“And fast.” Todd shook his head. “I’ve never seen Cliff move so fast. He moved and fought like an Immortal Guardian.”
Zach cut Bastien a look, knowing the former vampire leader had secretly bestowed upon Cliff the same weapons training all immortals received when they transformed.
“What happened?” Melanie prodded. “What set him off?”
“Dr. Whetsman. I don’t know what he said, but Cliff went berserk and wanted to kill his ass. Damned near succeeded, too. We held him off with gunfire while Whetsman ran. I even tranqued Cliff once, but he still got past us and made it all the way up the stairs to the ground floor. If one of the guards up above hadn’t managed to tranq him a second time, Cliff would’ve either torn Whetsman apart or followed him out into the sun.”
Bastien muttered several slurs against Whetsman.
“What did Whetsman say to him?” Melanie asked.
“We don’t know. He’s out cold. Cliff broke his arm, his hip, and gave him one hell of a concussion. The other docs think he may be brain damaged.”
Zach frowned. “Seth hasn’t been by to heal him?”
Todd shook his head. “Seth said he’s tied up in Mozambique and will be by later to do it.” As they stopped in front of a heavy steel door, Todd lowered his voice. “I think Seth is pissed at Whetsman for triggering the break. Cliff has fought long and hard to keep the madness at bay. And you know what a dick Whetsman can be.”
All nodded.
Zach had once heard Chris say Whetsman wasn’t a prick, he was a brilliant prick whose input on their viral research, unfortunately, had been so valuable to the network that it made overlooking his dickish nature imperative.
When Todd reached for a set of key cards attached to his belt, Zach waved him away and held his hand over the electronic lock. A loud clunk sounded, then the door—as heavy and thick as that on a bank vault—swung open.
The room beyond was small. Several feet of concrete coated the heavy steel walls, ceiling, and floor. A cot, the only furniture present, rested opposite the door with thick titanium chains embedded in the wall above it.
Cliff slept on the cot, his wrists and ankles manacled.
Melanie looked around. “Where’s Linda? She isn’t sitting with him?”
Dr. Linda Machen, Zach knew, was one of the other doctors at the network. The only one, aside from Melanie, who was comfortable working hands-on with the vampires.
“She left just before it happened and isn’t answering her phone,” Todd told her.
Frowning, Melanie strode forward and seated herself on the cot at Cliff’s hip. “Did you try her at Alleck’s?”
Zach’s eyebrows flew up. “Alleck’s?” Alleck was a German immortal Seth had been teleporting in on occasion to compare notes on the virus with Melanie. Zach had only met him once, but had found the immortal to be shy and soft-spoken.
“Yes.” Melanie leaned forward to press a palm to Cliff’s brown, stubbled cheek. “She’s sort of dating him.”
“Linda is dating Alleck?” Bastien questioned with disbelief.
Todd looked equally shocked.
“Yes.” Melanie peeled back one of Cliff’s eyelids. Curled her fingers around one of Cliff’s wrists. Paused. Then combed her fingers through his sticky dreadlocks, searching for the wounds beneath the blood. “Couldn’t you have at least cleaned him up?”
Todd shifted restively. “He injured a lot of guards, ma’am. By the time we brought him down, some were ready to hurl him out into the sun . . . and probably would have if Mr. Reordon hadn’t stopped them.”
Bastien moved forward and stared down at the young vampire. “I don’t understand. He was fine when we went hunting earlier.”
Melanie looked up at him. “Did he say or do anything to make you think he was struggling?”
“No. I mean, he told me a long time ago that it was harder to keep his violent impulses in check when he was around Whetsman, but he’s held it together thus far. And hunting provides him with an outlet for the violence. He always seems calmer after we hunt. Tonight was no exception.”
Melanie drew up the vampire’s T-shirt, exposing smooth, brown, leanly muscled skin riddled with bullet holes. “You didn’t even give him blood?” she demanded.
Todd shrugged. “As I said, we haven’t been able to reach Dr. Machen. And none of the other medical personnel will go near him. They’re too afraid of him.”
“Stuart?” Bastien said suddenly.
“Yeah?” Zach heard a vampire answer from one of the apartments down the hallway.
“Did you hear what happened?”
“No,” the vampire answered. “I was asleep until the gunshots sounded.”
“What about the rest of you?” Bastien asked.
The other five vampires housed at the network all responded in the negative. All had been asleep until the guards had started firing.
Melanie rose. “Can we move him to the infirmary?”
“You’ll have to ask Mr. Reordon,” Todd offered apologetically.
“Bastien, talk to Chris,” she ordered. “I’m going to get Cliff some blood.”
Bastien took out his cell phone and dialed Chris, who was still at Heather’s home.
“Reordon,” Zach heard Chris answer.
“It’s Bastien. I’m at the network with Zach and Melanie. We’re moving Cliff to the infirmary.” Bastien hung up.
Zach laughed.
The British immortal’s grave expression lightened ever so slightly. “You want to help me with these chains?” Bastien asked as he leaned over the bed.
Zach waved a hand.
The wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs sprang open.
Bastien lifted the young vampire into his arms and headed for the door.
Todd followed them out into the hallway. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Let me know if you need anything. And if all three of you intend to leave, please tell me ahead of time so we can restrain Cliff again. I have no idea what his mental state will be when he awakens and I’d rather avoid a repeat of what happened earlier.”
“Of course,” Zach agreed.
Todd hesitated. “I like Cliff, you know. He’s a good guy. And I know he can’t control what’s happening to him. I felt like shit, ordering the men to shoot him, but . . .”
Zach nodded. “We understand. And I know Reordon wasn’t the only one who prevented those with hotter heads from surrendering Cliff to the sun. You’re a good man, Todd.”
“Thank you, sir.” Spinning on his heel, Todd strode down the hallway, his boots thudding on the professional-grade linoleum floor.
In the infirmary, Bastien lowered Cliff onto one of the hospital beds. “Can you read Cliff’s mind, Zach, and tell us what went down?”
“I’ll try.” Zach frowned as he combed through the young vampire’s thoughts. The sedative muddled things and made it more difficult than it ordinarily would’ve been. Sort of like trying to understand the point of a long-winded tale spun by a sloppy-drunk man with slurred speech. “All I can discern is that he thought Whetsman meant to harm Linda. Either that or he thought Whetsman had killed her. It’s all jumbled up in there.”
Melanie approached, carrying several bags of blood, and began to set up an IV for Cliff.
Bastien helped her. “Where is Whetsman?”
Tight-lipped, she motioned behind him. “Over there. I saw him when I came in.”
Farther down, a curtain had been pulled closed around a bed.
Melanie met her husband’s gaze. “I should try to reach Linda.”
Bastien nodded. “I’m sure she’d want to know. Zach, would you see what you can find in Whetsman’s thoughts? Cliff hasn’t exhibited any of the paranoia that struck Joe when the madness took him. I want to know what Whetsman said to trigger Cliff’s break and make him think Linda was in danger.”
Zach crossed to Whetsman’s bed and yanked the curtain back. The paunchy doctor slept soundly, thanks to the morphine drip or whatever other pain-relieving drug was steadily trickling into his veins. He looked like shit, though. Lots of bruises. Casts. Bandages on his head.
Seth must have been pissed to postpone healing the human.
As Zach delved into the injured doctor’s thoughts and sifted back through what had happened, he heard Melanie dial Linda’s number on her cell.
Barely discernible through all of the cement and steel and layers of earth above them, a phone rang somewhere outside.
“Oh shit.” Zach turned to face the others.
Bastien and Melanie looked over at him, Melanie holding her cell phone to her ear.
The phone outside the building rang again in tandem with the one coming over the line on Melanie’s cell.
“Cliff was right,” Zach told them. “Whetsman shot Linda. He left her bleeding in the backseat of his car.” He pointed to Melanie’s phone. “Keep calling that number.”
Before they could react, he teleported to the network’s parking lot. Blinding sunlight struck as Zach appeared just outside the network’s bland front door. But, like Seth, Zach remained unaffected by the sun’s harsh rays.
“Code nine! Code nine!” he heard Todd shout over an intercom inside. “Immortals are on the move! All guards stand down and let them pass unharmed!”
Row after row of cars filled the parking lot.