Angel's Pain (28 page)

“No, not really. Look.” He held up a small remote control, and the glasslike screen turned opaque, and then a picture came to life on its face. Like a television screen, the thing showed him Briar. She was standing in the shower, naked, washing her hair and crying.

“I've got the place rigged with cameras,” Gregor said from somewhere beyond the screen. “I'll make sure we have our long overdue sexual adventures right in front of one of them just for your benefit, Reaper. Don't worry. You can thank me later.”

He left the thing on, probably as a form of torture. And it was effective. Reaper couldn't look away, though he tried, as Briar toweled off. He noticed every inch of her, winced at every bruise marring her beautiful skin, her face. Her neck. All of it.

She took a garment from the wall and put it on. A bustier, black, with a pair of tiny thong panties that barely covered her. And then she sat on the john and pulled on the stockings, followed by the pointy-heeled shoes that Reaper knew she detested.

This is not going to happen, Gregor. I promise you right now, if it kills me, you are not going to have her. Not ever.

Yes, I am. She owes me. And despite all your fury, Reaper, there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

 

Eric pulled the fragment of metal from Crisa's skull and dropped it onto the surgical tray beside the bed. Then he irrigated the wound with saline solution, hoping to rinse away any toxins that hadn't yet been absorbed by her body. And finally he closed up the tiny wound in her head and wrapped it tightly, to keep the pressure on until dawn, so she wouldn't bleed out.

After he was done, he straightened away from the table and closed his eyes. “That's all I can do. There's no way to tell if she'll recover. Or if she'll be…the same, if and when she does.”

“Let's hope for the best,” Roxy said. “You're done in, Eric. Give yourself a rest. Ilyana and I will do some Reiki healing to help things along.”

Eric nodded, crossed the room and slumped into a chair. Then he looked up to see Mirabella sitting beside the police officer. She'd unbound his hands and returned his clothing to him, promising to leave him free as long as he cooperated. Her unrivaled beauty probably had as much effect as her natural charm. She'd located a small kitchen off the clinic's reception room, and made the man a sandwich and a pot of coffee, then sat beside him, keeping him company while he ate.

The cop's sharp gaze went to Crisa, then shifted suspiciously to Eric. He didn't seem to miss a thing, but he didn't ask many questions. Nor did he seem overly eager to get away.

Now, for the first time, he spoke directly to Eric. “I don't pretend to know what's going on here, but I can see that you're trying to save that girl's life. What I don't get, is why you didn't just take her to a hospital?”

Eric nodded. “She's not like you or Roxy or Ilyana, or even the boy over there. She's like us. We're…different. A hospital wouldn't know that, and their efforts to save her could have ended up killing her instead. And while you've been remarkably cooperative, that's all I can really tell you. And more than I probably should have.”

The officer nodded, clearly still curious, but not demanding more. “I should have reported in again by now,” he said. “They'll be sending another car to my last known location to check on me soon.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “In fact, it may well be on its way already.”

Eric raised his brows, surprised at the man's honesty. Then he turned to the others. “We need to move her. And there are only two hours left before the dawn.”

“But we haven't heard from the others yet. What if Gregor has all of them?” Roxy asked.

“Look,” the cop said, “if this Gregor guy is trouble, I can get you some help.”

Mirabella smiled at him, and Eric was rather surprised that the man didn't melt into a puddle at her feet. “You would do that, after we held you here this way? All bound up in a closet?”

He met her eyes—seemed lost in them, in fact. “I've seen a kid reunited with his mother. I've seen a woman's life saved. I've seen a bunch of people go out to try to rescue their friends from this Gregor character. And I've got good instincts. My gut tells me you're the good guys in all this, even if your methods are a little bit over the line.”

“Your gut is right.” Mirabella held his gaze a moment longer, then took his plate and cup from him.

“More coffee?”

Before he could answer, his radio crackled.

“Charlie-five, Charlie-five, report in.”

He reached for the mike, which was once again clipped to his chest where it belonged, and when Eric started to protest, he held up one hand. “It's okay. I'm not going to give you away.”

Then he answered the call. “This is Charlie-five. Everything's fine. I had a radio malfunction. Didn't realize it until just a few minutes ago.”

“Charlie-five, what's your location?”

“I'm cruising Main Street. Everything's quiet.”

“Charlie-five, we have a second report of activity at the clinic. Can you take another look?”

“Affirmative. I'm on it. Charlie-five out.”

He looked up at the others. “That should buy you enough time to get out of here.”

“Thank you,” Eric said.

“Yes,” Mirabella echoed. “Thank you…Charlie, is it?”

His smile was quick and genuine. “It's Marcus Jones. You know, you look like Mirabella DuFrane. The actress. Who died years ago.”

“I know. But I'm not.” She tilted her head to one side, watching him decide whether or not to believe her. In the end, he let it go.

“I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “Not in the foreseeable future, anyway. So if you ever get back in town…”

“Oh, Charlie. That's so sweet. I'll remember you.”

He smiled again, and let her calling him Charlie slide. Maybe he would think of it as an endearment someday.

That Mirabella, Eric thought with a slight shake of his head. She could charm the spots off a leopard. Provided it was a male leopard.

“I'll go get the van,” Roxy said. “We need to find shelter before daylight, and then we need to find out what the hell's happened to the others.”

“Take
Charlie
here with you,” Eric said, with a wink in the officer's direction. “You can show him where Jack stashed his car, and then he can get out of here and resume his life unhindered.”

“All right.” Roxy held out a hand. “Come on…Charlie.”

He nodded and gave Mirabella one last longing glance.

Then, impulsively, she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for your help.”

“You're welcome. Maybe someday…you can look me up and tell me what all this was about.”

“Maybe I will,” she said.

Eric sighed, knowing Mirabella was never going to give the poor sap a call, as Roxy and the cop slipped out of the clinic. Then he turned to where Dwyer had collapsed in a chair, exhausted.

“Before I let you take a well-earned nap, friend, there's something you promised to tell us. About the drones?”

Dwyer lowered his head.

“It's not as if I'm giving you a choice here. I'm being pleasant, but I don't have to be.”

Dwyer still didn't speak. Eric shook his head and turned to Ilyana. “You'd best take your son into the other room. Mirabella, you might want to leave, as well.”

“Oh, no,” she said. “I might just want to help. I'm not
all
sweetness and light, you know.”

Eric lifted his brows in stark surprise.

She shrugged. “Don't let anyone ever tell you I wasn't a great actress.”

“You still are,” he said.

Ilyana took Matt by the hand. Matt looked back at Dwyer, then at Eric. “Don't hurt him, Mr. Marquand. I can tell you what you want to know.”

Every eye in the place fixed on the boy.

“Go on,” Eric said. “What do you know about this, son?”

“Well, you've all been calling them by the wrong name. Though you were pretty close.” Eric frowned. Matt smiled a little, as if he thought it was funny.

“They're not
drones.
They're
clones.”

Dwyer leapt to his feet. “How the hell do you—”

“Shut up, Dwyer,” Mirabella said, and she shoved him in the chest, so he landed firmly back in the chair.

“The agency has been working on the…the project for more than twenty years,” Matt said. “They managed to make the first few drones by taking some of the Chosen captive and doing that lobo—lobolomy thing on them.”

“Lobotomy,” his mother said.

“Yeah, that. And then they transformed them, and ended up with these really obedient and really strong Hulk guys. Then they tried it again with people who were just born big and strong and wound up with even stronger ones. And then they found some guys who'd used steroids—really big guys who made themselves even bigger—who also had that antigen thing but probably didn't know it. And they ended up with really big, really strong, really dumb guys. And those were the ones they cloned.”

Eric hunkered down to the boy's eye level and clasped his shoulders. “How do you know all this, Matthias? Did you hear it from your father?”

“No. He doesn't know any of it.”

“Then—”

“Eric,” Ilyana interrupted. “I believe him. And we're short on time, and to be honest, there are reasons this part of the discussion would be better set aside until later.”

Eric eyed her. And then it hit him. The boy was psychic. Powerfully psychic, especially if he'd managed to read Dwyer, a man accustomed to blocking his thoughts. Then again, Dwyer probably wasn't as guarded around the boy as he would have been around the undead.

“All right,” he said.

“They have hundreds of them, Eric,” Matt said.

“They keep them in some kind of military place. It looks like a cross between a prison and a hospital. They've got all ages of them there, even baby ones, and they just keep making more, all the time. And they keep them drugged until they need them. And then they transform them into vampires and send them off to whatever mission they have for them. Dad's drones are just an experiment. They've got way bigger plans in mind.”

“I'll just bet they do,” Mirabella said.

“Do you know where this military installation is?” Eric asked.

“No,” Matt said. And then he looked at Dwyer.

“But
he
does.”

Headlights penetrated the windows as the van pulled to a stop outside. Eric nodded. “Let's go. We can deal with the rest of this later.” He scooped Crisa up into his arms, then nodded to Mirabella. “Bring Dwyer. And don't let him get away from you.”

“Oh, I won't. Don't you worry.” She eyed Dwyer.

“
Babies,
” she said, disgusted.

“They're clones,” Dwyer snapped, instantly defensive.

“They're human beings. You bastard.” She jerked him up by one arm and took him with her out to the waiting van.

“G
regor, I'm unblocking the door to this dungeon you have me in,” Reaper said. “I won't keep you from coming in.”

“Of course you won't,” Gregor said. He'd turned off the closed-circuit television for the moment, so he could look down through the glass at Reaper.

“I'm serious. That's what you want, isn't it? To come in here and drain me? To take my power? It's yours. Come and get it.”

“You're baiting me.”

“I'm not. I give up.”

“Why? What do you have to gain, Reaper? I'll take her, anyway, and kill her when I've finished. You know that, would know that even if I told you otherwise. So what do you gain by giving your power to me?”

Reaper stood just beneath the window to let Gregor see him, see the emotions on his face, and feel them emanating from his mind and his soul. “If you kill me first, at least I won't have to watch you…defile her. I can't go through that, Gregor. Show a little mercy.”

Gregor opened his mouth, closed it again. “It would be better, ravaging her while your blood is pounding through my veins. I'd be on a power high. Everything would be…intensified.”

Reaper tried to block the image of Gregor forcing Briar to endure his attentions from his mind, but without much success.

And then Gregor said, “All right. I'm coming down. If you don't let me in instantly, Reaper, I'll go back upstairs and make sure I hurt her even more than I had already planned. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I understand. Come on down. I'm waiting.”

Reaper focused on the door and mentally made sure he was no longer blocking it from opening, not even a little. It had taken a supreme effort to keep the damn door closed before. And he hadn't even been certain he could make it work. Now he made sure his force was completely removed from it. Let Gregor come in. He would fight for his life, and for Briar's, and maybe he would lose. But he had to try.

 

Seth pulled the Mustang over to the side of the road a quarter mile from the former Marquand mansion, and killed the engine and headlights.

“We go in from separate directions,” Jack said. “The only way to do this is slowly and patiently. We've got to find the drones and take them out one by one.”

“While Reaper and Briar are in there going through God knows what?” Seth asked. “No way. It'll take too long. I say we just charge the place, take out as many as we can on the way and get inside fast.”

“If we do that, we'll be trapped in that house, just like Reaper and Briar are,” Topaz said softly. “We won't be any help to them if we get captured, as well, Seth.”

“But they could be dead by the time we get in there!” Seth clenched his fists and looked out the window.

“They could be dead already, Seth,” Jack said. “We need to take out the drones. The more the better. We can work quickly but carefully. We have to try not to miss any.”

“I'm afraid he's right, Seth,” Vixen said softly. “We have to find them, and then we can disable or…or kill them. And with every one we get rid of, we'll be that much closer to saving Reaper and Briar.”

Seth closed his eyes. “I know it makes the most sense, I just…dammit, Reaper saved my life.”

“He's saved all of our lives,” Jack said. “Mine included. Believe me, I want to repay him for that as badly as you do. But we have to keep our heads about this.”

“And we'll make better time if we split up,” Topaz added.

“Oh, no. No way, I'm not agreeing to that.” Seth clutched Vixen's hand and looked into her eyes. “We go in pairs. I'm damned if I'm going to risk losing you, too.”

“On that we agree,” Jack said, but he was looking at Topaz, not Seth, as he said it.

“Yeah,” Topaz added. “I'm not letting Jack risk his pretty neck without me nearby to save it.”

He made a face at her.

“What, you think you'll be the one saving
my
pretty neck?”

“Let's hope neither of our necks needs saving.” Jack kissed her quickly, then opened the car door to get out. The others followed suit. Jack and Topaz, armed to the teeth, moved to the west of the mansion's grounds, while Seth and Vixen headed east. They blocked their thoughts, guarding the essence of themselves to keep the drones from sensing their presence, and began moving into the woods in silence, ready and watching for the enemy.

 

Briar came back down the stairs to find herself alone in the living room. Gregor was gone. Instantly, she called out to Reaper.

Where are you?

Distracting Gregor with an offer he couldn't refuse. Get the hell out, Briar, before he comes back.

I'm not leaving you. Tell me where you are.

Even as she sent out the thought, she began searching the room. She wasn't sure what for. Items she could use as weapons? A clue to where Jack and Gregor might be? A way out?

She went to the locked door and peered outside. A drone was standing guard just beyond. Dammit. She left the door lock engaged to keep him from coming inside, then turned to scan the rest of the room more carefully. And then she saw it. A glasslike window in the floor, with darkness beyond it.

What is this? What is this glass panel in the floor?

Leave it alone and get the hell out, Briar.

She hurried to the panel and peered through it. At first she saw nothing, and then her eyes adjusted. A cell, far below. A darkened, concrete room that had to be even beneath the basement. As she watched, Reaper came into view, walking backward, his eyes on something in front of him.

And then Gregor stepped into sight. “Well,” he said, sounding surprised. “You kept your word and actually removed the power you'd exerted on the door to keep me from getting to you.”

Briar blessed her heightened vampire senses for allowing her to hear the men's conversation, even if only faintly.

“I told you I would,” Reaper replied.

I can see you! And I'm not leaving, so tell me something, dammit. Anything that can help you!

Gregor lunged at Reaper, delivering a crushing blow to his jaw that sent him flying backward. But even though Reaper hit the wall, he refused to go down. He pushed off and went after Gregor, landing a punch to the side of his head, then another to his solar plexus. Gregor bent over double, clutching his middle.

“I knew you wouldn't keep your word. Fortunately, I came prepared.” When Gregor straightened again, he had a weapon of some sort in his hands.

He jabbed it at Reaper, and Briar could sense the powerful shock it delivered. It made Reaper's body go rigid in pain.

He collapsed to the floor, quivering.

Get out, Briar
, he thought at her.
Please…

No. I'm going to find a way down there.

Gregor bent over him, gripped the front of his shirt.

There's a remote control. I think he keeps it on the mantle.

Briar scrambled for the device, located it and began pushing buttons. She was shocked when one of them caused the glass panel in the floor to slide slowly open.

Bending over Reaper, Gregor looked up, startled by the sound of the panel opening, but almost before he could have hoped to process what was happening, Briar tucked the remote down the front of the skimpy outfit she wore, and jumped into the chute, stilettos and all.

She hit Gregor hard, a full body impact that took him to the floor. “I'm done with you, you bastard,” she growled, and then she kicked him in the chin. His head snapped back. He got his arms beneath him, scuttling backward like a crab, then lifting the stun gun he still held in one hand.

She kicked again and sent it flying. Then once more, the impact connecting with his jaw this time. And then she lowered her high-heeled shoe to his throat while he flailed beneath her.

“You deserve this. In fact, you deserve a hell of a lot more, but I want you to know I'm going to enjoy this, Gregor. I've been waiting a long time to kill you, you bastard.” She lifted her foot, determined to slam it down again.

But he grabbed her ankle, flipping her off her feet. She landed on her back with an impact that stunned her. Gregor jumped up, even as Reaper got to his feet. The two men stood nose-to-nose. Then, quickly, Gregor looked upward, knowing he was outnumbered. Just as quickly, Briar read his intent in his eyes, yanked the remote from her breast, aimed upward and thumbed the button.

Even as Gregor leaped with every ounce of power he possessed, the clear partition slid closed. He smashed into it and tumbled back down, landing hard.

Reaper went for him, but Briar gripped his shoulder, jerked him aside, raced forward and then lowered one pointy heel as hard as she could. It jabbed straight through Gregor's throat.

“Like I said,” she told him, staring down at his gaping mouth and bugging eyes with a sense of power like nothing she'd ever felt before racing through her, “I'm done with you.” She gave a twist before jerking the heel free.

He lay there, writhing and bleeding. He clutched at his neck in an effort to stop the flow, but it was no use. As the blood spread out across the concrete floor around her, Briar stepped lightly back, out of its way.

And then, as the light faded from Gregor's eyes for the last time ever, Briar turned to Reaper. He stared at her, and she at him. And when he opened his mouth to speak, she put her finger over his lips and shook her head.

“You're about to rub it in, aren't you? You're going to say you knew all along I was capable of caring about someone besides myself. You're going to say I've proven it by risking my ass to save Crisa and then the kid, and now you. You're going to say you were right all along. And then you're going to tell me that you have to leave. To go find Miss Sunnybrook Farm, who turned out not to be so sunny after all. That you have to finish that before you can—”

He clasped her hand and moved it away from his mouth. “You don't know shit about what I'm going to tell you, Briar.”

Then he jerked her close, and he kissed her. And she swore her heart melted right inside her chest then, because that was what it felt like. He fed from her mouth as if he were starving for her taste, and he held her so close to him that every curve and line of her body melded to his.

When he finally lifted his head, he said, “I'm going to say that I'm really glad you turned out to have a heart in there after all, because it would be hell if I were in love with a woman who didn't.”

She blinked, almost dizzy, completely confused. “In love?”

“I love you. You crazy, vengeful, relentless, stubborn, badass bitch, I love you to hell and back.”

Her lips widened into a smile. A huge smile, and then a laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep inside her. When she could finally speak again, she said, “You moping loner of a killing machine, I love you, too. At least, I guess that's what this feeling is that's damn near splitting my chest open trying to get out.”

“Yeah, I think that's what it is.”

“So shall we get out of here, then?”

“Good idea. Nice outfit, by the way.”

“Thanks. It was a gift. I'm thinking of keeping it, actually.” She stretched a leg, pointed her toe and looked at her foot thoughtfully. “I'm growing particularly fond of the shoes.”

“Me, too.”

She pointed the remote at the glass above them, ready to thumb the button to open it so they could leap to freedom.

“Briar,” Reaper said. “Hon, the cell door is unlocked.”

She met his eyes, relished the teasing light in them.

“Oh.” She linked arms with him, and they walked out the door, then climbed the ladder that led up into the basement.

As they emerged, Reaper looked around, and saw the lab and the empty gurney. “How is Crisa doing?” he asked, his tone no longer playful.

“I don't know. I got her the hell out of here, along with Eric and the kid. Dwyer, too, once I got the information I needed from him.”

“About my—former wife?”

“Yeah. And about your trigger words. The second one. We know it now. We also know the name of the asshole who programmed you for the CIA, and once we track him down, he can damn well undo what he did to your head or suffer the consequences.”

“Hell. You really are useful to have around, you know that?”

They located the stairs and headed up them, emerging into the main part of the house just as the front door crashed open and four of their heroic sidekicks burst in, looking as if they were expecting to face down a pack of rabid grizzlies.

They looked around the room, weapons drawn, spotted Reaper and Briar, and then relaxed visibly, though they kept their tranq guns aimed.