When Killian woke from his nest beneath the musty old hay in the barn, he knew immediately that Charlie was near. And something was wrong with her.
He dug his way out and brushed the hay from his hair and his clothes, searching the dim interior of the barn. Pigeons cooed from somewhere overhead, flapping from one perch to another every now and then. Velvet blue sky with fingers of deep purple cloud showed through the missing windows high in the barn’s peak. And she sat near the broken door that hung from one caster, her eyes red and wet, her heartbreak as palpable to him as the scent of old hay and older wood.
“Charlie?” He hopped from the pile of hay onto the floor as she looked his way.
She wiped at her eyes quickly, reached down to shove a laptop computer back into the satchel they’d taken from Fort Rogers, then got up on her feet. “It’s dark already. Time got away from me.”
He went right up to her, put his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
She sighed. “It’s been an emotional day,” she said. “I went to Portland. I wanted to see my mother before...you know.”
He wanted to tell her that was a risky and dangerous thing for her to have done, but what would be the point? She wasn’t a disobedient child. She was a powerful woman, intelligent and capable of making her own choices, taking her own risks. “That must have been hell,” he said. “I wish I’d been with you.”
She nodded. “I do, too.” And to his surprise, she leaned close to him, laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arms around her and held her gently.
“Did you get to see her?” he asked.
She shook her head against him. “She wasn’t there. LT was. Lieutenant Townsend, I mean.”
That startled him. She must’ve felt it, because she hurried on. “He told me they had to cremate her, because sometimes the victims of vampires...turn.”
“That’s not how it works,” he said.
“I didn’t really think it was.”
She was quiet for a minute. Waiting. So he said, “To change one of The Chosen into one of us, a vampire would have to drain them to the point of death. They actually have to be right there, at the end. The final heartbeat has to beat. Then the vampire cuts himself and feeds the mortal with his own blood. It only works with The Chosen. If you tried to change an ordinary human, they’d just die. At least I think they would.”
“I had all but bled out at the hospital. You fed me your blood,” she said.
“You weren’t at the point of death. Would’ve been if it had been much longer, but you weren’t. All drinking my blood did was keep you alive.”
“It did more than that, Killian.” She lifted her head, looked into his eyes. It was obvious again that she’d been crying. A lot. “It made you a part of me. You’re inside me, all the time.”
“And you’re inside me,” he told her. “I feel exactly the same. It’s overwhelming. And it’s not because we shared blood, Charlie, and I think you know that. It was before. As soon as I was within a hundred miles of you, all I could think about was getting closer. I could feel you. Like I knew you. Like I always had.”
She nodded rapidly. “For me, too. I’m sorry I doubted you, Killian.”
He blinked. Did that mean she didn’t doubt him anymore? “What happened that changed your mind?”
“I don’t know. I just decided to believe in you. That’s what you do when you love someone, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
She relaxed against him again, and he said. “How did you get away from the lieutenant?”
“I knocked him over the head and locked him inside my mother’s empty coffin. Bastard.”
He smiled a little, tightened his arms around her.
“I went to see Roxy’s truck. The bullet holes were there, just like you said, but everything else was gone. Including the phone that was under the seat.”
He nodded.
“LT...he told me you’d been positively identified by an eye witness who saw you leaving my mother’s apartment the night of her murder. Said they showed him a photo of you, and he was sure you were the one.”
He laughed softly, and this time he pulled free of her, reached behind him, and pulled a cell phone from his back pocket. “This is Rhiannon’s phone. I used it to contact her scientist friend Eric Marquand, and I emailed him the files from that computer you were just looking at.”
She looked up sharply. “You read them?”
“Not yet. There wasn’t time. I just located the formula for the BDX and sent it to him.” He frowned. “You were reading them today while I rested, though.”
She looked away.
“What did you find, Charlie?”
Shrugging, she said, “Not much. Go on, why did you get out your phone?”
He searched her face for a long moment, but not her mind. She’d closed it on him. There was something she wasn’t telling him. And it scared him. He’d have to dig in and read those damned files, and soon.
Sighing, he looked again at the phone, then handed it to her. “Take a picture of me.”
Charlie frowned. “Why would you want me to–”
“Trust me. Just do it, take my picture.”
“All right,” she said. Then she looked at the phone, found the photo feature, and aimed it at him. “Smile.” And she took a shot. Tapping the phone to bring the photo up, she frowned. “That’s odd.”
“Nothing’s there, right?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned closer. “Everything but you is there. Even the wall behind you.”
“Take a dozen more, and they’ll come out the same way. We don’t cast reflections and we don’t show up in photographs.”
A knowing look came into her eyes. “Then there’s no way anyone could’ve identified you from a photo.”
“No. But for what it’s worth, thank you for deciding to believe me before you had proof that Townsend was lying.”
She smiled and leaned closer, kissed his lips. He’d been craving this for so long, and he wanted to pull her back into the pile of hay and spend the next hour or so wrapped around her there.
But they still had people missing, and they had to save Roxy.
“We’d better get back,” she said. “I’m afraid Mariah will take off if we’re gone too long.”
He nodded, took her hand, and they stepped out of the barn and into the night. When he saw the van, he tensed, but she said, “It’s okay, it’s Mom’s. Mine now, I guess.”
“We can use it.” He squeezed her hand. “That was good thinking, Charlie.”
“Yeah, well, I guess it’s about time I did some kind of thinking.”
“None of this is your fault,” he said, looking her in the eye.
“We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one,” she said. “But I’m gonna make it right now. All of it.”
She had a strength in her that he hadn’t seen before, way beyond the physical strength that the BDX had given her. It was something inside her, something mental, emotional, maybe even spiritual. And it made him love her even more, even though he’d thought what he felt for her couldn’t possibly get any bigger.
Rhiannon’s phone, the one Killian had used to contact Eric Marquand, rang while they were finishing their dinner. The others were sitting around an old fashioned table eating as if they’d been starved for a solid week. He was eager to be out of the farmhouse and looking for their missing friends, but the humans were hungry and they all needed to be at their strongest for whatever lay ahead. Charlie had even bought a large beef roast for Pandora, who was outside tearing into it.
“How is the weather in the States?” the vampire asked without preamble.
Killian blinked before realizing what he was really asking; whether it was safe to talk. “It’s perfectly clear.” He started to move into the living room, but when he saw Mariah’s eyes on him, filled with suspicion and mistrust, he thought better of it. Moving the phone away from his ear, he touched the speaker icon and stood close to the table so they could all
hear both ends of the conversation.
“Good,” Marquand said. “I’ve run some preliminary tests based on the formula for BDX. I will be more certain once I’ve had a chance to examine the samples you’ve sent, but at this stage, I’m afraid the news is not good.”
Killian looked around at the three who’d been injected with the stuff and wished he hadn’t put the phone on speaker. Christian and Mariah looked nervous and were listening intently. But not Charlie. And that was when he realized that whatever Eric was about to say...she already knew. She’d read it in those files he hadn’t had the chance to go over. Swallowing his fear, he said, “Go on.”
“Among other things,” Eric said, “the drug boosts the body’s production of epinephrine, basically turning it into an adrenalin factory. In normal humans, this would result in a heart attack in pretty short order. What has the effect been on The Chosen?”
“It makes us strong,” Charlie said.
“I’m sorry, to whom am I now speaking?”
“Charlie O’Malley.”
“Roxy’s granddaughter. Ah, then you’ve been rescued!” he said and his relief was evident in his voice. “I’ve been a friend of your grandmother’s for many years, Charlotte. I’m sincerely relieved that you are all right.”
“Thanks.”
“Tell me, Charlotte, how strong are you?”
She looked at Killian. “Not as strong as you, but way stronger than a normal human. All of the BD-Exers–that’s what they call us–can run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and last longer.”
“Charlie’s stronger than any of us, though,” Christian said. “It’s like it was supercharged in her.”
“Did they do anything different when they administered it?” Marquand asked.
Charlie swallowed, and Killian knew the memory was hard for her. “They gave me all three doses at once. I was told they usually do it over the course of three days, with some kind of extra booster shot or something at the end. An additive. I don’t think I got that.”
“Have you experienced any tachycardia?” Eric asked through the phone’s speaker. “Sudden incidences of rapid heart rate?”
Killian felt his stomach clench up and answered for her. “Charlie and Christian both have.” He sent Mariah a questioning look. She just looked away. She was a hard sell, that was obvious. “And then last night,” he went on, “when we went back to that camp again, BD-Exers were lying dead, everywhere.” Lowering his head, he said, “It looked as if their hearts had exploded right out of their chests.”
When he spoke again, Eric’s voice was broken. “How many of The Chosen died?”
“More than twenty,” Killian said.
“Twenty-three,” Charlie said softly. She didn’t ask if the two things, the rapid heartbeat and the exploding hearts were from the same cause, and Killian feared it was because she already knew.
Eric sighed, and it was a long moment before he spoke again. “There’s a second drug they called Protectol. It’s a supercharged combination of heart rate stabilizers, blood pressure lowering drugs, and anti-anxiety medications. All in extremely toxic doses. This cocktail would drop a horse in its tracks, but DPI claims it can be used to temporarily avert the side effects you witnessed. There was a note in the files about the BD-Exers needing to be treated with Protectol prior to battle to ensure they survive it.”
Killian closed his eyes. “We have one vial of the Protectol, Eric. And we have three of The Chosen with us, all of whom have been treated with BDX. They were told it was a cure for the effects of the Belladonna Antigen. That they wouldn’t die young, but would live a normal lifespan. From what you can see, is there any truth to that?”
He watched Charlie’s face. While the others were leaning nearer the phone, their eyes glued to it as they awaited his answer, Charlie had walked a few steps away, and was gazing silently out the window into the darkness.
“I don’t see how. It would far more likely–” He stopped, cleared his throat. “I need to run more tests before I can say anything for sure. I should receive your samples by tomorrow.”
Charlie turned and said, “Be honest with us, Mr. Marquand. We’ve earned that, I think. We deserve to know. These are our lives, our bodies we’re talking about here. Please finish your thought. It would be far more likely to do what?”
Eric sighed into the phone. Killian heard it and heard another voice, a female. “Tell her, Eric. She’s right, they deserve to know.”
“Every indication is, dear Charlotte, that this drug acts upon the body like turning a thermostat to its highest setting would act upon its furnace. In layman’s terms, doing so would burn up the fuel faster, not slower. I’m afraid this drug will have the same result on your bodies. It cannot extend your lives. I think it more likely that it would shorten them. Dramatically.”
She closed her eyes. “So we’re doomed either way.”
“Not necessarily. You can postpone the side effects by staying as calm as possible and using the Protectol. The notes in the DPI files call for ten milligrams for every hundred pounds of body weight, given once daily, prior to extreme situations such as combat.”
“The vial we have is fifty milligrams,” Killian said.
“Good. Use them sparingly.”
“And then what?” Charlie asked. “When we run out of this crap, what happens? The next time we get excited, our chests explode?”
“You can still become what we are, providing this BDX hasn’t altered your body chemistry too much,” Eric said. Mariah and Christian exchanged horrified looks. “We all had the antigen as humans,” Eric went on. “Me, Killian, Roland and Rhiannon....where are they, by the way? I haven’t heard from either of them. Aren’t they still with you?”
“They were captured last night,” Killian said. “It’s only nine-thirty here. We’re about to go out and search for them now.”
“Do you have any idea where they’ve been taken? Do you need us to come out there?”
“To tell you the truth, Eric, I–”
“No,” Mariah said. Killian shot her a look, but she kept on talking. “The last thing we need is more vampires here.”
“I’m afraid you’ve got them, either way, child. Devlin and his gang of rogues have arrived on US soil. Larissa, Rhiannon’s mole, reported to me since she couldn’t reach Rhiannon. They’re already in Portland, and they’re out for blood. Human blood.”
Mariah jumped to her feet. “A gang of vampires is in Portland? You knew about this?” she accused Killian.
“Rhiannon told me they were on their way. She and Roland’s purpose in coming out of hiding was to stop them. Helping us was a sidebar.”
“We must stop them at all cost,” Eric said. “So if anything has happened....” He stopped there, cleared his throat. “If anything has happened to Roland and Rhiannon, you must let me know immediately so we can send others to eliminate this rogue band.”
“Eliminate them?” Charlie asked. “What does that mean? You mean...kill them? Your own kind?”
“We have laws, young one,” Eric said softly. “We do not harm innocents. We do not murder humans. We police ourselves. If a vampire does violence against innocent mortals, they must be removed. It is the way it has always been. I only wish the mortal world policed itself as diligently.” He sighed. “Killian, call back if you need me. Please let me know the moment you’ve heard from Roland and Rhiannon.”
“I will. Thank you, Eric.” Killian depressed the cutoff button, lifted his head and looked right into Charlie’s eyes. She looked back for a long moment, then closed them and turned away.
Mariah was staring at her, her eyes wide, stricken, shaking her head slowly, she said, “I can’t do this. I need....Charlie, I’m sorry. I need to go.”
“Stay calm, Mariah,” Killian told her.
Charlie frowned at her friend. “Honey, did you get what they just said? This shit they gave us could kill us.”
“But they have the Protectol!”
“So do we,” Charli
e told her. But Killian knew it wouldn’t work. Mariah was in shock, facing her own mortality, shut up in a house with a vampire. She was going to run, and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do to stop her, and her heart was already pounding, picking up speed in her chest.
“Please, Mariah, please stay calm.”
“There’s not enough,” she countered, backing away, shaking her head. “Not enough for all of us. One dose each and one to spare. And we all know who’ll get that.”
“All the Protectol in the world didn’t help the other recruits, did it?” Charlie demanded. “You saw the same thing I did back there.”
“I’m going. You...you can’t stop me.” She ran to the door, whipped it open, and took off, racing across the meadow and looking back as if she expected pursuit. And then it happened. She came to a stop, dropped to her knees, her hands going to her chest.
“Damn it, no!” Charlie surged out the door after her, and Killian followed,
When they got to her, her heart was beating so loudly he could hear it, feel it. It was worse than Charlie’s had been. And he didn’t think she had much time.
“Oh, God, oh God,” she whispered, gasping for air. “I can’t...I don’t...” She reached up, grabbed Killian by the front of his shirt. “Do it. Do...what you said. Change me.”
“That’s what you want?” Killian asked.
“Don’t...let me die.”
He sent a look Charlie’s way, and she met his eyes and nodded. So he bent over the girl, sank his teeth into her throat. The blood gushed from her jugular into his mouth like a soft drink bottle that had been shaken up. And when it surged into his mouth, it was like drinking battery acid. It burned! He jerked his head away, yelping in pain and staggering backward, falling on his ass in the tall grasses.
And then there was a splattering pop. Charlie screamed, but Mariah was silent at last, lying still in the blood-spattered grasses, a great big hole in her chest where her heart should’ve been.
“No! No, dammit, Mariah, no!” Charlie was kneeling over her friend, shaking her shoulders, screaming in her face. But then she let go, straightening, wiping her tears away. “Dammit. Dammit, this isn’t fair. It’s not fair.”
“Killian?” Christian asked. “Are you okay?”
Charlie turned his way, then came to where he knelt in the grass, and knelt down in front of him. “Are you all right?”
He lifted his head. His mouth was on fire, his tongue swollen, tears running from his eyes due to the burning. “I don’t know,” he tried to say, but his tongue was so swollen that it sounded as if he was speaking through a mouthful of cotton.
“Come on,” she said, helping him to his feet. “Let’s go inside, get you some ice, rinse your mouth with water. Christian, will you see if you can find a shovel? We need to bury her.”
Charlie sank into a chair, pushing her hands through her hair. Her one and only hope of not dying, not having her heart blast its way out of her chest, had been in letting Killian make her what he was. But LT and his DPI cohorts had made sure that couldn’t happen, hadn’t they? They’d put something into the BDX...it must be what had caused the burns in Killian’s mouth. Thank God he hadn’t swallowed, had pulled away at the first touch of Mariah’s blood to his tongue. She wasn’t sure, but she thought it might have killed him otherwise.
Christian was staring at the closed door and looking stricken. She’d helped him bury Mariah, and then she’d stood beside the mound of fresh earth and said the only prayer she knew, one her mother had taught her in childhood. “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” Olive came flapping toward her, and she held up her arm for the bird to alight, and stroked those comforting feathers. “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
“Amen,” Christian said.
Killian had held ice cubes in his mouth to cool the burns to his lips and tongue. He whispered “Amen” as well, but it was still a little off. And then suddenly, he went very still, lifting his head, frowning, as if he was listening to something. And softly he whispered, “Rhiannon?”
Charlie widened her eyes and moved closer. Pandora, who’d been sitting nearby watching all the activity, did as well, as if she knew. She leaned into Killian’s legs, head up, eyes alert.
“Yes, we have Charlie,” Killian said. “Tell me where you are.” He listened for a moment, then nodded rapidly. “We’ll find you, Rhiannon. Just hold on. We’re on our way.”
Chapter Nineteen