WastelandRogue (23 page)

Rye lifted the tube and held it under Sevrin’s nose.

“That smells like—” Sevrin turned toward his brother. “Since
when would allium be used as a medication for a
lamian
?”

“Allium?” Zandt’s puzzled expression showed he wasn’t aware.

“I’ll give her blood.” Sevrin took off his coat, willing to
do anything to help Rye’s sister.

“No.” Rye grabbed his arm. “You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You heal slower than I do and you were in the field of
allium a long time. You’ll have residual traces of it.” They both knew that
while he healed slowly, he’d be healed by now.

“It can’t hurt her. Not after she’s been hooked up to the
stuff for who knows how long,” Sevrin argued, confused why she’d not let him
give blood.

“No,” she said insistently, turning to Zandt.

“I’ll give her mine.” Zandt nodded to him and took off his
lab coat.

Sevrin watched Rye at her sister’s side, holding her hand,
stroking her face. Then a thought hit him. He and Rye had a connection—a
bonding he’d not ever known before. Was she worried his feelings might lessen
for her? Was there a possibility to bond with another female or more than one
lamian
?

He put his arm around her waist and hugged her to his side.
“She’ll be all right. Zandt knows what he’s doing.”

She gave him a misty-eyed glance. “She’s pregnant, Sevrin.
How can she ever be all right after being raped?”

“We don’t know that’s how she got pregnant.”

“She’s not interacted with a
lamian
for at least six
to eight months since I last saw her. Who would she have been with while a
captive of Hamner?”

“I don’t have any answers, Rye. Maybe Hamner sold her,
traded her or some
lamian
saved her. It’s not as if we waited a very
long time to be intimate. She could have met someone.”

He pulled her close and kissed her temple. “I promise Zandt
will do everything possible to bring her out of it.”

“He better.”

“Blaming Zandt isn’t going to help. It’s not his fault she’s
like this, Rye.”

“I know.” She turned her face against his shoulder. “She
just has to be all right.”

“And she will be.” Sevrin lifted his other arm around Rye
and hugged her tight. “We found her alive and we’ll keep her that way.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you at times,” she said quietly.

“You didn’t know something was wrong with you.”

She turned her head and looked at him with her watery blue
eyes. “But I did know. Not right away. It took me a while to figure out it was
dehydration. My sister suffered from it a couple times when she was a child. I
thought I had a handle on it.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s behind us.”

“I hate this waiting.” She wrung her hands together
nervously.

“I know.” He kept his arm around her shoulders and watched
his brother hook up wires and tubes to different apparatuses—machinery he knew
nothing about. “Zandt, how long do you think this will take to wake her and the
others?”

“I don’t know. If she’d been on allium for even a few days,
she’d be deep into a coma or dead. They had to be giving her something else to
keep her and the baby from dying.” His brother made a fist, flexed his fingers
and made a fist again. Then he jabbed a needle into his forearm attached to
clear tubing he had already inserted into a vein in Shay’s arm. Immediately,
blood flowed. Zandt flipped a switch on one of the pumping contraptions. It
pulled the blood quickly from him and pushed it into Shay.

“You can’t do that for all of them,” Sevrin told him.

“I know.” Zandt looked up at Rye. “I’m not sure I can even
give your sister enough.”

“It’ll be enough. It has to be.” She stroked Shay’s hair,
worry lines etched in her face.

Sevrin returned to the door and paced back and forth. While
Rye’s thoughts hung on her sister’s recovery, his stayed on their situation.

“Where are the people who work here?” He rubbed the back of
his neck. “Doesn’t anyone check on these people?”

He didn’t like the strangeness of the circumstances. The
sooner they left, the safer he’d feel.

Rye glanced toward the doorway. She saw Sevrin pacing the
hallway outside the glass room. Her heart swelled with love watching him stand
ready to protect her—to guard them all. Nothing had changed from what she had
felt that first day with him. Handsome and brave, strong and caring, he was
everything she had dreamed a man should be—everything and more.

A crash of a metal tray pulled her attention back to Zandt.
Color had drained from his face and his stance was unstable. As she rushed to
help him, a soft moan from her sister stopped her.

“Shay?”

Zandt fell into her. Rye grabbed him. “Thank you. I should
never have…It was wrong of me to threaten—”

“You were scared for your sister. Now turn off the machine,”
he instructed.

She flipped the switch.

“Now remove—” He sagged against the table.

Rye jerked the needle from his arm. The blood flow reversed,
siphoning from Shay and onto the floor.

Zandt yanked the tube from Shay’s arm. He slapped his hand
over the puncture in her skin.

“Sevrin,” Rye called for help.

“Get a bandage on her so she doesn’t lose any more blood,”
Zandt instructed.

Rye lifted his hand and examined Shay’s arm. “The skin has
sealed already. It’ll heal from the inside.”

“Sit,” Sevrin told his brother.

Zandt staggered back and sat in a chair Sevrin dragged over.

Rye studied Shay’s coloring and her breathing and looked for
indications she was waking. “Shay, can you hear me?” She patted Shay’s cheek.
“Open your eyes, it’s Rye.”

“Rye? Rye, is it really you?”

“Yes, Shay, it’s me. Everything’s going to be all right.”
She laughed, giddy with happiness.

“I feel so strange.” Shay’s lashes fluttered. “Almost like
I’ve drunk—”

Rye watched her sister’s eyes open. “Dr. Renault infused his
blood straight into your veins.”

Shay looked past her at Zandt and Sevrin. She blinked
several times, obviously trying to focus through the dark-red haze of her eyes.
“He’s human and he helped me?”

Rye bent down close to her, guessing what Shay wanted to
know about her sexual urges. “He’s a half-breed like us,” Rye whispered. “He’s
the one on the right sitting in the chair.”

Rye remembered the overwhelming need for Sevrin’s blood as
well as his attention. Shay would naturally experience the same bloodlust.

Shay tried sitting up. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Just rest.” Rye pushed her back.

“Why the hell is my belly so swollen? Rye, I’m not…Oh, my
stars, I’m pregnant. How the hell did this happen?” Shay struggled to sit
again.

“You don’t know?” Rye had hoped Shay had a pleasant reason
for her condition.

“I don’t remember anything since that slimy human, Hamner grabbed
me in that shack.” Her attention turned to the men again.

With the expected lust-induced strength gained from an
infusion of even half-human blood, Shay shoved Rye away.

“He’s a scientist?” Shay shrieked. “He’s one of the men that
injected me with allium when I was brought here.”

Rye spun around and faced the men she thought she could
trust—the men she thought were helping them. “Are you sure it was Dr. Renault?”

“Yes—no. I don’t know. I can’t see anything but a haze.”

Dr. Renault slowly rose from the chair and came forward.
“Your eyes?”

Sevrin took his brother’s arm, holding him up. “How about
you sit back down until you regain your strength. Rye can explain their
changing eye color later.”

Dr. Renault appeared distracted. He displayed the curiousness
of a scientist. Rye remembered that little bit about her mother, that need to
know why things happened, even if it was why the sunlight faded dark clothing
hung out to dry.

“Fine, fall down for being impatient,” Sevrin said to his
brother as he walked away. “I’ll go check the hall again.”

“Is it from the blood?” Dr. Renault asked, moving toward
Shay.

Shay swung her legs over the side of the table and slid off.
She beamed with a well-pleased smile that bespoke her interest in pursuing her
desires for the man who’d given her blood. “Yes,” Shay answered, extending her
hand to him.

“The strange darkness is fading.” He took hold of her
fingers and turned her hand over. “Are there any other changes?”

Rye wondered why Dr. Renault was as clueless about
lamian
characteristics as Sevrin was. How did two intelligent men not know the details
of their species? Disturbed by the signs of sexual desire that had overcome her
sister’s senses since the blood infusion, Rye grabbed her sister. “Shay!”

“What is it?” Shay turned an angry glare on her.

“Is he one of the men who brought you here?” Rye demanded,
concerned Sevrin’s brother might not be as kind as perceived.

“No, but he’s dressed like them.” Shay shrugged, showing her
confusion.

Both she and Shay caught Dr. Renault as his knees gave out
and he fell forward. When her sister nudged her aside, Rye gave up trying to
assist. Satisfied that Sevrin’s brother wasn’t any harm to them, she left him
leaning on the steel gurney and Shay for support.

“I’ll go see what Sevrin is doing,” Rye announced, doubting
they heard her or cared.

“I still haven’t seen signs of anyone coming down here,”
Sevrin said as she joined him in the corridor.

“Good, because your brother doesn’t have enough strength to
stand, let alone walk right now. How long does it take him to heal? As long as
it takes you?”

“Pretty much.” Sevrin looked through the glass wall, clearly
checking on his brother. “Or maybe not as long as I thought.”

Rye looked too. Blood dripped down Shay’s arm and Dr.
Renault licked it away. “I should have stayed with her. Now is not the time for
your brother to experiment with my sister’s healing abilities. She’s been in a
coma for who knows how long. If anything she should be resting.”

“Or maybe she’s stronger than you think. I know the look in
your sister’s eye.”

“Speaking of which, why doesn’t he know more about
lamians
?
As a doctor, scientist, a half-breed himself, I would think he’d have a lot
more knowledge about our species.”

“I can’t explain what he doesn’t know. I told you we didn’t
grow up within a
lamian
culture. No one spoke of it much in my family,
unless it was to explain what was going on with us when it occurred, such as
our capability for healing.”

“That doesn’t account for your brother not learning more,
especially in this place.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Rye.”

“That you trust him. That he’s not playing you for a fool
and me for a complete idiot.”

“He’s my brother.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not evil.” She let out an
exasperated breath.

Sevrin clutched her upper arm and turned her toward the
glass again. “Look at him. Does he appear to be anything other than a curious
man, captivated by your sister?”

“That fascination is a result of drinking her blood. He
can’t help the sexual draw to her. The effects will wear off.”

“They didn’t for me.” He pulled her around and cupped his
hand under her chin. “I trust Zandt. He’s not part of any conspiracy against
lamians
.
All right?”

Rye nodded and heaved a sigh. For now, she’d give Sevrin
relief from thinking she distrusted his brother. However, she’d withhold
judgment on Dr. Renault’s character until he proved without a doubt to be on
her side.

Glancing back at her sister and Dr. Renault, Rye watched
Shay flip her hair over her shoulder in a flirtatious manner, lust sparkling in
her eyes. “We don’t have time for them to…you know,” she said to Sevrin.

“You’re right.” Sevrin marched over to his brother and
pulled him back from stroking Shay’s cheek. “We have to get out of here.”

“He’s a bit of a killjoy,” Shay complained to Rye.

“Shay, we’re in serious trouble right now. Not to mention
you are pregnant.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“You can’t ignore it. You look ready to drop a baby any
time.”

“Then I’d better stick with the doc, huh?” Shay waved Rye
off and walked toward Dr. Renault.

Rye couldn’t believe how uninterested her sister seemed to
be in the pregnancy or what happened to her to get her that way. But then, Shay
was always more a free spirit, not letting things she couldn’t change bother
her.

“We have to get going,” Sevrin repeated. “Security will
eventually catch up to us.”

“What about the others?” Rye reminded him of the two
comatose male
lamians
still lying on tables. “We can’t leave them.”

He scratched his head. “We can’t give blood to all of them.”

“Then we wait until someone comes that we can force to do
it,” Rye suggested.

“We don’t know how many will show up at once,” he replied.

“Won’t be many, maybe only one or two.” Dr. Renault joined
them.

“This place should be destroyed,” Rye said, knowing that the
men in charge of whatever they were experimenting with would go out and bring
in a new batch of
lamians
.

“About that. There’s something I haven’t told you,” Zandt
said.

“What?” Rye and Sevrin asked in unison.

“Most of the developments I work on in the lab are alternate
renewable resources for fuel, food, whatever we need to rejuvenate the planet’s
life force.”

“That sounds like human-based problems, doesn’t it, Rye?”
Sevrin gave her a look that said,
“There is your answer as to why Zandt
doesn’t know much about
lamians
from his work.”

“But some departments are experimenting with toxins,” Dr.
Renault continued. “They say to be prepared to defend our better way of life in
the future.”

“That’s how the world fell to ruins hundreds of years ago,”
Shay interjected. “No one is brainless enough to want to think wars are good.”

“The Wickstrom Group has a focalized eye on opportunities
they create and control,” Dr. Renault explained.

“They want to rule the world, don’t they?” Rye bluntly
questioned.

“Yes,” he answered, looking to Sevrin. “There are quite a
few of us here who were concerned about where all that work was leading. I
hadn’t any idea it had gone as far as using
lamians
for testing. By
midday, everyone is to be out of the building for a routine sterilization. No
one can be in the building when the sprayers come on. The stuff that disinfects
the labs can also kill us.”

“How often does that happen?” Sevrin asked.

“Every cycle of the moon.”

“And the
lamians
? Shay has been missing for over six
months. What effect does that chemical have on
lamians
?” Rye’s gaze
swept over the comatose patients.

“I don’t know. Maybe they take them out of the building or—”

“Or what?” Rye stepped toward Dr. Renault, determined to get
answers.

“Or they’re being exposed. With the way the
lamian
cells regenerate, it’s possible they’ve been surviving the process. I’m just
glad I learned what was going on down here today.”

“Why? What’s different about today?” Sevrin asked.

“We had put in measures to neutralize this facility…”

Dr. Renault’s hesitation gave Rye another one of her eerie
chills. “When?”

“I was on my way to set the timer to the explosives when I
was told about you being here.”

Overwhelming relief settled into Rye. Dr. Renault had found
the perfect way to win her trust.

“Well then, before we leave, I guess we’ll be setting that
timer,” Sevrin said.

“What about the
lamians
in comas?” Rye glanced at the
men on the other two gurneys.

“If we have to, we’ll carry them out of here. Zandt, can you
activate that detonator and get back here in time to get us out?” Sevrin asked.

“No, and I also can’t do it alone. With the alarms we set
off, I don’t think I’ll find anyone associated with the plan waiting around,
either.”

“Then we’ll both go,” Sevrin said. “Rye can stay here with
her sister and the others.”

“They can’t handle the guards alone,” Dr. Renault insisted.

“I’ll go,” Shay announced. “I’m strong enough to do whatever
you need me to do.”

“Probably stronger than me right now.” Dr. Renault gave her
a smile.

Rye took her sister’s hand and jerked her around to get her
attention. “You can’t go, Shay. You’re—”

“I’m feeling quite well, thank you very much. I’m in control
of my senses and as for this,” she rubbed a hand over her bulging belly, “I’m
not letting this get in my way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, I can walk better than I can help carry one of them.”
She jerked her head toward the comatose
lamians
.

“Be careful.” Rye squeezed her sister’s hand and let go.

“Someone’s coming.” Sevrin grabbed Rye and motioned everyone
back.

Rye, Sevrin and Dr. Renault hid behind a row of gray metal
cabinets. Shay climbed back on the steel table and lay down. Two men in white
lab coats entered, oblivious to their surroundings. Dr. Renault grabbed one and
Sevrin the other.

“Hey, what are you doing?” the man Dr. Renault held asked.

“You two are going to help wake up the two male
lamians
from their coma,” Sevrin said, dragging the one toward the closest table.

Shay jumped from her spot and hurried to help Dr. Renault.
Rye assisted Sevrin. She had seen the procedure. Following every detail as she
remembered, she hooked up the scientist to the
lamian
and started the
blood transfer.

“Why do you have these people here?” Rye demanded.

Neither man answered.

“Tell her why or we’ll leave you tied up in here when we
leave.” Dr. Renault’s threat didn’t sink in until he added, “It’s sterilization
day.”

“You can’t leave us here. Dr. Creswell is running tests to
develop a pesticide that will kill
lamians
and only
lamians
. He
wants the breed exterminated.”