That made her happy and scared all at the same time. She wanted him to make a move and not. She still didn’t know what she wanted. Sigh.
“Roke,” she said in a resigned tone, “we talked about this.”
He led her to the couch and they sat facing each other. “And I gave you space, I didn’t want to make waves. But it is time to talk about us again. Like I said before, I’m persistent and have great endurance.” He winked without the joy from when they first met. Silence stretched between them. “I've missed you, Isa.”
“You don't really know me, Roke, you just think you do.”
“That is where you are wrong. I spent hours every day for years listening and talking to you. Sitting with your mom talking to you as you talked to your damn cat. I know how soft your heart is. How much you care. How deeply you loved that jackass who treated you so poorly. I have spent the past few years inundated with your thoughts and dreams until I can’t separate my own from yours anymore.” Roke picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I don't want to separate them.”
“Roke…” Isa didn’t know what to say.
“Just listen, Isa, and believe and trust me again.”
“I never stopped trusting you. I don’t know what to do. Plus, Alex is nice and he is human. It would be easier.” If that was what she wanted. Which she wasn’t sure. All she knew was being around Alex was easy. Roke was harder, but also made her feel much more.
He scoffed. “Alex and you haven't even fucked.”
“How do you know that?”
“We have superior senses.”
She flushed. “Alex wants to take his time. My marriage was rushed and he wants to court me. It’s sweet.”
“Bullshit. You don't find it sweet. You are sexual by nature. You need someone.” Roke pulled her onto his lap. “I want to be that someone, besides you, inside you, above you, with you for always.”
“Roke, please, for me, today, give it a rest. I can’t deal with that right now. I want to focus on getting the information we need and getting out alive.”
“You promise we’ll talk after? That you won’t freeze me out again? That you will give me a chance?”
“I can’t promise I will give you a chance, but we will talk. Okay?”
He nodded begrudgingly. “Fine. But you do need to rest and there is only one couch. Come here. I will content myself with cuddles.”
“No hands.” She didn’t trust herself.
“No hands.” He indicated the back of the couch. “You get in first, so I can be on the outside in case there is danger.”
“Okay, no funny business,” Isa said as she lay down on the couch.
“You don't trust me.” Roke curled up facing her, legs between hers. It felt almost as intimate as their time under the corpse.
“I do trust you. I don’t trust me.”
His laughter rumbled in the air. She smiled and pressed her cheek to his back.
Isabelle hadn't expected to get much sleep but managed to eke out a few hours. Roke was gone when she woke and daylight rapidly faded. Isa stretched and went to search for the rest room. After exiting the room, she walked right into the guard.
It was hard to say who was more astonished. Isa truly hadn't expected to see the vampire but from his slack expression and whistling the vampire had not expected to see her, either. His eyes turned red and his fangs dropped. “Identify yourself.”
Isa produced her ID. Her hands only shook a little when she turned it over which was a freaking miracle. Did vampires smell fear? She would have to ask Roke. If she made it out of here alive. She took a deep breath. Calm. “Here you go. Sorry, I was just out exploring. I love old buildings, don't you? I find it fascinating—a Planned Parenthood. Not that people need birth control these days. No, we need those babies, man. Yes, we do. So anyways, is there a problem?”
The guard looked from her ID to her. “It says here you’re a computer analyst.”
“Yes. Yes, I am.” She smiled and rubbed her palms along her pants. “I work in the main complex helping with the old relics.”
“Your 5'8” and 300 pounds?”
“I've lost a lot of weight. This ID is from when I first got to the city. Your exercise plan is awesome, I must say.” Damn Rebs. 300 pounds her hiney.
His eyes kept darting from the ID back to her. From his questions, obviously, he sensed something off, but would he detain her or report her? And where the hell was Roke? Wasn't he guarding her? How did she get into this situation? This blew.
The guard straightened. “Come with me.” And everything inside Isa froze. Alex had trained her, but this was a vampire no less. Her stomach twisted in fear as he motioned for her to precede him. She only had surprise on her side for a few seconds. God, could she do this?
When she walked close to him, she bumped into his side and slid her dagger up and into his aorta from behind, popping it like a cherry. Blood followed in the wake of her blade.
She did it. Holy Crap. The guard stumbled, then spun and backhanded her into the wall. Her head rung from the hit. She wobbled as she scrambled to her feet, threw her arm over her head, and braced herself for the vampire’s coming attack.
Growling rumbled through the hallway, a thud echoed. She dared a peek. Roke stood over the vampire’s headless body, fisting his katana. His fangs had dropped and there was murder in his set jaw as he stared at the guard’s head.
“Are you, all right?” he asked.
She should have been more afraid of Roke given the fangs, but the sight of him only filled her with relief. “About time you got here, Roro.”
His head swiveled to watch her walk. His words came out in a deliberate drawl. “Roro, eh? Not a fan. You will need to pick a better pet name.”
She choked back a laugh. She would at that.
Regaining control, he grinned and held out his hand to her. “Time to go get the information we need and get out.”
“Where were you?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I had to eat.”
Eat? “Oh my god. You got laid. Last night you said you wanted to be with me and you went and got your rocks off, you ass.” Isa shoved him. He stumbled back with an incredulous look on his face.
“No, I fed only from the neck of a male. No intercourse involved. Nothing sexual. I just didn't think you liked the idea of feeding.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I like that you got jealous at the thought of me being with another woman, though.” His grin stretched. “I like that a lot.”
The rock in her chest eased. “I thought it was always sexual when you feed?”
Roke’s head fell back in laughter. “Oh no, the blood lust does bring out other lusts but doesn’t force them, and they need not be satisfied at the same time. I do like you being jealous.”
“I was not jealous.” She was furious at the thought of him with someone else. Just the thought made her teeth hurt and hands clenched and his delighted expression right now just pissed her off more.
She shoved him again and stalked off down the corridor.
“What'd I do?”
“Shut up.”
His chuckle followed her.
They left their hideout in the Planned Parenthood office and headed to the tithe building. There were two guards outside the building, but Roke had already incapacitated them if not outright killed them. She really didn't want to know. The computer was off. Neither of the guards had been online or this would have been a heck of a lot easier.
The computer whirled as she started typing. She attached her number generator and set the program running. While it ran, she rifled through the papers on the desk in front of her looking for passwords. It was common sense not to write them down but people—and vampire— still did it. And there they were. She smiled in triumph and pulled out a sheet marked Passwords. She clicked her program off and went to work.
The clans used a basic collection algorithm. People didn't have social security numbers anymore, mainly they were coded with citizen numbers. All the cool clans now ta
ttooed them onto their subjects. Just like cattle. Rage reared its ugly head, but Isabelle pushed it down. She wasn't interested in the blood tithes and numbers. Though... Huh. She found a discrepancy. The handwritten log on the desk showed five hundred donations but the blood collection list on line only showed four hundred and fifty. Skimming off the top, were they? Interesting. She saved the numbers just in case and redirected her search criteria to information on the virus.
Her mother’s picture flashed on the screen. That made sense. Her work was the cornerstone for their recent knowledge. Isa's own picture flashed underneath as she scrolled down. That was unexpected. No change stamped across her forehead on the photograph along with property of the Romeran Clan. That was interesting. Why?
Isabelle's stomach dropped. Extensive DNA damage was recorded in her file. What? She stood up and her chair flew back and slammed into the wall. Her fingers flew over the key. What DNA damage? What were they talking about?
She clicked the link to her personal file, but the firewall needed breaching first. She sent her program running and paced the room. She had something wrong with her DNA? Was that why she lost her own baby?
Grief flooded her, nearly taking her to her knees as she let herself remember after so long of burying the memory.
She was sixteen the first time she got pregnant. The vampires wanted children. It was the reason for the matings and the desired results. But beyond that Isa found herself pining for someone to love and care for. The world sucked but maybe it would suck less if she had someone of her own. She still had Jack then, but he was getting into more and more things she didn’t like.
Isabelle threw herself into preparations. Prior to her pregnancy, her participation in most of the required programs was the bare minimum. After she got the news she was with child, she went to every class, all the prepare-to-be-a-parent courses she could. She needed to know what she was getting into and how to take care of the child. She needed to play her part better and protect her child. The pregnancy seemed to go fine.
Isa groaned and tears streaked down her face.
Until that last night. She thought it was a GI virus. Nausea flooded her with any movement. Her gut rolled and everything came up. Including blood. Her head spun and she hit the floor. She woke up to Jack crying by her side, saying he was sorry. She lost the baby at thirty weeks. Statistically, her risk for miscarriage should have gone down the further into pregnancy she went, but the vampires stated she either got a virus and rejected the fetus or maybe she had a congenital defect. They told her they didn't want her to try for any more children. She was started on birth control from that day on. Jack made sure she never missed a day of her medicine.
That was when she started to hate him.
The computer chimed and dragged her out of her memories.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Isabelle skimmed the notes, but Roke knocked on the door.
“You almost ready? I don't like how quiet it is here. We need to hurry.”
“It will take me hours to get through these notes.”
“Copy them. You have the drives. Use them. We cannot tarry here. There could be safeguards in place we’re not aware of. “
Isabelle nodded and placed the drive in the USB port. She dragged files onto her drive. One drive. Two. Everything she could get her hands on. Every file on the hard drive, she found interesting. It would take months to get through it all, but she didn't want to miss anything.
Once done, she returned to her own file after she glanced down the hall to see if Roke was near. He would come get her when they needed to leave. She obtained the information. They had a few minutes. She could look.
Her dad had been a geneticist. She always knew that. He studied the vampire genome. That she didn't know.
His grandfather, her great grandfather, found the marker in the blood. That marker changed vampire society. Prior to that, it was a crapshoot if people survived the change to vampire. Now, just a simple blood test told the tale. Her dad invented that blood test, a simple chromosomal assay to see if humans were “genetically susceptible”' as he put it, to vampire mutation. It allowed unprecedented growth of vampire society. The council governed that growth. That meant the council had been around a lot longer than they let on. They made it seem like they'd formed when humans were threatened, to protect them, but they lied. They had to have existed for centuries.
Her dad led multiple projects, but one name caught her eye. My God is a Vow. He might as well have put Isabelle on it. That was one of the meanings of her name. Her heart beat faster as she opened the file.
Her picture flashed on the screen again. This time with a heart around it. A double helix and rows of base pairs appeared next it. She didn't understand a word of it, but her mother might. The summary at the bottom gave more information.
Her grandfather Peter Mendes had discovered what he was sure was the genetic target of the Inmortalus virus. The code that amplified the cellular growth that regenerated humans after they died and remade them into one of the clan. The cold, that once activated, caused massive growth of the hematologic, neurologic, and muscular system at the expense of all others. The host technically died but continued to thrive if it received blood. Over time, the host adapted to get the blood their body now craved.
The ramifications stunned her.
DNA itself was a double helix made up of four base pairs. Peter took those base pairs and tweaked just one, here then there. He twisted the DNA on itself then injected a viral vector with those changes into pregnant hosts. The virus rewrote the fetus's DNA. It took a decade before they had a viable pregnancy and a baby survived to term. Thousands of infants were lost in the process. Once born, they injected the baby with the Inmortalus virus and watched what happened.
The results were spectacular. More than the vamps could have ever hoped. They found the changes amplified the virus, but the changes were too unstable, and the infants never lasted long. They disposed of all the infants that made it to term and biopsied them. One particular change caused a massive increase in the neurologic system. In fact, it appeared to regrow neuronal connections. The babies displayed odd abilities. Again, they disposed of that batch of infants and focused instead on changes to the muscular and hematologic systems.
If the changes in the DNA amplified the virus enough, it could end the vampires’ dependence on human hosts or at least cut it down. Humans now survived due to the sheer fact of symbiosis. The virus made the vampire aggressive, all blood and hormones and power. But they couldn't destroy their food, could they? They had to keep control. If they needed less blood or a minimal amount, well, they would need less humans, wouldn't they? Then the data stopped. Right around the time her grandfather died in some fluke car accident. A few years passed until more date showed up as Isabelle's own father took up her grandfather’s banner. Rumor was he found Peter's old notes. Ones Peter didn't even share with the vampires. Her dad's exploits over the next two decades started in his teens. They picked up in intensity a few years before Isabelle was born.
Who were the women in these tests? Was her mom one of them? Rosa said she had in vitro multiple times, six separate times to be exact. Had her dad messed with his own child's DNA, her DNA, changed it, damaged it? Isabelle didn't want to think he could do that, but the evidence was right in front of her. Hell, the file had her name on it. He used to say that to her as well. My god is a vow. He always told her she was his vow. His penance and his reward. She never got it, but she never doubted he loved her. Ever. Her father, Her grandfather, her mother. All involved. It made her sick.
A slam from down the hallway dragged her from her musings. She closed the files, zipped the drives into her pocket, and hurried to the door. Roke grappled hand to hand with a vampire down the hallway in front of the door leading to the stairway. A desk had been overturned, papers littered the floor, and a broken chair lay upside down. His shirt had fresh blood on it near his shoulder. His short sword lay discarded about five feet from where he fought, t
he katana remained over his shoulder.
She streaked toward them and grabbed the sword. “Roke,” she screamed.
He didn't answer as he wrestled and slammed the other vampire into the wall, but he glanced at her, teeth set in a grimace. He nodded and heaved with a bellow. His opponent flew into the air and impaled on broken wood from the chair next to the desk. The crunch as he slid down caused a shudder to roll through her. She tossed Roke the sword, they shared a satisfied glance before the stairway door opened, and three more vampires entered the hallway.
Roke snarled and cut one’s head off with his first step into the hallway. The others shoved the body ahead of them and blurred toward them. Roke pushed her behind him, and his sword formed a steel barrier between her and the two remaining vampires.
He stopped on a dime and all the vampires froze. The coppery scent of blood flooded the hall and they swayed. A third vampire exited into the hallway. Isabelle saw him and cringed. Same dark hair, dingy white wife-beater and khakis. Theon.
He smiled when he saw her and tossed a vial down the hall to shatter against the wall. “Hello, dinner. Told you I would see you later.”
Theon swaggered down the hall toward her. Roke and the other two vampires stood frozen. Why weren't they moving? Isa's heart raced as she grabbed the dagger off Roke's belt and held it in front of her. Her hands shook, but she steadied the blade and kept it between her and Theon.
Theon laughed. “Oh, Isa. I like a bit of spirit, but do try to appear a little more vicious and less afraid. Otherwise, this will be much too easy.”
“Why did you follow us?”
“Orders, Isa. You know the clan wants you back. Why you and Roke, here, killed Mara.”
“We did not. Padraig did. We were set up.”
Theon shrugged. “I don't care. I have my orders and by following my orders, I get rewards.”
“I can get you money. I can get you whatever you want. Let me and Roke go.”
His gaze ran over her. “Anything I want?”
Blood Will Tell: The Blood is the Key (The Blood series Book 1) Page 13
