Shadow Falling (The Scorpius Syndrome #2) (6 page)

Vinnie swallowed, her mind spinning. “His ego would allow for manipulation, and he’s always going to think he’s the smartest person in the room.” A flashback of his kicking her leg while she’d been shackled to the wall rippled through her mind, and she shoved it away. “He might work with you for a while, thinking he’s in control, but at some point he’s going to want you dead. All of you.”

Jax nodded. “I know. But I was thinking we’d let him organize the military before taking him out.”

Vinnie shook her head. “You won’t have time, I don’t think. He’s coming for us as soon as it’s feasible.”

“He’ll need to regroup first,” Tace mused, his Texan accent tingeing his words. “He lost forces in the fight we waged in Vegas to rescue you, and it looked like the military wasn’t under his control quite yet.”

“Agreed,” Jax said, his gaze sharpening. “Why did Bret want you, Vinnie?”

She shrugged. “He read many of my FBI files and thought I was psychic. He wanted me to find Lynne for him.”

“Are you?” Sami asked.

“No.” Crazy maybe, but not psychic. Probably. “Definitely not.” She heard voices and thoughts that didn’t exist. “I was
just good at my job hunting serial killers, and I have, I mean
had
, great instincts.”

Raze lifted his head. “You don’t now?”

“No,” she whispered. “My brain is a mess from the drugs Bret injected me with. My instincts are all over the board.” Now she was apparently hallucinating.

Lynne tapped her fingers on her faded jeans. “It’ll take time for your brain to heal, but it will. Your instincts will return.”

“You don’t know that,” Vinnie said. It was nice of the scientist to try to reassure her, but reality was reality. Her brain had been infected with Scorpius, and nobody had a clue what a bunch of truth serum drugs would do to an altered brain like hers.

“You said there wasn’t a cure for serial killers. Is there a cure for a sociopath who hasn’t turned into a serial killer?” Tace asked, his eyes burning.

“No,” Vinnie said. “There’s never been a way to turn a sociopath into a normally functioning person. But keep in mind, we’ve never dealt with Scorpius before, or Scorpius-created sociopaths, so maybe there’s a chance we can reverse the effects. Lynne? You understand the physiology.”

Lynne tilted her head. “The changes to the brain seem permanent, though most of our information is based on behavioral observation rather than physical examination. The infection spread so quickly there wasn’t enough time to study the progression of the disease before the world went dark.”

Jax looked around at his lieutenants. “All right. So we face a threat from President Atherton and one from the remaining members of the Twenty gang.”

Vinnie paused. “Who?”

“My former gang. Before I went into the military, I was with a gang called Twenty right here in LA. President
Atherton reached out to them and they helped kidnap Lynne. During the rescue, I killed their leader.”

“And several of their members,” Tace added.

Jax nodded. “The remaining members will want retribution, so everyone stay alert on patrol.”

How was it possible they had so many enemies when there were so few people left on earth? Vinnie shook her head and replaced the marker. She’d forgotten to use it.

Jax cleared his throat. “Tace and Sami, go inner territory and scout for problems. Report back in a few hours. Blue? You still have research files to go through from the last raids, so take the afternoon, and I’ll meet you for dinner around dusk. Raze, you haven’t slept in too long. Catch some shut-eye.”

Raze pushed off from the wall. “I’m fine.”

Jax studied him for a moment. “Fine. Finish surveying the northern fence for needed repairs.” He turned his sharp focus on Vinnie. “Everyone out so I can speak with Dr. Wellington.”

Lynne stood and leaned over to peck a kiss on his forehead before following Tace and Sami out of the offices and into the vestibule of the building.

Raze didn’t move.

“Please sit,” Jax said, waiting until Vinnie had taken Lynne’s vacated chair. “Out, Raze. I won’t scare your lady.”

“I’m not a lady,” Vinnie said quickly, her knees weakening. Thank goodness she’d sat. She shook her head. “I mean, I’m not his. Definitely not his. That would be impossible so soon, don’t you think? Plus, I’ve had the infection and he—”

“Vinnie,” Raze said.

She gulped. “Sorry. Mouth goes off and I can’t stop it.”

Jax kept his focus directly on her. “No worries. Shadow? Get to work.”

Raze waited for Vinnie to nod at him. “If you scare her,
you’ll answer to me.” He turned and loped gracefully out of the room.

Jax smiled, transforming his face from deadly to charming. “He’s sweet on you.”

She pressed her lips tightly together and noticed belatedly that her hallucination had gone, too. Maybe even crazy Lucinda was afraid of Jax. Hopefully she wouldn’t appear again. “Uh-huh.” She rubbed sweaty palms on her borrowed yoga pants.

“Are you willing to work for me?” Jax asked, his gaze searching.

She nodded. “I want to work and feel needed.” More than anything, she wanted a home.

“Okay. I’d like for you to keep me updated on sociopaths and serial killers.” He sat back and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “In addition, people here need a shrink. I understand that isn’t what you did with your degree, but you can do it, right?”

“Yes,” she murmured. Maybe she could find a place for herself and be useful, despite the hallucinations.

“Good. Folks here are scared and hurt, and many have lost way too much. We lost one of our leaders a couple of weeks ago, and morale is shitty.” Jax dropped his hands to his faded jeans. “Tace set up an office for you at the back of the combat infirmary, and he put a sign-up sheet outside for folks to make appointments.”

Warmth slid through her. “All right.”

“I’m ordering my closest lieutenants to meet with you as well. Tace has been infected with Scorpius, and we didn’t have any vitamin B to make sure his brain remained intact. Watch him.”

Vinnie nodded, her mind spinning. Jax didn’t trust her, but he wanted her to spy on his people?

“Sami has secrets, and if they’re dangerous to Vanguard, you’re to tell me.” Jax’s face hardened even more.

“I can’t
break confidentiality,” Vinnie countered.

“If there’s a danger to others, you will.” Jax leaned toward her. “Raze is hiding his agenda, and if you find out what it is and it’s a threat, you also have to tell me.”

“I have a duty to report if there’s a threat to others or to a patient,” Vinnie said. Of course that was in the old days, before Scorpius. “Anybody else?”

“Yes. Watch out for a young girl named Lena. She brings gifts that are a little spooky, and she doesn’t speak. Maybe you can help her find her voice again.” Jax rubbed his whiskered chin. “There’s also a pregnant girl, about two months along, who’s sixteen. She doesn’t know that no live birth has occurred since Scorpius.”

Vinnie blinked. Panic exploded in her chest. How could that be? “Not one live birth?”

“No. It’s only been six months, so who knows? But Scorpius took care of all pregnant women, or at least their babies.” He sighed. “Lynne is working around the clock to see if vitamin B can somehow save a fetus.”

Vinnie coughed. “If not—”

“Yeah. If we can’t reproduce, then Scorpius won after all.”

A pit opened up in her stomach. “I’ll go check out my new office.” She stood and then paused. “Why did Raze think you’d scare me?” Besides the obvious fact that Jax was scarier than hell.

Jax stood and towered over her. “Because he knows if you screw me over, or if you harm one of my people, I’ll end you.” He didn’t smile. “I think Raze was afraid I’d tell you that.”

Raze shook
out his wet hair as he jogged up the headquarters steps to the living quarters. He’d taken a shower in the drizzly rain after yet another full afternoon of scouting Vanguard territory for threats, and he’d forgotten to eat dinner again. After nearly fifty hours without sleep, grit scratched his eyes and his temples thrummed with a low-grade headache.

Threadbare and stained carpet lined his way. He turned down the second-floor hallway, where ten or so metal doors, new ones installed by Jax, were set every few yards. Behind them lived the elite soldiers of Vanguard.

God, he hoped Tace wouldn’t mind him crashing on his couch for the night. Raze hadn’t seen Vinnie since her briefing, and he wanted to keep it that way.

The woman just messed with his equilibrium.

The smell of lemon competed with the scent of mold as he reached Tace’s door. Somebody must’ve tried to clean the carpet with lemon. Nice. It was a nice touch.

He lifted his hand to knock just as a cry came from within.

Pausing, he stiffened and braced to kick open the door.

Another cry.
This one high-pitched, female, and filled with pleasure. Then a male grunt. Tace.

Jesus. Ever since Tace had survived the Scorpius bacterial infection, he’d started fucking his way through all the single, willing women. Soon there wouldn’t be anybody left in Vanguard he hadn’t screwed.

Raze rubbed his aching eyes. He needed sleep, damn it. He eyed the other doors. While close proximity had forced him to befriend Tace and Jax, he’d purposely kept his distance from everyone else. He kind of knew Sami, but he didn’t feel right knocking on her door.

His shoulders hunching, he turned back to the hallway. Maybe he could grab a cot in the soldier infirmary downstairs.

As he reached his former doorway, a soft cry emerged.

He stopped cold.

Vinnie was shacking up with some guy in Raze’s apartment? Heat flushed through him so quickly his ears burned. Oh, hell no. He pivoted to kick the damn door right down when another cry came. This one pained. Scared.

He paused. Oh. Shit. He mentally debated with himself for all of two seconds before twisting the knob to the right. Unlocked. The woman hadn’t even locked the door.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside and closed the door, waiting until his eyes adjusted before walking around the dented coffee table to the bed. The scent of calla lilies filled the room. Weak moonlight filtered through dusty blinds, assisting him.

Bedclothes tangled around Vinnie’s moving legs as she fought the nightmare, her hands striking out in the air. Her blonde hair was splayed over the pillows, twisting along with her head. She mumbled something, and even several feet away Raze could see tears glistening on her smooth skin.

He reached her and sat on the bed, taking a firm grasp of her arms. “Vinnie.”

She lurched
up with a sharp scream.

He grabbed her close, tucking her into his warmth and putting his mouth to her ear. “You’re safe.”

The two words, spoken with soft certainty, stopped her movements.

“I’ve got you and nobody is gonna hurt you,” he continued, keeping his voice level, trying not to notice how soft her skin was beneath his palms. “Take a deep breath.”

She obeyed instantly, drawing in a shaky breath and letting it out. Her entire body shuddered, but she didn’t move closer. God, she was small. Her head remained down, nearly touching his chest, and she didn’t look up. The sob that escaped her next ripped through his heart.

He knew what she needed.

Without question, he could help her. He fought himself, and she didn’t move. He didn’t know her, not really—he had no right to try to comfort her. With what he had planned for her, whether he had a choice or not, he had no right to help her now.

She sobbed again.

Ah, hell.

He picked her right up, covers and all, and set her in his lap. Cupping the back of her head, he pressed her face into his T-shirt. “You’re safe,” he whispered, tightening his hold.

She broke.

Sobbing, barely coherent words bursting from her, she cried against his neck. “Drugs, and faces, and people. Dead. Hear thoughts. Going crazy.”

Some of the words he could make out, but many were just burbles. Most people, when they lost it to pain or fear, just cried. Not Vinnie Wellington. No, she let loose with tons of words, crying and talking intermittently.

The woman couldn’t even cry like a normal person.

Why the hell that warmed his chest and tickled his mouth into a small smile, he’d never understand.

Yet he
gathered her closer and rubbed her back with his free hand, murmuring platitudes and agreement.

She probably was going crazy.

That was okay. There were worse things to be. Like a lying, conniving, backstabbing bastard like him. Yeah. Crazy was a lot better than evil.

Finally, she wound down.

He patted her back, careful to keep the movement light. Her bones were so small and fragile. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head against him.

He grinned. “Sometimes it helps.”

“None of it makes sense,” she mumbled, her mouth against the skin above his shirt.

He bit back a groan of pleasure. Her lips were usually pink and full, and he’d had more than one unwelcome fantasy of her using them on him. “Nightmares rarely do.”