Reining In (The Network) (13 page)

“Mack, please!” I begged him, and began pulling away. But he held tight, draining my arm of its blood. My head began to spin, and I became desperate. I pulled with all my strength, but he was stronger. I heard a noise next to me, and my heart stopped. Marlene was standing next to me. If he saw her, it would be all over. While my blood made him stronger, hers would quench his thirst. I should’ve never brought her with me.

“Get out of here.” I whispered, weakly. But she didn’t move.

“Marlene, go. He will kill us both. Just go!”

“Mack, my love.” She reached over and ran her fingers down the side of his face. His muscles grew rigid as his eyes fixed on her. I watched in horror, knowing only too well what was about to happen. Marlene could see the monster staring back at her, but she didn’t move. She just kept whispering to him, running her fingers down his face and through his hair.

It was like someone had turned off a switch. Mack suddenly let go of my arm. The monster shrugged away, letting Mack to the surface. He reached up and touched the side of Marlene’s face tenderly, wiping away the tears that were streaming down her face.

I heard the timer go off on Marlene’s watch. We both looked at each other. We needed to get everything back in order. The electricity would be coming back on in seconds. I tried to pull myself off of Mack, but I was too weak to move.

“Khallie?” Marlene’s voice shook with fear.

“I’m fine.” I whispered. “Just weak. I think I need your help.”

“Khallie, what’s wrong?” This time it was Mack asking the question. His voice was strong, beautiful, and sweet! It was music to my ears. I heard Marlene explain everything to him as she helped me down. Mack quickly climbed off his bed and picked me up to carry me over to the recliner. It was a weird feeling, being so weak. My head was still spinning when he set me down. The lights flickered on, and I could hear the monitor beeping as it came back to life.

“What were you thinking? Jesus, Khallie, have you lost your mind?”

“Mack, it was my idea. Please don’t be upset with her. I couldn’t bear losing you. I was desperate.” Mack wrapped his arms around Marlene. “Darling, I could’ve killed you both. Khallie could’ve been caught, which would expose her and the network. Hell, we could all still be caught. You guys should’ve never taken that risk.” Mack’s voice trembled as he spoke. He wasn’t mad. He was scared.

“Mack. I owe you my life, a thousand times over. Don’t think you weren’t worth the risk. We aren’t going to get caught. Not now. You’ve trained our people well. But….” My voice trailed off. What if he wasn’t mad because of the risk we took? What if he was mad because I just turned him into a monster? I had just taken away his humanity. I looked away, staring out the window. Guilt flooded my head.

“Mack?” Marlene’s voice was still shaking. He didn’t answer for a long time.

“Get back in bed, Mack. The doctor’s are coming. We’re going to have a lot to explain if they see you standing there.” When I turned to look at him, he was already lying in his bed. I noticed too, that he had changed out of the bloody gown that he had been wearing. A grin spread across his face as he saw my perplexed look.

“Hmmm. So this is what it’s like? You’ve truly been holding back, my dear.”

“Mack?”

“It’s ok, Khallie. Everything is ok.”

I smiled weakly, as Marlene sat down with me and held onto my hand.

Chapter Fifteen

Over the next few days, it would occur to me that the hospital scene would be the easy part of saving Mack’s life. Even his transition period was relatively easy, much to my surprise. The hard part was looking him in the eye. The sins of my past that I had tried so hard to avoid sharing with him were now creeping into his memory bank.

Slowly he had started to see some of my deepest, darkest secrets. Most, I knew, he could forgive. He would feel the hunger, himself, and know that there are things a vampire cannot always control. He would get past those things.

But I knew, and dreaded, that he would soon stumble upon a memory that would test the very limits of our friendship. I had hoped I could put it off until things seemed to get back to normal, but that would not be the case.

Because of the security breach in Mack’s office, we had started to implement a plan that Mack had put in place at the very beginning of the network. It was for this very scenario. The plan was to shut down the network. All the members would disappear, literally. Identities changed, families relocated and connections severed. It was a plan I hoped would never come to light. But it was also something I knew had to happen.

I couldn’t take any chances with their lives. There were a few key members who would stay in contact with me, so that we could assure the safety of everyone. They would check up on the progress of the shut down. I had kept in close contact with several of them while I waited for Mack to adjust to his new body, so to speak.

Several days after we started the shut down procedure, I received a call from one of our agents. It was not news I was ready for.

“Khallie, you need to sit down.” Morgan was outgoing, jovial and rarely serious. I knew from the tone of her voice that it was bad. I sat down.

“Are you sitting?” she asked, quietly. I indicated I was and asked her to continue.

“We have a serious situation on our hands, Khallie.”

“Go ahead.”

“Two of our New Orleans agents are dead.” I felt like someone had just punched me in the chest. Dead? What?

“Khallie, did you hear me?”

“Who? When?”

“Ben Harleck and Anthony Trader. Their bodies were found this morning by a fisherman. Khallie, they were torn apart, as if by a wild animal. The investigation is hush hush, but one of our guys says the coroner has determined it wasn’t alligators. Khallie, there’s something else.” It was something she didn’t want to tell me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but these were my people. I had to hear everything.

“Ok, I’m listening.”

“It’s Jake. He’s missing. Ben had been by his house last night, since we couldn’t get a hold of him. He had reported back to us that it looked like Jake had been gone for several days; looked like someone had trashed the house.”

I mentally calculated when I had talked to Jake last. Must’ve been five or six days. I had been so busy with Mack, that I didn’t even notice Jake hadn’t called. I tried hard to control my breathing. Two people dead, and Jake was missing. JAKE! Jesus, what was going on?

“What about Markus?”

“No sign of him, Khallie. Ben said it looked like no one had been there in several days too.”

“Ok, thanks.” I paused, unsure what to say next. My head was spinning.

“Morgan?”

“Yeah boss?”

“Get the hell out of there!!”

I closed my eyes as I hung up the phone. This was bad. Worse than I could imagine. I waited too long and now two people were dead. I had no doubt that whoever had tried to kill Mack had managed to get to Ben & Tony. I could feel it. It was all connected. The phone broke apart as it hit the floor.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” Mack bent over to help me pick up the pieces of the phone, which looked like it was done for.

“Mack, that was Morgan. She…”

“I heard.” Mack interrupted. Of course he did. I heard everything. I just wasn’t used to Mack’s newfound abilities. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. Mack put his hands around my shoulders and helped me to my feet. I couldn’t stop the explosion of tears that followed. Mack stood there, holding me, until I could cry no more.

“Are you done?” he asked, holding my chin in his hand. I nodded. “Ok, well, how about we figure out what’s going on and what we need to do about it, OK?” “I don’t know what to do, Mack.” I didn’t. I had to do something, but what?

“Khallie, who do you think did this?” I didn’t know. I tried to put the clues together. There was the break in. Those guys were pros. They knew where to go and what they wanted. Mack suspected it was the same guys he had been watching, in looking for the men that killed Raymond.

They were Russian, possibly mafia. Old families, that’s what Mack had said. But they were in California. Ben and Tony were killed in New Orleans. Jake was in Mississippi. So what was the connection? Something was there, I just couldn’t grasp it. I knew that the answer was right there in front of me.

“What’s this?” Marlene’s voice shattered my concentration. I looked up to see a small object sticking out of her hand. She walked over and handed it to me. “I found it on the floor, by the hall closet.” Marlene held her hand out, exposing a bundle of herbs, tied with a twine.

“It’s nothing important. Something I picked up in New Orleans when I went to see Jake.” I picked it up out of her hand, and was about to toss it into the trash, but stopped short. I looked down at the little bundle in my hand. I knew. I knew the connection. I couldn’t believe it, yet I should’ve seen it all along. After all this time, it was a chance encounter that would bring my whole world crashing down around me.

I looked at Mack. He could see the gears turning. He knew I had figured something out, but I could see he hadn’t figured it out himself. I ran towards the phone, which was now held together by duct tape. I dialed the numbers as fast as my fingers could move. I closed my eyes and waited for the phone to ring.

“Vyktor.” His voice was barely audible. I slowly turned around to meet Mack’s eyes. His eyes said it all. He knew. I wasn’t sure how much, but I knew it was enough.

“Valdis Corporation. This is Nancy speaking. How may I direct your call?”

“Research and development, please.”

“I’m sorry, miss, but Mr. Thorn is in a meeting and everyone else is out right now. Would you like to leave a message?”

“Just tell him to call his boss.” I hung up the phone. Before I could pull my phone away from the receiver, it started to ring.

“Mike, I need you to run all the data we’ve collected on Vyktor. I’ll be in Dallas in a few hours.”

“Is something wrong, Khallie?” Mike’s voice was suddenly very alarmed.

“I’ll fill you in when I get there. I’ll be there tonight.” I turned to hang up the phone, but stopped.

“Mike.”

“Yeah?”

“Your office is in lock-down until I get there.”

“Got it, boss!”

As I hung up the phone, I heard Mack get up and walk up the stairs to my guest room. I shuddered as I heard the door slam. Marlene just stood there with a confused look on her face. She finally looked back at me, her eyes filled with questions. Questions I didn’t have time to answer. I bit my lower lip.

“I’ll take care of it.” My voice cracked as I rushed past her and headed up the stairs.

Chapter Sixteen

I stood outside the bedroom door, trying to reason with Mack. I wasn’t even sure if he was listening to me. I couldn’t hear him move or even breath. He certainly wasn’t answering me. Marlene stood there with me, pleading with him to come out.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to get to my people and make sure they were safe. I needed to find out what Vyktor had been up to and figure out if it really was him behind what had happened. But most of all, I needed to find Jake. I needed to know he was ok. I needed to be with him. But I couldn’t do it alone.

I pounded on the door again, practically breaking through the door with my hand. I was desperate. I needed Mack more than ever. He still didn’t answer. I looked at Marlene, hoping she would know what to do. She shrugged and shook her head and we both looked back at the door.

I thought about breaking the door in, but I didn’t figure it was a good starter to an already tense situation. I took a deep breath, turned and leaned on the door. Marlene reached up and wiped away the tear that slid down my cheek.

“You should go get ready. I’ll call and have Darren get the plane ready.”

“No, I’ll call him. I need to talk to him anyway. He shouldn’t still be here.”

When we had told everyone to go, Darren had refused. I had argued with him, but he wouldn’t leave. He was just a young kid. He had no family and no friends outside the network, aside from a select few that worked at Valdis, itself.

In the network, he was important, valuable, and respected. Outside of it, he was nobody. He argued that it was better to take his chances with some unknown force than to go back to being nobody. I didn’t argue with him. Who am I to decide what one does with their limited time on earth?

I had spent the better part of my 5,000 years running and hiding. I didn’t want to hide anymore. Marlene turned back toward the stairs and I was about to follow her when the door I had been leaning on suddenly opened, and I fell backwards into the guest bedroom, landing on my back. Mack stood over me, looking down.

“He wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t lied to us all.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. This was going to be harder than I thought.

“Mack, please let me explain…..” He cut me off before I could go on.

“There is nothing to explain, Khallie. You lied to us, to me. All this time. How could you?”

“I wanted to tell you, I just… I..”

“You what? Couldn’t? Bullshit! You manipulated me, Khallie. If you had told me, I wouldn’t have helped you. You knew that, so you lied to me.” Mack reached down and pulled me up off the floor, poking his finger into my chest as I caught my footing.

“You put us all in danger, Khallie. People are dead, and it’s because of you. I could be dead now, and it’s because of you.”

“You’re right, Mack.” Mack stopped, and looked at me, as if surprised that I would agree with him, then pursed his lips and glared at me.

“No, don’t you do that. Don’t you agree with me, thinking I’ll feel sorry for you. That’s not going to happen. I’m not going to feel sorry for you. Not this time. How could you ask us to protect you from him, to hide you from him? How could you ask ME to protect you from him when all this time you were protecting him from me? Are you sick? Is this a game to you Khallie? Why would you do that?”

“Mack, you don’t understand…..”

“Damn right I don’t understand. The man is sick. He is twisted and evil, and you… You are just as sick, protecting him like that. For what? What could be so damn important that you would want to keep him alive?”