Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (25 page)

I wanted to feel human again.
And there was something else, something darker that pushed me to claim him, to truly make him mine.
Without really knowing what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. His hands dove into my hair, running down my back as he pinned me against the concrete wall, suffocating me with
his hungry, passionate kisses.

“Sloane,” he breathed against my lips, coming up for air.

“L –” The first letter was all I could get out before his mouth plunged onto mine again. He nibbled at my bottom lip, and I grinned
, feeling my fangs elongate
.
The scent of his blood still hung in the air, almost impossible to ignore.

As his lips brushed down my chin and along my throat toward my chest, my breath caught. He nuzzled my neck, nipping at it slightly. “Bite me,” he whispered into my ear.

My eyes snapped open, the spell broken. “What did you just say?”

I found his eyes, and my euphoria instantly vanished. His pupils looked wider, making his eyes look black.

Like someone on drugs.

The icy
serpent of dread slithered along
my skin
.
Almost instantly,
my fangs retracted.
“Leo,” I said, my voice sounding ragg
ed because I was out of breath and a little dazed. What just happened? Had I seriously been making out with
my best friend
,
and
then
contemplating
biting him?
The fact the kiss had happened at all floored me.
I didn’t even know exactly how I felt about Leo, if I liked him that way or not.

What’s wrong with me?

Licking my lips, I said,
“I think maybe my biting you did something to you. You’re not in your right mind.”

He smiled. It was a little unhinged. “Please, baby, you won’t hurt me.”

Baby?

I didn’t bother hiding the irritation in my voice. “I’m not your
‘
baby.
’
” I reached for his hands, trying to untangle myself from his arms. “We need to get someplace warm, where we can dry off and you can sleep.”

He caught my wrists, desperation in his eyes. “Please?
I won’t ask again, I promise. It just feels so damn
good
.”

He’s addicted to my bite
, I realized with horror.

“Leo, you’re not –”

My voice abruptly cut out, and my head snapped around toward the tunnel, listening.

“What is it?” Leo said, but I held up a finger, shushing him.

I listened closer; this time
I was sure of it. Footsteps were coming up the tunnel.

Instantly, I positioned myself in front of Leo, pushing him behind me. “Stay back,” I said, voice sharp.

My heart started pounding harder as the yellow beam of an old flashlight came into view. I glanced to either side. There was no way we could avoid being noticed; the space was too small. If we dove for the water, whoever it was could have a gun and easily shoot us while we tried to swim away. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Bracing myself, I clenched my hands into fists, praying I was strong enough to take whatever was about to appear on the other side of the tunnel.

CHAPTER
15

The light shone directly in my eyes, blinding me for a few terrifying seconds. When the beam lowered, I blinked a few times to clear my vision. A man in his late thirties slowly came into view.
His face, though handsome, was badly bruised, like he had
recently
been in
a scuffle.
He looked homeless; a tattered coat hung around his scrawny frame. His jeans had holes in them as well, and not the fashionable kind.
Though I could tell his skin was olive-toned, it was very pale, like he hadn’t seen the sun in a while.

A feeling of déjà vu came over me, but I couldn’t place the man
’s face
.
Immediately
, I reached out with my “sixth
vampire sense” and searched for any telekinetic signature that would mark hi
m as a vampire, but I couldn’t find one
. There was something off
about him though, something strange about his blood
, like it had been tainted by a substance
I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

His unruly
black curls were frizzed o
ut to the point of being a fro, though b
ald patches dotted his head
haphazardly.
He looked at me in confusion and perhaps a little bit of fear before his dark eyes darted behind me, and he squinted. I heard him gasp right before he said, “Leonardo?”

I blinked.
Huh?

“Oh
,
my G
od,” Leo said, stepping around me toward the man. “Father?”

“
What
?” I lo
oked
from Leo to the stranger. It
hit me as I further studied him
. The athletic build, the hair, the eyes, the complexion; it all screamed Leo.

Leo stumbled forward, brushing past
me
and looking like he had seen a ghost. Worriedly, I watched him shuffle up to the man. Leo stopped in front o
f him, and for the longest time
neither of them spoke. They stood there, gaping at each other.

Then Leo finally said, “Dad?” He reached out, touching a stray curl of the man’s hair.

The man watched Leo’s fingers like a caveman seeing fire for the first time. “
Son
?”

I blinked, and then the two were wrapped up in a hug, crying onto each other’s shoulders. I shifted my weight and crossed my arms, looking away in hopes of giving them some semb
lance of privacy. Ha
ppiness radiated off them,
triggering a memory of my dead father.
I could still feel his hand falling limp in mine as I stood by his hospital bed and cried, knowing the cancer had finally won.
A sliver
of jealousy uncoiled in my gut as I watched Leo and his father.

At last they separated, and Dr. Rinaldi’s eyes glanced my way, as if just now realizing I was
still
there. “Sloane, is that you?”

I flinched, giving him an awkward wave. “Hi, Dr. Rinaldi.”

He smiled, beckoning me closer. Unsure, I went to him and gave him a hug. The weird scen
t was stronger up close
. It was
the kind of natural
smell
an animal has, though it was hard to pinpoint because his clothes
stunk
like they carried a week’s worth of body odor. “It’s good to s
ee you,” he said, smiling at me
then looking at his son. “Both of you. Come. We should get you out of those wet clothes.”

Dr. Rinaldi began walking back into the tunnel. Leo followed without question, though I lingered for a few seconds, gazing at the retreating man’s back with mistrust.

Leo paused, looking at me with a quir
ked brow. “Sloane? You coming?”
He sounded like he was back to himself, though his voice was still heavy with emotion from seeing his dad.

“Yeah,” I repli
ed, walking up to him. “Sorry. I j
ust spaced out.”

We walked into the tunnel, which
was
slick with ice in parts, and silently followed Dr. Rinaldi down several winding sewer tunnels. My stomach twisted with nerves the deeper we went. If we needed to escape, I would have no idea how to get back to the surface.
Leo didn’t seem perturbed; he trailed
his dad like a lost puppy. He hadn’t taken his eyes off him. I couldn
’t blame him.
I wouldn’t be able to either if I suddenly saw my dad.

Dr. Rinaldi scuttled up to the middle of one of the tunnel walls, seemingly at random. “What are you doing –” I started to ask
,
when he pushed against the wall and a hidden door opened. Warm air immediately gushed out to greet
us
as orange light pooled on the floor.

“Quickly now,” Dr. Rinaldi said, ushering us both inside the room.

The heat was too intoxicating to ignore. I eagerly stepped in after Leo, and Dr. Rinaldi shut the door behind us.

The room
was surprisingly large, running
parallel to the tunnel. It
was basically a long
empty room, with
a tight h
allway at one end that presumably led to
another compartment.
I shivered with pleasure and relief as warmth wrapped around me like a blanket.
My skin tingled as it began to thaw, feeling uncomfortable at first but then soothing as I warmed up.

“What is this place?” I asked. It wasn’t exactly a palace. The
room
was
sparsely
furnished
,
and nothing hung from the dingy walls.
A scattering of guns, knives, and other weapons lay across the floor.
Clumps of old sheets were stuf
fed together, making makeshift beds,
an
d enough dust
coated
the floor to make grime angels.
A metal garbage can sat in the middle of
the floor, its burning contents
warming the room. The smell of human waste was too strong to ignore, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

“It used to be an emergency bunker, like in the event of nuclear war. Still is, I suppose,” he said
, glancing around thoughtfully.

I remember when nuclear war was the biggest threat we faced. A small part of me still wondered if we were still in danger, if
one day
the government
would
decide that
the only way to
save the world
was to wipe it out.

“How long have you been here?” Leo asked. The hurt in his
voice
pulled at my heartstrings
and made his father flinch.

“Son –” Dr. Rinaldi started.

“Just answer the damn question,” Leo snapped, fisting his hands.

Dr. Rinaldi begged for underst
anding with his eyes. “Please, S
on. I had no other choice.”

“You could have told me you were alive,” Leo said, walking toward him. “You could have told me so I wouldn
’t have spent the past two weeks t
hinkin
g
I was
orphaned
.”

Leo didn’t have much of
a relationship with his mother
.
He hadn’t heard from her since she ran out on them when he was little
.

“Leonardo, there is so much more to it than you realize,” Dr. Rinaldi said, gripping his son’s arms. “Please, hear me out.”

Leo pressed his lips together, silent.

Dr. Rinaldi took that as a cue, and his hands fell to his sides as he sighed hard. “We were doing some genetic research on the similarities between human and vampire blood cells, to see if we could isolate the vampiric strain, and thus, produce an antidote.”

A soft gasp escaped my lips. I knew
vampirism
was just a disease, a genetic mutation. But for whatever reason, the thought of being cured of my “affliction” never crossed my mind.
I was so caught up in fantasizing about the possibilities that I almost didn’t catch what Dr. Rinaldi said next.

His eyes hardened. “At least, that’s what I was told when they came to me to design the testing machinery.”

Leo’s father had his doctorate in chemical engineering. He was largely responsible for designing the machinery used in Scarlet Steel factories, since so many of the metals used weren’t strong enough to withstand the corrosive properties of the steel.

“What do you mean?” Leo said.

My eyes sharpened as Dr. Rinaldi continued. “I f
ound out through a source what Project V’s
true intentions were – to extract the enhanced strength and speed of vampires from their
DNA,
and find a way to fuse it with human cells to create a super
-
human.”

My
jaw dropped open.
“What?”
I screeched,
about the time Leo shouted, “That’s insane!
What the hell were you guys thinking?
You can’t play G
od!”

A haunted look came over Dr. Rinaldi’s eyes as all the blood drained from his face. “I know. I tried to stop them, to tell them what a mistake this was, but they were mad with desperation. They thought it would even the playing field if we had super
-
soldiers, that the extra security would
stave off any nuclear threats to wipe out masses of the vampires.” He took a shuddering breath. “And then the alarm went off.