

By

Alexia Purdy

Amplified

The Vampires of Vegas Book III

Copyright © March 2014 & May 2017 by Alexia Purdy

Cover Design by Melancholy Muse Designs

Poem 'Amplified: The Curse' © March 2014 by Alexia Purdy

All rights reserved

www.alexiapurdybooks.com

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. If you did not buy this e-book, please purchase your own copy.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Don't forget to pick up the whole series

Now available:

Connect with Alexia Purdy:

Sign up for Alexia's Newsletter HERE

Alexia Purdy's Website

Twitter

Instagram

You-Tube

 Goodreads Author page

 Alexia Purdy's Facebook Fan Page

A Dark Faerie Tale Series Facebook Fan page

Reign of Blood Series Facebook Fan Page

More books by Alexia Purdy:

The ArcKnight Chronicles:

ArcKnight

Sovereignty

The Vampires of Vegas Series

Resonant

Reign of Blood

Disarming

Elijah (The Miel Chronicles):

A Vampires of Vegas Story

Amplified

A Dark Faerie Tale Series

The Withering Palace (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.1)

Evangeline (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.5)

Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)

Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)

Ever Winter (A Dark Faerie Tale #3)

The Cursed (A Dark Faerie Tale #3.5)

Ever Wrath (A Dark Faerie Tale #4)

Without Armor (A Dark Faerie Tale #4.5)

History of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #5)

Ever Dead (A Dark Faerie Tale #6)

Legends of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #7)

Guardians of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #8)

Other Stories

The Fall of Sky

Papercut Doll

Wicked Grove

Poetic Collections

Whispers of Dreams

Five Fathoms

The Dark I Keep

Anthologies

Soul Games

Faery Worlds

Faery Realms

Faery Tales

Lacing Shadows

Destiny's Dark Fantasy

Once Upon a Curse

The Shapeshifter Chronicles

Once Upon a Kiss

A Plague of Dragons

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! A Superhero Anthology

Table of Contents

The Curse (Poem)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Epilogue

About the Author

Amplified

(The Curse)

A wary glance at ruined walls

Etched inside, much shunted blame

Every moment, a tick of passed time

Consumes, leaves my sky in flames

The curse above the desert floor

Wars of lesser things in disguise

And life stolen from their core

Reluctant chosen of blood and lies

Down the path, through masquerade

I'll avoid the fate of death

Unrelenting promises which I've made

Evolve to killer to give them breath.

Hunter or prey, neither kind I evade

Spill of blood drained by me

Worlds collide, empty days

Amplified and pressed into me.

Chapter One

Feel Human

Twang!

The sword vibrated through my fingers as it hit the hard metal shielding of the door. I was almost ready to install it into the frame where a door had fallen off its hinges. It'd been temporarily fixed until a metal one could be found and welded into place, but the rusty hinges had finally given in under the pressure of one feral mob, crumbled under their weight. Elijah had woken up to find his little sanctuary in utter chaos. I'm sure he hadn't expected to get ready for the day only to find a mini-hive waiting for him on the first floor of The Palms Hotel & Casino. Imagine the rude awakening of finding him in full battle, already covered in dirty Zompire blood and mad as hell.

I'd offered to pick him up that day from The Palms. His penthouse was perched at the top of the massive high-rise, hence the reason I'd been able to witness the full-blown mess. At the appointed time, I'd made my way into the bottom floor of the place, already getting a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach when I found the rusted metal doors knocked to the side and bent out of shape. It just so happened he was getting off the elevator to meet me and ran right into the lingering horde of bloodsuckers. It was lucky for both of us that the other had gotten there at the same time, or one of us alone might've been feral chow for the small but overwhelmingly hungry numbers in this little hive.

They were vicious, almost too violent for my taste. They moved faster than most did at this stage, so I knew they had recently fed on something alive. I'd usually find a small pocket of ferals in a starved, slow and harrowed state. Not this one. I slammed my sword against the metal, feeling its vibration in my grip after decapitating one of the Zompires. I couldn't help but feel bad for this sudden invasion into Elijah's abode.

It'd been my fault. I'd haphazardly tapped the pins back into the hinges the day prior, not even taking the rust and erosion of the metal brackets into consideration. That's what Elijah got for dragging me into his home improvement projects. I was a warrior, not a Home Depot junkie. That'll teach him.

Unfortunately, if we didn't make it through this assault, I wouldn't get the chance to chew him out for making me screw up like that.

I ducked as one of the ferals jumped at me, sending him flying through the air and right into one of the columns. His body hit with a dull thud, disorientating him but for a moment as I rolled and pushed myself off the floor, gained my footing and ran toward the atrium. I hoped the damn bastard would follow me. This one had at least two feet and almost two hundred pounds on me.

Where the hell was Elijah?

I didn't mind clearing out the crud and taking out the trapped ferals in the Casinos we'd set traps for. But this, this was ridiculous. It felt like an entire cluster of them had taken residence during the night, stuffing themselves in the tiny corners and hidden nooks of the place. Where the heck had they come from and what had they chowed down on to be so strong? It made me shudder to think that someone was now dead because of this group. Obviously, they weren't stupid. Something about them was off in how smart they were. Why had they gathered here? Had they noticed how well taken care of it was and ventured in here to find a tasty human or two?

Whatever had led them here, they were a pain in my ass now. I turned to see if the feral with the huge biceps and dirty blonde hair that hadn't seen a shampooing in a decade, neither had his entire body seen a bar of soap in ages for that matter, come to a stop at the edge of the light. He snarled and looked up. The sun beamed down hard into the main casino atrium where an old fountain stood empty and some greenery Elijah had managed to convince to grow. It was the only thing keeping me alive as I took the moment to catch my breath, bent over my knees and huffing. The air vibrated with snarls.

Damn!

I'd have to figure out how to outsmart this particular creature. His red eyes widened, flashing fangs dripping with gore from his recent messy feeding. Eww. That was attractive.

I straightened and held my machetes up. "Come on! Not such a big bad wolf now, huh? Afraid of a little bit of sunshine?" I reached down to grab a chunk of cement debris which littered the casino floor. I flung it straight at him, hoping it would anger him enough to come sailing into the light after me. It hit him hard on the chest before bouncing off and ricocheting against a slot machine next to him, shattering the plastic face above the wheels and knocking it to the ground. The creature snarled even louder, exposing more of his disgusting teeth. He roared with a vengeance, thrashing at the chairs around him before picking one up and flinging it at me.

What the hell?

I jumped to the side, landing hard on a mess of gravel and rocks, feeling my skin painfully scrape right off. When I came to a stop, I made sure he was still far enough away from me before squeezing my eyes shut and pressing my lips tight. The pain was delayed, but it came rushing across my skin and down my synapses like an atom bomb exploding across them. I gasped, and tears squeezed from between my eyelids.

I huffed out a breath and opened my eyes, glaring at the beast with distain. "Okay, then. Don't want to play nice, huh?"

"Quit toying and kill it already!" Elijah hollered. I looked up to see him decapitate another feral right before a second one slammed into him, jamming him against the wall. "Oomf!" he huffed, the breath knocked out of him.

Crap!

I stepped toward him, but the feral crazy waiting for me scrambled to stand between us. Great. Just wonderful.

"Do you mind? You're in the way." I held up my machete, readying to bum rush the bastard and swing at his neck once I was closer.

The thing didn't flinch at my warning gestures.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I yelled. I took off toward him, holding my blade to the side and ready to slice him up. He bent his knees, looking more excited the closer I came. He was overly confident that I'd be running into his arms and letting him rip my throat out. More reason to shudder. I let the sun caress my head, loving the warmth it gave me in the cold interior of the neglected building. Winter was over, but spring hadn't exactly jumped in to take over the show. Anything hidden from the sun was still radiating a frosty chill.

Thwack!

I swung the blade, hoping the momentum would get at least a good way through his thick, burly neck. It hit right where I'd wanted it to, but the damned creature grabbed the blade, which wouldn't come back out of his neck easily. I didn't let go as it loosened the blade, ignoring the blood and gashes in his own hands as he pushed on the metal. I pulled away, but my blade wouldn't budge. Not wanting to find his meaty fingers back on me with just one blade left, I hacked against his neck with the other machete, over and over, but his neck was tough, and I'd managed to just make hacking marks across it without much momentum. He rotated with me as I arched back, holding onto the blade near the hilt to swing me faster. If I let go, I'd go flying into a wall myself. If I stayed gripped onto the hilt, I'd be just within his reach in about five seconds.

Decisions, Decisions.

"A little help here!" I grunted, hoping Elijah wasn't as busy as I was. If he didn't get to me, I'd have to let go and fly into whatever object wanted to meet me. It didn't sound fun, but it was my only option left. I braced for impact, trying to get a glimpse behind me and hoping for a safe landing. As the burly Zompire dropped one hand off the blade and reached for me, I took the motion and let my body sway into it, letting go of the hilt of my stuck machete while my legs desperately tried to find footing.

I scurried backward, turning to see where I was headed. My second machete went flying from my fingers as I lost my balance. My feet flew out from under me, and I was pretty sure I was going to land hard.

A flash of white skin made me glance up as I fell forward, still stumbling to gain traction. My mother, Helen, was standing in her loose jeans and a flowing blouse that seemed to ruffle in a soft breeze. I was headed right for her, into her awaiting outstretched arms.

"Mom?" I gasped as my body turned, heading for the impact.

Instead, Elijah's arms encircled me. His strong, warm muscles and broad chest met my face instead of my mother's arms, instead of hard concrete and pain.

"Gotcha." He grinned and propped me back on my feet before turning to face burly Zompire.

"Elijah?" I stared at him, confused and swinging my eyes around to find my mother again. "But Mom was just there, she was just standing right there...." I found the spot I'd seen her standing and gulped. I was losing my mind.

"What?" Elijah only half paid attention as he smirked at the Zompire, just within reach of the light that shielded us now. "Come on, tough guy, it's more fun picking on someone your own size!" He let out a grunt as he started sprinting toward the beast, hunting knife in hand.

That was something, watching Elijah grab the man like he was a rag doll and saw the hunting knife through the tangle of arteries, jugular, tendons and bone. It almost made me sick from the bloody messy he was making, and looking like he was enjoying it with a mad gleam in his dark eyes and a wicked grin on his face.

Mom?

I looked away, still unconvinced that I had been seeing things. My breath returned to me as I found nothing and was able to turn back to Elijah, standing at the edge of the light, drenched in blood, gore and chunks of flesh, huffing air in and out. The smile was still on his face as he continued to stare down at the burly Zompire's body. It lay in an unmoving heap, mangled beyond recognition.

"You all right?"

I could barely nod, but I did. "Yeah. How about you?"

"I think I need another shower."

My nervous chuckle came out choked, like the sound from a squashed duck.

"You don't look so hot." He wiped his blade on one of the downed ferals.

"Thanks." I leaned against one of the pillars, still scanning the surroundings for her. "I thought I saw my mother."

"Mind playing tricks on you?"

"Yeah, probably."

I found my blade and gripped it. Looking around for any more ferals, I saw that they were all dead. A bloody machete skittered across the floor, landing at my feet.

"Found your other blade." Elijah winked and walked back toward the elevator, where I knew he was headed to clean up and change, as if nothing had happened. I was left in the desolate silence of the casino atrium, letting the heat of the sun bring me back to life.

If that had been my mother, why had she flashed before my eyes and disappeared without saying anything? Why was she even there?

I pressed the tears out of my eyes and felt the warm liquid as it slid down my cheeks. I ignored them and grabbed another downed Zompire, dragging it into the sunny atrium and letting go before the flames burst across its skin and consumed the last of its rotting flesh. Even the burly one, who'd almost slammed me into wall art, was no match for the UV rays as I finally managed to drag his heavy mass into the light.

I worked like that for a half hour, cursing at Elijah for leaving me the mess. Maybe he needed his own space, too, but this was calming to me, piling up the bodies and watching the flames consume the last of them.

My mother had also been consumed by the flames. The fire had taken the last of her light, and with it, some of my own as well.

Chapter Two

Narrow Paths

Slot canyons and sand. Sand, all over this blasted place. In my boots, sticking to my fingers and clinging to the sweat on my face. I wasn't a girly girl or anything, I just wasn't a fan of being dirty. Thank goodness it wasn't muddy at the moment. The torrential rains which had been pouring down the last few weeks, unrelenting, like the sky had to take a major bathroom break, had subsided for now. Otherwise we'd have been swept away into the rivers these places became in a flash.

Stomp, stomp! Everyone turned around to see Elijah doing a funky dance, kicking up dirt, clouding up the air with flying sand. Great.

"What the hell?" I hissed, throwing him a nasty glare. "Not like my damn allergies aren't bad enough already without you kicking that shit up!" I covered my face with my shirt, sending daggers in his direction to let him know how much he was on my shit list for doing that.

"Fucking snake!" He pulled his shirt down, kicking the corpse of a snake he'd just pulverized to the side. He cursed even more under his breath.

I heard a stifled giggle from Sarah, who followed close behind me as she attempted to choke it back with a faked cough. It was amusing, to say the least, seeing a big guy like Elijah lose his cool over a snake. Let's not take into account that we were in the middle of a barren, sun-blasted desert. I swear, God meant this to be hell on earth. I would've joined Sarah in a chuckle if I hadn't been in such a foul mood from the constant barrage of dust in this pit of nothingness. My throat was raw and scratchy from the dust and pollen flying about. The rain had done nothing to settle it all down and relieve my itchy eyes. I used to work in a pet shop before my allergies made it intolerable, but snakes didn't bother me as much as spiders did. Those made me shriek like a banshee and sent me sprinting faster than an Olympic gold medalist.

"Focus, guys." Christian's agitation flashed across his face, and everyone quieted down. If someone would've told me I'd be in the middle of the desert with nothing even resembling civilization in sight and stuck in an overbearing but gorgeous slot canyon with him leading this group of human hybrids alongside two vampire hybrids, near sundown... let's not forget that... to find another secret facility which supposedly housed experiments on everything you could think of.... Well, I'd call that bullshit. Yeah, it was bad enough it had been my stupid idea to go there for some answers about my mother's suicide. But I wanted answers. I wanted to know the man who had driven my mother to the point of insanity.

Rye huffed behind me. Not a fan of Christian, whatsoever.

Who could blame him? Rye's jealous streak was something I tended to ignore, but it got downright annoying enough that I threw him a warning look. He reciprocated with an innocent smile, one that made me smile back and roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. I'd dragged them to do this for me, and I had to show them some gratitude for doing so. None of us wanted to be there. Finding the notorious Rick was my mission, not theirs. Still, I was relieved I didn't have to do it alone. I was done with being solo. I'd spent far too long stuck in a bunker alone with just my mother and an un-relatable brother for company. Human connections kept me from losing my mind. At least that was something I'd come to understand about myself.

Then there were the things I didn't even comprehend. For one, Christian being my supposed "blood mate" didn't make things any easier. He'd tried to kill me once, when he was the deranged and sick leader of an enemy hive. But, unbeknownst to me, he'd been cured and imprisoned alongside me in the city of Vida. Katrina, the city's Hitleresque leader, had hoped leaving me with him long enough would make him want to munch on me for a little snack since he'd been starved before I'd arrived. I had to hand it to him, he had resisted it like a champ. I was thoroughly impressed. But when we'd touched, it had ignited a bond between us which had turned out to be more than unwanted. It meant I was his one and only, and all the intricacies that went along with that. This damned vampire virus had found more than one way to be a nuisance, and this had turned into a problem for all of us, especially when he was near me.

The bond had turned us each into some sort of pheromone drug to the other, and staying apart was the only thing that kept it in check. Unfortunately, we both had to be on this mission, which sucked for all parties involved.

All right, I admit it, it didn't suck for me or Christian as much as it royally bummed out Rye, my vampire hybrid boyfriend. I still didn't actually call him my boyfriend, but it was close enough. When the world has swirled down the toilet, you pretty much avoid thinking about any luxuries, including love.

Jeremy, my brother, had stayed behind at the hive, our headquarters underneath the Las Vegas McCarren International Airport. It was home for now, even though we'd been spending tons of time in the underground city of Vida, where the last of the unmutated humans lived.

I wasn't sure yet, but Jeremy had been hinting that he wanted to move permanently to Vida. There were more human children his age there, so I couldn't very well disagree. Still, the crowds made me nervous and jumpy. He'd already adapted to it like he'd been there the whole darn time. Me, I stuck out like a thorn embedded into someone's thumb when I walked down the city's streets. I'd get terrified and curious stares all the time since I preferred to dress to the nines with my weapons displayed in my various sheaths, bandoleer and other holders. So, I was the female Rambo walking about the place. Most residents left that up to the human hybrid protectors of Vida...the Twelve. Well, they were eleven now that one of them had died in the battle against Katrina, but that was beside the point. They rarely mingled with the humans and preferred to stay on the periphery. Walking around with my brother kept me in sight. Yep, it was mighty painful.

If Mom was still alive, she'd know what to do about Jeremy. Well, there'd be no decision to make, he'd be with her. No if, ands or buts. I wasn't maternal material, and I knew that, was totally cool with it. Each time I decapitated another vampire or dragged myself home with vampire guts and blood sticking to my skin, I really couldn't picture myself as the vision of domestic bliss.

"Keep your eyes sharp and weapons out. We're entering the monitored area of Asylum Fortress." Christian yelled back at everyone. "There's traps, by the way, and they're changed all the time to keep out intruders. I can't tell you where they'll be. I've been gone for a long time, so be careful."

I pulled out my dual machetes, ready for action. I didn't need to be told twice. This was what I lived for. I'd been stuck inside for a while, heading out only to clear out infested casinos or guard posts of invading feral vampires, duly named Zompires by the hybrid vampires due to their lack of humanity and lust for blood and flesh. This particular mission was dangerous, only because Christian hadn't returned to his hive's home base in the Valley of Fire in several weeks.

They had probably assumed he was dead and gone. New leadership was probably in command now. Christian's second in command had not been at the Stratosphere when Blaze's hive, our hive, had blown it to hell. He'd lost a major part of his troops, hybrid and mutated Zompires, but his second in command, Mercer, who from the sound of him was as cold as a vampire should be, wasn't there that day. Christian had described him as absolutely emotionless, stiff and perfectly calculating. I wondered how someone like Christian, who had a warm heart under his hardened exterior, had picked someone like Mercer as his second. There was a lot I didn't know about the other hive of the City of Las Vegas.

"Hey." Rye stepped up beside me, his long sword held in his hands and guns strapped to his waist. He wore all black with long sleeves and a cap. Blaze and Christian had also donned something similar. They looked paler than they usually did, even though I knew they had fed today. The sunblock fifty thousand or so they had smeared on made them look like painted aborigines. I couldn't even see his grey eyes underneath the heavily tinted sunglasses propped on his face.

"Hey." I wasn't a big talker lately. Losing family can do that to someone.

"Listen, I'm still not sure you and the others should be coming along. It's a hive full of vampires, and I don't think humans are part of this one, hybrid or not." His voice stung, though it was barely above a whisper. I didn't bother looking at him, fearing I would just snap at his unsolicited advice.

"Sarah and Elijah know the deal. They'd never let me go without them," I muttered. He was so overprotective of me, it got downright annoying. Sucking in a breath, I tamed my inner beast and threw him a soft smile. "Plus, you're here, too. You wouldn't let me go without you either, so you must understand."

Rye's face brightened, as if I'd told him I loved him. It was nice to see him smiling rather than frowning, which from my constant moping about lately surely had him doing that a lot. I had good reasons to be sad; I'd just lost my mother. She'd died in an explosion I believed she caused herself. I was still devastated, and it hadn't left me much room for happy thoughts. She'd been so together, tough and resilient. That is, until Christian's hive had stolen her and my brother and experimented on them. It had left her broken in body and in mind. The damage had been so irreparable that I'd been left to care for my brother most of the time before her death.

She'd feared she'd turn into a vampire, the one thing she could not tolerate. She'd had symptoms, yes, but I had assumed she'd become a hybrid vampire, not a feral. Well, the explosion she'd rigged while I'd been trapped in Vida had made sure she wouldn't become either one. I'd been too late, and it had left us, Jeremy and me, utterly alone.

I swallowed the bad taste the memories left in my mouth. Keeping my eyes focused on our surroundings, I felt the sun disappear below the mountains where the slot canyon began. The tall, smooth orange rock curved as it sent us around several corners, narrowing into walkways too small to fit more than one person at a time.

This was an unusual place for a fortress, but at the end of times, who would visit this popular tourist attraction now? It was a perfect funnel to pick off enemies one at a time. It made me nervous as we rounded the turns and nooks that littered the area. Flicking my eyes up toward the towering walls around us, I was sure that sooner or later, a perched feral hiding in darkness or a hybrid would drop in from above and do its best to slaughter us all.

Pessimism was my middle name lately.

Chapter Three

Mercer

"I don't want to sound like I'm freaking out or anything, but does anyone else feel like the walls are moving?" Sarah scrunched her nose up as she scanned the stone surrounding the slit we were quietly maneuvering. Her long red hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail spilling halfway down her back. It was braided into two thick braids, which I envied with all my heart. My own hair was medium length, black, thin and straight. Nothing spectacular.

"I feel it, too." The hairs on my back stood on end, not only from the feeling of being watched, but from the scant wafting scent of death slowly floating around us, its unseen tendrils wrapping around our heads like an ominous fragrance. "They know we're here," I whispered, gripping the hilts of my two blades tighter. The entire group was on alert, and we had stopped moving to listen to the echoes lightly treading across the walls of the canyon.

It was dead silent, not a good sign, but the Zompires weren't always silent. Their telltale groans and growls usually gave them away before they pounced. I was sure this was a trick of some sort, and I wasn't feeling reassured as minutes passed and nothing happened. The scent of death diminished, and we were left stunned and on edge.

"Come on, keep moving." Christian waved us forward and we cautiously followed, still listening for anything to give away the death awaiting us. I didn't like it, and I hoped we'd reach the fortress soon.

As we rounded yet another turn in the endless maze, I was beginning to think we were lost and wouldn't make it out before sundown, dying a miserable death at the jaws of a thousand ferals that probably lingered in the deeper recesses during the daylight hours. Though I didn't know where they hid while the sun burned down like a fiery inferno across the barren rock, I was pretty sure there were some ferals here who had managed to find shelter during the hot hours of the daytime.

Christian held up his hand, and we halted, studying the walls around us and behind, ready for anything. What were we looking for? Straining hard to hear something echoing across the canyon, I was getting tired of false alarms. I wanted blood and some fighting action. Enough of this hurry up and wait.

We continued on into a large opening in the canyon. The wavy walls hovered around us like giants bearing down on us, and the sand beneath our feet was cool and partially damp. I hoped a flash flood wasn't going to come through here any time soon. It would obviously fill with water when that happened. Though it would be a fast drowning death, it wasn't on my bucket list.

A crow cawed in the distance, and the rocks amplified its scream like a haunting melody. Something was wrong. I readied my blades as a horrendous gust of wind brought back the stench of death. Everyone was ready now, blades out and knees bent, hearts racing.

Clicking noises, followed by a variety of screeches and squealing metal, echoed across the rock. The walls opened, revealing small, coffin-shaped slots as some hidden mechanism turned, and Zompires poured out of them like pipes bursting. There were dozens of slots, and the things were piling out. I swung my machetes as the first approached me, slashing at its neck and sending its head flying. Another had its wild eyes trained on me before he met the same fate, his slick blood gushing like a fountain from the stump left behind. A chain rattled as it fell off his neck, no longer held in place by his head.

The chorus of clinking metal made me realize they were all chained by the neck, controlled by someone who could retract the chains when they wanted to pull them back into the holes. These were guard dogs, kept for attacking the enemy at the entrance of the hidden fortress. They were nothing but puppets packed like sardines in the hidden encasements, starved and ready for anything living to chew on. Great. Who knew how many were holed up in the slots, as more and more poured out, hungry and ready for fresh blood?

"There's too many!" Sarah shrieked above the groans and screeches of the dead. Her sword slashed though two of them at one time, separating one from his arm and cutting the other cleanly in half. Swinging the sword around one more time, she decapitated the armless one, who was still headed for her, before finishing off the one crawling on the ground in a sticky pile of guts and gore.

This was going to be an epic mess.

Elijah had his foot on one Zompire, crushing his chest down as he took his spear and stabbed the fucker right in the head. Another was already rushing toward him, but he sliced through that one like butter with a huge hunting knife. He was covered with sticky, black-red blood, as was everyone else. It was a bloodbath. We were outnumbered, but definitely not out skilled. There was still daylight out, but the sun was beyond the ceiling of the canyon, throwing the entire path and clearing into shade, which was perfect for them to attack us.

I wondered who was holding the reins on these guys as I crossed my machetes on one charging corpse as he tried desperately to chomp his incisors down on my arms. A quick jerk and his head went rolling. His body twitched frantically until it fell silent.

Minutes later, the two dozen or so Zompires were all down, and the few left dangling from the chains were backing up, and not willingly. The chains were being reeled back into the slots carved in the canyon walls. I wondered where the coffin-like exits went, but the chains made one quick last jerk, rattling wildly enough that if anyone tried to enter while the doors were retracting, they'd get shredded by the chains. The doors slammed shut before I could get to one. I dropped my machetes and patted the wall to find any kind of opening. Scraping my fingers against the hard stone, I found nothing, not even an indention where the doors met the walls. Frustrated, I hit my fist against it before picking up my weapons and rejoining the group.

"Where's the entrance to this motherfucker? I've had enough of their games. You said there might be traps, but you didn't say it was a suicide mission!" I pointed a finger at Christian, anger surging through my veins as I ached for more blood. I hadn't had vampire blood in ages, not since I'd taken some from his veins, sealing our bond. It wasn't that I'd wanted to, but once you bond with a hybrid, the exchange of blood was necessary. Otherwise, we would have died.

Yeah, that was one of the worst days of my life.

Now digging a finger into his shoulder, I wanted to slap him. It didn't help that I also wanted to kiss him at the same damn time and see if he was okay. I think that infuriated me even more, especially since I could hear Rye chuckling at the sight of me going off on his number one enemy.

Damn them both to hell.

"I told you. They probably don't think I'm still alive. Mercer probably set this up after I disappeared. Looks like one of his sick contraptions." He stepped away, trying to control the stillness of his features, but I could see him steaming, too. So, he didn't know this would happen, just wonderful. That deflated me a bit.

"Just get this circus moving already. Where do we get into this fortress of yours, Christian?" I hissed. Elijah was next to me as I stepped forward again, waving my bloody machete around like a mad woman. I liked action and getting things done. This unorganized mission was driving me bonkers, especially since I didn't plan on dying there. But someone, apparently, had other plans.

"Calm down, April. No need to expend all the energy on a vamp." Elijah spit out the last word like it was garbage. He wasn't a fan of the hybrid vampires, especially since he'd spent most of the end of the world exterminating the feral ones. If there'd been someone more skeptical about the hybrids, they'd really have nothing on him. He looked at the vamps like they were abominations of some sort. Hell, weren't we all some sort of mutated freak? It was really hypocritical if you asked me, but no one was asking, and he didn't care what anyone else thought of his antics.

I muttered under my breath and stomped forward, feeling foolish for losing my top, especially since Christian had remained so calm. Nothing grated my nerves more than not knowing what to expect. The city was predictable. This walking into an enemy hive was looking more and more like a trip into an asylum. I doubted we'd be welcomed by this Mercer. He sounded like cold-blooded psychopath.

I rounded the corner, still fuming, leaving my group to scamper behind me, and ran right into the meanest son of a bitch ever. Cold, calculating blue eyes drilled into me as I approached, making me halt in my steps. The seven burly body guards surrounding him not only were armed with guns, they also had hold of a bunch of feral vampires chained at the necks and torsos. If that wasn't a shocker of my lifetime. I wasn't ready for it. I had literally almost walked into the clutches of one of these ferals. His blood red eyes flashed at me as his jaws snapped wildly. He looked starved. So why wasn't he just turning around and pouncing on the hybrid vampire yanking his chain? Well, a moment later, he did try that, only to be zapped by a Taser baton as a reward. He hissed at the culprit but did not try to bite him again.

That's interesting.

I'd seen trained ferals before, back when Blaze's hive had attacked Christian's at the Stratosphere. Still, it made my skin crawl, and I eyed the eight vampires staring me down like killer animals. They treated these ferals like savage dogs, and it made me furious.

"Mercer." Christian gave him a curt nod but didn't approach him. The rest of us took his example and didn't venture any closer.

"I wrote you off as dead." Mercer's stoic looks made him appear frozen, like a marble statue. His dark black hair was cut short, almost buzzed to the scalp, and his skin was a golden tan, as if he'd spent some time in the sun. Golden halos flashed in his irises from the remaining light and made his bright blue eyes a buzzing neon color as he scanned them over us without a lick of approval. "Where have you been hiding these days?"

No one moved. Christian was the obvious ticket into this compound. I still couldn't see where the entrance was, just more turns and curves in the slot canyon walls. My stomach rolled, instantly complaining that this was not the best idea I'd ever had. Still, I had to speak to Rick if I was to find out what had really happened to my mother. "Well, as you can tell, I'm very much alive. I was caught in the city of Vida, under the Strip, for a while. Their leader was less than welcoming." Christian's face matched Mercer's, eye for eye, frown for frown, then smirk for smirk.

I saw why he'd pick this guy as his second. So different, yet perfectly matched in every way.

"What can I do for you?" Mercer tilted his head down, narrowing his eyes as he scanned each and every one of us. When he was done, the disgust on his face told me he wasn't impressed. Oh well, right?

"We need to speak to Rick." Christian stepped forward, close enough to almost invade Mercer's personal space.

"For what reason?"

"April's family was held in our station at the Stratosphere. Rick did something to her mother, caused her to change into something, possibly a hybrid. It drove her insane." He hesitated before he continued, "The change affected her mind to the point of driving her to suicide."

"Rick killed her." I stepped forward, drilling my glare into Mercer. He didn't even flinch at it, but I noticed a tiny drop of amusement dancing in his eyes.

He sniffed the air and the excitement grew tenfold on his face. "Human." His smirk slowly melted into a charming smile. "How so? Rick is human, just like you."

"I thought he was a hybrid human."

Mercer sighed and his grin faded. Apparently, we'd already pushed his welcome to the max. "He was. But he's developed a 'cure,' if you can call it that. It's far from perfect, but he no longer has a need to drink blood to survive. He's no longer one of us, just plain human." His fangs slipped out and a malicious grin spread slowly across his face. "I don't think he'd like visitors, though. He's quite the recluse."

"I don't care what he likes. I demand to see him."

Mercer's stare bore into me, and my skin tingled from the strain. He was an alpha vampire for a reason, but I was betting Christian could muster the same kind of threatening stare if he wanted to, if he needed to.

Right on cue, Christian stepped up to Mercer. He was obviously at least two inches taller than his former second and definitely bulkier. Mercer didn't back down, though. His glare shifted from me to his former leader, and a challenging eye match followed.

"I suggest you let us through. This is still my hive."

"It hasn't been your hive in months. I'm leader here now, and the hive does as I say."

"Mercer...." Christian was losing his patience, but he did well not allowing it to show.

"Your human army won't get far. I don't suggest you try to oppose me."

Christian snarled. Both had their fangs in full show now, their eyes flashing even brighter as their halos overtook the colored irises. Their growls made my skin crawl, but I readied myself to slice through Mercer's henchmen at any second now. His seven bodyguards shifted on their feet, similarly prepared for a fight.

"They are far from just human, even you know that, Mercer." Christian's words bled through his clenched jaw as he looked like he was actually puffing out to be even taller than he was a moment before. I swallowed the knot in my throat. Mercer had to let us in. I'd kill each and every one of them to get to Rick if I had to. "You know they could match us sword for sword, brawn for brawn, in combat. They have none of our weaknesses and everything we've longed for."

Mercer breathed heavily, his anger leaking from his glare as he flicked his eyes from Christian toward us and back again.

Mercer's second in command, a Hispanic male with equally short hair, spat on the ground and hissed. "Hybrid human scum." His fangs extended, and he looked mighty hungry for a fight. He was in front of me and eyed me like a filet mignon. Great. A psycho second is always fun to deal with. Bring it on.

"The pot calling the kettle black now, are we?" I huffed back. Flashing my machete, I threw him a wide smile and fluttered my eyelids. "Such atrocious manners."

"Philippe, enough!" Mercer's biting command made Philippe crane his neck to the side in surprise. Mercer glared at him until he stepped back, away from us, still fuming but focusing his anger on the grainy earth below. He looked peeved, but it was oddly satisfying to see his ego deflated with so few words.

"I apologize for my second. He craves the days of fighting and blood. We are a peaceful hive now and do not require such barbaric ways anymore." Another daring glare flicked over toward Philippe, and the second in command's presence was diminished as he flinched from his commander's gaze. He glared at the ground, his anger seething underneath his deflated exterior. I knew better than to ever trust this man. He was an explosion ready to happen.

"Come," Mercer said smoothly. "I will escort you through our facility. Welcome back, brother." He held his arms out and gave a tight, welcoming hug to Christian. The rest of us were left baffled, mouths agape at the sudden change in attitude.

What, no more fighting? I held back a groan and pondered tucking away my weapons.

Mercer turned, parting his warriors, who followed behind our group. I still held one of my machetes out, unwilling to put it away. The group oozed aggression, and I wasn't going to get caught unawares. I wasn't the only one on my toes, either. Elijah kept his oversized hunting knife gripped in his hand. Gotta love the guy, he understood the game even more than I did.

"Do you trust them?" I whispered over to him. The group had funneled back into two side-by-side columns. Christian was listening to Mercer as we made our way through the curves, turns and twists of the canyon with Mercer's group taking up the rear with their captive feral dogs in tow. As long as one of them didn't lunge at us, I was beginning to think me might actually make it back out alive. Still, I couldn't help keeping one eye on them and one eye forward.

"No," Elijah said. "Not one bit."

"That's reassuring."

"You asked."

Sometimes Elijah was too blunt for his own good. I'd grown to like his rough demeanor. He'd been leader for so long in Vida, he really had no social skills. Still, he had my back, and I had his. He'd become like a big brother, even more so than Blaze had ever been. I was relieved that he didn't seem to have any romantic intention with me, like Rye and Christian. I just couldn't take it if he did. Having a strong male influence around that wasn't out to tie me down was refreshing. Still, it made me sad that Sarah was highly interested in him, but he didn't show any interest in her, either. Or anyone, for that matter. I think he was completely missing the romance gene, actually. I decided I'd have to ask him about that one day.

"What if he tries to trap us?" I asked.

Elijah spun the knife in his hands and grinned. "We can take them, and their feral slaves. Been aching for some more action anyway."

I laughed but ended up clearing my throat as Christian and Rye both glared at me at the same time. Geez. Can't have any fun at all.

"I'm sure we'll get our chance soon enough," Elijah added.

"That's what I'm afraid of," I muttered as the group came to a stop in another opening in the canyon. This one was smaller than the one where the ferals had attacked us. Mercer waited momentarily as he stared at the wall right before a soft hum from all around us turned into a roaring rumble, and the wall began to shift. It slid smoothly inward, opening up to a dark hole within. As the dust that puffed up from its movement finally rested, I could see bright overhead fluorescent lights heading into a long ramp that led down onto the ground floor of what looked like one side of a large warehouse.

What is up with hybrids and warehouse hideaways? It reminded me of the warehouse fortress underneath the airport in the middle of the city which Blaze headed up. Lately, I hadn't been there as often as I used to go, especially with Jeremy taking to the citizens of the underground city of Vida quite well. He never wanted to leave. Who could blame him? It was the only place in Vegas that had other human kids there to play with. It was his paradise, but nothing but sheer claustrophobia for me.

We marched into the compound, and the large rock wall slid shut behind us with a slow, stomach-shifting rumble. I peered back at it, hoping the sinking feeling of doom sitting like a rock in my stomach would go away. The wall was painted black on the inside, reinforced with sheets of metal and steel. The entire place was like that: dark, black and very much confining. I could feel the air siphoning away from me in a rush to suffocate.

"Wow, who knew this was under all that rock!" Sarah spun around, in awe of the hidden fortress. It was definitely impressive, but it did little to stifle my dread.

"Yeah, pretty cool," I muttered. My mind was on the mass of hybrid vampires gathering to study us. More and more poured in from different halls and doorways, down the metal steps to the upper floor and out from behind the rows and rows of vehicles and storage containers that lined the belly of this place. If the city of Vida looked sterile, this one was the complete black opposite. It was all dark, dark and darker. Most of these vamps probably never saw the light of day, especially isolated out there so far from any shelter except the slot canyons. Their pale skin was more proof of their reluctance to leave this sanctuary. Not my idea of the perfect place to live.

"Welcome to our underground fortress. It spans the size of ten football fields. We have living quarters in the third floor surrounding the warehouse and toward the rear. Greenhouse and animal pens are located on the ground floor toward the back, so are the stockrooms, deep in the mountain. Headquarters is just above us." He pointed up toward the stairs lining the warehouse and leading into a doorway off to the right. "Not much to look at, but it's home sweet home." Mercer gave us a wide grin, which only succeeded in making him look even scarier.

This Mercer was visibly relaxed now that he was within the walls of his home. I eyed the mass of vampires surrounding us and noticed that there were no humans. Great. I hoped none of them were hungry. We probably smelled appetizing to them.

"Where do you pen up the leashed Zompires?" Elijah's snarky tone was not lost on Mercer, who faced him with a sly smirk pasted on his lips. Maybe he wasn't so statuesque after all.

"We keep them near the armory. They are considered weapons." He turned and continued forward until he reached a set of metal steps leading up to a single doorway. "I believe Rick would like to meet you, too. Shall we surprise him?" He turned, punched a code into a keypad on the side of the door and flung it open. Shuffling in, I muttered my own little obscenities at the mention of Rick.

Oh, I bet he just can't wait to meet me.

Chapter Four

Circus of Lesser Things

"Where is he taking us?" Sarah whispered. I shrugged, but Christian had obviously heard us and immediately offered the answer.

"The Freaks Lab."

"Say what?" My mouth hung open at the pet name they had for the lab. It didn't sound very promising. In fact, the name did wonders to freak me out, and I fought to not turn and run away. Even so, another part of me was jumping up and down like an amused two-year-old, ready to play with the toys.

Christian frowned but didn't repeat what he'd said. I guess it was a sensitive subject. This only made my adrenaline surge, ready to trash the place for even existing. Any place with a name like that could only mean horrible things happened there, like what had happened to my mother. The darn two-year-old stopped clapping in my head and started whining protests. Yep, good times.

Mercer approached another coded door, and the locks clicked opened before he shoved at it to help it along. Inside, we all filed in and stared down at a room that really should have been a museum of Ripley's believe it or nots. I almost choked on the rancid bile tumbling up my throat as I took in the atrocities before me. Blinking hard and deepening my breaths kept me from losing my cool as the room narrowed in my vision and my disgust multiplied.

Row upon row of acrylic tanks filled to the brim with yellow-tinged fluid were occupied by bodies, mutilated beyond recognition. A collective gasp shifted through the group as we were silenced, our words stripped from our mouths at the horrid sight. Nothing I'd ever seen would have prepared me for this. My legs felt weak, but I stepped forward, hoping they wouldn't give up on me as I moved along.

The first tank held a large man, or what would've been a man in a past life. He now had large fangs jutting out of his upper jaw and wild, reddened irises that were enlarged so much, he looked bug-eyed and disproportioned. His skin was a tough, wrinkled and abused leather littered with scars and missing chunks, leaving his body gaping open, displaying sinew with tendons dangling from bones. The bulk of muscles underneath the remains of shredded cloth bulged abnormally and appeared to almost split the skin from their massive size. Thankfully, the thing was dead. I wasn't sure I could stomach seeing something like that alive.

Fortunately, everything else in the tanks was also dead. The corpses were all in differently morphed states and hung suspended in the fluid, like puppets left abandoned by their owners, awaiting their last dance. Mercer led us deeper into the lab, giving us little time to ponder the creepiness of the creatures whose eyes seemed to follow us as we made our way forward. It sent shivers down my spine, but at least I wasn't turning colors like Sarah was. Her pallor had intensified, matching her skin to the yellow fluid surrounding us and reflecting the dim lights overhead.

"Hey, you all right?" I slipped my hand onto her shoulder, and she gave me a weak nod but didn't dare to look me in the eye. I made sure to keep one step behind her in case she decided to spew what little lunch we'd had. She wasn't looking like she could tolerate much more of this. If she collapsed, she'd never stop beating herself over it. I hoped the next room would hold less gruesome displays.

At the end of the rows, the rest of the lab emerged, looking much like a regular chemistry lab I'd had in high school. Long black tables with shiny tops filled the room. Some had stacks of test tubes, clean and ready to be used. Others had sinks in the middle of their surfaces next to Bunsen burners sitting under glass vials with bubbling fluids of every color. Cabinets filled with all kinds of chemicals and refrigerators with packs of blood and bits of other non-mentionables lined one side of the room. It was well stocked and a lot bigger than the lab in Blaze's hive. I wondered just how many people had been destroyed in the confines of this place. Studied to bits, literally. It was the last place my mother had entered before losing her grip on reality, and I was pretty sure she hadn't been the first or the last to meet their fate here.

Her loss left an icy sliver of my heart empty and growing even harder as time went on. How do you let go of such pain? I hadn't, and doubted I'd ever be able to. Maybe by removing Rick's head from his body would I find some kind of peace. I was looking forward to it, more so than anything else I planned for the future.

Did I even have any plans beyond that? I brushed the thought away because I couldn't answer that question. I had no answers beyond the now. There was no future for me or anyone else like me. My desolation held its grip on me and wouldn't let go, but I'd think more on it later.

Speaking of Rick, the man sitting at one of the tables had whirled around in his chair to observe us with his studious eyes as we filed into room, filling it up well enough. He didn't look anything like I'd thought he would. He wore glasses, had sandy blonde hair and a lanky, thin body that looked ill-suited for fighting. His blue eyes twinkled with a hardened light of knowledge, eyeing each one of us up and down as he satisfied his own curiosity. Tiny lines were etched across his face from the corners of his eyes and into the chiseled line of his cheeks. There were no halos, no perfectly smooth and uninterrupted coloring to his skin which fitted the unnatural look of the hybrids so well. In fact, the signs of aging and slight discoloration to his skin marked him as only one thing.

He was human.

This revelation felt disjointed as I stared at him with sharpened daggers emerging from my glare. Okay, so what if he was human? It didn't brush away all the evil he'd done and was probably still getting at in the middle of this God-forsaken desert. Hell, it probably made him even more dangerous to still be in possession of his human traits, more in control of his insanity than the vampires whose cravings overwhelmed them without regard to life. Maybe he was a hybrid human like me, but that conclusion quickly faded as I heard Rye whisper the answer to me.

"He's not infected. Pure human, no hybrid to him. Not a hint of infection or mutation."

Great.

I'm not sure if Rick heard him, but his sudden smile told me he most certainly knew who I was and what we were talking about as well. "I wondered how long I'd have to wait to meet you, April." He stood up but didn't approach me. It made me wonder if he could possibly fathom the amount of hatred coursing through me at this very moment. No, he couldn't even imagine how much distain I harbored within my mind for this pathetic man. It was so strong it had sucked away at my life, bit by little tiny bit every day since my mother had killed herself. Each moment he breathed in life was a second my mother would never have ever again.

"The pleasure is not mine."

His smile didn't waver. Even in the presence of vampires, he seemed cocky, untouchable even. There was nothing more I wanted to do than to adjust that attitude, permanently.

"We've come for answers, Rick. Good to see you again." Christian offered his hand out to the man and they clasped and shook them, like old comrades. It only fueled my anger, but I pushed it down before I could burst and lose the fragile grip I had on my temper. I couldn't risk losing my mind in this place, it would only hurt the others with me. We were severely outnumbered, and my vendetta could wait until the answers I sought out were in my grasp.

"Christian. I knew you'd be too stubborn to just disappear. Good to see you're doing well." Rick squinted as he examined Christian's face. "The medicine I gave you, did you have any adverse effects from it?"

"No. I feel wonderful, actually." Christian looked happy, like he was recalling the times he'd been delusional and mad from the green withering, the vampire sickness. "If fact, I have great news about another use for it."

"Really?" Rick's eyes lit up, making him look even younger than he appeared. He may have been human, but he was aging very well. He had to be near forty, maybe mid-forties, but I couldn't be sure.

"Well, another mutation was living in that underground city I told you about. Her scratch was lethal, gave any victim an amplified version of the green sickness. But my blood counteracted the poison completely. It was truly amazing."

The scientist nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose as he listened. His eyes flicked toward me but never hovered long. He was smart not to do so. I practically ground my teeth down to nubs, my jaw aching from the tension. All I wanted to do was push everyone to the side as I ran across the rest of the room, grabbed him and slammed him to the ground to make him beg for his pathetic life.

"How did you know your blood would help? A mighty shame you couldn't bring me a sample of the creature's blood."

"I don't know, I just... when I saw them suffering what I'd suffered from, it just clicked. Yeah, it is a mighty shame."

I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. "A mighty shame? That thing almost killed all of us!" The fury inside was hell-bent on spilling out. "For all we know, you created it, too."

"Hold on now, April... we don't know that." Christian held his hands up, ready to hold me back if I stepped any closer. I hadn't even noticed that I'd been walking toward them the entire time. Rick sat back down, stiffening but not one bit nervous as I hovered near him. He was so smug, so certain of himself as he sat there calmly, never flinching. It made me steam even more. I'd give anything to snap each one of his fingers like tiny, insignificant twigs.

Still, I jolted forward, reaching out and managed to clasp my thin fingers around his neck, squeezing slightly. His eyes never wavered, taking me into their deep blue sea, narrowing in a dare to push this further.

Really? You really want to die so fast?

'Do it.'

What?

I gasped at his intrusion into my head, but my hands never let go of his throat.

"April. Let... him... go," Christian hissed as he stepped closer, only to be halted as Rick held up a finger.

"I'm all right."

"Not for long," I muttered.

He cleared his throat but made no move to shove me off. What was he doing? I watched him closely, waiting for a hidden weapon or something to shoot out and stab me. He was very capable of violence, I could feel it pouring off him in waves. So why was he waiting now? Why didn't he just off me if he could?

'I need your blood, April.'

His voice in my head made me flinch. It felt awkward, like a fly buzzing in my ear, or a horsefly, constantly returning to irritate me with its hum yet impossible to evade. How was he doing that? I'd never met a telepathic person before. However fascinating it was to discover such a thing existed, it did nothing to quench the vengeance I so very much needed. His presence bothered me to no end.

'Do you want to be human again, April?'

The words drilled into my brain like ice picks, causing a throbbing headache to emerge. I was going to have his head for doing that.

Stop that.

The blue in his eyes grew darker, like a stormy ocean ready to pummel the coast on a wintery day. I wanted to pluck them out as the pain expanded down my neck and numbed my fingertips.

What are you doing to me?

'I'll stop when you let me go.'

I'm not doing anything to you.

'Yes, you are.'

I shook my head, trying to shake the fog that was blurring up my focus. I struggled to keep contact with his skin and dug my fingers deeper into his neck, giving it a squeeze. My lungs were halting, freezing mid-breath. "What are you doing to me?"

"Let me go, April." He spoke this time, the headache still throbbing from my contact with him.

"April, do what he says." Christian was reaching out to pull me off of Rick, but one glare from this chemistry freak was enough to make Christian freeze in his steps. Everyone behind me was shuffling nervously, not knowing what to do or what was going on.

"Stop!" I wheezed out a breath as my chest burned. The pain... I'd never felt anything like it before. "Please."

I let go, and my hands dropped to my side as I fell to my knees. The pain stopped immediately, leaving me to huff in and out while I stared at Rick through a veil of tears. If my hatred hadn't been consuming my humiliation at the moment, I'd have hopped onto my feet and run away from that unearthly beast or just slice off his head with my machete.

"That's better." Rick straightened, smoothing down his shirt and rubbing his neck where my fingernails had dug in, almost breaking his skin. He may have been powerful, but this man was mortal, fragile and human, just like me, if not more so.

"I'm not quite like you, April." His lips moved, but the words sounded far away.

"What? Stay out of my head!"

"You're special. A true human hybrid. Adapted to this vampiric virus in a most specific way. Made for supreme survival."

"What makes you not so special then?" I leaned forward, glaring at him, hoping to make him wince under the pressure my eyes emitted. "He's telepathic. He's reading our minds right now." I spoke more to the group behind me than to Rick as his grin grew wider from my proclamation.

The group collectively shifted in their places, and I could almost feel their worried looks flicking between one another. I didn't blame them. Having our minds read of anything we planned or thought about these strangers could be disastrous. Why hadn't Christian known Rick could read minds? Did he just not tell us? I was feeling less and less trusting of him as time went on.

"Because he didn't know," Rick answered.

Dammit! Okay, this mind reading crap was irritating me.

"Bullshit!" I swung my eyes toward Christian, almost as mad at him as I was with Rick. "He was your leader. How would he not know that?"

"Some things are better left unsaid until the time is right."

Christian didn't look pleased at all.

Some people just can't be trusted. My lips curled back to show him my hatred. I was already on my feet, backing up, feeling much better now that I wasn't in direct contact with his skin. Maybe the touch amplified his connection to my mind because now, his little inside mutters were farther away and much less painful, if not painless. Now they were just words, still echoing inside my head, an annoying intrusion, but there was no torment, no torture accompanying them.

Note to self... don't touch Rick.

At least, not until I could meet sharpened metal to his neck.

Chapter Five

Enemy Mine

"I don't like this idea of staying here with the likes of them." Sarah worked the elastic stuck in her long, substantial red hair out and shook the vibrant strands, sighing as the weight of the locks fell over her shoulders. She was still beautiful, as she'd been before all hell broke loose and the world had gone to the gutters. I was still stunned to think how much we were alike back then and now. Then, we had been besties and done everything together. Now, we were both human hybrids and had survived the end of the world against all odds. Somehow, we'd been spared, immune to the vampiric virus that turned people into mindless, blood-seeking monsters. Or worse, left them dead.

"Me neither." Sprawled across the queen size bed with porn quality satin purple sheets on them, I stared at the ceiling, contemplating what to do next. This place was a full-blown hotel inside, including indoor pool and windows! Can you imagine that? Windows to the outside world strategically hidden by camouflage to appear to look like the red rock of the slot canyon. If I wasn't so agitated, I might've actually liked this place. Not to mention the three-shower-head bathroom with adjacent roman sized tub to soak in attached to my room.

My family had lived a humble existence in a bunker hidden in the mountains, and these bastards were basking in the lap of luxury. It was unbelievable.

"Do you think this will work?" Sarah was staring out the window, watching the sun setting over the expanse of desert beyond the canyon walls. This section of the compound was built on a cliff, overlooking the vast and lonesome desert below. I joined her to see it fade away as the moments ticked by. I decided this place had been built before the plague. No vampire would add windows to the list of wants in a fallout shelter.

"Will what work?"

"Vampires and humans. Do you think we'll ever get along?"

"We're not quite human."

"I know that, April." She turned to me, a tight frown marring her pretty face. "You know what I mean."

"No. We won't ever get along. Is that what you want to hear? We'll never, ever, ever, ever get along. We're their food... period! Who wants to be the prey in a world full of hunters? We'll be extinct soon enough, and they will likely starve to death. No one wins."

"You really think that?" Sarah's green eyes glowed under the reds and golds of the sunset, shiny and full of naïve hope. We were so similar, yet the year apart in different situations had left us more different than I could've ever imagined.

"Yes, Sarah. I really think that. I wish I couldn't, but sooner or later, this is all over for us."

"When did you become so pessimistic?"

"I'm a realist."

"No. You've written us off already, like we were pitiful little chicks being sent to the coop to fatten up for slaughter. What happened to you? You used to be full of life, ready to take on the world. Where did that go?"

I huffed, crossing my arms and biting back the insults. "While you lived sheltered in the city of Vida, I was out there," I pointed out toward the horizon. "Where it was kill or be killed. Where starvation was just a supply run away. Where death lingered in the shadows, ready to chew on my flesh the moment I stopped being vigilant. I worried day in and day out for my family. I killed for them while you were tucked in safe. I was surviving."

Sarah's hard eyes turned liquid, tears pooling in them as the light faded, her jaw taut. She rushed past me and headed toward the door.

"Sarah... wait...."

Slam! The door vibrated on its hinges as I stared at it. I didn't know where she was going—most probably to her room at the end of the hall—but I was afraid I wouldn't see her for the rest of the night. The vampires would all be awake by now, and my anxiety was filling up my head as the moments continued and she didn't return. I contemplated going after her, but what good would it do? She might have gone to bother Elijah or at least hide there until she simmered down. How could anyone blame her? I was kicking myself for being so bitter.

A knock at the door had my hope zooming right back up. Flying to it, I paused as my fingers tapped the knob, feeling wary at all at once. I peeked out the peephole and couldn't see anything.

"Who's there?"

Silence followed by some shuffling reassured me that someone was there, waiting quietly. I backed away and grabbed one of my machetes lying on the bed and readied to cut up whoever burst through the door.

The knob shook and another knock resonated. "April? It's Rye."

I let out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding, relieved beyond the moon that it was Rye. It didn't last long, though. My anger at him for not replying right away had me wanting to sock him in the jaw.

"What the hell, why didn't you answer me when...?" I unlocked the door and was sent flying back onto the floor as it burst open, but my weapon remained locked in my hand.

"Mercer."

"April. I'm terribly sorry, I had to use a voice trick that comes in handy quite often to get you out of the door. Bad thing about having a compound fortress, it's really hard to open the doors if they're locked. Thanks for letting me in." Mercer's sly smirk filled my vision as he filled the doorway.

Christian walked in behind him, looking somber and defeated, followed by a vibrantly happy Rick. Great.

"What do you think you're doing?" I held the blade out, ready to slice even Christian with it. Three against one. Really? "Can't take me alone, had to bring back up, right? One woman, three men. Really appropriate."

Mercer wasn't too happy with my comments and motioned to Christian to grab me. He approached slowly, his haloed eyes shimmering against the halogen lamps across the room. He was my mate, supposedly. So why—and how—could he hurt me now? Even though I had committed to try to not fall in love with anyone, it sure wouldn't be Christian. But the pull of our bond made my stomach churn with every little traitorous step he took.

Dammit, Christian.

"Don't touch me." I backed up. My thighs bumped into the edge of the bed, which I sidestepped to get around. I was cornered, but I wasn't going to give up that easily. "Why are you doing this, Christian?"

"I'm sorry. This is my hive. I have to take control of things right now."

"Really? Sounds like Mercer is in charge around here now, not you." I swung the machete, but he dodged it with inhuman speed and grabbed my wrist. Still, I punched him right in the knee until he buckled. Struggling to get back up, I took his momentary lapse to hop over him and head toward the window. I didn't see a way out, and the window had bars weaved throughout it. I spun around and held a slight bounce on my feet, hoping to find a way around him.

Rick stood behind them, but I could see him pulling something out of a small case he held in his hands. Uncapping the needle, he tapped it to get the bubbles out and then fixed his eyes on me. Whatever was in that syringe, I decided he'd better have planned to stick it where the sun don't shine. I stepped back toward the bathroom, hoping maybe I could at least lock myself in there to think of an alternative means of escape. Christian was nursing his knee, grumbling, but he wouldn't be down for long. Mercer looked as if he was going in for the kill. Rick only had to wait until I was subdued to plunge whatever he'd concocted into my arm. Like hell I was going to let him do that to me, ever.

"Don't make this difficult," Mercer muttered. His dark eyes reflected the lights shining from the vaulted ceiling. I felt a trickle of his vampire persuasiveness pass over me, sending a chill trickling down my spine. Narrowing my eyes, I smirked. Knowing his magic wasn't working on me made him furious, and I could see his lunge three seconds ago.

His slow mistake.

He flew past me right into the bathroom where I slammed the door shut behind him. Idiot. I turned back toward the others just in time to find Rick trying to stick me with the needle. I grabbed his wrist and winced. His telekinetic power zapped me as if I was touching a power outlet.

It was excruciating and left me breathless and fighting to suck in a breath, but I managed to twist his arm and pull it behind him, crushing his hand to make him let go of the syringe. Gritting my teeth, I fixed it into my fingers and positioned it to his throat. "I hope what you got in here doesn't do too much damage to humans," I hissed.

"Wait! Don't, please!" Rick paled as the needle dug into his neck, a pinprick of blood welling around it. His heartbeat was thumping under his chest, and I could feel it as I pressed my own against him to hold him in place. The electrocuting feeling he emitted stopped, and I shook my head to clear it.

"Now, why shouldn't I?" I snickered. It was always better to be on the winning side. Christian stepped forward as Mercer made his way through the bathroom door, literally. It splintered into a thousand wood strips as he bounded into the room, red faced and furious.

"Please...." Rick swallowed as the sweat began to bead on his temples. His racing heart was a huge indication of what sort of poison I was holding. Good. Not so fun getting a taste of his own medicine.

"Let's play this game my way now." I shoved Rick toward the door to the hall and backed toward it, keeping a wary eye on both Christian and Mercer. "No one comes any closer or I off him. Oh, and Rick... tell me what this poison does."

"You don't want to know."

I tugged at his arm, causing him to yelp from the pain. "Oh, I think I don't, but I have the right to know what you were going to shoot me up with. Come on, we're all waiting."

Rick huffed and groaned as I stretched his arm even farther behind him. He'd have no use of it for an hour or so after we were done, but that would be his problem, not mine.

"It's an antidote."

"Oh? For what?"

"To make you completely human."

"I doubt that."

"It's true."

"Then why are the vamps staring at it like it's the black plague for them?" Did he think I was that stupid? Really? Mercer and Christian didn't dare get near us. They eyed the syringe with nothing but pure horror and an obvious smidge of intimate terror. Yeah, I had a weapon in my fingers, but I had to know what it was for.

"Because...." I loosened my grip on him as his voice croaked. He was straining too much and was sure to pass out if I didn't let him breathe. "It's an antidote to anyone's unnatural powers, from the Zompire plague. It turns everyone absolutely human again. No powers."

Well, well. Holy moly.

"An antidote to the plague?" I repeated in disbelief, my fingers shaking as I held it pressed oh so close to his pounding jugular. "What's it do to you? Kills your powers, too, right? You're pretty human already except for those telepathic tricks you're so good at agitating me with."

He didn't answer, just grunted as he pulled to attempt to free himself. Big mistake. I tightened my grip on his awkwardly bent arm. He gasped and paled. Yeah, that did him in.

"Well?" I wanted my answer.

"Yes. Even my telepathic power will be extinguished with it."

Ah. So, he had attained his powers as a mutation from the plague. We weren't so different. Whatever he'd taken had left him with his mind powers intact but human.

Thank goodness the door was cracked open. I didn't want to let go of him to turn the knob. We slipped into the hall, and I backed us down the hall toward the way we'd come in. Now what? I kicked at the doors we passed to hopefully find one of my pals as I walked backward down the hall. I was still vulnerable, with no weapons and no idea where the hell I was going. This place was a maze, and I was severely outmatched. We'd been such fools to go there with so few warriors.

Finally, I kicked one of the doors and Elijah swung it open, cursing at the noise. "What the fuck is... April?" His eyes widened, and he reached back inside for his weapons. He produced his hunting knife since our larger weapons had been confiscated when we'd entered.

"A little help here," I hissed. He immediately joined me and continued banging on doors as we passed. Eventually everyone in our group had joined in, and we held our ground at the end of the hall in a standstill.

"You won't get far out there. It's nightfall." Mercer's dark eyes dug into me like ice picks, and I was sure he would tear my throat out if he was allowed to. One slip and he'd pounce on us.

"I'll take my chances." I leaned in to whisper into Rick's ear. "Show us the way out, Einstein."

"Okay, just don't push the needle in anymore." His raspy voice made him sound like he was near fainting. What had happened to that crazy mad scientist who'd cracked my mother's sanity until it was broken beyond repair? Something wasn't making sense, but I pushed the thought back for later. I had more important issues to deal with at the moment.

"Well, don't make me."

"This way." I let him go and held the syringe pointed at him, nodding down to it. "You run, I stab."

He bobbed his head up and down and turned forward, pointing ahead. We headed in that direction. Once we'd turned down several halls and gone past the lab, I noticed Mercer and Christian were no longer following us. "Where did your fine leaders go?"

"Probably to round up everyone else in the armory."

Nice.

"Where's that?"

"Toward the rear of the facility."

"Any way to lock it down so they can't get out of there?" This wasn't sounding good for us at all. We had limited weapons.

"Uh... I... um...."

"Spit it out, human," Rye hissed. He had been next to me the whole time, but I hadn't noticed with my focus on Rick. I gave him a tight smile and nodded.

"Yeah. I can lock it down from my lab. It's like a quarantine mechanism we set up in case there was a severe mutation that got out."

I grabbed his arm and turned him toward the door to his lab. "Don't just stand there. Turn it on."

Chapter Six

Chemicals and Quarantines

"How secure are we in this lab? It's made of glass all over the place." Elijah pressed a hand against the cool surface of one of the see-through walls. He turned to view the hall in each direction, but no one was coming. Not yet. "I don't like the looks of this."

"It's a fortress, I assure you. The glass is extremely impact resistant and bullet proof. There is no getting in or out. It can also be sealed for quarantine protocols." Rick pushed his glasses up slowly with his left hand. His right arm was dangling at his side, probably dislocated. My bad.

"Get the armory and back section locked down now." Rye wasn't losing focus, and I was glad to have such stringent and focused warriors at my back.

"Okay, just one moment." Rick fumbled with his fingers as he hit a half dozen switches before turning three keys and flipping a bright red switch. A huge rumble shook the ground as the gates shut. Several monitors above this station displayed the rush of activity in the lower floors of the fortress. Only a few stragglers had been trapped outside the quarantine walls, and the bulk of the vampires ran at the noise of the large lockdown doors sliding down into place. I couldn't find Mercer or Christian on any of the monitors and wondered where they'd gone off to. I hoped they were trapped behind the barrier, but they would know about this feature and had probably made it out before we'd gotten the doors secured.

"How long before they get the doors back open?"

Rick settled into one of the rolling chairs, sighing as his eyebrows furrowed with pain. He held his arm, dangling uselessly at his side. "It's made to keep things inside or out. It could take them days to get it open again if they really, really tried to short circuit the system. They won't die in there; there's emergency supplies of food and water all over this compound." He grimaced as he rubbed his arm, the agony making him sweat and pale before my eyes.

I stepped forward, motioning for Elijah to help me. He threw me a knowing glance, and we both approached Rick. He flicked his eyes between us and paled even further. "I might need something for this pain...wait...."

"This'll just take a minute." I grabbed his arm and braced a leg on one of the solid metal counters bolted to the floor. Elijah wrapped his arms around Rick's chest and held on tight as I gave him a nice hard tug.

Rick's scream echoed through the lab, and I was sure the glass beakers and test tubes would shatter from it. I let his arm go and bent it, moving it around a bit to check mobility. This caused him further pain and had him passing out on the chair, slipping down before I braced his body against the chair with my weight. "Got a tough one here." I patted his shoulder after I propped him up enough so he wouldn't tumble to the ground. "Sorry about that. No, wait... not really sorry."

Plopping down in my own rolling chair, I felt the fatigue tugging at my bones. The sun had just barely gone down, but I was exhausted. What had happened to the days of staying up all night?

"You hungry?" Rye plopped an energy bar and a glass of water in front of me. Glancing up at his gorgeous, gunmetal grey eyes, also encircled with a reflective strip of a yellow halo, I found myself smiling at him. I hadn't really looked at him closely lately. He'd been around, holding me in bed, kissing my neck and making me feel wanted, but I hadn't really let him in completely. Especially with the crazy blood bind going on with Christian.

But at that moment, I made myself look, really, really look at Rye. I liked what I saw, and it warmed my insides with a spill of heat as his eyes hypnotized me. I took the food he offered, grateful that he could read my needs better than I could.

"Thank you. I'm more tired than I thought. Maybe I should eat." I unwrapped the foil covering and took a large bite of the thick bar. It was chalky and a bit tough to swallow, but hey, it was food, no matter how horrific it tasted.

"How are you feeling about all this?"

Ah, therapy time with Rye. Always the turn off for me. I frowned as I chewed.

"I'm fine. No, really." I chugged the water back and looked toward the rows of mutations nearby. A chill ran down my skin, but I tried not to shudder. "I still need answers, but this antidote... it really could be something." Rye's frown was prominent, and it made me wonder what he was thinking. "What do you think about it?"

"It depends on if it's for us hybrids or for the ferals only. If it's for us, we could all be turned human again, and with the state of the world right now, that could be really bad." He sighed, rubbing the fatigue from his eyes, making me realize just how exhausted and pale he was looking lately. "If it's just for the ferals, that'd be amazing, to save all those infected, but I have a feeling this isn't meant for the ferals at all. It's meant to make all those with extra powers, like us, like you and me, to make us normal and human again. Do you think everyone will want that? I don't. Who wants to give up power after having a taste of it? Who'd want to be utterly normal again?"

I nodded and pondered what he said. He had a point. Who could give up the powers we'd been given after so long and all the trials we'd faced? I wasn't sure even I could if it came down to it. What if it would be used as a weapon instead of the salvation everyone would initially think it was? That could be disastrous.

"I guess when Rick wakes up, we'll find out." I tapped my fingers on the counter, which reminded me of my chemistry classes back in high school. I looked up to see Sarah take another chair across from me. Her bright smile always lifted my spirit, and I was relieved that she was there with me. She no longer looked peeved at me, at least. No one better to have than my best friend.

"Would you take it?" I asked. She picked at her nails, frowning at her disintegrating manicure. Sarah always took care of herself, beauty queen style. Her flaming red hair was still pulled back into a ponytail, but she made that look stylish with smooth strands and a lock of her brilliant hair wrapped around the elastic. Me, I was the epitome of style neglect. My hair wasn't smooth, but fine and flat, pulled violently back into a ponytail with wisps escaping the tie's grip with each step I took. My face was free of makeup and clear, but I was no looker like she was.

"Maybe."

Somehow, our stark differences hadn't mattered so much before the apocalypse, but now? Now I caught Rye throwing her the tiniest of smiles before he looked away and fished out another energy bar from his supply pack to hand it to her. At least he was smart enough to have grabbed his pack from his room before escaping into this foodless lab.

I wasn't a jealous girl, but that one tiny look made me feel like a wallflower. Lately, now that Sarah was around me so much more, I'd felt inferior to her pretty face. Why that was bothering me now, I had no idea. I liked having my friend with me. I loved it, actually. Maybe it was all the company around me all the time. Before, I'd had no one except my family, and a year of it had turned me into a complete recluse. Breaking out of that habit was proving to be slightly difficult.

I just didn't know how to make it any better for myself. I was utterly clueless.

"I don't think I'd take it." Rye fished out his canteen and took a swig of water. "It's too dangerous. What if no one wants to take it? What good is it to take the cure and be defenseless? Unless it can be given in a mass dose to everyone, I don't see it ever going anywhere."

He was right, and the thought of everything being normal again made my stomach twist. So easy to just shoot up the world with an antidote to make it all all right again, but it wouldn't be easy. Nothing was ever easy.

Rick roused on his chair. Sweat gleamed on his forehead, but his pallor had subsided somewhat. Asleep, he'd looked harmless, like a school teacher, weak, pathetic. I knew better, though, and the urge to go and snap his neck again resurfaced. I sighed, closing my eyes to remember that I had so many questions to ask before I could kill him. Why is there always something in the way of a simple thing like killing someone?

I almost choked on the stifled laugh I let slip out. Everyone looked up at me for a moment, confusion flashing in their eyes. I must have looked like I was losing my mind, but I pretended to have almost choked on the energy bar sitting half eaten in my fingers.

"I'm okay," I managed to squeak out. They all turned back to what they were doing, and I refocused my eyes onto the now groggy but awake Rick.

"Where's your morphine?" Elijah let his gaze slide over the dozens of cabinets and drawers lining the wall. "You're going to need it."

"Third cabinet from the left on that wall." Rick pointed across from us and let his head fall back, his breath heaving from the pain. It probably wasn't as bad as it had been while it was dislocated, but he sure was a bit wimpy if you asked me.

I guess being utterly human did have its disadvantages. Even superpowers like telekinesis and telepathic abilities didn't make up for no tolerance to pain. What a pity.

Elijah grabbed a vial of morphine from the cabinet. After plucking some alcohol swabs, two by twos, a filter needle and a Tb syringe with a needle, he made his way over to Rick. I watched him expertly snap the ampule top off, suck up the liquid, switch needles, tap the air out and dilute it with saline. I wondered how much medical training he'd had.

"All right, give me your uninjured arm, show me a vein." He snickered as he snapped a tourniquet onto Rick's arm. Finding a vein didn't seem too hard for him, and he inserted an IV port easily. The smell of blood seemed to heighten Rye's senses, and I watched as he made his way to the farthest point in the large laboratory, away from Rick.

I sighed, rubbing my head. I was relieved that the blood didn't affect me like it did him. It was one advantage of being a hybrid human, not a vampire. Watching Elijah, I wasn't sure how a vampire would not want to munch on Rick's arm from the tiny amount of blood expelled from the IV site. Once he cleaned the site and slapped a tegaderm clear film on it, the smell seemed to dissipate, and Rye was able to come back to sit near me.

At least Rick didn't look like he was going to pass out again. His eyes were practically glassy from the nice dose of morphine he'd just received.

I jumped up and headed toward him, hoping he wasn't about to pass out again. "Don't knock him out, I still need to interrogate him."

Elijah cleaned up the mess of papers and needles, dropping them into a sharps container installed on the wall. "He's all yours, April. He's just feeling mighty good right about now, not knocked out." He stood up and walked away but not before revealing how tense his jaw was and how his fingers curled into fists with his hidden fury. He didn't have to hide it; I could feel it coming off him in waves. The narrowed glare he threw me topped the cake before he made his way to take my place besides Sarah. His demeanor grew less intense as he turned to throw her a smile. She reciprocated and began her usual torrent of chatting about anything.

It was nice some people could forget so fast just what a predicament we were in. I was sure Mercer and his gang were working diligently to get out of the quarantine area, and we were sitting here fucking around like it was afternoon tea. Yeah.

I took the seat Elijah had emptied and rolled closer to Rick, who watched me cautiously. I had to admit, now that he was stoned on the morphine, he didn't seem so scary anymore. I hoped he would answer my questions, or it would have all been a waste of my time and patience. Something told me that he held more secrets than I wanted to know. Regardless, I needed to know everything, no matter how deep or how far it went.

Chapter Seven

Soot and Ashes

"You look like your mother." Rick's beady eyes focused on me as I inched closer. I wondered what was running through that huge brain of his. If he knew what was good for him, he'd answer everything I asked, thoroughly and without any fancy riddles or avoidance. I hoped he knew this.

"I need to know what you did to her."

"She was an excellent patient. Very tolerant for the most part. Patient, too."

"Her name was Helen."

At those words he tilted his head, his eyes shifting to a faraway look. "I'm very sorry to hear she's gone. My condolences. Helen was an amazing woman."

"She was. Until you did something to her. I need to know what you did." I leaned forward. "And I suggest you don't leave any minor details out."

This didn't make him shiver or cower away from me as I would've expected, but instead, he lifted his chin to look at me straight on. He was cradling his injured arm but didn't flinch as I rolled my chair closer.

"When Christian brought her to me, I was very impressed by how strong-willed and tough she was. I wanted to break her down, make her mine in every way. By that, I mean I wanted to know exactly what made her immune to the virus. There are more strains of this disease than what you've seen. It's such an amazing entity in how it has developed, morphed and mutated as time has gone on. Zompires, hybrid vampires... they were just the beginning of the phenomenon which happened when it was released into the world."

"Get to the point." I could tell how much the subject fascinated him. My remark made his enthusiasm waver just that little bit. Still, he continued, ignoring my interruption.

"However, the human strains were what interested me the most. How is it that of all the living humans that I've encountered above ground, only you and your family remained immune to the virus? The people in Vida did well to quarantine themselves against any outside contamination during the time the virus was alive and actively changing people via airborne infection. Now the virus is no longer airborne but bloodborne. There's a good chance those humans who survived will never be exposed to it.

"So, you see, your family is quite rare. Even the hybrid humans of the city of Vida acquired their particular mutations from exposure prior to going underground. I believe that you were immune even before the breakout occurred. Some strange genetic mutation that triggered your superhuman powers also kept you from turning into a vampire. I wanted to force a vampire mutation onto your mother, see if it could somehow still manifest and hopefully create a super hybrid vampire."

"So, she was right, she was turning into one of them." I felt my heart breaking as he spoke.

"Yes. She fought it, though. She refused to drink blood, no matter how hard we pushed or starved her." He shoved his glasses up his nose, looking somewhat ashamed for a flicker of a moment. Damn right he should be.

"Well, I tested her blood over and over, and it looked like she was morphing as expected. I couldn't wait to see what abilities she would have. At that time, she'd stopped eating and become withdrawn. She stopped speaking, too. I think she knew what she'd become, before even we did."

"Of course, she knew! She even thought she might be turning into a feral, a fucking Zompire! It made her lose her mind!" I seethed, ready to shake Rick into oblivion, but forced myself to calm down. I had to hear it all, no matter how much it was going to sting. I had to.

"Yes, well. I transferred her to the Stratosphere tower lab to start testing her tolerance to things that most vampires shunned. She passed all the tests with flying colors, but she was starting to wither away, either from her own doing or due to the changes. I couldn't be sure. I had returned here with a sample of her blood to figure out what was going on with her. If it was the virus causing her deterioration, then I had to discover how to counter it as quickly as possible. If it was her own doing, well, I thought maybe some antipsychotic meds might do the trick, because she was still utterly human."

"Did you give them to her?"

He gulped, looking outwardly distressed as his memories flooded across his vision. "No. Your hive retrieved her before I could return to try the meds. I also came up with the antidote when the tower was attacked. I had Christian's antidote for the withering sickness finished at the same time and came to give it to him when I found him barely alive. I had the medicines and antidote for vampirism for your mother, but...."

"We'd already taken her back."

He nodded, no longer looking at me. "Yes. You'd taken her from me before I could fix what I'd done."

"Would you have?"

He flicked his eyes back up to me, confusion swimming in them. "Would I have what?"

"Fixed her."

He licked his dry lips and let his head fall as he stared hard at the tiles at our feet. "I would've done anything to save her."

"Why? You didn't even know her. You did this to her. Why would you care if she died or not?"

He shook his head, closing his eyes and rubbing his face as he sighed. Why did he seem to care? Maybe he was so caught up with making super vampires he'd forgotten about the human aspect of it all.

"I knew her. I knew her before all of this." He waved his hand around the lab, letting out a slow, tired breath. His eyes met mine again, and the ocean of confusion had been replaced by a sea of loss and pain. "I knew her very well. I would never allow anyone to hurt her. She had agreed to help me until the vampirism took hold of her brain functions. Then I couldn't get her to respond to me properly. I never wanted to hurt her. I... I...."

"Knew her? What are you talking about?" Now I was totally thrown a curve ball.

"Before the outbreak, I knew her. She was a teacher at the same school I taught at. She turned me down for a date a few times after your father died, but we remained friends. That was before she left to do some internet business."

Shocker. Of course. Before her successful internet business, she'd been an English teacher. "So, you knew her when they dragged her in? I bet you were happy to have her under your command."

"No, I knew about her, about you and your brother, for a while before they were taken. You guys were so thorough, this hive was unable to find you for a while. It wasn't until they tracked you to the city that day that they got her and your brother alone, without you. It was the only way to get her without a full-on battle. If you weren't there."

"You had them take her?" My voice quivered, and I refrained from putting my shaking hands to his neck.

"Yes, April. I'm sorry. They had reports of your family, and when I found out it was her, I had to have her. One way or another. If I could show her what I was working on, then maybe she'd look at me as more than a microbiology teacher. I'd be more than just a smart guy to her. She'd have a reason to love me back."

"You stole my mother because she rejected you?" The rage was spilling over, and I could tell he felt every ounce of it as he sat up, his eyes widening at my rising fury.

"She was immune, unlike any of us. We had to have her help us. It was a coincidence that she was the one we needed. I would've never allowed them to take her if there were others to help us. Your family was the only one. Get it, April? No one else has survived this epidemic like your family did. No one."

"What about the twelve from Vida? You could've taken them."

"They didn't emerge from the underground until after the Stratosphere event. Otherwise I would've focused on one of them, April. I swear. I would've never hurt her, I couldn't have known she'd lose her mind and do what she did."

"But she did. She killed herself! You did that to her. It's all your fault!" I was on my feet, but Rye's arms were already around me, pinning me to his chest. "Let me go! I'm going to kill this motherfucker!"

"April...."

"Let me go!"

"Stop. That's enough. Nothing will change what happened. Nothing will bring her back."

"I know. I know that! I have to do this... let me do this." I continued to fight to no avail against him. He'd fed before he'd left our hive earlier, and I'd had no vampire blood in ages, nothing. Hell, I hadn't even eaten dinner, and I was paying for it now. That protein bar was sitting on the counter, only a bite nibbled from it. How dumb could I be? "Please," I begged, but slumped in his grip. He wasn't going to budge until my rage had dissipated. I knew that and let it morph into complete and utter despair. My sobs and tears spilled over, and he turned me around to hug me tighter.

"It's okay to be mad, it's okay," he whispered. I let my anger pour out into his chest, wetting his shirt, but I didn't care. It'd been so pent up for so long, I had no idea how strong it had grown. I did want to kill Rick. It'd been the only thing I had thought about since I'd watched the sputtering embers burn out at our bunker. Just like that, my world had collapsed. My mother Helen had been my anchor to sanity in this hell the world had turned into. With her gone, how was I supposed to care for my brother Jeremy and keep my wits intact? How was I supposed to do it? The world had turned into something I wasn't prepared for. No one could have prepared for this. How was I supposed to do this without her?

And it was all his fault. All Rick's fault.

***

The humming of the machines whirring in the background kept me in a daze as I stared off into space and let the others shuffle about as they worked to take supplies from the lab, the cafeteria below and finish off the few hybrid vampires which had escaped from being quarantined when the walls had come down. Mercer had not figured out how to lift them yet, and by the way we could see him yelling at his troops on the cameras we'd managed to reroute so we could watch their movements, he was no closer to escaping than we were.

My fury had been expended, and I felt lighter but as empty as a gas tank. It wasn't a good empty either. I felt hollow more than anything, as if a piece of my own machinery humming under my skin and keeping me alive and going had been ripped out and taken apart, piece by mechanical piece. I'd let the madness, the hate and the anger take over and had let it fuel each and every thought and movement I had made in the last few months. Now, without it, I was left vulnerable and weaker than I had ever been before. I had to fill it with something, some purpose or goal, and I didn't have any idea what that could be. How quickly vengeance ate away at one's soul without remorse, leaving nothing but a carcass of what we were before we let it overtake us.

Well, I had crashed and burned without even a thought on how to recover.

Hands slipped over my shoulders, warm and cold at the same time. I knew it was Rye. His scent wafted into my nostrils. I didn't want to talk to anyone, but he wasn't going to let me wallow in misery for long. He knew I would hate myself for it later. At least someone cared to know me nowadays. It did perk me up enough to make me snap out of it and look up to meet his eyes. A small smile attempted to form on my lips.

"Hungry?"

I shook my head.

"Here." He handed me a canteen filled with fresh, cool water. I accepted it and sipped on it slowly, still afraid to eat or drink. I just didn't have any desire to do so.

"Where's Rick?" I asked.

Rye studied me for a moment, and I knew he was searching for any deadly intentions in my question. "He's resting in one of the bunk rooms nearby. The morphine really knocked him out."

"At least one person is enjoying their beauty sleep," I muttered. I rubbed at my temples. The headache hovering behind my eyelids and forehead was throbbing, and I knew I had to lie down soon or drop from sheer exhaustion. The night had been extra-long, but dawn was just a few hours away.

"Come on." Rye slipped his fingers around my wrist and tugged.

"What?"

"We need to rest. Nothing is going on with the quarantine doors, so we have some time to regroup. You need to sleep."

I pulled away, shaking my head. "No way in bloody hell am I sleeping here. Their hospitality isn't really conducive to that."

Rye chuckled but grabbed my wrist again. "You're coming to lie down with me, or I'm throwing you over my shoulder after I hog tie you."

"You'd like that," I groaned and got to my feet. He was right, though.

"You bet I would." His devious grin had me shaking my head and chuckling. I wondered how he did that, how he could lighten my mood when I was so intent on soaking in my mellow blues.

I let him drag me to another bunker room which only had four bunks in it. I wondered if the one Rick was in was like this. I wondered if I could sneak in there after Rye went to sleep and slit Rick's throat.

I shook my head. Morbid thoughts wouldn't help me now. I still had questions for him, and I'd make his death long and painful, just like my mother's. Plus, I still had to ask about that antidote. His discussion about it had piqued my curiosity.

Rye threw himself onto one of the bunks, letting out a breath as he sighed in pleasure. I took the one across from him and untied my boots so I could lie down. How he could relax so easily in a place like this was beyond me. I hadn't felt safe to sleep without one eye open since I'd slept in my tiny cot bed in our mountain bunker. My mother had taken more than her life when she'd destroyed our home. My entire world had been there since everyone had died or turned into ferals. Now I had no choice but to plan a return to my old house in the city and scavenge for old stuff like photographs and what memories were left of our old life. It'd been so long since I'd been there, I was sure nothing was left to even go back to. We'd left it all boarded and locked up tight, but who knew if it had held against the end of the world?

"We'll have to exterminate them." Rye's voice interrupted the cool silence that had enveloped me. I pulled the thin blanket over me and rolled over to face him. "We can't leave them alive, not after all this."

"We could assimilate those who want to join Blaze's hive," I whispered across to him. Avoiding his eyes, I bunched the pillow under my head. I knew why he said those things. It was true. In this world, why leave alive those who wanted you dead? I wished there was a better way, but there just wasn't.

"Maybe. If there's too many, we'd never be able to control them if they don't like it in our hive."

"Who's to say they won't like it?"

"Blaze won't allow them to join. It's too risky."

I closed my eyes and hoped the darkness would allow me some rest. "I guess you'll find out."

"I guess."

"You don't oppose him much, do you?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You don't know him like I do. He's only shown the surface to you and the others. He even suggested killing your friends, the humans."

I sat up but couldn't fully since a bunk bed sat atop me. "What? Why didn't you tell me before?"

His liquid steel eyes flashed under the hum of the fluorescent light. "I wanted to, April, but he made me promise not to."

"And me? What about me? Did he ever suggest killing me?"

"No." Rye sat up, hunching down in the cramped space. "If he had ever suggested that, I'd have told him no way in hell."

"Maybe he's thought it."

"Maybe. But like I said, he didn't ever suggest it."

"Why not? I'm as much a threat as these people are."

"You were alone, April." A husky voice interrupted us, and we both turned toward the source. Blaze's face looked tired and dark, and I held my breath. How long had he stood there, listening in and knowing what we knew? He'd been quiet and reserved this entire time, taking it all in to ponder and digest. I'd forgotten he was even with us.

"One person can be more dangerous than an army," I whispered, and my thoughts went back to the destruction of Christian's hive at the Stratosphere. I'm not sure if I was angry, but tears formed, and I sucked in a breath to steady myself before I focused my eyes on the hive leader. "Just like you are more dangerous to others than they know."

Blaze contemplated my words quietly but didn't move. The color seemed to drain from his eyes. I've never really spoken with him much, not since he'd opposed my search for the city of Vida. Ever since, I'd stopped talking to him altogether and done what I wanted anyway. He was not my leader, and I was not his follower.

"No words have ever been truer." He narrowed his eyes on Rye as though mentally reprimanding him for what he'd told me.

"Don't worry," I said. "I'll be gone when this is all over."

Rye abruptly turned to me, his face masked in horror. "What?"

"If you wish. No one will stop you. You have your own free will." Blaze turned to walk away, as if he'd lost interest in our conversation.

"April, what are you saying? Why would you leave? Where are you going? What about Jeremy?"

"He's fine. He'll stay in the city of Vida. He already likes it there more than being with me. As long you guys leave them alone, he'll be fine." I emphasized my words about leaving them alone and narrowed my eyes at Blaze as he walked away, daring him to say otherwise. I knew he could still hear us.

"The city of Vida will never be under threat from us unless they attack us first. You have my word," Blaze answered over his shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

If I disliked Blaze any, I sure as hell hated him now. Even with his promise, I didn't like how he made it seem that he was doing me a favor by leaving the underground city alone.

"April...." Rye was on the floor, his hands on my arms. "You're not going anywhere. What kind of crazy talk is that?"

I turned and stared hard into Rye's gunmetal eyes, knowing I was going to miss them like the dickens when I did leave. "There's nothing here for me anymore, once I have what I want. There's a medical research facility in California that I want to take the antidote to. They can help replicate it, and we can all put this crazy virus-infested world behind us. I just hope there's still someone there who can help me."

Rye's mouth hung open like there was nothing more shocking I could say and withdrew his hands from my arms, though the reddened imprints of his fingers lingered on my skin.

"Not everyone wants to change back, April. You're going to plunge the world into a civil war."

"I don't care if I have to spray it like a pesticide. I will make everyone take this antidote, and life will return to what it was." My voice rose over his, and my chest heaved.

He shook his head and sunk to his knees. "Why would you want to take on that task?"

"For Jeremy."

"He's happy. Let him have his life down in the City of Vida. He's fine. Why do you have to become the martyr here?" His eyes turned from hopeless to focused and then bled into fury. He was losing his patience with me. Might as well. I was done.

"Because he may be happy, he may be a little boy now, but what about when he wants to leave? What will the world be when they emerge to try and repopulate the earth? It will be a wasteland, infested with vampires and ferals alike. It will be in tattered ruins. If I don't fix this mess, no one will. Rick may not want to help, but I'll make him and the rest of the world do what they should've done before this blew up into the wreck it is."

I yanked the blanket back over me and rolled to face the wall, hoping it was message enough for Rye to leave me alone. I was done talking. I'd made up my mind and not him, Jeremy, Blaze, hell, not even Sarah could convince me otherwise. I needed to do something. I couldn't just sit there and let the time go flitting by with nothing but ashes left to the future. Nothing but soot and ashes.

As things stood, there was no future. No future for me, for Jeremy. How could he expect to live secluded, underground forever? How could he be denied the blue of sky, fresh air and snowy mountains? Were they that naïve that the world would work out in the end? Were people so hopeless as to give up on the world and leave it in ruins? How could this have happened?

I closed my eyes, squeezing fat tears onto my pillow. My mother would've fought for it. I knew she would've. This was my future, our future, that I fought for. Why couldn't anyone else see it that way? As the dawn approached, I shoved at the turmoil in my head and begged for rest. It finally came but not without due payment of nightmares of a future filled with blood and death.

Chapter Eight

Truth and Lies

The humming of the fluorescent lights illuminating the hall felt like a buzzing bee in my ears. I couldn't sleep, and what little I'd gotten had left me weary and itching to move from the lumpy bunk I was lying on. Blinking, I focused on the lump covered in the scratchy grey military-issue blanket across from me. Rye was dead asleep, his soft breaths barely noticeable in the dim room.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, careful to not make any noise, and pulled my boots on. I'd slept in my clothes, like I always did. Nothing beats being ready to go at a second's notice. Patting down the matted mess my ponytail had turned into, I frowned and decided to let it be. No sense in trying to impress anyone there. I slipped my travel pack on and was ready to go.

Sneaking into the hall, I glanced down the way toward the lab. It wasn't far but wasn't close enough to give me the heebie jeebies thinking about all the distorted things lingering in the tanks in there. It sent a shudder down my spine, but I let out a slow breath and decided to head down there anyway. I glanced around each door but only found empty bunks. It had me wondering where Rick was sleeping. Why did he make me feel that he was hiding so much more under that nerdy exterior of his? My gut feelings were usually dead on, and this one was screaming for me to talk more with him, alone. It wasn't that he'd given me any hints or anything like that, it was just a feeling that he didn't want to speak around the hybrid vampires, not about certain things. If I could find him, maybe I could squeeze out every little secret he held inside.

I followed the circumference of the lab, finding the place deserted. There were more bunks on this side of the lab, but no one filled the empty mattresses within, and I wondered where the hell everyone had gone. There were more bunks farther down the hall where Rye and I had slept, but I hadn't bothered backtracking to check them out. Maybe everyone was over there, and I'd missed them.

It wasn't a problem. I didn't really want to see any of them at the moment. I didn't want to explain my midnight stroll through this oppressive place.

I stopped, my heart drumming under my chest like frightened butterfly, warning me of something. Rick was nearby, and I didn't even know how I knew it. It was as if it was just a fact I'd been told somehow. I tiptoed farther down until I reached the last door of the hall of bunks. It was slightly ajar, and the darkness within told me he was probably asleep. I wiggled my fingers. They itched to reach in there and surprise the son of a gun.

Barge in or sneak in? I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I crept in anyway, making sure the door didn't squeak as I focused my eyes into the darkness of the room.

"Are you going to kill me now?" Rick's disembodied voice hit me like an arctic wind. I swallowed but focused on the body lying in the bottom bunk.

My eyes adjusted, and I could make out his back turned toward me and his face hidden as he stared at the wall. Vulnerable. He was a pompous man if he felt he was safe within my reach. I realized I had the upper hand and slipped in, turning the small bedside lamp on as I sat down on the opposite bunk. He shifted and turned to face me, his eyes shiny under the reading light.

"No. I'm not going to kill you... yet." I didn't mean to sound so ominous, but I was tired of games. "I know there's a lot more about what's going on out there in the world, about this virus and why everyone is infected. I want to know everything, and you're going to tell me."

His nose flared as he studied me across the narrow void between us. His eyes squinted just a bit. His glasses were sitting on the bedside table. Still, he took me in as if he'd just met me and had to memorize each detail of this potential specimen before he could splay it open or let it sit in a tank of overpowering formaldehyde, posed like a precious work of art.

"I know a lot of things, April." My name on his tongue made me uncomfortable as I remembered how he'd used his telekinesis on me earlier. "Why should I tell you anything? And what specifically do you really want to know? Some of it matters, some of it doesn't. Your mother wasn't much for words, so I can't tell you if she was so unhappy here that it drove her to such a tragic end. I'm sorry I can't tell you much more about her in that way."

Now he was just pushing me. "Well, with what you did with her blood... the antidote... can you cure everyone? The sick ones, the ferals and the ones with the green withering sickness?"

It wasn't exactly the question I really wanted answered, but it would do for a starter.

He sighed, ruffling his hair and coming up to a sitting position. He leaned into his knees as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He reached over to clasp his glasses and perched them on his pointy nose before focusing on me once more.

"April, everything has a cure. There is a way to cure everyone, but I'm afraid the cure can be worse than the disease itself."

"What do you mean?" My palms were sweating, the anticipation harrowing.

"I mean there are those who would do anything to destroy it, hide it, use it for their own purposes, for power. There are those who would deem it necessary to make it mandatory for all to take the medicine. There are those who would refuse such an option. Maybe if we'd had this at the time of the outbreak it would've been more salvageable. But now, heading into a year and half after the event, nothing is the same, and it'll never be the same. There are hunters and prey, there are strong and weak, there are vampires and humans. Nothing will ever be the same as it was before. Do you understand that, April?" His voice was deathly serious, and his eyes were filled with a threat that made me flinch.

"You won't give me the antidote recipe, will you?" It wasn't a question. I stated it like a fact.

His lips curled up, showing off a perfect set of teeth. Tiny crow's feet framed his eyes as the smile met them. He could've been charming, in another life, for an older guy. I could see why my mother had liked him, if she had. I didn't believe every word coming from his mouth. But I only felt the burn of pure, unfiltered hatred toward a man who could withhold such things from humanity. It wasn't his decision to make.

"No, April. I can't give it to you."

I stood up, glaring down at him and feeling my heart surge like fire, begging release from my ribcage. He flinched, but only just. "You will give it to me. You have no right to keep it to yourself."

"And what will you do with it? Would you take the medicine? Would you turn into a plain human again when so many beasts and monsters still lurk across the world? Is that what you really want?"

"I don't know, but there are those who want it."

"And you are what? Their martyr?"

"It doesn't matter. It's not your decision. You're not God. You're not the Devil. It isn't yours."

"It isn't yours either, April."

I watched him through the pool of fury tears about to spill down my cheeks. My face flushed in heat as I tamed the hurt, the frustration and anger down into a tiny flame flickering in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to hurt him, but doing so would squash any chance for a future for myself, for Jeremy.

"Why won't you try to help others? You've done so much damage. Just give it to me, and I'll find someone who is more willing to explore the options. You don't want to, I get that. But you have no right to withhold it from the world. Why even make it in the first place? You're no king here."

Rick's face had fallen into tight, serious mask, and his eyes stared back in a pregnant silence. I hated not being able to hear his thoughts as he heard mine. I hated him with every tiny morsel of my being, but I held my ground, knowing I would take what I wanted soon enough, even by force. This was but a formality, his chance to make it easier on me and himself. I was ready to take him to the pit of hell, kicking and screaming, for the antidote. He would burn for not handing it over, but that would come all in good time.

What surprised me was that the moments kept ticking by, as though he was actually contemplating my plight and considering doing as I asked. Nothing would have been better than to do this the easy way, with his help. With him, the cure would be but a shot away, and not just for the ones that needed it the most, the ferals, but for everyone. Humanity could begin again. That was all I wanted, all I dreamed about anymore.

He sighed, straightening up, still sitting as he bore his eyes into mine. The darkness within and the slight hum of his telekinetic power brushing against my brain made me twitch. Dammit, what was the bastard up to now? It was always no good.

"I will not give it to you. You don't know what to do with it, and it will only bring chaos and more destruction than you've ever dreamed of. I won't let you do that. I may not have been the most righteous man here, doing what I do, but I will not be responsible for your careless deconstruction of what little remains of the world. That's what you'll be doing. There will be war between those who want the cure and those who wouldn't dream of taking it. You'll do nothing to bring peace or salvation to anyone. It will only bring more death, more pain. My answer is no."

Before he could blink, his glasses skidded to the floor, and my hand stung with a million tiny pricks of pain that burst across my skin as surely they did across his cheek where I'd slapped him with every bit of my inner hate.

"You'll do what I say, when I say." I grabbed his arm and shoved him against the door, pulling out my gun from my pack. "Or you die. Choose."

"Then you'll have to kill me."

"Dammit, Rick. You owe me this." My voice quivered. I was so angered by his stubbornness, I would have been okay jabbing the damned gun against the back of his head and blowing his brains out. I had to think, calm myself before it did end that way. "You owe Helen this."

At the mention of her name, his head dropped. I eased him back a bit. Obviously, the mention of my mother had an effect on this guy, for whatever it was worth. I had to use it for all the power it could give me.

"I'm truly sorry about your mother. Really, I am," he said, his voice cracking.

Seriously? The guy was about to cry. Great. He was nuttier than a squirrel's hoard in winter. Did he really think I was going to feel sorry for him? Unbelievable.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but what you did to her, you need to make up for it. You can't do anything for her now, but she'd want you to help me. I knew her better than you ever could have."

He looked up at me, sniffling like a little weasel. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" I restrained myself because I was about to strangle him. "I mean, if she really meant something to you, you have to understand that this cure... it's our salvation. And she would've wanted it and given everyone a choice to be cured or not. She would've never wanted it to be just your choice, Rick."

His tears remained wet across his cheeks, but I could see I was affecting him in some way. Maybe he could listen after all. Maybe he wasn't as lost as I thought he was. I was far from trusting him, that would be a battle for another day, but if I had his cooperation, it was going to be a whole lot easier.

After what felt like an eternity, his head began to bob, softly nodding. He waited for me to continue, but I found myself at a loss for any meaningful words.

"Come on," I said. "We've got a lot of work to do." I stood up and headed out the doorway into the darkened hallway where nothing met us but the humming of distant machines and the slight buzz from the lights. I heard him shuffling behind me hesitantly, but with each step, his stride turned more confident. I just hoped that he wouldn't stab me in the back like Christian had. His betrayal was still fresh in my mind, and even though he wasn't my boyfriend, our blood bond still messed with my head so much, it was enough to make me want to stake the bastard the next time I saw him. It hurt me, the thought of his love turning against me. After all we'd gone through, I had become soft, trusting and naïve to believe he'd never put me in danger. He had, and he would do it again.

Blood bonds suck.

***

The lab was quiet, like a lonesome, eager pet waiting for its master. The master was Rick, who trudged along through the freak show of tanks, specimens, limbs, and whatnot, like it was another day on the job. I still couldn't understand how he felt so at home there with death surrounding him. I guess it wasn't much unlike the way it was above ground, outside in the city where all the buildings were infested with evil and teeth that just wanted to rip your flesh. Except he had it a lot better. These things weren't trying to kill him at every turn. They just sat there and stared at us as we moved through the lab with their unwavering frozen stares, like they knew something we didn't.

"Where do you keep it?" I asked.

"Where do I keep the antidote, you mean?" He fiddled with a drawer and yanked out a ring strung with more keys I've ever seen. They jingled as he moved, and I winced at how loud they echoed across the counters and walls of the empty lab. I hoped no one heard us, it would ruin everything. I wished I didn't have to do this alone, but if Rye, Elijah or Sarah knew what I was doing, everything would be over in a millisecond.

"So, April," Rick said, "what do you think you can do with this antidote?" He flipped through the key ring, letting them jingle like a tiny song tinkling in my ears. It occurred to me that he might be stalling, but I wasn't going to assume it. I didn't know this man standing before me. Heck, he'd known my mother, in our past life, when time was abundant and death but an afterthought. He could know things about me that I'd never told anyone but my mother. Would she have even known she'd be giving up such secrets without a second thought? Back then, when a conversation over a cup of coffee in the teacher's lounge was as innocent as waking up for the day, she could have told him anything.

The thought was unsettling, and I found myself twiddling my thumbs as I thought about it. What guarantee did I have that he would help me? I wondered how well he had known my mother before this all happened, before the world fell to pieces and he became a mad scientist. I almost laughed at the thought. It was sort of funny to think that Rick was a normal science teacher once upon a time.

"What's taking so long?" I asked. "Don't you know where you keep it?" I stepped forward toward him, but he sensed me and backed away until his back hit the cabinets.

"Don't touch me!" His harsh whisper stunned me, leaving me to stare at him.

"What the... are you insane? I'm not going to hurt you." That's when I heard it, one tiny step where the rubber of the sole of the shoe squeaked on the shiny tiles, and I knew he hadn't directed the comment toward me. I flicked my eyes behind me and saw a sword swing into the air just in time for me to duck under it, swipe my leg back toward the intruder and hit their ankle full force as I dropped to the floor.

The sword went flying across the tiles, but I didn't wait to see where it went. I was already up on my feet, catapulting onto the stranger before he or she was able to get up. I straddled them, yanking out a knife from my hip holster. I dug my knees into their shoulders and upper arms while my feet pressed into the sensitive area of their inner thighs. They yelped, obviously in pain.

The attacker was wearing all black, with dark jeans, a long-sleeve shirt and even a dark mask covering their face. From the feel of their body, it was a man, but he was small and I was able to hold him down even though he kept bucking his weight up at his hips to try to shake me off.

Grunting with the effort, I managed to pull off the mask. I gasped. "Mercer?" He stopped bucking and dared to throw me a smirk. "What the fuck?"

"Quite impressive, April. You're as fascinating as Rick said you would be."

I made the mistake to look back toward Rick, who was holding that same fucking syringe. Mercer took that distraction to buck me off and encircle his arms around me, squeezing hard enough to make me drop my knife.

Shit!

"Don't worry, April." Rick wasn't smiling, which was surprising, considering he was about to shoot me up with something. "It's not the antidote. We set you up for capture, and you walked right into it. Thank you, April. You played your part so well, you made it all too easy."

"What the hell do you mean? What is that if it isn't the antidote?" I struggled against Mercer, who now had me pinned to the floor, and his hot breath on my ear made me cringe. I swore to God if that was a hard on I could feel bulging down there, I was going to lose my mind. Or he was going to lose something.

It wasn't my imagination. The psycho was getting off on this. Perfect.

"Sorry, April. This might sting a little bit. It's just something to make you for sleep just for a while."

I managed to pull away some, and Mercer struggled to keep me in one spot, tightening his grip with his arms encircling me like a straitjacket.

"Rick... please... don't do this! You have to help me! Don't let him have me. Please...." I felt the pinprick stab in my arm, a tiny spark of pain. I always hated needles. The medicine worked fast, and the room began to sway while my struggling body went lax. Mercer led me down to the floor.

"I've got the girl. Come quietly, everyone's still asleep. Over."

I could hear them speaking to someone in the crackle of a radio. My body no longer responded, but I could still hear him, and I could still hear Rick shuffle around with keys as he probably went to remove the real antidote. Damn you, Rick. Why would he do this to me? Where was everyone? Rye was probably still sleeping, and the others, too. I was such a fool to do this alone. Now what would become of me?

"Is she out?"

"She might still hear us, but she's pretty out of it. She won't give us any trouble for a while."

"Good. We can have a lot of fun with this one."

"You'll do no such thing." This voice was cold with a hint of anger in it. Was it Christian? Was he actually there? Why didn't anyone know they had gotten out of the quarantine? How could they all sleep through this? What was going on? "We have to leave the area and close it down like before so they'll think she broke in on her own accord. Just keep to the sections with no cameras." It was Christian. That traitorous bastard!

"I'm still your second in command," Mercer snapped back. "I'll be in charge of her. Your blood bond will cloud up your thoughts and risk our mission." Mercer's snarl did nothing to faze Christian as he muttered a rebuttal that Mercer didn't immediately oppose. I could feel his heart beating through his relentless grip on my arm. I wasn't sure who was carrying the bulk of me, but Christian was making sure he wasn't touching me. Now I knew just how much the bond was affecting him. I had always had more control over it than he.

"Mmmm...."

"Rick!" Mercer hissed. "She's waking up, dammit! Hit her up with another dose now." He shifted, still digging his fingers into my skin. Another sharp prick in my arm burned the muscle like liquid fire, but I couldn't scream. I could do nothing but let the darkness overtake me.

"I added some sedative this time. That should knock her out." Rick's dry tone told me he wasn't happy with the situation at all. Well, that made three of us then.

Their voices faded as the medicine flowed through my veins. I hoped that when I woke up, I would still be whole and untouched. Mercer scared me, but I had faith that my bond with Christian would keep that vulture away as I lay dead to the world.

Chapter Nine

Memory is Cruel

I heard birds chirping, but it wasn't real. No, it was more like the flapping of their wings had brought me back to the beaches my parents would drag me to when I was small, before my brother had been born. Days spent digging into the fine grains of sand and dragging buckets of seawater to my piles of dirt to make it easier to sculpt it into a masterpiece were precious memories. I could feel the same powdery sand under my skin as I shifted and the scent of ocean permeated the air.

I had to be dreaming. This wasn't something from the present, and my mind shuddered as it fought to regain control of the dream, throwing darkness around me like an inky black smoke. But the fog was too rich, too thick to brush away, and I slipped back to the beach of my ten-year-old self.

The scenery turned crisp, bright, and I focused on the shoreline before me. The sun burned at my scalp, prompting me to glance around for a hat or towel to throw over it and keep the rays off my skin. I had a tendency to burn easily.

"April." My mother's voice echoed in my ears, far away, as though it was underwater or through a thick wall.

"Mom?" I spun around and finally laid eyes on the woman who I considered to be one of the most amazing and beautiful women I've ever known.

"Here." She handed me a scarf, and I promptly wrapped it about my head and donned the sunglasses dangling from her delicate fingertips. Her nails were smooth, manicured to perfection, but with only a thin layer of clear coat to make them shine. Her hands were beautiful and strong.

"Thanks, Mom." I gestured toward the tumbling waves and prepared to barrage her with questions. "What are we doing here?"

She plopped down beside me and let out a deep rushing breath. "Oh, my dear. Have you forgotten to enjoy things already? You have to look around sometimes, take in the beauty of the world. It can disappear without a moment's notice. Look at the water. It's strong, unshakeable. The sand, smoothed over from centuries of being tossed about. Notice how fine it is and it feels like heaven under your feet. Why is it so hard to see the simple things?"

I huffed and turned back toward the water, watching as wave after wave pummeled the shore like a raging beast.

"People die out there, Mom," I said as I contemplated her words. I had always been too old for my age, or so she had said. An old soul trapped in a young body. It had prevented me from enjoying my childhood like any other ten-year-old, and it had stolen my innocence along with it, replacing it with the blatant knowledge of just how cruel and dark the world could really be. "Millions have died already. There's no hope."

I bit my lip, and the taste of coppery blood hit my tongue.

"Darling, I know it seems as if there's nothing to care about anymore. It seems impossible with such a bleak horizon in sight. I know how you feel." She sat quietly beside me, and I waited for her to continue. "Nothing I say can make you feel better. I know that more than anyone. Just promise me you'll pause and look around now and then. Enjoy the burnt orange of the sunsets. Breathe in the crisp ocean air, savor the taste of wild strawberries and watermelons we find now and then treading through untouched greenhouses. You can't forget these things. You mustn't. Promise me."

I peeked at her sideways and scrunched up my eyes. She had hers closed and was letting the ocean breeze rush past her face and ruffle the long fuchsia scarf she'd wrapped around her unruly hair.

But wait... she was dead, wasn't she?

"Mom?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why did you leave me?"

She didn't turn toward me but just stared off across the waves. I breathed in the faint smell of coconut lotion and waited for her response. When she didn't move, I opened my mouth to speak again, but her image flickered.

What the...?

I scanned the beach and found it empty. My eyes swung back to my mother, but she too was gone.

No, no, no...

I jumped to my feet and felt the air turn frigid as I spun, searching for the birds, the few people who had occupied the beach just a few seconds ago.

"Mom?" I called out.

Only silence answered back to me.

"Mom!" I hollered and ran toward the shore, but there was no one.

No one but me.

I was still alone in the world, and everyone was dead. Everyone but me.

***

"What exactly are you saying?" Mercer's voice came out snappy, as if the person speaking to him had irritated him for the last time and was in danger of being extinct.

"I mean... the girl. Her blood isn't compatible with any of the antidotes."

"Rick shot her up with all of them?"

"No, sir. He used them all on the samples of her blood he took."

"None of them are working?"

"No, sir."

I heard a smack and then the thump of something heavy landing on the ground. "Get the hell out of my face and tell Rick he needs to hurry up. I'm sick of waiting for results from that pencil-necked twit."

"Yes, sir." The other person got up and limped away. The scent of his sweat permeated the air, and a nervous charge hung in his wake like static.

"Maybe she's the final product of the virus. Lethal and all powerful. Immune to any antidote because she's not really infected per se, but the result of a human body's perfected defenses against it via adaptation."

Christian.

I resisted the temptation to jump off the hard mattress I was lying on to slam my fists into his pretty face. His dark red hair haunted my memories, as did his two-colored eyes. Brown and Green. Two different hues that so perfectly represented his duality. I loved his eyes, though. They called to me in dreams and tormented me whenever I met them face to face. The sadness over his betrayal hurt down to the core, and I fought to keep my breathing rhythmic and slow as my heart felt like it would burst. How could he do this? I thought he had wanted to win my heart and be my mate. Even though I wouldn't have given in to him so easily, if he'd been patient, with time... maybe we could've been something more.

What was I saying? I flicked my eyes open and tried to move, only to find that my wrists and ankles were strapped to the metal frame of the bed. Great. Why hadn't I noticed that before opening my eyes? I was a sitting duck.

"Hello, princess." Christian's voice was warm and welcoming, making me hate him even more. A chair scraped along the cement floor, and I focused my blurry vision onto him as he leaned in toward me. "I was hoping you'd wake up soon."

I closed my eyes, tugging at the restraints to no avail. I'd been drained of blood, left weak. What had they done to me?

"Water," I managed to whisper, but I couldn't do much more. It hurt to speak, to breathe. Only dizziness greeted me, even though I was lying down. So cold.

"One moment." I heard him rustling about followed by the distinct sound of liquid pouring into a plastic cup and a crinkle of paper before he returned to my side. "Here, love. Sip from the straw."

I blinked as I felt the plastic touch my cracked lips. I let it past my teeth and sucked in the fluid, my stomach clenching with waves of nausea as I paused to breathe past it before I could sip some more.

"Where am I?" I croaked. How long had I been out? It must've been a while because my throat felt like it had been dragged through sandpaper, and my lips had a layer of dead skin that cracked as I spoke. I licked them and tasted the taint of blood.

The memory of the ocean came rushing back to me, and I tensed up, remembering my mother. Tears blurred my vision again as I gulped back a sob.

"Now, now. You'll be fine. I promise you."

"Where am I?" I hissed it this time and managed a nice frown as I focused back onto Christian through the tears that I fought to restrain. I had the urge to damage that pretty face of his like I'd stabbed up his stomach. One day, I promised myself, that would be on my to-do list, right at the very top.

"We're still in the same facility. We've quarantined off the area where Blaze's group is. Don't worry. They can't get in here like we could get in there. They'll never find the way in. They're trapped there. There's no way out from that quad. It was a way to trick them into closing themselves in. They fell for the false sense of security."

"Bastard." I closed my eyes, feeling a bit better, but my head was still aching fiercely.

"April, let's not be so harsh. It's for all our good that we did this."

"Fuck you, Christian."

A haughty laugh echoed from behind my head. I couldn't see him, but I knew it was Mercer.

"My, my. She is a feisty one. Just like you said. You lucky bastard."

"Go to hell, Mercer."

His hot breath flared across my cheek, and his face appeared right next to mine.

"Come on, Mercer, back up," Christian said, looking annoyed.

"Listen here, precious. I don't care if he's your mate or not. I'll still kill you with the first wrong step you take. And for your information... we're already in hell, if you haven't noticed, bitch!"

"Back off," Christian said again. He put his hand on Mercer's chest, throwing him a look of warning.

"Temper, temper," I said, laughing at how quickly they had begun to bicker. Maybe I could use that against them. I let my head rest against the flat pillow under my head. "I need to pee."

"Pee yourself."

I laughed again and shook my head. "What? Afraid this little drained human is going to beat you up? Aww...."

Mercer stomped away, cursing under his breath. Feeling a tickle at my feet, I looked down to find Christian undoing the restraints.

"Sorry, he's sort of insensitive."

"No kidding."

"Come on. I'll take you to the showers. There's a toilet, towels and fresh clothes there. You stink, by the way."

"You smell like a rose, too." I scrunched up my nose up and eyed him straight on. "How long was I out?"

"A full seventy-two hours."

"Geez...." I let my head drop back as he slid over to undo my wrist restraints. "Is that true? Can the others not get out?"

"Oh, they can get out. It'll take them forever to do it, but it's possible. This place took years to complete. It was built before Vida was."

He helped me sit up, and I rubbed my sore skin. The grime under my nails and my cracked skin made me frown. "How do you know of all these secret projects?"

"I used to work for the government. It was my job to oversee the labs and chemicals being shipped into these places. There's dozens of fortresses, all across the country."

"You're kidding, right? Do you think humans made it to them at all?"

He shifted on his feet, still bent at the bedside. He stared hard at the cement floor. His long, dark red hair framed his features, making his eyes shine in the dark.

"I don't know. Probably. Quite a few made it to the ones here in Vegas, surprisingly."

I stood up and waited. He stretched up before me. His height was always impressive.

"All right, then," I said, looking up at him, "lead the way."

Chapter Ten

Where All the Things Meet

Rick was tinkering with an assortment of vials and liquids bubbling over Bunsen burners. In his protective glasses, lab coat and gloves, he was the epitome of a chemistry teacher, lost in concentration and every so often jotting down notes in a notebook splayed open on the counter nearby. Slipping onto a stool the next table over, I watched him with curiosity as he mixed the chemicals, siphoned drops out and dropped the fluid into trays filled with other fluids and gel.

This lab was much smaller than the other, but it had clearly been stocked in advance. Several vials were obviously blood specimens; some the rich red color you'd expect them to be while others were the dark black-red of feral blood. Blood was the new gold in this day and age. There was nothing more precious or more fragile than the red, viscous life sloshing about in our bodies.

The urge to grab one and tilt it into my hand to watch the blood flow back and forth in small, tiny waves was overwhelming. My fingers itched to touch the glass containers, so I stuffed them into my pockets and remained seated on my stool. Besides, it was easier to not reach over and snap Rick's neck if my hands weren't available.

I wondered which vials held my blood as I craned my neck to read some of the labels. When I'd mentioned to Mercer about being a drained, little human, I wasn't kidding. The effects of the anemia made me overwhelmingly exhausted, thirsty and lightheaded if I stood up too fast. After taking a shower and wiping the steam off the mirror of the bathroom, I'd found an unfamiliar pallor of yellowish gray to my skin, replacing the previously healthy pink glow. It had made me wince as I took in my reflection, my lips a dusty pink, pale and delicate. It had flared up a bit of resentment toward Mercer and Rick, but I shook it off momentarily, promising myself they'd get their just desserts in due time. These freaks had to slip up sooner or later, and I had to recover from the draining before I could even think about fighting with anyone.

I hated feeling helpless. Already so used to being a hybrid human, which had given me so much strength and agility, I felt a sense of utter loss at being drained. At least I was sure to recover fast. Still, if only I had some vampire blood, it would speed up the process.

I cleared my throat. Rick didn't even look up. "Rick."

"I'm quite busy."

"I don't care."

He put down a vial and smiled as he finished dropping a couple tablets into it, causing it to fizz up. "I knew you were stubborn, but you really need to let me work."

"Worst of the worst."

He peeked over his glasses, shiny blue eyes framed with tiny crow's feet wrinkling around them as he continued to grin. "Helen would chat with me sometimes, when I was able to see her, and she spoke highly of you and your wild ways. She had so much respect for her wayward daughter. She was very proud to be your mother." Was that a hint of sadness in his voice?

It only caused the anger to resurface inside me, and my mood darkened at the mention of my mother. I flicked my eyes down to the black counter, willing the bubbling resentment away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter." But it did. "Did you find anything in my blood that makes a difference?"

Moving his eyes down in shame, he swirled the vial in his fingers until the fizzy liquid turned a pale violet and then morphed into a deep maroon red.

"Well, I've found several differences between your blood and your mother's." He lifted the vial and poured it into several test tubes he had propped up in a rack. "I've isolated several red blood cells that defy the definition of a blood cell. It's like they're super red blood cells, filled with energy and resistant to injury. Your T-cells are abnormally large, too. In fact, the entire makeup of your blood is mutated compared to a normal human's blood. It's not very obvious, but I see the differences." He peeked up at me again, a serious but excited twinkle lingering in his eyes. It only made me shift in my seat even more. "It's like you've adapted to this virus, assimilating it, and it has enhanced your entire body."

"The Hulk. That's me. I'm relieved I don't have to turn green, though."

He laughed, and so did I. As much as I despised Rick, I was glad the somber mood was gone.

"Well, not quite, but not too far off. You could very well be the answer to the antidote problem."

My ears perked up at this, and I waited, impatiently, for him to tell me more. My knees knocked under the table, and I buried my hands deeper in my pockets to hide my fidgetiness. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the antidote was having some issues working without any side effects."

"What sort of side effects?"

"Well, some people... err... vampires... died from it. They're body couldn't separate from the virus without tearing up the person inside." He wrinkled his nose and dipped a dropper into the vial he'd just mixed, letting one fat droplet ease onto a slide.

I gulped. "So why in the hell were you going to shoot me up with that crap?"

"Well, we hadn't tried it on a human hybrid yet. Your mother's blood hadn't converted to hybrid, and it was impossible to test how well it would work."

"I could've died, and you didn't want to test it on my blood first?"

"I wasn't given a choice. Mercer wanted it tested on you immediately."

"And if it had killed me?" He didn't answer. "Who would you test it on then?"

"I don't know, April. I'm working blind here. I really didn't want to do it."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"I'm sorry. I'll have to show you what it can do later."

He was silent as he worked and didn't look up again. I was left stewing at his words. Moments later, I was still steaming, tapping my fingertips furiously on the black tabletop, but he'd decided I'd calmed down enough.

"Look, I know that would've been the better route to take, get a sample of your blood and test it on that first. But Mercer is very impatient and even convinced Christian to help wrangle you up. I didn't know what his real intentions were until I got to your door. It was only then that he ordered me to inject you with it. I'm really sorry."

"You can shove that apology where you know it will hurt most, Rick," I hissed and pushed off the stool, sending it toppling over. Bad idea. The room spun, and I grabbed at the table to steady myself.

"Whoa, there, cowgirl." Christian's hands were on my sides, holding me up. I wanted to hit him in the chest with my frustration and hurt, but I just let him hold me instead. I was tired, and it was making me think all screwy. It wasn't a good position to be in. Weak, vulnerable.

"I'm going to lie down." I shoved his arms away, but he didn't let go.

"Did you eat anything?"

"Yes, breakfast." I glared at him, but his twinkling eyes found it amusing and not dismissive as I had wished it to be.

"It's lunchtime already."

I hung my head and closed my eyes. I decided the fatigue might fade some with food. I relented. "Okay. What's on the menu?"

"Steak."

My eyebrow lifted, questioning the choice. "You have steak?" My question would've been unusual before the end of the world. Now it was so foreign to talk about meat. Fresh meat, at that.

He nodded. "Yep. Fat cows and sheep in the underground pastures. Just like the City of Vida."

I grinned. A steak might be good for me. Iron, protein. I was game.

"Got any hamburgers?"

"With the works."

"About time something goes my way." My mouth was already salivating, but I swallowed it back.

"Indeed."

Now that the room wasn't spinning like I'd just gotten off an amusement ride, I managed to keep up with Christian as he headed toward the dining room. He ordered a burger with the works for me. I glanced around the crowded eating area and cringed. It was full of hybrid vamps. Lots of them, with hungry eyes and deafening whispers as I passed them by. Déjà vu sucked eggs. I wasn't ready to fight, not here, not against these vampires. I had no weapons, no juju, nothing. I wouldn't stand a chance.

"Don't worry. They have strict orders to not touch you."

"I've heard that one before." I groaned and turned away before I let their haloed stares wear me down and make me want to bolt for the door. I wanted my hamburger.

Christian's eyes flashed at me, deep and determined. "I'm serious. It's an immediate kill order for anyone who comes near you, no warning."

"What about you? You've touched me."

"I'm exempt. But I, unlike them, have no intentions of killing you."

"What about Mercer?"

Christian flicked his eyes away and accepted the two burgers handed over by the cook. It was piled up tall with all the fixings, making my mouth water even more. In my mind, I was already savoring each and every delicious bite.

"He's not to be trusted." He kept his voice low as we left the grill and reentered the rows of venomous stares.

I pondered this while he led me back toward the room I'd been in earlier. It had a small table and two chairs in it. I figured it was probably best he took me there anyway. We were away from the prying eyes of dangerous folks who looked like they wanted me gutted and spitted.

I had to figure out how to escape, but I really didn't want to yet. I wanted that antidote, and I was all ready to stay as long as it took to get it. It wasn't for me, though. I was never going to take the damned serum. I liked the way I was, but there was a whole new world out there that could use it. Once I had it in my possession, then I would figure out what to do with myself and get the heck out of there. Not until then. I was just hoping it wasn't going to take long to get it. I was already missing Jeremy, Rye and all of my friends.

The thought of them sent a sharp pain through my chest, and I sucked down a sip from my soda to cover it up. How I longed to be enjoying this burger with them. Jeremy would love it. He'd eaten one every day we'd spent in Vida. That and heaps of pizza loaded with all kinds of stuff on it. It'd been a good time, seeing him scarf down his favorite pre-epidemic favorites. The virus had stolen so many such pleasures away.

Jeremy would understand my plight. If I told him that I wanted to save more people from Mom's fate, he'd be completely aligned with me. I knew it. The thought rewarmed my frigid insides as I shoved an enormous, mouthwatering bite into my mouth.

Chapter Eleven

Salvation Is Love

Rye

"How the hell did she get away?" Rye paced the floor, unable to calm the raging fire consuming him ever since he'd discovered April was missing. "How did they get her? We were supposed to be secure."

"Calm down." Blaze's set jaw let Rye know he wasn't immune to the disappointment either. Their enemy had effectively locked them out of their isolation area and snatched one of their own from right under their noses. "We'll find her and get her back."

"Why are we sitting here, then?" Rye paused, staring out the glass wall of the lab. "She could be dead by now. Or worse."

"We're trying to find the way they came in. Patience."

"They're not trapped, we are. Leaving without her isn't happening."

Blaze sighed, rubbing his temple and staring out the glass wall alongside Rye. "Christian betrayed us. He was our only link to this hive. If we stay, we risk being decimated by their ranks."

"We can't leave!" Rye's eyes widened at the suggestion. "She's their prisoner. I can't leave without April." Rye shook his head, aware of the danger they were in. "I won't leave."

"We have to go. Knowing April, she'll figure a way out anyway."

"You did not just say you're fine with abandoning her here."

"Rye." Blaze grabbed his shoulders and tilted his head forward to meet him eye to eye. "This is April we're talking about. If anyone can get themselves out of a mess, it's her."

Rye continued to shake his head, unable to fathom what his cousin was about to do. "No, I can't."

"You will come with us. It's an order." Blaze let go and headed toward the sleeping quarters where the others were waiting. No one would be happy with the news, but he knew Elijah and Sarah wouldn't object. They knew April as well as he did. They would return to patrol the area for April, but it was now up to her to escape. The fortress was impenetrable, and they had no knowledge of the place, no guide. There was simply no option but to leave and let April figure it out from the inside.

Rye smacked his wrist on the glass, and a dull pain instantly enveloped his hand. As much as it pained him to leave her behind, he knew Blaze was right. They were sitting ducks there, waiting for a slaughter. Still, the thought of leaving made him sick and desperate to save April. But how? How could he save her?

Rubbing his throbbing wrist, he sighed and felt his heart ache. He'd make sure to patrol this area every day until April was found. He'd be there when she figured it out. She would, too, knowing her stubborn, conniving resourcefulness. She was the only person he'd always bet on.

"Let's move out!" Blaze's voice echoed down the hall, and Rye grabbed his pack and headed over to join them. His heart was racing to the tune of his boots pounding the tiles as they evacuated the hive. He hoped April would forgive him and sent a silent message of love and support to her.

I'll never leave you.

His silent prayer to her made him feel a bit calmer, but it still was devastating, like when he'd lost her to the City of Vida for days upon days without news, without a way to locate her. This wasn't any easier; it was actually worse because he knew where she was, he just couldn't reach her. She could be just a few yards away, on the other side of a wall, but she was all alone.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Blaze's agitation was slipping past his usual mask of stoicism. Rye didn't care if he pushed him too far. He'd planted himself in place and refused to move.

"You'll die here."

"So be it."

Blaze's shiny halos flared to life, his anger flushing the color of his skin. "Fine. Rye, it was a pleasure knowing you." Blaze pivoted away, and the others followed closely behind. Rye sat down at the control panel, scanning the cameras and watching the others in their quarantine. There was no sign of April, no sign of anything out of the ordinary. They were even still drilling at the escape door, hoping to open it.

Their continued charade made him laugh and shake his head. The bastards were stellar actors. They still acted as though they were desperate to open the door. It was that or they really didn't know that someone had come and taken April through a hidden route. From the looks of it, the entire hive wasn't privy to this information. It made him wonder where the possible hidden entrance could be.

Now that he was alone, he had all the time in the world to find it.

A tap on the tile floor had him jumping from his chair and drawing out his gun. Crouched and poised for an attack, he groaned as Elijah and Sarah stood with hands up.

"Whoa, buddy, it's just us."

"What the hell do you want?" Rye stuffed the gun away and plopped back onto the chair, switching camera views to another part of the facility.

"She's our friend, too." Sarah sat down on a swivel chair next to him and started scanning the screens. Her long red hair was in a thick braid draping over her back. She was beautiful, and Rye knew she was April's friend from high school. That little fact made him relax, happy to have some small part of April there with him.

"Blaze has no authority over us," Elijah said. "We choose our own paths. He's heading back to his hive and said if we didn't return within a day, he'd write us off." He didn't join them but walked to the glass wall that led into the corridor. Peering out to scan both ends, he secured the control room before he settled in next to Sarah.

"Fair enough. I have to get her out of there. How could Christian betray her like that? I hate his guts, but isn't he prohibited from putting her in danger? He's supposedly bound to her in some sick way." Rye's face contorted at the thought of his competition. He'd noticed the way Christian stared at April. She also had some sort of emotional attachment to the enemy hive leader, which was an obstacle itself. She'd controlled the attachment by avoiding Christian in every way possible, a fact that made Rye very happy. Still, he was close to her now without any barriers between them. This sent Rye into a steaming rage, and he tapped his fingers impatiently on the console. It sickened him and made him even more desperate to find her now.

"I don't see any views of their cafeteria or any sort of prison-like cells to secure someone in. My guess is that the lack of cameras in those areas is intentional. I suggest the best course of action is to scope out any entrances and blueprints we can find and find another way in. Once we do, we'll have to target these areas; it's likely they're holding her in one of them."

Sarah hopped up and started ripping cabinets open for any blueprints of the place.

Rye watched her, impressed with her thoroughness. "Where'd you find this one?" He flicked his eyes toward Elijah, who shrugged and yawned.

"Came with the territory."

"She's hybrid, right?"

Elijah nodded. "There were twelve of us enslaved under the City of Vida's dictatorship. When April killed Katrina, we were freed. We owe her everything."

Rye nodded and turned away from the burly human warrior. He wasn't sure what Elijah's attachment to April was either, though he had no reason to feel threatened. He was pretty sure that Sarah had laid claim to the hybrid human leader already, but he wasn't sure.

"Found them!" Sarah bounced back into the room, spreading several rolled-up blueprints across one of the tables behind them. She smacked her gum, which she then twirled around her finger, stretching out the elastic substance before popping it back into her mouth. Rye gave her a tiny smile as he moved his gaze onto the papers under her hands.

"Where did you find them? I thought they'd be in a more secure location."

"I figured they'd be in the most obvious place that they'd think we wouldn't look."

"Where's that?"

"Storage closet at the end of the hall."

Rye wrinkled his nose but resumed orientating himself to the blueprints. It took a while to go through all of them, but as the three of them studied the papers, they came to a unified conclusion.

"No way that it's that easy."

"No wonder they got past us."

The bathroom at the end of the dorms was the hidden entrance. It was the only area left unmarked. It left a hole in the blueprints like someone didn't really want to include it on the paper but had to so that the structure looked intact. The cavernous fortress was massive. It held huge living quarters with everything needed for survival, including water collection and filtration machines, livestock quarters, a massive greenhouse for food and herbs. It was a well-oiled machine and had been constructed over a period of years. The other hive had it good here, and it made Rye just a tad bit jealous that they had endured such harsh weather in the city to construct their makeshift bunker under the airport.

"Let's head here first." Elijah pointed out the armory and was already heading out the door when Rye and Sarah moved to catch up.

"He doesn't waste any time, does he?" Rye asked.

Sarah giggled and almost skipped along next to him. Nothing ever seemed to get her down. "Yeah, he's pretty to the point. No bullshit." She winked, making the blood rush to Rye's face. She was pretty and so upbeat; he could see why April liked her. They were polar opposites in every way. Maybe April needed Sarah's chirpiness to keep her head out of the murk she was constantly submerged in.

He hadn't really thought about what April had been like before the virus killed off most of the population and turned everyone else into blood drinkers. Had she been as happy and carefree as her friend here? It saddened him to realize how the world had left April−disillusioned and desolate. Her moods had become more unstable since her mother had died. She'd even left Jeremy in the City of Vida with his friends' families instead of caring for him. How had she become so hopeless?

"Here it is." They arrived at the bathroom and headed to the last stall. It looked the same as all the other toilets, but the wall on one side of it had to be hollow. Elijah spent the next few minutes touching it and pushing on the tiles to find the trigger to open it. Finally, he gave up and let Sarah have a go at it. After a few minutes, she had it swinging open after pulling the flusher handle up instead of down.

"That's the stupidest lock I've ever seen."

"You couldn't figure it out, could you?" Sarah rolled her eyes at Elijah, who shook his head as he frowned at the toilet.

"Come on. Let's get April back."

Chapter Twelve

The Never-Ending Hunger

April

"I need to show you something." Rick motioned me down the hall, and I glanced at Christian to make sure it wasn't a trap. The damned bastard looked as confused as I was, so I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any funny business. Christian was hard to read, but our connection somehow hinted to me what he was feeling. It sucked most days because his emotions were often filled with desire. Today, it was muted and full of curiosity.

"What is it?" I followed along, cracking my knuckles to try and relieve some of the tension. Christian was right behind me, but it did nothing to reassure me.

"You'll see. It's very important and might convince you of things you otherwise wouldn't believe." Rick's smile gave me the heebie jeebies. He looked too happy, and I wondered what experiment he was going to throw my way.

I was getting tired of this endless labyrinth of cement and metal. I tried to not feel suffocated, but the lack of windows in the central area of the fortress I'd been held in was making me claustrophobic. Occasionally, the air would feel noxious, and I'd have to slow my breaths to calm my fluttering heart. Panic didn't look good on me, and I had to hold myself together.

We made our way to the smaller lab, and as we entered, I noticed the large window on the opposite side of the room. It had been darkened, covered in a blackout curtain. I wondered briefly why a human like Rick would blot out the sun, but I found out not a second later exactly why he kept the light at bay.

He pointed through another window, this one leading into a large, padded room. In it, chained to the other side by its wrists and ankles, was a feral vampire. It hung there, head down and limp as if it was resting or dead. I narrowed my eyes as I stared through the glass. Its ruined clothes were shredded but still clung onto the muscular body. I could tell it'd been a man at one point in life. Now he was nothing but a wild beast, a predator focused only on flesh and blood.

I wondered how Rick had come across one so intact. His flesh wasn't split open except for where the restraints were rubbing away layers of skin as he had pulled and tugged on the chains. His hair was missing in some patches, but for the most part had been kept free of knots. It grew wild over his eyes and touched his shoulders.

It would've taken several warriors to hold this one down long enough to chain him up. Maybe he'd been sedated, though I'd never seen a sedated Zompire. His muscles bulged from the immense strength the vampiric virus had given him in death. Even his legs looked like they'd bust through his ruined jeans. He still wore shoes, though quite worn with holes at the tips. It made me wonder how he'd come to be there.

"What are you doing with the feral?" I asked.

Rick smiled, as if a distant memory had clicked. "I've only met one other who called them ferals. Usually it's wildings or Zompires." He flicked his eyes to me, and it morphed into a pained sadness. "Your mother used that term, too."

The mention of my mother would've normally sent me into a seething rage, but the presence of the chained-up creature had my focus, and I wasn't going to leave until Rick told me what he was up to.

"So, what do you need him for? He looks like one of the biggest ones I've ever seen. Is he sedated?"

"Not at the moment. We did have to tranquilize him when we captured him. Took several darts to put him down, and he still took out six of our warriors. Not a bad show of strength."

I peered in, leaning closer to the glass. "Will those chains hold him?"

"Oh, yes, they're the strongest metal chains available. They've held bigger things than him." Rick went to the freezer standing against the wall and punched in a code. It beeped, and the door swung open, revealing row upon row of cylindrical vials. They held but half a milliliter each, like vaccine bottles I'd seen at the shot clinic. He pulled a drawer open next to the fridge and produced a single use syringe and separate needle. Unwrapping both before twisting them together, he plunged the needle into the vial and pulled back a bit of clear liquid.

Was this where the antidote was held?

I pulled my hungry eyes away from the fridge and focused on the feral in the room. Something bothered me about him, as if I knew him. But how would I ever have met him? I didn't remember knowing anyone so bulky. It was a feeling, a tingle across the hairs on my neck, that told me I did. It'd been ages since I'd seen a feral this intact. Most had crumbled into various states of decay and decomposition, like wild zombies who fought to stay satiated when there was a lack of blood. This one had not had a lack of blood meals.

Rick turned the handle on the steel door leading into the room and entered, syringe poised and ready. I wondered how cautious he should be with the sleeping feral. He seemed awfully confident walking in there without extra protection. Maybe those chains were capable of holding King Kong.

Even so, my stomach flipped as I pressed my hands against the glass and watched him get closer to the sleeping beast.

It still hadn't moved. The soft movement of his breath lifted his shoulders in a rhythmic repetition. Was he still sedated? His hair was slick with dirt and oil from the lack of a wash, and it hung down over his face, hiding his features. It could be dark blond or light brown, the dirt made it difficult to tell. The same went for his skin color. Underneath the grime and dried blood, he could be Caucasian or possibly Hispanic. My impatience had me wanting to tap my fingers on the glass to know where I'd seen him before. Rick couldn't wake him up fast enough.

As if he'd heard my thoughts, Rick reached out and stabbed the feral in the thigh muscle. He yanked the needle out just as fast before he jumped back as the feral roared to life. It thrashed, sending the chains rattling, and Rick backed out of the room, hurrying to open the metal door before slamming it behind him. I glanced at Christian, who shrugged. What the fuck had just happened?

"What the hell?" I put my hands on my hips, but a thump made me turn back to the room as I also stepped back. Rick was busy setting the deadbolts on the metal door before another thump slammed the door, and he jumped back.

"I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen." Rick bounced on his feet, staring through the window, excitement spreading across his face.

"What?" I stared in horror and turned back to the feral since he'd stopped thumping against the wall. Instead, he stood at the window, his hands pressed against the glass, wrists still in chains where his blood was streaming down his forearms. He was huffing and puffing, with a snarl stamped into his features and his eyebrows furrowed so deeply, I wondered if his skin would burst from the pressure.

But that wasn't what worried me the most. He was staring at me, his eyes still rimmed with red, but one of them was morphing into an orange blue like the color of the sky at sunset. He hissed as I stepped forward, his face calming the closer I approached. The one partly blue eye narrowed at me, flicking between my eyes in some sort of repressed recognition.

"What's wrong with his eyes?"

"He's morphing." Rick stepped closer to the window, obviously calmer but rubbing his fingertips together as he also observed the creature.

"Morphing into what?" I never looked away. I couldn't. It was like watching a car accident pile up, with each car tumbling into the next until it was nothing but a mass of blood, guts and twisted metal.

Rick turned toward me and smiled.

"Into a human."

My eyes widened, and I stepped closer and pressed my palms to the cool glass. The eyes blinked at me, no longer filled with rage, but with desolation and a memory of something I should have seen before. But now it was easier. His face smoothed out and the eyes cleared into a blue I remember seeing a lot of with my mother.

"Randy."

"What?" Rick muttered, bouncing on his feet as he watched the feral morph.

"His name is Randy."

Both Christian and Rick turned toward me in disbelief. The scientist's mouth was dangling open.

"You know him?" Christian was at my side now, glancing between the ruined monster before us and me.

"Yes," I leaned my forehead against the glass, my gut twisted into a tight ball. Thank goodness I'd yet to eat. "He was my mother's boyfriend. They were dating when this all happened." My breath caressed the glass, fogging it up some, making Randy touch the soft mist as if he could wipe it off.

I hadn't cared for Randy at all, even though he'd done nothing but nurture and support my mother. Helen had loved him, but she had never shown it much around us. She was tough as nails, but I knew she'd had soft spot for this man. I'd tried to convince her he was nothing but trouble, but my argument had slid off my mother like oil to water. My motive hadn't been all unselfish, though. Randy's attention toward my mother meant sharing her with another man who wasn't my father, already dead for three horrid years.

That reason felt childish to me now, stupid even. Any tie to my mother would've been welcomed at that point. Even if it was Randy. He'd never treated me like anything other than another adult. He'd been respectful and had even taken my side on several arguments when I'd fought with my mother. He'd been good for her—for us—and yet I had rejected him as a father figure no matter what he did.

Now there we were once more. He knew me and I him. I balled my fist against the slick glass, sweaty from my damp palms, and I wanted to hit the slab of window. What would he turn into now? Would it return him to a natural human state, or would it leave him as broken as my mother had been? I couldn't bear to see him suffer if this didn't work. Or what if it killed him? What if this was toying with fate and would just hurry up the inevitable? Another death of someone close to my family would not be good.

I swallowed down as the cool glass felt slick under my skin. He howled inside, scratching at the glass and fingering the chains digging into his wrists. Agony ravished his body as he collapsed to his knees, breathing hard and wincing from the changes occurring all over his body. His hair began to fill in where it'd been torn out. Missing pieces of flesh filled in with scar tissue, and his fangs retracted back into his skull, as if they had never existed.

Would this work? The miracles that could occur.... And if it didn't? The horror it could unleash....

No matter where I turned, this virus was still tearing at my flesh and mind bit by tiny bit. It was like a pool of piranhas, ripping into my life without remorse, just wanting to satisfy the never-ending hunger.

Chapter Thirteen

A Primal Need

The day wore on, and I felt increasingly restless. How long were they planning on keeping me prisoner? I was already feeling better after a few meals and knew I'd be healed up very soon. Christian had made frequent trips to see me, trying as he must, to pacify my impatience and growing anger. But I had tired of the situation, and no soothing words or attempted friendship from him now could change that.

Knowing Randy was recovering in a barred cell near the lab made me impatient to get out of there and release him, too. He may have not had time to marry my mother, back when they were together, but I knew he would've if she'd have said yes to him. He was family, and I couldn't leave him to rot.

As daylight approached, the hallways dimmed so the vampires could rest. They even dimmed the cell blocks. There was a cot just outside my room where Christian slept. I wondered why he'd been chosen to guard me. Maybe they didn't trust anyone else. Maybe he'd volunteered because he didn't trust anyone either. All I knew was that I wanted out of there, and sleep wasn't an option.

"Hey," I whispered through the bars. I hated being locked up. It reminded me of my time in Vida, waiting to die at the hands of this very same vampire. "Christian, wake up!"

He must've been exhausted, because he'd been asleep without moving for almost three hours.

"Yeah?" He finally rolled over and squinted his eyes at me, groggy and slightly disoriented. "What is it, April? Need anything?"

"Can't sleep."

He swung his legs over the edge of the cot and shoved back his long, straight auburn red hair. Seeing him look so tired and waking up made me feel confused inside, and the familiar longing that the damned bond made me feel swelled up within my chest. I pulled away from the bars and sat on my bed as he stood up and opened the door, pressing the electronic lock behind him. We were locked in, but I had seen the code.

It made me wonder if he'd purposely shown it to me or if he'd let it slip in his sleepy state. This thought alone made me watch him as he settled into the bunk next to mine and stretch out. He would be asleep in no time if I didn't speak. Why he made me choke on my words mystified me and didn't let me relax whenever he was around. You could say it was fluttering butterflies like having a high school crush on someone, but I didn't like it. Not one bit. It had been forced upon me when he'd bound himself to me down in the bowels of Vida where we'd been left for dead by Katrina.

It was all her fault I had these uncontrollable feelings overtaking me every waking moment. Even though she was long dead, the resentment I held for that raging vampire anomaly still caused my blood to boil. If she hadn't stuck me in that cell, I wouldn't have had this problem.

I chewed on my lip. I had to keep him awake. Maybe if I could keep him from sleeping now, he'd be knocked out later, and I could sneak out.

"You're sleeping in here?"

"This bed is more comfortable than that piece of crap cot out there. You don't mind, do you?"

"No."

"Good. Now try to get some sleep."

"I told you I can't sleep."

"Why not? What's bothering you?"

"Why are you being nice to me when I know Mercer wants me dead?"

"He doesn't want you dead."

"Now who's full of it?" I huffed. I was tired of these mind games and wanted to finally get the story out of him. "Look... I haven't asked you this before, but I need to know. Why did you betray me? I thought you were my mate. I thought you were supposed to be on my side." I rubbed my eyes and turned to face him, cradling my head in my arm. The dim light seeping in from the hall lit up his haloed eyes, and they glowed like cat eyes in the darkness.

Christian let out a long breath, knowing he wasn't going to be sleeping any time soon. "Okay. I'm sorry you think that way. We haven't exactly been 'mates.' You told me to leave you the hell alone. I did. What do you want, April? I can't hide these feelings I have for you, and you've forced me into this misery. I won't let Mercer hurt you. We need you. And I never betrayed you. It's not what you think. Your blood is the solution to this epidemic that has us enslaved... drinking blood, living in the shade. He'd never jeopardize that. He wants it even more than I do."

"How do you know that?" His argument hadn't convinced me just yet.

"Because those ferals out there, those beasts you put down like they are nothing but the rot beneath your feet, they were people once. Wouldn't you want to save them if there was a chance you could? Wouldn't you want to be a part of the cure, the savior of all mankind?"

"I... I don't know."

"April...." There was no reasoning with him about it. I had never wanted to be part of any revolution. Yes, it would be nice to save those who were lost, turned into wild savages—that's why I had tried to get the antidote from Rick—but the past few days had made me reconsider that idea. What if it didn't work? What if the cure turned out to be worse than the disease? They were going about it the wrong way, too. Kidnapping wasn't exactly diplomatic.

"I want my mother back. I want my family back. That's what I want. And because of your meddling−Rick's experimentations...." I said his name with disgust. "I have nothing. How's that for a cure? How do I cure death? Tell me how to do that!"

Christian waited for me to finish my rant, which was probably the wisest thing I'd ever seen him do. I could see why he'd been a leader once. His quiet observations and ability to listen was superior to Blaze's. This small detail filled me with the fear that this hive was more together, more united in their cause than ours. That could be costly if both sides went to war again.

"I'm sorry about your mother. Truly, I am. I didn't kill her. She chose her path, and no one can undo that for her. Rick may have tampered with her sanity, but I didn't kill her, April." He was on his knees before me now, scooping my hands into his while I sat up on the bunk, shocked to have him so near, so close. I held my breath. "I didn't kill her, but you blame me all the same."

He looked defeated, his frown making my heart race to correct his misery. Why did he make me feel that way? I forced back the spill of emotion and gritted my teeth. I had to stay together, or everything would collapse in upon itself.

"Please don't touch me," I whispered, and he dropped his hands onto his knees. The effect of the touch has not left him unscathed, either, and we now both fought to keep our positions. How could he have lapsed so easily? It only took a touch, one caress of his skin, one unguarded bump to ignite the fire within that claimed me as his and him as mine. I prayed that such a connection would fizzle out after so long apart, but time had done nothing to stifle this urge. I swallowed the dry knot forming in my throat as I searched for the words to say, to make this end tonight.

I loved Rye. If only we had this sort connection, if only the man standing before me was Rye, I would have been all right.

But he wasn't Rye. He was the enemy no matter which way I looked at it. Still, the desire burning in his dual colored eyes had me struggling for control with every gasping breath.

"Why is it so hard to push you away?" I closed my eyes, my heart pounding hard enough under my lids that I could see starbursts under them. His scent filled my nostrils and pushed at my own longing, snaking into my head and stirring it up into a mush. I hated it, but the more I fought it, the more it hurt to move, like a knife embedded in my side.

"Because we're meant to be together, April. I know you'd sever this in a moment if you could, but only death can undo it. We are bound for life." He reached out and slid his hands over mine again. "Why fight it?" He inched closer to the side of my bunk, and I began to shake, fighting the urge to skitter back and press my spine against the wall. Anything to run from his scent, his gorgeous eyes and long, silky hair. I'd never really looked at him as I did now, and I found each angle, every tuft of hair and patch of smooth skin alluring. Why, if he was right, did it feel so wrong?

"Christian...." I licked my lips, my eyes trained on his. Damn this unnatural attraction. It was exhausting to fight it, but I kept at it. Eventually it felt as if that side of me, the opposing part that disagreed with everything involved in this bond, was hidden behind a thick plate of smoky glass. That April was screaming and pounding on it to no avail as her voice faded away.

"Yes?"

I blinked at him, feeling the fight slip from my grasp and the protesting in my head silence. "Kiss me."

The confusion played across his face while his eyes searched for truth in mine. I wasn't sure what he'd see there. For once, I wasn't the girl I'd once been, full of confidence and ready to kill everything in sight. No, this girl had just had her entire foundation pulled from underneath her leaving nothing but a wide abyss she had to cross, one uncertain step at a time.

My heart was going to burst from the excitement. If I could just get a taste of him once more. One little taste, maybe I could satiate the hunger until I got out of that place. Maybe he'd give me the much-needed blood I needed to gain my strength back. Maybe if I relented, it'd give me what I needed to push the thought of him from my mind until later, when I could think without him being so close.

Just this once....

"I... I can't fight it." My words softly escaped my lips, sounding so far away, it was as though another April had spoken them.

He closed the gap between us, his lips slamming into mine in a voracious attack. I felt his fangs extend and nick my tongue. The pain was pleasurable, and I relished the taste of blood swirling around our tongues. The taste of him was a rush I'd been seeking for an eternity. It was the ultimate high.

"April... I've needed you for so long. You have no idea how torturous it's been without you."

His kiss deepened, and he pushed me back so that we were both on the bed. I let his desire ignite my own, and it was impossible to escape. It wasn't blood that I wanted anymore, which I found curious, especially since that had been the initial trigger for touching him. No, this time it was whatever bound us filling me up with pleasure and singing its happiness. It was where it wanted to be, in the arms of this man. As the clothes slipped off and the minutes wore on, his kisses sent fire across my body, and running my fingers across his skin and the scars I had made on his abdomen, I felt safe, happy even.

Even the screaming inside my head wasn't missed as we each took what we wanted from the other. Each touch felt like flames, licking across my skin in hot pleasure. I wanted his lips to kiss me and his fingers to pull me even closer, until there was no separating the line between us. And so, we did, until the fire flickered down to embers and our hearts quieted down into a slow, steady rhythm. As we lay there in the quiet of the daytime while the sleeping vampires were tucked away and the world was silent, I fought to keep the happiness afloat. I felt loved as he twirled my hair and stroked my skin until his energy ebbed away and sleep overtook him.

I didn't leave right away. I couldn't, with everything that had happened. I touched his sleeping face, sliding my finger softly down his cheek and feeling the pleasure seep into my skin from this one simple gesture. This bond was some sort of magic, a trick of mutated DNA that I had finally given into. Though I planned to never let it happen again—I wasn't expecting to see Christian ever again after that day—I felt a tiny sliver of sadness at the thought of losing him.

Once I was sure he was completely asleep, softly snoring and unresponsive to my movements, I slipped out of bed, pulled my clothes and boots back on and entered the code on the finger pad. Holding the bars so that the click wasn't overly loud, I pushed at it slowly and it opened wide enough just for me to squeeze through. I closed it behind me gently, making sure Christian was still gone to the world. I watched his slow, deep breaths of slumber, and it warmed my frigid heart to see him so vulnerable.

I turned and headed toward the future. Back to Rye, to Sarah, Elijah and Jeremy. I needed to leave this place so far behind, I would never be able to turn back. I searched ahead to find the armory and carry out my plan. I needed bombs. Lots of them.

Chapter Fourteen

Belly of the Beast

Sarah signaled to stop and wait, waving her hand out behind her. It'd been three days since April had disappeared, and time was of the essence. They had waited as Elijah returned to Blaze's hive and loaded them up with weapons. It had taken a while for him get back carrying so many supplies. The narrow canyon was only passable on foot. The rest of them had waited patiently and studied every possible route on the blueprints. Sarah had it all memorized within a day. Rye had spent his time pacing, ready to lose his mind in anticipation. Patience wasn't his strong suit.

Sarah jerked her head up and listened to distant footsteps pass down the hall they were about to turn into. Moments passed before she gave the all clear. She was swift and quiet on her feet, and Elijah was enjoying the view from behind. As though she felt his eyes upon her, she swung her head around, sending her long braid swinging over her shoulder, and threw him a knowing smile. Elijah pressed his lips together as she turned back and kept on. Rye came up next to him and threw him a shrug, smiling as he passed by.

Why was everyone so smug? Elijah held back a grunt as he followed behind. He'd made it clear to Sarah that he wasn't interested back in the City of Vida. The constant stress Katrina had put him under and their frequent missions to secure the Las Vegas Strip around their sanctuary underneath the Wynn was exhausting, leaving him little time to give much attention to the seductive redhead. Finding out that she'd been April's best friend had surprised him. It had made him realize how little he knew Sarah. It'd been humbling to discover that she had her own fascinating secrets.

So maybe he was intrigued by her now. Things were vastly different outside the City of Vida. Where they had lacked freedom before, they now thrived in it. April had been a wonderful tour director, introducing them to the entire city above ground, something they'd not been allowed to do much on their own before. This had loosened them up. Of the twelve hybrid human warriors he'd been commander of, four had remained in the Vida to keep it safe and under control, and one had died in the battle against Katrina. Of the other seven, only two had joined April on this trip to the Red Rock slot canyon fortress: Elijah and Sarah. Most of the twelve had worked in pairs. Mated or not, they had partners. Elijah had never taken a mate. He'd been the elected leader from the beginning and couldn't show favoritism. It left an odd number, and Sarah had been left to do most tasks alone or with him, naturally making her his second. He'd never seen her as anything more than his second in command; it wouldn't have been appropriate.

Now things felt oddly different. Elijah wondered about the prickling of feelings stirring within him whenever he looked at Sarah. It was confusing, for he'd never liked her as anything more than just a friend. Maybe it was this newfound freedom to roam, to go wherever he pleased, which had released his repressed emotions. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but he knew he'd have to make a move for her sooner or later. The competition was growing.

Glaring at Rye as he slid into a doorway, he felt the grip of envy. Rye knew exactly who he wanted−April−and would do anything for her. It must be nice to know what you wanted. On the other hand, April wasn't exactly reciprocating Rye's affections. Elijah had briefly wondered if April would be interested in him but decided against pursuing her because of Rye's dedication to the girl. It was obvious Rye would not be willing to let her go any time soon. Still, if she'd ever approached Elijah for a roll in the sack, he doubted he'd be able to resist the sassy, dark-haired beauty. She was every bit a woman warrior, and he liked that.

It was those same traits he adored about Sarah. So why did Sarah cause such confusion? She'd always made it obvious she wanted him. It was hard to admit defeat and give into her. She was so beautiful with her pouty pink lips and voluptuous breasts, not to mention her well-trained physique. She'd been the object of many other men's affections in the City of Vida, but she'd brushed them off without a second thought, as if they were just not good enough.

Maybe that was it. He didn't want to mean nothing to her. He wanted to be good enough.

"Come on!" Sarah's hushed voice brought him back to face her. Her bright green eyes narrowed as she smiled, catching him staring at her. "Eyes ahead."

He clenched his jaw, hoping the dim lighting in the walkway heading out over one of the warehouses would cover his flushed skin. He avoided her eyes and peered over a short concrete wall, fingering the large hunting knife at his side. The massive room below looked like it was a storage area and infrequently used. There were several Jeeps in various states of repair or in pieces for parts. Several wooden crates were stacked up almost as high as the walkway and were arranged in rows draped with long swaths of drop cloths.

No hybrid vampires in sight. Elijah waved at the others as they continued their careful trek into the heart of the underground fortress.

"This feels too easy," Rye muttered, gripping his sword. They were hoping to kill any resistance as quietly as possible. Something was wrong, and it ate at his nerves as they crept along. Why wasn't anyone near the secret entrance? Christian and Mercer must have felt very secure that it wouldn't be found if they left it unguarded.

"Where do you think they're keeping her?"

Sarah peered across the room and pointed to a far door on the bottom floor. "That one leads to the main living quarters, right next to the cells where prisoners are kept. At least, that's what the blueprints show."

"We can't just walk into the living quarters. There's an hour or two of daylight left. It's probably filled with them right now." Rye sheathed his sword and brought out his guns, knowing they'd be walking into a sleeping hive. It was best to be prepared to kill.

"I know that." Sarah rolled her eyes and smacked her gum. Where the hell did she get gum? Elijah smirked at her snarkiness. "What do you think I am, suicidal?" She pointed at a metal staircase. "This is the back way." She took the stairs with swift, soft steps and was on the ground sprinting through the rows of cargo like she was running through a field of wheat. Elijah admired her carefree nature, even though she really wasn't that naïve. It was her mask, a front to make others believe she was more vulnerable. If he hadn't known her for so long, he would have wondered who the hell she thought she was. But he did, and it made him smile.

He made his way down the same way she had gone, swift and light on his feet. His bulkiness made everyone believe he'd be rough and clunky on his feet, but that wasn't the case. Being a hybrid had its advantages, including being able to move fast but quietly.

Sarah was crouched at the doorway, already sticking pins and her lock picking tools into the slots. This was a regular doorknob without any kind of electronic key pad or lock. For a back door, it was simple and unprotected. Elijah just hoped it wasn't a trap.

"Got it!" Sarah jiggled the lock once more, and a tiny click resonated in the silence surrounding them. In the massive storage area, the sound felt like it echoed across the pallets and metal, amplified. She slowly opened the old door, and the hinges began to groan. She cringed and stopped, listening for anything or anyone who could be coming down the way. When nothing happened, she slid through the doorway, Elijah and Rye hot on her heels.

The darkness within shifted as their eyes adjusted, and they found themselves at the end of a very long hallway. Hopefully no one would be coming around the corner to trap them in this maze. It could be the end of a useless walkway that led to the warehouse. Either way, the far-off echoing voices were so faint, they seemed to come from quite a distance away. Rye took the lead, and they shuffled close to one another until they came to the bend in the hall.

Peeking around the corner, Rye's tension visibly relaxed. "It's an abandoned barracks. Which way, Sarah?"

Sarah stuck her head out to scan the room then pulled back to talk with them. "There's a door on the end to the right. Through that door is the cell block. She should be in one of the rooms there."

A small squeak on the tile made them all clamp their lips together and turn toward the barracks. Someone was in there, and the risk of discovery was high.

Rye pressed his back to the wall and dared to peek into the room again to find out what was going on. He was so surprised to see April heading back to the cells, trying in vain to make her boots stop squeaking on the tile. Her face alone made his heart burst with love. It was obvious she hadn't noticed them yet because she took each step swiftly and softly as she turned into another hallway right ahead of them and proceeded to leave the room. She was laden with a large army bag, half full but apparently heavy. She shifted the strap on her shoulder and cursed under her breath.

"April!" Rye called out softly, afraid she was being pursued.

She froze in her steps. He hoped she wasn't about to shoot a weapon in his direction. They would be in plain sight if she would just turn around.

She whipped around and held out a gun. He wondered where she had swiped it from. He stepped out into the room and held his hands up.

"It's me, April. It's Rye."

Her hands shook, and she didn't look as thrilled to see him as he thought she would. Still, who knew what she'd been through down there? He hoped she hadn't been subject to the torturous experimentation her mother had endured. He waited and could feel the others hesitate behind him. April's eyes were wild, like a frightened predator. Not exactly an invitation to run and hug her.

He waited, not sure if she was in a killing high or ready to pounce on him. Deciding the best course of action was to talk to her, he licked his lips and hoped it would shake whatever it was she was experiencing.

"April? Are you okay?" He swallowed, his mouth dry.

"April, it's us." Sarah peeked around Rye to study her friend. April looked like she hadn't slept in days, even though she was clean and looked like she'd bathed. Still, the haunted look in her eyes made Sarah glance at Rye and then back to Elijah.

"Rye? Sarah...?" April's voice shook, and she dropped her hands, letting the gun dangle in her fingers. Bright, glistening tears streamed down her cheeks as she sobbed silently. "You shouldn't have come." She shook her head like they'd interrupted her train of thought. "You can't be here."

Rye took the opportunity to run to her, and she collapsed into his arms. "April, we're getting you out of here."

She shook her head again, her gaze searching his face as she let him hug her. "I can't. I need to find the antidote before I leave. I lined the bunker with bombs. I have an hour left to find it and get out of here. Oh, Rye... I've made a mess of things."

Rye brushed away the loose strands sticking to the thin sheen of sweat and the wetness of tears on her face. She pulled away, and his heart seized.

"Let me go." She stepped back, eyeing him and the other two through her tears. "If you want to help me, thank you. But I'd rather you go now. If you can't, I understand. This isn't what you came for."

She turned and held her gun back up, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"We're going wherever you go. April, what's going on?" Rye followed behind, keeping his eyes trained on her back, but as they entered the next hall, he ripped them from her to resume his scan of the surroundings. Stupidity got you killed. Losing control of emotions was a definite risk. So why was April losing it? He'd never seen her so distraught to see him. That couldn't be good.

She only shook her head, making him clamp his lips together. Whatever had her shaken, it didn't look like she was going to divulge what it was any time soon. At least, not here. It didn't sit well with him and made his imagination run wild as they continued down the halls without a disturbance. April looked determined, and he wondered if she even knew where she was going.

"April," he whispered, trying to catch her attention. "Where are you going?"

Her lack of response sloughed off his patience, and he tightened his grip on his guns. The place appeared abandoned, but thinking about April made him sloppy as they turned the corner, and he almost ran into her.

"Crap, Rye," she hissed as she did her best to not fall over. Footsteps at the end of the hall had them scrambling to press themselves against the wall as they came closer. The clicks of the boots on the tile floor had the count at about five of them. They could take them, Rye just didn't want to bring anyone else to the fight while they were at it. He pulled out his swords after tucking his guns away. He handed one to April as she tucked her gun into her jeans. Her lack of weapons made him wonder how she thought she'd be escaping this place once she had managed to do whatever it was she was doing. Except for the lone gun she had acquired somewhere, she was weaponless.

That has never stopped her before, he thought. The bunch of vampires made it to the corner, and the band of infiltrators jumped the group. Behind them, Elijah and Sarah slipped in and took out the two back guards. The last one had jumped back and was already dashing back the way he'd come when they'd attacked.

April took off after the rogue and reached him in time to slice the sword diagonally across his back. He groaned as he toppled over, slamming his face into the ground and knocking himself out. She hopped onto the fallen figure and thrust the sword deep into his back.

She remained there, perched on the vampire's back as she huffed and puffed, looking even wilder than she had before. A strange feeling flooded Rye as he watched her reach down to pull the blade out of the guy's back and touch his blood with her fingers. Her fingers went immediately to her mouth, and she sucked the blood off of each one.

He flinched away and checked the hallway for more soldiers. She had looked somewhat pale when he'd pulled her to him earlier, and the thought of her being drained nauseated him. That was the reason she was probably starved and weaker now, though she had shown them she was on the road to recovery. But what had the draining done to her mind?

"You okay, April?" he asked while turning back to find her finally satiated and licking her lips.

"I'm perfect now." Her eyes remained hooded in ecstasy. "Let's find the lab. I need to see Rick again."

"There's a lab on this side of the quarantine?" Sarah wrinkled her nose as she swiped her sword across the fallen vampire's clothes to clean the blood off. "It must have been added later. It wasn't on the blueprint."

April stared at her friend as if she didn't know her at all. "You memorized the blueprint?"

Sarah nodded, looking like it was no big deal. "I've had an enhanced memory ever since the change."

April eyed her friend for a moment before bursting into a chuckle. "I still can't get over you being a killer hybrid human. Just thought I'd never see the day."

Sarah scowled as Elijah laughed. "Why not? I can be beautiful and fight like a man, too."

"You sure can." Elijah threw her a rare grin, and a blush flared across her face. Her pale skin flashed like a red light, and she was left speechless as they proceeded farther down the hall, April already so many steps ahead of them all.

"April, stop." Rye grasped onto her arm, hoping she wouldn't swing back with her sword.

She stopped in her tracks, turned and drilled her eyes into him. "What?"

"What's wrong? Why are you acting so strange, and why won't you answer me?"

Her anger melted into anguish as she stared hard into him. He felt his heart pounding as Elijah moved forward to scout for more vampires. Sarah kept to the rear.

"Come on, love. What's going on?"

"I−I...." She swallowed and turned away. Whatever had her upset wasn't easy to get out. "I can't do this right now, Rye. I'll tell you soon, I promise. I just can't right now."

Rye nodded and let go. It crumbled his resolve to pull it out of her, and all he could do was walk away. Joining Elijah, he hoped that when this was all over, there would still be something left between them. The feeling of foreboding twirling in his stomach told him otherwise, but he tried to shake it off.

"It's just around this hall and through the double doors at the end," April stated dryly. Her voice came out stiff and calm, as if she hadn't almost lost her nerve a few moments ago. Her face was now a still mask with cold eyes. She refused to look in Rye's direction, choosing instead to trudge ahead and swing the lab doors wide open without scoping it out first.

"What the fuck, April! Wait!" Elijah grimaced as he ducked into the room behind her only to find her facing just one other person. Rye had sped up to join them in the lab.

"Rick."

The man stood from his chair and backed away, eyes widening at the sight of the four of them. "April? What are you doing here?" He walked backward and bumped into the wall swinging his head both ways to find an exit. He was surrounded and looked like a cornered animal. She wasn't the person he'd been expecting to see today, if ever again.

"I want the antidote, Rick. And...." She walked to a doorway that led into a small hall. "And you're going to let Randy go, too."

He shook his head as he watched her approach, glancing at the tiny containment block down a small hallway on one end of the lab. "You shouldn't take him out of there. His results have only been negative once." Elijah had a large hunting knife pointed at Rick's throat, so he stopped talking.

"Where are the keys, chief?" Elijah smirked as Rick's eyes widened at the massive man pointing the knife at him. He reached into his lab coat and held them out.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

Rye stared at Rick and then flicked his eyes to April, who snatched the keys from Elijah. She motioned toward the scientist. "Tie him up."

Rye followed her down the hall to a row of bar-lined cells modified for prisoners who needed medical treatment. "April... who's Randy?"

Chapter Fifteen

Battle Scars

Nothing was going to get in my way. I was ready for anything. I slammed my way toward the cell blocked infirmary where Rick had kept Randy since injecting him with the antidote a few days before. There was no one there, never was. I'd visited Randy for the past two days, watching his continuing transformation in fascination. Where skin had been ripped open now lay new skin, taut and healing. His face had been left mostly intact as a feral, which was fortunate since I'd seen a ton of ferals without faces or with a good chunk torn off.

It had taken him almost a full day to begin to speak. He'd started with short wails, grunts and unintelligible noises that had me shaking my head that I didn't understand. His vocal cords had to heal, and they took forever to do so. Once he could pronounce simple words, much like a toddler learning to speak, he could finally whisper simple sentences to me.

"Helen?" His voice was hoarse.

I'd shake my head, looking away. It hurt too much.

He'd met me with silence, settling back on the cot in the cell he'd been moved to once he'd been deemed safe enough to remove from the padded observation room. His wrists were still healing from the handcuffs digging into the skin, leaving the skin purple and yellow but regenerating where the top layer had been rubbed off.

We'd had no further discussion about my mother. She'd left an abyss of emptiness in us both. Instead, as his words came easier, we'd spoken about the world outside. He told me his memory wasn't good from the time he'd been lost in the fog. He described it like floating in a nightmare, where nothing made sense and noises bounced off the walls and echoed in his head. He knew it was a possibility that he'd killed people in his feral state. He took it pretty well, considering. I knew he'd been in prison for something before the outbreak, but I'd never asked him about it. Maybe it'd been for murder. It wasn't as if anyone was innocent anymore. These days, that was a luxury only little children possessed.

"So, what now?" he asked. His hair had grown thicker, and his eyes were now their normal blue color. Still, he wasn't unscathed by the virus. He'd be left with scars from quarrels with other ferals and possibly victims. His body was peppered with slashes, bite marks and nail scratches. I guess we all wore our scars differently.

"I guess we'll see. I have to get out of here. I need that antidote and need to figure out how to give it to the population. Or find someone who can distribute it more effectively than in a shot."

"That's not your job, April."

"I know."

"So why do you want to do that?"

He'd frustrated me in our talks. I'd sat back in the creaky folding chair outside the bars of his cell. "I don't know. Maybe it's a purpose that I'm here for. I've felt lost since my mother died. Like her death stole this fire that I had inside. Snuffed it right out. It's been... difficult."

He'd nodded and not asked any further questions.

But it was my turn to ask questions. "What are you thinking of doing?"

He would shrug, leaning back and closing his eyes. He'd slept a lot; recovering must have taken a huge toll on his body. I couldn't imagine how it felt as his body morphed back to human. So far, Rick's test samples of Randy's blood were promising. He was not a hybrid, not feral but not quite human. What he would eventually end up as was a mystery to us all. Still, it had to be better than being a feral, right? Zompire no more.

Now here I was, grabbing the keys from Rick to release Randy. As I unlocked the cell door and rolled it back in a loud clang of metal, Randy stood up and joined us. I hoped he'd have enough strength to escape with us. Sarah and Elijah eyed him suspiciously. Those two really didn't trust anyone. Probably a good thing. I had trusted too much, and it'd been my undoing.

"Let's go," Rye said. He was at my side, looking at Randy with apprehension, narrowing his eyes as if conveying a threat to him with only a look. "No funny business now. We don't exactly know if this antidote worked, do we?"

The last part he'd directed at Rick, who stood a few feet away, shuffling his feet side to side as his fingers nervously rubbed the hem of his shirt.

"I'm positive he's fine right now. His body is just adjusting to the rapid change back to normal. The antidote speeds up healing, so he may look different every hour until it's done."

Rye nodded, but his eyes never left Randy. "It's time to go."

"All right." Randy nodded, exited the cell and following us down the hall.

Sarah waved at us, pointing toward the door. "I think we've been spotted."

Cameras against the lab wall showed us the chaos spreading throughout the hive. Dozens of vamps were gathering nearby, Mercer yelling and gesturing to get the group moving. They looked frantic. I scanned the screens for any sign of Christian. It wasn't that I didn't want him to escape, I just didn't know what to feel about him anymore, or even Rye, for that matter. The escape was a welcomed focus, and I pointed to a satellite armory untouched by the hordes that were gathering.

"We don't have much time left. The bombs are timed for twenty minutes from now." I peered up at Sarah, Miss Photographic Memory. "How do we get to this armory and then out? I can delay the timer if we get back to it."

She smiled, a wicked gleam growing in her eyes. "I saw that on the blueprint. It's this way. I know a way out from there, too. It'll take us back to the dusty warehouse we came in through."

Perfect.

***

The trek to the armory ended up being more difficult than I'd hoped. The moment we left the lab and headed down to a deeper level—one Sarah thought would be free of guards—we were ambushed. I was still low on weapons, having only Rye's second sword for defense. The gun's ammunition was low, so I was reduced to slicing my way through the wave of vampires as they headed toward the same armory. At least they were light on the weaponry, too. Otherwise, we'd have been terribly outnumbered.

"Girl... move!" Elijah snapped behind me. His bulk shoved me aside, and I turned just in time to watch him slice open another vamp's chest, one who had obviously been attempting to get to me. The slick plop of blood and guts splattering across the clean tile floors mixed with the slap of bodies colliding. I peered down at the convulsing vamp who'd almost gotten me. Damn, I was getting too lax.

"Thanks!" I yelled back to him before spinning and cutting down another figure who had pointed his sword at us. I fell to my knees, jamming the side of the sword against his legs and sending him flying over the metal and crashing to the floor. I didn't have any time to recover since the hall had filled with more vamps. I'd even lost the others in the mass. The bodies piled up on both sides of me as I pushed forward, slicing, swinging and shoulder-butting the vamps out of my way. I just hoped we were winning.

At that rate, there was no way we'd make it to the armory in time for me to disarm the bombs. Final resting place? I really hoped not. I kept on, punching and slicing my way through the crowded hall.

Until, that is, the stars spilled across my vision when someone hit me from behind, sending me flying into the wall. Hitting full force with my side, I struggled to regain my breath as my ribs screamed in protest and the pain made the air feel like fire. Still, I saw him coming and managed to flip toward my left as his sword rammed into the wall where'd I'd been leaning.

"Try that again!" I yelled, though with my lungs still seized, it sounded more like a rough hiss. I glared at the vamp, a medium-sized man who was slender but fast. He cracked a wicked smile as his dark eyes gleamed.

"Thanks for the invitation." He brought the sword up again and sliced it downward, but I managed to stop it in time with my own blade. Pushing hard against him, I made it to my knees but couldn't shove him off enough to stand. I thought for sure he'd have the best of me, but he was holding back. Why?

"Kind of short, aren't you?" I muttered. He really wasn't, he was at least two inches taller than I was, but his comrades towered over him. I guessed his speed and strength made up for that. His slender physique made him faster and more dangerous than his fellow vamps.

"Height makes no difference." His lips curled back, showing off his sharp fangs. I wasn't impressed and didn't give him any satisfaction. Instead, I huffed to push him back again, but only found that we were at a standstill.

Crap! My arms were on fire, and I could feel the tiny muscle fibers beginning to shake from the strain. If only I was at full strength, this guy would've been toast.

"What? Mercer sent his peons to take us down? Not much of battle, is it?" I laughed, garnering the effect I had wanted. The vamp narrowed his eyes, his frown deepening as he pushed back against me. Only then did I notice he didn't have any halo rings around his irises. What the hell?

Another type of hybrid?

Well, ain't the world a candy store?

"Rick fuck with you, too? Your haloes are missing," I snickered, hoping to rub him the wrong way.

My words confused him, as if they might've hit some sensitive thing that he'd hidden deep down. He pushed me back with a final rough shove but backed away and stared at me with disgust.

"How do you know anything like that?" He didn't look scared but stunned. I was hoping it would be enough to catch him off guard.

"He fucks with everyone. Don't you know?" I spit out a mouthful of blood and glared at him. My body was tiring, and I could feel every bruise, ache and cut from the fight. Even the adrenaline wasn't helping, and I stumbled back, trying my best to hide the weariness. The others were still fighting, but a bubble had formed around us, keeping me and him encircled. Just as I backed away, I found the room where I had initially run into Rye and the group. I took that moment to turn, burst through the door and run past the cell blocks, which were now empty, and down the hall. I found myself in a dusty warehouse lined with piles of crates, canvas-covered vehicles and junk stacked to the roof.

I didn't have to wait long for Mr. No-Halo to rush into the room behind me. I slipped behind a stack of crates, still sealed from delivery, and took a moment to rest. I was breathing hard, and the burn of my broken ribs seared through me with each intake. The pain worsened with each movement, and I worried it was more serious than it appeared. I held the bloodied sword, gripping the hilt so tightly my fingers felt numb.

"April... that's your name, right? Christian told me all about you. He's got some sick fascination with you, like you're his mate or something insane like that." The man let his blade drag across the cement, sending up a loud, echoing screech probably meant to grate on my nerves. What kind of a sick bastard was he?

Glancing around, I took in my surroundings, looking for the way out. There was hidden walkway circling the entire room up above. A cement railing hid it from sight since it blended in so well with the walls. I could see it, though, and followed it around to find the doors that had to be up there somewhere.

"I wish I could've met you under different circumstances. We have so much more in common than you know. I'm Felix, by the way. It stuns me that you know Rick did something to me. Most just assume I didn't morph all the way. You see, I was a hybrid human, much like you, April. But Rick had to go and mess with things, claiming he'd fix me, cure me...."

I hoped he wasn't asking for sympathy. I was all out. His voice echoed, making it hard for me to pinpoint where he was. Apparently, the others hadn't yet noticed our absence, for no one had followed us into the warehouse. I took a chance and peeked around the edge of the row. Finding it empty, I crept along, silencing each movement as I struggled with the tiny breathes my damaged ribcage allowed for. If I didn't get some blood or get out of there soon, I was pretty sure Felix would overpower me without dripping any sweat.

"Do you know what it did to me?"

I sure hoped he didn't expect me to keep up the conversation. I kept limping on, my chest feeling like it was being squeezed. Pneumothorax? I was pretty sure one of my lungs was punctured because the tightness had turned into wheezing, and my vision swam as the pressure increased. Crap! Where was everyone?

"It made me an outcast to both humans and the vampires. But that's okay. I'm stronger, faster and more powerful than any of them now."

So much for his mental health. Not stronger there.

I made it to the end of another row and stopped, the wheezing now louder. Pretty soon I was going to lose consciousness, I was sure of it. I glanced around, trying not to breathe, for each inhalation only made it worse. I was out of options, and it wasn't looking pretty.

"April?" I spun and held the sword out, shaking violently as Felix approached. My sword was at his chest, but his was pointed down to the floor. Why didn't he just kill me?

My heart was bursting, I was sure of it, and I sank down to my knees, dropping my sword as I collapsed against a pile of burlap sacks and garbage. I hoped I hadn't landed in anything disgusting, but only dust billowed around me as the squeal of air replaced my voice and I gripped my chest.

Felix narrowed his eyes, studying me as I struggled to breathe. I could see the conflict swirling in his normal-looking brown eyes. His dark hair covered his ears, and he suddenly reminded me of someone. Someone I had known so long ago.

"I—I can't...." I gulped, pressing my eyes together and letting my head thump back. This was it, the end had finally come. One darn broken rib and anemia had done me in. Tragic, wasn't it?

Felix's indecision spread across his face like a wildfire before he dropped his sword, pulled out a small knife and dropped down beside me. He pulled my shirt up and checked my side. What the hell was he doing?

"Don't...."

Before I could protest, he shoved the knife into my side. Pain and panic gripped me for only a moment before my vision failed and the squeal of air no longer filled my ears.

The pain was gone. It faded along with everything else as I slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter Sixteen

Return

The vehicle bumped along the road, making me hit my head against the frame of the window. Air rushed by, drowning out the sound of voices inside with me. I briefly wondered where I was but found only confusion and a foggy memory. The last thing I could remember was the warehouse, the fighting and the intense pain in my chest. I flicked my eyes open, and the bright light of day made me squint once more to adjust to the blinding sun shining above the rushing landscape.

"Hey." Rye's hand circled over mine, his thumb making soft patterns across my skin. I glanced down and noticed my hands resting in my lap. Shifting, I yelped, sucking in a breath as the pain from my side reminded me of my last moments in Christian's hive and why I'd passed out.

Wait... where was Felix?

A boom echoed behind us, and I suddenly knew the fate Christian's hive had found by my hands.

"I—I was... where did... how did we get out?" I settled back down, slowly craning my neck around to see which of us had made it. A cloud of dirt hovered across the horizon in the direction we'd just come from. Somehow, we'd escaped before the bombs I'd set had gone off. How? I wish I'd been there to see how we'd accomplished that. The exit must not have been too far away.

"We stole one of the jeeps from the warehouse," Rye said. "Elijah hotwired it after we found you on the floor, bleeding."

"I couldn't breathe," I gulped, my throat sore and dry. "One of the vamps we were fighting... he... I think he saved me after I hit the wall and broke a damn rib." The effort it took to speak without pain was too much to handle. I bit my lip to steady my breathing, which eventually buffered the pain.

"Don't talk. You definitely got something going on there. Is that why you cut your side? Your rib jabbed your lung?" Rye pointed down to my right side, and I slowly reached around to touch the bandage wrapped around my torso. The rough bandage had been done up fairly quickly, from a first aid kit, I suspected. Still, I wondered where the mysterious stranger had gone off to and why he'd bothered to save me.

Kind of made me feel guilty if I'd just thanked him by blowing him to smithereens.

"Where's Sarah?" I managed to squeak out. I cleared my throat and immediately regretted it. I was being stabbed all over again as my side screamed with torment.

"Here, chica." She hung over the back of the front passenger seat and winked at me. I could see Elijah driving but no one else in the car. "Just you three?"

"Yeah. Who else? Definitely not your boyfriend, Christian."

Elijah smirked. "You made quite a mess of the joint." He had no regrets. I had to remember to live that way.

"I armed a lot of bombs."

"So that's what you were doing when we found you." Rye watched me, thoughtful as he processed the information.

"Well, that plan worked like a charm. Though we almost didn't get out on time." Elijah kept his eyes on the road, but I could feel his slight anger that we were almost blown to bits.

"What about that guy, did he make it out?" I wondered out loud. Elijah and the others looked at me questioningly. "You know, Felix. He wore all black and was one of the shorter guys. He followed me into the warehouse." The blank looks on their faces confirmed that they hadn't seen him at all. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. The exhaustion still hung on, gripping my bones and burning at my muscles like liquid fire. Maybe I had imagined the guy.

"Not sure who you're talking about." Rye narrowed his eyes into the distance. He was trying his darnedest to remember who I meant.

"Just as well." I let my head drop back, trying my best to reduce any movement. "What about the antidote?" I panicked, reaching to pat around for the small bag I'd strapped to my side. I'd taken what I could after smashing the fridge door before leaving the lab and stuffing the vials into my small black fanny pack.

"You looking for this?" Rye held it up. The bag swung in the sway of the jeep as Elijah dodged an abandoned car in the middle of the road.

"Give it here." I held my arm out, knowing I couldn't struggle with him for it.

"Why do you need it? It's not up to you to distribute it." His eyes stared at the pack, filled with a dark sadness. "It should've been incinerated with the rest of them."

"Give it to me, or I swear to God I'm going to deck you." My nostrils flared, and I shot him a daring look. If he thought questioning me now was a good idea, I didn't care how much it would hurt, I'd make him hurt along with me. "Rye...."

The pain flashed in his eyes momentarily before he lifted his chin and composed his features. Solemnly, he held the pack out for me to take, which I snatched and gripped onto like a treasure.

"You'll find nothing but trouble in those vials."

"It's my trouble to find."

"I just don't get it. Why try to save the world?"

"So optimistic, aren't you, Rye." I looked back out the window, the arid landscape flew by, and I let the conversation die. Even when Rye tried to ask me if I was in pain, his question went nowhere, for I refused to answer any more of them. I was lost in my thoughts, a plan forming within.

We arrived at Blaze's hive where the four of us had taken up residence. Even though I wondered why Blaze wasn't with them, I didn't have to think on it much when I saw him waiting at the entrance for us, looking relieved but reserved. He'd left, I could already figure out that he'd had little faith Rye and the others would find me. Exiting the Jeep took some effort, but Elijah lifted me into his arms without even asking and carefully carried me into the underground headquarters of Blaze's hive. I hid my anger as we passed Blaze, too tired and in too much pain to start something.

To my relief, Jeremy was safe in the City of Vida. I didn't want him to see me in such a ragged state. I'd rather he not see how weak I'd turned out to be or what I'd put myself through for our future. He didn't need to know such things.

Once in the infirmary, Elijah left with Sarah, laughing together, finally relaxed after the ordeal we'd faced. Rye, of course, stayed behind, sitting on the bed next to mine until the doctor checked me out, stitched me up, and notified me of a continued pneumothorax, a pocket of air between my chest wall and lung, but that he would just put me on an oxygen mask for a day to reverse it. I let him affix the mask—a plastic contraption with a plastic bag dangling from it—to my face. The hiss of oxygen drowned out any conversation I could have or listen to, so I closed my eyes, hoping that made it clear enough to Rye that I wanted to be alone. Once the doctor left with the vials to refrigerate them—after much protesting on my end, he'd agreed to give me the key to the mini-fridge he'd stick them in—all I wanted was silence.

But Rye didn't leave. Instead, he took up his silent vigil in the bed beside me and let me rest. At least this time he knew better than to push me. I couldn't be less uncooperative, so it suited me fine. I pulled the thin sheet up to my chin and turned, staring up at the IV inserted into my arm. It had blood dripping into the saline solution, and I had noticed a slight shift in the way my body felt. Still, I knew it wasn't a full transfusion. And it was human blood, not vampire, but any little bit would help.

With the sweet nectar dripping into my vein, morphine circling in my head and the constant whoosh of the oxygen mask, I let my eyes flutter shut until I couldn't fight the lethargy anymore. Sleep was a lover gone far too long, demanding its overdue embrace.

Chapter Seventeen

Running

The tarmac was a graveyard. Weeds strangled the asphalt and slipped through the cracks that had formed under the deteriorating runways. There was no movement in the blinding daylight, but these were the hours I liked best.

The horizon displayed an array of neglected buildings on The Strip which were bleached white from the unrelenting sun. It made everything look brighter than it used to, a long time ago. At the same time, if one looked closer, it made the vegetation pop out even more. It crawled up the sides of the buildings, choking the cement and beauty away from what used to be.

I was sitting in the highest tower of the air traffic control building. It gave me a 360-degree view of the entire valley, for the most part. The distant mountains looked like far-off massive peaks of rock. Peering across the runways, I stared at the distant Red Rock Mountains with a somber mood. What had happened to Christian and his hive? If I'd been awake during the escape, I would have known for sure, and this wouldn't have been my worry. I'd blown up the place. It was what I'd wanted... to finish the deed, severe these bonds and finally feel safer. It had been the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rid the valley of Mercer's evil and possible future retaliation.

I just hadn't thought about how lost I'd feel at losing Christian. It was so final, a strange feeling.

It made me seethe as I ground my teeth, my jaw tense and sore from the tension. There was nowhere for me to go that I felt right or happy anymore. Even visiting Jeremy in the City of Vida, run by the few of the original twelve who had decided to stay to keep it going after Katrina died, couldn't keep me in any better spirits. I was restless, agitated in my own skin. I jumped up from my seat to walk the length of the tower. I hated sitting still. I felt like I was suffocating, but I didn't know how to make it better.

Christian's death was just a catalyst. I freed myself of one jam only to find myself searching for another mess.

What was out there? What was left of the world now that the vampires had ravaged the human population down to nothing? Was there any kind of normal left? Besides the City of Vida, there were no signs of humans anywhere else in the valley.

The small seed of hope had been planted in me when Rick told me of the antidote. If I could find someone I could trust to reproduce it, maybe I could help people become human again. But who could I trust? Not Rick, he was probably dead with the rest of them anyway. He'd been Mercer's rat and untrustworthy. Not Blaze's chemist, who only knew rudimentary things about science and hematology. Who then?

I knew the answer before I even realized it. I'd have to leave the city. There was nothing left for me in Las Vegas. There was an entire world out there to explore, to discover, to help if I could. There had to be more people out there somewhere, scientifically inclined people who could reproduce the antidote, even perfect it, right? I had to take the chance and find a way out of there before I went mad and I could no longer tolerate my own insanity.

Jeremy would forgive me for leaving, even though I intended to return. That was for certain. I just had to let him know that I would never forget him and I was doing this for us, for our future. If, by chance, I didn't return, I'd have to make sure he knew how I felt about him. My little brother was now living a life that suited him well, but it had left me out in the cold. He'd understand if I said goodbye, just in case.

I left the tower and descended back into the underground fortress. I was going to pack up to go visit Jeremy and then hit up my car, stashed in Vida's expansive underground garage, and leave this place for a good long while.

I was just hoping I wouldn't run into Rye on the way out.

***

"Where are you running off to?" Sarah was sitting at the edge of my bed in the private room I'd been given within the commander's corridor of Blaze's hive. I'd walked into my room to find her there, as if she had already read my mind. Her stuff was packed and ready at her feet. Damn if the hybrid effect hadn't made her intuitive in more ways than one. It was scary, actually, but I had to grin slightly at her challenge.

I didn't say anything and went on to stuff my own things in my bag and strap on as many weapons as I could carry. I looked like I was ready for combat, but whatever I took would be all I had, so I had to take almost everything.

It was comforting to know I wasn't alone on this quest. Luckily, some things never changed between friends. She could always read me, and I her. She waited quietly as I finished packing some clothes and whatever food stores I had in the room before I lifted it onto my back and gave her a nod. She joined me without a word, and we headed out into the halls of the hive.

I had to leave quickly, while the daylight kept the activity at a low. Rye and Blaze were elsewhere, probably still in their chambers asleep or conducting important hive business in the main area. We all had our own sleep quarters. It was better that way. Even though Rye had wanted to share one with me, I couldn't give up the chance for privacy, something I dearly needed in such a large hive.

"April?" Sarah's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Yeah?" Our footsteps were light on the cement floor. We could wake anyone at any time, especially once we left the hall.

"Don't be mad, but Elijah's coming, too."

I stopped in my tracks and turned toward her. If looks could kill, that would have been it for Sarah. "What? Why did you tell him?"

"He understands us more than you know. Besides, he's good in combat, and we could use more than just the two of us."

I sighed, not willing to argue. She had a point, but still, I couldn't stand not being included.

"Where's he at?"

"He's our getaway driver." She giggled at this, but she immediately stifled it as I shushed her. Of course she would find this funny.

"Not funny."

"Lighten up, April, it's hilarious. We can pretend we're bank robbers or are getting away with murder."

"That never sounded fun to me."

"Oh, come on!" Sarah let out a breath. Maybe she was already regretting coming with me.

"I'm serious. This is a serious mission." I went into the infirmary, quiet and empty at this hour, and headed straight for the vaccine fridge. Luckily, the antidote could be left at room temperature, but Rick had told me that keeping it cool made it last longer. I had a little cooler to stuff it into, and I plucked cooling packs from the freezer to throw in as well. I grabbed the vials and placed then into the portable cooler, zipping it up and clutching it to my chest like precious cargo. It would warm up after a while, but it would at least keep them longer than using nothing at all.

"Okay, let's go." I started for the hall but stopped. "Wait."

Sarah turned a puzzled face to me, her eyes widening as comprehension passed across her face.

"I need to get Randy. He can't stay here alone. If we find someone to perfect the cure, he's the one we need to make sure it works."

She nodded and pointed toward the back of the infirmary, where a locked door stood alone against the stark white of the wall. I walked to it and peered inside. It was another room with two cells inside and a desk on the other side of it. The hive's doctor, John, sat at the desk, meticulously jotting down notes in a huge ledger. I knocked on the window, and he stood up and opened the door.

"How can I help you, April? Your ribs feeling okay?"

I nodded, stepping into the small room. It was an observation room connected to the cell where Randy lay sleeping on a thin mattress. "I'm good, John. Just need to take my friend with me."

He looked hesitant, narrowing his eyes as he thought my request over. I could see scenarios playing out in his mind as he thought about what to do. When I thought he was about to protest, he cleared his throat and held out a key on a ring.

"He's still very much in tune with the feral circadian rhythms and vulnerable during daylight. I have a bad feeling that the vaccine is not permanent, so I do advise extreme caution when the night approaches."

"Thank you, John." I took the key and paused, confused by his immediate cooperation. "Why would you let him go so easily?"

John scratched his dark hair and sighed, looking tired. "He had a rough night. Restless. None of the sedatives I gave him worked. I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do for him. I'm afraid he'll regress back to his feral ways unless you fix that vaccine of yours. As a doctor, letting him go so he can find better treatment is the best thing I can do." He reached out and placed a gentle grip on my arm. "Do be cautious. During the daytime, he's harmless. But I can't guarantee your safety at night."

I nodded. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

I unlocked the cell, and Sarah helped me drag Randy out. He woke up a bit, but only enough to step along with our help. He was so groggy, we had to steer him as we hurried out.

We scurried the rest of the way down the hall and out toward the exit doors. I knew the moment we walked out, we might be reported to Blaze. But Elijah was already chatting it up with the gate guards and they were laughing like the best friends that they were. Most likely, he had smoothed the path for a clean escape, and we walked past him and out into the arid, warm late morning of Las Vegas. We jumped into the awaiting Jeep we'd stolen from Christian's compound, and I was impressed to find it full of gas and stuffed with food. Maybe Sarah's intuition went a lot further than I thought. I gave her a funny look, and she returned it with a happy, toothy grin.

She's scary. That is all.

We stuffed Randy into one of the back seats where he snored softly and shied away from the light of the sun. I remedied that by draping a dark shirt over the window, anchoring it with the window itself. I jumped into the driver's seat, slammed the door and got ready to crank the engine, but I didn't find any keys. Elijah opened the door and glared at me. "Move over, I'm driving."

"Says who?"

His face didn't move, but instead, he waited until I complied. Sighing, I slipped into the passenger side without any further argument.

"We have to visit Vida really quick. I have to say goodbye to Jeremy."

He nodded and shifted the Jeep into gear. Sarah sat in the back seat and stared at Randy, eyeing him up and down to make sure he wasn't about to pounce on her before she clicked her seatbelt on and leaned back in her seat. As we maneuvered out through the gate of the hive, I looked back, knowing I'd probably never see it again. A flood of sadness filled my stomach, enough to jerk my eyes back to the road in front. Rye was back there. He may have been a bit overbearing, but I did love him, and leaving without a goodbye was going to gnaw at me forever. Still, if I didn't do this, I'd continue to regret not at least trying to get the vaccine fixed. Which was worse? Could I give up on love, or could I give up on a promise for a better life? Neither felt like a good choice to give up on. I couldn't win.

So, I did what any girl should do when faced with such a difficult decision. I shoved it so far down, it became an afterthought, a forgotten memory. Out of sight, out of mind. It wasn't right, and it wasn't what a good girl would do, but it was all I could manage to keep the fragile cracks in my heart from splitting open and pouring out the blood within. I needed to bottle it up, tuck it away and forget it even existed. If I ever saw Rye again, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he could forgive me. But like so many other things in my life, I had a feeling it would come and bite me on the ass. Until then, I'd cope by avoiding the topic at all costs. Swallow that puppy down and hope I didn't choke on it.

We pulled up to the City of Vida and entered quietly, in a slow rush that made me sweat as I thought about saying goodbye to my only living relative. It was the right thing to do, leaving him here. He wouldn't be happy on the road with me, let alone safe. Here, he'd have everything he'd dreamt of when we were stuck underground in our bunker, with just me and my mother for company. He had his companions who were fun and exciting to be with. He had an adoptive mother of sorts who loved him as her own. He had food, shelter... safety. What more could I have asked for him? Not much, except to be with him, too.

As we reached the row of "houses" which were just apartments along one of the city's long hallways, I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat. They'd done loads to spruce it up, covering the whitewashed look Katrina had maintained and exchanging it for colorful paintings made by the city's residents. All down the halls were drawings of rainbows, graffiti, sadness, laughing, hearts and flowers... anything you could think of. There were walls of hands painted on by toddlers, children and the elderly. Here was the life he needed. Here was where our paths split. I only prayed those paths would intersect again.

Jeremy was in his new family's apartment, where he had his own room. He and his adoptive brother, Leo, were playing a video game. They were yelling at the screen but quieted down when Leo's mother, Allie, opened the door for me. Elijah and Sarah waited in the hall, knowing that this was a private family moment. Allie and Leo excused themselves to go make lunch in their small kitchen. The place was cozy, quaint and lived in. The way life should be. An array of sports equipment filled baskets on the side of the couch, and the place smelled of delicious homemade food I hadn't yet had the luxury to taste.

Jeremy played with the remote of his video game, pushing at the colored buttons and knobs as he avoided my gaze. He'd grown a foot in just a few months, and it made me want to pull him into a tight hug. Time was flying by too quickly.

"Hey, kiddo."

"Hey."

I slipped down onto the couch next to him and smiled, he'd grown so much in the days I hadn't seen him. No one had told him of my ordeal, which was for the best. I didn't want him worrying about me. Why should he worry when I was worlds away from the life he led now?

"Your hair needs a trim," I said as I pushed a thick lock of his brown hair away. It refused to comply and flopped back into its original position. I stopped trying to tame it when he pulled away.

"Are you coming back?"

Shocked, I waited a moment before speaking. "Of course I'm coming back."

"Where are you going?"

Jeremey wasn't intuitive like Sarah, but he was way more intelligent than I gave him credit for.

"Not sure. Maybe out west, maybe east. It depends on what we find. We might have to wander for a while."

"Thanks for letting me stay." He tugged at a string dangling from a loose seam on his shirt.

"You belong here, squirt."

He nodded before breaking down and slamming into me for a hug. "Promise to come back?"

"I promise. Hey...." I pulled back to look into his huge, tear-filled eyes. My brother, my only sweet love. I felt the tears prickling behind my eyes, too. Oh, how I'd miss him. "I'll always come back for you."

His sniffles were muffled in my shirt, and I rubbed his thin back. How had he gotten thinner and taller? Where was that short pudgy kid I'd known not so long ago? I'd missed so much. "Make sure you don't lie about that," he said.

"Never, Jeremy. Never."

Chapter Eighteen

Leaving Las Vegas

I wasn't sure how it ended up being decided that we should head to the Californian coast, but that was the direction we'd taken after leaving Vida. Elijah insisted on driving the entire way, leaving me to let my mind wander. Watching the city disappear into the rear-view mirror left me feeling numb. There was something sad about saying goodbye to the only road I've ever been down. The last of the scattered houses at the edge of the desert valley disappeared, and the slow trek through a highway riddled with vegetation, stalled cars and debris made the ride feel like it lasted for eons.

Still, we'd make it to California before dark. We hoped we'd be able to camp outside one of the major cities in an abandoned house somewhere. We wouldn't have time to scope out possible hiding areas before nightfall to figure out if the cities were infested or not, so it would be safer than trying to shack up within the city limits of Barstow or San Bernardino. So far, there was little sign of life on the road, which suited us just fine.

The memories resurfaced along with each mile of road traveled. I remembered taking this trek many times with my parents, heading to the beach on impromptu fun trips or going to Disneyland, where all your dreams were supposed to come true. I huffed at the thought and ran my fingers through my dark strands. It was cool enough to keep the windows down since we weren't traveling at high speed, and the fresh desert air was delicious when I breathed it in. Sarah was sitting up front with Elijah now, and I watched as she chatted his ear off. I'd occasionally notice her hand land on his arm, or she'd reach over and poke him playfully on the shoulder when he tuned her out. I didn't blame him. She could go on and on, and I had already blocked her out myself.

Still, I think her feelings for Elijah ran a lot deeper than she let on. It made me smile, happy my friend had found some sort of distraction in the world after. They'd spent a lot of time together in Vida, and from what Sarah had told me, she'd been his right-hand man... err... woman. It was astonishing to see the transformation of my friend, who'd been such a girly girl as much as I'd been a tom boy. To watch her fight was like watching someone else take over her body, a possession of an intensity that could relate to.

I chuckled and went back to sharpening my large hunting knife. The thing was huge and made me feel like a female Rambo, but it was one of my favorite blades outside my dual machetes. Even the double katanas had nothing on this. I scraped the stone across the surface and relished the sharp noise it made. It was calming and didn't bother the others, as the wind rushing in through the window hushed the scraping sound down to a distant shuffle.

It was impossible for me to do nothing on this trip. When my weapons were cleaned and sharp enough to slice through the metal of the car, I sat back, one knee up to lean my arm on as I stared out across the horizon. We were going a little faster as the miles stretched on, swerving now and then to avoid debris. There were fewer cars out on the open highway, reminding me of how fast the virus had taken ahold of the cities. Most hadn't had a chance to escape its clutches the way my family had. Most had died within the city limits, gripped in the chaotic mess of death, blood and sickness. It made me somber to think that so few had tried to escape before the virus had taken its victims. If you hadn't died from the virus right away, you had to stay behind because you were either taking care of a sick loved one or you had become food for one of the thousands of hungry, soulless creatures that began roaming the streets from dusk until dawn. How we'd survived even a couple nights in our house in Vegas, boarded up within, was beyond me. Randy had been part of it.

As I thought of Randy, I turned to watch his steady breathing. He was all healed up now, with only faint pink flesh in areas betraying the missing pieces he'd had in his previous ruined state. The sun didn't kill him, and he didn't burn to ash, but the effects of spending so long as a nocturnal creature meant he felt extreme fatigue during the daylight hours and suffered from extreme sensitivity to the sun. It was bad enough that it burned him to a crisp in no time if he laid out in it. Strange as it was to have him back in my life, it brought the memories flooding back, memories of my mother.

I still didn't understand her motives in the last moments of her life. Maybe the grip of madness had just been too much for her. It made no sense, though. The woman I'd grown up with, the one who'd kept us alive at the end of all things, wouldn't have done that to herself. She never would have given in to suicide. The thought kept hounding me, adding to the pile of questions she'd left me asking. I knew Jeremy hadn't asked the same things I had after her death. His coping mechanism had let him accept her loss long before her death. He'd watched her wither away, like an old person slipping into dementia, a death of the mind before the body. Maybe that was how he'd survived it so much better than I had. He'd accepted her death long before it had come. He was amazing, I had to admit that. An old soul trapped in such a young body.

He'd be fine, even with me no longer at his side. I knew he'd understood the situation before I had even had a chance to explain it to him. Thank goodness he was wiser than I was. Otherwise, my guilt would've eaten me alive.

The Jeep slowed to a crawl, and I sat up, peering over toward Elijah to see what was going on. If we didn't make it to the outskirts of San Bernardino before the sunset, we would spend a night without sleep for certain. "Hey, why are we stopping?"

"I have to take a piss, if you don't mind," Elijah grunted. Sarah rolled her eyes and turned around in her chair, smacking the ever-present gum in her mouth. How she'd found so many packages of gum to carry around with her always baffled me. Of course, I didn't exactly keep an eye out for it.

"Any more gum?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded and dove into her bag. She rummaged around for a minute before tossing me a small rectangle of Hubba-Bubba. Of course she had the good stuff.

I stuffed the huge, rubbery chunk into my mouth and chewed, letting the flood of sugary bubblegum flavor fill my mouth. "Been a long time since I had some of that."

"Good, right?" She smiled, already hanging off the back of her chair. "Are you excited? I haven't left Vegas in forever." Her big toothy grin made me laugh. I had to agree wholeheartedly.

"Yes, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the West Coast again. Been landlocked far too long."

"I know! I wonder how Hawaii is. My dad took me there for one of his visits to the the Marine Corps base on Kaneohe, Oahu. It was gorgeous! I loved the beaches there. The water was cool, but nice enough to snorkel. He tried to teach me how to surf, but I sucked and kept getting pummeled by the waves over and over again. That wasn't my idea of fun. I loved the sun though. Sand and sun, best stuff ever."

I nodded, amused by her story. "I've never been to Hawaii. I wonder how the epidemic played out there. You don't think they were spared, do you?"

She shook her head. "I doubt that all the passengers on the planes were clean when the planes stopped running. I bet it spread there like wildfire, too."

"What about the islands that don't have an airport?"

"Could've been filled with people from the ferries, maybe. Who knows? Maybe there's a hidden paradise unaffected by this crap." She slipped back into her chair, snapping the seatbelt back on as Elijah jumped back in.

"All right! Let's get this show on the road." He smiled at both of us, wagging his eyebrows over his sunglasses. We both laughed, and I was thankful for the relaxed atmosphere. Randy slept through it all, but it didn't matter. I was happy for the first time in months.

Even the uncertainty of the future couldn't have brought me down at that moment. Every mile took me closer to something I knew I was meant for, even if I had to leave my heart behind in Vegas.

"So... L.A. or San Diego?" Elijah questioned as he swerved around yet another wreck. It was an old SUV, burnt and shattered, with twisted metal and glass splayed around it. One look inside found me staring at the charred skeleton of its unfortunate driver. It silenced our group as we made our way around it. I only wished this wasn't the norm nowadays. All the vehicles had some sort of damage or had been left abandoned, doors open where the passengers had fled into the desert and died from exposure or vampire.

We'd been fortunate that we'd even survived this epidemic at all. It made me even more determined to get the antidote to someone who could use it in the best way. I hoped we found them in California.

"L.A. first. Then, if we don't find anyone who can help us, San Diego," I answered. Nothing made me more anxious than thinking about what we'd encounter once we got there. I just hoped we'd find what we were looking for sooner rather than later.

Chapter Nineteen

Ordinary Days in Infinite Ways

"This is going to have to do." Elijah pulled onto a dirt road leading to a far-off house, hidden near the base of one of the smaller mountains before the road entered the pass into San Bernardino. We hoped the pass would be clear enough to get through, but it was getting late, and the slow pace had us running out of time before the night brought the creatures of darkness out.

I peered over Elijah's shoulder and studied the road before us. There was a small church tucked into the hills nearby. More houses appeared as we went over the hill, but the entire area was deserted. At least, I hoped it was. The shadows were growing with each passing minute, and we would have to gear up for the night's stay, taking turns on watch.

Glancing over toward Randy, who was miraculously still asleep, I hoped that his inner clock was a good indication of when we could expect the ferals to awaken. Their influence still lived in him, and I wondered just how human he was now. Or was there even enough left of him to overcome the time he'd spent in the virus's grip? Would the feral ever really be extinguished? He'd been hard to rouse during the day when we'd stopped for lunch. He'd awoken, drowsy and quiet, and even munched on a sandwich I'd handed to him. He'd eaten it silently, avoiding interaction as though he wasn't all there yet. He'd refused to leave the shade of the gas station overhang we'd taken shelter under to eat and relieve ourselves. He'd donned some sunglasses scavenged from inside the trashed convenience store, and they were still on his face now, blocking the evening dusk as it came rushing at us.

"This one looks sturdier than the other ones and isn't a trailer. Plus, it has bars on the windows." Elijah pulled the Jeep into the driveway of a small adobe-style house, reminiscent of the Mexican villa homes I'd seen on a vacation to the south in my youth. I remember walking into some of the houses, transformed into small museums about the culture of each area. It was always cool inside, despite the overbearing heat of the outside and always smelled like the rich, salty earth of the underground. They kept the heat out and they kept it mighty quiet inside, too. I'd enjoyed those places. They were like ghosts in my mind, still haunting me, reminding me of times past.

We shuffled out of the Jeep, even Randy, who stumbled out into the evening, not yet as awake as we would have liked. As soon as we entered the house and swept it for ferals or any non-desirable, he slipped down onto one of the beds to continue his snooze. The sun was a powerful influence on the ferals, and I'd only seen its sedative effects up close on Randy. Pretty soon, the shadows would be long enough for him to walk across the outside of the house without any fear of the sun touching him, and he'd be fully conscious, like his fellow feral creatures. That was precisely when we needed to go on alert.

"Any supplies, take them. We don't know if we'll find much in the city." Elijah pointed toward the pantry, and I nodded as he made his way to the garage.

"Hey, so what are you going to do?" I frowned at the thought of him ordering us around while he didn't do his part in scavenging.

"I'm putting our Jeep in the garage, backward, for a quick getaway. Any other questions you got while I'm here?" He tapped his foot, glaring at me. I waved him off, shaking my head. He could be such a jerk when he wanted to be, but he was pretty harmless. I sauntered off to join Sarah, who was busy filling trash bags with cans, unopened food boxes and bottles of water.

"Wow, pretty untouched, huh?" I said, opening one of the cabinets in the kitchen island. Inside, I found only cookware and pans, so I moved to another cabinet.

"Yeah. Major jackpot." She tossed something at me and hit me in the shoulder.

"Ow! What's that?" I bent over and grabbed the package. It was a box of fruit strips. "No way. Haven't had one of these in ages." I ripped it open and took a bite. "Dang, if sugar wasn't God's gift to earth, I don't know what would've been."

Sarah nodded, her own strip stuffed into her mouth as she chewed. That girl found sugary sweets no matter where she went. "I got first watch," she said, "so I want to be all hyped up to crash later."

"You're insane, you know that?" I tossed the rest of the box she had thrown at me into the trash bag and dropped some bags of rice into it as well.

"Yeah, well, we all need our quirks to stay sane nowadays, right?"

"I guess so."

"So, what's up with you lately, April?"

I paused, shoving back a loose strand of hair as I stared out the window. The sun had touched the bottom of the western mountains and seemed to be bobbing there like an apple about to take a dip.

"What do you mean?"

"You know. You and Rye, that Christian guy. I don't think the others noticed, but I saw how you looked at both. I know you're mated to that redhead, but man, he gives me the creeps with his weird eyes. Plus, he's probably dead."

"They're just different colors, that's all." I didn't like where this conversation was going.

"I know that. Still, I'm sure it's pretty crazy to be bound to someone like that." She sighed, tied up one of the bags and pulled out another from the dusty roll. "And what about Rye? The guy is nuts for you, but you beat him off like he has leprosy or something."

"I do not."

Sarah stopped what she was doing to put a hand on her hip and glare at me. "Oh, come off it. You treat Rye like crap. You also avoided Christian even though he was nuts about you, but after he went and kidnapped you with Mercer, he's so not cool in my book, so... what's wrong with Rye?"

"I don't know." I squirmed and opened another cabinet to avoid looking at my friend, even though I felt her eyes on the back of my head. "I never wanted to fall in love. It's not something I've ever wanted."

"Why not? I'd kill to have two men fawning over me." She sighed and started dropping more cans into the bag. The pause gave me a moment to choke back the sudden rush of tears threatening to flow from my eyes.

"When there's so much death around you, love turns into a luxury, a petty indulgence." My eyes stung, and I sniffed quietly. "Why fall in love when life is not guaranteed? It could be stolen from you in a split second. All love brings is loss."

Sarah remained silent. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I turned to find her staring at me, a pathetic, sad and shocked look pasted across her face.

"Really?" she said as I looked up. "That's sad, April. You're so depressing. I get that we can keel over or get attacked by the wildings at any time. And then there's the crazy hybrid vamps. I get how someone can think love is not worth having and life isn't worth it since we all die sooner or later anyway. I get that. But how did you become so hopeless? So cold? Where is the April I used to know?"

"She's dead."

"Bull."

"It's not bull. I'm not that girl anymore. Neither are you, Sarah. Where's the fashion conscious girly girl who wouldn't dream of breaking a nail swinging a sword around? Tell me you haven't changed either, Sarah."

Sarah's freckled face turned an obscene red as she practically steamed from the ears. I immediately regretted my outburst, but it was too late.

"I may have to kill things to survive and scavenge for food. I have to get dirty and do things I never would've done before, but deep down, I'm the same. I still love having fun, painting my nails, looking nice, and I care about my family and you. I'm still your friend. I'd never give up on you. I'm just concerned that you're doing this to hurt yourself, this not letting anyone in." She sucked in a breath. Her eyes focused on me, seemingly close to tears as a sheen of fluid shimmered across them. "I'm not dead inside. You need to really think about what's going on in your head and all around you and for goodness sake, quit dragging along people if you can't tolerate them."

"Who made you the keeper of whoever loves me?"

She groaned and was tugging at her hair when Elijah reentered. His eyes darted between the two of us, amused. "What's the ruckus about? Come on, we've got to make sure all the doors are barred and not waste time chitchatting."

Leave it to Elijah to knock some sense into us. We followed without looking at each other again. From the way Sarah kept tugging at a loose lock of hair, I could tell she was still irked by our conversation. Hell, I still was. Maybe she was right, though. Maybe I was the one who'd changed so much I didn't even recognize myself anymore.

Would the April from two years ago have acted that way? What would she have done if she had to choose between two men who both set her skin on fire and made her question all the rules about love? She'd have chosen one for sure. She wouldn't have strung them along with her insecurities and indecision eating her up alive.

How I'd let it get this far was beyond me. I was so disappointed in myself, and it dug into my chest as I helped Elijah lock all the doors and shove cabinets and sofas against them while Sarah draped the windows with dark linens and shut the blinds in every room. We closed all the interior doors and piled into the living room after we were finished, feeling the night creeping in.

Randy was wide awake now. He sat on the floor, chewing on a protein bar we'd found in a cabinet. I slid down on one of the mattresses we'd dragged over from the bedrooms. I stared at the ceiling, studying the stony imperfections, and breathed in the dusty atmosphere. Randy offered me one of the bars, but I refused. I wasn't very hungry after what Sarah had said to me. I couldn't get it out of my head, and I turned to watch Elijah settle on a thin rollout camping mattress. He chugged down a bottle of water and pulled off his boots. At last, he lay back onto a pile of pillows and let out a long breath.

Sarah loved him, I was sure of that. So why weren't they an item? Maybe I wasn't the only one who was confused. I shook my hair out of the severe pony tail I'd had it pulled into all day. My scalp hurt from the band, and I rubbed it furiously before flopping back onto the pillow. The place was comfortable, I had to admit. If Randy hadn't been pacing the floor, I would've passed out in minutes. My watch was the last rotation of the night, near morning, so I had to get some rest. It wasn't cold enough for a blanket, and it lay haphazardly crumbled at the bottom of my mattress. If it got cooler, I'd pull it over me.

I propped my head on my arm and looked up at Randy. "Why's the daylight still messing with you?"

"Yeah. It's weird. Like I'm still on that vampire routine. Everyone would sleep when the sun came out. It was like clockwork. Each morning they'd all flop onto the ground and just pass right out the moment the sun came up. You could feel it pushing on your bones when the dawn approached. Like the light would be so much brighter, and it felt like it sucked your life away, even if the sunrise was still an hour away. It's like an extra sense built into you. Can't shake it yet."

Interesting. I just hoped it was a residual effect and didn't mean he was still very much part feral. The latter thought gave me a shudder.

"Would you tell us if you felt... off again?"

Randy stopped pacing and flicked his eyes toward me. "Of course I'd tell you. I may still feel different, but I feel... human. If you get what I mean. Those days...." He waved off into the distance, staring as if remembering another life. "They were like nightmares I couldn't wake from. Murky, filled with rage and feeling like I wasn't in control. It was definitely a beast inside that took over, and I was just an unwilling participant."

I pondered his words and got a slight chill. I reached down and yanked the threadbare blanket over me. It was horrible to think that those creatures I had killed, the ferals, could still be human inside. Their humanity might have been buried deep within, but they were still there. Would I be able to kill another now that I knew that? With the antidote, could all of them become like Randy? More human?

I closed my eyes. I knew the answer to that. I'd do what I had to do to survive. If it meant killing a feral who was attacking me or the ones I loved, I wouldn't hesitate. Even if Randy turned back and was threatening us, ready to rip my throat out and drain my blood, there was no question about it.

Elijah was snoring softly, and Randy eventually left the room to join Sarah at a quiet game of cards. I stared at the light from the little battery-operated lamp until my eyelids grew heavy enough to close and allow me rest once more.

Chapter Twenty

Can't Hardly Wait

"April." Elijah's whisper echoed in my head. First it was so far away, I thought it was a trick of my mind. Then it came louder, along with someone shaking my shoulders. "Wake up, sleepy head."

I blinked, and the light slowly came into focus, making Elijah's face glow in the flicker.

"I'm up." I swiped at his hands, but he only had to lean back since he was kneeling next to me, chuckling. I stretched and scanned the room to find Sarah asleep on Elijah's mattress and Randy nowhere to be seen. "Where's Randy?"

"He's been in the garage, pacing but trying to keep quiet, so he went in there, circling the Jeep."

"Restless much?"

Elijah shrugged, looking like he couldn't care less. "Probably. Your turn for watch. Move, lazy. I want my two hours of sleep."

HWith that, he ripped the blanket off me, and I muttered a threat or two toward him as I grabbed my boots and headed to the bathroom. I washed up with some bottled water and tinkled in the disgusting toilet before I shoved my boots on and headed back to grab my bag. I pulled out my weapons as Elijah watched me from the mattress. As soon as I stood up, he rolled over and conked out.

Damn, I wish I could sleep so soundly on demand. That would be handy trick in a world like this.

Shaking my head, I dragged myself toward the kitchen. I peeked outside the window and saw nothing but black. I closed the dingy, thin curtains quickly. I knew if there was anything out there, we'd be hearing it soon. Ferals weren't quiet. At least that gave their prey some advantage over them.

Grabbing one of the kitchen table chairs, I sat and leaned back, my head settling against the hard and cold clay wall. In another life, this might've been an energy-efficient paradise. Desert paradise. I hadn't seen any greenery yet, and I hoped California still had some. Memories of palm trees, tall grasses, orchards and miles of soft, glittery sand made me smile. I could have used some surf and sand right about then. Jeremy would've loved it, too.

A thump coming from the garage had me shooting to my feet in a second, machete in hand. I listened for a moment, not sure whether it was just Randy in there or if something had joined him. It was our first night with Randy, so I wasn't sure how it was going to end up or if the night would enhance his feral tendencies.

I heard nothing but silence, which still didn't convince me we were safe. I had to check on Randy, and I hoped I wouldn't be walking into a trap. Elijah hadn't mentioned anything unusual about Randy, so I had high hopes he was just fumbling about in the garage. Slipping my fingers over the cool brass knob of the garage door, I leaned forward to listen to any noises from inside. It was a thick metal fire door, so the noises were muffled by it and made it difficult for me to identify anything.

"Dammit, Randy," I muttered and gripped my machete tight. "I really don't want to use this on you." I stepped back as I turned the knob, preparing myself for the worst. Ready or not, here I come.

I yanked the door open and peered inside. A single lamp sat atop the hood of the Jeep and Randy, facing away from me, was standing still next to it, staring at the garage door.

"Randy?" I checked both sides of the garage before I stepped forward, closing the door behind me. The hairs on my neck stood up, responding to a static charge in the air. It could have been the sunrise approaching, but wouldn't Randy be feeling it, too? The way he was standing there, like a carved statue with tattered clothes and hunched shoulders, made me nervous, and I really hoped he hadn't turned feral once more. Still, my breaths came in short, sharp intakes, and the sweat began to form in itchy beads across my forehead.

"Randy?" I repeated his name as I stepped closer, gripping the hilt of the machete with my sweaty palm. Would it be rude if I poked him with the machete? I hoped it wouldn't agitate him from his meditative state, but I'd rather do that than give him a hand to pull me over with. Yeah, I could see that panning out real well in my head. With that picture haunting my mind, I reached out, letting the tip of the blade tap him gently as I called out to him again.

"Don't come any closer, April."

I froze, squeezing the blade handle while I kept it ready. "What's going on, Randy?"

"Apparently, the antidote only works temporarily."

I swallowed, feeling it scrape down my throat in an attempt to get past the sandpapery dryness while the sweat dripped down my temple. "What do you mean?"

He shook his head. His long, dark blond locks moved gently with the motion, but he had yet to turn around. "I wish it would've worked completely, but the virus is so strong, it won't let me go." He continued to shake his head, muttering under his breath.

"Randy, turn around and tell me what's wrong. Maybe we can find out how to fix it."

"You can't fix me." The despair in his voice took me to a place I didn't want to go. I realized that my decision to kill Randy if he turned back might have been a bit premature. Could I really do this?

"That's what my mother said," I replied. "She didn't let me help her either. What good comes of that?"

Mentioning my mother made my stomach knot up, but I did my best to ignore its choking grip. My eyes never left Randy. There was too much to lose from such a misstep.

"The fangs, they emerged a few hours ago. I thought I could fight them, but they came. The scent of everyone's blood was driving me mad, so I came out here to walk it off, hoping to get far enough away that I could stay calm. But you know what the worst part is?" His head snapped up, and I could see his chest filling with breath as he began to huff it in and out. "The worst of it is my eyes. I checked them in a mirror when they started to ache and burn like they were on fire. They're red again."

He jerked around to drill the blood red irises into me, and I stepped back. Until that moment, I thought it might have been psychological, but he was right. The antidote was wearing off.

He was feral, but not quite. His fangs dripped with saliva as he stood his ground, breathing in madly, trying to tame the beast with each struggling breath. In his eyes, I could see the shiny irises reflecting as his natural blue flashed in and out, as though it were battling against the feral red. It was a sight to behold, and the shock kept me from turning around to run. It spiked my curiosity even through my stifled terror. A ring, a bright yellow halo, circled the red with a hint of reflective gold, branding him as a hybrid now. How could that be? Was he possibly still changing? He wasn't human but he wasn't feral, either. What was he evolving into now?

"Randy, I'm going to step back and go back into the house. I'll check on you when the sun is up, okay? Maybe you'll be fine then. We can figure out what to do when the others wake up." I stepped back and he growled, a deep guttural sound that seemed to vibrate along my arms and into my chest, rumbling like an earthquake. I backed away even more, trying not to go too fast or too slow. He was like an animal, ready to pounce, and I couldn't make any sudden movements. Instead, I crept backward, and the growls faded into a listless hum as his breathing deepened and he closed his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, April. You should have left me in the compound. I'll bring nothing but harm to you and your friends. I should go."

"No, just wait, okay? Wait for the dawn."

"You're right, though. I can feel the sunrise coming. It makes the beast withdraw some. I feel calmer every second." His eyes flipped open. They were now a funny reddish blue that looked almost brown, the way paint does when it mixes wrong. His fists clenched tight then loosened. He stretched his long, clawed fingers, only to curl them tight into fists again. "I really should go."

"Please don't. I need to know what's happening to you. We're so close to the city, we'll find a cure."

He kept his eyes closed but turned back around to face the garage door. "Okay. But only one more day. I don't know how long I can control it. It's writhing inside me, like it's trying to break out. I'm not strong enough to hold it in. It's been far too long since I was human. I don't think I know what it feels like anymore."

My back touched the garage door, and I reached behind me for the knob. "Maybe it's something you just have to get used to again. The control. You've let the subconscious rule for too long, the wild side. You have to chain it up and take control. You can be human again, Randy. I know you can." Turn the knob... push the door open slowly... shove it closed. I can do this.

I turned the knob, and his head jerked up at the sound. He began breathing harder as he straightened and sniffed the air. Things weren't looking good for me. I pressed my body against the door, and it creaked open. Each squeal made me cringe as I watched him turn his head, still sniffing the air like he'd detected a tasty, bloody steak. His fists curled up once more, and his shoulder twitched in anticipation.

One final push, and he jerked around, staring at me with full on reddened eyes and a snarl carved into his face. He was no longer the gentle Randy who'd told me stories in the cell of Christian's underground hive. No, he was now the fighting beast within, and I had to get the hell out of there. I made it into the kitchen a moment later and shoved with my entire body against the door, slamming it shut as he slammed into it from the other side, causing it to bounce open slightly and then close with a click. I fumbled to turn the lock before the door shook violently as he pummeled it again. I held my body against it, feeling my heart die even more as I heard his desperate growls on the other side.

"Let me in!" His nails screeched against the metal as he clawed at the door.

"What the hell is going on here?" Elijah was behind me, his wide palms pressed against the door to help me hold it. I peered up at him, relieved to see his groggy but familiar face. "Randy?"

I nodded and turned to grab one of the chairs around the kitchen table. I shoved it under the doorknob, and we backed away, still staring at the door. My heart was beating wildly, and I scolded myself for feeling so spooked. Had I not killed dozens of ferals? Had I not enjoyed the thrill of slashing them to bits?

I shook my head, still feeling my heart sink, and I wanted to just break down and bawl my eyes out. This was different. I had never killed anyone I'd known before the outbreak. Not like this. It was a whole new ballgame, an unknown arena where no one really won the games. I knew Randy, and knowing how much he was fighting for control made me feel even worse. I ran from the kitchen, barely making it to the bathroom to heave out the contents of my stomach, the measly snack I'd had earlier. As my stomach settled, leaving me with just the sickening dry heaves that let up after a few minutes, I spit out the disgusting mess in my mouth and closed my eyes as I shrank back to sit on the floor. Leaning against the cold, jagged stone of the natural adobe wall, I let my strangled breathing catch up. I needed to catch up.

Oh, Mom. What do I do now?

Sarah peered in on me, holding the battery-operated camping lamp while she handed me a washcloth. It had been doused with cool water, and I wiped my face and mouth with it, thanking her for being so thoughtful. Back in high school, she'd always be the one to pick me up when a guy broke my heart or some idiot from the popular crowd jabbed at me, just to pick on someone. No one had ever picked on Sarah. If they did, she'd let them have the biggest verbal smack down ever and had left them looking more embarrassed than they'd ever left me.

Nothing like the best of friends.

"Need anything?"

I shook my head. "No." I sipped from the bottle of water she'd offered then sighed. "Is he still trying to bang the door down?"

"Nope. He stopped, and I haven't heard anything else from him." She stepped back to peer around the corner where Elijah was still in the kitchen, keeping watch at the door, before turning back toward me. "I think the approaching sunrise is wearing him out."

"This is all my fault." I rubbed my face and wiped the sweat beading across my forehead.

"Don't blame yourself, girl." Sarah smacked some gum as she leaned on the doorframe of the bathroom. "How were we to know he'd turn during the night? The first few nights he was in quarantine at Blaze's, he was fine. No issues."

I nodded, rubbing my face, and huffed out a breath. "I know. It's just so unfair."

"I know."

I got up and headed out into the living room, deciding to pack up our supplies to be ready to leave once the sun broke past the eastern mountains. No point in sleeping now. I pulled a rope from one of the supply bags and hung it on the chair barricading the door. If Randy was to survive, we'd have to tie him down from now on. It seemed barbaric, but if we were all going to make it through this, keep him alive and find a cure, we had to do it.

After gathering up the rest of the food we'd found and stuffing our gear away, we peeked out the windows and studied the landscape as it slowly transformed into morning. We decided it was about time for the wild, savage things to retreat into the shadows.

Elijah returned, his huge hunting knife gripped firmly in his hand. "Okay, who wants to check on Randy with me? I say if he tries to kill us, we put him out of his misery."

I winced as I joined him. Not quite the plan I was thinking of. "Look, let's just try to keep it civil," I said. "I need him alive."

He blew out a disappointed breath and nodded, a wicked gleam shining in his eyes as the morning light poured in through the windows, reflecting off his very human eyes. "Yes, ma'am."

I rolled my eyes and headed to the garage door, hoping beyond hope that Randy had passed out from the sunrise and overexertion of the night. "I'll open the door and you grab him. Got it? I'll tie him up, just hold him as best you can or knock him the hell out."

Elijah smirked. "Let's get this party started." He flipped the knife in his hand as he bent his knees and faced the door, looking like a linebacker ready to slam into the opposing team. I had to admit, he was pretty no nonsense and to the point. Plus, it was always an advantage to have a burly guy like Elijah on your side. Just what we needed right now.

"Okay, ready... set... Go!"

He lunged forward and I yanked at the door. I was expecting to hear the screeching growl from Randy, but I instead heard nothing. Zilch. Nada. Only silence and the soft hum of the lamp still sitting on the Jeep. Randy was passed out on the ground, face down, as if he'd fallen and refused to move. Okay, so the sun still had quite the effect on him, and it was startling to see him vulnerable when just a few hours before he had been so incredibly frightening.

"Well, that was easy." Elijah poked at him with his boot, but he didn't respond, so he reached down and flipped him over with a good, hard shove. He waved me over and pointed toward Randy. "He's all yours!" He cracked a smile while I frowned and rushed over, whipping out the rope to tie his wrists and ankles together. He was going to hate this when he came to, but it was for the good of everyone involved.

"Okay, done," I said.

Elijah opened the back door of the Jeep and heaved Randy's slack body into it like a rag doll, not caring if Randy's head thumped against the other side. This just made me frown deeply, and I avoided his happy smirk as I made my way back inside to grab a couple of bags of supplies to toss into the back of the Jeep. By then, Sarah already had the garage opened along with propping the door into the house wide open. She was tossing bags of supplies out to put into the Jeep.

"How do you put up with him?" I asked her, shoving a trash bag of food into the cargo area. I decided to keep my own bag with me in the cabin so I wouldn't have to dig for my weapons when needed. We always had to be ready to jump, grab stuff and run.

"You get used to him."

I wrinkled my nose as Elijah, who was chewing on a bag of mixed nuts with his shades on, studied the road down and back into the hills on the horizon. "I don't see how."

Sarah laughed and slammed the hatch closed. "It's an acquired taste."

"Yeah, like shitty, cheap beer?"

"Be nice."

I stuck my tongue out and went around to the empty side of the back seat where I plopped my bag in between me and Randy before I slid into the cool comfort of the seat.

"Sorry about the rough ride, Randy, but it's just going to have to suffice for now," I muttered as I slammed my door shut. He moaned slightly as he turned to adjust his body, blissfully unaware of anything that was going on. How lucky he was to not notice much right now.

"All right," Elijah said, "did everyone hit the loo? 'Cause I'm not stopping, just so you know." We all mumbled, and he turned the engine over. After pulling the Jeep into the driveway, he jumped back out to close the garage door, leaving the house as we had found it. I looked at him questioningly as he hopped back into the vehicle. "Hey, can't leave a messy trail for people to find us."

He had a point.

We got back onto the highway and traveled down the pass, which was excruciatingly slow due to the increasing number of abandoned vehicles. We were getting close to the city, and I knew we'd eventually have to abandon the freeway and use the side roads to get to the coast, but I didn't mind.

It was the start of a new phase of my life, and I couldn't wait.

Chapter Twenty-One

Breath of Life

The ride down the pass was slow and tedious, with cars blocking the road everywhere. My stomach was already feeling twisted, and the constant turning and curves made me even queasier. I remembered my parents speeding down the hills in this area when we'd traveled through it on several occasions. Now it was a mess, strewn with debris from crashes, twisted metal and just... stuff. Lots of it. People's luggage, furniture and various other items they'd thrown out of their cars in a hurry to get the heck out of the horror engulfing the world. I wondered why some were heading toward the city. Would it not be the dumbest decision to head toward the chaos? The other side of the road was also an almost impossible trek. There'd been more people leaving than staying. We'd have to remember to take this side of the road on the way back to Vegas.

Were we ever going to go back? I rubbed my eyes as I glanced at Elijah and Sarah. What had they thought about all this? There'd been few words between us, and I knew they meant well, but I really didn't know what they expected to get out of this adventure. Maybe there were no expectations. Maybe they would do anything I asked, even if it meant never returning to Vegas again.

I didn't want to put that kind of pressure on them, not yet. If they were to decide to return before I was ready then I would let them go, of course. I wasn't their keeper. We were all free souls here.

I focused on Randy, who muttered in his sleep on and off and cringed away from the window when the light would shift and hit him right on. He was the least free of us all. He was trapped inside his own body which didn't want to expel the virus it so desperately held onto. Did he need another dose of the antidote? Would it kill him?

I wiped my hands on my pants. It made me nervous to think of such things. If I gave him another hit of the antidote, would we be ready to accept what could happen? I'd have to ask Randy, when he was more lucid and communicative, if he ever would be again, before the night hours sucked his humanity away.

He shifted in his seat again, the ropes still snug against his wrists. He never fought it, accepting his fate to be tied up instead of free. How it saddened me. It put me in a somber mood as I turned back and stared wearily out the window. We passed San Bernardino more quickly than I thought we would. The neglect was apparent there, just like in Vegas. I'd hoped to find a better place, anywhere, where the devastation had not been as widespread as it had been back home.

"There it is!" Sarah yelled and bounced on her chair, pointing toward the horizon. The ocean finally came into view in all its glittery, blue majesty. I had to admit, it was stunning, and I hadn't felt so excited in a long while. I cracked the window open and let the rush of ocean air tumble in, sniffing it like it was a drug. Sarah was doing the same, hanging out her window, letting the sea breeze tangle her hair and squealing with exhilaration.

"Ocean, baby!"

How do you stay in a bad mood with the ocean nearby? The smile on my face made my cheeks hurt as the breeze whipped my hair into a disheveled mess, but I didn't care. It was amazing, even when the Jeep jerked to avoid yet another abandoned vehicle. Once we were on the beach, I was going to shed my boots and dig my toes into the warm sand and hit the waves running. There was no doubt about it. One thing I'd missed from my younger years was the feel of the grainy sand underfoot, digging for shells as the cold ocean water rushed over me, sucking my feet down as it retreated but begging me to tread farther in. I never swam out too far. My fear of the unknown had somehow anchored me to the shore where my feet could always graze the sand so that the ocean could never truly claim me. It was tragic, I knew that. Still, I'd enjoyed the water until the sun had burnt me to a crisp and my skin was raw from the constant rubbing of sand against it.

There was no beach in Vegas. Here was my only reprieve, where I could jump into memory and forget what was really going on around us, even for just a moment.

And so, as we reached the shores of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, I was eager enough to jump out of the Jeep as it slowed to a stop and run the rest of the way toward the froth of waves and roar of the water. Once at the shoreline, I barely remember ripping my boots and socks off my pale feet and jetting into the water, up to my thighs and farther in until I floated chest deep and the waves attempted to knock me over.

The water was freezing, and I gasped as each wave pelted my head and my temperature dropped enough to send my lips quivering. Still, I splashed the water about, watching the drops gleam as they turned into faceted rainbows. It made me laugh, and I didn't stop until I saw Sarah jumping in, clothes and all, joining me in the exhilaration of it all.

"Elijah! Get in here, you big ogre!" she called out, waving him over as he approached the waterline. He didn't jump in right away. In fact, the way he stood there with his arms crossed and a frown creasing his face, I was sure that underneath his sunglasses and hardened exterior, his eyes were disapproving our enjoyment. Whatever. He could be such a party pooper.

"Someone needs to keep watch while you have your little fun."

Sarah stuck out her lip and pouted then glanced over at me and winked before she dove under the surf and disappeared. What was that woman up to?

Minutes passed, and I was getting nervous as I spun around, eyeing the waves for Sarah's bright head of red hair. I saw nothing, but Elijah dropped his arms and looked about as spooked as I was, having chucked his sunglasses down. He yanked off his boots, barely hopping out of them before running into the water and diving in yelling for Sarah.

I had to get a better view of the water, so I swam closer to the shore to look around. Where the hell had she gone? I knew better than anyone else that she knew how to swim. Why was she doing this? Whatever her reason was, it wasn't funny, and I was going to ring her neck the moment we dragged her out of the water.

"Sarah! Sarah!" Elijah's head emerged, water droplets flying from his locks as he yelled out, scanning the waves before diving back under. The wait to see him resurface had me on edge as I stood on my toes, still not seeing Sarah return from the depths. A sudden flash of orange caught the corner of my eye, but it disappeared before I could confirm it.

"Elijah! Over there!" I hollered, pointing madly as he resurfaced, spit out a mouthful of water and turned in the direction I was pointing. That was all he needed to redirect himself and dive under the froth of waves once more. The moment he went under was the moment Sarah popped up, not far from where I'd last seen her. She treaded back in, laughing hysterically and turning a bright red as she pulled her sopping wet tail of hair back to squeeze the excess water out. She marched toward me, still laughing when Elijah popped back up, focused on her and dove in her direction, raging mad.

"What the hell, Sarah!" He started high-stepping through the water as it hit him hard on the back and shoved him forward, causing him to stumble before he caught his balance. "I swear I'm going to make that death wish you're aching to fulfil come true!" He spat out a mouthful of water as he pushed forward and stomped through the knee-deep surf toward her. She tried to run but couldn't outpace him in time. She laughed as he picked her up and swung her over his shoulder before heading back into the water, cradling her only to swing her body out into the coming crash of waves.

I shook my head, glad I was finally enjoying a bit of the fun I'd intended to have. After rinsing the sand from my arms and pants, I squeezed the water out of my pony tail and waited for them on the shore. The waves lapped weakly at my ankles as I sank into the sand. Tiny holes bubbled up through the sand as the water retreated, and I watched the earth slowly suck me down until my ankles were covered in the stuff. Seaweed and debris littered the shoreline, looking much like it had before the vampiric virus had hit, except maybe it was a tad bit worse. There were no people on the beach to gather up and dispose of the trash floating ashore. No one barbequing at the fire pits lining the beach barrier to the parking lot. No beach towels lined up against the glittering sand. No oiled-up bodies or canopies to block the view. No screams of squealing kids or laughing bunches of teens drinking their illegally obtained beer and playing beach volleyball until they were as tanned as leather.

It was eerily quiet. Even the cars in the parking lot sat under a layer of sand that caked their windows and piled up around the tires, aching to overtake the beach once more. It'd been left alone too long. The asphalt had disappeared under the shifting sands. It was all over the place, even up the steps of the lifeguard towers, laying in drifts that hadn't been there the last time I'd visited.

The land was still very much alive and taking back the earth from the long dead humans.

Studying the skyline, I spotted the pier down a ways and wondered if it had suffered much from over a year left to the elements. It appeared intact, but there were piles of seaweed tangled on its legs and barnacles clinging to the wood where the water periodically receded before filling up the shoreline once more. The stores and shops atop it were still there, but many windows were obviously smashed while others were boarded up, as if someone could be living in there, watching us.

The feeling of eyes peering back at me crept up my spine and down my arms, making the chill of the water as it dried off my clothes in the warm Californian sun feel even colder. So, we were not alone, but who knew what was up there looking at us across the seashore? It was at least a mile or two down the beach, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go there. To find others was one thing, but I needed to find those who could help us replicate the antidote and perfect it, not those who would find sanctuary on a long forgotten, rotting pier. Still, it would be a good hiding place if the ferals were afraid of water, which they might very well be. It was hard to know if they were because there were no bodies of water in Vegas where I could have tested such a theory. Lake Mead was miles away and too far from anywhere to appeal to them.

If only there was an island out there free of infection. That would be something to look into. Maybe, if somehow, we did get to Hawaii, they would be zompire-free. Wouldn't that be nice?

I shook the thought from my head and turned back to watch Elijah and Sarah toying with each other, splashing water and repeatedly shoving each other into the waves. Their laughs clashed with my darkened mood, and I tried to push the gloom away, but it always managed strangled me somehow. Why couldn't I just enjoy myself? I had to try to make an effort to feel alive again, especially since there was so much I still had to do. Feeling dead inside wasn't conducive to do the task I'd set out to accomplish. It wouldn't help me any. I had to bring myself back to life, not just for me but for Jeremy.

If I'd ever see Jeremy again.

I gulped down the bittersweet longing suddenly surrounding me. I missed him already, and though I knew he was safe, having fun where he belonged, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something so dear to me, something so vital it was ripping my heart out, and I was left but a shell walking around, empty and worse than any Zompire. If I was going to be any good for my baby brother, I had to fix this broken soul first, before I could ever love anyone else, before I could again find some semblance of a normal life.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Soot and Sand

"Hey, space cadet!" Elijah slapped a cold, wet hand on my back and brought me out of my reverie. I was still sitting on the sand, almost dried off from the warm sun hovering above. "Where'd you go?"

I smiled as he sat down next to me, dripping and messy. "Just thinking." I had to admit, at least it didn't bother him to be all wet and caked with sand. He made things look so easy. Sarah was out of the water, too, but had run back to the jeep and was now bringing back three towels and some water bottles. She dropped one of the soft towels on me and handed me some of the water, winking as she plopped down next to Elijah. I hadn't even noticed how thirsty I was until the first gulp passed my lips, and I downed half the bottle in just a few swallows.

"Thanks."

"Anytime. Isn't this awesome?" She hugged the towel around herself, her lips a pale tint of purple as the cold sucked her heat away.

"Yeah, it's really great."

"Almost makes you feel normal, doesn't it?"

I nodded, sadly peering across the shore and into the blue horizon. "Yeah."

"Did you feel them, too, April?"

"The pier?" I asked.

Sarah nodded, taking another sip of water. "Yes. There's someone in the shops up there. Want to check it out?"

I shook my head. Wisps of my dark hair slapped my face. "I don't think the ones we need would be holed up on a beach pier."

"You never know."

I turned toward her, giving her a stern stare. "I know. I need people who'd find a more secure location. They won't be easy to find."

Sarah didn't look convinced. "You don't know that. One thing about an apocalypse, people don't think clearly. But when it the world has fallen apart, where would you want to really be in the end? I'd choose paradise over a hole in the ground and surviving in the dark. Wouldn't the beach sound better than the bloody hills?"

"That's ridiculous." I sighed. Leaning forward, I pressed on my thighs and traced a swirl into the fine sand with a finger. Dusting off my hands when I was done, I looked up to find Elijah and Sarah watching me.

"What?"

"When did you get to be such a downer?" Sarah toweled her hair and looked away, disappointment written all over her features.

"I'm a downer? Being logical isn't a downer. It's called thinking with my head on straight and not in the fucking clouds like some people are all the time." I stood abruptly, threw the towel over the crook of my arm and stormed off toward the Jeep. Her words made me furious. Who did she think she was? She never had any concerns or worried about anything. She'd lived above ground only briefly. I'd lived over a year in the elements. The only thing she'd ever worried about down in the City of Vida, the lap of luxury, was whether she'd break a nail practicing with her swords. It irritated me to no end, and I ignored her calling me back as I made my way to the Jeep.

I yanked the backseat door open and jumped back as Randy's body half fell out. He didn't awaken, but his skin began to smoke and sizzle under the intense afternoon sun reflecting off the white sand. I tossed the towel onto his face, grabbed him and started to shove him back into the Jeep. Finally, huffing under his weight, I managed to shove him back to the other side of the seat where the sun didn't shine into the window. I peeled the towel off to find him flushed red from the exposure to the sun. His skin had tiny darkened lines on it that made me wonder what was going on. Something was definitely wrong, and I didn't know what to do about it.

Was the infection doing this, or was the antidote the cause? Either way, I was afraid it would kill him if I didn't do something soon.

I reached underneath the seat and yanked out the small cooler bag with the vials of the antidote. They were still cool but not cold. I hoped what Rick had said about the antidote staying viable at higher temperatures was true. Pulling out an individual use syringe and needle, I popped the top off one of the vials, screwed the needle and syringe together and plunged it through the rubber. After aspirating half a milliliter, like Rick had done with the initial dose, I dropped the vial back into the cooler bag and turned back to Randy, who was still sleeping.

His reddened skin looked angry and sensitive to the touch, worsening with each minute. The sun hadn't affected him this much the day before, confirming my fear that his feral nature was very much alive underneath it all. I hoped he'd forgive me if he was in any amount of pain, especially when he woke up. I ripped an alcohol pad open, rubbed it furiously on his bicep and aimed the needle toward the muscle while holding his arm down.

Here goes nothing, I thought. Clenching my jaw, I stabbed the needle into his arm and shoved at the plunger. As I pulled it back out, I watched a drop of darkened red blood seep from the puncture site and trickle down his arm. It wasn't blackened yet, a good sign. He hadn't responded at all to the shot, not one flinch, not one movement. I had to observe his chest moving to verify that he was still breathing. His shallow breaths reassured me, but I had expected something to change in him with the second dose. Anything would be nice.

Several minutes passed before I fell back against my seat and let out a frustrated breath. Nothing was happening, and I was running out of time. If he was frying under direct sunlight, he'd be full feral much too soon and would probably rip us to shreds if we didn't extinguish him first or tie him up good. The stupid antidote was supposed to work. It was supposed to! How could such a thing be presented to me and be taken away so quickly? It pissed me off to no end, and I smacked the chair if front of me until my skin stung with angry sparks of pain.

I focused my sight out toward the shoreline to find Elijah and Sarah still sitting where I'd left them, deep in conversation. Elijah was even making hand gestures up in the air as he told his story. Sarah's high-pitched laugh echoed across the drifts, joined by several seagulls who'd hovered and landed next to them in the hopes of a snack.

There used to be thousands of seagulls along the beach. Now there were still a few, but much fewer than before, when the beach was thriving with morsels of food for them to steal. It made me laugh, because I'd had my sandwich stolen by those flying rats before.

The thought of food made my stomach jerk in an angry growl. I reached into the back where the food cooler was and dug around in it for something palatable. I came up with a can of tuna and a couple sealed packets of Ritz crackers. Using the can opener we'd stashed with the cans, I squeezed the fluid out onto the sand and used the crackers to scoop the bits of tuna into my mouth.

I missed having sliced bread, mayonnaise and mustard to slather all over the sandwiches. Sometimes we got lucky and found some mustard or ketchup, but most of the time the mayonnaise was always going bad from sitting out in the heat for far too long. I swore if I found a good jar here in Cali, I'd enjoy it to the max and take it back to Vegas with me.

I sighed, washing down the food with more water as I watched the birds bantering with each other along the sand. Some of them would occasionally dip into the water, fishing for food. I wondered if they found any. We could try to catch some fresh fish if we were going to stay here for an extended amount of time.

Glancing over back toward the pier, I felt eyes on me again. It made me uneasy, but I didn't feel as uncomfortable as I had before, just curious. Who was in there? What did they think about us showing up on their beach and just making a day of it?

I sighed. The old me, before my mother died, would've thrown caution to the wind and jumped at the chance to check it out. What had changed so much? I sat there, just thinking about things and not acting irrationally as I once would have. Maybe my mother's death had killed a lot more of me than I'd originally thought. No sense of adventure anymore whatsoever. It was one of the few things that had kept me going when I'd lost her and Jeremy all those months ago. That determination and impulsive behavior had been both my bane and savior before. Now I felt like a shell of myself. Empty... hollow... dead. I had to find that part of me again somehow.

I swung back toward Randy and let out a yelp, gasping for air as I found him watching me with deep, blood red irises. It was hours from sunset, and he was wide awake and very feral in appearance.

"Randy?"

His eyes darted around the vehicle, focusing outside for a moment before finding me again. His pupils were tiny, showing so much red it made me wonder if I was speaking to Randy or the feral monster inside.

"Are you all right?" I moved slowly to grip the knife sheathed on my hip. He was tied up, but I didn't trust him to not lunge forward and take a decent chunk out of my flesh with those razor-sharp fangs. Better to be safe than sorry.

"What's happening?" He closed his eyes, breathing rapidly while his eyelids fluttered madly. Suddenly, his body began to twitch and tiny grunts escaped his lips. "It burns." The ropes held his arms and legs together, but his back arched as he bucked and fought against the movement.

"Randy!"

I tried to keep him from smashing his head into the window as his body convulsed underneath mine. Crap, Crap, Crap! What if this was an adverse reaction to the second dose of antidote? What if it killed him this time around? I wished I'd been smart enough to have asked Rick what would happen if a second dose was given to a feral. Now I was getting a front row seat, and it was horrific. It could have even been some anaphylactic reaction, and I didn't have anything to counteract it. What if the first dose hadn't really worked well enough and this one was just going to send him over the edge and kill him? I regretted giving him the second dose as his seizure continued.

"Randy, come on... just breathe." He finally slumped, his chest still and his eyes firmly shut.

"What the hell happened?" Elijah's voice boomed behind me, and I turned to find him and Sarah staring with mouths wide open as I pushed on Randy's body. Sarah started running around to the other side to yank open the door.

"Pull him out, we need to give him CPR."

"No!" I yelled and pushed her hands off him. "Don't touch him! He'll burn in the sun, that's why he's all red!"

She drilled her eyes into me when I smacked her hands away. She shifted her gaze toward Randy, who was still, but his chest was finally moving with soft, shallow breaths. His twitches became subtler, and his choked grunts had silenced.

Sarah stepped back, looking grim and tired. "If he burns, he's a feral. Let him burn."

I clamped my lips shut, avoiding her gaze, knowing if I met her eyes I'd want to smack some sense back into her. Maybe it was me who needed some sense smacked into me, but I couldn't give up on Randy yet. I had to see this through to the end. There was simply no other option.

"I'm going to forget you said that," I managed to hiss past my frowning lips as I got Randy's body to cooperate and maneuvered him into a neutral position so he could breathe more easily. He was motionless throughout the effort, confirming that he was out once more. I settled back in my seat and ran my hand through my hair. "I gave him another dose of the antidote."

"Why the heck would you do that?" Elijah was shaking sand out of his jeans and pulling a dry shirt out of his bag, as if nothing had happened. He had such an unconcerned attitude about it all, it made me want to slap him for being so insensitive.

After pulling off the half-dried shirt, he yanked the new one over his rock-hard body. He just had to go and do something like that in front of me. I closed my eyes to try and not think about how awesome he looked when I was so pissed at both him and Sarah. It made me miss Rye in more ways than one. Rye had always been a pretty sight to look at shirtless, and I knew he'd know when to keep his comments to himself.

The thought made me even more depressed as I opened my eyes once more when Sarah and Elijah hopped back into the Jeep. I turned toward Randy and found him fast asleep again, unharmed, as if nothing had happened. I wished he'd be able to tell me more about what was going on inside him, give some sort of clue to what kind of war was raging under his skin. Now I'd have to wait, and he probably wouldn't awaken before the feral beast did.

Elijah looked up and stared at me through the rear view. Even with sunglasses on, I could feel his gaze burning into me.

"If he so much as breathes wrong, I'm offing him, April. No ifs, ands or buts. Got it?"

I nodded, swallowing down the dry, sandpapery knot in my throat. "Got it."

Chapter Twenty-Three

By Chance

"What about there?" Sarah's voice echoed in my head, and I peeled my cheek from my arm, which had been leaning against the door of the Jeep. I'd passed out hard after Randy's reaction to the antidote. We'd decided to locate a suitable place to spend the night, and we still had several hours before sundown but didn't want to get caught by surprise. We needed time to fortify our hideout before the ferals came out. I was sure California had more vampires than Vegas did. Maybe more toward L.A. or San Diego, but we were near them. These beach towns weren't exactly huge, but they ran into each other for miles upon miles without a break, blending into one another, making it seem like it was one long and endless city. That could be bad. Really, really bad.

The building Sarah had pointed out was more of a lighthouse. It was off in the distance, surrounded by sand dunes and swells of scrubland. I wrinkled my nose at it as Elijah pulled off the road and headed down one of the sandy roads toward it.

"Looks good as any," he said. He grinned and slammed down a gulp of beer. He'd found it in a convenience store we'd scavenged which had collapsed from some heavy rains. Underneath the crumpled awning it'd been fairly intact, and he'd managed to pull out a couple of six packs of beer that had remained half buried in dirt. He'd dusted the cans off and pulled the tab on one, taken a sniff and then a nice, large swallow of the fluid. The smile on his face told us he'd found something he absolutely loved, and he'd practically launched himself into the damp earth to dig out as many as he could find.

"Pay dirt!" he'd yelled as he shoved a couple six packs under his arms and lugged them to the Jeep.

At least someone was getting a treat. The other stuff we'd found was akin to the same crap we'd found in any forage: beef jerky sticks, dented cans of Spaghettios, ravioli, some salvageable individual packs of fever meds, bags of chips and loads of candy. Tons of it.

Well, maybe we were getting some treats, too, but real food would've been nice right about then.

"Should you be drinking and driving?" Now Sarah was acting the mother hen.

"Oh, don't start. I can handle my alcohol. Besides, I won't really drink that much until later. Need to get the place up to snuff before we can party." He winked at Sarah, turning her scarlet as she bit her lip and turned away. Man, the girl had it bad for him, and she was so transparent. I almost laughed but held it in as I studied the dunes around us, hoping ferals didn't like sand. If they didn't, this was a perfect home base until I found what I was looking for.

If I found what I was looking for.

We pulled into a spot near the lighthouse and studied the building, lonely against the horizon.

"Okay, April, you take to the back, I'll go in through the front. Don't forget to call out if you find something. This isn't a solo mission, you know."

I rolled my eyes. My reputation for working alone plagued me like a skunk attack. "Yes, sir." I emphasized my words and threw him a dirty look before grabbing my machetes and a flashlight. I was ready to pummel anything that got in our way. One glance toward Randy reassured me he was out for the count. Still, I cracked the windows and locked the doors. If he woke up delirious again, he might inadvertently kill himself by opening his door and frying in the sun. Not something I needed right now. Elijah handed me the keys, and after he clipped his hunting knife sheath to his belt, he checked the rounds in his gun and strapped on his katana.

Sarah was doing the same. Her long sword looked overbearing on such a svelte girl. How she handled herself so well with the weapons always impressed me. No matter how long I'd seen her fighting, it was like watching a stranger. She could probably say the same thing about me.

She caught me watching her and gave me a tentative smile that didn't reach her eyes. Okay, so she was still pissed at me for pitching a fit earlier. I sighed and headed toward the lighthouse, ready to take some ferals down if I had to. Sometimes it felt good to start a fight and make something bleed. I missed it. That was my mission, and I couldn't wait any longer.

The bottom part of the lighthouse was like a small cottage. Tiny windows faced the ocean and the front where we'd parked. They were salted and caked with over a year of water spots, impossible to see through, especially with the sun still glaring behind us and reflecting off the glass. I groaned and kept on, hoping to find a second entrance in the rear, leading toward the beach. The deep sand was hard to trek through, and I could feel it filling my boots as I sank into it.

Cursing under my breath, I made it around to a wooden pathway leading off the deck from the back door and down through an opening between the grassy dunes and off toward the beach. I stopped and studied the surrounding area. It was easy to hide there. The hills hid everything from anyone coming around the corner. It could be good or really, really bad. Good that I could sneak up to the door without being seen. Bad if anyone else did the same to me.

Walking up to the door, I took a moment to hold my breath and listen. The seagull cries across the beach mingled with the hollow sound of the ocean. Even the slight breeze rustling the grasses intensified as I tried hard to filter the noises and listen for anything suspicious. When nothing stood out, I peered at the old wooden door before me. It was smooth and worn down from time and the constant assault of ocean air. I reached out and turned the rusty knob, cool and gritty from lack of use. It turned slowly, crackling as the rust flakes spilled out from it and flew away in the gusts of wind. I stopped and listened again, hoping there would be nothing here to find, either alive or undead.

No scratching, moaning or screeches. There was nothing human echoing out either. If I was going to get this done already, I better just do it. I shoved the door in with all my weight, and it swung open, filling the dark atmosphere inside with a huge cloud of billowing dust. I hurried in, my blades in position as I scooted to the side of the door and let my eyes adjust to the dimly lit interior.

Nothing lunged at me, nothing came bearing arms or tumbled in my direction growling with blood drenched fangs. I let out the breath I was holding and continued in, hoping it remained abandoned all the way through. The wind thumped on the door, and I worried it would make it slam sooner or later, so I reached out and pulled the door softly shut before continuing.

I found myself standing in a small mudroom of sorts, converted to a tool and storage shed. Several tools hung from the wall, though for what they were for, I didn't know. I didn't see a garden around anywhere. I figured you could still rake the sand, so the long-handled tool with hundreds of teeth had some sort of purpose. The others—a trowel, shovel, fertilizing, pruners, a spade and what looked like a Japanese gardening knife—left me baffled. I hoped it would make more sense as I continued into the little house.

The next room was a hall that ran down to a back staircase leading up into the tower of the lighthouse. The air was stale and felt musty, thick and unused for a long time. I wondered if Elijah had explored the front of the cottage yet. I didn't want to run into him by accident and end up chopping a limb off. If he was in the building, he was remaining excruciatingly quiet, as was I. Making my way past the hall, where a small room lay to the left, I found nothing. Across from it was another short hall that looked like it ended in a kitchen where a small breakfast table sat under a dirty window.

I focused on the small room to my left and peered in, pushing the door slowly as I let the contents come in to view. An old rocking chair, a reading chair and several bookshelves lined with leather-bound books of all kinds circled the room. Piles of books lay on two side tables, and reading lamps sat amidst them. There wasn't a desk, but it appeared to be a reading room of sorts. The two worn ottomans told a story of many hours of use. It made me smile. If I could, I'd check out some of those books later, see if there was anything I'd want to read for the long, restless nights I was anticipating.

With that room cleared, I headed toward the kitchen area. The moment I turned into it, a creak of the floorboards made me freeze in my steps. I let out a breath when I found Elijah standing at the doorframe to the kitchen from the other side.

"Whoa... it's just me."

I pointed behind me. "Staircase back here, I'm going up."

"Okay," he said. "First floor's clear. I'll head up the front stairwell."

We threw each other a curt nod and turned back toward our destinations. The stairs looked foreboding and disappeared into the ceiling like a black hole without much to look at from down below. I swallowed. Going up there would be a great disadvantage for me; my head would be a tempting target for anything waiting up top. As I ascended, I decided to pull a small knife from my belt and stopped as I reached the top of the stairs, before I'd become visible to anyone waiting for me. I swung my hand back and tossed the small blade up onto the top step, waiting for movement. When none came, I crept up slowly and found the second floor, much more open than the first.

This opened to a circular living area where there was recliner with a lamp and small table next to it. Like everything else, it was covered in a thick layer of dust. No one had been through there in ages. Even the wooden floor lacked any sign of footprints. It was reassuring, but I still had more levels to check. Who knew how big this place was? There was one bedroom with a creaky-looking brass frame bed and a single light on a lonely table next to it. The sheets were flat, made up one morning and never turned back down, forgotten. I crossed out of the room to where the wall hid a small hallway of windows to the outside.

The view of the ocean was impossibly beautiful, and I had to pause to admire its brilliance. I loved it and was so happy to be able to see it again. It made my heart jump with the excitement to have the beauty of the water so close. It was humid, but it didn't bother me. My skin begged to be drenched in its richness. Nothing felt better than that. It was what I'd needed to feel renewed, even in the face of the unknown dangers to come.

I turned back to find Elijah watching me. He'd entered the hall of windows from the other side. His nonjudgmental eyes twinkled as he followed my gaze toward the horizon.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?"

I nodded, smiling that he understood.

"Come on, we'll have a few hours to enjoy it. The spiral staircase starts here, and the living quarters end. Both floors are clear."

"Okay."

I joined him at the base of a scary-looking spiral staircase. The stairs stuck out from the wall of the tower without a railing on the open side.

"Ladies first." He smirked and wagged his eyebrows. I gave him a dark look, readjusting the machete in my grip.

"You're going to pay for that," I said before jumping onto the steps, not daring to look to the side. I wasn't afraid of heights, I just didn't want to know just how far I'd have to fall if or when I did fall. Okay, so I was a fiery pessimist. So what? I didn't really care what others thought about my attitude. I focused on the task and made my way up the creaky stairs.

They seemed to go on for miles, with no end in sight. I hated not knowing what I was heading into. Still, the call of the ocean outside was better than the arid desert I was used to. Nothing could dampen my excitement from being near the water, not even an imminent attack above.

The only thing missing was Rye. I gulped back the sadness that wanted to creep up my throat like rancid bile. I hated feeling guilty about something, but I really didn't know what else to do about it. I'd left him behind. That was the fact of the matter, and he and I would have to deal with the consequences when we saw each other again. If we saw each other again. I wasn't so sure we ever would.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Not This or That

We were nearing the top, where the stairs were swallowed by the ceiling and led up into the lantern room of the lighthouse. I prayed that since it had to be full of sunshine up there, no ferals would be crawling all over it. Maybe ferals were the last thing we needed to worry about. If there was someone or something up there, it would be conscious and probably more dangerous than a feral.

Right before I popped my head over the threshold, I paused, waiting to hear the telltale noise of a stranger. I heard it as I stepped up, just in time to drop weapons, duck and avoid getting my head chopped off by a swinging blade. It met with the metal around the stairs, twanging in a violent pitch. Whoever had tried to get at me was now backing up, waiting for me to try it again. I took their pause as a way in and sped up through the entrance, jumping to roll across the floor and slamming into the wall. Luckily, I avoided the assailant. They were caught by surprise as they scrambled to follow my path, only to have a leg pulled out from under them by Elijah.

Surprise, Surprise.

The thump of their body crashing into the floor and their blade skittering across the metal far from their grip happened so quickly, they couldn't catch their breath in time to retaliate. They laid there, frozen in surprise, with hands up in surrender.

It was a woman. "Stop!" she said. "I surrender."

Elijah pointed the tip of his blade to her throat. "Why'd you try to chop my friend's head off?" he snapped. His eyes narrowed on the stranger as I stumbled over to drag her off the ground and frisk for more weapons. She had a total of six blades on her. One stuffed in her boot, three were on a belt, one strapped to her thigh and another had been tucked under her jacket in a secret pocket. She continued holding her hands up in a show of faith. It made me want to slap her on the back of the head and scream at her for trying to kill me.

She refused to answer and flicked her eyes to the floor.

"Who are you?" I waited patiently as she shifted her gaze to eye me up and down, assessing what I was with her nimble, dark-haloed eyes. She was pure hybrid vampire. Not hard to see that with those telltale rings. Though what she was doing in a brightly lit room at the top of a lighthouse was beyond me. Most hybrids hated the sun, though they could venture out in it, it would always burn their skin.

"You're trespassing in my home." Her scalding hiss was low and accusatory. Her stare was relentless, and I hoped she wasn't thinking about getting her blades back. That would be the day. Elijah would get to her before she ever got the chance to lunge at me.

"You're home? You live here?" I was surprised. "Quite a place you got here. Looks very much unlived in. So, try again."

She frowned, staring hard at the machete in my hand, which I'd retrieved from the stairwell. "I just moved in."

"Yeah, okay." I sighed, rubbing the tiny headache creeping into my temples. "So, what would a hybrid want with a bright ass lighthouse? Not really your style."

"It's no concern of yours."

Elijah shoved her to her knees, and she grimaced as they dug hard into the floor. "Wrong answer."

She turned to glare at him, throwing him a disgusted look as she narrowed her eyes. "Sanctuary. I was looking for sanctuary."

"From who?" I asked.

She chewed her lips before pressing them tightly together. Whatever she'd run from, she wasn't willing to divulge much about it. I hoped we could change her mind. She could very well know someone who could help me with the antidote.

"Lark."

"What's Lark?"

She frowned, closing her eyes as if the name caused her excruciating pain.

"Not what, who."

"Get to the point." Elijah poked her in the shoulder, and she yelped, reaching over to rub it.

"Okay," she sighed. "Lark is the leader of my hive. She's been conducting experiments on my people, and I protested. She wouldn't listen and even subjected me to some of them. I escaped, but they're after me. She doesn't take too kindly to people escaping."

"Where's your hive? Is it far from here?"

"No, it's actually not too far. I figured I'd shack up here for the night. Just like you, I thought a lighthouse would be safer than the usual hideouts. I need to feed before I can travel more. She deprived us of blood, it was one of her reconditioning experiments." The woman sat onto her calves, tired of stressing out her knees. "You don't want to go looking for them. It's too dangerous."

"And why would that be? What's your name, anyway?" I knelt, drilling my eyes into hers. She looked afraid, nervous and desperate in a way. She kept averting her gaze from me and pulled away as I crept closer. Maybe she was more afraid of the scent of my blood than anything else. A starving vampire was no joke.

I wasn't sure what she was running from, but it sounded like another Mercer and Christian sort of hive to me, people determined to study the different strains no matter who suffered.

She huffed at me, unwilling to continue the avoidance game we were playing. I wasn't sure, but she looked reluctant to tell me her name. It spiked my curiosity as I waited for her response. Right about the time I was wondering if she'd speak again or not and Elijah seemed this close to giving her an encouraging shove, she decided to enlighten us.

"It's Raina. And you don't want to go looking for them because you'll become their experiment, too. They won't hesitate to try out their new antidotes, serums or anything they can on you." She sniffed and finally met my stare. "Especially since you're a human."

Studying her composure, I watched for signs of a lie slipping past her lips. When I saw none, I peered up at Elijah, who apparently was doing the same thing. He shrugged, already looking bored and increasingly impatient. After much deliberation, I stood back up, offering her a hand to stand.

"Okay, Raina. I believe you. But you have to tell us where this hive of Lark's is. Otherwise, we get to tie you up, no matter what." I offered her a cheesy grin to relax the atmosphere as she tentatively took my hand. Curiosity, tempered by a healthy amount of caution, made me want to probe her for more. What had she been doing in the last year and a half since the virus hit? She didn't look much older than I was, and it made me recognize the detrimental effects it'd had on others my age. Maybe she'd been through more than I thought. Maybe she needed help, and we were put there for that very reason.

Who knew? I just felt a sort of kinship with her, more so than I'd had with Sarah after reconnecting with her. Sarah would always be my best friend, but this girl had lived through the same experiences I had. She was not much older than me and could show me so much of how the world had been effected here, in a whole other section of the world.

"Look, I'll tell you where it is. Heck, I'll show you, too. But don't expect me to waltz in there with open arms and kumbaya with Lark. Make no mistake, she's not your friend. She'll trick you, earn your trust and twist her words to manipulate you into her sick games."

"What did she do to you that you're so hard up on her?" interrupted Elijah, who was leaning on the windowsill peering out across the expanse of ocean. His hard eyes met hers, challenging her to break under the slight pressure he exerted.

Raina shifted her weight, shuffling her feet as she looked away from the weight of his stare. "It doesn't matter. Just know that she will. I know her better than anyone else there."

"Really?" I stepped toward her, feeling some impatience creeping into myself. "Prove it to us. How so?"

Raina's dark eyes flicked up to meet mine, challenging in her own way. She was intimidated by Elijah, but not so much by me. Why was that? "Because... she's my sister. I know her better than anyone ever could." This heightened my curiosity, and I wanted to know her more. Still, I trusted her as far as I could throw her.

"Why would your sister want to hurt you at all? Sounds like a family quarrel to me."

Sarah chose that moment to jump up through the hole in the floor, katana in hand and looking around, still in warrior mode. "The outside's clear. Randy is knocked out cold on the couch. I tied him to it, so he won't be going anywhere soon. Unless he chews his way through the ropes. But it would take some gnashing and a lot of time." She tilted her head at the girl still waiting before us. "Who's this?"

"This is Raina. Apparently, she's taking refuge here, and we interrupted her humble abode."

Sarah snorted. "Here? Really? Who'd live in this dump?" She peered around, wrinkling her nose at the place. I actually liked it, so I rolled my eyes at her comment.

The silence that followed along with Raina's scowl filled the moment with thick tension. It made me shift on my feet. Sarah looked perplexed, and I didn't blame her.

"Did I miss something?"

"She said her sister is the leader of a vampire hive near here that's highly dangerous," Elijah said. "They supposedly don't know she's here. Not sure whether to kill her off now or keep her for use later." He was picking his fingernails with his hunting knife, looking bored as he leaned on the windowsill.

Raina crossed her arms at his remarks and averted her gaze toward the windows. The expanse of blue ocean was endless across the horizon, and it reflected in her haloed irises. A darkened look hooded them with a sense of sadness and longing. I wondered what exactly she was looking for, running away from her only family to this desolate place. I hated to find out if she'd been abused or something worse than that. Maybe we should heed her warnings. This whole thing gave me a sickening knot that clenched my stomach into a hard, apprehensive rock.

"Whoa... looks like I missed all the fun doing the dirty work downstairs. Why is it I get stuck carrying the heavy dead weight of a crazed vampire through the sand while trying not to burn him to a crisp while you guys get a history lesson about the hives in this area? Next time, I'm going in first." She circled back toward the stairwell but paused before she continued down them. "I say we listen to what she has to say. She might have some useful information. Never know." She shrugged and hopped down the steps two at a time, like the height didn't bother her at all.

I wished I could be so carefree and naïve. Sometimes the things we lost in the vampire plague were the things I still needed the most.

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know. My sister can be ruthless, but she's a scientist and bent on curing this disease. Even if it means making the problem bigger, or worse."

"What do you mean 'worse'?" Raina had my attention now, though I felt like it wasn't going to be a happily ever after tale.

"Lark... she's gained her position of power because of her smarts and ruthlessness. She would even sacrifice her own flesh and blood for the cause." Raina's voice shook as she took it upon herself to sit on the gritty floor, Indian style. I felt awkward left standing and hovering over her. Compelled to join her on the floor, I slid down and matched her position. Elijah lifted an eyebrow at me, but he could see that she was harmless at that point. He let out a long breath and then stomped down the stairs, shaking his head and mumbling his opinions under his breath. As his head disappeared through the hole in the floor, I focused on Raina, giving her my full attention as she picked at her dirty fingernails.

It had escaped my attention until now that she was disheveled, hair wild with a film of oily dirt which clung to every exposed part of her body. Even her clothes looked wrinkled, slept in and ragged. I wondered how long she'd been hiding from this sister of hers.

"Lark wasn't always so horrid. Like I said, she's a scientist. Incredibly intelligent. First of her class at the university. Valedictorian, actually. She studied physics and genetics. Who majors in that crap? The intelligence gene completely skipped over me, though. I never graduated with honors or made it past my first year in college." She nervously chuckled, picking at the sand stuck in the ridges of her boot treads.

"Anyhow, when the plague hit and she found out that everyone we knew had either died, turned into some sort of blood-seeking creature of the night or warped into some weird human vampire mutation—like me—she became obsessed with finding a cure. It was so consuming, she ended up trying a lot of what she came up with on herself."

My eyes widened. "What? What do you mean?"

Raina sighed. She closed her eyes, suddenly looking very tired. The fatigue caused her to look much older than her years. She was young, but from the terrified innocence still present on her face, I knew she had seen a lot.

"She's not like me anymore. She's... morphed into something else."

I groaned and ran a hand through the flyways escaping from my ponytail. "I've dealt with a pretty strange mutation of the virus before. Like a large bat woman with fangs and poisonous blood who could make herself look human. She look sort of like that?"

Raina shook her head, her eyes looking more interested in my story now. "Really? No, not quite like that. She's... well... the wild vampire ones that hide in the dark until dusk comes, she's a lot like them. But she has none of their weaknesses. She can walk into the light, but her appearance has been damaged from the constant self-experimentation. She's quite frightening to look at, actually."

"Explain."

"Well, you know how the wild ones look?" I assumed she meant the feral vampires, so I nodded. "Well, her flesh isn't falling off, but it's really discolored. And her eyes are all red, and not just the irises. It's off-putting. Plus, her fangs hang outside her mouth, like a saber-toothed tiger would. It's disturbing, and I never could get used to it."

I swallowed. The visuals her descriptions gave me were horrifying, and I was sure that no matter what, Lark was hideous. "Go on."

"Her hands are long, the fingers so thin, they look like sticks. Her need for blood comes and goes, but when the urge hits, she could very well kill whoever is standing right next to her. She usually warns us when it's getting that bad and stocks up on blood, so she usually avoids it, but accidents do happen."

I cringed, wondering what sort of genetic manipulation Lark had gotten herself into. It was fascinating, in a sick, demented way. "Would she be willing to work on something else that could help?"

Raina stared at me in confusion, wrinkling her nose as her eyebrows tensed together. "What sort of thing are you talking about?"

I smiled, for once feeling somewhat excited and hopeful at the prospect of meeting this frightening creature who used to be Raina's sister. "I have an antidote. It worked on one of the feral vampires, the ones you call 'wild ones.' It turned him near human, but the effects are wearing off, especially at night. He returns to his demented state after a while, but I have some of the antidote with me."

Her eyes flashed open, shock slowly blanketing her youthful face. "You have it with you? That would be like gold to Lark. She'd kill you for it if she knew you had it."

I pressed my lips together, suddenly worried by her prediction. "You don't think she'd be willing to work with us on it?"

Raina pulled her battered legs to her chest, hugging them as she cradled her head in them, rocking as she thought about my question. "I don't know. Maybe. If you have something she needs, she'd keep you alive at least. Maybe you three would catch her interest."

"How so?"

She peeked up, the haloes around her irises reflecting the light and shining like gold discs spinning on a turntable. "You three are different. Human but not so. What are you, anyway? I've never seen a human mutation like you. There are the regulars, the untainted. Then there's the wild ones and others like me. But you... there's never been anyone in our area who was exactly like you and your friends." She sniffed the air and stared out the windows again, as though she were remembering something.

"That vampire downstairs. He's different, too. Not fully a wild one, not fully human." She inhaled again, and it made me suck in a breath slowly through my nose to see if I could smell the same thing she had. I couldn't. "He's tainted, but you did something to him, didn't you? The antidote?"

I nodded, but guilt began to tear through me for the first time since I'd shot Randy up. Maybe we should've left him alone. Maybe this entire mission was a failure. I didn't know, but whatever he was downstairs now wasn't what I'd ever wanted for him.

This Lark chick was my only ticket to finding out if I could save him. Every night that passed, my hopes of curing him grew dimmer and dimmer. Every minute that ticked by, he was slipping away from the humanity he so craved to embrace once more.

I'd make Lark work with us, even if it cost me everything.

Chapter Twenty-Five

No Less than Ordinary

I knocked the spoon around in the metal can as I smashed the contents into an unrecognizable mash. Spaghettios. I used to love them, but now the pasta and sauce tasted like the metal it'd been sitting in for far too long, and the texture felt like a gummy paste in my mouth. It hadn't gone that bad, I just didn't feel much like eating. I wanted to get out of the lighthouse, and was antsy to get my mission going and meet this Lark woman already.

Patience was not my virtue.

"Hey, eat. You're getting too skinny. Guys don't like toothpicks." Elijah nudged me as he spoke with a mouthful of green beans. I made a face and looked away. He had the manners of a gorilla, but I knew he meant well.

"I'm not a toothpick." I glanced at Sarah, who flicked her eyes away from me, avoiding my gaze.

"I'm just telling you like it is." Elijah laughed, sending a spray of food bits flying from his mouth, some of which landed on my arm. Frowning, I made a show of wiping it onto his sleeve and letting my breath out in a long, extended sigh. He was probably right, but still. I just didn't have much of an appetite lately. Not since my mother had died.

Munching on food around the soft flames of the fireplace made me wonder how Rye was doing. I was really taken aback by how much I missed him. Christian was lingering in my mind, too, but not like Rye. My feelings for Christian were different than anything I felt for Rye. I hated that I'd made such a mess of things. I didn't deserve either one of them, and it killed my appetite as the guilt rushed through me. I set my can down and sipped some water from the bottle sitting in front of me.

Elijah offered me a can of beer, but I refused it to his utter, nonchalant disappointment. He shook his head and chugged the darn thing down himself.

The flames of the fire flickered across the faces of the others. Elijah was taking first watch, so I had to try to get some rest before my turn came around. Raina offered, but we didn't quite trust her yet. She instead shrugged and settled on one of the mattresses we'd dragged into the main living room. The more rooms we could lock up, the less space we had to patrol. She'd been silent, eating her two cans of random, label-free food and sipping from her bottle of water. We'd found a lot of food at the last place we'd stayed. It was as if the owners had never had a chance to even think about food when the world died. They had probably just been out somewhere when the virus hit and not been able to return home. We'd never know.

The fire crackled and sent small puffs of smoke up the chimney. Elijah had made sure that it wouldn't be too visible, even though we were far from the city limits and out on a desolate shore. He'd decided it would be fine, and I hoped he was right. All we needed was to attract a horde of ferals. Or worse, Lark's tribe. I didn't want to become one of her science experiments, but I also had to talk to her and figure out what to do with the antidote. I hoped she'd be willing to work with me and get this going, for everyone's sake.

There was always the chance that this lady was bonkers and wouldn't take any offer into consideration, but I had to hold onto the tiny shred of hope that lingered inside me and told me this was the path I had to take. This was what I was supposed to do. If I didn't and I failed in helping others the way I thought I should, there was a huge chance that my life was over anyway. I couldn't live in this post-apocalyptic world. I'd remain the shell of the girl I'd once been, empty and unable to enjoy life.

I couldn't do that to myself. This mission was my drive to live. I had to live again, somehow.

Scooting away from the fireplace, I pulled my boots off, yanked a sheet over my legs and lay back, feeling the old mattress sink under my weight and creak. It was comfortable, but I never noticed things like a comfortable bed or clean sheets anymore. I could sleep on the open ground if I had to. I slept, I ate and did my necessary tasks. Repeat. There was no real thought to it anymore. I'd turned into a robot. I'd let this endless day to day oblivion suck me in easily, readily with open arms. There wasn't much to it, really. Maybe I was emptier than I thought I was. I felt old, frozen and lost. No one else could save me, and I had resigned myself to that. If I was ever going to change, it would be all up to me.

The light of the fire danced across the ceiling and made the shadows stretch and flicker as the night wore on. I tried to close my eyes and fall asleep, but my mind was running at full speed. I hated not being able to sleep. It left me exhausted and unfocused. In the morning, I'd need it more than anything, and I couldn't make my head shut off. I groaned as I twisted in the sheet and turned toward the darker side of the room.

"Can't sleep?" Raina's voice echoed behind me, and I turned around to find her lying back with her arms cradling her head and her eyes closed. "I usually can't sleep either. I figured if I just rest my body, it's enough. But...." She flipped her eyes open and looked at me like she was staring right into my soul. "You've got a lot more going on in there than I do. It's about that antidote, right?"

I nodded, suspicious of her intentions. Trusting no one was an old habit, but trusting this girl I'd just met was something I just couldn't afford to do, especially when something about her didn't jive with me.

"If I can cure some ferals, it would be all worth it. Even some of the vampire hybrids. It would be one step closer to normal again."

She propped herself on her elbow, her gaze never wandering from my face. It made me fidget, so I closed my eyes and waited for the inquisition to continue.

"And what about those like you? The human hybrids? Don't you want to find a cure for yourself, too?"

"I don't think a cure for the human hybrids is a priority. We don't have the blood lust, the deterioration of the ferals. If we can find one along the way, so be it. Awesome. But I need to find something for the vampire strain first. I think that takes precedence right now."

Raina chuckled, an annoying sound that made want to sit up and swipe at her. Instead, I frowned and turned back toward the wall. I was done talking to her if she was just going to laugh at the things I was working on.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you," she said, apparently sensing my frustration. "I just think it's kind of odd that you'll be leaving the human hybrids alone. You'll still be special, but you'll blend in with ease. We'll be nothing more than ordinary again. You'll still be stronger, faster. I feel like that just means you'll rule over the rest of us. How will that be any better than it is now, with people like Lark in charge?"

The bitterness in her voice didn't escape my notice, and I felt the iciness of her intent. Sarah returned to the room and plopped down on her mattress, striking up a conversation with Raina as I lay there seething. Something told me that meeting Lark would tell me a lot more about Raina than the girl was letting on. Maybe Lark wasn't the one I should've been concerned about. Maybe it was this Raina I had to keep an eye on.

Listening to their soft chatter, I closed my eyes and forced my brain to stop its incessant banter. I hated doing this, cutting my thoughts off to sleep. It was a forced relaxation, and it rarely got me the rest I needed, but I needed silence, inside my head more than anywhere else.

The morning would confirm any suspicions I had about Raina, and I'd find out if my life was going to mean anything at all. If Lark could do what I needed her to, then it was all icing on the cake from there. This had to work. It just had to.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Enough

The darkness of the room slowly shifted from pure pitch black to the dim light of the moon shining through the tiny windows lining the tops of the walls. It streamed in with long arms, caressing the floor around me in rectangular patches of light. Blinking for tears to soak my dried-out eyes, I focused on the lumps around me. Raina's slow breathing surprised me, because she was a hybrid vampire, and they were usually awake during the night. Maybe she hadn't slept for days. It made me wonder even more about her.

Still, what had awakened me? Sarah was still on her mattress across from me, and the fire had burned down to softly glowing embers and didn't provide any more light. Afraid to move too much in case an intruder was lurking, I tried to listen to the space around me.

Nothing.

I sat up and scanned the room more thoroughly, snatching my boots to slip them on and tie them taut. I grabbed one of my machete blades out from underneath the mattress. Listening further, I heard voices echoing softly from the next room. Elijah was still on watch, and it was probably near the time to wake me for watch, so I figured I'd just get up and see who he was talking to. I hoped it wasn't someone who shouldn't be there. Just in case, I crept slowly toward the door to the hall that led straight to the kitchen where he'd set up to play cards on the tiny breakfast table.

Making it to the archway leading into the adjacent room, I strained to listen for the voices. They had paused, as if they were listening for someone, too. I hoped they hadn't heard anything and continued talking, that way I could determine whether Elijah was in danger or not.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you, regardless of what you think."

"I don't know. She's going to mad as a hatter, I know it. It's just, I'm glad you told me before you left. I really would have lost my mind sitting back there without word, without knowing what had happened."

Rye? My mouth dropped open as I listened to the voice that whispered in my dreams and had soothed me during the nights I couldn't sleep and cried and cried until the tears wouldn't come anymore and the pain turned numb. The same voice would whisper sweet words that made my skin tingle when his lips touched my skin and his kisses sent jolts of energy flying through me.

The one and only voice that haunted me for leaving him behind.

A sigh and a chair scraping against the floor followed. "Hey, I know how much you love her. You're good for her. She just doesn't know that yet. Give her some time, she'll come around."

My surprise twisted from confusion to anger to from longing and back again. I wasn't sure how to feel about Elijah telling Rye where we'd gone. How did he know we'd be at the lighthouse? It seems that this destination was more premeditated than I'd initially thought. I wanted to hop in there and give Elijah a good screaming attack about how he needed to step away and stop manipulating my life. How dare he? How could he betray my trust so much? The anger surged, and I took deep breaths as I tried to wrangle it under control.

Still, Rye was here. Wasn't that a good thing?

I sighed, tired of battling my emotions. I wanted to see him, yes. In fact, seeing him was feeling more urgent as the moments ticked by. I needed to see him, hold him. Why? I had no idea why. Maybe... maybe I had succeeded in destroying the hive back at the slot canyon. Maybe Christian had died in the explosion, which would mean our bond was broken. I was no longer mated. I was... free.

The excitement of the possibility of this made me almost giddy. I wanted to jump up and down and squeal in happiness. Had it been so bad to be mated to Christian? No. But that wasn't the point. The point was that I didn't love Christian. I loved Rye. No matter how attracted to Christian I'd been due to that sick bond, it wasn't worth not having Rye's love.

This epiphany made me breathe out a sigh of relief. I knew what I wanted, and it suddenly became clear to me what I'd been missing all this time. I smiled, and a calm washed over me as I let myself feel the happiness of having Rye back with me. I walked into the kitchen and stopped to peer at both men. I didn't want them to see that I was happy yet. Let them suffer for putting me through this. It didn't matter in the end, but I could have my fun.

They both turned to face me. Rye paled, and Elijah began picking at his fingernails. Nervous much? I wanted to snicker but trained my face into a stoic mask. It was just going to be much funnier this way.

"What are you doing here, Rystrom?" I asked. My voice was low and monotone, frigid in every way.

Rye winced at the sound of his full given name but stood up and focused his eyes on me. "April, how are you?"

"I'm fine."

The silence grew heavy, and he shifted on his feet nervously as I weighed him down with my stare.

"I couldn't stay behind. I was going crazy. You know that. You may not have a bond with me, but I'm bonded to you, through and through. I love you, April. I made Elijah tell me he'd let me know if you ever left and bring you here. I'm sorry if I had to do this behind your back, but you should know... it pains me to be away from you. I can't stay behind." He stopped shifting and was completely still. His face darkened, and the seriousness of his words sunk in like a bittersweet nectar.

"You told him?" I feigned disbelief at Elijah, giving him a dose of my death glare.

He nodded. "I told you, there are some people who really care about you. You shouldn't cut them off because you don't know what you want."

"Who made you the expert?"

Elijah's jaw tensed, and he stood up from the table, shaking it enough that the house of cards he'd built collapsed.

"I'm headed to bed. It's your turn for watch anyway." He stomped off, leaving a tumbling breeze as he exited the room.

I focused on Rye's boots, well worn, caked with dirt and scuffed from miles of walking and use. His pants were frayed along the bottom seam and were equally worn and stained. The dark green fatigues were faded beneath the dirt. They were a favorite of his. I think he owned several pairs of the same style.

My eyes slowly made their way up to his shiny belt buckle and over his snug but clean black shirt. He looked like soldier, but not quite in full uniform. His dog tags were tucked under his shirt, and I'd never really studied them before. His sleeves lay unfolded and straight, pulled taut against his rounded biceps and wide shoulders. The line of his collarbone fused with his neck, and the slight stubble that covered his skin made him look tired but incredibly handsome.

Finally, I fixed my gaze on his shiny grey eyes, which were almost silver in the bit of moonlight slipping in from the kitchen window. The halos rimming his irises flashed, blending their metallic gleam with the silver of the coloring of his eyes. They were framed with thick, dark lashes, matching the smooth midnight locks. Silver highlights reflected the light, making his hair appear peppered with silver. I knew better. His hair was soft, thick and black as the darkest night of a new moon. His pale skin almost glowed, making him look even more ethereal. It was enough to make me hitch my breath and freeze us in our stare.

"It's good to see you again." His voice broke the silence. I couldn't even hear Elijah rustling behind me, probably already asleep on the mattress I'd just abandoned.

"It's good to see you, too." Why was I at such a loss for words? Here was the man I loved, and having him there, in my time of need, when I needed his comfort, his strength... he was always there.

"I missed you." Rye reached toward me, and I suddenly felt like either running away or slamming into him in a rush of passion.

"I missed you, too." I stepped forward, bringing my blade up to set it on the table. As my fingers left the hilt, I met his gaze once more. "I'm sorry."

He closed the space between us, his arms encircling me without hesitation, without fear or apprehension. Without any resentment. I let him pull me close. His body met mine, and I melted right into him. His chest smelled amazing against my face, a scent so familiar and comforting. I let my shaking arms lift up to embrace him back.

"Don't be sorry. Just don't do it again." His fingers stroked my hair, gentle even with the rough calluses from constant use. I rubbed my cheek against his hardened chest, and it felt good against my tired eyes. I didn't want to let go. I never should have.

"I just didn't know what you'd do when I came here without you. I didn't think you would have let me go if you'd known. But I wasn't positive."

"I'm here, aren't I?" He pulled away a bit, cupping my chin to bring my face up to his. "Hey, I love you. I'll follow you wherever you might go. Anywhere, I'll be there for you. Whatever you want to do, wherever we end up, it's you and me."

My heart was on full-blown overdrive. I could feel the blood rushing to my face, and all I could manage to do was give him a smile, but apparently, for Rye, it was enough. He pulled me back against his chest, his arms never wanting to let go.

And that was enough for me, too.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sacrifice

We didn't get to celebrate long. A loud crack resonated throughout the lighthouse as the front door exploded inward. The impact sent me sailing back into a wall as Rye dove through the doorway behind him. The dust rained down on me as I fumbled for my blade, which was still sitting precariously on the edge of the table.

"What the hell?" I yelled. "Rye!" Where had he fallen? I managed to reach the table and my blade. I gripped it with a bloody hand, bleeding from some cut I'd managed to obtain while falling backward. The air choked me as I stumbled to the left, back toward Sarah and Elijah, hoping they were ready for whatever was coming from the other side of the doorway. I could already hear them scurrying into the kitchen after me. I only had moments before they'd be on me, ripping my throat out, taking the precious red life from my body.

"Run!" I screamed, falling into the room and finally getting my legs to work as the ringing in my ears began to fade enough for me to hear the footfalls behind me. One glimpse forward and I found Elijah and Sarah running out of the room through the set of doors ahead. This place was almost circular, each room leading into the next behind it. They reached out and pulled me into the room with them. Elijah managed to slam the door and lock it before a barrage of bodies slammed into it from the other side. He shoved a chest of drawers against it as it vibrated. Dust poured down on him as the room shook. I didn't know how many people had poured into the room behind me, but it sounded like a lot.

I jumped back, turning to find Sarah at the other door, about to check it out to see if we could exit the room. I scanned the rest of the room. I couldn't find Raina.

Where the hell had that girl ended up?

"Where's Raina?"

Sarah shook her head, peering into the hall behind us. "I don't know. She was gone when the explosion happened. Come on, it's clear." She tugged at my shirt, and I followed, feeling Elijah's body shoving me forward.

"Rye went the other way around," I managed, the pain in my arm distracting me as we moved. I glanced down and found a large splinter of wood jutting from my arm. I winced at it and tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge, and I feared it was wedged between the bones in my forearm. "Shit, it's stuck."

"Here." Elijah grabbed my arm and took the splinter in his other hand. Before I could even brace myself, he gave it a hard yank. The searing pain from the deep gash in my flesh made me sweat, and I could feel the blood drain from my head, willing me to black out. I fought it, biting down my teeth until my jaw hurt. I felt like I was about to pass out, but the warmth dripping from the hole brought me back to the present.

"Here," Sarah said, pulling off the button-down shirt she was wearing over her black tank top. She ripped off a piece of the fabric to wrap around my arm. Her fumbling was much steadier than mine would have been if I'd had to do it myself. I was thankful she and Elijah were with me. Even so, as she finished tying it snug against my injury, making me want to keel over from the dizzying pain, I worried for Rye and not myself.

"We have to find Rye. He's alone," I urgently whispered. Sarah nodded and took my elbow, tugging me along as the door behind us began to splinter apart. We ran down the short hall to the back stairs, pushed open the door leading to the stairs and headed up.

It wasn't smart to go up. We'd either be trapped or forced to jump. How would we survive whatever had popped in on us? Had Raina betrayed us and brought this wrath onto us? So many questions ran through my head in my attempt to stifle the need to collapse. It may have just been a flesh wound, but I was still bleeding profusely. I'd have to wrap it again soon if I was to stop the gush of blood.

We made it up the steps and to the circular room. Elijah dropped the hatch leading down the stairs and flipped the switch over to lock it. It was a measly metal slide lock and wouldn't hold a barreling beast at all. Still, there was nothing to throw over it and hold it down. I scanned the room for an escape route other than going up the spiral staircase. There was only a single window, and it looked barely big enough for us girls to fit through.

I glanced back toward the others, and Elijah was already nodding at my observation. "Go! I'll hold them off."

Sarah shook her head violently, her face reddening as she dug her feet into the floor. "I'm not leaving without you!"

The latched door bounced as they braced themselves for another impact.

Elijah's expression remained calm, if not very determined. "Get out of here! Now, before they get through!"

"No!" Sarah began sobbing, and Elijah flicked his eyes up to me, begging for help.

"Sarah...." He swept her into his arms, stroking her long red hair and kissing the top of her head. "It's okay, I'll be fine. You get out of here. I'll hold them off."

"I can't just leave you here," she sniffled peering up at him with wet eyes. I'd always known she had a thing for him, but seeing them together, I knew it went deeper than either had ever cared to admit. Elijah's caresses were calming in the madness surrounding us. I turned away from the two to give them a moment and went to work on the window, trying to hold back my own devastation at losing sight of Rye. He'd just returned to me, and not moments later, had been literally ripped from my arms.

"Go with April. We'll figure this out."

Sarah nodded, gathering herself up from the crumbled mess she'd become. It was fascinating to watch her do that. She was usually so together, so laid back and unfazed by anything. Watching her pull herself together was a rare sight. But she did, and she was back to her calm, warrior self in no time at all, even with puffy eyes and a red, tear-streaked face, she would always look beautiful.

Elijah smiled, let her go and walked over to the hatch where he pressed against it with his feet, hoping to keep the enemy at bay a bit longer. "Go," he mouthed and gave her the brightest smile I'd ever seen from him.

She turned away and grasped the window, which I had managed to get halfway open. She shoved at it with all her might, and the metal frame screeched open the rest of the way. She waved me through, and I didn't wait for her to finish gesturing. I took one last glance at Elijah, who watched us with calm, silent eyes, more accepting of his fate than we were. I gave him a curt nod and darted out the window, landing hard on the small rooftop below. I jumped to my feet and peered over the side.

A dark figure rustled in the bushes below, where the sand drifts were high and pressed against the lighthouse walls as if they were going to one day swallow the place whole. At least it would be a soft landing. Still, I narrowed my eyes to study the person lurking in the shadows as Sarah dropped behind me. She pressed her fingers onto my shoulder, giving me a sad smile as I pointed toward the nearest drift of sand. She stepped forward, readying to jump, when I grabbed her arm and pointed at the figure in the tall grasses, who was watching us closely.

"Who's that?" Sarah squeezed her eyelids together, straining to make out the features of the man. It looked like a man, broad shoulders and dark hair....

"It's Rye!" I almost shouted his name but turned back toward the window. There wasn't any movement from inside yet, so I was sure Elijah was still holding them back. It made my heart sink to know that Sarah's beloved wouldn't be leaving with us. Maybe we could circle around and cut off the attack from the bottom. There was still hope to catch them by surprise, as they had us.

"Come on!" She tugged at my good arm and turned to hop off the edge of the roof. I watched her tumble down the embankment. I followed, closing my eyes as the sand whipped around me. It wasn't as soft of a landing as I'd wanted, but it was good enough. My arm screamed in protest as I rolled over it, causing stars to spill across my vision. I hoped I didn't pass out from the pain, and gritted my teeth together.

At the bottom of the sand dune, Rye lifted me up and pulled my good arm around his. His embrace filled my nostrils with his calming, manly scent that I remembered always enjoying while lying next to him. Why did it seem more intense now? Our bond was growing. I could feel it. If we shared blood, I was certain it would seal the deal. I smiled at the thought but found Sarah's wild eyes searching the lighthouse windows desperately, making me lose the sense of euphoria right away.

"Elijah's trapped," she said.

Rye nodded and motioned me toward the grass-covered dunes in the direction of our Jeep.

"I have an SUV hidden behind some dunes. I didn't want you to hear me pull up, so I parked a bit away."

"Where's Randy?" I whispered, wondering where the poor guy had disappeared off to. "He was tied up in one of the rooms, and we couldn't get to him in the chaos."

Rye shrugged, shaking his head. "I don't know. I didn't see him. I couldn't get back inside after they rushed in. It wasn't me they were after."

My eyes widened. The antidote was in the car, in the small cooler stuffed under my chair. I had to retrieve it. I hadn't told anyone exactly where I'd left it, and I knew that was what they were looking for.

"The Jeep."

"I have the keys," Sarah said. She pulled them from her pocket, and I thanked our lucky stars that she was as paranoid as I was and slept with them on her.

I grabbed the keys and looked off in the direction of the Jeep. "Come on."

We made our way around, sinking into the deep sand, which made it that much more difficult to run. I hoped that if the others saw us, they'd have just as difficult a time coming through it after us. My arm throbbed, and with my good arm around Rye, my machete dangling from that hand, I was close to useless unless I got some blood.

"Rye," I said through clenched teeth. He looked at me, and I gestured that I wanted to sit down. He slid me to the ground and I sat, wincing in pain and feeling exhausted. "I need blood."

He looked up toward Sarah and then back to me. Sarah kept watch and peered around one of the dunes toward the lighthouse. Her eyes were shiny and dark. If she was crying, it was impossible to tell. I was sure she was looking for Elijah.

"Mine or Sarah's?"

I studied his eyes and smiled. His soft touch on my arm made me feel so much better, and I knew what I had to do.

"Yours."

He nodded and brought his wrist up to his lips without hesitation. He let his fangs extend, making him look more dangerous. His halos flashed brighter, and the razor-sharp edges of his teeth looked lethal enough to rip a throat out. He bit into his wrist hard, barely wincing from the pain. He brought it to my mouth where I licked at the drops of blood seeping from the punctures. It tasted metallic and harsh, like a mouthful of copper pennies. It'd been a long time since I'd had any blood. We both knew what would happen to me. I'd become stronger, inhumanly strong, and heal with unbelievable speed. It was exactly what I needed, and I fought myself so I wouldn't completely drain him of the precious fluid. The taste had turned into something delectable, like pure, sweet honey.

I pulled away, breathing hard as I felt it spread through my body. My mood shifted from the cold feeling of fear to the hot, burning inferno of hate and vengeance. I closed my eyes, relishing the turbulence inside me. It was pure energy, euphoric and scary all at the same time. I wanted more, but this would have to do for now. I could already feel the pain of my wound subsiding.

I flicked my eyes open and threw Rye a wide grin. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's get Elijah out."

Chapter Twenty-Eight

End Game

We peered over one of the dunes, scanning the perimeter of the lighthouse for movement. It was eerily quiet, but my senses were on overdrive. The sand was constantly moving under my feet, filling my boots and making me sink into it if I moved too much. I narrowed my eyes on the lighthouse, checking each window and entrance for signs of Elijah or Randy. I hoped they were still alive. If they were dead, I'd never forgive myself. Sarah was desperately searching, too. I knew the stakes were higher for her and made sure I was focused on the target. Any sign of an easy way in or of either man, and we'd ambush the group who'd taken us by surprise.

This time the tables would be turned. The confidence pumped along through my veins and made me feel invincible. I couldn't wait to get into combat. I wanted to kill something, drown my pain with a meeting of blade and flesh. This primal need filled me up and pasted a wicked smile across my face as I licked my lips, watching the hybrid vampires roaming about the lighthouse. They had no idea what was coming.

"Come on." I motioned to the others and headed toward our Jeep. I paused. Someone was inside. I could see them moving around violently as I got closer to the vehicle. I approached one of the windows and peered in. The darkness made it hard to see, but drinking Rye's blood had heightened all my senses, including my night vision.

Thwack!

I jumped back a tiny bit when Randy's face and hands appeared on the other side of the glass. He growled and flashed his fangs before realizing it was me. He quickly calmed down and sat back, huffing and puffing. He'd recognized me! If the feral inside was weakened from the second shot of antidote, he was probably aware of what was happening. Apparently, our visitors had locked him in the jeep after finding him in the lighthouse. But why hadn't he been able to get out? Further inspection showed me the child locks were on, and he was tied to the back seat so he couldn't escape out the front doors.

Was he feral? Was he human? I hadn't known if the second dose of the antidote had had any effect on him, but I now had an answer. Still, he wasn't fully human, and he'd have to stay tied down until we figured things out.

"We'll be back, Randy," I said. "Just wait."

We made our way back up to the lighthouse. When we reached it, we saw that the front room where they'd entered was empty, and we tried our best to not make any noise as we approached. Where had they gone? The moment we cleared the front door, the room was flooded with light and we were surrounded by hybrid vamps. Some flashed reddened, haloed eyes at us, while others had normal colors with haloes. I could see what Raina had talked about with the mutations Lark had been messing with. Even her soldiers were not left unchanged by her tampering.

We pressed into each other, facing out in a tight circle. We were surrounded, and it was not looking good for us in any way.

"Who are you?" I asked. The soldiers kept a tight circle around us, and I hoped they weren't intent on killing us just yet. Abruptly, they spread apart to let someone through. A woman. And she looked just like Raina. What the hell?

"Raina?" My surprise leaked out into my voice. I swallowed it back and replaced it with a ferocity that left me wanting to rip the girl's neck out.

"Sorry, April. I can't have you running the show." She leaned forward, studying me with beady little eyes. She turned to the others, looking at them as if they were insects ready to be pinned to a board. "I think we should keep this one and kill the others. No, wait...." She straightened, and the smirk spreading across her face made want to slap it off her. "Keep the one in the Jeep, too. He's all messed up already anyway." She turned and was about to exit the room when she suddenly stopped and began to turn back toward us.

"You traitorous bitch!" Sarah yelled and jumped forward, aiming for Raina. One of the soldiers slammed his fist into her stomach, sending her crumbling to the floor, wheezing for breath.

"Watch it, Ginger. I have your boyfriend. He's perfectly safe. I can see what you like about him." With a haughty laugh, she waved at someone behind her. They retreated and returned a moment later, pushing Elijah before them. He stumbled in, bloodied but fierce as ever. They had his hands tied, but he appeared to be okay. "Any more from you and your pretty boyfriend loses his pretty face."

Elijah snarled at her and flicked a concern look toward Sarah as she sat in a heap on floor. Raina laughed, but a commotion behind her made her turn to see what was happening.

The soldiers were parting for someone else, and that person had Raina paling faster than a bleach-soaked shirt. "Lark? I... I...."

"Just what do you think you're doing, sister?" Lark stepped into the light emitting from a flood lamp one of the soldiers had propped against the corner of the room. This woman was a lot like Raina. So much so I knew they must have been identical twins at one point in life. But this one had red irises surrounded by pale skin and a thinner frame than Raina. Where Raina appeared healthy, filled out, but disheveled, Lark looked like death itself.

"I was gathering specimens. You never let me finish what I'm doing." Raina's fear had morphed into anger as her voice shook, and she crossed her arms as her sister approached. The red irises focused on her as Lark reached forward and wrapped her bony fingers around Raina's throat.

"Never defy me again. I wanted them brought to me peacefully. You ruined our chances for their trust. Get out of my sight." She shoved at Raina, sending the girl stumbling backward where a wall of Lark's soldiers caught her, to her obvious disgust. She jumped back to her feet, straightening her clothes and shaking off the helpful soldiers.

"Fine. Do it your own way. You'll never succeed. I'm tired of your endless lab experiments anyway. Find another scout to do the crap work for you." She spit on the floor and stormed past her sister, making a show of brushing shoulders and knocking aside those who stood in her way.

The adversity between the two had me curious to know what Lark would have to say about all this.

She watched her sister flee with the stillness of a statue then faced us and motioned for her guards to untie Elijah. Once loose, he growled at them but kept his hands to himself as he rubbed the raw skin on his wrists. Sarah finally managed to get to her feet and rushed into Elijah's arms.

This woman looking at me appeared fine, if you could get past her skeletal appearance. Normal, even. Too normal. The intelligence in her eyes told me she was something extraordinary, even though she smelled of a hybrid, tainted, but a mix of vampire and human. Something was different about her, but it was hard to decipher what exactly that was.

Her shiny, red eyes found mine, and she walked over, looking me up and down.

"You must be April." How did she know my name?

"What do you want?"

"My sister Raina is the best scout I've ever had, but she tries too hard and wanted to find the cure faster than I did. She usually brings me the unusual, the lost, the ones I can use for experiments." She sighed, looking upset as she glanced out through the door and into the dark ocean air. "Now she withholds information and experiments with people herself."

"She's a traitorous bitch!" Sarah's shrill outburst made wonder if she was going to jump Lark. Even the guards stepped up closer to make sure she didn't try anything.

"Yes, you're right. She's not trustworthy, even to her sister." She sighed, and a weak smile formed across her face as she watched Sarah steam. "So much life in this bunch. I like that." She paced back and forth, looking studious and concerned. I watched the line of her soldiers, hoping for a lapse, a break in their vigilance. "Look, I don't want to fight. I need your help."

"Not the right way to ask for it," I muttered. "Let us go." She wasn't going to become my best friend forever by treating my real friends like crap.

She halted in her steps and frowned, glaring at the soldiers behind her. "I'm sorry for the brute force, but my sister can be a force to reckon with. She was my second in command and called my soldiers out without my approval. I will remedy that immediately so you will know we really don't mean you any harm." She waved at them to put their weapons away, and they shuffled on their feet, looking apprehensive, but did as they were told. "Please... forgive me. I meant no disrespect. It's just, Raina is not quite herself."

My teeth and fists were clenched, but I relaxed as Rye's fingers wrapped around my hand.

"Get to the bloody point," I said. I was tired of games.

Lark smiled, looking hopeful. Oh, I would listen to her proposition, but that didn't mean I had to be nice to her about anything or even accept it.

"I want to make a deal. This antidote that my soldiers say you have... I want it. I know you have some, but my soldiers failed to find it for Raina. Can we make a peaceful negotiation and trade for some of it? I promise no harm will come to any of your party. If you have more than one dose, I'd love to have it all."

"No."

"Come now," Lark said, looking shocked by my abrupt answer. "Okay, I don't need all of it. Just as much as you can spare. How about half? How's that? I really would love to work on it with your group, but I don't know if you're willing to work this out after such a rough start."

I could feel my face burning from the deepened frown creasing my cheeks. "Why would you want to work with us? What if you betray us like Raina did and turn us into one of your experiments? I don't want to end up like that. None of us do."

"I know you don't trust me. How about a promise? I swear on my life that my people will not disturb you as long as you're here. We can work on the antidote together, and I promise I won't attempt any unwilling experiments on anyone. That is not our way, truly. Would you do this for me then?"

Sarah was back on her feet, leaning on Elijah but almost recovered from the blow she'd taken. "Your word means nothing to us," she said. "Raina said you did such things to people, but you say it was her. How do we know which of you to believe?"

Lark's hardened glare focused on Sarah, but she did nothing to argue. Instead, she turned to wave down one of her soldiers, possibly one of her lieutenants, and then back to us as he whipped around and told the entire army to fall back.

What the...?

Lark waited until there was no one left in the room but her before speaking again. "There. My troops have pulled back to the road. The wild ones do not bother us here, so it's quite safe to leave if you wish to do so. I do hope you consider my deal, because I want to help you find the antidote. I can help your friend in the car out there." She pointed out through the shattered door, toward the Jeep where Randy was trapped. My stomach clenched at the thought of saving him, and I struggled with the options before me.

If I struck a deal with this woman, would I live to regret it? If not, would Randy?

It was a hard road, and as much as I didn't trust this woman, I had no choice. I just wished she had approached us rationally in the first place, not like this, not with force, even if it hadn't been her fault. Her rein on her sister appeared weak, something she'd have to remedy indeed.

Reluctantly, and to the protests of Elijah and Sarah behind me, I stepped forward and held out my hand to seal the deal. I had found what I'd come for, and by the excited twinkle in this woman's eyes, she had also found what she was looking for. I was going to stay and make sure she kept her end of the bargain.

"On your word and on your life that you will keep us safe while we work on this antidote, I accept."

Epilogue

Things We Lost

Standing at the edge of the world, watching the tumbling waves rush up onto the sandy beach, I gripped my arms to my chest, the weight of it all suffocating me. I wanted to save them all, not only to bring some sort of hope and purpose to their lives again but to ultimately save myself, too. But could ferals, hybrids and humans ever be equal again? Would the differences continue to keep us apart, even after the cure? Weren't the history books filled with people fighting over the slightest things? Still, if I could, I'd do everything in my power to help the world achieve some sort of peace.

It'd been two months since we'd found Lark and her hive. It was full of a wide variety of mutations she'd created in her well-meaning attempts to find a cure for the virus. They weren't completely messed up people, not like the freak show lab in Christian's hive. Some had subtle discolorations to their skin, hair or eyes. Others had longer fangs and reddened irises but were otherwise powerless compared to a hybrid vampire. Still others had increased strength, stamina and fighting abilities. These super soldiers were recruited into the ranks, but no one was ever tampered with beyond what they consented. Raina had lied when telling us about Lark's hive. Why? My only guess was sibling rivalry, or she'd just really wanted to mess with our heads.

Through much coaxing, Lark had taken samples from all of us and tested them against new variations of the antidote, with a few promising results. We even visited her hive, to Sarah's utter disgust. She still hated anything to do with Lark or Raina. Still, we found Lark's hive to be accepting of our presence. I had to give it to this lady, she worked tirelessly to find the right combination of antibodies from all our blood samples and mixed them with the antidote. For the first time since I'd discovered the existence of an antidote, I felt we could really figure it out and save people.

Randy had been quarantined with us in the lighthouse, our temporary headquarters since it was near Lark's domain, but still our own sanctuary. He'd spent the rest of that first night tied to a kitchen chair but hadn't flashed any fangs or growled at any of us as we worked to barricade the demolished front door with plywood until morning. It was strange how calm he'd become, and it gave me hope that subsequent injections of antidote would continue to keep him calm until the right antidote could be mixed and given to him.

In his more lucid moments, he'd listened to Lark's proposal to try the new antidote on him once she got it near perfect. I was astonished by this and made sure he was making a conscious decision when he'd agreed to it. I would've hated it if he'd ended up making an error without really thinking it over.

"I know what I'm doing, April," he'd said.

"How can I be sure you really do?"

He'd stared at me, his eyes a marbleized mix of red and blue, a sign of his fight against the virus.

"You can't be sure of anything in this life at all. If I die, I get to see Helen again. If I live, I live. Win-win, if you ask me. If it fails and I remain feral, I know you'll do what you have to do with me." He smiled. Never sad. Never forlorn. I wished I could be so brave.

"Of course."

Sarah and Elijah became official, an interlocked pair, finally admitting to their mutual feelings. The days passed, and they'd enjoyed each other's company, walking along the beach and watching sunsets from the top of the lighthouse. Who knew they could be so in love? It was inspiring to see that tragedy could result in people realizing it was time to take a chance on love. They were perfectly matched in every way, and I just wondered what had taken them so darn long to realize it. It's never too late, I guess. Even in a post-apocalyptic world.

And what about my own fragmented love life? What about Rye? I'd let it sink in that he was the one for me, knowing with certainty that I finally knew what I wanted. I felt it in my bones, down to the very marrow within them. When the days passed and we held onto one another like we would never spend another moment apart, I knew it was real. It was as real as the way he got my heart racing with a smile and sent tingling rushes of pleasure shooting across my skin when he touched me. As real as the taste of his blood and the way it filled me up until I could hear his heart beating with mine as we exchanged blood, mating us together for life. He exhilarated me, and I hoped I did the same to him.

From the looks I'd catch him giving me when he thought no one was looking, I did. It was all I needed, and the happiness he gave me kept each day in the right.

Lark proved to be true to her word. She sent frequent updates and allowed me to work side by side with her on occasion. She'd concoct different antidotes and choose a volunteer to use it on. We painstakingly labeled each new mix, testing them on ferals we caught on expeditions during the night, deep into the cities of the California coast. We took them from different parts of the state to ensure we evaluated all possible strains of the virus. We even procured some from Las Vegas. Though we always found more and more variations the further we dug, it only brought us closer to finding the cure.

What we did with it would be entirely a collective decision. First and foremost, the infected ferals would be given the adjusted antidote, that decision was unanimous amongst Lark's hive and Blaze's. Rye kept the lines of communication open between them, always trading the information from Lark to Blaze and back on trips back and forth between Las Vegas and the coast. He even returned one day with a sight to surprise even me. Felix.

He'd survived the bombing of Christian's hive, escaping before we had. He'd approached Blaze's hive under surrender, waving the white flag. His information that the enemy hive was completely obliterated, including Christian and Mercer, was confirmed by Blaze's many scouts. Felix's desire to help us with the antidote, even trying one of the latest batches on himself, had given Blaze more than enough good reason to send him with Rye on his trip back west.

Lark had taken an immediate liking to Felix, finding their mutations very similar, even though Felix was more filled out than she was. He'd also been an asset to her as she continued the tests, taking one for the team and subjecting himself to endless blood draws and tests by her. I was glad he took the focus off Randy, who'd been changing more and more each day, becoming more and more human and leaving the feral beast to slumber, hopefully forever. He had to continue getting a shot every three days to keep it subdued, but that was better than anything he or I could've hoped for.

In the end, I returned to Las Vegas. I needed to see my brother and ensure that he was still happy. We'd exchanged letters through Rye as he made his way back and forth, but I needed to see him for myself.

Sitting in the confines of the underground City of Vida, I watched his soccer championship game against some older kids. He really was a sight to see, sprinting across the expanse of the underground field, and the normalcy of it all brought me back to my own childhood. He kept growing, like an overfed weed, never stopping, always different each time I saw him. I knew he'd never forget me. We were family, and it never got old to see his face light up when I did get around to visiting him.

This was what happiness was to me, even though I knew I would continue to fight with myself. No matter what happened, I could find the places and moments of contentment I so longed for. I'd fight for them, one bloody battle at a time. I knew my mother would've smiled at me and agreed. Oh, how I wished she'd been able to hold on, just a bit longer. But then, would we have been where we are now if she had?

For now, the fight in my soul had quieted and was slumbering like a gentle giant. I'd probably have to reawaken it one day, but hopefully that day was far off in the distant future.

Please leave a review, it helps more than you know!

Want more? Coming in 2018:

Fluxion (The Vampires of Vegas Book IV)

Sign up here to be notified of new releases and specials!

About the Author

Alexia Purdy is a USA Today Bestselling author who currently lives in Las Vegas and loves spending every free moment writing or hanging out with her four rambunctious kids. Writing is the ultimate getaway for her since she's always lost in her head. She is best known for her award-winning Reign of Blood series, and A Dark Faerie Tale Series.

Connect with Alexia Purdy:

Sign up for Alexia's Newsletter HERE

Alexia Purdy's Website

Twitter

Instagram

You-Tube

 Goodreads Author page

 Alexia Purdy's Facebook Fan Page

A Dark Faerie Tale Series Facebook Fan page

Reign of Blood Series Facebook Fan Page

Also by Alexia Purdy:

The Vampires of Vegas Series:

Resonant (The Vampires of Vegas Prequel)

Reign of Blood (The Vampires of Vegas #1)

Disarming (The Vampires of Vegas #2)

Elijah (The Miel Chronicles):

(The Vampires of Vegas Companion Story)

Amplified (The Vampires of Vegas #3)

The ArcKnight Chronicles:

ArcKnight

Sovereignty

A Dark Faerie Tale Series:

The Withering Palace (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.1)

Evangeline (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.5)

Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)

Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)

Ever Winter (A Dark Faerie Tale #3)

The Cursed (A Dark Faerie Tale #3.5)

Ever Wrath (A Dark Faerie Tale #4)

History of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #5)

Without Armor (A Dark Faerie Tale #5.5)

Ever Dead (A Dark Faerie Tale #6)

Legends of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #7)

Guardians of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #8)

Poetic Collections:

Whispers of Dreams

Five Fathoms

The Dark I Keep

Anthology:

Soul Games

Faery Worlds

Faery Realms

Faery Tales

The Shapeshifter Chronicles

Once Upon a Curse

Once Upon a Kiss

Fuse: A Collection of Fantastical Tales

A Plague of Dragons

It's a Bird! It's A Plane! A Superhero Anthology

