Chapter Thirty-Four
“About time,” Reyna said, and then entered the monster’s lair.
She held her breath as she walked inside.
She couldn’t believe she was here. That she was actually doing this.
It was impossible to think that she was face-to-face with her kidnapper and torturer again.
That she could look at him and not see the man who had turned Brian and set him loose in a room full of people. That she didn’t see Beckham’s murderer.
Harrington was sitting behind a glass desk in a glass room. The walls were opaque so that he could see out, and undoubtedly her exchange with Roland, but no one could see inside. Clever, creepy, and voyeuristic all at once.
How little Harrington had changed.
“Ah, my little queen,” he said. “Welcome.”
Reyna shuddered at the nickname.
“William,” Reyna said. She held her chin high on the offensive. “Nice digs.”
He gestured for her to take a seat. “I thought you might like it.”
Yeah, not happening. She stood her ground.
She heard Roland enter behind her and the door quietly closed. He stepped around her, taking a position of power to the right of Harrington. She nearly rolled her eyes. Bastard.
“It’s so clean,” she commented.
His eyes narrowed briefly and then relaxed. “I prefer my life orderly. It has been a sticking point between you and I.”
“Right. Because I’m so out of order.”
“You are a complication,” Harrington said, gesturing forward.
He didn’t get up out of his seat. She tilted her head to the side in contemplation of what that could mean.
Then she assessed him. His color had worsened.
His eyes were sunken in. His shiny hair was no more, replaced by an oily, thinning mess.
His hands were gnarled and sickly. He looked the way he had the first time she had met him all those months ago at Visage. He looked like he was dying.
Her eyes snapped up to his. And it was there that she saw the masterful mind who had always outwitted her. He held his supreme intelligence deep in the windows of his eyes. Yet his body was failing him.
“I don’t believe that I am the only complication,” Reyna said.
“Ah. Yes. Things have changed, you see.”
“Your blood match died?” she guessed.
“She did. She was quite old. A frail woman. She couldn’t keep up with the demand.”
Reyna clenched her hands into fists at her sides and then released them. Such careless and thoughtless murder.
“And the antidote doesn’t quite work like you hoped,” she added.
“It nourishes the body, but not the illness,” he admitted freely. “Rh null negative blood is so rare, and the components counteract the vampiric disease I have been carrying with me all these years. It turns out that I can re-create a universal donor and still not get it right.”
“Too bad you killed Washington, then,” she said callously. “He could have fixed it.”
Shock registered on Harrington’s face. “Roger is dead?”
“You dropped a bomb on him.”
“He got out.”
Reyna narrowed her eyes. “He stayed behind.”
“What a horrible loss.”
“Oh yeah, a ‘loss.’ Not another one of your murders.”
Harrington waved the comment away. “You and I both know that to get to the top there must be casualties. You’ve certainly sacrificed enough people to get to where you are.”
Reyna wanted to stab him for what he was insinuating. She was nothing like him. She was not casually sacrificing good people to get ahead. She felt every single loss like a shot to the heart.
And he felt nothing.
“All I’m hearing is that you need me again. Big surprise.”
“I’ve always needed you, Reyna. It was you who did not realize that you needed me.”
She laughed. “I don’t need you.”
Harrington pressed a button on the glass desk and suddenly the windows changed to televisions.
Every single one of them showed the battles being fought below them.
Beckham and Bronwyn fighting in the observation deck.
Meghan and Gabe back-to-back, taking on a pack of vampires.
Drew leading a team of anti-vamps into a nest. Tye fighting, fighting, fighting, and finally failing.
Succumbing to the vampire before him. Fangs piercing his skin and drinking his precious blood.
Spilling it on the already red floor of the main room.
Reyna gasped as the vampire heartlessly dropped Tye’s body and moved on. Her hand went to her heart. Death. So much death. She had known there would be casualties in this war, but she hated seeing it happen. Hated being forced to watch.
“See. You do need me, my little queen,” Harrington said. “I can make it all stop.”
“As if you would.”
“I simply wanted you to play the part of a queen on the board instead of a pawn.”
Reyna ran her hand across her braid in frustration. “The game isn’t over yet.”
“Almost,” he agreed. “But I did know that you would show eventually anyway. Incredibly predictable. Haven’t we already danced this once?”
“Can you dance right now?”
He blinked at her. “You want to save your little friends, I presume. They are the reason that you’re in my office.
Your little rebellion has failed. The L on your shirt means nothing.
You have accomplished nothing. Except to kill everyone that you care about.
Is that what you want? To be the last of your kind? ”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.” Harrington leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him. “You are as self-sacrificing as you have ever been. You would do anything to save your friends and your precious Beckham.”
“God, you really love to hear yourself talk, don’t you? Couldn’t you have curbed that desire since we last met?” Reyna cursed and crossed her arms. “You’re right. Okay? I would do anything to save them, but I’m not here to be self-sacrificing. I’m here to kill you.”
Harrington laughed and Roland joined in along with him. Apparently, she was a fucking riot.
“Kill me,” Harrington said, patting his chest. “Oh Reyna, you always do surprise me.”
“You couldn’t lay a hand on him before he’d snap your neck,” Roland threatened.
“Except he needs me. So, we both know he’s not going to kill me.”
“Ah, but you are easily incapacitated,” Harrington said. “You’re a human.”
Reyna held her breath. She needed to stay in control. She needed to get this over with. She didn’t want to stand here and give him more time to figure out a different way to stop her. Her eyes flitted to Roland’s. He was another complication she’d have to figure out.
“Come quietly, Reyna, and I can make this all stop,” Harrington offered, holding his hands wide.
He believed that he was being benevolent.
That was the real kicker. He was so past recognizing his own evil that he believed that the ends always justified the means.
And in this case, he would do anything to get Reyna.
He would do anything to take Visage to the next level, and if that meant subjugating every human in the entire world, he wouldn’t even think twice.
“I won’t lose,” Reyna told him, lifting her chin. “I won’t surrender.”
At some point, the scales had tipped. His ego had gotten in the way. He’d won so many times that he didn’t believe himself capable of losing. So when he looked down with a little huff of laughter she wasn’t surprised that all he said was, “Such a disappointment.”
Reyna rolled her eyes. Same old, same old. “I think I finally understand you.” She dropped her hands at her sides and took a step forward. “All this time I spent trying to anticipate your next move, all I did was learn your board. I see past the big bad monster to the man beyond the mask.”
“Go on,” Harrington said. He waved his hand in front of him and then leaned forward earnestly as if he were placating a child.
“You were Washington’s best friend. You nurtured your friendship until you could use him.
He created your blood type cure and asked for nothing in return.
You rewarded him with a bomb on his house.
You had his Elisa murdered in cold blood for being a visionary and then stole her ideas for your own aims. You were a thoughtful, intelligent man.
Yet you discarded everyone you deemed unimportant.
You treated Beckham like a prodigal son and yet you had his sister chained up for more than a decade to use against him.
You held me against my will. I bet you even have someone that Roland cares about locked away somewhere. ”
Roland narrowed his eyes at the insinuation but didn’t press the issue. It was good enough that she had him thinking.
“Brava,” Harrington said. “You have a warped view of my history.”
“I’m not finished.” He arched an eyebrow. “You are manipulative, destructive, highly intelligent, and most of all, single-minded.”
“Single-minded?” Harrington laughed. “Shall I bring out my chessboard for you, my little queen? I can assure you I have many aims.”
Reyna shook her head. “No. This is where you are different. This is where you fail time and time again. The only thing you have ever cared about in all of your days as a vampire is your own blood.”
Reyna held up the cut that Bronwyn had given her and dug in until it flowed freely again. “My blood.”
“Hardly.”
Roland hissed behind Harrington as he drew in a deep breath, but it was Harrington whose eyes were glued to her arm. To the blood he so craved.
“Which makes it a weakness. One you have attempted to cover the severity of for centuries.”
Harrington scoffed as if what she said had no merit. But it was his reaction that proved it did.
“Your very rare blood type coupled with a blood disease is a weakness.” Reyna took a step to the side, slowly circling him in the way she had witnessed Beckham do to unnerve others.
She’d had long conversations with Genevieve about Harrington, listening carefully to everything she knew about the man.
Taking it in and absorbing it for this moment. “You were a sickly child.”
“You know nothing of my childhood,” Harrington quipped.
Reyna smiled darkly. “Your family assumed you’d die young.
They cared nothing for you. Kept you in a bubble away from the other children.
Your only saving grace was that you weren’t poor.
So you were given free rein to read.” Harrington narrowed his eyes.
“You gathered enough information to free yourself. And in doing so, you became a vampire. Irony of all ironies, you’re still a sick, twisted, worthless bastard. ”
“Are you finished? I’ve had enough of your babble.”
“You treated Washington like the brother you never had and Beckham like the son you couldn’t have.
Except you can’t let anyone close to you.
Not for real. And when they get close, when they start to figure you out, you revolt, which only makes it worse.
Because the truth is, William,” she said coolly, “you’re just a sick, lost boy who’s hoping no one will see it. ”
“Enough!” Harrington roared, jumping to his feet.
“Hit a nerve?”
“You are grasping at straws. You know nothing of my childhood or the life I’ve lived.”
“I don’t have to know. I know you.”
Harrington’s eyes blazed with fire. He was furious that she was using his past against him. She could see on his face that he despised her for it.
“It changes nothing,” Harrington said, slowly sinking back into his seat. “You’ve left me no other choice.”
“There are always choices. Why do you have to do this? We can make the world a better place together.”
“I see you believe that. But what you don’t realize is that I am already creating the utopia I so desire. And with you feeding me, I will rule everything.”
“All you want is someone to love you. To see you for who you are and not be afraid. Can’t you consider another route?”
Harrington met her gaze head-on. Then he pressed another button on his desk. “Bring her in.”
A door behind her swished open. Reyna swiveled in place, careful not to put her back to Harrington. Fear crept into her heart. Whatever Harrington had prepared for her couldn’t possibly be good.
In walked Jodie.
Held captive by a vampire.
“Now, let’s reconsider your position,” Harrington said.