Blood Borne: Recombinant Part 29

"That sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d wants to make me into one of those monsters."

"Who?"

He grimace and covered his abdomen with his hand. "Stravinsky."

s.h.i.+t.

He grabbed my hand with more strength than an old man who had nearly bled out should have possessed. "Don't let them do it."

"I won't."

His nails dug deeper, breaking skin, and his eyes were wild. "I want a vow."

What the f.u.c.k was up with these people and their vows? But Lea was still on the other side of the elevator and there was no way she'd let them do that to him. "I promise."

His eyes sank closed and I noticed how shallow his breath was. "Calvin, just hang on. Lea's coming."

"No time," he said in a soft whisper. "There's a paper in my pants pocket. The left one. Get it out."

His pants were drenched with blood, but I reached in and teased him. "Are you just an old pervert looking for a thrill?"

His eyes twinkled. "Oh, to be fifty years younger. I'd put the moves on you, girlie."

I grinned. "I bet you would, old man."

His voice softened. "Give it to Lea."

"Give it to her yourself."

The doors opened behind me and I jerked around to see Lea burst through the opening, her clothes singed. Her eyes widened. "Calvin." She dropped in a squat next to him.

His eyes had a vacant stare.

She grabbed his hand. "Calvin."

It was clear he wasn't going to answer.

"He was alive just seconds ago. I'm sorry, Lea."

She looked up at me, her eyes cold. "How did he get here?"

"He wanted to..." I figured the rest was obvious. I handed the paper to her. "He said to give this to you."

She took the folded, b.l.o.o.d.y paper and stared at it for several seconds.

I could see it was a letter to her, and whatever he had said had temporarily stunned her. "Lea. We have to go. Do you want to take him with us?"

She didn't answer, only stared into Calvin's face.

I hadn't known her long, but I knew she wasn't behaving like herself. It was evident she loved him in some capacity. She was in shock.

"He probably came back to get you," I said, hoping it gave her comfort. "He would want you to get out and save yourself."

Her upper lip curled into a sneer. "No. He wouldn't."

Before I had a chance to ask for an explanation, a man in a lab coat ran out of a door down the hall. As soon as he saw us, his mouth dropped open and he turned and ran the other way.

Lea leapt over Calvin's body like a graceful panther. Lab Coat had only gotten a few feet before she knocked him to the ground, pinning him with a knee on his back.

"Who are you and what do you do here?" she snarled.

"Lancaster," he said in a whiny voice. "Dr. Lancaster. I work with Stravinsky."

I got up and moved close enough to hear her snarl.

"We have to get out of here," Lancaster wheezed. "They've initiated the Phoenix protocol."

It wasn't hard to figure out what that meant. Dammit.

Lea grabbed a handful of his lab coat in the center of his back and hauled him to his feet. "So?"

"We're all going to be incinerated if we don't get out of here. You'll never survive the burn and you'll never get out without me. We need to take the secret tunnel."

Lea cast a glance at me.

"Then you better start giving directions," I said. "Because it's starting to get a little toasty in here." I wasn't exaggerating. The temperature must have warmed at least ten degrees in the last five minutes.

Lancaster swallowed. "Down the hall. Then to the right."

But Lea remained in place, her gaze drifting back to Calvin. She didn't want to leave him.

"Lea. I can handle Lancaster if you want to get Calvin."

The lights overhead flickered three times before they blinked out. Seconds later, the eerie glow of the emergency lighting kicked in.

Lea was still for a moment, then gave a sharp shake of her head. "No. We don't have time." Giving Lancaster a shove, she said, "Get moving."

As we started down the hall, I wondered if maybe we had a shot of escaping after all.

CHAPTER 41.

LEA.

Lancaster led the way, jogging ahead of us. He tugged at the edges of his lab coat over and over again-a nervous tic if I ever saw one. "This way. The tunnel leads to the first floor. From there, we should be able to get topside." He paused. "Are you one of Stravinsky's guards?"

Lancaster's words were nothing to me. I'd left Calvin behind. Not once, but twice. The fire would keep him from turning into a vampire, which was what he'd wanted. But I still felt like I'd let him down, that in the end I'd failed him and our friends.h.i.+p.

Rachel tapped my arm. "Lea, I got proof of what they were doing here. Samples, pictures, paperwork. We have everything we need to expose them."

Coming back to the present moment, I gave them both a noncommittal grunt and shoved Lancaster. "Keep moving."

He stumbled forward, his eyes wide as he stared back the way we'd come. "I don't think we're going to make it."

I glanced backward. "f.u.c.k." The fire was licking along the walls behind us, spreading at a rate that was anything but natural. I grabbed Rachel with one hand and Lancaster with the other. Turning on the speed, I pulled them along like a boat towing water skiers.

"Left," Lancaster yelled as the oxygen disappeared around us. I didn't need it, but that was not true of Rachel. Her body began to slump as I rounded the corner. As I slid to a stop in front of a panel on the wall, I grabbed its edges and wrenched the whole thing off.

"My G.o.d, I had no idea how strong you vampires really were," Lancaster breathed as he pa.s.sed out.

A rush of cool air swept through the tunnel, sucked into the hall by the fire. Rachel came around first. "What happened?"

"No oxygen." I helped her to her feet and pushed her ahead of me, then grabbed Lancaster and threw him over my shoulder. He let out a grunt and a fart as his stomach hit my shoulder.

Rachel laughed. "Glad you've got him and not me."

"Yeah, thanks." I gave her a bare smile as we jogged across two short flights with a landing in the middle. We found ourselves in front of another set of elevator doors.

The b.u.t.ton beside them blinked green. Rachel looked at me, shrugged, and slammed the heel of her hand into the b.u.t.ton. "Couldn't hurt to try-"

The doors slid open with a light bing, elevator music spilling out like some weird kind of time warp. As if the whole f.u.c.king building wasn't about to be dissolved in a baptism of fire.

Rachel stepped in first, and I followed, lowering Lancaster to the floor at our feet. "Mommy," he whimpered.

A laugh burst out of Rachel. "Talk about your manly man." She hit the only b.u.t.ton on the elevator panel, a large, green G.

The doors slid shut and the volume of the music increased.

I frowned. "I know this song, but is this really playing right now?"

With a smile on her lips, Rachel started singing along with Gloria Gaynor. And I will admit, I joined in.

Grinning like a couple of sh.e.l.l-shocked fools, we sang at the top of our lungs, fist-pumping as the elevator climbed and the lyrics came to an end.

"Nice pipes," Rachel said as the elevator binged.

"Not bad yourself," I said, my hilarity dissipating as the doors slid open.

Morning suns.h.i.+ne spilled into the elevator and I couldn't help but take a step back as I raised my cowl.

"You going to be okay?" Rachel touched my shoulder as I bent to scoop up Lancaster.

"Might get a slight burn, but-"

I was rudely interrupted by the screech of a megaphone and then the deep ba.s.s of a man who thought he was in charge.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR.".

Rachel let out a sigh. "So much for thinking we were home safe."

"No such thing," I muttered. "Be ready; we're making a run for it."

She gave me a tight nod and I put Lancaster down, using his body to block the elevator doors open. Rachel stepped behind me and hopped up onto my back.

"I feel like this has been done before," she muttered.

"Yes, it has," I said. "But I don't f.u.c.king sparkle."

CHAPTER 42.

RACHEL.

I knew this had to be too easy. Ha. As if getting attacked by monsters and almost burned to a crisp could be called easy. But then I worried about all the people I'd helped escape. Had they made it out?

Lea took off, moving faster than ever as a round of gunshots filled the air. I tried not to tense, but I kept waiting to get hit by a flying bullet.

We made it all the way to the SUV. I slid off Lea's back and looked around.

"Where's Sean's body? We went right by the place where we left him."

Lea was perfectly still other than her gaze scanning the horizon. "Good question."

I heard a low growl and spun around, shocked to see Derrick. He was hunched over, a feral look in his eyes. And there was a perfectly round hole in his forehead. How could he be alive and mobile?

"Derrick."

Lea was ready to pounce, but I held up an arm to hold her back. "Wait."

"Rachel, that's not Derrick."

But it was. He'd done so much to help and protect me. I couldn't just leave him here like this.

I took a step forward and Lea released a low growl.