nevermore

by Nell Stark

  “Perhaps not you specifically, Malcolm,” Brenner mused. “But certainly, most of your followers will accept my offer. You see, even as we speak, my agents are spreading my message throughout the Were community in every corner of New York, by all available media.

  “A few months ago, my people raided a Consortium research facility and recovered an experimental virus that, if contracted by one of us, would cause that Were to be unable to shift. The Consortium had engineered this pathogen without a cure.”

  Brenner’s words pierced my heart. The Consortium was responsible for creating the plague now threatening Alexa’s life? Malcolm seemed just as surprised as I was, but the grim look shared by Helen and Clavier convinced me of the proof of Brenner’s claim. How had the virus gotten loose? Had Clavier purposefully introduced it into the Were community? Or had it been another “accident”?

  “Thankfully, my people were able to develop an effective treatment,” Brenner said. “And we are willing to share that treatment with any Were, in exchange for the head of a vampire.”

  Shock reverberated up my spine, and I took another step away from Malcolm before I realized what I was doing. I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. In a matter of minutes, Brenner had dissolved an alliance that had taken the Consortium decades to engineer.

  “This is madness, Balthasar.” I had no idea how Helen maintained her preternatural calm in the face of Brenner’s catastrophic threat, but her voice did not so much as falter. Then again, in the face of annihilation, what more did she have to salvage than her pride?

  “In three days, I will release a modified version of the virus that is airborne. Within hours, every Were in the city who has not yet joined me and received the vaccine will be infected. When the next full moon rises, those not under my protection will be dead.”

  Helen’s knuckles were white against the dark mahogany of her desk. “You wouldn’t dare to launch an offensive of this magnitude when I’ve detained all of your offspring. Call off your attack, or they will die. By your hand.”

  When Brenner didn’t reply immediately, I thought that her counterthreat might prove to be effective.

  “This is a cleansing of the species,” he said, and there was no hint of hesitation or conflict in his voice. He had paused for dramatic effect, not because he was conflicted. “Only the fittest will survive. There will be no negotiation. You have my ultimatum.”

  He severed the connection, but none of us moved. Was nothing sacred to that madman? Not even family?

  “Our bet was misplaced.” Malcolm turned to Helen, anger deepening the lines on his brow. “His claim about the origins of the virus. Is that the truth?”

  “Half true. Like everything he says.” She sighed, exchanging another glance with Clavier. “For years, we have been trying to create a medication that will block the change for those shifters who either wish to do so for personal reasons or need to remain human during a full moon. That virus represents a failed attempt, not a biological weapon.”

  “It was destroyed,” said Clavier. He sounded genuinely confused, but I wondered if it was an act. “According to my records, we destroyed it last year, when its side effects proved fatal.”

  “Clearly, those records were falsified.” Malcolm’s jaw clenched. “And we have a traitor in our midst.”

  “Am I to presume, then,” Helen said, sounding for all the world like ruling royalty and not a beleaguered combatant, “that you will not be offering my head to Balthasar on a pike?”

  Malcolm raised one hand in a gesture of placation. “Our priority must be a fortification of this facility, and a plan of escape in case that fails. There are plenty of Weres who will remain loyal to our alliance.”

  “But more who will not.” Only when Helen relaxed her stance had I realized that she had been tensing for conflict. “Thank you, Malcolm.” She looked past him to me. “You have your wish, Valentine: my permission to do whatever you deem necessary in order to find a way to block the effects of Brenner’s virus. I know that Harold will help you however he can. Perhaps your fresh insight will precipitate a breakthrough.”

  I nodded, biting the inside of my cheek to keep myself from making a caustic retort. She should have enlisted my help from the beginning. Then maybe we could have stopped Brenner from giving every Were in the city a reason to turn against the vampires. Now we were going to need a miracle to keep every loyal shifter alive past the next full moon. To keep Alexa alive.

  “And arm yourselves,” Helen added. “There will be blood in these halls before long.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Helen’s secretary’s phone was ringing off the hook as Clavier and I passed through the antechamber and into the hallway. Once we were outside, I rounded on him.

  “I’m not going to apologize. What you did to me was unconscionable, and now that Alexa is sick—” The urge to strike out at him welled up in me like a flash fire, and I braced my hand against the wall so as not to give in to the impulse. “I want access to everything. And your full cooperation. I am going to make this right, damn it, whatever it takes.”

  He stared at me coldly. “Save your self-righteous invectives for someone who will be moved by them.”

  I took a menacing step forward, despite my determination to remain poised. “Hoping for a repeat performance? You must get off on asphyxiation.” At the spark of anger in his eyes, I laughed. “The first thing that’s going to happen is that I am going to talk to Sebastian. And you are going to call whoever you need to call to make that happen. Right now.”

  Without waiting for a response, I turned sharply and headed for the stairwell. The elevators would no doubt be a mess as panicked Weres and vampires either fled the building or tried to get answers. It wouldn’t take long for someone to get hurt. Even the shifters who remained loyal to the Consortium would be on edge and likely to lose control. And I’d left my gun in our room. Great.

  Our room. I paused on the edge of the stairs, wondering whether I should go there first. Since Alexa was with Karma, I had no doubt she’d already heard Brenner’s announcement. She had to be even more anxious than before. And I could only imagine how stir-crazy she was getting. But if I went up there, my tension would add to her own. I had to focus—to concentrate on the one way in which I could truly help her. If Brenner had a cure, we could steal it. We just had to figure out how to get to him. And where.

  As I exited onto level two, I found myself face-to-face with the vampire who had arrested Sebastian. He held a pistol in his right hand and barred my way with his left. Halfway down the corridor, two other guards flanked a door.

  “Valentine Darrow.” He looked me up and down. “We’ve never been formally introduced. Leon Summers.”

  Tall and muscular, his dark hair cut close to the scalp, Summers looked the part of a military officer. “Pleasure,” I said drily. “Now let me pass.”

  He cocked his head but otherwise didn’t move a muscle. “Come to rescue your wolf boy?”

  “I’ve come to speak with him. To ask about his father.”

  “Futile.” He spat on the ground near my feet. “Believe me, I’ve already tried.”

  I frowned. “What’s your role in all of this?”

  “I collect intelligence.”

  I rolled my eyes at his obtuseness. “Well, I’m Sebastian’s friend. And Helen has authorized my involvement, so you’re going to let me speak with him.”

  I expected an argument, but instead, he lowered his weapon and stepped aside. “Suit yourself. But heads up: there are quite a few of them in there. We may not be able to get to you in time if things go…south.”

  The bastard was threatening me. Everywhere I went, people were trying to push me around, to shut me out or give me orders. I’d been low man on the totem pole since being turned, and my monogamous blood relationship with Alexa made me look weak in the eyes of some. But now, I was blood prime and the Missionary, and I was going to start demanding the respect to which I was entitled.

  Refusing to d
ignify Summers’s threat with a response, I brushed past him and stopped in front of the door. “Open it.”

  One of the guards produced a key from his pocket. The door was heavy and creaked as he pushed it open. I stepped into a low-lit room that was devoid of furniture except for benches along three of the walls and a toilet in the corner. Sebastian was sprawled out on his back along a bench, one arm dangling, the other covering his eyes. Over a dozen other occupants ranged throughout the room—some alone, some clustered in small groups. A few were clearly high-powered executives, their expensive suits contrasting with their bleak surroundings. Others were dressed casually in jeans or shorts. One man, particularly muscle bound, had almost as many tattoos as the Circuit’s gatekeeper.

  They stared at me in silence. I had spent enough time around Weres to know that announcing myself to Sebastian was redundant; his keen senses had already picked up my scent.

  “Valentine,” he said with a sarcastic joviality as he unfolded himself from the bench and stood stiffly. His hand swept the air in a grandiose gesture. “Meet my biological family. Some of them, anyway. Really, there are more of us here than I had thought were living in New York. Helen’s intelligence is very good.”

  Someone snarled at the mention of Helen’s name. I didn’t blame him. Or her. “The situation has just gotten more precarious,” I said, deciding that at this point, honesty was the best tactic. If any of Sebastian’s siblings were even half as ambivalent about their father as he was, they wouldn’t want to see Balthasar’s plan succeed. “I need your help.”

  “More precarious?” A golden-haired woman near the back of the room took a few steps toward me. Clad in a tank top and tight shorts, she had obviously been interrupted during her morning workout. Annoyance and frustration rolled off her body in waves. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Your father just took responsibility for the deadly illness that’s been spreading through the Were community,” I said. “And he delivered an ultimatum. Any Were who brings him the head of a vampire will receive an inoculation against the virus.”

  A gasp. Low murmurs. I waited until they had subsided to continue. “In three days’ time, he’ll release an airborne version. Anyone who has not received treatment will die in the next full moon.”

  Some stared at me in silent shock. Others cursed.

  “But why?” one asked. Young—perhaps even younger than I—he sported a wrinkled sweater and worn jeans that screamed graduate student.

  “Why?” The blond woman rounded on her half-brother. “Because he’s a megalomaniacal tyrant, that’s why.”

  I blinked. Indeed, Sebastian wasn’t the only one harboring ill will toward his father. Just how many of his own whelps had Brenner alienated? And why hadn’t he sought to make amends, or at least contact, before infiltrating the Consortium’s ranks?

  “I need your help,” I said again over the muted squabbling that had begun.

  Sebastian moved until he was close enough to force me to look up at him. “My siblings and I are not feeling very charitable toward your kind at the moment.” The current of anger beneath his words made me want to take a step backward. I resisted the impulse.

  “I don’t agree with this strategy,” I said, indicating their prison. “But you know as well as I that the decision to put you here was made cooperatively, between vampires and Weres. Your father wants to dissolve the Consortium and force our species into another war. Malcolm wants to preserve the current power structure. Helen wants to save her own head.”

  Sebastian looked skeptical. “And you don’t, Val?”

  “I want to find a treatment for the plague,” I said, unable to keep the emotion from my voice. “Alexa is sick. I want…I need to save her life. And if I can find a cure fast enough, before too much blood has been shed, it will undermine your father’s entire plan.”

  “What do you want from us?” asked one of the men in suits. “We’ve already been subjected to interrogation from Helen’s lieutenant.”

  “Your father has a cure. I want to steal it. I need his location.”

  “We don’t know.” The blond woman’s voice was tight with frustration. “None of us know. When will you bloodsuckers believe us?”

  I knew that my skepticism registered on my face, but her claim seemed impossible. How could Balthasar Brenner not be in touch with any of his kin? Didn’t he want to include them in his plans? Or at the very least, protect them from coming to harm?

  “Our father uses us, like he uses everyone else,” Sebastian said. “Apparently, in this case we were a liability. I have no doubt there are those in this room who would have joined with him, but he knew the Consortium would suspect us. Letting us in on his plan was too risky.”

  My skin crawled. According to Sebastian, his own father didn’t have a modicum of paternal instinct. “Not only did he not let you in on it,” I said grimly. “He didn’t protect you from it. Are any of you displaying symptoms?”

  Heads shook around the room. No one spoke up. I frowned. There were almost twenty Weres in this room. Some of them looked like they routinely engaged in risky behaviors, and most of them probably did the same even if they didn’t look the part. How improbable was it that none of them were sick?

  Adrenaline shot through my blood as the last puzzle piece clicked into place. I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to focus through the storm of revelation.

  “You’re all purebloods.”

  “Of course,” Sebastian said, looking at me as though I’d gone crazy. “Our father seems to think it’s his responsibility to populate the world with born Weres.”

  “And none of you are sick. No nosebleeds.” I sat down hard on one of the benches, watching as each shifter in turn felt the puzzle pieces click into place. “My God. You’re immune. He didn’t have to protect you because you’re immune.”

  “What does this mean?” Sebastian asked. His voice sounded like it was coming from far away. I cradled my head in my hands and stared down at my knees, trying to think it through. Purebloods were immune. There were two options: something about their genetic makeup either made them resistant to the virus, or it killed the virus off before it could take hold. If I could discover the mechanism, maybe, with Clavier’s help, I could synthesize it into a cure.

  I started at the sensation of a light touch on my leg, and raised my head to the sight of Sebastian crouched before me, regarding me with concern. “Val. Are you okay? What are you thinking?”

  It was difficult to organize my thoughts. “I think…I think this means that a cure is possible. There’s something going on inside all of you that either kills the virus or prevents it from affecting you.” A new thought occurred to me and I jumped up, beginning to pace. “Maybe it has to do with you all being purebloods—or maybe it has to do with you sharing genetic material with Balthasar. I won’t know for sure until I test your blood.”

  The blond woman sneered. “A vampire asking for blood. How predictable.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Why should we help you?”

  I almost lost my temper at her selfishness. Even if we did discover some aspect of the purebloods’ biology that would be useful, it would still take time to mass-produce a treatment. Alexa might not have time. The moment she lost control to her panther, she would die—full moon or no.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to slow my racing pulse. Everyone in the room was having a monumentally bad day; apprehended out of nowhere, detained, and interrogated, they were stressed and angry. Probably even afraid. Just like me.

  “I’m willing to bet that every one of you have friends or loved ones in the city who were turned, not born Were. Those people are in grave danger now. If they’re not sick already, they will be in a matter of days. And in two weeks…” I trailed off, certain that their imaginations could do a better job of picturing the repercussions of the next full moon than any words I could find.

  “You can take a sample of my blood,” Sebastian said into the silence. “As long as I’m free to go a
fterward.”

  I didn’t have any authority to make that call, so I decided on a compromise. “We’ll need to test everything first. But I’m confident that you’ll be allowed to leave tomorrow, once we’ve done the testing. And the same deal goes for anyone else who volunteers.”

  When Sebastian nodded, I pulled out my cell, determined to argue my case to Clavier, Helen, or whomever it took. But I wasn’t about to have that conversation in front of Brenner’s kin.

  “Thank you,” I said, taking the time to survey the room. To telegraph the magnitude of my appreciation. Maybe it wouldn’t make a difference. Then again, maybe they would remember that my lover’s life was also on the line. “I’ll be back soon, with supplies.”

  *

  As swiftly as I could, I pushed the tube onto the needle and inserted it into Sebastian’s arm. He watched my every movement attentively, and my hands sweated under his scrutiny.

  “I’ve wondered what it would be like,” he said, too softly for any but me to hear.

  “What?” I watched the tube fill with red. When it was time, I replaced it with another, feeling the irony of my role as phlebotomist.

  “You. Taking my blood.” Startled, I met his gaze. His eyes were dark and intense. “But not this way.”

  I refocused my attention on the tube. Alexa had once claimed that Sebastian wanted me. I had laughed her off, dismissing his flirtation as a game that amused him. I played along sometimes, as I had at that fund-raiser a few weeks ago. But what if Alexa was right, after all? How was that possible? Men like Sebastian, who had their pick across genders, were not traditionally attracted to me. What did he see? And why wouldn’t he give up the ghost, having witnessed the magnitude of what Alexa and I shared?

  Once the second tube was full, I pulled the needle from his skin and reached for a Band-Aid, hoping he would take the hint and let the subject drop. But he grasped my wrist. “No need.”