Dead Awakenings (31 page)

“Damien had an arena built. Humans fight and then they die.”

Evaine thought she was going to be sick. She had to steady herself on Luca’s arm to keep from falling over. What kind of crazed madman was this Damien?

“Well, we have human.” Luca’s tone was matter-of-fact. “It won’t be very sporting to eat it out of a bowl, but we could get some.”

“Let’s try to talk first. Then if we have to, we will.” Nate gave a single nod.

The group faced the cell glass. The Feeder stopped pacing and yelled at them.

Nate leaned toward the com and pressed a button. “What’s your name?”

There was no reply.

“What is your name?”

Still no reply.

“We want to help you. If you tell us what we need to know, we can get you what you want. Clean you up, get your arm taken care of, and get you food.”

“Foooooood!” Adam bellowed.

“Not until you answer my questions. Now again, what is your name?”

“Adam.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Adam. I am Nate, and this is my house. I want to know what Damien is doing and why he wants this girl so badly.”

Adam looked at Evaine. He licked his lips. It made Evaine step closer to Luca, who put his arm around her.

“The girl is special. She’s better. Damien wants her for himself. He wants to see why she is the way she is. He wants to take her apart and make more like her.”

Aron stepped up to the com. “So Damien is in charge of the experiments?”

“Noooo. The lady doctor.”

“What lady doctor?” Aron shot Nate a glance.

“She fooled you and got away, and now she will do one more test. She will try one more time to fix it, and then she will disappear.”

“Fix it? Fix what?” Nate’s tone carried an edge of urgency.

“The man. She already started. Another batch of humans are ready. They will wake soon and then she will know if she has finally found the way to fix him.”

Aron drilled his stare into the Feeder. “There are more newborns getting ready to awaken?”

Adam laughed. “You can’t find these ones. They’re at Damien’s house.”

“When will they wake up?” Nate asked.

Adam snorted and laughed again.

“When?” Aron hit the glass.

Adam’s laughter grew hysterical, and he rushed the glass pointing at Evaine. A shiver skittered over her. “You will help the lady doctor fix the man.”

“The doctor from the raid,” Evaine said quietly.

“What?” Luca looked at her, cocking his head.

“The woman doctor, the one from the raid. The one who stuck me in the arm with the syringe; she’s the one who’s behind all this. She slipped out when Tristan shot me. We had her, right in our hands, and I let her get away when my ability slipped.”

“You can’t blame yourself. You got shot. That would happen to anyone with a hole in their chest,” Aron said.

“If I’d done what you said, if I had fed first I wouldn’t have been that bad and I could have held on to her. Then all of this would be over.”

“Don’t.” Luca looked into her eyes. “This isn’t your fault. If it’s anyone’s, it’s Tristan’s for shooting you.”

She didn’t speak. Yes, Tristan did shoot her, and if he hadn’t then maybe they would have caught the doctor. Maybe if she had never even gone to that drug trial…maybe if what? If she had never been born? It couldn’t all be her fault.

“Food.” Adam rubbed his temples with closed fists.

“We’ll see that you get some. After you wash and change and clean up. Not first,” Nate said.

Adam howled at the ceiling.

“You’re up!” Victor pulled on Mac’s collar.

Mac let out a yelp like a kicked puppy.

Aron, Luca, Nate, and Victor spoke to Mac. They said it might be better if Evaine stayed out of the room for the time being. She decided to stay
right
outside. Talking to him was not an option, but she did want to hear what he had to stay.

When they emerged Mac looked a little worse for wear. Victor escorted Mac down to his new cell. Luca and Nate continued talking in low voices for a few more minutes. Finally, Nate noticed Evaine and ended their conversation.

“What happened?” she asked Luca as he exited the room.

“He didn’t tell us much more than we already knew. Apparently after he left here he went to Damien’s for a short while before deciding to pick up his old life. He’s so obsessed with going back to the way things were before that he made a deal with Damien. Mac would supply more people for the experiments and in return when they found a cure he would be the first to get it.”

“But why would they want to cure us?”

“I don’t think they do. They’re using him as much as anyone else; he just wanted to believe them so badly.”

“You feel sorry for him,” Evaine said.

“No, not sorry, but I do understand. He doesn’t want to be like this. Do you want to be like this? Honestly?”

Evaine couldn’t deny it—she didn’t. It wasn’t that was so necessarily bad as much as it was harder than she wanted it to be. She shook her head.

“So I understand that. He did tell us a few things that are a little confusing. It seems that Mac got the impression that Damien isn’t necessarily the one in charge of the Feeders.”

“The doctor?”

“Possibly. After all she is the one doing the experiments.”

“She seemed familiar when I saw her.”

“Someone from your old life?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should think about that. If we could find out who she is, we might be able to find out why she’s doing this.”

“What did Adam mean by ‘She’s trying to fix the man’?”

“No clue.”

“So you weren’t lying when you said you didn’t really find out anything new.”

“The only thing we found out is where we think the last batch of newborns are.”

“At Damien’s house, right? Where is his house?”

“That’s the thing. Damien doesn’t live in a house. He lives in Manhattan in the underground. They live in the tunnels under the city. Sewers, abandoned subways, and other tunnels. We’ve sent a few people there before, working on diplomacy, but they’ve always been blindfolded. We asked Shandy if she has any idea where exactly she was taken, and she doesn’t. She has the location of where she met Julius and then she knows where they took her down into the tunnels, but nothing exact. Even Mac and Cami can’t remember the specifics. They say it’s a labyrinth down there.”

“So how are we going to find them?”

“We’re going to give them something to come above the surface for. Then we’re going to follow them.”

“What are you going to use for bait?”

Luca ran his hand through his hair. “Well, that’s what Nate and I have been arguing about.”

“Let me guess, he wants to use me as bait,” she said flatly.

“No, actually, he’s the one who thinks you have been through enough.”

Evaine laughed. That was a new one—Nate was watching out for her, and Luca wanted to put her into danger? She thought about it. She’d been in a lot of danger lately, and what had happened? She’d gotten shot, had seizures, and almost died, but she was still here. Still undead. Confidence filled her. It flowed through her, and she stood up straighter. She could do this. End the experiments once and for all. And of course Luca would be right behind her.

“I’ll do it,” she said.

“Really?” His voice showed no surprise. “We have to think of a reason for you to be in the city, and it has to be plausible.”

“I need to go get my dog.”

“Your what?”

“My dog, Kale. Tristan has him, I need to go get him. Tristan never was very fond of Kale and I miss him.”

“Wait. You mean that furry, white behemoth that found me in a tree?”

Evaine laughed. “That would be him.”

“I don’t think bringing him here is the best idea.”

“Why? We have other dogs.”

“Security dogs.”

“Well, he is a security dog. My security dog. You wanted me to learn to do security with Ronan. Well, after Kale’s here we can be on security duty like Bobby Lee and John Casey. It’ll give me something to do besides sitting around all day and flipping through channels.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on.” She leaned up and put her arms around his neck. “I want to go get my dog and you want me to stay home. If I get my dog, I’ll stay home.”

Luca got a funny smile on his face. “Stay home, huh? Like a stay-at-home housewife?”

“Not funny.” She smacked him on the chest. “You aren’t going to trap me with those words.”

“OK, OK.” He put his hands up in surrender. “Come on, let’s go tell Nate, give Tristan a call, and add one more dangerous white creature to our home.” Luca laughed.

* * *

Tristan walked into his apartment to his answering machine going off. Kale greeted him in his usual exuberant fashion and barked so loudly that Tristan couldn’t hear what the message said. He tripped over the enormous dog and missed the call. Banishing the dog to his bed Tristan hit the button on the machine. He needed just to get rid of the stupid thing and use the voicemail on his phone, but the message on his machine was one that Evaine had recorded right after they had gotten engaged.

“Message left at six fifteen p.m.” Beep.

“Hey Tristan, it’s me. I’m going to be coming into town tomorrow and I’d like to pick up Kale. Call so we can set a time. My number is…”

Tristan stopped listening. She was coming back to get the one last thing she really needed to feel like she was at home there. If he could think of a way to get her to come up to the apartment, he could make her stay. But only if she came alone. Luca would never allow that. Tristan blew out a sigh and rubbed his face. He had to think of something—he just had to.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

There had been another House meeting, and everyone had been in attendance. The vote was unanimous to try to stop the Feeders. Mac had been secured downstairs in Evaine’s old cell. No one was sure that leaving the House wide open was such a good idea, but they had no choice. The security was tighter than ever with all six dogs running loose. The upper house had been locked down and Abbey was to stay below with Jeff. Everyone else suited up. Even Bobby Lee and John Casey came along.

If anything happened Abbey would call the local sheriff. They knew it would cause problems, but there was no choice. Abbey was still human, and there were some things only humans could do.

The group crammed into five vehicles and headed out. Evaine and Luca were in his little black sports car. The others had gotten into the Explorer, Suburban, and Escalades. Feeding had not been optional, which made for a lively trip. Trey had blared his loud music. John Casey and Bobby Lee engaged Victor in several rounds of arm wrestling. And the women chatted, all before piling into the vehicles. Out on the road, the walkie-talkies that all the vehicles had been equipped with were abuzz with joking and karaoke. Evaine felt as though she were on her way to a Halloween frat party as opposed to going to her possible death. Inside the sports car, Evaine and Luca stayed quiet. She scratched at her wig and wrinkled her nose at the scent of her theatrical makeup. The getup was so uncomfortable she knew that there was no way she could do it daily. It had taken her over an hour to get it all right. In her old life she’d barely spent ten minutes doing her makeup.

Luca had come up with the plan. Adam was tranquilized in the trunk of one of the vehicles. Fed and cleaned he looked like a new man, but he hadn’t acted like one. They were counting on his animalistic side to work in their favor.

The tranquilizer had been a smaller dose and was due to wear off thirty minutes outside of the city. They reached the mark and the caravan pulled to the side of the road. Victor dragged him out and laid him on the ground. Ten tense minutes passed before Adam started to rouse.

“Adam.” Nate towered over him. “You will run all the way to Damien. You will tell him that we took you and offered you a home. You will say that you played along and let us clean you up. Then when we weren’t looking you slipped out of the house and ran back. You’ll tell him that you overheard little miss tell Luca that she was coming to the city tonight to see her human boyfriend and to pick up her things, alone. Go now, and deliver the message.”

And with that Adam stood up and ran as fast as he could toward the city. Nate got into his car.

Evaine and Luca switched seats so she could drive. Taking a few deep breaths she tried to relax, readying herself for what she was about to do. The last time she had taken the car and driven she hadn’t thought about it, she had just done it.

“Having second thoughts?” Luca stroked her cheek.

“No,” she lied. “Just not happy about having to involve Tristan in this whole thing. He’s been through enough already.”

“You worry about everyone but yourself. You’re only doing this because you feel guilty about the doctor getting away, which wasn’t your fault, but you think it is.”

“Well that’s why I brought you along. So you can worry about me.” She meant it too. There was no one else who would try to protect her harder than he would.

“Marry me.”

“Luca, not now. Do we even have marriages? I mean with real marriage certificates and everything?”

“Sure we do. Ronan fakes the documents we need. We go down to the justice of the peace and get hitched.”

“Really? Besides Abbey and Nate, who else has done that?”

“Well, Trey and MJ did it last year. Out at the other Haven Houses there are several couples who have done it. I know Victor’s thought about asking Cami. I think that he’s going to after all of this.”

“That would make her very happy.” She smiled. “She loves him very much.”

“I didn’t know he could care about someone till he met her. I also never thought that he would be led around by the nose by someone either, but here we are.”

“Yes, here we are.” She looked out the window. They were in a green, heavily forested area off Saw Mill Parkway. Just a few short miles and the solitude of her surroundings would be a memory. This was it, her last chance to turn around to the safety of the Haven House.

“Marry me.”