Replica(61)

Rachel touched my arm. “Be careful, Lea.”

Antonio grunted but said nothing. For just a moment, I considered giving Rachel some of my blood to boost her strength. She must have seen it in my eyes because she shook her head.

I nodded. “You be careful, too.”

Explosives tucked away, I headed after Ivan, following his scent and watching for any booby traps along the way. The first arm of the facility rose out of the sand like the lurching monster it had resembled on paper. Ivan’s scent pulled me around to the far side, away from Rachel and the entrance she would likely end up using, so at the very least, that was good.

When I got within a few hundred yards, I lay in the sand and watched for movement. Ivan’s scent curled around me and beckoned me forward. The idiot had gone right down to the edge of the building. I could see cameras every ten feet or so, and there were guards circling the facility at three-minute intervals. But I had to give Ivan credit where it was due: it looked like he’d made it all the way down the sand dune without getting caught.

“Stupid mutt.”

The sound of a footfall on the sand was the only warning I got. I rolled to my back and had a silver stake out even as Calvin dropped down beside me. He raised an eyebrow.

“Still pissed? Usually you hold it together better than this.”

He could help me, I knew it. He knew it. Time to put aside any anger and our past issues.

“One last time, Calvin. Will you help me end this?” I weighted my words with the power and strength I’d taken from Ivan.

Calvin’s eyelids drooped and his voice slurred. “I only ever wanted to help you, Lea.”

Ooops. Maybe a little too heavy on the suggestion there.

“Calvin—”

“I loved you once.” He leaned toward me and I froze. Caught between the old desire and my new reality. I didn’t love him. Not like that. Maybe I never had. Maybe my feelings for him had just been my first attempt to regain my humanity.

I turned my face away and pulled back. “No. What’s done is done. We aren’t going back to that. Help me, Calvin. One last time and then I will end it for you. If that’s still what you want.”

His eyes cleared and he shook his head. “Your wolf got taken, but I can get you in there. I have access.” He flicked a badge on his chest. A damn badge.

Because he was one of them. Even if it wasn’t his choice.

“Wait here for me. I’m going back for Rachel.”

“No time. If they took him as a wild wolf, they’ll drop him into the tanks right off the bat. He’ll be fighting for his life already against werewolves that have been twisted, made stronger and less vulnerable to injury. For all I know it could be too late for him already.” Calvin stood and brushed sand off his shirt. “You coming?”

This might be my only chance to get in. My only chance to save Ivan. Fuck. I glanced back the way I’d come.

Rachel was going to kill me.

“Yes, I’m coming.”





CHAPTER 28





RACHEL



I let out a long groan. Vampires and werewolves were about as reliable as a drunk surgeon as far as I was concerned.

“She’s been gone for thirty minutes. What do you want to do?” Antonio asked.

I let out a string of curses that would have made a sailor blush.

He shifted his weight. “I hesitate to suggest this, but it needs to be said.”

I glanced at him, giving him a look that told him to proceed carefully. If he recognized I wouldn’t like what he was about to say, it couldn’t be good.

“She might have abandoned the mission.”

I snorted and shook my head. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“Why? Why wouldn’t she leave? We’re about to enter a facility that’s holding vampires as prisoners and our goal is to kill them all.”

“No.” I enunciated the word slowly and distinctly. “My goal is to get as much evidence as possible of what they are doing in there and then destroy their work by blowing up the facility.”

“And blowing up the vampires inside.”

I held up my hands. “Can vampires die in an explosion?”

“They will be weak and defenseless after their bodies burn. If they don’t feed, they will be slow to recover. And the young ones will die. The monsters will burn.”

I put my hands on my hips. “So what’s your plan? We burn them up and then you stake them in the back?”

“You bet your very sweet ass.”

So we were back to the whole egotistical pig thing. That truce hadn’t lasted long. And then the truth plowed into me so hard, I took a half-step backward.

I was so, so stupid.

Antonio had been in a lot of coincidental places. He worked for Victor—who had helped finance the facility on Rikers Island. He’d tailed me after my meeting with Hades. Then he’d picked us up after our train adventure.