chapter 22
“Wake up,” Reid whispered.
Amber opened her eyes to find him squatting before her in the back of the van. He’d opened the sliding panel separating the passenger seats from the cargo section. Sunlight shone through the front window. Sparkling dust motes danced in the wide shaft of light that lit the floor between the blanketed pallets where she and Megan had bedded down for the trip to Piney Grove.
Stifling a yawn, Amber reached for Megan and shook her shoulder. “We’re here.”
Megan pushed back her covers and sat up, knuckling the sleep from her eyes. “Already?”
“It’s almost three o'clock,” Reid said with a hint of irritation. Going to Reid’s for his weapons, collecting pillows and blankets, and going to Lifeblood for the van had taken longer than expected.
“Crap.” Megan yawned. “Vincent could wake up at any time.”
Amber had always been a night owl herself, but she loved the sunshine too much to give it up completely.
Could she give it up? Even for Gerard?
The antivirus allowed him to see the sun rise and set, but he couldn’t bask in the warmth of its glow. And the one time he’d been awake at noon, he’d barely been able to function. Could she live her life that way? Did she even want to try?
Putting her personal life on the back burner, she strapped on her shoulder harness and looked at Reid. He wore his shoulder harness over a dark blue polo shirt that hung over his belt. There was no sign of his silver blade. “Where’s your knife?”
“It’s not a knife. It’s a dagger,” he said as if she’d just insulted him.
He raised his shirt, revealing a utility belt. Then he reached behind his back and pulled the six-inch blade from a sheath strapped to the belt. “I’m trying to keep it out of sight. Even if we can get by with wearing our guns in the open, I’d have a hard time explaining a medieval-looking dagger strapped to my leg.”
“Good point.” Amber shoved her sterling letter opener into her left boot. She wore jeans, cowgirl boots, and a fitted turquoise tee. Megan had on jeans, sneakers, and a blue and yellow striped shirt. “We’re at least trying to look like tourists.”
“Tourists don’t carry guns,” Megan reminded her.
A valid point, but their improvised plan made no allowances for weapons. And she wasn’t about to hunt vampires without one—or six.
She shrugged. “Reid and I are cops. It’ll look worse if we try to conceal them. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears. Otherwise, we’ll stick to the script. Reid and I had planned to take a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway when we got intel that Weldon was in the area. Since he’s a person of interest in our case, we decided to come to Piney Grove and talk to him.” She looked at Megan. “You were never here.”
“Flimsy,” Reid said. “But better than nothing.”
“If this all goes down the way I fear,” Amber added, “we’re going to be shit deep in flimsy excuses.”
Reid shook his head. “Guess that ends my career.”
Being a cop was more than just a job for him. It was who he was. But he was putting his career and his life on the line—for her.
Guilt twisted her gut into sick knots. “We’ll probably both be out of a job after today.”
“What are you going to do if you lose your job?” Megan asked.
What could she do? She was a former soldier and a cop. She didn’t know how to do anything else. She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe find a job in private security.”
“What about Gerard?” Megan asked. “What do you plan to do about him? Just walk away and forget you ever met?”
“I don’t know.” She couldn’t give Megan an answer she didn’t have. She looked at Reid. “But maybe you should take that job with Carl Matheson. You’d still be in law enforcement, and you could be the voice of reason if he wants to go on a vampire killing spree.”
“You wouldn’t object?” He sounded surprised. Hell, it surprised her.
“I trust you with my life, Reid. I’d like to think Gerard can too. If you went to work for Carl, you could keep Project Blue Book Task Force legit—make sure no one abuses that top secret security clearance to rid the world of vampires—or try to gain their powers. You could also keep an eye on Surratt—make sure he isn’t trying to rid the world of mortals who know vampires exist.”
“That’s a damn tall order,” Reid said with a snort. “But it’d beat the hell out of working as a security guard at the mall.”
“Let’s hope we’re both alive at the end of the day to work anywhere.” Amber touched the grip of her Glock. What I wouldn’t give for silver bullets.
“Crap,” Megan said as she reached for a leather case that looked like a doctor’s bag. “I’m so not ready for this.”
“Lock and load.” Amber looked at Reid.
He winked. “Let’s rock.”
The trio climbed from the van. Reid had pulled into a copse of trees a hundred yards away from the Piney Grove Sanatorium. The van’s rear doors faced a loading dock.
Honeysuckle and fresh mowed grass tinged the air. Birds twittered and a mower hummed in the distance. A still silence hovered over the abandoned hospital as ominous as a black cloud.
Kudzu crawled up the rear of the building. Its leafy green vines snaked around the bars covering the windows, creeping inside through sections of broken glass like the tendrils of a giant green squid. Grass grew up through cracks in the crumbling pavement along the drive and parking lot, but near the loading area, the weeds had been flattened.
A chill slithered over Amber’s skin. Shaking it off, she nodded toward the loading dock. “Weldon’s getting his deliveries through that door.”
“And that’s how we’re getting Axel out,” Reid said. “Once we secure the facility, Megan can back the van up to the dock. Then you and I can wrap Axel in one of those sleeping bags and get him into the van without exposing him to sunlight.”
“I also have the Liposome sunblock Vincent uses,” Megan said, patting the side of her medical bag. “It’ll help protect his skin.”
“Sounds like a plan.” The hair on the nape of Amber’s neck stood on end. Her senses sharpened. It was as if she could hear a pin drop—or hear one being pulled from a grenade. It was just like in Iraq when her unit went out on patrol.
Acutely attuned to her surroundings, she scanned the area.
The facility was old so there weren’t any surveillance cameras, and it didn’t seem as if any had been added. Nothing lurked behind the trees and no guards were posted—and yet her skin tingled, warning of danger.
“Something’s not right,” she whispered, drawing her gun.
Reid put his left arm in front of Megan, nudging her behind him as he drew his weapon with his right arm. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. But stay sharp and be prepared for anything.” Were there hidden cameras she couldn’t see? Was someone watching from the windows?
Reaching out with her mind, she sensed a vampire presence—more than one vampire. Was it a growing awareness of Axel and the clone? Or had Weldon created an army of cloned creatures?
Nausea churned in her gut as they slowly advanced. The bay door to the loading dock was closed. A pad lock secured it. To the right, next to a door with wire mesh inside the glass, a rusted sign with faded black lettering read, “Ring for Service.”
Amber tried the door.
“Locked.” No duh. Of course it was locked.
“Should we look for another way in?” Megan whispered.
“No.” Amber closed her eyes, mentally picturing what she’d seen through the clone’s eyes. “There’s a security camera at the front and side entrances.”
“Why isn’t there one here?” Megan asked. “You’d think Weldon would want to keep an eye on the loading dock. Make sure no one absconded with his equipment.”
“There was a DPI Security sign on the front lawn,” Reid said. “The company most likely watches the monitors and alerts Weldon if anyone tries to get in. But if he’s conducting illegal activities, he wouldn’t want the people watching the facility watching him. This has to be his private entrance and our best way in.”
And probably the most dangerous. She wouldn’t be surprised if it were booby-trapped—like some of the houses they’d cleared in Iraq.
“But it’s locked,” Megan whispered.
“Don’t worry.” Reid smiled. His eyes twinkled with wicked mischief. “There’s an app for that.”
He holstered his gun and withdrew a small leather case from the hip pocket of his jeans.
“Lock pic tools aren’t standard issue,” Amber said.
He squatted down in front of the door and cast a quick look over his shoulder. “I bought the tools online. Figured the skill would come in handy when I applied to the NYPD. Who knew I’d be committing a little B and E?”
Amber shivered. “What about the alarm? Can you disable it?”
“No,” he said, not pausing from his work. “But as long as it’s silent, we can assume Weldon is the only one who’ll be alerted if we trip it. And we want to run across him. It’s vampires and cops I want to avoid.”
The sun was still high in the sky. Any vampire on the premises should be holed up in a dark space, unable to awaken from the regenerative sleep. And yet…
Unseen eyes seemed to watch.
She took a step back, craning her neck to see if anyone was looking out the windows from above their heads. No one hung over the ledge of any of the second or third story windows, but she was too close to the building to see much beyond the ledges overhead.
Her skin prickled. “Hurry.”
Something was coming—something dark and dangerous.
She turned to Megan. “Get back in the van.”
“No. You might need me.” She moved her bag into Amber’s line of vision. “I have the sedative. You might need it.”
Amber didn’t want to admit Megan was right. She wanted to go in, stake the clone, rescue Axel Travers, and search for Weldon. And she wanted to do it without getting caught. But they were diving headfirst into the unknown, and she knew without a doubt she couldn’t stake a man—or a vampire—in cold blood, especially a man with Gerard’s face—even if that man were a conscienceless, cold-blooded killer.
“Then stay behind me and Reid. Vincent will kill me if I let anything happen to you.” And, she’d never be able to live with herself if something happened to a civilian—a civilian who had no legal reason to be breaking and entering with two warrantless detectives out of their jurisdiction. “I must be out of my mind,” she mumbled.
“Or desperate,” Reid said, moving the tiny picks inside the lock. “I think you’d do anything to protect Delaroche.” He spared her a quick glance. “Anything you want to say about that?”
Denying the truth was pointless. “So, why are you here? Are you so desperate for a job with the Feds that you’re willing to step into the unknown and take on a sleeping vampire?”
“No. I’m protecting my partner—and full-filling some misguided hero complex I never seemed to outgrow.” Flushing pink, he turned back to the lock. “The world as we know it no longer exists, Amber. And I just want to make sure that those who think they’re in charge don’t abuse their power. I’m not exactly a masked avenger, but maybe I can do something to stop the world from tumbling into chaos.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Amber said thinking of Gerard.
A soft click broke the silence that followed. Reid rose to his feet and opened the door. Amber tensed. No audible alarms sounded but she’d bet money that wherever Weldon was sleeping, he’d been alerted to the intrusion. If he was staying at the hotel off the interstate, they had about twenty minutes. If he was staying at the Bed and Breakfast in Piney Grove or renting a house nearby…
“This way,” she whispered, turning down a hallway to the left.
As they moved forward through the facility, Amber took point, leading the way down corridors she’d seen in her mind through the clone’s eyes. Sweat pooled beneath her bra, rolling down her stomach. Her shirt clung to her cold skin. Her pulse pounded in her ears.
When they reached the elevator, she turned to Reid. He nodded in agreement without words being exchanged. They needed to take the stairs. No cop wanted to get caught in an elevator with only one way out.
He gallantly stepped in front of her and led the way down the deep, shadowy stairwell. Amber stepped behind Megan, bringing up the rear as they descended into the cold, dank basement.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Reid whispered.
Megan and Amber exchanged surprised glances. It was dark, but they were both able to see well enough to maneuver safely. Did they have better eyesight than Reid? Or was it the vampire blood coursing through their veins that enabled them to see in the lightless stairwell?
“Shit,” Reid whispered when he stumbled off the last step, bumping into the door at the bottom of the stairs. He pushed against the metal bar. The soft click echoed up the stairs, sounding like a gunshot.
Amber cringed, but nothing jumped out at them when Reid pushed opened the door and stepped into the dimly lit hall.
Glowing red exit signs at either end of the darkened hallway provided the only illumination. The electricity had been turned on in the building, but Amber didn’t want to risk turning on the lights and alerting anyone of their presence.
She moved to Reid’s side and pointed to the left. “The clone’s in a walk in freezer in the cafeteria. We should take care of him first.”
Reid nodded and fell into step beside her. Megan stayed on their tail.
When they entered the cafeteria, sunlight streaming in from the shoulder-high windows illuminated the room, making navigation easier. Rusted bars covered the windows and mossy green streaks ran down the walls. One corner of the cafeteria had been cleaned to a spit shine. The stainless steel prep table gleamed.
A chill shivered over Amber’s skin. Weldon conducted some of his experiments on that polished surface. In her mind’s eye, she could see him flailing the skin from the Clone’s side, documenting the damage in a headset. Even sedated and chained to the table, the creature that looked like Gerard flinched and moaned.
A thump sounded from inside the freezer. Amber froze. Her mind stretched, seeking a connection to the cloned creature on the other side of the metal doors.
“He’s awake.” Dear God. How was that possible? The sun was up and the clone was a vampire.
Did the perpetual darkness inside the freezer prevent his internal clock from allowing him to fall into the regenerative sleep? Or, had Weldon perfected the antivirus using the stolen serum created from Megan’s blood?
She swallowed. Hard. Sonia Dalca had scoffed at the anti-virus, fearing it would diminish a vampire’s strengths and abilities. Was she right? Was the clone now weaker and easier to kill?
Or more dangerous than ever?