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21

I ’m hunched over my journal when Wyatt walks in, his hair still wet from a shower.

“Did you try it?” Gretchen asks him.

“Yeah. Nothing.”

“Shit!” Gretchen pinches the bridge of her nose. “All that work for nothing.”

We’ve worked with different viruses for the past week, trying each of them on the blood samples. The most recent was smallpox, something we were surprised to even get from Director Hamberg. It was delivered in a case so heavy and thick it would likely survive a nuclear blast, and Wyatt has been working with it in the high containment lab for two days.

“You destroyed the variola sample?” I ask.

“Yep. It’s toast.” He sinks into his chair, dark circles under his eyes. “Smallpox. Even that bastard of a virus can’t replicate in their blood.”

“What the fuck are they?” Evie asks for what has to be the millionth time. “None of this makes sense.”

“It doesn’t, but it’s all we have. Keep at it.” I dive back into my research and stew in my own disappointment. We’ve thrown so many different infectious agents at the vampire blood, but nothing takes hold. During our teleconference yesterday, Hamberg again threatened to send in an entirely new staff. Pressure is coming from all directions. Time is flowing away, and I feel like I’m losing ground.

“I’ll go back in later.” Wyatt leans his head back, his adam’s apple bobbing as he stares at the ceiling. “I have some bacteria samples I want to try on it.”

“Maybe we should try fungus?” Aang pipes up from the armchair he dragged in from the lobby. He’s made a little nest beside his desk with anime posters. “Maybe we can get a wider variety of pathogens from Atlanta. Not just viral. Widen the net to all the nasties. It has to interact with something .”

“Just sunlight,” I say before thinking, exhaustion and frustration loosening my tongue.

“Huh?” Evie grunts, and everyone stops what they’re doing. It’s like the dying whir of an engine that’s been shut down. The final, grinding gasps of power that end in reverberating silence. They all turn to me, their eyes questioning.

Shit .

“What do you mean ‘sunlight’?” Aang asks as he sits up straight.

I’ve kept that information to myself. To keep them safe. The more they know, the more danger they’re in. But as they look at me with first surprise and then distrust, a sick feeling swirls in my gut. I want to protect them, but I’ve been withholding information—it’s not lost on me that Juno has done the same thing to me. So has Valen. I’m in the dark about so much, and I’ve been keeping them in the same shadow, only divulging tiny bits of truth. But it’s the only way to save their lives. Ugh, how am I supposed to keep balancing on the knife’s edge without getting cut?

“Are you saying sunlight interacts with the cells somehow?” Wyatt, his eyes bloodshot, stares at me.

I don’t know what to say. I have zero doubts that there are cameras and listening devices in the lab. We’re being watched. We can’t trust anyone outside of these walls, and I can’t be honest with my team within them. Not if we want to survive.

My gaze bounces from person to person as my mind races. How can I fix this?

“No, that isn’t?—”

Aang stands so abruptly that I jump, then he stomps over to a refrigeration unit and pulls out what’s left of the most recent sample.

“Aang, what are you doing?” Gretchen sounds leery.

“Let’s just see what sunlight does.” He glares as he storms past me.

“Aang, don’t!” I chase him and reach for the vial.

He breaks into a run.

“Aang!” Wyatt shouts from behind me.

Aang bursts through the doors. Heckle and Jeckle don’t even stir as we race past them.

“Aang, stop!” I swipe at his shirt, almost grabbing hold, but he’s faster. In only a few moments he’s out of reach. “No!” I scream as he runs out the lobby doors and into the street.

By the time I reach him, he’s holding up the vial as the sun frees itself from a fluffy cloud. The sample goes instantly black, the vial cracking and falling into tinkling shards on the pavement.

“Aang—”

“What the fuck, Georgia!” he yells and steps back from the ashy smudge. “What is that?”

The soldier who replaced Gage clears his throat. “Doctors?”

“Shut it, G.I. Joe.” Aang points at him as Gretchen and the others push through the lobby doors and join us on the street.

“What happened?” Evie drops to her haunches beside the broken glass.

“Just an accident. Aang dropped it.” I’m searching for anything, for a life raft in a rushing current. Something we can all use to survive. “Please, let’s just go back inside and get to work.”

Evie pulls a pen from her lab coat and pokes around in the ashes. “It just … combusted?” She looks up at me questioningly. “How?”

“Please.” I clasp my hands together in front of me. “Please, stop. Please let it go.”

Wyatt chuckles and elbows Evie. “You owe me a twenty.”

“What?” I turn to him.

He shrugs. “Our first day here, I bet Evie twenty bucks that we were dealing with vampires.”

My mouth drops open.

“Yep.” She gets back to her feet. “I hate to say it, but you were right. Total bullshit, by the way.”

“I remember.” Gretchen wheels closer and peers at the ashes. “Evie bet on aliens.”

Wyatt could’ve punched me in the tit, and I’d be less shocked.

“Guys, focus.” Aang crosses his arms over his chest, displeasure still writ large in the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Georgia’s been lying to us the entire time. She’s known .”

“I mean, it makes sense. I’ve read enough manga to know a supernatural villain when I meet one.” Gretchen scratches her ear. “Though I suppose your Juno’s Miracle guy isn’t a villain. He’s trying to help.”

“Look, can we …” I glance at the soldiers and hope to god they weren’t listening to all that. “Can we take a little walk?”

Aang stands firm, brows still crinkled. “Only if you promise to tell us everything.”

“I can’t.” I close my eyes as Candice appears again. “Not everything. Not yet.”

“No. We need to know what you know. We’ve been working on the cure with a blindfold while you’ve been leading us around by our dicks.”

“Aang, give her a chance.” Gretchen wheels to my side. “Let her explain.”

“Not here.” I turn and walk away, hoping with everything inside me that they follow. My steps are slow, my mind trying desperately to order how I’m going to tell them that yes, there are vampires. And no, they are definitely not the good guys.

When I’m about two blocks away, I stop. Taking a deep breath, I look back and see them following. Wary-eyed Aang leads the pack.

“The lab is bugged. The entire hotel is bugged,” I blurt.

“My bathroom?” Wyatt seems particularly offended.

“Probably, yeah.” I keep my voice low. “Everything we do is monitored.”

“By the vampires or the government?” Evie whispers.

“Both, if I had to guess.” I move closer, all of us forming a huddle. Not the least bit suspicious to have a group of people whispering in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. “They want us to find the cure so we can?—”

“Save their food source?” Wyatt suggests.

I look at him with new eyes, ones that see through the shaggy, record-playing stoner to the brilliant scientist he is. “Exactly.”

“So it’s a win-win. We get to live, they get to keep on eating us.” Evie’s nose wrinkles. “That’s really not a win for us.”

“It’s worse. So much worse. They want to take over. They’ve been hiding their existence forever, but now that humanity has dwindled so much, they feel like it’s time for them to take the reins.”

“I’m guessing they won’t be merciful overlords?” Gretchen says.

“No. They’re uncaring, unfeeling monsters. Their leader has given me a deadline. If I don’t find the cure in the next few weeks, I’m done.” I shudder as the truth spills out of me. “They’ll use me against Juno. Hurt me.”

Evie notices me shaking, and comes to my side, wrapping an arm around my waist. “That bad?”

“Yes. I think—” I don’t want to say more without knowing for certain, but it’s right there staring us in the face. “I think the blood resorts are for them . I think the people who go there… The vampires are using them like cattle. Feeding off them.”

“You’re lying.” Aang shakes his head. “No way.”

“Yes. It tracks. Think about it.” Wyatt scrubs his whiskery chin. “We kept wondering why the hell they wanted to stockpile blood for plague experiments. There it is. Plain as day. It’s not for us. It’s for them.”

“No.” Aang steps back, his chin trembling.

“Aang?” I ask. “Are you okay?”

“What is it?” Gretchen asks. “Aang, what’s wrong?”

“Idrine signed up. I told him not to, and he said he wouldn’t go if he was chosen. He promised.”

Aang’s partner. The only thing that Aang has ever talked about that’s made him smile warmly.

“Then he’s fine.” Gretchen rolls up beside him. “He’s not there.”

“He hasn’t been answering.” Aang has gone pale in the warm sunlight. “The cell towers between here and there have been spotty for months. We only have the landline. I’ve called but there’s been no… He’s—” His voice breaks. He breaks away and hurries back down the street, his sob echoing off the empty buildings.

“Aang!” Evie calls and goes after him.

“What do we do?” Gretchen looks up at me.

“The only thing we can do.” Wyatt’s tired eyes are sad, his shoulders sagging. “We keep working. We find the cure.”

“So the vampires can use us?” Gretchen hisses.

“So we can survive.” Wyatt sighs. “That’s step one. If we don’t live through this plague, we’ve got nothing. We have to solve it.”

“We do,” I agree. “But we can also do more. We can find a way to stop them.”

Gretchen’s eyes light up. “ That’s why you’ve been trying to destroy the cells.”

“Exactly.”

“Anything work?” Wyatt asks.

I look up at the fading blue sky smudged here and there with wispy clouds. “Just this. The sun. Nothing else.”

“Shit.” He straightens. “I guess I’ll get to work with the classics. Silver. Garlic. Maybe some holy water. When you said ‘think outside the box’ I didn’t know you were talking miles outside. But I’m always down for a challenge. Supernatural or otherwise.”

I take both their hands and squeeze. “We can’t talk about this anywhere. Understand? If the vampires realize all of you know …” I still can’t bring myself to tell them about Candice.

“They’ll kill us. Got it.” Wyatt nods as if it’s just another day.

“What about your sister?” Gretchen doesn’t look me in the eye. “Did she know about all this when she did the demonstration?”

The worst part of her question isn’t that it throws doubt on my sister; it’s that I don’t know the answer. I want to tell her Juno would never agree to any of this, that she only wants what’s best for people. For everyone, really. But I don’t know how true that is anymore. I can’t trust myself or my opinions when it comes to her. Even if she did know, in my heart, I still want to save her, to protect her. It’s so fucked up.

“What about the one that’s always keeping tabs on you?” Wyatt changes the subject. “Does he hurt you? All those injuries you’ve had—was it him?” His eyes harden, the first time I’ve ever seen anything but aloofness or concentration on his face. “He hurts you, doesn’t he? You can tell us.”

“No.” I find it odd that it’s the truth. Valen has never hurt me, not physically. But he’s part of the world that’s trying to destroy mine, even if he is some sort of double agent. As always, my thoughts and emotions are in conflict where he’s concerned.

“It’s getting dark.” Gretchen jerks her chin toward the hotel. “Let’s get back inside. We should check on Aang.”

I trudge along the street with them, my stomach in knots at the way all this went down. What if they slip up? What if this is what gets them killed? I don’t know how to handle this much pressure. But there’s nothing for it. They know. I can’t unring the bell. We have to rely on each other to stay alive.

With the weight comes something else, though. Something hopeful. I don’t have to carry the burden alone anymore.

* * *

“I can’t believe they left this here.” Wyatt hangs precariously from the top shelf of the bar. “Ready?” he asks Gretchen.

“Bombs away.” She holds her hands up.

He drops a large bottle of some expensive-looking liquor, and she catches it then holds her hands up for another.

I jump onto the bar and sit, my legs swinging as they finish grabbing bottles and make their way over to me.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea.” I watch as Wyatt lines the bottles up beside me, then leans over the bar and gets some glasses.

“Of course it’s not, but we need something to soften the blow. All that new information.” He raises his voice as if for an invisible audience. “New information about cells! Proteins. All that.”

Evie rolls her eyes and takes a seat at the bar to my left.

“Serve it up.” Gretchen points to the biggest bottle. “I’ll take some to Aang. He might let me in if he knows I’m bringing booze.”

“Here.” Wyatt hands her two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. “Go on up.”

“Good luck,” Evie says sadly as Gretchen wheels toward the elevator.

“Now, for the rest of us—” Wyatt swipes at the top of a bottle full of amber liquid, the lid spinning off and onto the floor. “Let’s get fucking toasted.”

I fidget.

Evie notices. “What?”

“I’m kind of a light weight,” I admit.

“Good, that means there’ll be more for the rest of us.” Wyatt pours a healthy amount in the three glasses and pushes two of them down the bar.

He holds his up. “To science.”

I take my glass and peer at the liquid.

“Science.” Evie raises her glass.

“This is going to burn.” I sigh. “But, I guess, here’s to science.” I raise my glass, and Evie and Wyatt clink theirs with mine.

I take a sip, but Wyatt reaches over and tips the bottom of my glass up. I swallow in a gulp, the alcohol sending a trail of warmth down my throat as I begin to sputter.

“A good start.” Wyatt takes our glasses and pours more.

“Oh my god.” I croak and press a hand to my mouth.

“That’s good stuff.” Evie licks her lips.

“Seriously?” I gawk at her.

“I come from a long, illustrious line of drunks. This is child’s play.” She shrugs and proffers her glass to Wyatt.

My stomach warms, heat floating through me, and my head begins to get light.

“Another.” Wyatt hands my glass back to me.

“Umm. I shouldn’t.”

“Should.” Evie bumps her arm against my leg. “Let’s forget all of it. Just for a little while.” She raises her glass. “To forgetting.”

“Here, here. Forgetting!” Wyatt lifts his glass in toast.

I shake my head, but I lift my glass along with theirs. “Forgetting.”

* * *

“This is unexpected.” Valen’s voice.

I’m in a dream. One with a dark, stormy sky overhead and orange kittens roaming a meadow far below me. Something smells good. Like soap and woods and pleasant warmth.

“At least it wasn’t the cheap stuff.” He sighs.

Jolting awake, I blink against the darkness of my apartment. “Wha…” I blink hard, my brain sloshing around in a sea of amber liquid.

I’m on my couch. Valen sits beside me, his arm around me. My head is on his shoulder.

I pull back and instantly regret it as vertigo crashes through me. I put my head back where it was, the disorientation receding slightly.

“How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to know you talk in your sleep.” His voice is low, smooth.

I close my eyes and realize the pleasant scent was him. “What did I say?” My words slur slightly, and a tiny giggle bubbles from my throat.

“Nothing earth-shattering, I’m afraid. Something about a kitten.”

“Orange kittens.” I sigh. “So cute.” I press closer to him, my nose at his throat. He’s so damn warm.

He shifts and pulls me into his lap easily, draping me across him. I should protest, but I don’t. It feels good. Actually, it feels amazing to simply be hugged, to be touched by someone. Even if it comes with strings. Even if it’s by a monster. God, I miss touch. How could I have forgotten how good this feels?

“Injured?” I mumble, my mind sparking with memories of how he often arrives half-gutted.

“Not tonight. It was more of a fair fight than I’m used to. Only a dozen or so at once.”

Another giggle skips from my lips. “Lies.”

“Afraid not.” He tucks my head under his chin.

If I could purr, I would. But I can’t, so I don’t. I simply sink into him, letting myself go when I should be on my guard.

“What is this?”

“Existential questions at this juncture? Seems a bit much.” He rests one hand on my thigh, the other at my hip. His embrace is as delicious as it is poisonous. I want more. “No, I mean this .” I breathe out against his neck.

He tenses beneath me, his grip on my thigh growing wonderfully tight. “Careful, Doctor.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be careful.”

“Careful,” he says again, his voice low and husky. “I’m not the sort who’ll walk away and leave you sleeping, untouched.”

“Because you’re bad.” I hiccup.

“Very.” His hand slides higher, rounding to my inner thigh. “The worst.”

“You don’t have to convince me.” I shudder, pleasure licking along my skin like flames.

“I wouldn’t mind trying.” His fingers dip along my leg, rubbing circles on my skin, only the fabric of my pajama bottoms separating us.

My eyelids flutter closed. I want his touch higher, I want it deeper. God, I want, I want, I want . But why does it have to be him? Why is he the one that sets me on fire, that makes my breath hitch and my mind go blank?

“Because we’re bound,” he murmurs.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You did.” His fingers venture even higher, so close to my core.

A low rumble in his throat sends goosebumps along my flesh, my nipples hard, my skin damp and sensitive.

“Look at me.” His voice is a river, rolling over me, washing away my rough edges until I’m smooth beneath his touch.

I tilt my head back, my eyes opening and meeting his blue gaze. With the quickness of a striking snake, he kisses me. His mouth sears me, taking my breath away as I cling to his neck. He gives me no quarter, his tongue claiming mine as he turns my head and slants his mouth over me. It’s everything. I can’t think of anything but him, of the heat rising inside me until I’m certain I’ll be blackened and charred from the inside out.

A moan rises in my throat, and he grips me harder, his body so tight and strong beneath me. I’m lost to him, to this kiss. The vertigo is back, but this time it’s complete. I’m falling. I don’t know which way is up.

When he pulls away, I gasp in air even as I reach for him again. As if I need him more than oxygen. A craving.

“I told you, Doctor. I won’t stop.” He grips my hair, pulling the strands until my neck is exposed to him.

When he kisses me there, I arch into the heat of his lips. But then I remember. Through the haze of lust and alcohol. I remember what he is.

“Don’t!” I yelp.

He freezes.

Slowly, he pulls me upright until our eyes meet. Coldness lives in his now. The scorching inferno from only moments ago is gone.

“You think I’d hurt you?” he asks, his voice low and silky.

“I-I don’t know.”

He releases me, placing me on the couch as he stands. Looking down at me, he’s all angles and darkness. Not even his eyes have their feline glow.

“When you want my bite—and you will—I won’t go easy on you.”

I’m at a complete loss of how to respond to him. My head is spinning, and I almost regret stopping him now that I’m sitting here alone, cold seeping into me. “I don’t know what that means,” I offer weakly, my head beginning to pound.

He smirks, a glint of teeth in the dark. “You will.”