Replica(17)

The sound of cheering filled the room, and I looked up to see a baseball game on the screen. “Mind turning that down?”

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his gaze on the screen. “I do mind.”

“One of us is trying to work here.”

“You’re wasting your time. You’re not going to find what you’re looking for on the computer.”

I sat back in my chair. “Oh? And I suppose you know the answers?”

He turned to look at me, his face expressionless. “No. That’s why I’m here.”

“Yeah. Let’s address that.” I scooted my chair around to face him. “You just appear out of nowhere and suddenly you’re stuck to Lea like a leech to a coon dog. Why?”

He pushed out a breath and leaned over his legs. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. In fact, I’d be suspicious of you if you did. But I’m here to help. This thing runs deep, and it affects my species as well as yours and Lea’s.”

“Species?”

“Isn’t that what we are? Altered genetics.” He shook his head slightly. “I’ve been looking for her since I heard about those serial murders the vampires committed. I knew they were trying to draw her out to destroy her. I was hoping I would find her before they did.”

“They?”

“The people behind the monsters.”

I lifted my eyebrows, waiting for more of an explanation, but when I realized none was coming, I scowled. “I know she’s a big bad vampire, but she’s my big bad vampire. If you so much as put a nick in her with one of those canines, I’ll kick your ass back up to Canada.” When he looked surprised, I rolled my eyes. “Please, your accent.”

“We need to work together on this. We’re on the same team.”

I’d been told that before by more men than I could count. One of them had tried to kill me. I’d discovered Sean, my ex, near the last of the serial vamps’ crime scenes. Him and his military enforcers. He’d been hot on the ass of my best friend Derrick. Sean had ultimately killed Derrick to keep his story quiet, and Lea had, in turn, killed Sean. I felt no remorse about letting her do it—Sean had killed one of the few men I’d ever trusted.

And now I was left with no one.

My gaze shifted to the still-open window, the cool night air blowing the silk curtains.

Maybe not no one.

I glanced back at Ivan. “You think you’re the first pretty face attached to a beef stack of muscles to tell me that? Please… You have to earn my respect and trust, and I’ve been burned so many times, I suspect you’ll never make the cut.”

He shrugged, looking unconcerned. “I can live with that.”

I caught his barely-there glance at the window. He could live with my animosity just fine. It was Lea’s approval he was after. Maybe we could use it to our advantage.

I pulled out my headphones and spent the next hour tuning out the ballgame on the screen while I searched Derrick’s files for anything that hinted at the Aglaea division or Hades, but as I suspected, there was nothing. While Derrick had found plenty of signs hinting at the U.S. government’s involvement, he’d known very little about the inner workings of the project.

I texted Tom about five times, probably annoying the hell out of him with my endless requests for updates. Finally, about ten minutes before I needed to leave, he sent what I’d been waiting for.

The contents of the pill are as follows:

VX 10%

Magnesium stearate 85%

Red blood cells 5%

Blood cells are off the chart with electrical impulses though. Never seen anything like it.

I pushed out a sigh of relief. Now I could meet that bastard Hades. And while I hadn’t paid a lot of attention in my anatomy and physiology class in college, I was pretty damn sure blood cells didn’t give off electrical pulses. Interesting.

I pulled out my headphones and shut down my laptop. Ivan looked up, but returned his attention to the TV when I walked down the hall to use the bathroom. After I finished, I dug through the bedroom closet to see if I could find anything useful to help hide me. Unfortunately, the uptight woman who lived here only had designer clothes, and the man who shared a small sliver of her closet was only allowed space for his suits and dress shirts.

I opened several dresser drawers before I found the two relegated to him. The hooded sweatshirt buried in the back was exactly what I’d hoped to find. Light gray too, to make me less suspicious. I found a Mets baseball cap and stuck it on top of my head.

I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Time to go.”

He flicked off the TV as I moved toward the window. “I don’t think we should be seen together,” I said. “You know they’re probably still watching for us. I can blend in more easily than you.” I looked up at him. How tall was he?