Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the more humans you tell about us, the more blood I’ll have on my hands. The knowledge you’re privy to has been closely guarded by my people for centuries. You know more about us than any human ever has. To Gregor, that makes you dangerous. It also makes the people you share that information with highly expendable.”
I don’t have to read between the lines to understand his threat. It’s right out in the open. If I tell anyone about the vampires, I’ll be signing their death warrant.
“I haven’t told anyone anything.”
“I know.” He sighs as if disappointed. “Your labmates are still alive … For now.”
“You’d kill them? You’d take their lives like it was nothing?”
“Gregor would order it, and I would do it. Yes.”
“So, you’re his attack dog?”
He grins—are his canines longer now? “More like a guard dog.”
An idea surfaces. “I’ve seen you out in the sunlight.”
He plucks the tray up and places it on my lap, the cold soup untouched. “Eat.”
“I thought vampires couldn’t go in the sun.”
“You’ve thought about vampires much, have you?” His arrogant tone reignites my anger, but I tamp it down. I have to. If I’m going to get out of this, to save my sister and the others, I have to learn more. Valen is my only contact with them, the only way I can get information on whatever the hell they are. The only way I can figure out how to kill them.
“Why are you here?” I ask again. “I doubt it’s to make sure I’m fed and tucked in.” I study him, the way he stands—seemingly at ease, but only in the way a loaded gun is at ease. It just takes a pull of the trigger to be deadly.
“Quite right.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m here to make sure you find the cure and save your people.”
“You mean save your people.”
His nostrils flare slightly. “All is one. Now eat.”
“You let her die.” I stare up at him. “You let him kill her. You did nothing. She was innocent. An old woman. You could have helped. She—”
“And?” He leans down, his gaze holding the force of a touch. “Do you truly believe I’ve never taken an innocent life?”
I swallow hard.
His voice carries a chill that I feel in my bones. “I’ve killed countless humans. Countless. And it wasn’t a problem until you chimpanzees decided to meddle in designer viruses and created the plague. Now it is. Now we must survive in spite of you, not because of you.” He glances at my throat.
I cringe back from him, the tray shifting in my lap.
He grabs it with a quickness I can’t track and returns it to the nightstand. “You will eat, and you will take care of yourself.”
“Or what?” I hate the way my chin trembles. “You’ll rip my throat out, too?”
“No.” He looks around thoughtfully. “But that elderly man who brought you the soup. I might be doing him a favor by bleeding him dry, don’t you think?” He smiles, his fangs suddenly terrifyingly long and sharp. It changes his entire face. From something stonily handsome to something feral, an animal who lives for the kill. Have they been there all along somehow?
The fear I should feel is dulled by what I already know. He’s a killer, remorseless. I want to believe he’s bluffing, that he’d never hurt Gene. But I know he isn’t. I know, just like I know that my life means nothing to them if I don’t find the cure. I’d been lulled into believing he was a man, someone different and apart but also familiar. He’s not. He never was.
“Now eat and rest. I expect you in the lab first thing in the morning.” He turns and prowls away, his long strides effortlessly graceful. “And don’t think I won’t know if you don’t show up. I will. If you aren’t there, I’ll come for you.” He pauses at the door. “Understand?”
I grab the tray and put it back in my lap, my hands surprisingly steady. “I really fucking hate you.”
He turns, his eyes darker than I’ve ever seen them. “Good.”
17
Another week, another vial of blood that reveals nothing except additional mysteries. This sample has the same oddities as the others with the added twist of unknown antibodies. It’s the first we’ve seen in any of the plasmas we’ve collected, but it’ll take time before we can discover what they are precisely.
Gretchen and I have begun mixing healthy blood samples with the vampire cells. I thought there might be some real fireworks, some sort of magical interaction. There isn’t. The cells simply coexist together, then degrade together, though the vampire cells die at a faster rate. There’s nothing there. Wyatt did an experiment in the high containment lab with a viral culture and a direct drop of the vampire blood. Nothing there, either. Of course, I didn’t think a blunt mixing of cells was going to achieve a cure, but it was worth a try. There’s more to it. Something we aren’t realizing. It’s like a word on the tip of your tongue or a great thought you have before you fall asleep that you can’t remember in the morning.