Blood Borne: Recombinant Part 27

A whoosh of air was the only warning I had before Curly Sue's friend tackled me to the ground. Her teeth snapped at my face, but I held her off with ease. Yes, they were fast, but they weren't any stronger than they'd been as humans.

"Peter, did you make these ladies?" I bit the words out, as I reached up and twisted the woman's neck with a sharp snap. Her tongue flopped out and she bit it in half, spewing blood all over my face. Some got into my mouth and I gagged.

"They taste like s.h.i.+t."

Peter laughed and pushed the last lady at me as he approached me from the other side. Tag-teaming me. "That they do. They aren't like us, Lea. They aren't real vampires. Undead, fast, stupid. Easy to dispose of."

"Not nice, Peter. What are you and Stravinsky up to?" I growled, pus.h.i.+ng the body off me; her boneless limbs flopped and her head hit the floor with a meaty thump. I had noticed that Rachel always managed to distract her marks by talking them down. I had nothing to lose by trying her methods.

"What are you doing teaming up with the Pol? You two hated each other, if I remember correctly." Standing, I sidled sideways, keeping the two of them in front of me. I managed to get one of the tables between us. "Can't be because you've had a change of heart, is it? Gone soft in your old age?"

Peter grinned, his fangs fully extended, yellowed with age. "Stravinsky is looking for a cure, Lea."

"Yeah, yeah, the humans and all their diseases."

Peter shook his head. "No. A cure for us. A way to be human again."

I'll admit, my jaw dropped. "That's not possible."

He put his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Are you sure?"

I heard the lie in his voice a split second too late. His hand was around my throat before I could get away from him. He dragged me across the table as I fought with everything I had. But matched as we were with speed and strength, he was still bigger.

"You were my best creation, Lea," he said softly as he drove his fingers deeper into my throat.

I ran my tongue over my lips, and his eyes followed, his hands easing up so I could speak. "And yet you'd kill me?"

Peter shrugged. "You have been a pain in my a.s.s ever since the day you were turned. Perhaps I should have just killed you then, but I wanted you as my own."

As he spoke, I slowly lifted my legs up, moving them incrementally so he wouldn't notice. "And now?"

He tipped his head to one side. "Now, I'd still like to f.u.c.k you, but-"

I kicked out with both feet, driving them into his gut and sending him flying away from me. The woman launched toward me, her teeth burying into my side. With a scream, I grabbed her hair and ripped her off me, wrenching her head so hard I nearly pulled it off. As it was, it hung lose by a few vertebrae when I let her go.

Peter laughed, shaking his head as I stood. "I really should have killed you."

I straightened up. "There are days I wish you had just slit my throat and been done with me. But here I am, and I am still a Cazador, Peter." I pulled a silver stake. "And that means you and I are on opposite sides."

He flexed his hands. "Time for one of us to die, I think. There can be no other way."

I flipped the stake into my right hand and pulled the second one from my other boot. "Come, then. Let us be done with this."

It felt like my first hunt again, the words so formal and familiar. I hadn't said anything like it in centuries.

With Peter, though, it felt right. He was my creator-there should be some formality before I killed him.

In a blur of movement, Peter rushed me. I stepped toward him, slas.h.i.+ng upward, catching the side of his face. He let out a roar as he slammed his shoulder into my chest, sending me flying backward and into the far wall. I hit hard and slid down, but was up on my feet a split second later.

Peter was gone.

"What the f.u.c.k?"

He knew I was here. He was going to tell Stravinsky. Son of a b.i.t.c.h, Rachel and I were in deep s.h.i.+t.

A loud scream of pain snapped my head around. I knew that voice. I was running toward him before I thought better of it.

Under my breath I cursed him, and my need to protect him, even now. "Calvin, what the h.e.l.l are you doing all the way down here?"

CHAPTER 36.

RACHEL.

The creature's razor-sharp teeth were dangerously close to my neck. I dropped to a squat, ripping out some of my hair the monster still had in his grip, and pulled the knife from my boot.

It took a step back, thrown off and bewildered.

I spun on my heels and rose, holding the blade at an angle. There used to be a person in that body. I had to try one last time to reach him. "I don't want to hurt you."

The creature studied me for a second with vacant eyes. By the time he lunged, I knew this was just a sh.e.l.l. I wasn't killing a man. I was showing mercy to an empty soul. I jammed the blade deep into the creature's chest, between his ribs, jerking the weapon at an angle to make sure I reached his heart.

Surprise filled his eyes as he dropped to his knees and then fell face forward, his blood spilling onto the tile floor.

The screams of the people behind me formed a dull roar.

Get your s.h.i.+t together, Rachel.

I took a deep breath and spun around to face the melee. Rowland had a piece of metal and was beating the creatures off their intended victims.

One of the monsters had tackled a woman and was eating from her torso. I barely registered the dull look of death in her eyes as I leapt at his back, slas.h.i.+ng his throat with my knife. The thing made a gurgling sound and collapsed on its victim as blood poured over my hand, making my hold on the knife slippery.

I got to my feet, resisting the urge to vomit.

Rowland and two other men had pummelled two creatures into submission, but they were still alive, albeit weak.

I stomped toward them. Leaning over the first one, I grabbed what was left of its hair and slit its throat with a cold calculation that shocked me. I made quick work of the second, then turned to look at Rowland.

"What are the damages here?" My voice shook, betraying my fear.

The men stared at me wide-eyed, no doubt shocked to see a blonde, blue-eyed woman do such a deadly deed.

Rowland looked around. "Looks like we have three dead and five wounded. About half of our number ran out of the room."

"s.h.i.+t." I tried to focus. I had to think, trying to ignore the fact that I was covered in blood. If I let myself stop and think about what I'd just done, I'd probably fall to pieces. And I definitely didn't have time for that. "I don't think we have to worry about security finding out you all are free. They seem to be gone as far as I can tell. If they weren't, they'd already have swooped down on us." But staying here for any longer was not an option. I had to help them escape, and then I had to get all the information I had to the public.

I glanced up at Rowland. "Time to get everyone out of here."

He nodded. "Agreed."

I grabbed my walkie-talkie. "Lea. Things have turned to s.h.i.+t."

Talk about the understatement of the year.

CHAPTER 37.

LEA.

I hit the b.u.t.ton on the walkie-talkie. "You're telling me. Calvin is here."

"I thought he was going to hang back."

"He was." I took a slow breath. "Meet me back at the hangar with the prisoners. If you aren't there in ten minutes, I'm coming to look for you." I turned a corner and slid to a stop, my finger slipping off the call b.u.t.ton.

Calvin was on the floor, his back against the wall next to an air duct, a puddle of blood around him. He lifted a hand to me, and the corner of his lips raised for a split second. I ran to him, skidding to the floor on my knees in my eagerness to get to him.

"Lea, not how I wanted to end things."

"Hush." I searched his body, stopping when my hands found the wound under his s.h.i.+rt. His belly had been opened from hip to hip.

"You can't fix this," he said. "Victor did it."

Fix it... Calvin was wrong, I could fix this. "I can drink you down, Calvin. You could hunt with me for the rest of-"

"No. Go after Victor." His eyes drooped. "Go, Lea. And forgive me. I did...love you. I just couldn't admit it to you. h.e.l.l, not even to myself."

I leaned forward and kissed him as gently as I could. How long had I waited for those words? Too long, and now it was too late for anything but goodbye.

"There is nothing to forgive, my friend." His breathing was ragged as I backed away from him, the taste of his blood on my lips.

Emotions raging through me, I had to fight to center myself and find Victor's scent. There it was, under the smell of Calvin's blood and my own pain. Expensive cologne and a whisper of pine. With a snarl, I raced down the hall, hardly seeing the doors I pa.s.sed. My entire being was focused on one thing.

Finding Victor and ripping his f.u.c.king head off.

The stairs were a gray blur as I raced down them, leaping down the final flight to land in front of a door. Distantly, I recognized it as the thirteenth floor. I kicked the door open and strode in, still following Victor's scent.

I was in a hallway that looked like an apartment building in New York.

And the smell of vampires was overwhelming. I booted the first door on my left and it clanged open.

The room featured hardwood floors and granite countertops, and was furnished in high-end materials-big-screen TV, leather couches, and china dishware. What few clothes were left flopped over the backs of the furniture were designer brands.

I pushed open a closet to see several orange jumpsuits hanging inside, Rikers Island stamped on them, along with the inmates' numbers.

This had to be where they'd been keeping all the vamps. Most likely they were pairing up a newbie with a mentor to try and train them a little.

Stepping out into the hall, I checked all the rooms. Victor would die soon enough, and Calvin would want me to make sure not to miss any other a.s.sholes.

I found someone in the last room.

Her headphones were on, and her fingers flew across a game controller. Her back was to the door, so she probably hadn't seen the blinking red light.

I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped, then turned to look at me with a guilty look on her face. "Holy s.h.i.+t, you scared me."

I grabbed her shoulders with both hands. "They are evacuating the site. Do you know where they're going?"

Her jaw dropped. "s.h.i.+t, for real?"

I nodded. "Where are they going?"

"Oh, man, there'll be a chopper up top, but you mean after that?" She pushed past me and grabbed a designer bag, stuffing it with various items.

"Yes, after the chopper where will...we...go?"

She shrugged. "Some place in Iraq, I think. It was the original facility."

When she turned to face me, I drove the silver stake into her heart. "Thank you."

Her lips paled, moving soundlessly as she slumped to the floor and off the stake. Her body lit up with a burst of light, sending the grey ash of her remains floating into the air before settling on the hardwood floor.

I turned and headed to the door at the end of the hallway, catching another whiff of Victor. From Sean's memories, I knew it was the main laboratory where all the experimentation had been done. It was where Stravinsky spent the majority of his time.

[I opened the door and...walked in? burst in? snuck in and stood silently?] The scene was surreal, as if all the worst a.s.sholes I'd ever dealt with in my life had decided to form a brotherhood. Victor was speaking rapidly to Peter, and Stravinsky stood behind them.

"You don't get it," Victor said. "If Calvin is here, Lea is here."

"I know she's here, you whiny little s.h.i.+t," Peter snapped. "You killed her helper?"

Victor nodded, and I could almost feel the satisfaction roll off his smug-a.s.s face. "I gutted him. It'll be a slow death."

Casually, as if swatting a fly, Peter backhanded Victor. "f.u.c.king idiot. You want him to change? Then we'd have three Cazadors."

His words rocked me. So there was another hunter. But who?