Chosen by Blood (16 page)

To his shock, however, the vamp Queen had returned the lust that had immediately sparked within him upon seeing her. What followed had been some of the most mind-blowing sexual experiences of Mahone’s life.

Weeks before war had been declared, both he and Bianca had quietly agreed to end things. Almost a year later, Dr. Barker had come to Mahone and declared his success. He’d figured out a way to protect humans from the vicious bloodsuckers that threatened them. To inoculate human blood, he’d said, so that the primary substance that seemed to promote regeneration in the vamps was suppressed. With no nutritional benefit from the blood, Barker had continued, there would be no reason for the vamps to take it. It didn’t mean that the vamps wouldn’t kill humans just for the sheer pleasure of it, but, Barker had said philosophically, at least humans would have some reassurance so they could sleep a little better at night.

Barker hadn’t understood why Mahone, instead of patting him on the back and congratulating him, had sunk into his chair and dropped his face into his hands. And truth be told, the devastation he’d felt then had been nothing compared to what he’d felt when he’d actually seen what doing without pure human blood would do to a full vamp.

Of course, he hadn’t been foolish enough to think it wouldn’t affect them. But the vampire race was a strong and hearty one. Plus, he’d known vamps sometimes drank the blood of animals. Because Mahone drew the line at injecting sheep or cows to protect them from vamps, he’d figured the vamps would survive just fine, even if they didn’t thrive. After all, his goal wasn’t to kill vamps, he told himself, but to protect humans.

A few years later, when he’d seen Bianca for the first time since the beginning of the War, she hadn’t looked ill exactly, but she’d definitely been thin. Pale. Drained. Once again, he’d reassured himself that he’d done the right thing.

He no longer could. He hadn’t seen Bianca again, and Felicia had refused to tell him anything about her health. The look in her eyes when she’d refused, however, had been telling enough.

It matched the look in Knox’s eyes whenever he spoke of his mother.

Confusion. Pity. Horror. And most of all fear. Fear that a cure wouldn’t be found in time.

The question had haunted him from then on. Exactly what happened to an immortal who was consistently starved?

Mahone hadn’t stopped until he’d discovered the answer himself. He’d seen the bodies. The emaciated vamps who’d been photographed in order to document the success of Barker’s research, just before they’d been executed.

By now, Mahone knew Bianca probably looked beyond ill and closer to dead.

Imagining her decline flooded him with a sudden understanding for the Goddess’s intentions. If humans—if
he
—could knowingly allow the vampire he loved to suffer so much for the sake of nationalism, perhaps she was right. Perhaps none of them deserved to go on living.

Mahone stumbled. Throwing out an arm, he caught himself against the wall and struggled not to empty his stomach. Knox stopped walking a few seconds before the guards did.

“Sir?” The guard looked from Knox back to Mahone, as if the vamp was the reason Mahone was so distressed.

Mahone shook his head. “Keep going.”

They all began to walk again. Without missing a beat, Knox spoke softly, so softly that the guards wouldn’t be able to hear him. “You want to know something funny? My mother has never doubted you love her. In a way, I think she finds your loyalty to God and country quite admirable. But then again, she’s always been a bit impressionable where human males are concerned.”

Mahone gritted his teeth to hold back any response. And really, what could he say anyway? Retorting with something vicious, such as “like father, like son,” would be not only beneath him, and potentially dangerous, but unfair, as well.

Finally, they arrived. The guards stopped outside a set of closed doors. There were eight in total. Behind each door waited one of the scientists who had served on Dr. Barker’s team. “We’re here,” Mahone said, although it was obvious Knox already knew that.

With a casual move, something that looked no more forceful than a twitch, Knox broke the chain manacling his wrists together. Lazily, he stretched his arms above his head. With a flick of one hand, he removed his blindfold and tossed it impudently to one of the guards. Then he yawned. “Thank God. All this subterfuge was beginning to make me sleepy.”

The young guard who’d caught the bandanna scrunched up his face in confusion. “I thought vamps didn’t sleep.”

Knox laughed, nearly doubling over. Making a huge show of wiping tears from his eyes, he looked at Mahone. “Your men need to brush up on their Otherborn trivia, Mahone. Oh wait. Why don’t we test you first? Do vamps sleep, Mahone? Or let me be more specific. Would a full vampire female sleep after a long night of fucking with a human who cares more about his job than—”

Mahone didn’t think about the consequences of his actions. He simply hauled off and punched Knox Devereaux in the face. He infused the move with everything he’d been feeling—anger, frustration, and yes, fear. Fear that he was making a mistake. That he would fail.

The vamp’s face whipped around at the blow, then slowly turned to once again face him. His eyes flashed silver, but there was no sign of the red that could accompany a killing heat—or intense passion. Breathing hard, refusing to look away, Mahone struggled not to remember the way Bianca’s eyes had flashed red when he was inside her, and how the sight had always driven him over the edge. Every single time.

Knox drew his tongue along his bottom lip, sweeping up the small drops of blood that oozed from a cut. Vaguely, Mahone wondered if he’d split his lip on his fangs and if that was an occupational hazard of being a vamp. Funny, but he’d never heard anyone mention that, though perhaps that was because it was obvious.

“I’ll let that one pass,
Uncle Kyle
,” Knox drawled, “because I deserved it. But next time? Be prepared to rock and roll.”

“I can’t believe your mother raised such a self-righteous prick for a son.”

Knox laughed. “ And I can’t believe she actually fell in love with a human male who’d let his job endanger her.”

“She—” Mahone’s words strangled in his throat. Of course he’d suspected, but to hear Bianca’s son confirm so casually that she’d loved him was enough to bring Mahone to his knees. At least, figuratively.

Knox raised a brow. “Surprised?”

Mahone pressed his lips together. “No. But then again, I’m a coldhearted fool, willing to endanger a female I love to protect my people. Sound familiar, Knox?”

The dharmire stiffened and his nostrils flared. “It’s not the same thing. I might act to avoid a direct threat, but what you did went beyond that. You poisoned a whole race’s means of survival, when you had no idea the effect it would have.”

“You’re right,” Mahone said quietly. “ And I’ll live with that until the day I die. Unless, of course, you can find the antidote to right my wrongs. If you do, what will you do then, Knox? What will you do when you no longer have the well-being of your clan as a reason to push Felicia away?”

“You’re crazy,” Knox snorted. “I’m doing everything but pushing her away.”

“Is that right? So then I assume your answer is you’ll marry her?”

When Knox didn’t respond, Mahone laughed. “That’s what I thought. Now, go on. Go ahead and read some minds. Make sure none of these men and women know where the antidote is or how it’s made. We can argue about the benefits of being in denial another day.”

Knox stepped up to the first door that Malone had pointed to. Abruptly, he stopped and turned back to Mahone. “Not marrying her doesn’t mean I don’t love her or that I wouldn’t die for her, just as easily as I’d die for my children.”

Mahone nodded, weariness suddenly making his chest feel heavy. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Knox stared at Mahone for so long he actually shuffled his feet. “Not that it hurt you,” he snapped in self-preservation, “but I’m sorry I hit you. Even if what you said was insulting, I need to maintain control.”

The left side of Knox’s mouth tipped up. He touched the tip of his tongue to one of his fangs as if it bothered him. “Apology accepted. And don’t underestimate yourself, Mahone. You’ve still got quite a right hook there.”

Mahone’s jaw dropped open but Knox didn’t see it. He’d turned and, with his game face on, entered the room to talk to the first scientist.

 

 

Knox stared at the slender, pale-haired woman whose moniker—“Dr. Maureen Lipinski”—had been issued by the Bureau upon her employment. Mahone had made it clear that the scientists’ true identities were off limits, but Knox’s first thought was that this one didn’t look like a “Maureen.” “Kate” perhaps. Or “Grace.” Something classic.

She had a natural beauty, unenhanced by makeup or flashy clothes. Even her hair was simple, pulled back in a bun while still managing to appear stylish.

Lipinski was sitting calmly in the middle of a well-furnished room that even had a small refrigerator and sink against one wall. Knox approached her carefully and took the seat across from her. “Dr. Lipinski?”

She smiled thinly, then nodded. “That’s right, Mr. Devereaux. Mahone told me you wanted to talk about Dr. Barker and the vamp antidote our team was working on. Honestly, I think it’s a waste of time given we’ve been interrogated well over fifty hours, but you’re welcome to ask anything you like.”

“You seem very calm—very cooperative—for someone who’s been through a difficult time these past few weeks.”

Lipinski’s smile stiffened. “Dr. Barker’s death was certainly the start of a difficult time, yes. As to what’s come afterward?” Lipinski shrugged. “We all knew the risk when we signed on to this project. Of course, those risks were the equivalent of side effect warnings on aspirin bottles, but they were there.”

“So you don’t mind being detained? Asked questions? Interrogated ?” he asked in disbelief.

“I didn’t say that.”

Knox paused for her to elaborate, but she didn’t.

“You were friends with Dr. Barker?” he ventured.

Lipinski’s expression softened slightly. “I’d worked with him several times in the past. For long periods of time. He was a brilliant man. A compassionate one.”

“So compassionate that he would inject himself and all of you with an untested antidote, regardless of the risk involved?”

“That’s Mahone’s speculation based on what I have to admit is damning evidence.”

“But you don’t agree with his conclusion?”

“I didn’t say that, either. Frankly, I don’t know enough to agree or not. I’ve seen the tests indicating my blood is clean of the vamp vaccine. I have no idea how that happened. Objectively, it makes sense that Dr. Barker clandestinely administered the antidote to us because he didn’t want to wait for human testing to be approved. But at the same time, as someone who knew Dr. Barker and mourns his death, that scenario doesn’t make sense.”

“In my opinion, the events of the past decade make little sense.”

“I agree. That’s why I’ve spent the past year trying to rectify some of my government’s wrongs. That’s why I understand why you’re here and what it is you’re going to do.”

Knox’s brows lifted in surprise. “You know?”

Lipinski sighed. “I didn’t need a genius IQ to figure it out, Mr. Devereaux. But having one didn’t hurt, either.”

“Do the others know?”

Lipinski shrugged. “I have no idea. We haven’t been allowed to see each other since Dr. Barker’s death. I’m hoping that will change once we’re cleared of any wrongdoing and we can get back to work.”

“That’s your biggest concern? Getting back to work?”

“Of course. We were working on many different formulas, but the administration and results of those formulas were handled by Dr. Barker. For security purposes, only he knew the exact chemical composition of the final antidote. With time, however, we’ll be able to isolate that formula, test it ourselves, and modify it if we need to.”

“So this is all worth it to you?” Knox gestured to the room around him. “Isolating yourself? Living like this? To create a drug that may or may not help individuals you’ve never met?”

“A surprising question from someone who built his clan a dome so they would survive.”

“We’d survive no matter what,” Knox said softly, even as he acknowledged her point. “The Dome simply makes survival more palatable.”

“Exactly,” Lipinski said. “I believe a few significant sacrifices are sometimes necessary in order to make one’s life meaningful.”

Knox hesitated. The fact that he now respected this woman made what Knox was about to do even less desirable. Yet it had to be done. “I’ll be careful. It won’t hurt. May I?”

Lipinski nodded. “Go ahead.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Cautiously, Knox reached out to touch her mind.

Only, he touched nothing.

He reached out again, with more deliberation.

Again, nothing.

Knox was stunned. He’d never tried to read someone’s mind before and failed. Why was it happening now? He saw no jewelry around Lipinski’s neck. Nothing on her ears or fingers. Had the scientists developed another drug? One that blocked vamp powers?

At his continued silence, Lipinski opened her eyes, her surprise apparent.

“I didn’t feel anything. Is it done?”

Troubled, Knox simply nodded, unwilling to give anything away. “Yes,” he said testingly.

Lipinski breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. That’s good. Now maybe Mahone will let us get back to work.”

F
elicia was riffling through the refrigerator in the dining hall when she sensed someone was watching her. Straightening, she casually took a bite out of an apple and swallowed before she turned around.

She held the apple out questioningly. “Hungry?” She took another bite, deliberately taking her time and making as much noise as possible.