I held her steady as I sucked harder, the blood sliding down my throat like an expensive bottle of smooth whiskey. Every fiber in me came alive as the burn eased and my skin healed.
Once I was sated, I released her. “Now we have a deal.”
She covered her neck with her hand as she hurried, stumbling to the keypad and pressing her thumb on the screen. I made a mental note of her action in the event I was trapped in here with her again.
The elevator doors whooshed open. Once we were inside and moving, I hit the stop button.
She flattened her back against the wall across from me. “What are you doing?”
I folded my arms over my chest as images of Layla and me in the elevator came to mind. I grinned, replaying our steamy scene when I’d first had her alone in the elevator on the naval base, but I quickly shook them off.
“Well?” Carly swiped a hand over her short black hair before ripping off her bloodstained disposable white suit. Then she dumped it on the floor and brushed a hand down her lab coat.
“I want to have a quiet conversation before we jump into battle. Tell me the truth. What am I doing here? What did it mean when that Emery dude said, ‘We have a lot of work to get him ready’?”
Her pulse was steady, her fear not as strong as earlier. “Before I answer you, I’m confused about something.” She swept her gaze over my sweaty body.
My chest was bare, but I still had on my black cargo pants and boots, although both were charred at the ankles, and my weapons were gone.
“I see why Layla is drawn to you. You’re handsome, muscled, and your green eyes suck a person in. But you could drain her dry, and she’s okay with that? I mean, I’m not disgusted with your kind like my husband and his family are. I’m utterly fascinated with the supernatural.”
I rolled my eyes. “What’s your point?” We didn’t have long before guards either tried to pry the doors open or came through the ceiling, and frankly, I didn’t give a fuck about her obsession with my world.
She sighed. “We’ve injected you with good amount of—”
“Ketamine, gelsemium, wolfsbane, and maybe even cobalt oxide.” As soon as we’d touched down at the abandoned airport, Doc had informed us what had been in the drug Layla and her sisters had used that night at the vampire club.
Her mouth dropped open. “You’ve done your homework. But I only used ketamine and gelsemium on you. The latter should counteract your powers and even paralyze you. I need to increase the dosage.”
Maybe the antidote I’d taken before I’d left base worked on the gelsemium. It sure as fuck didn’t work on the ketamine. Five years ago, Dr. Vieira and Jo had developed the antidote to work against a drug Edmund Rain and my uncle Patrick had used on us to knock us out. I would guess the ketamine wasn’t the same one. Still, I made a mental note to tell Doc and Jo about the newfound info on gelsemium. My other thought was that maybe gelsemium didn’t work on certain vampires. My DNA was unique, after all. Not only that, but Jo, my dad, and I were the only three vampires in my world who could wield all four elements—earth, air, wind, and fire.
“You can try any concoction, but you can’t keep a Mason down.” Ketamine had had the intended effect, but my powers were a different story. “How long have I been here?”
She tucked her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “Not long. A few hours. Your turn to answer a question. Tell me how you compelled Rianne. I heard she was in a vegetative state.” Her fascination with me screamed she didn’t want to be human, which didn’t shock me.
“Do you want me to show you? Or I have a better idea.” I closed the distance between us. “How about I erase your knowledge of me and all vampires?” If I did, then she couldn’t use me as her test subject. One problem out of the way, and a thousand more to go.
She slinked away from me as terror jumped off her and rammed me in the gut. “I swear, I will tell you the truth. But please don’t erase my memories. If you do, Adam Emery will only find another person to do the job, and I can promise you, you want me performing the tests.”
I sneered. “I don’t want anyone using me for their science project or whatever else the plan is. How would you feel if I stuck needles in you? Would you be happy? I am sick of anyone thinking they can use my DNA or sell me on the open market. Frankly, the last two people who tried are dead.”
She jutted out her chin as she rested against the back wall, not fazed by my last statement. “I know. I’m well aware of Edmund Rain and Patrick Mason.”
I flinched. I had to have marbles in my ears, or maybe my vamp hearing wasn’t up to par. “Come again?”
She stood straighter, as if proud of dropping that bomb. “I’ve been studying your uncle Patrick’s formulas and notes.”
What the fuck? My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. “That’s impossible. We burned all that data.”
She shrugged. “You may have, but Patrick had been sending his research to Adam Emery on a regular basis as a backup if something ever happened to him.”
I laughed, albeit crazily. “So, what? You want to follow in his footsteps? For money? Power? My uncle failed in engineering vampires out of humans.” Not entirely. Ben was a hybrid—half human and half vampire. Then there was Alia Costner’s son, Matthew. He was also a product of my uncle’s experiment, and the only human out of hundreds to turn into a true vampire. “What makes you or Adam think you will be successful?”
“We’re close. But we’re lacking in certain areas.”
Figures. The exact reason my uncle and Edmund Rain had kidnapped Jo and me a few times had been to further my uncle’s research and find the Holy Grail. “And that’s why I’m here,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’ll never find the right ingredient to make the perfect clone of me. I was born with vampire DNA.” My theory about why Matthew Costner drew the lucky card was because he had vampire blood running through his veins. His mother was born with the vampire gene, but she’d decided not to turn so she could have children. And even though Matthew probably had the right DNA makeup to give up his humanity, he lacked one important component—a vampire father, since Alia had married a human.
Nevertheless, I was beginning to understand what my grandfather had relayed to my dad about a war coming when he’d been in a coma. If Intech was close to a genetic serum of sorts to alter human DNA, then humanity was at stake—big time.
