Jordyn climbed in next to Rianne. “Layla.” There was a bite to her tone. “Get behind the wheel, and let’s get the fuck out of here. Vamps might not be on our ass, but one of the homeowners might call the cops. Not sure we want to bring any attention to us.”
I kissed Rianne on the forehead. “I love you.” Then I rushed around and slid into the driver’s seat.
Once the car was moving, Jordyn and I let out another collective sigh.
I glanced at myself in the rearview. My auburn hair was frizzy. My blue eyes looked like death, and my skin was pale. If I wasn’t human, I might pass for one of the undead.
Jordyn held Rianne’s hand. “My twentieth birthday is next week, and I feel like I’m forty. Once we’re in a good financial place, we need to give up this shit.”
“Maybe, but do you want our kids living among vampires?” If I had kids. I had to find a man first, and that might be difficult given what I did for a living.
Still, I was pushing twenty-three, and I felt old as well. Rianne, the middle child at twenty-two, had so much more energy and courage than Jordyn and me.
Jordyn didn’t answer. Instead, she gazed out the side window.
The city lights twinkled in the distance, and the farther we drove, the more my pulse slowed.
“Sam and Roman know our names,” Jordyn said.
“They only know our first names.”
“But Sam is a Navy SEAL. The military has ways of finding out who we are.”
I didn’t see how until something hit me, and my breath hitched.
“What is it?” Jordyn asked.
“It’s nothing. Just shaking off nerves.”
But as I passed a sign indicating that the highway was up ahead, I debated whether I should keep driving until the city and the state were in our rearview mirror.
4
SAM
Amedicinal odor burned my nostrils as it always did when I walked into the infirmary, or lab, as Doc liked to refer to his home away from home. “Dr. Vieira,” I called out.
The state-of-the-art facility had been upgraded in the last month with brand-new machines and lab equipment. A pristine white tiled floor punched a path down the middle, separating waist-high lab benches that traveled the length of the room on two sides. The soft whir of the overhead exhaust fan against a far wall hummed along with the three refrigerators that housed lab samples, medicine, and blood.
My bloodthirst reared its ugly head at the traces of Layla’s mouthwatering scent embedded in my nostrils.
Ben clung to me, his body practically limp. “Just drop me in one of the rooms.”
I made a sharp right toward one of five patient rooms. “Man, you’re dead weight.” He had to be two hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle.
“And you’re a vampire with super strength. Are you getting pansy-ass on me?” He chuckled weakly. “Fucking stomach is on fire, and my limbs feel like saltwater taffy.”
Whatever drug was in the dart, coupled with the cobalt, had to be doing a number on him as a half-human.
“Doc!” I shouted as we passed his empty office.
Ben coughed. “He’s not here. Otherwise, he would be running to our rescue.”
He was right about Doc. The man would run into battle to save any one of us, but especially Ben. Doc viewed Ben as an anomaly and made it his mission to study his DNA.
Doc was also studying another half-breed who had been a victim of an experiment gone wrong—an experiment to genetically manufacture vampires from humans by a former and now dead enemy, Edmund Rain. We also knew there were more half-breeds out there, but we didn’t know where or if they were still alive. In the five years since we’d killed Edmund and demolished his research, we hadn’t seen or heard of the other half-breeds.
I deposited Ben on the bed in the first room I came to.
