by Casey Bond
I shook my head. “Teammates. If we go, we go together.”
“Eve!” Enoch screamed from below. He loosened his grip on Terah’s neck and she scuttled away from him like the spider she was. Asa was a blur as he ran to help his sister. She coughed, gagged, and then vomited blood into the grass, painting it a slick, deep hue of red.
Enoch paid no attention to his siblings, raising his hands in surrender. “I stopped. I’m sorry.”
“You were going to kill her!”
“She tried to kill you!” he screamed back.
“I can’t let you tear yourself apart for me, Enoch. You need her as much as she needs you in the future.”
“No. Please. Don’t leave. Don’t do this now!” But this wasn’t just about him. Or Terah. Or even Abram. “I lost control, but I’m sorry. I won’t let it happen again.”
I swayed on my feet, managing to find my balance before toppling off the edge. Maybe I had a brain tumor. The plutonium was supposedly contained. The radioactive substance wasn’t supposed to leak into our bloodstream, but maybe mine had.
“I have to get help, Enoch,” I called out, the solid beat of my pulse sending sharp lances of pain through my head. “I need to go – right now – and I need you to understand.”
Titus offered his hand. I slid mine into his.
“I need you!” Enoch yelled. “Don’t leave me.”
“I have to,” I answered brokenly, hoping he would understand that I needed to jump for both our sakes. Fearful thoughts ricocheted through my head.
What if I don’t survive this? What if I do? What will Victor and Kael do to us when we get home?
“I don’t think I can do this,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. I looked down at Enoch, my love, and then looked at the face of my friend.
“Then I’ll do it for us,” Titus declared. Without thinking, he jumped and pulled me with him. We plummeted quickly, pushed toward the path where Enoch stood. I closed my eyes, ready for the impact. It wasn’t high enough! The feel of grass tickling my nose registered just before every molecule in my body was shredded.
Chapter Seventeen
Maru
I was worried Enoch would somehow be able to read my mind and see what I was planning to do. Worried he might sense the tech Yarrow had stolen and was about to implant in the back of my hand. See my nerves in the drumming of my fingers on my leg, but if he saw anything he felt was unusual, he didn’t mention it.
Enoch gave us the fast pass through processing. We had to register a name and give our former positions under Victor’s rule, but our persons and things were not searched. Thank God. Because Enoch would’ve known exactly what we were about to do.
After being processed, Enoch said we could claim a house – or houses, depending on our relationship – among the Delta Unit if we’d like, or he could take us somewhere quiet. Yarrow was quick to claim the latter.
Enoch took us to a street labeled Brookside and promised he would speak to us in the morning. He told us to get some rest, because we had a lot to discuss.
“This whole thing is surreal,” I confessed to Yarrow as we climbed the steps of a modest two-story house. The siding was pale yellow, trimmed in white. “One minute, I think I’m going to find Eve and bring her back to the Compound so I can chew her out for not getting back sooner. The next, you crack an encryption that reveals layers of lies, and the vampire I’ve been training Eve to stake for years, leads us to safety and gives us a house.”
“There must be strings attached,” Yarrow warned as she stepped into the empty home. It was dark, but there was a small pile of unused candles and a lighter on the kitchen counter. I lit the wicks one by one as she continued to sort her thoughts. “They still have to feed.”
“Have you seen any other vampires besides Enoch since we got here?”
“Not one,” she answered. “But it doesn’t make any sense. I could see how Victor might fake a few propaganda videos, but most of the attacks filmed were real, Maru. You have to know that.”
“I do, I just don’t know whose vampires they are. They could be Enoch’s, Asa’s, or Terah’s, but after learning what I have, I wouldn’t put it past Victor or Kael to make their own, to capture vamps and build an army. Victor’s units have caught plenty for us to practice killing over the years.” I sighed and looked around at the dim interior, seeing basic furniture and supplies, enough for the two of us.
“I wonder what he’ll tell us in the morning.”
“It just doesn’t add up – if you take what you found, along with something I’ve seen.”
“What?” she asked. Her brown eyes shimmered in the firelight. God, she was beautiful.
“Do you remember when I paid Kael a visit in his lab?” When she nodded, I continued, “He had a wall of monitors that showed live feeds of different cells within the lab. I saw an army of clones contained in those cells. From the video you showed me, he had already sent an army back in time, and then sent trios of clones to specific years in the past. That means that what I saw on that screen was a separate army.”
“If he already has an army at his disposal, why doesn’t he use them against the vampires?” she asked, lips parted.
“That was my next question,” I answered grimly. “What’s he planning to use them for?”
A determined sparkle made its way into Yarrow’s eyes. “I’ll see if I can do some more digging. Before I left, I copied the encrypted data onto an untraceable computer.”
I ticked my head back, surprised. “All of it?”
“All of it,” she confirmed.
I knew Yarrow was smart, but I was still impressed by her ingenuity. “Can you hack into Kael’s lab and figure out what he’s doing down there?”
She shook her head. “The last time I tried, my attempt was intercepted, so I stopped pushing. But now that I’m here and safe, I’ll push until I demolish his electronic wall, Maru.”
“I’m worried about leaving you here alone.”
She waved me off. “I’m not alone. I have the Delta Unit here with me – my people,” she laughed. “Besides, I have my work cut out for me and it will keep me plenty busy.”
That was true.
“When are you jumping?” she asked. “There aren’t many tall buildings left around here, except back where the humans were being processed.”
“That’s where it’ll have to be, but I’ll wait until it’s a little closer to dawn. I don’t know what kind of security presence Victor has trained on the building.”
“I can help with that,” she volunteered. “I’ll see you off and be here waiting when you get back.” She offered a sweet smile and my heart melted.
“Thank you. For all you’ve done.” I looked deeply into her eyes, willing her to see my heart.
“I thought you might be in love with Eve,” she added abruptly, “so I never ventured too close, even though I wanted to. I’ve wanted to talk to you a thousand times over the years.”
“I do love her,” I admitted, “but only as a friend, a sister. We’ve been through a lot together, but I don’t love her in a romantic way. I’ve never had much personal time and wasn’t sure you’d be interested even if I did. But now that I know how you feel, I’m really glad. And when I get back, I’ll make time for you.”
Dawn came too quickly for my liking. Yarrow and I carved a quick path to the intake building while most of the refugees in the human Haven were still asleep. The intake center was a former office building. The front doors weren’t even locked.
“We’re being recorded,” Yarrow whispered.
“It won’t matter in a few minutes.”
We took the stairs up four flights and exited onto the roof. A red, white, and blue flag waved proudly from a pole, boasting thirteen alternating stripes and fifty stars. The symbol of a nation that had long ago been crushed and was taking its last breaths.
Yarrow stood beside me and stared, just as mesmerized as I was by the reminder of our nation’s past. “I didn’t realize a vamp wh
o tore a nation apart would appreciate its sacred symbolisms.”
“Me either.”
The sky was lightening quickly. I walked to the ledge of the rooftop just as the sun peeked from behind the crumbling buildings to the east. The Compound sat at the heart of them, the pulse of Verona.
“Maru,” Yarrow called out, pointing to the streets where Enoch was leading another of Victor’s units away from him and welcoming them into the Haven.
“Victor won’t let this go. He’ll attack. He might not know exactly what’s happening to his troops, but he’ll find out soon enough. When he does, he’ll level the Haven and everyone in it for dissention. He won’t even need the military if he has enough bombs.”
“Then we can’t let him find out,” Yarrow declared with finality. “I can help Enoch with that. We can send Victor off the trail and keep him busy enough.”
“To what end? Eventually, he’ll find out.”
“Then we’ll make a plan and act on it,” she answered doggedly. “Maybe… maybe we can fight back. If everyone knew that Victor and Kael only staged this war to make names for themselves, or if we broadcast some of the videos they fabricated – Maru, they would be hanged for treason.”
“Please be careful,” I warned. “Don’t forget, Victor still has a clone army stashed somewhere.”
“I will, but don’t worry. I’ll figure it out while you’re gone. Just don’t take too long. Find Eve – I programmed your tech to draw you to her, so you’ll land relatively close. Find her and get her the hell out of there.”
“I’m not even sure where there is,” I scoffed.
“Does it matter? She’s lost and you’re the only one who can find her,” she stressed. “She needs your help.”
Yarrow looked up at me with a serious expression on her face, the beginnings of a hundred sentences flashing through her eyes. Instead, she opened her arms and I gave her a tight hug.
“Thank you,” I whispered into her ear. Without taking another minute to think through how stupid this idea was, I climbed onto the ledge and activated the tech. The plutonium was primed and so was I. I looked down at the ground to see Enoch waving his arms above his head, then he cupped his hands and yelled something up at me. Though I’m sure he had wisdom to share, I couldn’t listen to him. I had to do what was right, which meant following my heart and saving Eve.
I jumped.
The wind rushed around me, buffeting my face and causing my limbs to fall back behind me. My suit kicked into gear, and just before my vision blurred, I caught sight of something terrifying: the boy with the blue eyes from Kael’s lab, the telepath, was standing behind Enoch.
There was nothing Yarrow could do now. Kael already knew where everyone who disappeared was going.
An intense pain screamed through my body before everything went black.
To be continued in High Noon….
Acknowledgments
Thanks to God above for his infinite mercy.
Thanks to my kids for being the most profound blessings of my life.
Thanks to my husband for encouragement.
Thanks to my Mom and Dad for being amazing role models.
Thanks to Cristie Alleman and Amber Garcia, my beta readers for High Society. Thanks to every ARC reader, blogger, friend and fan who love this series. You give my dream wings.
About the Author
Award-winning author Casey L. Bond lives in Milton, West Virginia with her husband and their two amazing daughters. She loves to read almost as much as she loves to write, letting the voices in her head spill onto the blank page.
Also by Casey L. Bond
The Frenzy Series
Frenzy, Frantic, Frequency, Friction, Fraud
Forever Frenzy
The Harvest Saga
Reap, Resist, Reclaim
The Fairy Tales
Riches to Rags, Savage Beauty, Unlocked, Brutal Curse
Glamour of Midnight
Keeper of Crows, Keeper of Souls
The High Stakes Saga
High Stakes, High Seas, High Society, High Noon
High Treason
