He had a point, as much as I loathed admitting it. “Fine. We set the explosives first, then stop them from gassing those babies.”
“We still have to figure out how to stop them.”
“The man in charge agreed to the plan of spraying down the village. Which means they’ll use some kind of vehicle, which is probably in the underground garage. I saw the location on the schematics. I know how to get there. We set the bombs, then find the garage and figure out how to proceed from there.”
“And if we make it to the garage and still don’t see what we’re looking for? Or if we get detained while the bombs are ticking down?”
“I never asked you to help, Antonio. This was never your mission. It’s mine. So why don’t you help me set the explosives and then get out of here. Wait for me by the truck, and if I’m not back when the place blows, you’ll know I didn’t make it.”
“Are you insane?” he asked. “You think I would leave you here?”
“Why would you stay?” I asked, just as incredulous as he’d sounded. “You only met me days ago. You feel no obligation to save that village. Why would you feel differently about me?”
He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and leaned his head closer to mine.
I pulled back. “If you try to kiss me, I will seriously hurt you. Fucking priorities, dude.” Then I shoved him back and opened the door, bursting into the hall, which was a stupid thing to do. I should have at least checked to make sure the coast was clear.
But Antonio drove me crazy, because part of me wanted to kiss him, and another part kept reminding me of how Sean had tried to seduce and use me. I couldn’t fall for it again.
I took off toward the ventilation room, Antonio on my heels. I’d essentially memorized the plans, so I knew the laboratories were close. It made sense that this area would be more heavily guarded, so it didn’t surprise me when I heard the faint sound of voices at the next intersection we reached.
Antonio must have heard it too, because he pulled a handgun out of the holster at his side.
I moved with my back against the wall, drawing my own gun. “The lab is sure to have the antidote.”
“Remember our deal? Explosives first,” he whispered into my ear. “Then we can do it your way.”
This plan was a huge risk. We were damn lucky we hadn’t been caught yet. And we’d be even luckier to set the bombs and get out alive. Now we’d added another two major tasks—finding the antidote and tracking down the truck delivering the toxin. It really was a suicide mission. Not that I was changing my mind.
But first we had to make it past the hallway without being noticed.
I peered around the right-hand side and saw two guards clustered further down the hall. They stood outside of what I was fairly sure was the lab. We’d deal with how to get in there later. I decided to take a chance. People had been wandering the hall earlier. We were far enough away that if they saw us, we could pass as employees. Besides, they were so engrossed with their conversation, they probably wouldn’t even notice us.
My plan almost worked. I crossed the hallway opening without being seen and Antonio was almost across when I heard one of the guards shout, “What are you doing in this section?”
“They sent me to maintenance to get a tool kit,” he said. “They’re having issues with the coupler again.”
“Yeah,” the guard said. “Whatever. Hurry it up. This section is off limits for the next half hour. We’re about to move a toxic chemical.”
“Yes, sir,” Antonio said, then joined me on the other side. He looked amazingly calm for having nearly been caught.
The ventilation room was locked, but Antonio pulled out the employee badge from the guard we’d tranquilized and held it up to the card reader. The door popped open and we slipped inside.
Setting up the explosives was easy—so much so, it made me nervous. I had to grudgingly admit Antonio was better at this than I was. He set up five bombs to my three, then set the timer. Looking up at me as he finished, he said, “You get forty-five minutes, mi amor. No more.”
More generous than I’d expected.
We hurried to the door. “If we can intercept the toxin in the hall, we can stop it from even getting to the transport,” he said. “Then we can get the hell out of here.”
“Maybe so, but it will be heavily guarded,” I said. “Not to mention that we’re dead if it spills. It would be safer to sabotage the transport vehicle or maybe even steal the vehicle it’s stored in.” Not to mention getting Ivan and Lea out before the place blew. If they were even inside.
“This is a crap plan,” he said.
“I know. Think of a better one and I’ll entertain it.”
But he didn’t. He remained remarkably stoic instead as he followed me down another hallway my map said led to the garage.
It was quiet when we got there. Quieter than I had expected it would be if they were loading a truck for a mission. I had learned enough from hanging around U.S. military missions to tell something was terribly wrong here.
“Hands in the air,” a deep voice said behind us.
Antonio’s face was expressionless as he prepared to turn. He gave me a look that suggested we fight like hell, but the minute we turned, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to slip out of this one. Eight men had machine guns pointed on us.
“Bind them,” someone said, and before I could react, my arms were jerked down and bound behind my back with a zip tie. Shit. A quick glance to Antonio confirmed he was in the same situation.
“Come with us,” the leader said and turned, his long legs moving quickly down the hall.
My stomach was in knots and I re-examined my decision to try to stop the extermination of the village. But I couldn’t be sorry, even if we didn’t survive. Doing something honorable—even if I failed—was far better than doing nothing at all.
The man led us down several halls before finally opening a door into what looked like a large control room. It was dimly lit, with multiple TV screens spread along the back wall.
“Ah, Ms. Sambrook. Welcome,” a dark-haired man called out from the front of the room. His tall, lanky body was dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt under a long white lab coat, and his eyes were a steely blue. “I had hoped you would bring your new friend Lea with you.”
“Sorry. I didn’t realize the plus-one required a specific guest. Maybe next time.”
He gave me a patient smile. “Please, introduce us to your friend.”
“You know Lea, but you don’t know Antonio?” I asked. “That tells me you’re not someone of importance.”
He released a short laugh, but I could tell I’d offended him. Good.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?” he asked.
“No, and I really don’t care.”
He advanced toward us with a grace that revealed him as a vampire. So it surprised me he didn’t know Antonio. All the vampires seemed to know Lea, or know of her.
“You really should care.” He leaned close and sniffed my neck, his fangs extended. “I’m sure you’re quite delicious.”
My face held contempt and indifference, but there was nothing I could do to hide my now-rapid pulse from a vampire. He lifted his eyes to mine, a menacing smile on his lips. “I can smell your excitement. Do you want me, Rachel? Maybe you’ve enjoyed a bite or two already from Lea?”
“You still don’t know who I am,” Antonio said, nonchalantly.
The man straightened and turned his attention to Antonio. His eyes narrowed. “No, but you aren’t like most weasels I meet. I’ll admit, I’m intrigued.”
I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for Antonio to tell this sick bastard he was a Cazador. After all, we were both bound with our hands zip-tied behind our backs. I suspected it would be a death sentence for at least one of us.
“Are you the man in charge?” I blurted out before Antonio could speak. We were short on time. We needed to figure out a plan and fast.
“And if I were?” he asked.
“I’d ask you why you’re wiping out an entire village. How can you live with yourself?”
He released a short laugh. “I’m not killing anyone.”
My eyes narrowed. “How can you deny you’re murdering two hundred and thirty people? We overheard your plan about spraying them with toxins.”
“I’m not killing them. I’m re-creating them.”
“What does that mean?” Antonio asked.
But I already knew. I’d come face to face with his creations several times in New York—both loose in the city and tucked away in his secret lab. I sucked in a breath. “You’re Stravinsky.”
His eyes lit up. “I’m sure Lea has told you about me.”
This guy had quite the ego trip going on. “Nope. I think I read your name on a few files in the Rikers lab. In the failure pile.”
He snarled, but a door opened just then and several men in military uniforms walked in. One in particular caught my attention.
“What do you mean re-creating them?” Antonio repeated.
But Stravinsky, apparently bored of taunting us, turned his attention to his visitors. “General, I trust you’ve accommodated the change of plans?”
The man I recognized nodded. “As long as it works this way, I prefer it. This type of weaponry won’t be sanctioned, and it would be too easy for the airplanes dropping the packages to be tracked. It’ll much better to use ground transport—easy in and easy out and no one’s the wiser.” He grinned. “Because the monsters aren’t going to talk.”
Stravinsky grinned.
I’d heard and seen enough. “General Hamm?” I asked in disbelief. “How can you condone something so evil?”
“Rachel Sambrook?” His eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”
“She and her friend were trespassing. We are detaining them.”
“General, please,” I pleaded. “You have to stop this. Have you seen what this man has created? They are monstrosities!”
He gave me a sympathetic look. “I know. That’s what we’re trying to create. Their appearance is intimidating. This test is to see if they can be trained in the field.”
“But the children!” I protested. “What about the babies?”
“The children can be of use, though I confess the babies are a burden more easily disposed of.”
I gasped in shock, although perhaps this was to be expected. If he could condemn an entire family, what were a few babies?
At that moment, the ceiling caved in and Lea jumped down, landing on her feet. Ivan was right behind her, wearing nothing but a pair of pants. And then there was one more person—a man whose presence filled me with dread.
“Calvin,” I whispered.
Lea cast a quick glance my way and I nodded sharply, letting her know I was happy to see her.
“Lea,” Stravinsky said. “I wondered when you’d show up.”
She gave him a wicked grin. “You know how I like to make an entrance.” She pulled out a silver stake. “Let’s get started.”
CHAPTER 31
LEA
“Lea,” Stravinsky purred my name, “you are so predictable.” He strolled between Rachel and me, but he didn’t touch her. “You always bind the most interesting humans. How do you find them?”
I couldn’t look at Rachel, but I still saw her jerk at her bonds. “What?”
Stravinsky grinned at me and turned to her. “You didn’t know? Lea bound you to her. You are her human servant until one of you dies. Have you not noticed an increase in your speed and stamina? An almost preternatural sense of knowing where she is?”
Rachel glared at him. “Mind games are not nice, you dirty fucker. Don’t make me call—”
“He’s not lying,” I said softly, drawing her eyes and every other eye in the room to me. This wasn’t the way I’d hoped to tell her, but I could use it to our advantage. “I bound you to me the night Louis died, the first night I saved you from dying.” I walked slowly toward her, holding a hand out as if I were pleading. I dipped my eyes ever so swiftly to her hands. If she spun at the right moment, I could cut her bonds and we’d have a chance.
Her jaw ticked and fury rolled off her in waves, but the slightest flicker of her eyelids was enough for me to know she would follow my lead. She took a step toward me, a snarl on her lips, blue eyes flashing like summer lightning. “You bloodsucking whore!”
I bowed my head. “I’m sorry.”
“You’d apologize to her, but not me?” Incredulous, Calvin pushed between us. Fucking idiot.
I shoved him back. “You were a piece of ass at best, Cal. Nothing more. As a servant you were so much less than her, it’s laughable.” My feelings for him were complicated, but it took everything in me to hurt him this way.
He choked but didn’t stumble away as I’d hoped. No, he leapt at me, hands outstretched. I spun on my heel and swung my other leg up, driving it into his solar plexus and throwing him over my head. While he hovered in the air, I shot forward, Rachel spun around, and I slashed through the zip tie.
Chaos exploded around us along with machine gun fire. The engine of a truck roared to life in the other room and Rachel screamed at Antonio. “Stop them!”
“Busy, mi amor!” He backed away from two men, keeping them at bay with well-timed kicks. I flicked a finger at them and Ivan shot forward, tackling them both at the same time. Bullets spilled through the air, but the gunmen were obviously not used to their weapons, and the guns’ recoil sent the muzzles into the air.
I ran toward them, a stake in one hand, and a knife in the other. I ran down the line of men as they struggled with the oversized and overpowered guns, slicing their throats. Bullets zipped through the air; two nicked my left side but the soldiers’ fear made them sloppy. Blood sprayed in my wake as I turned at the end of the line to wipe my weapons on the suit of the final soldier.
“What were you saying about predictability, Stravinsky?” I lifted an eyebrow at him. Rachel was next to Antonio, cutting his bonds. Ivan was with them. We were down one.
Calvin hit me from behind, taking me out at the knees. I snapped forward, catching my weight on my palms and rolling to my back.
Calvin clung to my legs, but his eyes flicked to something above me. Something that blurred through the air and slammed into the side of my head hard enough that the crack I heard was not external. Black lines and dots flooded my vision and I lolled to the side, blood trickling from my nose and mouth.
Voices. Screaming. Someone scooped up my limp body. My head hung backward over his arm as he took me from the room. Ivan and Rachel made a move toward me, but Antonio stopped her.
Stay. I mouthed the word. Stay. Ivan froze, his face a mask of torture. But there was no point in both of us being taken. Stay.
My eyelids fluttered and the motion of the walk made my stomach roll dangerously. I managed to get my head tipped to the side, gagging on nothing, feeling as though my head would split and my body would follow close behind.
“Did you have to hit her with the silver spiked club?” Calvin asked, his voice wavering on the edge of my periphery.
“Did you notice it didn’t kill her? The fact that she’s alive tells me Stravinsky is right. We need her blood for the final tests. We’ll hook her up to the machine and sedate her.”
Well, this sounded lovely. I let my eyes roll. The longer I could play dead, the better.
“She’s playing dead,” Calvin said.
“Really?” A hand touched my face and turned it side to side. “No reflex response. I doubt she’s even aware yet.”
“You don’t know her, Mac.”
Mac was about to get a shock. I snapped my right hand up...or that was the plan. The only thing that actually happened was a twitch of my thumb. Horror flickered through me. In all my years as a vampire, I’d never been this defenseless.
I was hoisted onto a table and strapped down: wrists, waist, ankles, and forehead restrained with thick leather straps. I drew in a deep breath, trying to pinpoint things around
me. Antiseptics, blood, vampire, and werewolf rolled through my nose and coated the back of my throat. Ah, so Mac was a werewolf.
Mac chuckled softly. “I never thought I’d see Ivan again. Damned if he didn’t look as stunned as she was.”
“You know him?” Calvin asked, shuffling to one side. I forced my eyes open. The room was sterile, full of sheet metal, surgical tools, bright light and not much else.
Calvin startled, his eyes meeting mine. I glared at him, baring my teeth even as blood dripped down the side of my head. A studded club—it was brilliant really, even if it hurt like a motherfucking son of a bitch. You didn’t have to hit the heart to drop a vamp, and they were incapacitated well enough that a heart shot was like a walk in the park.
Mac turned around, and when he saw my open eyes, he put a hand on my arm as if he hoped to hold me down on his own. “How old is she?”
“Old enough,” I whispered, “to outlive you, Mac.” I weighted his name as heavily as I could, putting the last of my strength into controlling him. He let out a whimper and his eyes glazed over. He’d been compelled before, which worked in my favor. “Kill Calvin.”
Calvin jumped the moment before Mac leapt at him. They tangled on the floor, biting and snarling. I wasn’t sure Mac could take him, but it would buy me the time I needed. With a sharp jerk that took everything I had left in me, I brought my head forward, splitting the leather strap.
The wristbands came next. I bent and undid the waist and ankle straps while Calvin and Mac continued to smash around the room, like a tornado unleashed indoors. There was a yelp and then Calvin stood. Mac whimpered on the floor, his back at an impossible angle. At least, impossible to survive without a reset.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Lea? Do you not trust me?” Calvin yelled.
“No. Get away from him.” Shockingly enough, he did as I asked and moved to the doorway, peering out.
Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) Page 18
