Once Upon a Twist (16 page)

Three years and he’d never said a word to her about his past. She knew his mother had died, just not how, and thought his father lived in the city. She should be angry at the amount of lies he had told. But part of Ruby knew he would have been honest with her if he could, and part of her knew the kind, caring man who made love to her so tenderly and with a hunger that defied reason would be ashamed of his father. Ashamed of himself for helping.

Although that was ridiculous. “Jeremy, you both did everything you could to help. Your father made mistakes, sure, but not intentionally.” She stroked his face and looked deep into his eyes. “Neither of you did anything most people wouldn’t do if they could.”

She’d do anything to save him.

Jeremy swallowed, and averted his gaze. She wanted to climb onto his lap, to rub away the tension straining his jaw, help him to find peace with himself and his father, but she didn’t. In the time since he’d started speaking, his face had paled further, his eyes turned a shade lighter, and her heart cracked open as cold reality dawned. She was really losing him.

Out of nowhere he smiled up at her and his eyes darkened back to their usual black. “When the son moved to the forest to hunt the wolf, he had to pretend to be a woodcutter. The government swore him to secrecy, and the son didn’t ever think that would be a problem. But the woman of his dreams skipped up the path carrying a basket of cakes for her grandma, her red cloak blowing in the wind with her red and gold curls, and the son knew he was in trouble.”

She returned his smile, unable to help herself. He squeezed her hand.

“But as the son fell deeply in love, the secrets he had to keep and lies he had to tell her cut him up inside.” He paused, looked down at their joined hands and whispered. “I thought if I could keep my emotions in check, I could keep distance between us. I’m sorry for that. I should have shown you how much I cared about you every day.”

Ruby gently tilted his chin with her free hand. “I always knew, Jer. Deep down I
knew
.”

Half his mouth tilted in a sad half-smile, and he switched back to his gloomy story. “When she left him, the son believed it was for the best, that she’d move on to a new life, even if the thought almost killed him.”

She leaned over, intent on kissing away his sorrow, but he shook his head. Her heart sank.

“The son never thought he’d see his love again, and when he did, nothing mattered more to him than her safety. He would have died countless deaths, challenged monsters, and taken on the government to tell her the truth, keep her alive and safe with him. And when the other half of him found it in herself to forgive him, the man spent the most wonderful night of his life making love to the woman who owned him, heart and soul.”

Tears streamed freely down her cheeks. “The story isn’t finished. All fairy tales have happily ever after’s.”

Jeremy raised a hand weakly to cup her cheek, used his thumb to stall her tears. “Not this one, Red. I’m sorry.”

Shaking her head, she refused to believe it. “Don’t you have access to a lab? Isn’t there something we can try? I know the new cure kills those the wolf infected, but there must be something.”

“Sweetheart, there isn’t any time. I have to end this now.”

She dropped his hand and backed up to the sink. “Don’t you dare give up on me now. I’ll end it if I need to, but don’t give up on us. Fight.”

She glared at his shuttered expression, refusing to back down.

Jeremy nodded.

***

This was wrong. He should end this now and save her the pain of having to do it, but he couldn’t deny her this. Jeremy took a mental inventory of himself. His arms and legs were too heavy, the cuts on his ankle hurt, but he still had his mind. Could still think like himself.

The change hadn’t progressed too far, but further and quicker than what had been documented previously. Perhaps it was because he shared the same DNA as his mother. After all, it was her blood they’d used to create the epidemic in the first place. It made sense it would accelerate his change. But how long did he have? A few hours, a day?

Keeping his distance from her was mandatory, just in case he snapped. “Red, go get the gun and wait in the hall. I had a secret lab installed in the house. We can access it through the coat closet. Use the panel, the code is the same as the one for the shutters. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Why do I need a gun?” she asked, though he’d thought having a secret lab might distract her from that.

“In case I go too far. In case you need to act quickly.”

Her face paled, but she nodded and left the room. He didn’t want it to come to that. He’d end it himself, but he had to show her he was willing to try. Prove that he loved her, even though he knew what happened next.

Jeremy managed to haul himself to his feet. A sharp ache shot up from his ankle but he ignored it. Tentatively, he pulled off his jacket. His arms were almost gray now. Shit, it was definitely spreading faster than normal. He quickly tied a bandage around the bite marks. If he could keep trying long enough to let her know he wasn’t going to give up, keep his mind until it was time to end it himself, then she wouldn’t feel like he’d failed her. He wanted her to go on believing in them, believing he loved her right to the end. If there was another life after this one, he’d love her in that too.

Until Red, he hadn’t believed in soul mates. Ironic that he should find his and not be allowed to spend his life with her. Then again, it was what he deserved. Creating the cause wasn’t all on his father. The man had been small minded and set in his ways. If not for Jeremy’s mixture, his father would never have been able to start the epidemic. That was all on Jeremy.

“Jer, you okay?” she asked.

“I’m coming.”

He limped through the house. She stood at the end of the hall, next to the open closet.

“You look pale, can I get you something to eat or drink?”

His stomach twisted. All his organs were probably rotting away inside him. Food or drink wouldn’t be any help. He shook his head, made his way down the hall to her. “Both hands on the gun, Red.”

Her eyebrows rose, but she grabbed the butt with both hands. He walked past her into the laboratory. After flipping on a few switches, all the surfaces illuminated. Test tubes, a fridge with both the actual cure and the cause. The rest of his equipment covered every available surface. A small table in the center was packed full with medical files, case studies, research. He hadn’t been able to figure out why the latest cure only worked on those not bitten directly from the wolf or those it created, and he realized now he probably never would.

“I can’t believe I never figured out you had all this here.” Red shook her head as she took in the room.

Guilt sucker punched him in the gut. He shouldn’t have told her. If she let the truth slip, if Parish found out, she was as good as dead.

Fuck.

His gaze dropped to the gun swinging lightly from one hand. Did she ever listen to him? “Red, keep both hands on the fucking gun.”

Her mouth fell open, but she quickly closed it and obeyed. Her eyes studied him warily and he wanted to deck himself for the way he spoke to her. But he didn’t have the energy to waste. Sliding down onto a chair at the overcrowded table, he stared at the files. Where to start? He was no further forward now than he ever had been.

“Maybe talking through what you’ve tried, dumbing it down for me, would help,” she offered.

Jeremy smiled at her, and it was no effort to put it there. Red had told him how she hated science at school, and calculus. She’d reveled in cooking, fashion design and anything to do with crafts. Ruby always told him she wanted to be a good wife one day. He had no doubt, even without all that, she would have been to him. Even with her short temper, he wouldn’t trade her in for the world, supposing he could ever be good enough for her.

He gestured to the seat across the table. “The disease lay dormant through the years, but something in my mother’s system encouraged it to mutate when she came into contact with it. What we—I—came up with mutated again inside the wolf.

“When the wolf infects another, the disease is more condensed, but its strength weakens when those bitten by the wolf then go on to contaminate others. The new cure was copied, mass produced and distributed around the globe. It doesn’t work on the wolf, or those he directly infects, but it does work on the third generation of those with the disease. My theory is that the less concentrated the disease, the easier to cure.”

Red thought about that for a second, chewing on her lip. “But so is the cure, isn’t it? Surely a replica or a dilution would make it weaker?”

He nodded. “But that doesn’t explain why it causes the first bitten to die. Their whole body turns to pulp, Red. It’s like watching acid work through them from the inside.” He winced, remembering.

“What about a weaker version of the cure?”

Jeremy shook his head and resisted the urge to plant his face into the desk. Maybe that would rattle out some answers.

“It doesn’t make any sense!” She rose, slammed the gun down on the table, and he scowled at her. She ignored him. “Why wouldn’t it work on the wolf or those he bit? What are we missing?”

“Pick up the gun.”

“Screw the gun.” Her hands flew up, sweeping the air as she spoke. “You’re the scientist, the one who knows what he’s doing. Can’t you…try…something?”

He dragged himself to his feet. Other than the fact he smelled like a five day old corpse, he was still in control. Still had his mind. Locking his jaw closed just in case, he rounded the table and pulled her into his arms. She didn’t even hesitate, and that sparked a flame of irritation. But he couldn’t pull away while she was upset.

He’d barely managed this last year living without her. If she felt even a fraction of what he did, he was leaving her broken and alone. His heart twisted at the thought. He wanted more for her, wanted her to move on and be happy.

The phone beeped, the one in the lab he kept to make contact with the government. Shit. “Red, honey, you have to stay quiet now while I take this call.”

She inhaled against his tee-shirt, probably getting a whiff of the rotten smell of his skin, and nodded.

Jeremy released her and then crossed the room to the phone. “WC4,” he answered, his code for woodcutter and the number of his region of the forest.

“Agent Parish. You didn’t call in last night, everything okay?”

Shit, he’d been hunting the wolf last night, it was how he’d found Red. They’d been expecting his call, now they’d know something was up. “Everything’s fine. I saved a civilian, lost one. Killed six of the infected. The wolf escaped.”

“Our sources tell us the wolf caught up with you today.”

Parish’s tone grated on his temper. The fucker knew. Probably had surveillance all over the forest. “It did.”

“It bit you?”

He sucked in a breath. Fuck, they probably had a team on the way over to take him in. They’d find out soon enough. “Yes. My ankle.”

“
No.
” Red’s voice was barely a whisper, but with the look of horror on her face she may as well have screamed at him for the effect it had.

“We’ll be there tonight.” The line went dead.

“How could you?” she asked when he’d hung up the phone. “They’ll kill you!”

That’s where she was wrong. He’d be a living, breathing lab rat. But they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. He had to get this over with before the sun set. “We don’t have time to argue. They’ll be here tonight.”

He sat at the table and pulled out a file, pretending to ignore the hurt in her eyes. Not that he could, it hit him like someone swung a baseball bat at his gut.

She was silent for a moment, but soon slid into the chair opposite him. “So tell me about all your experiments. Tell me what you’ve already tried.”

Jeremy drew in a huge breath, but his lungs felt gooey, damp even. It wouldn’t be long now. His whole body didn’t feel like it belonged to him. Even his heart beat was shady. He closed his eyes and rubbed the lids, when he pulled his fingers away to gaze at her, her mouth swung open.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Red gasped. “Look at your hands.”

Chapter Seven

Ruby was smack bang in the middle of her worse nightmare. Not even in all the horror movies she watched had she seen something so terrifying.

Where his fingers had rubbed his skin, it had slid right off, as easily as the film that covered cold gravy. He looked down at the black splurge covering his fingertips and his throat bobbed. When his gaze rose to meet hers, she saw a hint of gold shine through his irises along with his own terror.

She had to be strong for him. After all, she wasn’t the one rotting away to nothing. “It’s not bleeding. Ignore it, please. Tell me about your research, there might be something you missed.” Her voice was shaky, but her eyes stayed dry.

He frowned at her for a moment, and she wondered if his mind had gone now too. But he answered. As simply as he could, Jeremy explained to her all the ways he’d tried to help, all the tests, all the experiments that had gone wrong.

He believed the cure going directly into the first infected killed the disease so quickly the body didn’t have time to adjust or heal, like taking a full box of painkillers for a headache.

Red pondered that, then asked, “What if you mixed it with the original ‘cure’ that infected the wolf, tried out different quantities to see what works. Do you remember that formula?”

Avoiding her gaze, he answered, “I have a vial.”

She didn’t understand why he would be ashamed of that. Knowing Jeremy, it was probably so he could try to figure things out through science before testing on people and making them suffer. “You’re a good man, Jer.”

She reached across the table and gently placed her hand on his.

“I helped create it. If I go down in history now, it will be for the massacre I caused.”

“No, it was an accident. You were both hurt, desperate. Neither of you—”

His gaze snapped to hers, the yellow clearer. She tugged her hand back. “It was
my
formula. How do you think I was able to make it again when the government cleared my house?” Anger pulsed off him in waves, his attention darted around the room, then refocused on her. “It was
me.
This was all
me.
”