Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2)

by Shannon Mayer

  Rachel gave him a long hard look before she said, “Why do you think we need you?”

  He shook his head, and I pulled one silver stake out of the top of my boot and pointed it at him.

  “Let me be crystal-fucking-clear. Rachel comes first. We get in trouble, I’m getting her out before I do anything else. You come with us, you better understand that. If she asks a question, answer it, wolf.”

  Rachel’s surprise was a palpable sensation in the air, but I ignored it and kept my focus on Ivan.

  His green-yellow eyes locked on mine. “You think vampires are the only ones with blood that has power? Werewolves age slowly. We don’t get sick. We heal faster than you vamps because we aren’t dead.”

  “Fucking fantastic.” Rachel slapped the wall beside her with the flat of her hand. I tucked the stake back into the top of my boot.

  “You going to listen to me, Ivan?” I asked.

  “I’m going to help,” he countered.

  That would have to be good enough.

  “I’m going to hunt me up a vampire. It’ll be best to get the information straight from the horse’s mouth,” I said.

  Rachel didn’t seem convinced. “That didn’t go so well last time.”

  I grimaced. “Caine was an old vampire. They’re always a pain. I’ll look for someone younger.”

  Her eyes met mine and I forced myself to hold her gaze. I had convinced a young vamp, Louis, to follow me back to Rachel’s now-destroyed apartment a few days ago. I’d hoped to chat him up, get some useful info. He really hadn’t been a lot of help other than to spill the beans about a vampire council I’d had no knowledge of. Rachel had asked me not to kill him. I’d promised I wouldn’t.

  And then Calvin, whose vendetta against vampires had never faded, took the choice from me, killing Louis before I could stop him.

  “That won’t happen again,” I said. “Calvin isn’t here. Ivan isn’t going to rip heads off unless we let him off his leash, right?”

  I swung my gaze to the werewolf. He’d moved closer without me realizing it. While that should have worried me, a very small part was rather turned on. How long had it been since a man could match me for stealth, agility...stamina?

  I took three quick steps back as my mind wandered to places I dared not go. “Ivan. You follow Rachel. I don’t trust the scientist she’s meeting later, and she might need backup.” I headed to the window, paused, and looked over my shoulder. “Remember where we met Sean and his buddies?”

  She nodded.

  “Meet there right after the meeting.”

  I slipped out the window, the silk curtains billowing around me. I climbed up to the roof and then sprinted across to jump the gap to the next building. Time to find a vampire.

  CHAPTER 8

  RACHEL

  I groaned as I watched Lea jump out the window. “For the record,” I said, turning to Ivan, “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  He sat on the leather sofa and leaned back, extending his arm along the back and crossing his ankle over his knee. “You’ve proved that.”

  I poured myself more whiskey in a new glass, then walked to the dining room table and pulled my laptop out of my bag. “So why aren’t you chasing after Lea?”

  He shrugged and grabbed a remote, flicking on a large-screen TV attached to the wall. “She thinks you need someone to watch your back.”

  “Keep your eyes off my ass and this might work.” I studied him as he cast a side-glance out the window. Hmmm…it would seem he was only interested in one ass—and it wasn’t mine. More relief than I’d expected accompanied that realization. I had enough to do—the last thing I needed was some beefcake making advances on me.

  But from the look in Lea’s eyes, she enjoyed his attention.

  Good for her. She was welcome to him.

  I cast a nervous glance toward the door, wondering if maybe we should go someplace where we’d be less likely to be arrested for breaking and entering.

  “I’ll hear someone coming,” Ivan said good-naturedly, keeping his eyes on the television screen. “We’ll have plenty of time to get out the window.”

  Since I didn’t really want to find someplace else, I decided to trust him. I opened my browser using my hotspot and plugged in the address Hades had texted. A twenty-four-hour diner in the heart of the Financial District. I opened Google Earth to check out the surrounding businesses. Mostly office buildings and Starbucks. A dry cleaners. A jewelry store. Nothing else that would be open around that time. It would be a wasteland, all right.

  The sound of cheering filled the room, and I looked up to see a baseball game on the screen. “Mind turning that down?”

  “Yeah,” he said, keeping his gaze on the screen. “I do mind.”

  “One of us is trying to work here.”

  “You’re wasting your time. You’re not going to find what you’re looking for on the computer.”

  I sat back in my chair. “Oh? And I suppose you know the answers?”

  He turned to look at me, his face expressionless. “No. That’s why I’m here.”

  “Yeah. Let’s address that.” I scooted my chair around to face him. “You just appear out of nowhere and suddenly you’re stuck to Lea like a leech to a coon dog. Why?”

  He pushed out a breath and leaned over his legs. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. In fact, I’d be suspicious of you if you did. But I’m here to help. This thing runs deep, and it affects my species as well as yours and Lea’s.”

  “Species?”

  “Isn’t that what we are? Altered genetics.” He shook his head slightly. “I’ve been looking for her since I heard about those serial murders the vampires committed. I knew they were trying to draw her out to destroy her. I was hoping I would find her before they did.”

  “They?”

  “The people behind the monsters.”

  I lifted my eyebrows, waiting for more of an explanation, but when I realized none was coming, I scowled. “I know she’s a big bad vampire, but she’s my big bad vampire. If you so much as put a nick in her with one of those canines, I’ll kick your ass back up to Canada.” When he looked surprised, I rolled my eyes. “Please, your accent.”

  “We need to work together on this. We’re on the same team.”

  I’d been told that before by more men than I could count. One of them had tried to kill me. I’d discovered Sean, my ex, near the last of the serial vamps’ crime scenes. Him and his military enforcers. He’d been hot on the ass of my best friend Derrick. Sean had ultimately killed Derrick to keep his story quiet, and Lea had, in turn, killed Sean. I felt no remorse about letting her do it—Sean had killed one of the few men I’d ever trusted.

  And now I was left with no one.

  My gaze shifted to the still-open window, the cool night air blowing the silk curtains.

  Maybe not no one.

  I glanced back at Ivan. “You think you’re the first pretty face attached to a beef stack of muscles to tell me that? Please… You have to earn my respect and trust, and I’ve been burned so many times, I suspect you’ll never make the cut.”

  He shrugged, looking unconcerned. “I can live with that.”

  I caught his barely-there glance at the window. He could live with my animosity just fine. It was Lea’s approval he was after. Maybe we could use it to our advantage.

  I pulled out my headphones and spent the next hour tuning out the ballgame on the screen while I searched Derrick’s files for anything that hinted at the Aglaea division or Hades, but as I suspected, there was nothing. While Derrick had found plenty of signs hinting at the U.S. government’s involvement, he’d known very little about the inner workings of the project.

  I texted Tom about five times, probably annoying the hell out of him with my endless requests for updates. Finally, about ten minutes before I needed to leave, he sent what I’d been waiting for.

  The contents of the pill are as follows:

  VX 10%

  Magnesium stearate 85%


  Red blood cells 5%

  Blood cells are off the chart with electrical impulses though. Never seen anything like it.

  I pushed out a sigh of relief. Now I could meet that bastard Hades. And while I hadn’t paid a lot of attention in my anatomy and physiology class in college, I was pretty damn sure blood cells didn’t give off electrical pulses. Interesting.

  I pulled out my headphones and shut down my laptop. Ivan looked up, but returned his attention to the TV when I walked down the hall to use the bathroom. After I finished, I dug through the bedroom closet to see if I could find anything useful to help hide me. Unfortunately, the uptight woman who lived here only had designer clothes, and the man who shared a small sliver of her closet was only allowed space for his suits and dress shirts.

  I opened several dresser drawers before I found the two relegated to him. The hooded sweatshirt buried in the back was exactly what I’d hoped to find. Light gray too, to make me less suspicious. I found a Mets baseball cap and stuck it on top of my head.

  I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Time to go.”

  He flicked off the TV as I moved toward the window. “I don’t think we should be seen together,” I said. “You know they’re probably still watching for us. I can blend in more easily than you.” I looked up at him. How tall was he?

  “I’ve played this game before. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Good.” I gave him the list of subway lines I planned to take, then waited for some kind of comment, but he just gave me a devilish grin. “After you.”

  We made it the subway and to the coffee shop without incident. I could see him lurking twenty feet away, blending in as well as someone his size was capable of blending. I hated to admit I was glad he was there. That I could text him an SOS if I needed backup. The two-block walk to the diner had me on edge. Humans, I could handle, but there were so many unknowns in this new world I’d stumbled into. And now I was on my way to meet a man—or a vamp, werewolf, or monster—with an ego large enough to fill an underworld.

  He was easy to spot, the only customer at a table in a diner with only three other people—a couple in the midst of an argument, and a old man hunched over his bowl of soup.

  I stood next to the table, my hands in the jacket pockets. “Hades?”

  A slow grin spread across his face. “You came.”

  If I had run into this guy on the street, I wouldn’t have given him the time of day. He looked to be in his forties with a slight receding hairline. His pasty complexion suggested he spent the majority of his time inside, probably in the underground lab Lea and I had destroyed only days ago.

  He was dressed up—trousers, a blue button-down shirt, and a blue and white striped tie. He wore eyeglasses, possibly to hide the mad gleam in his eyes.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, but I gave him a sly grin as I slid into the booth seat across from him. “After an offer like yours, how could I refuse?”

  “Did you get the results?”

  “Not so fast.” I’d activated the microphone app on my phone before entering the diner. “How do I even know you have any information about the Asclepius Project? Maybe you’re someone who saw my report and decided to try to get inside info.” One look into his eyes had told me he was the real deal. And that he was at least slightly unbalanced. Still, it would be stupid not to vet him first.

  He sighed, sounding irritated, then slid a finger up and down on the sweating glass of water in front of him. “I thought I’d proved myself during our call.”

  I tilted my head. “How do I know you’re the man I talked to on the phone?”

  “Rachel, I only have a short time before I must catch a flight. You need to ask the right questions.” He sounded exasperated.

  His response made me pause. “You’re supposed to give me information.”

  “And I will. But first you must ask the questions. You have five. Then we are done.” He slid a pile of sugar packets in front of him, next to the glass, arranging them into a neat line. Five.

  Well, fuck. I hadn’t planned for something like this, which was plain stupid on my part. His whole phone conversation had been a game of questions and answers.

  I took a breath, clasping my hands in front of me. “What does the Aglaea division work on?”

  A grin spread across his face as he picked up a sugar packet and ripped it open. “You were correct during our previous conversation. The Aglaea division worked with vampires.” He poured the packet into the water and watched the sugar granules float to the bottom of the glass.

  “Worked? Past tense?”

  He picked up two packets, ripped them open, and dumped them on the table, looking into my eyes as they spilled everywhere. “One thing you must know about me, Rachel—I am a very literal man. You have just wasted two questions.”

  Shit. I tried to quell my panic. He hadn’t given me any answers at all. Not really.

  “Where exactly should we look next?”

  He picked up a sugar packet and ripped off the top, holding it over the table for a moment before pouring it into his water.

  I resisted pushing out a breath of relief.

  “You need to go to Iraq. To the Lelantos facility. They are planning to conduct a field test. You’ll find answers you’re looking for there.”

  Which meant I had one more question left.

  “Hades, are you my enemy or my friend?”

  He picked up the remaining packet of sugar and poured it into the glass, then picked up the glass and drained it dry before he smiled. “I am only one of many boogeymen in your worst nightmare.”

  My breath caught in my throat. Staring into his cold dark eyes, I believed he was just as bad as the rest of them.

  “What about the pill?”

  He grinned. “You’re out of questions.”

  My back tensed. “You said you would address the blood cells.”

  “All in good time. I will give you more answers when I think you need them, but know that for now we are allies in this quest.” He got up and moved beside me, leaning over to whisper in my ear. “There is no black or white in this world, Rachel. Only shades of gray.

  Then he placed an envelope on the table and walked away.

  CHAPTER 9

  LEA

  Clouds rolled in, darkening the evening sky. Fine by me. I pulled the cowl back and breathed in the night air, rolling it across my tongue. Finding a vampire was no easy task. Even when I was actively hunting them, I would sometimes go weeks, even months between sightings.

  Now I had to find one in a matter of hours.

  “Scene of the crime,” I said softly. Vamps were creatures of habit, and I knew of a place more than a few of them frequented.

  Amore Sangre. The restaurant had been owned by my patron, Victor, whom I’d killed for lying to me and trying to entrap me. “Ass fuck.”

  I made my way to the restaurant, staying on foot wherever possible. The city no longer felt like a bustling human metropolis. More like a potential crypt with the door slowly shutting in my face.

  I shook my head and pushed back the analogies.

  The restaurant loomed in front of me in no time. Ten stories high, the actual eatery was on the top floor. As I slipped into the building, I faced a decision. Elevator or stairs?

  My hesitation was minuscule. Stairs. Again, easier to maneuver. As I climbed, I went over in my head what we needed. The place Stravinsky had fucked off to. What he was doing. Who else was involved.

  “Simple,” I breathed out.

  At the top of the building, I paused and peered back the way I’d come. No sound of footsteps behind me, no scent of anyone following. But I couldn’t throw the feeling I was being watched. Swiveling around, I panned the walls for a camera. Nothing.

  I pushed through the door that led out of the stairwell. The front of the restaurant was done up in lovely wood paneling and the doors were shut. I walked up to them and tried the handle.

  The knob twisted in my hand and I stepped into th
e semi-darkness. From the right, a sharp wind blew through the windows I’d busted out the week before. Glass still glittered on the floor, and there had been no obvious attempt at cleaning up.

  But the scent of cooking beef and fresh vegetables teased my nose, so someone was home and busy cooking. I headed toward the kitchen, following the smells.

  A few pots clanged together, then nothing but a low muttering no one but me would have heard.

  “I hate you, you bastard.”

  Interesting.

  Curiosity and the need for answers pulled me forward even though I knew things didn’t add up. The restaurant was obviously closed, yet someone was cooking. I paused at the swinging doors and listened.

  “Damn you, Victor. I was a rising star.” The bang of a knife in a cutting board, the thunk of something being cut into. It probably said something for the state of my mind that my first thought was that the cook was probably dismembering the sous chef.

  I put a hand on the door and stepped into the kitchen. The chef had his back to me, and there were only vegetables on the board, no sous chef.

  “What did Victor do to you?”

  The chef spun around, his knife raised. “Oh my God. Don’t do that to me. I could have cut you in half!”

  “I doubt that.” I took a few more steps into the room, trailing a hand along the stainless steel appliances. I hardened my voice. “Answer me. What did Victor do to you?”

  He pointed the knife at me. “You can’t be in here.”

  I slammed the flat of my hand into the refrigerator, concaving the outer shell. “I’m losing patience, boy.”

  His face paled at a rapid rate. “Oh, shit me out on a piece of toast. You’re one of the blood drinkers.”

  “Answer me.” I was close enough that he could have stabbed me. But he seemed smarter than that.

  “He ruined me. I...” Light brown eyes flicked up to mine and then away as he slumped against the counter. “I was the talk of NYC. But when he disappeared, someone leaked documents claiming I’d been using tainted meat. That people were getting Hep A from eating here.”