Chapter 15
“Karen,” a male’s voice said.
She froze with her hand in her purse, fingers wrapped around the car keys. She was only a few feet away from her vehicle. She was better off not reacting to the name, pretending it wasn’t hers. She pulled the keys out and took another step toward the car.
“I wouldn’t do that, Karen,” the voice said.
Footsteps sounded at her back. Fear held her in check.
“Karen,” the voice said, sternly this time. She turned around.
The two men in black suits stood no more than ten feet from her. The one on the right pointed a gun at her.
“What do you want?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“You,” the man holding the gun said.
“To come with us,” the other added.
“If you shoot, everyone will hear it and come running and—” But before Karen could finish, the man holding the gun fired the weapon. She jumped back, her purse falling to the ground, as the asphalt near her feet exploded, sending pieces bouncing painfully off her shins. To her dismay, the gun hardly made a sound. She didn’t know much about firearms, but guessed the man was using a silencer.
“You’ll come with us quietly,” the man holding the gun said, “or your friend, Melanie, gets a bullet to the brain.”
Karen’s next breath clotted in her chest. Everything seemed to slow, her surroundings going out of focus. She blinked, shook her head, and exhaled. Karen knew the truth without reading their minds. They had Melanie. They must have heard the paramedic report go out and taken her before she had a chance to leave her apartment. But how could they have found her? She didn’t tell Melanie where she was heading. She herself hadn’t even known. Karen drew her sights on the man holding the gun and began probing his mind.
“Where’s Melanie?” she asked, and immediately the man’s thoughts betrayed him. She was in a car in the parking lot. Relief flooded through her. Melanie was still alive.
“Move it,” the man with the gun said, and motioned to a black sedan parked a couple of spaces to Karen’s right.
She had found a tool she could use. By asking a question, whether the person wanted to answer it or not, she realized the individual usually thought about it. The man hadn’t told her a thing about Melanie, but by asking him where she was, she was able to read his mind. The mind would tell all whether the mouth moved or not.
“How did you find me?” Karen demanded. She was stalling; it was all she could think to do. The man said nothing, but
looking
at him, really concentrating, she saw that he was the older paramedic from Melanie’s apartment, without the beard. They’d been following her, waiting for the right moment to take her. The motel had too many windows, too many watching eyes. The voice wanting to abduct her at the rest stop was his.
“Where are you going to take me?” she asked, her insides feeling as if they were going to melt. Any hope she had had was almost gone.
Still inside the man’s head, she saw a barn in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by a large chain-link fence. Armed guards patrolled the grounds. Inside the barn was a facility with levels.
“I’m not asking again, bitch,” the man growled. Karen’s telepathic link broke. The man was serious. He wanted her alive, but would kill her if she disobeyed. She was still useful dead.
Bending down, Karen picked up her purse and began walking toward the men. She stopped, knowing that once she got into the car with them Melanie was as good as dead. “I’m not moving another step until you release Melanie.”
As if on cue, the black sedan’s driver-side door flung open. Karen stiffened at the sight of Agent McKlintock as he exited the vehicle. He walked to the rear door, eyeing Karen the entire time. He opened the door politely like a seasoned chauffeur. Karen couldn’t see inside the vehicle, but knew who was there.
“Come out,” McKlintock said to the person in the car. His voice was gentle. A woman’s leg extended out of the car. The agent offered an arm, as if the person coming from the vehicle was a princess arriving at a ball.
Melanie’s face came into view as her head broached the car door’s heavily tinted window. She stood, visibly shaken, next to McKlintock. Melanie spotted Karen and they locked stares. Karen immediately dove into her mind. She was think-talking, hoping Karen would be able to translate. Melanie’s thoughts were pleading and apologetic, telling Karen how sorry she was that she was caught. And sorry for not leaving her apartment fast enough and for not fully believing Karen’s story.
Karen wanted to run over to her friend and let her know how silly she was being. That none of this was her fault and that Karen was the one who was sorry to have involved her. But the conversation was only one way.
Karen guessed that once they had her in custody, they’d bring her to the place she saw in the agent’s mind where she’d be experimented on, extracting the alien fluid pulsing through her blood in order to make more of the coveted serum.
“Okay, Karen,” McKlintock said, holding Melanie by the arm, less friendly now. “Here’s your friend. Unharmed and intact.” He smiled, but there was nothing genuine about the gesture. “Now please get in the car.”
Karen’s thoughts raced. How could her mind-reading help them? The minute Karen got in the vehicle, Melanie was dead.
“Not until you let her go,” Karen said.
The agent smiled wickedly. “I’ve had enough of this,” he said, pulling out a gun and pointing it at Melanie’s head.
Karen felt the situation slipping away. She heard McKlintock’s thoughts loud and clear. “No!” she screamed, her arms reaching out, but it was too late. A small chirp, bird-like in sound, popped from the weapon’s barrel.
Melanie’s head jolted to the right as if struck quickly by some invisible force, her body following. The bullet exited the other side of her head. Her blonde hair fluttered as skull fragments and brain matter blasted out.
The scene unfolded at lightning speed before Karen’s eyes, but she saw it over and over in slow motion after it happened. She knew McKlintock was going to kill Melanie a second before it happened, but there was nothing she could do to stop him.
Melanie’s body lay on the blacktop, her legs twitching. Karen tried diving into her friend’s mind, but there was nothing left. Melanie was dead.
Chapter 16
Morgan sat at the bar, wondering if it was too much to ask to have a relaxing evening. He’d found a pleasant little drinking hole, far away from any hunters or vampires. The music was agreeable and people around him were having a good time, letting loose and laughing. But somehow he’d managed to land in the middle of another peculiar situation. Who was that woman? Had she been reading his mind? And who were the two goons in matching monkey suits? They had clearly startled the woman, and after she ran out they left, too. Were they after her?
Morgan had seen enough during his long lifetime to assume the men were government agents of some kind. He’d originally thought they were vampires after him, but that clearly hadn’t been the case. It seemed fate had again intervened, denying him the right to enjoy his vacation. Maybe he was brought here for a reason. Why else had he stopped in this little bar, of all places? He attempted to ignore his thoughts and mind his own business. He was after all on vacation. It wasn’t his job to save the world—at least when it didn’t involve vampires. Those men clearly weren’t members of the undead and had nothing to do with him.
Maybe the woman was on the run and those two men were bounty hunters. Morgan could deal with that, deciding that was the situation and took a long pull from his drink.
He cringed as the cold beverage went down hard, tasting sour and off. The beer had been delicious and smooth, but no longer. Letting out a sigh, Morgan realized he couldn’t delude himself any longer. Those men weren’t bounty hunters and that woman appeared to be in serious trouble. He slapped a ten dollar bill onto the bar and turned toward the exit.
Outside, he looked around the parking lot. The woman was nowhere in sight. A deceptive modicum of relief flowed through him. It was selfish, yes, but maybe fate decided he was to have a quiet evening after all. Ready to head back inside, Morgan spun toward the entrance when an annoying thought stabbed at his brain. He
needed
to check the rear parking lot. Then he would be certain he was meant to have a quiet evening and truly enjoy himself, knowing that there was nothing more he could do.
Heading around the corner of the building, Morgan heard a popping sound. He paused, his mind racing. It was then that he realized fate had more in store for him tonight than cold local beer.
Chapter 17
Karen stared at Melanie’s dead body, seeing her best friend fall to the ground over and over as if her mind was stuck on repeat. Melanie was dead because of her. Her anger surged. Bullshit, Melanie was dead because of the agents, because of McKlintock. She wasn’t going to blame herself. She wasn’t going to be one of those people. Still, she found it hard not to scream, cry out, and go crazy.
Melanie would never have a funeral; her loved ones would never know what happened to her. Her family would call the police, report her missing. They would look for her, put up missing person flyers, but Melanie’s disappearance would go as an unsolved case, haunting those who loved her forever.
Karen had to make it through this, if not for anything else than to give Melanie’s family closure. She might not ever be able to reveal the entire truth, because the people that were after Karen would never relent. She knew this for certain.
“She was an instrument,” McKlintock said. He held the gun at his side, staring at Karen as if he’d simply disposed of trash. “I tried to make this easier on you, but it’s better this way. No more wondering what’s going to happen to her and no more guessing what kind of people we are. No more bullshit. I hope I’ve made myself clear. You do what I tell you and things will go smoothly. If not...”
Karen looked from Melanie’s body to McKlintock. Pressure, as if a valve had been turned, was building in Karen’s head. At first, she thought it might be a headache, another gift-inducing one, but this was different. The pressure she was feeling was rage. She had never wanted to harm someone so badly in her life. No, not merely harm,
kill
. If Karen had her way, Agent McKlintock would be a dead man. Only hard reasoning kept her from charging at his throat. Dead or alive, they would take from her what they had wanted from Josh. Josh had had to burn his insides, destroy every cell, so that they couldn’t use his remains. Fighting these men would do no good.
“Karen,” McKlintock said. “Get in the fucking car.”
She began walking toward the car. A man’s voice sounded from behind. “Gentlemen, is there a problem?” the man said.
Karen turned to see the strange man that had been sitting at the end of the bar. What the hell was he doing here? She couldn’t take another innocent person getting killed.
“Everything’s…” Karen began, hoping to get the guy out of the area, but McKlintock fired his weapon.
The gun chirped, sending a bullet into the stranger’s head. A small hole appeared just below the man’s hairline. He went down fast, collapsing onto the ground.
“No!” screamed Karen.
“Sir,” one of the men said. “I suggest we leave now.”
“Karen,” McKlintock said. “Bodies are piling up because you aren’t moving fast enough. What do I have to do? Burn down this hick bar with everyone in it?”
Karen was staring at the dead man; another casualty. How long could she keep blaming others, telling herself that she wasn’t responsible, before she cracked? Did the guy have a family? Would they suffer the same unknown fate as Melanie? She felt the anger within herself beginning to fade, replaced with a sadness that would surely bring on the waterworks, which she needed to avoid at all costs. Continuing to stare at the dead man, as if transfixed by a spell, Karen heard him speak. Startled, her eyes grew wide. No, she hadn’t physically heard him; she’d read his mind. He was still alive. The man was in pain, but conscious, pretending to be dead, and very much pissed off.
Karen focused on the men in the matching suits. She had no idea what was happening, but wanted no part in revealing that the man on the ground was still alive. But how could he be alive? His brains had exploded out of the back of his head. She looked at Melanie again, trying to read her mind, but received nothing. Needing to know, she stared back at the man on the ground, her mouth agape as he began rising to his feet. Horrified, she continued to watch, unable to comprehend what she was witnessing. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly before re-opening them. The man was up, standing as if nothing had happened to him.
McKlinotck yelled commands, but Karen barely heard him. She was in shock, remembering what she had heard in the stranger’s mind when she was in the bar.
The two men in suits turned around quickly. One took aim, but the stranger moved fast, like a blur, and swiped at the man, removing his arm from the elbow down. Blood spewed from the stump as the agent screamed.
The other agent reached inside his jacket for his weapon. Like a gazelle, the stranger leaped into the air and landed on the man, straddling him. The stranger opened his mouth, revealing sharp fangs, and sank his teeth into the agent’s neck. Karen’s rescuer, if that’s what he was, tore a large chunk of flesh away. A geyser of blood exploded from the exposed artery.
The agent with the severed limb hobbled toward McKlintock’s vehicle, leaving a trail of blood behind. “We aren’t prepared for this, for a vampire,” he said.
The stranger sprang up and sailed through the air, landing on the fleeing agent’s back. The force of the impact sent the two tumbling to the ground. The agent extended his arm, and what remained of the other, trying to brace his fall. Karen winced as she heard the man’s good arm snap, the sound echoing through her mind like a crack of thunder. The agent howled in agony, but was quickly silenced when the stranger punched a fist through the back of the man’s neck, ripping out a portion of the spine.