Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (7 page)

He ran a hand over his dirty blond hair, making it stick up in every direction. His blue eyes hardened as he nodded. “I’m in.”

“I’m the boss. You will do what I say. When I say it.” I spoke evenly, putting only the slightest bit of pressure behind my words.

“Fine. But we’ll get to kill them?”

“Yes.”

He held out his hand to me. “I’d sell my soul to the devil to find the monster who did this. To make him pay.”

I gripped his hand. “Well, Calvin, you may have done just that.”

I blinked, looking for Rachel. “Ivan will catch up—”

Over Rachel’s right shoulder at the far end of the subway car stood an impossible sight. Tall, dirty blond hair, blue eyes, one eyebrow raised as he shook his head. It was as if he’d stepped out of my memory. “Calvin?”

Rachel spun around, but I was already moving. I pushed past her and bolted to the end of the car. People, there were too many damn people, no matter how hard I shoved them. Less than ten seconds passed and I was standing where I’d seen him. The space was empty. I rubbed a hand over my face. Was I seeing things?

“What the hell? Did you say
Calvin
?” Rachel caught up to me.

I nodded. “Maybe. Fucked if I know.”

“There isn’t a person over fifty on this car, Lea,” Rachel pointed out, her hands on her hips.

I drew in a breath, scenting the air on the back of my tongue. There was nothing that smelled like Calvin. Just a subway car full of poorly washed bodies. “No, he looked like he did...when he was younger.”

“Not possible.”

I let out a breath. “I know we left him behind, Rachel. Yes, he was dead. Yes, the facility blew up. But—”

“Lea. Even you know it isn’t possible. Not this time.” Her voice softened enough that I knew she understood. I wanted Calvin not to be dead. I wanted to know my old friend was still alive and out there somewhere.

The subway car slowed to a stop and the light over the door blinked. I didn’t look where we were getting off, just stepped onto the platform and started out of the tunnel. Rachel jogged to catch up. “Hey. It’s normal to see people you care about after they’re dead. I went through it with my buddies in Iraq. Three of them, actually.”

I said nothing simply because I wasn’t sure how I felt. The only way Calvin could be alive was as a vampire. That was the only answer.

And I didn’t want that for him. I’d stake him myself before I let this world make him the thing he hated most.

Without having to say anything, we both knew the suits would come for us at one of the subway line’s drop-off points. It would be nice for things to work out like they did in the movies, but we weren’t stupid. This wouldn’t be a clean getaway.

We moved with serious speed. At the top of the stairs, I tugged my cowl tighter around my face, more out of habit than anything else, since the street was swathed with shadows from the nearly set sun, and did a visual sweep of the area. So far, so good. The apartment building across the street caught my eye. “We need to get to higher ground so we can see them coming.”

“Agreed.” Rachel pointed. “That apartment building work?”

Again, she showed just how much she trumped Calvin as a helper. I tapped her on the arm. “Keep close,” and we were off, sliding through the grid of cars that might as well have been a parking lot rather than a street. As I scanned the area, a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a long time pressed in around me.

Being hunted was a shitty sensation. I much preferred to be the hunter.

I led the way around the side of the building. A fire escape ladder hung a good twenty feet in the air in a dark narrow alley.

“You can reach that, right?” Rachel asked me, like it was no problem.

“Who do you think I am? The Jolly Green Giant in disguise?” I grinned, though, and ran at the wall. I leapt straight up as I reached the building, scrabbling with my hands and boots to propel me the last few feet. Dangling from the ladder, I jerked my body and the mechanism let loose and dropped to the ground with a grinding screech.

Rachel winced. “I hope none of those fucking dog things are around to hear that.”

“Other things make noise besides us, Rach.”

She lifted both hands as she put a foot on the ladder. “Really? I’m beginning to think they could hear us fart if we let one rip.”

The laugh that burst out of me caught me by surprise. And apparently Rachel too, because she stared at me like I’d sprouted a second head.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s good. Just...shocked the shit out of me.”

My lips twitched. “Please don’t go there.”

She grinned and started up the stairs. I followed, then pulled the ladder up from the first landing. A single screech, and it was locked back in place. We were at the third floor before we found an unlocked window.

Sliding through, it was easy to see why.

“Rich people always think nothing bad is going to happen to them. Like their money somehow protects them.” Rachel ran a hand through the silk curtains. The place was solid white: floors, ceilings, walls, artwork, curtains, and furniture.

Perhaps it was a bad sign that my first thought was we were probably going to get blood on everything and the cleaning bill was going to be a real bitch.

The thought of blood made my throat tighten. “I need to feed soon after all that exposure to the sun. So let’s hash this shit out.”

Rachel nodded as she moved to the wet bar across the room and poured herself a big glass of water. She downed it, then pulled out a half full bottle of something else. Whiskey aged in oak barrels, judging by the smell.

“Not a word. I need it after the day I’ve had,” she said as she tipped a generous amount into her glass with the last of her water.

I drew the scent in and let it coat my saliva glands. What I wouldn’t give for the burn of a shot of whiskey. Unfortunately, my taste buds wouldn’t pick up the nuances and the alcohol would make me sick.

I moved around the side of the brilliantly white leather couch and sat, leaning into the overstuffed cushions.

“Something bad is coming.” I rubbed a hand across the back of my neck as if to scrub away the sensation of being hunted.

“No shit—” Rachel paused and stared at me over the rim of her glass, “—Sherlock.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’ve pissed off enough people; there’s no way to know what direction the blow will come from. Men in suits today. Vampires tonight. Demon dogs in the morning. Something new by mid-afternoon.”

“You don’t know that.” She put her glass down.

“Just a guess. Who contacted you after the report?”

Her eyes flickered down to her glass and back up. “A creepy-ass scientist. I’m meeting him tonight.”

I raised both eyebrows. “Really? Let me guess, midnight?”

She grunted. “Not real subtle, is it?”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “No. You feel okay about going on your own?”

“Why? What are you going to do?”

The slightest shuffle of cloth at the window had me on my feet and spinning toward it. Ivan grinned at me, already half in through the opening.

“Never going to sneak up on you, am I?”

“How the hell did we not hear the ladder?” Rachel snapped. “Seriously, did you fly your ass in here?”

He grinned at her, but his charm didn’t work on Rachel. She glared back. He let out a sigh. “I jumped. Those ladders are always squeaky.”

Rachel flicked her eyes my way, as if to confirm it was, indeed, possible for him to do that. I gave her the barest of nods.

“Fuck. I’m surrounded by X-Men.” She slugged back her whiskey.

“Is she always this touchy?” He looked at her, then back to me.

Time to lay the ground rules. “You’re going to keep following me, aren’t you?”

“You don’t know it yet—” he stepped through the window and leaned against the frame, “—but you’re going to need me. This goes deeper than vampires, Lea. And to answer you, yes. I’m going to keep following you. Besides, the view is nice.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Rachel moved out from behind the wet bar.

“It means I’d like to get to know her on a more personal basis. She has a nice ass.” He winked at me and Rachel threw her glass at him. He ducked and came up with a frown etched on his mouth. There it was—the look of an enforcer.

Rachel gave him a long hard look before she said, “Why do you think we need you?”

He shook his head, and I pulled one silver stake out of the top of my boot and pointed it at him.

“Let me be crystal-fucking-clear. Rachel comes first. We get in trouble, I’m getting her out before I do anything else. You come with us, you better understand that. If she asks a question, answer it, wolf.”

Rachel’s surprise was a palpable sensation in the air, but I ignored it and kept my focus on Ivan.

His green-yellow eyes locked on mine. “You think vampires are the only ones with blood that has power? Werewolves age slowly. We don’t get sick. We heal faster than you vamps because we aren’t dead.”

“Fucking fantastic.” Rachel slapped the wall beside her with the flat of her hand. I tucked the stake back into the top of my boot.

“You going to listen to me, Ivan?” I asked.

“I’m going to help,” he countered.

That would have to be good enough.

“I’m going to hunt me up a vampire. It’ll be best to get the information straight from the horse’s mouth,” I said.

Rachel didn’t seem convinced. “That didn’t go so well last time.”

I grimaced. “Caine was an old vampire. They’re always a pain. I’ll look for someone younger.”

Her eyes met mine and I forced myself to hold her gaze. I had convinced a young vamp, Louis, to follow me back to Rachel’s now-destroyed apartment a few days ago. I’d hoped to chat him up, get some useful info. He really hadn’t been a lot of help other than to spill the beans about a vampire council I’d had no knowledge of. Rachel had asked me not to kill him. I’d promised I wouldn’t.

And then Calvin, whose vendetta against vampires had never faded, took the choice from me, killing Louis before I could stop him.

“That won’t happen again,” I said. “Calvin isn’t here. Ivan isn’t going to rip heads off unless we let him off his leash, right?”

I swung my gaze to the werewolf. He’d moved closer without me realizing it. While that should have worried me, a very small part was rather turned on. How long had it been since a man could match me for stealth, agility...stamina?

I took three quick steps back as my mind wandered to places I dared not go. “Ivan. You follow Rachel. I don’t trust the scientist she’s meeting later, and she might need backup.” I headed to the window, paused, and looked over my shoulder. “Remember where we met Sean and his buddies?”

She nodded.

“Meet there right after the meeting.”

I slipped out the window, the silk curtains billowing around me. I climbed up to the roof and then sprinted across to jump the gap to the next building. Time to find a vampire.

RACHEL

I groaned as I watched Lea jump out the window. “For the record,” I said, turning to Ivan, “I don’t need a babysitter.”