Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (27 page)

***

The scream ripped through the night, a tortured wail like hell
itself
had opened up in the
main
room.

I bolted upright, breathing heavily. The room spun for a second or two before righting itself. Heart pounding, I listened harder.

Something wasn’
t right; I felt it in my bones. It was the same feeling I had when I was a little girl eyeing the dark space beneath the be
d, convinced there was a boogey
man down there.

Uneasy, I stood and warily made my way down the hall. Through the dust and the muck I could smell something else, something metallic and wonderful and –

I gasped.
Blood.

Snarls came from the living room, which only increased my bloodlust. My fists tightened, the animal inside me itching for a good fight as I stalked down the hall.

A sh
adowy figure was hulked near a pile of sheets on the floor
. And lying there beneath its taloned grip was Leo, covered in blood.

CHAPTER
16

My mouth dropped open in shock. Any bloodlust I felt had dried up the moment I laid eyes on my moaning friend
, the agony
on his face
making my skin prickle with rage
.

“Get away from him,
”
I snarled.

The shadow whirled; blood dripped from its mouth onto the floor. The creature’s glowing crimson eyes studied me as it sniffed the air through two slits in the front of its skeletal face. It h
ad the overall shape of a human
but with elongated features, like someone had tied a rope around its arms and legs and stretched them out of proportion.

I immediately tensed.
What is a Rogue doing in here?

My eyes narrowed as it
hissed
at me, taking a step forward. Its clawed feet scraped the cement floor as it walked.

Slowly and never removing my eyes from it, I sidestepped into the
main
room, toward Leo. The wild vampire growled low in its throat, its massive canines slick with my best friend’s blood.

As I sized
up my opponent, my frown deepened. It was wearing clothes, or at least, that’s what I took the tattered rags around its oversized, emaciated
form to be.
My eyes roved over the shredded jacket and jeans in growing confusion; they had been ripped apart at the seams.

In a very human-like gesture, the Rogue reached up and rubbed its arm.

I remembered watching Leo’s father d
o the exact same thing earlier.
I gasped, not wanting to believe what my gut was screaming at me. “Dr. Rinaldi?”

The Rogue froze, blinking forcefully. When it opened its eyes, they were no longer the color of blood.

They were deep brown.

The monster’s gaze whipped over in Leo’s direction, its slitted nostrils flaring as its breath picked up. “Leeeeeooooooo
naaaarrrddddooooo
?” it rasped.

It was the eeriest thing I had ever heard, like
hearing a ghost’s voice caught on tape in those
ghost hunter
TV shows.

Sud
denly
it reared back, gripping its head with a
n
eardrum-shattering screech.

I ran to Leo as the Rogue clawed at its head, slamming into the wall
and wailing
as it stumbled around.

“Leo, wake up.” I shook his shoulder. It felt like I’d swallowed a brick. There was so much blood everywhere; on his shirt, the
sheets
, the floor.

Please, please don’t be dead.

“Slo… ane,” Leo mumbled, his eyelids fluttering open.

I heaved a sigh. “Thank God, Leo. I
thought
you were…”

The words failed me, and Leo reached up to cup my cheek. We sat there for a few seconds, gazing into each other’s eyes, when a shadow move
d from the corner of my vision.
I stood abruptly, positioning myself between Leo and the Rogue.

I blinked. Dr
. Rinaldi stood before me, half
naked and shivering. His eyes were wild with fear. I searched his form for any trace of the Rogue but could find none, save for the purpling skin along his arm.

I narrowed my eyes, my upper lip rolling up in
a warning sneer. “What really
happened that night in the lab?”

Behin
d me,
Leo sat up, wincing as he did. I glanced back for only a second to make sure he was okay. He stared at his father, fear in his eyes.

Dr. Rinaldi looked between us, shaking his head slightly. “It was never supposed to happen this way,” he muttered, his gaze ducking to the floor.

He repeated it over and over again, and Leo and I glanced at each other. Discreetly, I gestured with my eyes toward the door, and Leo nodded, imperceptibly.

As Leo rose and slowly made his way toward the door, I spoke up. “You’re rambling like a madman, Doctor. Please, tell me what happened to you. Maybe I can help.”

He looked up at me with tear-filled eyes, and a part of my heart went out to him. “Nobody can save me, not now,” he rasped. “I am damned.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see Leo inching toward the door. As Dr. Rinaldi’s eyes started to turn upward, I
said, “Dr. Rinaldi.”

His gaze flicked back to me, and my shoulders eased slightly.

Hurry, Leo.

Keeping my eyes locked with Dr. Rinaldi’s, I slowly walked forward. My mind worked through snippets of information from my memories, piecing the story together. “You said you were working on a serum that would give humans vampiric abilities,” I said, stopping to look up at him. It was hard to make myself say those next words. “Did someone experiment on you?”

H
e shook his head
, looking very sad
. I could hear his teeth rattling, and his skin was shiny with sweat. “The hunter did it,” he said quickly, grasping me by my shoulders. “The
syringe
was lying
on the floor where we scuffled. After h
e knocked me down,
he picked it up
an
d stabbed me in the arm with it.
” His hand rubbed up and down his arm furiously as he spoke.
“I managed to free myself, but not before the venom had poisoned me.” Though he stared right at me, his gaze grew far-off, like he was looking through me. “I blacked out and when I woke up, the hunter lay on the floor in a bloody mess, ripped apart.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. My ears pricked as I heard the door open behind me. Dr. Rinaldi started to look, but I grabbed his chin and forced
his gaze back to mine
. “How did you escape?” I demanded.

“I went out the emergency exit. A few of the tenured scientists knew about it, and only a handful of us had clearance. I swiped my badge and dove in
to
the exit
as the labs went up in flames.

“I knew where the bunkers were; as some of the government’s most brilliant minds, they made sure we knew where to go should they need to ‘preserve our intelligence.’” He chuckled darkly. “Perhaps it was just as well that workshop of horrors turned to ash.”

The last word cut off abruptly as his eyes widened and he doubled over, clutching at his stomach.

I started to reach for him. “Dr. Rinaldi?”

“No!” he snarled, pushing me back. “Stay away!”

I stared at his hand; his fingernails had lengthened into black claws. Heart pounding, I shot an unsure glance back at Leo, who hovered in the doorway. All the color drained from his face as he watched his father with horror in his eyes.

I turned back to Leo’s father. “Dr. Rinaldi, let me help you.”

It was the weirdest thing; his skin was
rippling
. The orange light of the fire made it hard to tell exactly, but I swore his skin was changing color, from tan to deep purple. I could hear his bones snapping as the virus reformed him, turning him into a monster.

“There is – nothing – you can – do,” Dr. Rinaldi moaned in a deep voice. He hugged himself tighter, as if trying to keep the emerging predator at bay. “You must – go – before I – lose control – again.”

I started to protest when someone gripped my arm. Leo looked back at me with shining eyes. “Come on, Sloane,”
he said, tugging.

“But he’s your dad.”

Leo’s jaw clenched; t
he raw emotions playing out
on his face
threatened to tear my heart in two. “I don’t think so, not anymore,” he whispered.

“Son.”

We both snapped around. Dr. Rinaldi was writhing on the floor, his brown eyes – very human eyes – fixed on Leo.

“I love you,” he said, right before the brown in his eyes was replaced by demonic crimson light. He roared, his back arching as his teeth lengthened into fangs the size of knives. His muscles shrank, becoming leaner and exposing his bones, which had grown as well.

“Go!” I shouted, pushing Leo toward the door.  I stumbled on the oversized pants leg
s
, swearing as I nearly went down.
W
hat I wouldn’t give for a belt
…

Leo, clutching the bloody mess on the side of his neck, paused by the door and grabbed a pistol off the floor. He unloaded the
clip
, revealing several scarlet-colored bullets.

I blanched as I saw them, but my fears were quickly trumped by a surge of pure terror as a familiar
tongue-clucking
sound filled the room. I looked straight up.

The Rogue was clutching the ceiling, staring back at me with a mouthful of fangs. It hissed, and I darted past Leo as he aimed and cocked the pistol. With a desperate roar, the Rogue leapt off the ceiling, shredding the metal with its claws as it pounced for Leo. The gunshot rang out, and I wh
irled around as the Rogue screeched
, falling to the floor with a smoldering hole in its shoulder.

“Run!” Leo shouted, and we both took off down the tunnel.

Cold air slapped me in the face as our feet pounded the metal and cement walkways.
Dim yellow bulbs flickered weakly, barely lighting the
path
.

“Do you know the way out?” I shouted at Leo.

“No!” he shouted back breathlessly. “But I have an idea.”
He took the hand he used to cup his neck and ran his bloodied fingers along the tunnel wall, smearing it with red streaks.

“That’s brilliant, Leo,” I breathed.

He rounded a corner, nearly slamming into me as we both fought for some traction on the ice. Grabbing hold of me, he pulled me along down the tunnel before tugging me to a stop. “Wait here,” he said before taking off the way we had come.

I started to ask what he was doing, and I swore my heart nearly stopped beating as he disappeared ar
ound the corner. A moment later,
he returned. “
I smeared my blood on the wall.
Get down, over there in the shadows,” he said, pointing.

We
both flattened ourselves against the wall as vibrations rang through the floor, sending slivers of
terror
up through my legs
and into my chest
.

Trying to stifle my breathing, I glanced to the side and my eyes widened.

“Leo,” I hissed
and he turned.

When his eyes rounded, I knew he saw it too.

A ladder, all but hidden by the shadows, stood several feet away, at the end of the tunnel.

I considered making a run for it, but something large and snarling hurtled pa
st the other end of the tunnel. M
y gaze snapped back around.
Neither of us moved as the Rogue stalked past the end of the tunnel, sniffing the air and follow
ing Leo’s fake trail. From here,
I could smell the scent of burnt flesh and the acidic rot of the bullet as it ate away at the monster’s insides. My stomach turned, and I caught my bottom lip between my teeth to try to muffle my breathing. When Leo took my hand and squeezed, I squeezed back.

The Rogue vanished, growling in confusion, and my shoulders marginally relaxed. The ladder loomed like an escape route to the forbidden Promised Land from the corner of my vision.

When I slowly rose and
took one step
,
the Rogue reappeared, roaring. Spit flew from its mouth as it charged, and Leo screamed, “Go, go!”

We fled down the tunnel, our feet pounding the concrete for all we were worth. Track had never been my strong suit, but after spending the past several months running for my life, I could probably give my high school’s track stars a run for their money.