“He is still alive,” the vampire reassured. “Perhaps we should walk the rest of the way. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Is he really?” Gail whispered.

  “He tastes just as used as you do, mi amor. Maybe even a little more. It’s probably best we just leave him here.”

  “You can’t leave a guy in a trunk in July in Texas. He will suffocate or die from the heat within hours—”

  “If I break my word, I’ll be hunted by the Jaeger until the end of time, so excuse me if I don’t care. They will come looking for him. We have to hurry. Trust me, mi amor.”

  Gail’s eyes glossed over a little. “I trust you.”

  “Very good. Now let’s get to work before everything goes to hell.”

  23

  “This may be hell,” Gail whispered as she took her first step into the lobby. She shivered as the forced icy air made the hairs on her arm stand on end. Her shoes clicked on the tiles and echoed in the otherwise silent lobby. No one waited to greet her behind the front desk. She gave a nervous glance over her shoulder, but there was no sign of Javier behind her.

  “Act natural,” she chided herself. She wandered to the lab door and breathed a sigh of relief as her keycard worked. She went right to the locker room, dumped her purse in her locker, and even whistled nonchalantly as she wandered to her workstation.

  “Oh . . . my . . . god!” Gail heard as she entered her password. “I have been calling you all weekend. Please say it was great sex!”

  “Happy Monday, Lori. Yes, it was amazing sex. Did I miss anything in the Friday meeting?”

  “Oh my god, was it J.D.? Stan came back in town . . . oh my god . . . it was J.D., wasn’t it? Details, woman!”

  “Um, I have a day’s worth of emails to catch up on,” Gail muttered, but Lori simply wasn’t having it. She wedged between Gail and the keyboard and gave puppy eyes that would shame a cocker spaniel.

  “Just reply with ‘I’m on it’ if it’s one of the docs and ignore it if it’s anyone else. You’ll be done in five minutes. Ten, tops. Damn it, woman, I need the deets!”

  “You need decaf.”

  “Just tell me that you two have finally changed your unresolved sexual tension into totally resolved sexual tension,” Lori whined. “Inquiring minds need to know!”

  Before Gail could get the slightest word in edgewise, the lab door opened again and five feet of no-nonsense Japanese woman stormed into the room. “Foster, in my office now.”

  Gail made a beeline for the office, holding her breath until the door slammed shut. Dr. Nakano cast a quick glance at the photo of her sons. “Feeling better, Miss Foster?” she asked while she typed furiously on her computer.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “You know, your shrink called the office. I guess she was worried about you, too, but I let her know you’d called out. It’s so nice to know people care, right?”

  “Yes, Dr. Nakano. I’m sorry for such short notice.”

  “Well, you can’t control being sick, now can you?” The doctor continued to type furiously. “However, with Williams gone and you out, we are so far behind it’s not even funny. To make matters worse, corporate says they are coming to inspect the site this week.”

  Gail gulped as she took in the look of quiet panic in her boss’s eyes. Dr. Nakano shoved Gail an overstuffed folder. “You know what this means, don’t you, Foster?”

  “Overtime?” she offered weakly. She read the little sticky note just peeking on the tab. The Post-It simply read “Hurry.” Gail nodded.

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. Now the security folks and my lovely brother in law might show up at any minute, so can you run that file straight to Dr. Iwashi? He’s working upstairs, and I think the damn network is acting up. I’m going to call IT, so—”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Gail said quickly.

  “Oh, and Miss Foster?”

  “Yes?”

  “Always remember that you’re my favorite,” Dr. Nakano said with the tiniest of nods. “Chop-chop!”

  Gail slid the sticky note off the file as she rushed to the back. Lori gave Gail a perplexed look but didn’t stop her once she saw the file in her hands.

  “Details later, I promise,” Gail called as she rushed down the hall. She peeked at the cameras as surreptitiously as possible and let out a sigh of relief as her keycard worked again. Just as the door had all but shut, a mop handle slid between the door and the jamb. Gail kept walking as naturally as possible, but ended up eyeing the camera again quickly.

  “Don’t be nervous, mi amor,” Javier hissed in her ear. “The cameras, they cannot see me.”

  “What about Dr. Iwashi?” she muttered, moving her mouth as little as possible.

  “No one can notice me if I don’t want them to. Now act natural and forget that I am here.”.

  Every step grew slower and heavier as Gail mounted the stairs. Her stomach tightened into knots. She grabbed her head just as she reached the top door. She steadied herself on the rail. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw two men sitting at one of the lab tables. It promptly began beating again as she realized it was only Lewis sitting there, looking bored while Dr. Iwashi stared at a screen.

  “I have a file for you,” Gail said weakly as she approached the table. “Dr. I—”

  She barely stifled her scream in time as she saw the good doctor’s eyes fixed and lifeless. She turned to Lewis who promptly collapsed from his seat. She darted to his side and felt his faint, erratic pulse.

  “This was not me,” Javier said as he rushed to the doctor’s side. He slid one sleeve of the doctor’s lab coat, and a syringe clattered to the floor. Gail pulled another needle out of Lewis’s arm. She began loosening Lewis’s collar and leaned in to listen to his breathing.

  “What happened? What the hell happened?” she asked even as she didn’t stop triaging her patient. She hopped over to Dr. Iwashi and tried to ascertain any signs of life.

  Javier shook his head solemnly and turned his attention to the syringe. He snagged a bottle from under the table.

  “What is it?” Gail asked.

  “Plasma,” Javier said. Gail shuddered as he licked the needle. “Vampire plasma. It did not agree with the good doctor. Your friend there is merely knocked out. He will recover in time.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Javier turned his attentions over to Lewis. He chomped the lab tech’s hand and gave a thumbs-up after a quick drink. He then shook his head and let out a little sigh.

  “This is bad. This is very, very bad,” he said.

  “How bad?”

  “Let’s just break into the computers first and contemplate our doom later, mi amor.”

  Gail stifled her tears as she saw the doctor lying on the cold slab. She reached over and closed his eyes, taking long, slow breaths. “Who could have—?”

  Her head swirled again as she saw a flicker in the shadows of the room. Gail finally screamed as she heard a thud and saw Javier land against the far counter.

  “What . . . zee fuck!” Gail heard before the nausea and dizziness overtook her.

  24

  “Have you ever found yourself in a situation so utterly ridiculous that you know, somehow, once you accept it, anything is possible?”

  “A friend of mine once said that four was the number of death, so it’s only appropriate that their kind had exactly four laws.”

  “It is a law, I am sure that you can understand. Basically, the strong ruled, and the weak suffered.”

  “Oh, there is nothing like schtupping a vampire, dearie. Why do you think your kind writes so much about it? You want to know more, neh?”

  “This is going to be fun.”

  “I remember walking into this dive bar off the highway and seeing this girl leaning against the bar, her head in the clouds and a paperback by her drink. . .”

  “This . . . is going to be fun.”

  Gail grabbed her head as she rolled on the floor. She finally curled into a ball and dared to half open one eye. She squeaked as she saw blood on the floor and a pair of equally red combat boots clomping through the puddle with impunity. A moment later, a braid of blonde hair and a chiseled, doll-like face popped into view. A tiny sanguine dribble trailed from her unnatural pout.

  Gail tried to scream, to cry out, but once more, only the tiniest of squeaks popped out of her lips. The strange woman smirked and showed off fangs far more impressive than Javier’s.

  “You—you—”

  “No, you!” she said in a thick German accent. “If she had told me that you were here, my little Milchbrötchen, I would have dressed for zee party!”

  Gail clamped her hands over her ears as the cacophony of voices flooded her again. She gulped for air as she kicked weakly at the strange woman.

  “You must remember me, neh?”

  “Help. . . please . . . help . . .”

  “Oh, for the love of Jesucristo, lay off the miasma!” Javier snapped from across the room. “Just let me explain, la dama Jaeger—”

  The strange blonde whipped around and strode over to Javier with runway fierceness. She plopped a boot on his hip as he lay on the ground – his eye bloodied and his hands bound by duct tape.

  “You are zhat squirrelly little sycophant of zee traitor, no? I could just leave you here for sweet Mr. Sugar and try to have you explain how a top-secret Matsuoka lab was broken into and all its contents taken.”

  “You . . .” Gail continued to whimper.

  The blonde stormed back over to Gail and yanked the poor girl to her feet. Gail trembled and tried to halfheartedly pull away from the bloodshot red irises of her attacker. The stranger cocked her head.

  “Don’t you remember me, Milchbrötchen? It’s just dear, sweet Minerva Fenstermacher von Jaeger, your own angel of mercy in zhese trying times.”

  “I don’t . . . I don’t remember.”

  “Dama Jaeger!” Javier snapped. “If you want to torture someone weaker than you, pick me.”

  “You are as foolish as your friend, fox boy.” Did he send you here for whatever goodies zee sheriff is hiding from the council?”

  “We’ve actually kinda had a falling out, if you must know. I was only here to make a little dinero, so please, let’s just put our differences aside—”

  “Excuse me, Milchbrötchen. I’ll be back.”

  Gail slipped in the blood as she tried to move away from the vampires. She finally choked out her long-awaited scream as she saw the ripped open throat of the late Dr. Iwashi. “Oh god!” she cried. “Oh my god!”

  “What? He was already dead,” Minerva said nonchalantly as she pulled Javier to his feet. She carried him, one-handed, to Dr. Iwashi’s vacant chair, and sliced his bindings just enough that he could hunt and peck type. “If you do not want to join zee good doctor, open zee back door, Fox.”

  “But I am just a janitor,” Javier said with a little laugh. He was rewarded by a fierce slap upside the head. Minerva tapped her foot. Javier’s eyes lit up. “I may have suddenly remembered a few things, Dama Jaeger.”

  “Well I’m glad that someone remembers something. You are Gail Filipovic, aren’t you, wee little Milchbrötchen?”

  “You . . . you know me?” Gail gasped.

  Minerva rolled her eyes. “Mein bruder,” she said with a deep sigh. “What are you doing up here? I was supposed to be sent someone to help, not an unpleasant memory in cheap shoes.”

  “Help?”

  “Oh, mein bruder knocked zee stupid into you, too, didn’t he? Such a shame, such a woeful shame.”

  Gail balled her hands into fists and continued to stare in horror at the corpse. She gave a pleading stare to Javier who sat stiffly in the dead man’s chair, his bruised fingers struggling with the keyboard. Finally, he snarled and banged the table.

  “Damn it to hell!” he snapped. “I am good, but I am not good enough to break into this system with these tools. That door is sealed with two-factor identification and requires biometrics. I cannot short it either, as it has a contamination safety protocol built in the event of a power outage.”

  Minerva let out an even more ridiculous sigh and grabbed the corpse of Dr. Iwashi. She dragged him behind her like a gruesome security blanket before plopping his hand on a little panel by the back door of the lab.

  “This always works in zee movies,” she said with a pout as the door stayed shut. She then placed her own hand on the scanner, but the little lines couldn’t seem to recognize an object on the plate. “Scheisse!”

  “It’s a Matsuoka facility.” Javier sighed. “Humano only, Dama Jaeger.”

  “This one is human,” Minerva snapped.

  “Only a handful of personnel are allowed back there,” Javier muttered. “And the ‘Employee of the Month,’madre de díos?”

  Minerva turned her attention back to Gail. “Hey, Milchbrötchen! Was zum Teufel? I mean, who is zee employee of zee month?”

  Gail remained motionless, staring at the streaks on the floor. Minerva approached and gave a quick glance between the body and Gail’s ghastly pale face.

  “Milchbrötchen, you are upset. Why?”

  “How can you even ask that?” Gail said, staring at the drop of blood that plopped from Minerva’s chin to the floor at that very moment. “You killed him!”

  “No, the fact that he cheated on zee family that paid him killed him. If he played by the rules, he would still be alive and sleeping like zee other one. Do you really care so much about this deaf lump of flesh? Do you honestly think he gave the slightest consideration to you, wee Milchbrötchen?”

  “You are a monster,” Gail squeaked out.

  “Danke,” Minerva said sweetly. “Do you know who can open zee door?”

  Javier gave her another pleading look. Gail pushed past Minerva and slapped her own palm on the reader. The lines scanned her hand and a little password prompt flashed on the screen. Gail punched in a series of numbers until the panel gave a little beep. A second later, the door slid open.

  “Now I see why she sent you. Good work, Milchbrötchen,” Minerva said as she darted through the door. Javier stumbled after her and gave Gail a quizzical look.

  “Dr. Nakano told me to remember that I was always “her favorite,” so I typed that in,” Gail said softly as she, too, slipped into the airlock. Once the first door closed, the inner one opened. “I don’t remember ever getting set up for this, but I guess I don’t remember a lot.”

  “Just stay strong, mi amor. Stay strong and we will get out of here.”

  Their touching moment was interrupted by tittering laughter. Minerva looked at Javier, then Gail, then Javier again and sniffed the air disdainfully. “You?” she asked with a snort. “You are pumping her . . . for information, neh? You have been around zee Pendragon too long and have picked up their tastes, Poorblood.”

  Gail stopped shaking with fear and shook her fist in anger. “Mind your own business, you Teutonic twat!” she blurted out. Javier bleached completely white as the Jaeger stared at the couple.

  “Milchbrötchen!” she squealed. “I am starting to like you. Are you sure that you don’t remember me just a wee bit?”

  Gail let out all her breath at once. “All I think of when I see you are blow jobs and kittens and I don’t know why, but it can’t be good!” she exclaimed.

  “I hope those aren’t mixed together,” Javier muttered.

  Minerva simply smiled. She waved her hand to the steel cabinets that lined the walls of this room and the computers around a single exam table in the middle.

  “So, little fox boy, can you do a little more magic, or is that still in your hands, Milchbrötchen?”

  “Well I can’t unlock these computers,” he said, waving his taped hands over the fingerprint scanners on every keyboard.

  “Zee Matsuoka are hiding things. I do not approve,” Minerva said while she paced. She tapped her painted nails on a few of the steel cabinets before trying to slide open one. “Vampire resistant, neh?”

  “This room is hidden behind a biohazard airlock, but why no suits?” Gail asked. She touched the first cabinet. The panel slid away smoothly and silently to reveal a set of hazmat suits on a rack.

  “You were saying?” Minerva asked.

  Gail studied the plastic. This particular suit had a label of “For Human Use Only.” She traced the tubing to a set of tanks on the back. Another red plastic suit read, “For Inhuman Use Only”.

  “Inhuman, neh?” Minerva said as she, too, examined the outfits. “This is Lung technology.”

  Minerva flexed the plastic of a sleeve and marveled at its strange sheen and metallic inlay. The gloves appeared to be of some sort of titanium weave. She slid her hand into one glove and jumped as ripples of current zipped up her arm.

  “Lung?” Gail asked.

  Javier examined it, too, his eyes wide as saucers. He gave a quick side glance to Minerva before sliding his bindings along the cabinet edge a few times.

  “The Lung believe in science and technology above all else,” he explained. “It’s said that they have scanners and gloves that let vampires use all of the modern technology that humankind so thoughtfully made to thwart us, but those goodies tend to stay in the far east rather than in Texas, no? Why would the sheriff of all people have contraband? It’s not like the treaty is that old.”

  “This is a Matsuoka facility, no? They will deal with anyone who pays enough,” Minerva spat. She slid a phone out of her pocket and frowned at the time. “Come on, Fox boy, see what you can do.”

  Javier tapped at one of the machines, but nothing happened. Only the fingerprint station lit up while the keys remained darkened and unresponsive. He gave a little nod to Gail before stepping aside. She pressed her fingertip to the sensor and everything lit up.

  “Welcome back, Miss Filipovic,” the screen read as the cursor changed to a little spinning wheel.

  “There is no bloody service here,” Minerva complained. “I am not sure how long zee good doctor can keep the security teams distracted. So, please, let’s get zee party started.”

  Gail looked over her shoulder. “Why? Why should I help you? You’ve already killed Dr. Iwashi—”

  Minerva puffed out her lower lip and sighed, then finished off with an eye roll. “I give you my word that I will not kill you today, as long as you help me. That is as good as you will get. Take it or get out of my way, Milchbrötchen.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28