well,” said Lou.”
“But the cure is for vamps, not vampyr.”
“True, but we take what we can get for now. Right now, we have three Vampires and now two vampyr here. Sometimes we have ten or more vamps. It depends on what we are able to get. But since the vamps were mutated by a virus meant for Vampires technically the cure should work on vampyr as well. They used to be human as well at one time.”
Her stomach churned. They were going to use William as a guinea pig. She stared at the doctor. “You’re a Vampire. How can you do that to your own
kind?”
He shrugged. “You’re a human. How did you do that to your own kind? Wars, genocide, starvation, homelessness. All of that was wiped out by the V2000 virus, and my people are the ones who have kept it at bay. We all have our faults. The one thing I’ve learned in my considerable number of years on Earth is that none of us is better than the other.”
“Exactly. If we’re equals then Vampires and vampyr aren’t just animals and they don’t deserve to be tested on like lab rats.”
“Evan, do you even grasp what we are trying to do here? We’re trying to right the wrong that’s been done,” said Lou.
“But at what cost? What level do we have to stoop to?”
“Evan—”
“Have you looked around? This enclave is lucky to have what we have, but most don’t. Most still live in squalor. Do you know how many humans are still out there in the woods, scraping to survive? We should be looking for them, bringing them here, helping them as well as doing this.”
“Don’t lecture me on what’s going on in the world. I know all too well what the humans are suffering.”
Evan swallowed remembering William’s words. “No. You have no clue what’s going on out there. There are things, new things and they’re coming. It’s already started in Chicago and if we don’t help the Vampires every last one of us is dead.”
Lou’s expression hardened. “You know, I think you should go lay down. You’ve had a hard morning. Some rest will do you good. We wouldn’t want you to have any lasting damage to that leg.”
Evan clenched her jaw and headed for the exit. She couldn’t get out of that place fast enough. Experimenting on vampyr. She may have no love for them, but one thing she did know, they weren’t all bad and they didn’t deserve to be treated lower than common house pets. And Lou… She didn’t even know him anymore. There would be no convincing him to help. She’d just have to figure out how to do it herself.
* * * *
William coughed and grabbed his side. The moon was high in the sky allowing him the opportunity to get up and move around without worry of being burned by the sun, as well as use the pot in the corner.
Vengeance of the Demons Page 9
