Chasing Midnight (Dark of Night Book 2) (19 page)

SHANE

"Richard, you called?” Shane hollered as he carefully sidestepped a pile of loose paper between himself and the workbench where Richard sat hunched over a microscope.

Richard’s head snapped up, waving him over. “You gotta see this, man. It’s amazing. I replicated the original formula from the notes. There was an amino missing.”

Shane frowned. “You mean, you got it to work?”

Richard pointed to the eyepiece. Shane looked through the lenses, unsure what to expect. Half a dozen reddish-blue cells shook like tuning forks, and then exploded into smaller black cells, which began to penetrate and replicate in the red cells, making them shake and explode. After a few seconds, everything on the slide had died and crystallized.

He looked to Richard, who was smiling grimly with a hand stuffed in a box of cookies.

“Wha—? Richard, are those Girl Scout cookies?”

He nodded. “You can order them online and they send out delivery girls.”

“Richard, you didn’t eat the delivery girls, did you?”

He looked indignant. “I sent them home a few pints low, but no worse for the wear. What are you, my sponsor?”

Shane arched an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Richard was telling the truth or not.

“But the slide—the reaction is fast and devastating because the two samples have no… buffer so to speak. It needs a third compound.”

“What kind of compound?”

“Something resistant enough to keep the compound from eating itself. I had a thought about that. Follow me.”

Richard led Shane down the stairs to the main computer hub. There were at least a dozen screens, some live traffic cameras, one security feed into the Playboy mansion, and a few others on various news stations. One was paused on level seventeen o
f
Modern Warfare
3
. Richard picked up a wireless keyboard and switched from the Playboy feed to the security feed from inside the Conclave.

“Richard…” Shane whispered slowly.

He waved him off. “It’s fine. Untraceable. But look at this.”

He flipped through a few rooms until he settled on a bedroom with a pink canopy bed and wall-to-wall stuffed animals. In the middle of the room, Xavier sat across from a blonde-haired girl hosting a pretend tea party. Xavier smiled as she poured him a cup of invisible beverage, and he pretended to take a sip. She hurriedly tucked a tiny, pink napkin into his shirt just under his chin. He grinned, and she pecked him on the cheek.

“That’s Marlowe’s daughter,” Richard explained. “The one Xavier thought he turned. But she’s not a vampire. From what I can tell, she’s aging just like a human. She still needs blood, but there’s no bloodlust. And she’s practically indestructible. A few weeks ago, she broke one of those midget dishes and sliced up her hand trying to clean it up. She didn’t even cry. She just held up her hand, and it healed in three seconds flat. Faster than a vampire o
r
wer
e
.”

Shane stared at the screen, transfixed. “You think she might be the key to making the serum work?”

Richard nodded, switching off the feed. “I’ll need a sample of her blood to test, but I think it’s possible.”

Shane shook his head. “How am I supposed to manage that? She’s under constant guard.”

“She also has monthly doctor appointments. Odds are they’ve got a sample of her blood already. You just need to steal it.”

Shane puckered his lips. “Xavier would kill me if he finds out. I’m already on thin ice with him.”

Richard flopped down onto the sofa and picked up his controller, resuming his video game. “Your call, man. But if you really want to be with Isabel, you’re going to have to find a cure for yourself.”

Shane stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. “I know.”

As with any book, it took a team of highly skilled professionals to deliver this into your hands. I’m forever indebted to the amazing team at Crimson Tree Publishing. They make publishing fun. I’d also like to thank my family, always with great love, who supports and encourages me every day. Especially my husband who lets me bounce crazy story ideas off him, and lock him in trunks, suit cases, and occasionally duck tape his hands together, just for the sake of research.

I’d also like to thank my writers group, The Tuesday Muses, for always being willing to help me come up with wild plot twists and who are always ready to help me hide the bodies (on paper, of course).

Mostly, I’d like to thank the readers, who invest so fully in the worlds that live inside my brain. Reading makes you 500% sexier. That’s just science, people.

~Sherry

A southern girl at heart, Ranae loves feeding people, gardening, and sweet tea. She hails from Oklahoma and lives with her family out west. She is the author of the Dark of Night novels from Crimson Tree Publishing.

Chasing Daybreak

Chasing Midnight

Chasing Dawn (2016)

Chasing Nightfall (2017)

Ranae Glass is the pen name for a popular YA author. She uses this name for her NA and adult novels.

https://www.facebook.com/ranaeglass