Dark Desire (17 page)

“Who’s there?”
he
demanded,
his tone whipcord sharp. The shuffling
stopped, and a groan came out of the shadows followed by a voice so broken and
hoarse for a moment Zeke struggled to understand the garbled words.

“Get out. Leave
me here.
No … no hope.
Ah,
merde
,
the pain! C…c…can’t stop it.”

“Oh
gods,
Cody
?”
Zeke’s stomach
dropped. Reaching the bars he gripped them tight. “What did they do to you,
man? Where are we?”

“P…preservation
Society.
Experiments, forced to consume dead blood, kill me.
Can…can’t
become one of the monsters. Pl-please Zeke, for the love of God! Get.
Away.
Now!”

Light, harsh and
blinding,
filled the room in a white haze. Turning his
face against his forearm he waited until he could see again before slowly
lifting his head, blinking the world back into focus.

A man appeared
in his line of sight. Short, bald with thick black framed glasses perched on an
overlarge nose. His nut-brown complexion stood out stark against the white of
his rumpled lab coat, splattered with recent bloodstains. And yeah, that was
alarming. But what really brought a chill skittering over his skin and down his
spine was the cold, remorseless intellect in the dark eyes studying him.

“My, my, my,
what have we here?” He easily identified the man’s thick accent as being from
India.

“A very pissed
off man.” Zeke’s snipped sarcasm, thick as molasses, hung on every word.

The
stranger
tisked
, shaking his head in disapproval.
“Now we both
know you are not a man, don’t we? With those very impressive eyes of yours, the
question is what breed you may be and how much of a threat you pose to our
race.”

“No, the
question is where the hell am I and who are you?”

“Ah,
how remiss of me.
I’m Doctor
Haub
, and you are under containment by the
Preservation Society until we discern what risk you present and how to best
neutralize it.”

Chapter Eighteen

Zeke took
another step back from the man, his gaze drawn to the form huddled in a similar
cage, and he let out a growl of shocked outrage. Dear gods, his stomach lurched
at what he could see of his friend. Cody’s nude form huddled in a ball, arms
wrapped tightly to his knees, but what made bile rise in Zeke’s throat was the
obvious damage done to him. Every inch of his flesh seemed to be covered in
deep slashing wounds. As if someone had flayed the skin from him. His heart
sank further as his gaze locked onto a hollowed out face, eyes glowing … red.

Feral
.

The word echoed
in his mind, and the intensity of Cody’s stare shook him for within those
glowing orbs swirled rage, agonizing pain, and insanity. The Cody he knew no
longer existed. Instead what stared back at him with unblinking intensity was a
beast these bastards made from torture and gods knew what else.

No,
not they,
him
.
He had no doubt
Doctor
Haub
did this to his friend. Rage shook
through Zeke’s body like a starving dog with a bone. “I will kill you for what
you have done to Cody.” He spoke softly, every word delivered with a calm
deadly confidence. Stating it with such cold detachment, he might have spoken
regarding the weather.

The doctor
showed no trace of fear. Why should he when his latest victim stood in a
secured cage? “I hardly think you are in any position to make threats. You dark
breeds are so arrogant at first. Full of threats, but after a few sessions with
me, ah,
then
you see how empty your threats are. I
have so many things I must know about you and those eyes. They are truly
fascinating really. Tell me, do you see in color or shades of grey?”

“Cody, are you
ready to get out of here?” Zeke asked without taking his eyes off the insane
doctor contemplating dissecting him as if he was a bug to be studied.

“Get out of
here, Zeke. I’m far too gone to help,”

Cody’s voice
came out in a hoarse whisper as if his vocal cords were damaged. More than likely
they were. Zeke had never in his life seen so much damage done to another. The
thought brought another surge of pure rage pouring through his system, burning
like acid.

“I’m not going
anywhere without you, buddy.” He swore.

“You have a lot
of confidence that this cell can’t hold you. Why is that I wonder?” Doctor
Haub
mused. Sighing he waved a hand in the air as if
shooing a bug. “No matter, you will soon learn there is no place to go. You are
here for as long as you live, which may be only a matter of days, depending on
how strong your will is to live.
Now the vampire has quite a
strong will to survive.
Even when given a steady diet of dead blood,
becoming the one thing he’s sworn to kill, he refuses to just simply give up.
Very interesting.
I’m learning so much about you breeds, but
instead of finding the answers to my questions, it only brings up more for me
to try and unravel.”

“How did I get
here?” Zeke refused to be baited into displaying his hand, grimly controlling
his rising anger. He needed information before he made his move, and he would
kill the sick bastard before taking Cody and jumping out of this hellhole.

“I see no reason
not answer your question. After all, there is nothing you can do with it. You
were a gift from Mr. Pope’s lady friend. She is turning out to be quite a
resourceful woman. She not only flushed out a very dangerous breed hiding in
plain sight, she gave us you.”

An uncomfortable
suspicion took root in Zeke’s mind, his gut churning from more than the beating
he took. “And this paragon to your cause has a name I assume?”

“Elise. Funny,
but I don’t know what her last name is.”

Of course he
didn’t, because the bitch’s name wasn’t Elise, but Amari. He would bet his
father’s throne on it.

The doctor
brushed it aside as a matter of little importance. “Anyway, we know all about
your grand scheme to meet with the world leaders in two days in a bid to wrest
control from us. Your friend Cody here, among a few others, is going to help to
show the world just how dangerous you really are. We are sending a clear
message that all dark breeds are not to be trusted. Once the world sees what
you are capable of there will be no place for you to run. Humans will rise up
and hunt down every one of you abominations until the earth is purged of your kind.”

Zeke’s blood ran
cold at the prospect. He looked over at Cody, seeing the feral gleam in his
blood red eyes, more animal than man now. Putting him anywhere near humans in
his condition would be a disaster of epic proportions. That the Preservation Society
was fully prepared to sacrifice their own made him nauseous. Setting
ferals
free among helpless humans … the resulting bloodbath
would seal the fate of every breed in existence. The doctor had one thing
right. They would be hunted down with extreme prejudice.

Zeke had heard
more than enough. He needed to get to Marcus with this
intel
,
but first he had to know if
Laris
was somewhere in
the building. He would not leave without her, and he intended to protect her
with his life if need be.

“Did a … Elise
have a woman with her?”

“Oh, yes, quite
a beautiful girl I must say. Ah, I see she means something to you, this girl,
very interesting.”

“Is the girl
still here?” Zeke managed to grit out between his teeth.

Doctor
Haub
gave him a large toothy grin. “Unfortunately, she left
with Elise, said she was taking her home for a few days. Said they were having
some sort of reunion. Seems the girl is quite a handful for poor Elise. Now I
think we’ve had enough chitchat. It’s time to get you prepared for your first examination.
I must admit, I am rather eager to examine those eyes of yours with much
greater care, but first, there are the standard tests to run.”

Zeke smiled back
as he prepared to jump, the ability filling his ears with a sharp hum as his
molecules began to move faster than light, and picturing clearly in his mind
where he wanted to appear he willed the ability to transfer him.

A sharp biting
sting hit his neck before he could do anything, and shock mixed with horror as
he yanked out a dart from his neck. What the hell? He tried to jump, yet
nothing but dead silence filled his ears, his ability negated by whatever was
in the damnable dart.

Dread rushed
through him, making his heart pound faster as Elise stepped up to the doctor’s
side, her hand wrapped snugly around a dart gun. “Now, do you think I would
overlook any details?”

His body shook
as rage consumed him. Throwing his head back he howled, and the sound
reverberated through the room filled with his wrath, frustration, and failure.
Knowing he failed, he would not save
Laris
or be able
to warn Marcus of the twisted trap waiting for him. His death—and he knew he
would die—would hold no purpose. No glorious ending fighting to protect those
who were too weak to fight for themselves. No, he would meet his end at the
hands of the monster standing in front of him laughing at his anguish. Nothing
more than a lab rat.

Something deep
within him shattered, his heart aching for the loss of a woman who came into
his life much too late, a woman he realized only now, he loved beyond all
reason. She alone held his heart and soul, and wasn’t it ironic that only as he
met his end, did he want a beginning with
Laris
.

****

Laris
looked at the
sparse, dingy hotel room with its peeling and faded wallpapered walls in faded
stripes of blues. A sagging sofa sat pushed against one wall with a scuffed and
nicked coffee table, and the flat screen TV looked out of place hanging from
the other wall. The bed took up the opposite side. A blue frayed bedspread
covering it looked anything but comfortable. The bathroom proved equally out of
date, the gold and yellow reminding her of what might have been in fashion
thirty years ago. Fortunately, it was clean, even if the shower showed signs of
wear along with the small mirror over the sink.

 
It had been hours since Amari shoved her in
here, and without a word she’d left, the sound of the door locking behind her.
Oh,
Laris
had tried jimmying the lock, with no luck.
She would have climbed out the only window the room had, but the sheer drop from
four stories to the concrete walkway below would only serve to break her legs
should she try.

Frustration
tightened her chest, and worry for Zeke now in the hands of the Preservation
Society drove her mad with the need to find a way to get to him. At least she
knew his location, for her aunt, in a show of utter arrogance had brought her
to where they held him, describing in exacting detail the tests their doctor
would subject him to. Just hearing of it made
Laris’s
stomach churn with nausea and fear. There just had to be some way to get free.
If only she could jump, but unfortunately, not many
Mers
were born with the ability. Certainly, no one she knew.

The distinct
sound of the door unlocking made her jump, and her muscles coiled ready for a
fight. She never expected to see
Ja’mel
stumbling
into the room, his hands bound with thick rope. She gasped in shock to see his
handsome face a mass of contusions, his lip cut and bleeding, but the fury
burning in his black eyes promised retribution.

Ja’mel
dropped to his
knees with a grunt of pain as she rushed to his side, working the knots at his
wrists to free his hands. “
Lari
, thank the gods. I’ve
been looking for you everywhere. I thought you dead.”

She blinked back
the tears threatening to fall. Now was not the time for weakness. She would
feed the fire burning in her belly and use it to her advantage. Seeing her
brother in such pain only made her anger sharper.

“Oh gods,
Ja’mel
, we have been betrayed by our own blood. Not just us
but all the dark breeds are vulnerable because of Amari.”

“I know,” he
said grimly, fury etched in the tense line of his jaw. “Our
thia
took great pleasure in
sharing her handiwork.”

“We have to find
a way out of here. I have to get to Zeke before the Preservation Society kills
him.”

Ja’mel’s
smile held the
cold edge of a killer. “If you know where he is, then I can get us there. Amari
is not the only one with a secret or two.”

Chapter
Nineteen

The good doctor
delighted in shooting Cody with a tranquilizer dart and discussing his next round
of “tests” he set up for the vampire. Zeke would never forget the look in his
friend’s eyes, the image burned into his brain as deep and lasting as a brand
to his flesh. The silent plea for death was one he didn’t know if he could
deliver, yet he’d made a vow as an Enforcer to protect. After just one look at
Cody, he doubted there was much left of the former cop to save. Hell, it would
most likely be an act of mercy to end his suffering. He’d curled up on the
concrete floor and bided his time, waiting for the monster in human skin to
come for him.