Secrets in Blood Read online

  “Um. Never. Except in pictures and stuff.”

  “So how do you know they’re dangerous?” She knelt by the dead deer, stroking his velvety hide.

  “Because they are. They want to bite us and turn us into slaves.” The anger in the young man’s voice saddened her. More of her father’s bigotry she’d never be able to fight.

  “Not all of them.”

  “How do you know?” His brown eyes widened. “Have you seen one?”

  Evangeline checked the deer for a heartbeat—just in case. “Once.”

  “What? When?” The boy dropped down next to her and wrapped a length of rope around the deer’s legs.

  “A long time ago. When I was eight. Henry took me topside. I got lost and couldn’t find my way back to the campfire.” Evangeline hugged herself, the memories flooding her now. “I met a vampire wandering through the woods. He picked me up and carried me over rocks and fallen trees, all the way back to Henry. He was nice. But when we got close, Henry killed him.”

  Jeremy's voice dropped. “Vampires have thousands of humans enslaved. They don’t have souls. How can you say he—it—was nice? My dad says they aren’t even alive.”

  “I know.” Evangeline rubbed the back of her neck. She shouldn’t have been so open with the kid. If he told his father… “Maybe…there are a couple of good ones amid the evil ones. Probably not many. And I definitely don’t want to risk meeting another one. Or maybe the vampire I met was just waiting until he got close to the adults to kill all of us. That’s probably it. I wasn’t enough of a meal for him. Too little and all.”

  The look of relief on his round features settled her. He wouldn’t tell Don, his father, what she’d said. “Come on. Let’s get back inside.” She scrambled up, slung her bow across her back, and then snagged the portal generator from her pocket.

  After she’d typed in the day’s code, the little box vibrated in her hand. Two more codes—in order to enter the catacombs, she had to confirm she was safe three times—and a blue oval of light hovered a few inches above the forest floor.

  She and Jeremy muscled the buck into the portal. Seconds passed as the oval shrank down to nothing, then widened again. With his sweaty hand grasping hers, Jeremy pulled her into the portal.

  The cold, dark void lasted only a few seconds, but Jeremy took the opportunity to wrap his arm around her waist. As soon as they emerged into the world of light and sound, she pulled away. “See you next time, Jer.”

  After hours of chores—every member of the catacombs took their turn on trash duty, security patrol, kitchen prep, and other menial tasks—Evangeline unlocked her door. The tiny space wasn’t much, but at least she could keep everyone out—except Henry. He had the master codes for every door in the catacombs.

  Setting her “Do Not Disturb” light, she stripped off her clothes and headed for the shower.

  Tears gathered in her eyes as the hot water ran down her body. Chloe, at only nineteen, had just given birth to a baby girl. Cassie’s daughter, Samantha, would turn three in a few months. And Evangeline? She’d never have a child.

  Then again, she certainly didn’t want to consign a baby to a life locked underground.

  “Get a hold of yourself,” she muttered as she washed the leaves and dirt from her hair. “And do something about it.”

  For the past few years, she’d planned. Six months ago, she’d started stockpiling food behind a hidden panel in the corner of her room. An energy bar here, a packet of dried soup there. She had enough for a couple of active days on the run.

  When her daily allotment of water shut off, she wrapped herself in a towel and headed for her trunk. The small lump of scar tissue at her elbow throbbed. Henry would never let her go willingly. He needed her to fight the vampires. But…Evangeline wasn’t sure she’d ever believed in his cause.

  Too many memories of Nicola kept her wary. At the very bottom of her trunk, she withdrew the old, dog-eared notebook hidden under her panties. All that information she’d found from CNN. Had it all been true?

  Two nights ago, she’d dreamed of Nicola. He’d spoken to her. As if he’d been in the same room.

  Run away from here. Leave this evil place. Be free.

  She couldn’t ignore her gut—or her mind playing tricks on her and speaking to her in Nicola’s voice. She needed to escape.

  “I’m done with this life,” she whispered to the bare concrete walls. “I need to be free.”

  6

  Too excited to sleep, Evangeline crept down the hall towards the kitchens. Tomorrow, she’d breathe free air. Sunlight, coffee, candy bars, movies… Even her worries about finding a job and a place to live with no resources at her disposal couldn’t dim her smile.

  Best of all, she’d never have to suffer through one of her father’s “treatments” again.

  Clad only in her pajamas, she shivered as the air scrubbers kicked in and a cool breeze ruffled her hair. She’d stocked enough food for several days at the cabin; more wouldn’t be a bad idea. If she got lucky, she’d find a tray of protein bars in one of the large, industrial fridges. No one would miss a couple of extra bars.

  As she darted around one of the large food prep counters, her father’s thin voice carried in from the hall.

  Shit. Evangeline ducked behind one of the free-standing sinks. Stealing rations would earn her a severe reprimand—and her father would probably forbid her from hunting for the next few days. Not an option.

  “Hurry up,” Henry said. “I swear, your constant need for caffeine makes all our experiments take twice as long.”

  Gary, her father’s chief epidemiologist, snorted. “If you’d let me keep my coffee back in the lab fridges, we wouldn’t have this problem.”

  “You’re not going to contaminate the blood fridges with your fucking coffee beans. Get a move on. We’ve got a ton of work to do before I harvest Eva’s blood tomorrow. Batch one-eight-zero-three looks like the most promising formula yet. I want to run a few more tests before we distill the serum from her plasma.”

  Serum? What the hell? Evangeline shrank further against the wall and held her breath.

  “We can’t keep using her as an incubator,” Gary said as he shut the freezer door. “There’s no way we can mass produce the serum using your kid. We’d kill her.”

  “None of the other women have shown any promise. I don’t know what else to do—other than recreate the circumstances of her mother’s death. But that’ll take years. If we can aerosolize this batch, we can send samples to Portland and San Francisco to see if they can assist with replication.”

  “You’d turn over the formula?” Gary’s voice faded as he headed for the door.

  “The cause requires us to be selfless. If this next batch is strong enough the vamp bleeds out, I’ll send all we have to every researcher dedicated to our cause.”

  The two men disappeared back into the hall, and Evangeline tiptoed after them, peeking around the corner as they disappeared behind the secured door to the north wing.

  What were they hiding?

  A minute later, Cassie emerged from the lab, yawning. Exhaustion pressed down on her shoulders, and she trudged down the hall towards her dorm, failing to pull the door shut behind her.

  Did she dare?

  Why did I have to eavesdrop tonight?

  A deep-seated fear gripped her heart. Her father wanted to end the vampire race. Genocide. The way Henry had said “the vamp” made Evangeline wonder if her father had a vampire as his prisoner. Damn conscience. She couldn’t leave without finding out.

  With one last check of the hallway, she said a quick prayer and raced for the north wing door.

  Bright lights lit the hall, and the strong scent of antiseptic permeated the air. Six doors…four of them shut tight. Her father’s voice wafted from the last door on the right.

  As she touched the first doorknob, a weak, pained groan from the door across from her father stopped her in her tracks.

  “Close the damn door,” her father said sh
arply. “I don’t want to hear him once the drugs wear off. All that cursing really annoys me.”

  As the door slammed shut, closing her father and his men inside, Evangeline flinched. She crept towards the open door, pressed her hand to the cold metal, and pushed.

  “Oh God,” she whispered.

  A steel table in the center of the room held silver chains at the four corners. Bunsen burners, test tubes, and several tablet computers littered the lab benches, and a whiteboard filled with chemical equations in her father’s shaky handwriting took up an entire wall.

  But what drew her gaze and seized her heart was the silver cell in the corner of the room. Her worst fears manifested.

  A man lay on the floor. Shirtless and barefoot, his bronzed chest rose and fell weakly. A pair of pale blue scrub pants covered…where she shouldn’t be looking. His cut abs angled into a deep v. Stubble darkened his angular jaw, and long black hair fanned out around his head.

  As Evangeline watched, horrified, his eyelids fluttered open, and he turned his head, his gaze locking on hers.

  She’d never seen such power in another’s eyes. Or had she? Familiarity tugged at her mind, and she crept closer as he shut his eyes again. At this distance, she made out hundreds of scars covering his torso—some fine and thin, others round, deeper.

  Kneeling, she reached through the bars to touch his hand. “Who are you?”

  The man jerked, then forced his eyes open. “No one. Not anymore.” The muscles in his neck strained as if he was trying to rise, but with a grunt, he gave up, watching her, fighting for each weak breath. Recognition darkened his purple eyes. “You…”

  “I…don’t understand.” Evangeline couldn’t accept the truth, even though deep down, she knew exactly why he’d recognized her. Brushing a knuckle along his cheek, she gasped when his nostrils flared and his fangs lengthened, perching on his full lower lip as he tried to turn towards her.

  “Vaffanculo,” he spat as he gave up and panted weakly.

  “No. You can’t be…him.”

  “Did you think he let me go? What did you think he was doing with your blood all these years?” Nicola Angliatti turned his head away, his hoarse voice barely audible.

  “What is he doing to me? To you? Nicola…I thought you were dead!” Evangeline’s heart pounded, and the lump in her throat threatened to choke her. “He killed you in front of me!”

  “No one has said my name in many years.” Nicola sighed as he managed to angle his body towards her once more. He met her gaze, studied her. “You did not know.”

  “Know what? Shit. Did you think I knew you were down here? That I condoned…this?” She waved her hand at the silver bars. “Hell no. He’s a fucking monster.” Linking their fingers, she tried not to cry. Loneliness haunted Nicola’s eyes, and he tightened his grip. “I’m so sorry.”

  The barest hint of a smile touched his lips. “There is nothing you could have done, little one. You were a child.” As Evangeline worried her lip between her teeth, he studied her. “You are not a child now. What is the date? I do not know how long I have been in this cell.”

  “It’s 2031. April nineteenth.”

  “Eighteen years,” he said softly. “I had not thought it had been that long.”

  “What has he done to you?” She glanced up and down his body. “And if you’ve been here for so long, how come you still look like you could bench press a five-point buck? Why don’t you have a beard?”

  “This physique is the one I had when I was made. My hair and nails…they grow very slowly. Barely at all. A side effect of the mutation that made me.”

  “Do…do they ever let you out of this…cell? Can you move?” Tears gathered in her eyes, but she blinked them away.

  “I am weak now. The serum they used a few hours ago has not left me yet. But most days I am strong. The cell is large enough to move. Though I miss running. The outdoors. The pleasure of good food, wine. They only restrict my movement when they are studying the serum’s effects on me.”

  “I don’t understand. What is this serum? And what does Henry do to ‘study’ you?” The man—the vampire—in front of her could barely move, and according to Henry, vampires had super-human strength. He hadn’t tried to bite her or control her. Far from the soulless bloodsucker she’d been taught to fear, Nicola seemed as human and kind as she’d remembered.

  “What do you know of my kind?” Nicola rolled onto his side, his muscles straining.

  “You’re…dead? You don’t have a soul. You drink blood. Vampires…all want to turn or enslave humans?” Nothing she’d been taught made sense now.

  Nicola’s brows drew together. “I have never turned a human. I never will. I am alive, Evangeline. Feel my heart if you do not believe me.”

  “But…” She wanted to trust him. But other than a few minutes in his arms eighteen years ago, she’d never met a vampire before. “You’re…dangerous.”

  “I can barely move. These bars are pure silver. You are in no danger. Not from me.”

  Evangeline laid her fingers over his heart. A steady, strong beat drummed through his chest. She’d expected him to be cold, but his warmth radiated through her hand.

  “Oh shit. You…bleed?”

  “Si. Yes.”

  “You’re…alive.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

  “I am. Our bodily functions are largely normal. We eat, drink, sleep. We cannot sire children. The mutations in our DNA preclude this. But we are otherwise much like you. Only…stronger.”

  “But the blood thing…you do drink human blood, right?” Evangeline tucked her lip between her teeth, studying him.

  “We do. But we long ago passed a law prohibiting us from feeding on humans directly. We survive by purchasing blood from blood banks. A few sips at a time only. A pint of blood can sate us for several weeks. Vampires are ‘made’ by a virus that causes mutations in our DNA and chromosomes. We even age. Just very slowly. Perhaps one year for every hundred human years. But more importantly, only a very small number of us want to control humans. I am not one of them. I have never been one of them.”

  His voice had strengthened, and Evangeline couldn’t ignore the truth in his eyes.

  “And the serum?”

  With a sigh, Nicola seemed to deflate, and his eyes fluttered closed. “You are full of questions.”

  Several long seconds passed, but when he met her gaze again, Evangeline saw a starved man, eighteen years of loneliness in his dull, amethyst eyes.

  “We heal quickly. Unless a wound is caused by silver, any injury fades in a few minutes. Broken bones, stab wounds, gunshots…none worry us. But your father—” Evangeline flinched, and Nicola struggled up to a sitting position, leaning against the cot. “He is trying to make vampires mortal. If he can interrupt our rapid healing with his drugs, then we can be killed. That is why he captured me. To be his…test subject.”

  “Oh God. What does he do to you?” She sank down to her ass, crossing her legs to mirror his position.

  “You do not want to know.”

  “Yes, I do.” Evangeline reached through the bars once more, resting her fingers on his. “Please. Tell me.”

  He held her hand firmly, almost desperately, as he explained how he would be drugged and chained, sometimes for hours, other times for days. “They sever my femoral artery and time how long it takes me to heal. Sometimes they burn or cut my skin. They have broken bones. Starved me on occasion. But mostly they just make me bleed.”

  “Your scars…” Evangeline swallowed hard as she focused on the myriad of marks that covered his chest.

  Nicola nodded. “Si. A few days ago, one of the batches of serum worked. Your father poured a vial of blood down my throat seconds before my death, allowing me to heal the wound. He is trying to find a way to replicate that formula now. He is close. I will die soon. Days. Weeks, perhaps.”

  “Nic, no.” She tightened her grip on his hand.

  “Nic? I do not believe anyone has ever called me that before.” He smi
led, no hint of fang amid his straight, white teeth.

  “I’m sorry,” Evangeline said as she pulled her hand away. “Nicola—“

  “I like how you say Nic.” Something in his voice touched her, and her eyes burned as tears threatened.

  “Are there cameras here?” She scanned the room, paying particular attention to the corners of the ceiling.

  “No. They set up a small camera when they observe my reaction to the serum. But as far as I have learned, there are no cameras hidden in this room.”

  “Do you know where the key to this cell is?”

  “Your father keeps one. I believe some of his men have a copy. As does the woman.”

  “The woman. Cassie?”

  “I have not heard that name. Your father calls her Miss Duffield.”

  The last bit of hope she’d clung to—that Cassie hadn’t been involved—shattered, and Evangeline stifled a sob. Though in her heart, she’d known the second she’d heard Nic’s voice.

  “What’s wrong?” He shifted forward, but inches from the bars, he stopped.

  A tear spilled onto Evangeline’s cheek. “You’re worried about me? You’re the one trapped in a cage. Tortured. For so long…”

  “My fate is sealed. I will die in this place. Your father and the others—they speak freely in my presence. They do not believe I will ever leave here or talk to anyone. They are trying to bait others. They wish to test the serum’s effectiveness in water. They need more prisoners—”

  “How?”

  “How what?”

  “How are they baiting others?”

  Nic’s eyes softened. “You know how they baited me,” he said quietly.

  “Oh God. No. Olivia. She went with Will and Mickey. She’s nine. She’s only nine.” Pushing to her feet, Evangeline swayed slightly. Nausea churned in her belly. “I have to go.”

  “Evangeline. Wait.”

  The desperation in his voice stopped her. She owed him that much. More. She owed Nic his freedom.

  “What are you going to do?” He tried to stand, but too weak, collapsed on his cot, chest heaving.

  “I…I don’t know. I just have to get out of here. I’ll be back. I promise.” Evangeline raced for the door, but before she escaped into the hall, she glanced back at the vampire. At Nic.