Chapter Thirteen
“Let me get this straight,” Jodie said later that day. She fluffed the coils that she had spent several hours fixing after being at Visage without appropriate products. “He shows up in your room to see you, and you flip?”
“Sort of,” Reyna said.
“You’ve been mooning over him for however long you were in that hellhole. You get out of said hellhole. Then your dream man shows up for you. And what do you do? Turn him away?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Seems that simple to me,” she said, lounging back on Meghan’s bed. They’d dragged a cot in for Jodie to sleep on until they got her a more permanent place. “You know what you should have done?”
“What?”
“Fucked him.”
Reyna choked on her laughter. It felt nice. Waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and confronting Beckham hadn’t been her best move, but his choice to completely avoid her questions and act like a total stranger hadn’t been that great, either.
“I’m for real,” Jodie said when Reyna didn’t respond.
“I know you are, but…I don’t know. It wouldn’t fix everything.”
“It would sure as hell fix the lack of orgasms.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“’Course you can’t.”
“But come on, wouldn’t you argue with a guy who was possibly engaged to someone else before sleeping with him again?” Reyna asked.
Jodie tapped her finger on her lips. “If I’d just gotten out of prison and been on a dry spell, I’d probably have to think about it for a second.”
Reyna stared up at the white spackled ceiling. “What do I do?”
“If you want sage advice from a girl who has been locked up for longer than you, I’d say find him and fix things. We both know that time is fickle and we might not make it out of this.”
Reyna knew that Jodie had been in Visage a lot longer than Reyna had, but she had never come out and asked about it. She figured there was a lot that Jodie wasn’t ready to talk about.
“I know,” she finally said. “I just want the truth.”
“And you’re willing to give it, too?”
“I don’t know.”
“Going to have to give to get,” Jodie said, flicking a lock out of her eye. “You want him to be open, you have to be prepared to open up about what happened.”
Reyna hated that she was right. Couldn’t she forget Visage and move on?
“I could tell him, but he’s not going to be happy.”
“Are you happy about the little you know about what he was doing those eight weeks? No. And you know what…it’s simple. If you open up and he still doesn’t, you dump his ass.”
As if it were that simple.
“I probably should have done things differently,” Reyna said.
“Well, that’s obvious.”
“I was just so upset. It didn’t help that I was coming down from the venom and had a massive headache.”
“Yeah, plus probably PTSD,” Jodie said flippantly. As if it wasn’t something they both might never heal from.
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Meghan mentioned it. That’s why we’re both sleeping so much. It’s why she wants us to go to a therapist.” Jodie rolled her eyes. “As if I’m going to spill my guts to some stranger.”
“I’m spilling mine to you.”
“Yeah. What’s with that, huh?”
“I don’t know,” Reyna said. “You were there, too.”
Jodie shrugged. “I guess.”
Then Meghan entered the room.
Jodie gasped and rose to her feet. “Who did your box braids? They’re perfect.”
Meghan’s bright-red hair had been carefully braided nearly to her waist, and she smiled at the pair of them. “I had them done by the same woman who got me the products for your hair. You like?”
“Love,” Jodie confirmed.
“Definitely,” Reyna agreed.
“Good. Now let’s get going,” she told Reyna. “Sydney requested your presence.”
“Really?” Reyna asked.
“Yes, Sydney authorized your rescue. She’s the reason you’re here and not still with Harrington. I’m sure you have a lot of questions for her.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later,” Reyna said to Jodie.
“Good luck,” Jodie said before falling back on Meghan’s bed.
Reyna followed Meghan out the door. “So, what’s Sydney like?”
“She’s amazing. Ex-military and a brilliant strategist. She expects and commands respect from everyone. Mouthing off to her is not something that I’d suggest.”
“How do you talk to her, then?”
“Carefully,” she said with a quick grin. “But really…be careful.”
“Why do I feel like I should be afraid of walking in there?”
“Not afraid. Cautious. She’s gotten ahead for a reason. Everyone who succeeds gets ahead for a reason,” she told her. “She’s not the kind of person that you want to have on your bad side.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“Sydney is the only reason we’ve survived this long, but don’t let her see any weaknesses. Be strong and confident. You’ve got this.”
Reyna didn’t respond. All she could think was that Sydney sounded a hell of a lot like Harrington. The tactics were the same: Lock down your emotions. Show no weakness. Control your reactions. Don’t get on her bad side. It all felt too familiar. Uneasiness settled in her bones.
Meghan stopped in front of a steel door.
“Situation room.” Meghan tapped in a code and then did a retinal scan. The door popped open. “Good to go.”
“Aren’t you coming in with me?”
Meghan shook her head. “Just you, but don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Chin up.”
Reyna took her advice before stepping into the situation room. It was about the size of a large conference room with a table taking up the center and a wall of television screens showing a loop of all the major news networks.
Her eyes landed on three figures standing on a platform on the other side of the room.
She recognized the two men immediately, though she knew them from completely different worlds.
One wore a white doctor’s coat. He was pale, tall, and disheveled in his middle years—though she knew he was a vampire and thus likely much, much older.
He had been the doctor on duty who’d handed her over to Beckham that fateful first day at Visage.
The other was a white human male with red hair and a slight but fit build—a fighter’s body.
Someone who had crawled their way up from the streets to make something of himself.
His green eyes were haunted, but his smile was light, almost inviting when he noticed her standing in the open doorway.
She had once photographed him when he was in an underground fighting ring at Five Points.
The last person was dressed in a sharp charcoal gray suit. This must be Sydney. She had her back to the door—a bold move. All Reyna could see was that she was tall, though not as tall as the doctor, and had light-brown skin and dark hair slicked back into a low bun.
“This must be Reyna,” the fighter said. He whistled low. “Everything suddenly makes sense.”
Sydney slowly turned around to face Reyna. She was imposing. Everything about her was sharp and hard and controlled.
Reyna took a half step backward. She should have known—should have prepared herself for this—but she had asked the wrong questions. So how could she possibly have known in advance?
The leader of Elle was a vampire?
“Gabe, go see Tony about this. See if we can get eyes on the subject,” she said in a crisp, clear voice. A commanding tone that said she was in charge and if she ever had to raise her voice, you were done for.
“Sure thing, boss,” he said with the cocky grin Reyna had seen in the ring. He winked at Reyna as he slipped past her. “See you around.”
She sincerely hoped not. He had bad news written all over him.
Gabe shut the door behind him, leaving Reyna alone with two very keen, very intelligent, very domineering vampires.
“Miss Carpenter,” Sydney said, straightening her already impeccable suit and taking the stairs down the platform. “Please come in. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Hi,” Reyna said. She took one step forward and then another.
Sydney stuck her hand out. Reyna looked at it a beat too long before placing her hand in Sydney’s.
It was cold to the touch and clearly strong.
Very strong. Calloused in a way that said she knew hard labor and was skilled in her work.
You didn’t get hands like this without years of rigorous training.
“You have met Dr. Washington before, I believe,” Sydney said. She gestured the doctor forward; he nodded at Reyna.
“Yes. We’ve met.”
Washington had saved her from Harrington the first time. Sydney had saved her from him a second time.
“Thank you,” she said immediately. “Both of you, actually, for what you did to help me.”
Sydney had a severe face, but her lips quirked up at her comment. “We’re glad that our mission was successful and that you were able to be brought back safely. The cost could have been greater. It’s fortunate that we only lost four sleeper agents to retrieve you.”
Reyna’s mind whirred. “Sleeper agents?”
“Meghan, Tye, and Xavier were all in key positions in Visage. Washington had been working in the Visage hospitals from the beginning. All were scrubbed from Visage after their work for you. Luckily, we have other people working there, so it’s not a total loss.”
“But most unfortunate,” Washington said.
“You know Harrington wouldn’t have let you live,” Sydney said to him.
“William and I have a complicated history. I do not know if he would have killed me, had he gotten the chance.”
“You knew Harrington?” Reyna blurted out in surprise.
“My dear girl,” he said with a flash of fang, “I was his closest friend. His only friend for most of his wretched years looking for a match such as yourself.”
Reyna’s mind spun. “But…you work in opposition to him.”
“Penance.”
For what?
Sydney seemed to read her mind. “You must not be aware that Dr. Washington here discovered the blood type cure.”
Reyna nearly fell over. “You discovered the cure?”
She was standing before the man who had found out that pairing a vampire with a human of the same blood type “cured” their baser tendencies. This was how Visage had become an enormous company that employed humans. This was how Harrington had taken over.
“Quite by chance, really. I was a scientist before I was turned. When I met William, only sheer force of will kept him from catapulting into the animal so many of our kind succumb to. He has always been…” He stopped, considering.
“A sanitary type of man. A germaphobe—before the word existed, of course. It set him on the path to asking why this happened to him. A question so few had the mental capabilities to ask. And then when we connected, he had a means to figure out how to change it.”
“Enough of a history lesson for the day, Roger,” Sydney said.
“So…this is your fault?” Reyna couldn’t help but ask.
Washington frowned. “I suppose it is.”
“But he is working to right the wrongs of his past,” Sydney said. She gestured for them to take a seat at the end of the conference table. “Which is where you come in.”
“How do I fit into this?”
“You are the key to Harrington’s blood. There is something special about you.”
“It’s chance that our blood types match.”
Sydney met her gaze for a long moment. “Why don’t you let us determine that? In the meantime, I would like to debrief you. Tell me everything that happened in the eight weeks of your disappearance. Nothing is too big or too small.”
Reyna gulped. This was not going to be pleasant.
“That’s it. That’s all I know. That’s everything,” Reyna ground out a few hours later.
They’d made her tell and retell and retell all her stories. It was like they kept expecting her to trip up and prove that she was lying.
There were a few things she kept back for herself—seeing Beckham and Penelope together at the ball, meeting B, and her dreams. She knew that she should tell them about all of this—especially B—but everything was still so agonizing to remember, her fear so acute, she couldn’t dredge it up.
“Are you sure?” Sydney asked for what felt like the thousandth time.
“Yes. I’m sure.” Reyna glanced down at her hands and then straightened. “I actually did have one question for you, though.”
“Oh?”
“You have all the information that I have. You have a complete picture now. I want to help the rebellion. I could be valuable on your team.”
“Valuable how?” Sydney asked.
“Whatever you need. I could do security with my brothers. Or learn to be a double agent. I could be a part of this.”
“Perhaps I could offer you a job in the medical wing with me,” Washington said with a cheery smile.
Reyna balked. That was the absolute last place she wanted to work. She turned pleading eyes on Sydney. “Anything but that.”
Sydney shuffled the papers in front of her and stood. “You asked for a job, and Washington is offering you one. Take it or leave it.”
“I understand. I appreciate the offer. But I am really bad with hospitals after what I went through. I don’t think that I can handle that kind of position. Don’t you think I could work with my brothers on security?”
“You are important here, Reyna. You are not important dead,” Sydney said bluntly. “Do you understand?”
Reyna nodded solemnly.
“Good. You’re dismissed.”