Page 27

CHAPTER NINETEEN

ENDER

“Hey. Come on. Wake up.”

I jerk awake, dragged out of that dream as I shove myself up and immediately lose my balance when the world shifts around me. Somehow, Mads catches me before I crash to the ground.

“Hey, it’s okay. Are you okay? I’m here,” he says, voice soft. “Easy there. I think we were both down for a minute after that.”

I don’t remember passing out. I just remember…

I turn and look at the debris that’s left of the building we’d been held in, the building I’d done everything I could to get us away from and the same one Mads had chosen to take us back to. The far end is still standing, but everything near us is nothing but rubble and bodies.

“We need to get the keys for one of these vehicles. Abel wasn’t among those who attacked us, so I don’t know if he’s heading here right now or what. And I’m sure others heard the explosion and will be here shortly. You okay to help?”

“Yeah,” I say, honestly a bit confused by what happened.

I feel like my head is fuzzy and I can’t tell if that’s contributing to it or what.

I push myself up and discover that while I still feel like death, that horrible pain in my shoulder has significantly lessened.

Did whatever Mads inject me with actually work?

I guess if it was going to kill me, it would have killed me by now and wouldn’t make me feel better.

There’s a touch on my face that startles me, and my attention snaps back to Mads.

“You okay? If you’re not feeling well, just sit and watch my back.” I realize he’s wiping blood off my cheek.

“I’m fine,” I assure him, positive that the last thing I’m going to do is sit here and wait for Abel to show up.

“Okay. Thank you for coming back in and saving me,” he says. “That was really kind of you.”

I look at him skeptically as I consider whether or not what I did was really “saving” him. Honestly, if half of the place hadn’t exploded, they probably would have beaten me down before I even got a chance to do anything. “Let’s get these keys and get out of here.”

“On it,” he says as he hurries into the wreckage.

I follow him before my attention is drawn over to the vampires.

I kneel down and examine the one nearest me.

He’s writhing on the ground, not healing at all as he moans in pain.

Slowly, I walk over to the ones closer to the epicenter of the explosion.

The ones nearest to it definitely aren’t even alive.

There aren’t many of them, only a few, but every single person who was hit by it hasn’t gotten up.

There are vampires out farther than we’d been, but the blast appears to have hit them far worse than it hit me or Mads.

I look over at Mads, who isn’t sparing a glance at the vampires, apparently not confused by what’s happening to them in the slightest. He also doesn’t seem to have any fear that one is going to jump up and attack him. He knows none of them are getting up anytime soon.

“Found a key! I hope it’s to a car that’s fast and can get us the hell out of here,” he says before turning and seeing me standing among the wreckage. His excitement over the key quickly falls, and instead, he just watches me for a long moment.

Finally, he settles on saying, “You’re going to make me blush, staring at me this long.”

“You told me you didn’t kill those people that night I met you near the pier.”

“Sometimes… people have to die… but they were trying to lure you and the VRC in. I found drugs in one of their pockets proving that they wanted to get rid of you all at once,” Mads says, tearing his eyes from me. “Let’s go.”

I follow him as he walks past the bodies and out toward the parking area. One of the vampires is begging to be helped and I debate drinking from him, but Mads shakes his head.

“Don’t consume their blood, trust me. Now let’s go.”

I trail after him out to the car that unlocks with the key he holds. Before he gets in, I reach over to his wrists, feeling strong enough that I manage to break the cuffs at the hinges. He rubs his wrist and smiles at me.

“Thank you.”

“Yeah…”

Mads gets into the car and turns it on as I get settled in the passenger seat. He begins driving, the car moving us much faster than we were going when I was half dead, lost, and carrying him.

“Did you create the drug that’s killing vampires? The one that wiped out half of the council?” I ask.

“Yes.”

I’m honestly surprised how willing he was to give me that information. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to kill some vampires, why else?” He says it nonchalantly, but the way his body tenses tells me he’s not as indifferent as he’s pretending to be.

I notice his grip tightens on the steering wheel and his eyes are fixated in front of him. Admittedly, I’m not the best at reading people, but while I haven’t known him long, I do know Mads isn’t much of a killer.

“You created something that could wipe out the entire population of vampires. It could destroy all vampires. Maybe true vampires would make it out alive, but those who aren’t or those who are younger or weaker couldn’t. What a terrifying thing you’ve chosen to bring into this world.”

Mads is quiet as he drives. I didn’t know the man could be knocked down to silence, but he doesn’t seem to know what to say in response to that.

“The funny thing is that I was created to do the very same thing,” I admit as I lean back in my seat and close my eyes. “A monster made to kill vampires.”

The car keeps moving and my body aches for sleep, but the last thing I want to do is close my eyes and be tossed back into the world where the only thing in it is Abel. I suffered long enough; why do I have to suffer during my sleeping hours too?

“I… don’t want to kill everyone,” Mads says, drawing my attention. “I just wanted… do you know how impossible it’d be to kill vampires as a human?”

“Obviously. I’ve killed humans. Most of them don’t have the ability to do anything against a vampire.”

“I just wanted to make them pay. I never expected to be betrayed… I never expected it to get out. And isn’t that stupid?

I’m smart… at least I like to think I am.

And still I had the confidence that I would never let it fall into the wrong hands.

But that’s hilarious, isn’t it? I’m over here having to create a drug to kill vampires because I’m too weak, yet convinced I can protect the knowledge I’ve brought into the world? ”

“So Abel knows and he wants you to show him the secret to it.”

“Seems like it.”

“How would he know about you?”

“The only way is if the person I was making it with told them or told someone my name and it got back to Abel.”

“Who is that?”

“A man named Patrick Grady. We worked together for a short while. He studied under me when I was a chemistry professor and he had a sob story to get what he wanted. I thought his sorrows were genuine… hell… maybe some were. But he lied about his intentions.”

“Grady… why’s that name sound familiar?”

“He’s the man who created the drug that drove vampires to attack humans.

I’m sure you heard about him releasing it during a concert, which caused all of the vampires to attack the humans.

He wanted to show the world that vampires shouldn’t be trusted, cause turmoil between them and humans, and then gain followers who were willing to eradicate them.

He only got so far before the VRC shut him down.

He was arrested… or at least that’s what they say happened to him.

Oddly enough, it seems like someone from the US council was in charge of what happened to him before he completely disappeared from all records.

No one from our side knows what is going on with him. ”

“So you’re trying to find him?”

“My boss is. If I find him, my only plan is to keep him from ever mentioning my name again. Maybe I’ll even beat him up for the shit he put me through.”

I raise an eyebrow. “ You will beat him up?”

“I can fuck up a man if needed,” Mads says, like he honestly thinks I would believe any part of that.

“Uh-huh. Sure. Who is your boss?”

“A vampire named Vivian. I play the role she wants me to play in exchange for her getting me into the council. She has me trying to regain control of the drug that I created, while looking for Grady who has to be the one who has spread information about it. On the council’s side, I’m playing the role of a happy-go-lucky man who is supposed to convince others that the best outcome is for Callum to gain control.

Personally, I’m only here to kill the people I made that drug for, the ones who slaughtered my entire family and left me alive for some sick fun. ”

“Is that what you used on them back there with the explosion?”

“Yes… sort of. It wasn’t strong enough to kill a full room of vampires like what was used at the council.

I do want to add that I did not kill the US council members.

I don’t know who did. But the explosion back there actually had two parts.

First was the drug that stunts the ability to heal so when the explosion went off, they couldn’t heal or recover from it. ”

“Why didn’t it affect me? I was closer to the blast than some of people who couldn’t even get up.”

“Because the antidote I injected you with is the same one you’d use for either the bullet or the powder form of the poison.”

“If this Grady person is already telling them how to make it, why would Abel want you? Obviously, they have the ammunition and know how to make it and modify it. Does Grady know how to make the drug?”