Charlie hiked through a towering Oregon forest with the impressively muscled soldier, Christian, on one side of her, a black panther named Pandora on the other, and a vampire leading the way. And she wasn’t afraid of any of them. She was pretty sure she could take them all, if it came down to it. Except maybe the cat.
If someone had told her a month ago that she would be in this situation and feeling equal to it, she’d have recommended psychotherapy. And yet here she was.
Olive had followed by air, and she was staying very close, never far from Charlie’s sight, and every time she paused to take a look around, Olive came to land on her shoulder and soak up the attention Charlie gave.
Killian walked several steps ahead. They were not running, though she presumed they might be on the way back. Better, Killian said, to go slow and silent, in case the forest around the secret base was still crawling with troops, searching for them.
She felt strong. But she also felt desperate. She ached for Killian. For his touch, his kiss, his arms around her. And yet she still didn’t know for sure if she could trust him. So she was desperate for that, too. Proof that he wasn’t the monster DPI said he was. Proof that he hadn’t killed her poor mother or kidnapped Roxy.
As they drew nearer Fort Rogers, she was surprised that there was still no sign of recruits in the woods. It was as silent as death.
“Where do you suppose they are?” Killian asked softly, apparently thinking the same thing she was, though she’d taken pains to try to keep her thoughts to herself.
“I don’t know, Killian.” Charlie hadn’t yet decided if LT and his military cronies were the good guys or the bad guys, but she was pretty sure that either way, they’d be plenty pissed off if they caught her and Christian with one of the enemy. She was no more eager to run into them than Killian was.
“Well, you both used to be one of them. Give me an educated guess, will you?”
Christian sent him a look that was a little bit wounded. “I didn’t know they were the bad guys when I joined up, you know.”
Charlie put a hand on his bulging bicep. “He knows that. He was teasing, I think.”
The big guy sent Killian a look, and Killian nodded. “I know you didn’t.”
“I wish I didn’t even have the damn tattoo,” Christian went on with a look at his shoulder. Charlie saw the edge of what looked like a Celtic knot or some similar pattern showing beneath the short sleeve of his T-shirt. She’d seen them on a few of the other recruits. “I got it when I finished the first round of training,” he told her, even though she hadn’t asked. “Everyone does. You would’ve too, if you’d stayed long enough.”
“Doubtful,” she said. Olive landed on her shoulder, and she absently scratched the bird on the back of her head, where she seemed to enjoy it best. Then she looked ahead to Killian. He’d started forward again. “Maybe they figure you got away and gave up searching.”
“We got away,” he corrected. Then he nodded. “That could be it, though. Or maybe they already combed the woods enough to know we weren’t out here.” He was speaking softly, because Fort Rogers’ fence was visible up ahead. “And they probably figured we’d have to be idiots to come back.”
The panther stopped, and when Charlie glanced down at her, she saw her lifting her head, scenting the air. Her ears laid back and her tail switched.
“Pandora’s picking up on something,” she said. “Is that...possible?”
“Completely.” Killian came back a few steps and put a hand on Charlie’s unoccupied shoulder. “Stay close to me, just in case.”
She looked right up into his eyes as he said it, and she thought he was either truly in love with her or the best actor she’d ever seen. That intense stare, the electric blue emotion swirling like an ocean behind his eyes. She told herself to look away but couldn’t do it until he turned around again.
She stayed close, Olive riding along easily. No hardship there. Despite her lingering doubts about his motives, the attraction and whatever else she felt for Killian, was alive and well and even now gnawing at her stomach. Maybe it was because he’d given her his own blood. Maybe it was something else. But it had to be something supernatural, because these feelings were too big to be ordinary.
He led them further along the fence before moving close enough to look past it. Then they followed the fence line closely, heading uphill to the top of a significant rise with plenty of brushy cover. From there they crept right up to the fence to look down at the camp below.
The scene laid out before them was gruesome. A bloodbath. Charlie gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth and another to her belly. On her shoulder, Olive ruffled her feathers in agitation. There were bodies everywhere, all of them drenched in blood and gore. Charlie lost her breath and just stood there, riveted, unable to turn away. It looked like a massacre had taken place. And then she realized that every one of those bodies was dressed just like she was, Cargo pants and T-shirts. Recruits. BD-Exers. Her friends.
She looked at Christian’s stricken face, put a hand on his arm as tears rose in his pale blue eyes.
“What the hell happened to them?” he asked softly, brokenly.
“Vampires,” Charlie hissed. “This Roland and Rhiannon he keeps mentioning.” She shot an accusing look at Killian, all but quivering with rage, furious with herself for continuing to believe vampires could be anything but monsters. “They were the only ones left behind. It had to be them.”
“It wasn’t them,” Killian said, and he said it with certainty.
“How can you be so sure of that? Maybe you didn’t know what their true intent was, maybe they–”
“It’s not possible, Charlie. I’ve told you, vampires can’t harm The Chosen.”
The doubt in her heart flickered, he was that sincere, that convincing. She said, “Has there ever been an exception? Even once?”
His confidence wavered. “Once, that I know of. A rogue who managed to go against his own nature, somehow. Other vampires hunted him down and killed him. It’s a well-known story among our kind. Everyone knows about it.”
Charlie caught movement in her peripheral vision and, keeping one hand on Olive’s soft, feathered back, she moved along the fence to get a better look. “Something’s alive down there. Look.” She pointed, crept along the fence closer to where she’d glimpsed the motion, and spotted a wriggling bundle near the fence, on the inside behind one of the barracks.
Christian saw it too and said, “Let’s go check it out.”
Killian nodded, and they made their way down the little hill, following the fence line closer to where the thing that had to be a person was. Pandora crept right along with them, but Olive launched herself upward, vanishing into the canopy of the towering pines. They started hearing motors, vehicles, coming closer, and by the time they got to the bottom, large trucks were spilling in through the front gates of the compound. Killian touched Charlie’s arm and crouched low, so she did, too. They stayed still, watching as the vehicles poured through the gate. Men in disposable white suits, wearing goggles and big gloves got out the backs of the trucks, and began moving the bodies of the fallen. Her age, all of them, Charlie thought. Some even younger. One by one, their bloody bodies were slung into a gruesome pile.
As she watched, Charlie noticed that their wounds all looked very similar. Gaping, ragged holes in their chests. Every single one of them.
“No vampire did that,” Killian whispered.
“Then what did?”
A muffled sound, like “mmf mmf” drew their attention back to the bundle just inside the fence, and they hurried closer as the bundle got itself turned around and upright. It was a girl.
It was Mariah! She was alive!
She was looking at them, wide eyed, and silently begging them to help her.
“I’ll get her,” Charlie said, and before Killian could say a thing, she sprang easily over the fence, landing right beside her friend. She put a finger to her lips.
Mariah nodded, understanding. Charlie g
athered her friend into her arms and leaped back over again. Then they crouched near the fence, watching what was going on below.
The men inside hadn’t seen them. They were paying no attention, apparently convinced everyone who remained in the camp was dead. The survivors, if there had been any, must’ve evacuated the base.
Of course they had. Vampires had found their location. They wouldn’t dare stay.
As she and Mariah looked on, they started pouring gasoline over the mountain of bodies. Then someone struck a match, and the flames blasted to life with a whoosh.
Charlie had to turn her face away and thought she’d vomit. Tears were streaming down Mariah’s face.
“It’s okay,” Christian was saying softly, coming up behind them. “You’re gonna be okay, Mariah.”
She shot him a surprised look as he bent, pulled a knife from his boot, and said, “I’ll cut you loose.”
“You do and she’s gonna scream these woods down and get us all caught,” Killian said, stepping out of the cover of the trees.
For the first time, Mariah saw him, and her eyes went huge.
“No she won’t,” Christian said. “Because she wants to know what’s going on as bad as we do. Don’t you, Mariah?”
She looked at Charlie. Charlie sighed, leaned close, whispered to her even though she was sure Killian could hear with his damned bat-like hearing. “I’m pretty sure he’s on our side. And if it turns out he’s not, we can take him. It’s three against one, right? Roll with it, for now, okay?”
Mariah nodded fiercely at her.
“Go ahead, cut her loose, Christian,” she said.
Christian cut loose her bonds, hands first, then her feet while she pulled the tape from her mouth. Charlie stood close. Killian did too, ready to react if she started screaming. But she didn’t. She said, “He was in the brig. There was another one, came to get him out. Knocked me out somehow, and I woke up right where you found me.”
Killian nodded, not denying a word she said. “That was Roland, my friend. He knocked you out with a mental trick, because that was the only way he could make sure you wouldn’t get hurt,” Killian said. “He planned to take you out of there when he left. Unfortunately, he was captured before he could.”
“It’s true,” Christian told her. “He told Killian to get you out of there, but there were too many people shooting at us. So we came back for you.”
“And for them,” Charlie said, just to keep things honest. “Roland and Rhiannon, the pair of vampires who were captured.”
Mariah blinked from one of them to the other, finally settling her gaze on Killian. “I don’t know what happened to your friends,” she said, like she was afraid he’d blame her and hurt her or something.
“How long ago did you wake up?” he asked.
“An hour, give or take,” she said.
“At least I know Roland was alive an hour ago, then.”
She frowned. “How?”
”
“He had to tell you to wake up, or you’d still be out.”
Mariah shifted her questioning eyes to Charlie, who only shrugged. If their will was that strong, why was there anything they couldn’t do? Why didn’t Killian just will her to believe his side of things? she wondered.
Because that would be meaningless, his voice whispered through her mind. Because I want you to believe me for real, Charlie. I want you to know I’m telling you the truth.
Then he focused on Mariah. “Can you walk?”
“I...think so.” She cleared her throat then rubbed it with one hand. “Thirsty. Been tied up like that all night long. Fucking vampires.” She shot him a quick look, like she wanted to take the words back.
He laughed. He actually laughed. Quietly, softly, but he laughed, and Charlie saw it erase a lot of the fear from her friend’s eyes and found herself feeling grateful. Then he extended a hand to help Mariah up.
She sat there for a long moment, then with a decisive nod, she took hold and let him pull her to her feet. Olive soared down out of the trees to land on Charlie’s shoulder, and they all started walking back.
“You said you’d been awake for an hour,” Charlie said. “Did you see what happened to the other recruits?”
She looked back at the camp, her eyes haunted, and shook her head rapidly. “No. When I woke up, everyone was leaving. LT, the other officers, the medical staff. I couldn’t get anyone’s attention. They were probably all too freaked out from what happened. I tried. Jesus, I thought I’d lay there until I died of thirst or starvation or something.” She looked around. “We really ought to get back, report in,” she said.
Killian shot Charlie a look, and she read it. It wasn’t going to be a good idea to let her go anywhere and start talking about the odd threesome she’d encountered in the woods.
Charlie thought it would be in Mariah’s best interests to find out the truth before putting herself back into service with the BD-Exers. Or what was left of them. “Get back to where?” she asked her friend. “Report in to whom? You don’t even know where they went. Do you?”
Mariah sighed. “You’re right. God, Charlie, we’re going to be AWOL–”
“Or presumed dead, like the others back there,” she said. “Don’t worry. After all that, no one’s gonna hold it against us if we don’t know where to report in. We’ll wait it out, give things time to settle down, and then–”
Mariah’s eyes got huge, and Charlie turned to follow them. Pandora had come trotting up behind them.
“It’s okay, she’s a pet,” Charlie said.
Olive launched from Charlie’s shoulder, swooped down at Pandora, who reared up and took a swipe at her. Killian looked horrified, but Charlie just smiled as the owl landed on a nearby limb. “Relax. They’re playing.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” he asked her.
“How can you not be? Olive’s practically smiling. Aren’t you Olive?”
“Who?” Olive asked.
“You,” Charlie said. “You’re a tease.”
Mariah looked at her like she’d lost her mind, shook her head in disbelief or maybe frustration, and kept on walking.
They walked in silence for a long time, then spotted something out of place in the forest—a Jeep, that same green color of leaves in shadow. Mariah lifted a hand and started to run forward, about to call out, but Christian grabbed her, one hand around her mouth and pulled her down low. “We don’t know who it might be,” he whispered near her ear. Then he let go, and she sent him a look that should’ve set his hair on fire.
Slowly and silently, the four of them moved closer to the vehicle. It was in a clearing, part of a well-worn trail that wasn’t quite a road, through the very forest whose signs forbade motorized vehicles. As they drew closer, they spotted two bodies, one on either side of the Jeep. Recruits, lying face down on the blood soaked forest floor. No one was around, so they jogged closer. Killian knelt beside the nearest one, touching his shoulder, rolling him over. There was a gaping hole in the guy’s chest, even his shirt was ripped open, as if a bullet had exploded through him from back to front. Only there was no hole in his back. His back wasn’t even bloody.
Charlie tore her gaze away, but it fell on something else, a purplish-red, fist sized blob a few yards ahead of them on the path. She went closer, not wanting to look but unable to keep herself from looking anyway. Then she saw it, and her hand flew to her mouth.
“What, Charlie? What is it?” Mariah asked, running closer.
“It’s a heart,” she said, unnecessarily because by then Mariah was beside her, staring down at it too, and could see for herself. “It’s a human heart,” she said, turning to stare in shock back at the body near Killian. “And I’m pretty sure it used to be his.”
The sun was near to rising by the time they got back to the farmhouse. Killian had been paying attention along the way, though, and had spotted an abandoned and falling down barn that would make a decent shelter for him for the daylight hours. Olive flew ahead of them a
nd headed inside through her attic entry. Pandora found a sunny spot to stretch out for a long nap.
Killian took Charlie aside, into the living room while Christian and Mariah raided their meager supplies for something to make for breakfast. “I’ve got to go,” he told her without preamble.
She frowned at him. “Go where? And why? You don’t trust us here alone, do you?”
He searched her face and wished he could say he did, but it would’ve been a lie. “It’s almost dawn, Charlie. I need to get someplace safe before the day sleep takes me out.”
“If this is one of my grandmother’s places, shouldn’t there be some kind of secret room in the basement or–”
“Yeah, and I’m gonna rest real easy with three super-humans trained to kill vampires walking around over my head.”
She blinked. “Wow. You trust me even less than I thought.”
“About as much as you trust me right now. C’mon Charlie, do you blame me? You’ve said repeatedly you’re only goal in life right now is to kill whoever murdered your mom, and you still seem pretty sure it was me.”
She lowered her eyes, but not before he’d seen the flash of hurt in them. He hated hurting her, and he had just now. That must mean she felt something for him, right?
“I’ll be back at sundown. It would be best if you all got some rest, too. We’ve got a big night tonight. We’ve got to locate and rescue Roxy, Roland, and Rhiannon. And we’ve got to figure out what the hell is going on with the other Exers. With their hearts.”
Charlie’s eyes told him that she thought she already knew, and it killed him that he didn’t have time to stay and talk it out with her. He thought he knew, too. He’d already seen her clutching her chest while her heart beat so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. A side effect of the drug, the BDX. A side effect that led to hearts exploding right out of peoples’ chests?
God, he hoped not.
“Maybe it would be best for you to try to relax,” he told her. “Don’t exert yourself too much today. And try not to get upset over anything. Just–”
“Just go back to being the fragile, overprotected little thing who might break in a strong wind?” She sighed, shook her head. “I’d kind of rather explode, Killian.”
“Don’t say that.” He moved closer, sliding a hand into her hair, turning her face to his. “If your heart explodes, I feel like mine would, too.”
She lowered her eyes fast, but he saw the moisture spring into them all the same. “Sappy, much?” she asked in a tight voice.
“Not till I met you.”
She looked up again, a tentative glance, then a longer one. “Hurry up and prove yourself to me, Killian. I can’t be all fucked up like this much longer or my head’ll explode instead of my heart.”
“One more night,” he said. “I just need one more night.” He hoped.
She nodded. “I’ll hold you to it.”
She was still looking up, still holding his eyes, so he bent a little and kissed her, even though he had no idea what her reaction would be.
She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t kiss him back, either. She just stood still, allowed it. Maybe her lips trembled, and maybe a soft breath whispered from them.
It would have to be enough. For now.
Killian left the house and jogged away as the sky began to turn to a paler shade of gray.
Having been up all night long, Christian fell asleep right after serving everyone a breakfast of instant oatmeal and coffee. The coffee was heavenly. As for the oatmeal–well, Charlie would’ve preferred a steak, but whatever. Apparently, being bound and gagged and held in a vampiric thrall was also a tiring proposition, because Mariah passed out on the sofa an hour later. Charlie propped a board over the attic window to keep Olive, who was also sleeping, from following her, then slipped out of the farmhouse.
There was a black bag full of all the stuff that Killian and his mysterious vampire friends had stolen from the lab at Fort Rogers, sitting in plain sight and beckoning her. But she ignored that. Her mother was lying in a funeral parlor in Portland. And while she knew the services tonight would be crawling with armed militia, she thought if she got there early enough, before the place even opened, she could at least have the chance to say goodbye in peace. And she had to do it. She had to.
She walked down the hill, across the grassy meadow. It was so early the sun was still sitting on the eastern horizon, and the air had that too-fresh-to-believe taste to it. A million birds seemed to be singing their brains out, dozens of different songs, maybe hundreds, but they fit together perfectly. It was soothing to her torn up soul. She walked through the dewy grass and down to the road beyond and looked longingly east. According to Killian, Roxy’s truck was a mile or so back in that direction. She wanted to see it. She wanted to see if it was full of bullet holes, like he said it was, and she wanted to see if there was a phone under the seat and try to recover the deleted voice memo Roxy had allegedly left on it.
But more than that, she wanted to find Roxy. And she wanted to see her mother, and tell her...tell her what?
She closed her eyes and thought back to the last time she’d seen her mom. She’d argued with her about going away with Roxy. But just like always, Trish had been trying to protect her, and she’d responded by acting like a child.
She’d aged years since then. Decades.
“I wish she could see me now,” she said. “Outrunning slow Jeeps and jumping tall fences. God, what would she think?” She sighed, shaking her head. There was no point. It was never going to be.
She turned left instead of right and started hoofing it in the direction she hoped was Portland. When a trucker pulled over to offer her a ride, and just over an hour later, dropped her within three blocks of her apartment before seven a.m., she decided fate was on her side for once.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to poke around and investigate the scene of her mother’s death like some kind of forensic detective until she found proof that Killian had not murdered her. She wanted to gather up some of her things. But she was short on time, and unsure whether the apartment was being watched. So she didn’t go further than the parking lot out back. And even then she felt wary.
God, Roxy had rubbed off on her, hadn’t she? Yeah. Clearly she had, because Charlie found herself running her hands under the wheel wells and bumpers of her mother’s mini-van, checking it inside and out for anything that didn’t belong, before fishing the spare key from its magnetic holder in the back. She drove to the funeral home, watching her rearview mirror all the way in case she was being followed.
Chapter Seventeen