Stark opened her hands in what she probably thought was a magnanimous gesture. ‘Try me.’
‘Was Ten acting alone, with everything she’s done in the past week?’
‘Yes,’ the woman said, her expression displeased. ‘She took it upon herself to leave the Facility without authorization. We tracked her down eventually, of course, and it was easy to . . .
persuade
her that she had made a mistake. That’s why she helped us to bring you and the Murdoch boy in.’
Reading between the lines, it was becoming clear that Subject Ten had escaped and gone on a bit of a rampage. Then Stark and the Nemesis Project had caught up to her and gotten her back under control.
‘This is getting off-track,’ she said, waving her hand with a sudden burst of impatience. ‘I simply want you to understand how important you are to our work here. We’ve been waiting for you a long time, Marie.’
I shivered. ‘What do you mean? For me, specifically?’
‘No, of course not. Just that we’ve wanted a young, successfully Turned vampire that we could . . . work with.’
Experiment on, you mean, I thought.
‘We tried to create our own, but none of the subjects survived.’
Oh. My. God. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I’d heard all kinds of horrifying things since being here, and this really couldn’t be any worse. And it hadn’t escaped me that she referred to her ‘created vampires’ as
subjects
. Had there been nine of them before the current model?
I hesitated. Clearly, Stark
did
want to talk about all this. I suspected that she wanted me to somehow get on side with her; maybe she even needed me to understand. I couldn’t imagine why that was – not yet – but that’s what my gut was telling me.
‘Couldn’t you have just approached me and tried to sell the idea of a cure? If your intel on me was so good, surely you knew how unhappy I was about what happened.’
Dr Stark stopped pacing. ‘And you’d know all about how good our intelligence was, wouldn’t you, Marie? You accessed our server shortly after Philip died.’
There was no point in denying it. I shrugged.
‘We simply didn’t want to take risks. We had to have you.’ She pursed her lips, leaning against the door with her arms folded. Her posture had defiance written all over it. ‘Your presence here is invaluable to us, Marie. Even if we can’t cure you, then perhaps we can . . . civilize you. All of you.’
Civilize
us? Ugh. I choked out my next words. ‘All the vampires, you mean?’
‘Yes. That would be a compromise, at least. If we can’t end your kind for good – in a humane way – at least we can ensure that the threat you pose to our society is neutralized.’
I screwed up my face in an effort to understand what this woman was saying. ‘You want to
civilize
vampires? How do you intend to do that? Whatever you have planned, it simply won’t work. Vampires
aren’t
civilized! Not beneath the surface, anyway. That’s the whole point. You can’t tame a wild animal – especially not one that’s had centuries to learn freedom in a world filled with prey.’
‘A neat summary,’ Stark replied. ‘But you’re forgetting that vampires once served a very important purpose. That’s what all predators do: they create a threat that forces the human race to survive long enough to
become
civilized. Now perhaps it is time to do the same for the vampires themselves.’ There was a knock at the door. ‘We’ll have to continue this later,’ she said. ‘It’s time for your medical exam.’
She opened the door, gesturing for the waiting guards to come inside, and I almost cried with frustration. I wasn’t getting out of here any time soon (at least, not under my own power) and I still didn’t know where Project Nemesis was based so that I could call in the cavalry.
I was in deeper trouble than I could possibly have imagined.
Time for your medical exam.
Stark’s chilling words echoed inside my head as I was marched – still bound by the silver chains – through the labyrinth-like Facility by two heavily armed guards. The air smelled cold and dusty, with an undercurrent of bleach or detergent. The corridors were confusing as hell, but I made a valiant attempt to look for markers that might help me remember my way around. I would escape eventually, I told myself. I’d need to know where to run when I got out.
Because I
was
going to get out – and soon. I had to. Theo would be so worried, and he needed me. Especially now that I knew the truth and could really help him.
But everything looked the same, and the place was freaking
huge
. And empty. I was surprised not to see more people around, working on science-y things and planning world domination. Up and down the sleek corridors the silent soldiers led me, and I had to shuffle in my chains to keep up. I was half tempted to stop walking, see what they’d do, but they would no doubt just drag me along the ground.
I focused on the details – anything that might help me later. There were identical steel doors placed in the walls at regular intervals, on either side of the first main corridor. Each door looked just like my own: plain, sturdy, most likely vampire-proof in some way, with a narrow rectangular window cut into the metal at eye level with a sliding cover. Just like in the movies, so that people on the outside could take a look inside before entering. I counted ten of these cells, each with a number above the door: 01, 02, 03, etc.
Ten rooms – ten
cells
– all designed to hold vampires. This was getting more and more crazy. Surreal. If I wasn’t seeing it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.
And then I heard a scream – a man’s scream – and I stopped walking, stumbling over my own feet as the restraints around my ankles tightened. The scream echoed, twisting along the corridor like the worst kind of music.
Whoever it was making that awful noise, he sounded desperate and defiant all at the same time. A sharp sort of fear blossomed inside me, uninvited. Unwelcome. I pushed it down and forced myself to breathe.
‘Hey,’ said the woman on my left, nudging me with her handy little Taser, ‘keep moving.’
I ignored her. ‘Do you have another vampire here?’
‘Shut up,’ the man said.
I dragged my feet, but took a few more steps. ‘What are you doing to him?’
Are you going to do that to me?
I didn’t ask that part, but I wanted to. Maybe whoever the screams belonged to was undergoing his own ‘medical exam’.
I gulped and stopped moving again.
The woman zapped me without further warning and I yelped, picking up the pace while nursing my injured dignity. I also tried super-hard not to think about how quiet it had suddenly become. The person wasn’t screaming any more. It was weirdly comforting, somehow, knowing that I wasn’t alone here. That I wasn’t the only one suffering, terrified – in pain. Of course, I was immediately slammed with guilt for thinking something so horrible.
I sighed. Maybe if I spent too long at the Facility I really
would
become a monster – if I wasn’t one already.
I was herded into a new room by my guards. The room was large and nondescript; it felt like it belonged in a lab rather than a hospital, although there was what looked like a medical examination table bolted to the floor in the center. Like the ones you see on hospital dramas. I looked around for a hot surgeon, but there was no sign. The walls were lined with various medical equipment, some of them glinting nastily under the harsh fluorescent lights. In one corner of the room was a cubicle with a thin shower curtain – like something out of the changing rooms in a clothes store. I swallowed and pictured Caitlín, and how just days ago, we’d been doing regular things together.
A rumpled man in glasses and wearing a lab coat was working at a computer screen in the opposite corner of the room. I could see his profile, and the expression of intense concentration on his face was clearly illuminated in the light of the oversized monitor filled with numbers.
He felt the eyes of a predator on him and looked up.
I gave him a little finger-wave and his already pasty face went even paler. This was definitely
not
the hot TV doctor.
The huge guard to my left shoved me in the back, and I stumbled in my chains. ‘Don’t mess with the nerds,’ he said.
‘I was just being friendly,’ I replied, smiling sweetly. I did my best to readjust my stance, trying to keep the silver away from any exposed flesh.
The soldiers in here seemed scarier. These guys looked different from the ones in the corridor, but it was hard to tell – after a while all their faces blurred into a single entity: they were enemies.
Whoever they were, they were
huge
. Lucky for me, I was the Anti-Buffy.
I sniffed the cool air, wrinkling my nose at the sharp, antiseptic undertones.
They’re all about the cleanliness here.
It made me wonder what they had to keep cleaning up, and my eyes landed on a rectangular drain set into the floor beside the steel examination table.
Gulping, I forced my gaze away as I was led over to the curtain and into the little changing cubicle. No point in scaring myself any more than necessary. Right?
A young woman dressed as a nurse (seriously) breezed in and held a crumpled wad of material out to me. ‘Please put this on, Miss O’Neal.’
I stared at the white gown and sneered, crossing my arms over my chest and giving her my best go-screw-yourself expression.
‘I can bring someone in to . . .
help
you if it comes to that. Far better to do this by yourself, don’t you think?’
‘You want to know what I think?’ I asked. I slowly raised the middle finger of my right hand and showed it to her. It was tricky, what with the cuffs and all, but I managed it well enough.
Oh, yeah.
She flushed. ‘Don’t make this harder than it has to be.’
I stuck out my chin and glared. ‘It’s the only way I know.’
The nurse turned on her heel and almost walked into Dr Stark, who had just come to join us.
Oh, joy.
They both tutted under their breath, as though it was totally unreasonable of me to be so uncooperative, and the harried-looking ‘nurse’ began to mutter to Doctor Stark. I could hear most of their conversation from my little changing booth:
Nurse (sounding exasperated):
She won’t put it on. Does she really need a gown?
Stark:
We’re not savages, Faye. She wears the gown.
Nurse:
Might have to tranq her. Again.
Stark (annoyed):
Then the tests won’t be accurate.
Nurse:
I don’t know what to do.
Stark (challenging):
You’re afraid of her.
Nurse (defensive):
She’s inhumanly fast, stronger than several of our soldiers combined, and she has fangs. I don’t think being . . .
wary
of her is unreasonable.
Stark:
She is also sluggish from the drugs already in her system. We can handle her. We can always get the muzzle, if it comes to that.
Nurse (sullen):
You handle her, then.
Stark (sounding increasingly irritated, but clearly doing her best to hide it):
Give me that gown. I’ll speak to her.
Stark approached me, smiling pleasantly as though I was at a hospital appointment and was just one of those reluctant patients who wanted to get out of there at the first possible opportunity. Everything was totally normal.
I smiled equally pleasantly in return, hoping to get under her skin.
‘Marie,’ she said, spreading her hands in a casual gesture that said, what-are-you-gonna-do? ‘It appears we need your cooperation.’
‘And I need you to let me out of this prison.’
She sighed, shaking her head as though genuinely disappointed. ‘It’s not a prison. I hope, in time, you’ll see that.’
I laughed. ‘You’re sick. Or maybe you’re genuinely deluded – I haven’t quite decided yet.’
‘Well, while you’re busy figuring it out, perhaps you’d be good enough to put this on.’ Stark handed me the gown again.
I took it from her, smirking a little as I saw the
I-told-you-so
look that the ever-hopeful doctor gave Nurse Faye.
Maintaining my untroubled and friendly expression, I ripped the gown into two pieces, then handed them back to Stark. I tried not to show how difficult I’d actually found it to tear the cloth in half – my strength must be
really
low; I was running on adrenaline, but that would have to be enough.
Stark pursed her lips and handed the shredded gown to the nurse. ‘Get another. If she ruins that one, there won’t be any more after that. We can just as easily do the tests with her naked.’
I swallowed, feeling every inch of my skin prickle, but I wouldn’t let her get to me. At least, I wouldn’t show her how much she was scaring me. I’d die first.
She folded her arms across her chest. ‘This is all quite unnecessary, you know. We don’t intend to hurt you.’
‘You honestly expect me to believe that? When I’m wearing
these
?’ I pointed down at the silver manacles and chains that still bound my wrists and ankles. ‘Because they really kinda hurt.’
‘I apologize for causing you discomfort then, Marie. But we can’t allow you to leave until we have all the data that we require.’
‘Right. Like you’re really going to let me fly away once you’ve poked and prodded at me. Why wouldn’t you just keep me as your own personal Lab Vamp forever?’
The less beefy of the two male guards, the redhead, snorted a laugh. Stark glared at him and he coughed, trying to cover up the fact that he found me funny.
Great. Now I was the comic relief.
Stark pursed her lips, and I saw something mean pass through her eyes. I didn’t trust her. Not even the tiniest bit; she was sneaky as hell. I knew sneaky when I saw it, and Helena Stark was all about the Cunning Plans. None of which were going to lead to a positive outcome for me.
‘I won’t cooperate,’ I said, standing my ground. ‘You’re holding me against my will, and God only knows what else you’ve got going on in this place. Whatever you’ve told me is just the tip of the iceberg. So I’m going to end your little experiments. I will tear this place apart, and then I’ll bring my Maker here and he’ll burn the remains.’