Chapter 13
Icheck for Valen’s hum every so often. It’s there. I reassure myself that he’s all right, that whatever Gregor did to him, he survived it. But it’s not enough. I still worry, the anxiety of it like a constant thorn in my side.
“Drink more. I took a lot of blood.” Evie hands me a pouch, some sort of smoothie mix inside. “It’s gross, but it’s ridiculously effective at hydrating you.” She sits beside me, both of us waiting on the centrifuge to finish.
“Pretty bad.” I wince as I swallow down a big pull of it. “Why is it sweet but in an awful way?”
“Just to punish you, I guess.” She picks at her nails for a second, the cuticles already raw. “Hey, so, girl talk time while Wyatt’s getting lunch. Valen. Is that… What is that really? You and him. Like, is it serious or just a way to work off the tension?”
I almost choke on the disgusting hydration sludge.
“Define the relationship. You’ve been sort of vague about it so far.” She props her elbow on the desktop and leans her head on her hand. “Spill.”
God, how do I explain Valen? I can’t even understand it myself, not really.
“We’re together.” It sounds so banal.
“Right, but how tight are we talking?”
I sigh and prop my head on my hand to match her. “It’s so complicated. In DC, he was like a double agent, and he made me so fucking insane. Not giving me good samples, never telling me what was really going on, being an all-around asshole, right?”
“Right.”
“But then when we were alone sometimes, he was different. He was sort of, I don’t know, sad and intense and obsessed with me.”
“Psycho, yeah. I can see the attraction.”
I raise a brow at her.
“What? Twisted romance is one of my favorite things. Do go on.”
“And he could be so gentle with me, so tender. I, I don’t know.” My stomach flips at the memories of it.
“And the sex? Hot, I’d bet. Like, smoking hot if you showing up at my door in nothing but a blanket last night is any indication.”
I don’t bother hiding it. “It’s mind blowing. One minute he’s feral, the next he’s holding me. It’s like he knows exactly what I need, and he always delivers. I’m—”
“You’re in love.” She smiles a little.
I can’t deny it. “It’s love and it’s more. The vampires have all this lore, this sort of magic. I don’t know what else to call it. Blood magic. I know it sounds woowoo.”
“You’re lucky I’m into the woowoo stuff. Besides, we’re living in the Emergence Era. Vampires walk among us. Nothing is quite as shocking anymore, is it?”
“Fair point.”
“So the blood magic, is it bad?”
“No. It binds us. Sort of like a link between us. If I try, I can sense him.”
“Like right now?”
“Yes.” I feel him pulsing steadily through my veins. “He’s all right. I can tell that. Not much more. The vampires and the books say a Blood bond grows with time.”
“Mind blown.” She cocks her head to the side. “Books?”
“His library. Stacks and stacks of books. None of them in English. But there’s tons of lore in them, and I suppose lore isn’t the right word since it’s all true.”
“There has to be a way to figure out how this bond thing works.” She gets that faraway look in her eyes like she does when she’s thinking. “Some way to quantify it.”
“There are things in this world that can’t be seen under a microscope.”
She smirks. “That sounds like something a vampire would say.”
I chuckle wryly. “Valen.”
“Maybe we can get his blood and your blood and do a little experi—”
“Yo, I got lunch,” Wyatt walks in, a big brown bag clutched to his chest.
“I told you I could carry that.” Gage’s voice follows from the hall.
My hackles rise.
“I got it, my man.” Wyatt puts the bag down and gives Evie and me a wary look.
“This is the brain trust?” A man with a deep voice, crackling with command, strides in.
Tall and fit, he looks to be in his fifties, gray hair at his temples and an even grayer mustache.
His uniform is simple, but the stars can’t be mistaken; he’s a general.
His dark eyes survey the lab, then fix on me. “Dr. Clark, I presume?”
“Yes.” I glance at Gage.
“Georgia, this is General Lopez. He’s in command of this base and what’s left of the country.”
For the briefest moment, I think about mentioning that the president is, in fact, still alive, so maybe the general should pump the brakes. Then again, that’s something I’ve only shared with Wyatt and Evie, and they know whatever passes between us stays there.
“Glad to finally meet you, Dr. Clark. I’ve been briefed on the poison you created and used to kill Theo Dragonis. Colonel Howard believes you can make it again. Is that true?”
I hesitate.
The general glances around the lab and then back at me.
“Does she speak?” he asks Gage curtly.
“She does,” I say.
“Good.” He snaps his head back to me. “Now, can you make the poison or not?”
“I can.”
“All right, then I expect—”
“But I’ll need some assurances.” I stand and face him. I knew this moment would come, the decision I’ve been wrestling with ever since I regained my memories.
The general’s eyes narrow. “What was that?”
“I said I’ll need some assurances before I do anything.”
“Georgia, General Lopez doesn—”
The general holds up a hand, silencing Gage. His features are placid, stoic. Classic military, just like the people who were in Gregor’s cell with me. The ones who died. “Go on, Dr. Clark.”
“I can create the poison, and I can guarantee its efficacy, but what I cannot do is simply hand it over and allow you or anyone else to wield it as a weapon of genocide against all vampires.”
The general stares at me. Several beats pass.
“Genocide?” he says, his expression a mix of incredulous and offended.
“You mean what they’ve done to us? Hunted and killed and bombed humanity into oblivion, and you’re here speaking to me about vampire genocide?
” His voice rises to a shout. “What the fuck is this, Colonel Howard? A joke?”
“It’s not a joke.” I stand firm. “I won’t allow my work to be used to commit atrocities. I’m a healer, not a killer.”
“You work for the United States government. For me. You’re what I say you are.
” General Lopez glares at me, menace in his eyes.
“And your work is for what I say it is. If you have any more bleeding heart bullshit ideas about the vampires, you can keep them to yourself. I expect a sample of this poison in my hands as soon as possible. Am I understood?”
“I don’t work for anyone.” I glance around. “There is no more government, no more country. We were barely holding together before the vampires came. I’m a civilian, nothing more.”
“I think you’ll find that under martial law, you will do as you’re told or you’ll face severe consequences. I’m in command of this base and this country. I’m in command of you.” For a moment he reminds me of Vince, but without the good heart underneath the gruffness.
“Aren’t you going to ask about a vaccine?” I step toward him, hands on my hips, my ire rising like a flood. “Do you even care about that anymore? What about saving lives?”
“How dare you?” he bellows. “After everything we’ve lost, after everything the vampires have taken, all the things your bitch of a sister gave them that they used against us—”
“Whoa, whoa now.” Wyatt stands at my shoulder, Evie behind me. “Those are fighting words. We’re not about that life in here. This is a peaceful lab.”
General Lopez ignores him. “It’s kill or be killed, Dr. Clark. We will eradicate the threat by any means I deem necessary.”
“This doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If we can eliminate Gregor, we can bring their entire hierarchy down. Then—”
“You think we haven’t tried that?” General Lopez snaps. “Gregor hides away in an impenetrable—”
“The Black Cavern. I know. I’ve been there. I saw plenty of tough-as-nails military men just like you die there.” I hold his gaze. “I’m well aware you don’t have a chance of getting to him, but Valen can.”
He barks a short, cruel laugh. “The Specter, is that where you’re pinning your hopes?
On the vampire who’s razed city after city, murdering countless people at the behest of his master?
He’s a turncoat, giving us information on troop movements.
A traitor to his own people. Colonel Howard believes he’s brought that creature to heel, but I beg to differ.
” He scoffs. “If you put your faith in a vampire, you’re even more foolish than I thought. ”
“And you’re out of your depth, General. You’re so badly adrift that you think annihilation is the only answer. It’s not. It never has been.”
He steps back, his demeanor fading into stoic control. “Colonel Howard?”
“Yes, sir?”
“See to it that Dr. Clark does her job. If she refuses, take her down to the holding cells for interrogation. It seems her time with the vampires has likely compromised her. Your reports of her being Valen Dragonis’s human whore were sadly accurate—” Wyatt lets out a “hey, now!” but the General barrels on, “If we discover she’s working for them, we will use any means necessary to make her talk then have her summarily executed as a traitor and an enemy of the state. ”
Gage shakes his head. “General Lopez, she’s not—”
“You think that scares me, General?” I close the distance between us, looking at him with every ounce of disdain I feel.
“Torture and death? That’s your A-game?” I smile, my sudden anger giving me a fatalistic courage.
“Do you have any idea what Gregor did to me while I was held captive? Do you have the slightest clue about what I’ve seen, what I’ve endured, what I’ve done to survive?
” My smile turns into a grin, into a ‘fuck you’ written on my lips.
“If you think you can break me, you’re more than welcome to try.
Do your fucking worst, General.” I swear I hear Valen’s feral growl in the back of my skull, his delight like a rain of sparks along my skin.
Lopez’s eyes widen with surprise before he clamps down on it, his face back into its angry, controlled mask.
“Shiiitttttt,” Wyatt says under his breath.
The general considers for a moment, then says, “Place a guard on Dr. Clark at all times. Her base access is restricted. She may come to the lab, her sleeping quarters, and the mess hall. If she refuses to work, place her in the cells. If she doesn’t produce the poison in a week’s time, place her in the cells.
If she steps out of line at all, place her in the cells.
Dr. Clark, you will do what your country asks of you, or you will pay the price.
It’s up to you.” The general’s glare only deepens, and then he turns and storms out, Gage following at his heels.
Once they’re gone, I sink down on the nearest stool, my hands shaking, my heart pounding loudly in my ears. My body may be weak, but my mind is nothing but a sea of pent-up rage and disappointment.
“Jesus, Georgia. You—holy shit, you just stood up to the scariest human I think I’ve ever met.”
“Stood up?” Evie’s voice quavers. “I think you mean bowed up. Fucking hell, Georgia, I thought he was going to hit you, or maybe you were going to hit him, and then we were all going to throw down. I’m not much of a fighter, but I would’ve done my best.”
Wyatt scrubs his hand down his face. “Place her in the cells,” he mimics. “Fascist prick. They can’t execute you. That’s, that’s not a thing. Right?”
“Badass.” Evie hugs me from behind and rests her chin on my shoulder. “But um, can you not do anything like that ever again? I think I may have peed a little.”
“I can’t make any promises.” I lean against her, thankful for her in a million different ways.
“Fair enough, I guess.” She sighs. “God, how are we already in a mess? You just got here, and we’re already up to our eyebrows in trouble.”
Wyatt chuckles ruefully. “That’s how we know we’re on the right track—if we’re in trouble. Hey, you know we won’t let them take you, right?”
“I know, but it won’t come to that. Don’t worry about what the general said.”
“Umm, I think we have to worry. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to just say shit.”
“No, but his threats are just threats. I’m not worried about them, so you shouldn’t be either.”
“Why?” he asks. “Why aren’t you worried?”
Because Valen would turn this place into a bloodbath and pull General Lopez’s spleen out through his nose if he tried it. Instead of that, I opt for, “I’ll play along well enough that he doesn’t do anything he said, all right?”
He doesn’t look convinced as he leans against the table. “But seriously though, did you mean all that about the poison?”
“The part about not wiping out an entire species?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. You don’t agree?” I brace myself for their answer.
“It’s complicated,” Evie says softly. “What they did to Gretchen, to Aang, to you—it makes me hate all of them. But then there’s Valen, which is even more complicated.
He’s done horrible things, so many horrible things, but he’s also done good things.
The general said it himself—he’s been helping us.
He’s saved people. He saved everyone in this room.
” She groans. “Like I said, it’s a mess. ”
Wyatt flips a pen into the air and catches it. “I will say that they have a million ways to kill us, weapons galore. Like, we’re sort of easy to kill. It wouldn’t be so terrible if we were more equal on that front. But your point about genocide stands. It’s not black and white.”
“Exactly.” I nod. “They’re like us. Shades of gray.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a reckoning.
We’re at war. I’m not na?ve, not anymore.
I know this is going to end with bloodshed.
Gregor has to die. Plenty of those loyal to him are a threat, too.
But wiping them all out isn’t the answer, and until I’m certain General Lopez agrees with me, I can’t give him what he wants. I won’t.”
“Okay, so now what?” Wyatt asks.
“We focus on the vaccine and—” I take a deep breath and drop my voice to a whisper, “—we create the poison, but only enough for me to smuggle out.”