Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (34 page)

CHAPTER 36

RACHEL

I jarred awake, sitting up in a panic. I rubbed my arm, surprised there was no more pain. Sure enough, the claw marks were now pink streaks on my skin. My leg too. “They’re healed.” I looked over at Lea, but she didn’t look surprised.

“Beauty of the blood,” she said. “Though it was faster even than I thought. Probably the bond is helping too.”

I looked around, realizing why I had woken up. “Why are we stopped?”

“I think we’re here,” Lea said, staring out the windshield of the now-stopped Humvee.

A village lay ahead. It was an hour or so before dawn, but there should have been some kind of light—even a candle. The village was completely dark.

“How can you be sure?”

“I smell death,” she whispered.

My heart jumpstarted. “They killed them all.”

“We don’t know that.” But she didn’t contradict it. “We need a plan. If Stravinsky’s boys have already been here, you know it won’t be pretty. In fact, it will probably be dangerous.”

“Which is why we have the antidote.”

Lea grunted softly. “We don’t know it will even work. Or how long it will take to work.”

“Lea, we have to try.”

“It’s probably too late for them, Rachel. We should focus on making sure we’ve stopped Stravinsky for good before he moves on to his next location.”

“No. That’s not good enough.”

“Why are you so dead set on this? Why do I think this is personal?”

“What’s wrong with wanting to save an entire village?” I asked a little too defensively.

“Nothing.” She paused. “But—”

“I
knew
there would be a but.”

“I think you’re too close to this. Your personal feelings make you dangerous. They could get you killed.”

“You don’t know anything about why I feel so strongly against this, Lea. Let it go.” Then I started singing the alphabet song in my head in case she tried to sift through my thoughts.

“That’s mature,” she grumbled.

“I’m not the one digging into someone else’s head.” Although I had to wonder what I would find if I tried.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Ivan’s face appeared in the driver’s window, standing next to the door. “So what’s the plan?”

“For Lea to stay out of my head!” I snapped.

Ivan gave her a strange look, but she simply shook her head. “Don’t ask.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“The plan,” I said, “is to go into that village and save as many people as we can.”

Lea and Ivan shared a look and I shook my head. “Stay here if you want. I’m going.”

“I’ll go with you,
mi amor
,” Antonio said from behind Ivan.

“Shut up, Cazador,” Ivan growled. “We all stick together in this.”

“We need to investigate,” Lea said. “And to do that we need to get closer.”

The guys climbed back onto the truck and Lea drove us closer to the village, turning the truck around to point away, as though ready for an escape.

As we met at the back of the truck, eerie moans and cries echoed in the darkness, which I had to admit was creepy as shit.

Lea’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “We need to presume Stravinsky’s men have done their job.”

Ivan nodded. “I smell the concoction.” Lea’s eyes widened, but Ivan gave her a reassuring smile. “The toxin works immediately, then the residual chemicals break down quickly.” When she started to protest, he put a hand on her arm. “I know from what happened to my own pack, Lea. I found some papers about how it works.”

“So the toxin is only a threat immediately after it’s sprayed,” Antonio said, his gaze sweeping between Ivan and me. “After an hour or so, it’s no longer toxic?”

“Minutes,” Ivan said. “Seven, from what I’ve read.”

“There’s no sign of Stravinsky’s men,” Lea murmured. “So it’s been longer than seven minutes. The toxin isn’t a problem. It’s the residents. Or what they’ve become.”

“The canisters appear to be ready,” Antonio said, keeping his eyes on me. “The antidote is slightly different from the toxin. The toxin only has to be in the air you breath, but the antidote needs to be sprayed on the infected person’s skin.” He paused, making sure he still had my attention. “But from the looks of the canisters, you have to be close for the nozzle to reach. I’m guessing within ten to fifteen feet.”

“Close enough they can attack you,” Lea said in a dry tone. “We need to come up with an alternate plan to deal with the creatures if we can’t cure them. And we need to be prepared to execute it immediately. We give the antidote a few seconds, and if it doesn’t work, we eliminate the problem.”

“
No
,” I said, shaking my head. “The antidote might need more than a few seconds. It might need minutes. Or hours. Or even days,” I pleaded. “You can’t make a snap decision like that.”

“Even though Stravinsky and his people have bigger problems, he’s so invested he’s probably going to send his people back to check on the results of his experiment,” Lea countered. Her matter-of-fact tone was a sharp contrast to my impassioned one. “Not to mention we don’t have hours or days. We have a half hour max to get in and get out before the sun rises. This needs to be quick and decisive. Either the antidote works or it doesn’t. One thing is certain: no monster will be left alive when we leave.”

Her words hung heavy in the air as her gaze held mine.

“You will do as I say, Rachel.”

Tendrils from her words slipped into my brain, curling around my will, and I found myself wanting to nod and agree with her. I shook violently as rage mushroomed inside me. “You’re pulling your servant bullshit mumbo jumbo on me?” I demanded through gritted teeth. “How fucking dare you!”

“I’m protecting you.”

“By taking away my free will?” I shouted, taking several steps back. “I am not a child!”

“Then stop acting like one.” Lea’s tone was cold. “I am handling this in a professional manner. You are not.”

I pointed to the village. “There are children in there, Lea. Defenseless children. Babies.” I stood straighter, throwing back my shoulders. “I refuse to be cold and calculated about killing innocent children. I refuse to kill them at all.” I swung my finger to point at her. “So you better stay the fuck out of my head, got it?”

She studied me for a moment before nodding. “Then let’s get going.”

“Not cool, Lea,” I heard Ivan say as he leaned over her.

Antonio moved directly in front of her. “When this is done, you will release her.”

Lea gave him a look that would have made lesser men run for their lives, but he stood his ground, his eyes full of danger and defiance. “This does not concern you,” she insisted.

“If you are a Cazador, you know the tales. She is the one. She must be free of you.”

“The tales are nonsense. Fairy tales.”

“What if they’re not? What if they are true?”

They both turned to study me, a new interest filling their eyes.

A slow grin spread across Lea’s face as she turned back to him. “What makes you so sure
you
are the one?” She chuckled. “If your theory is true, then it must mean
I
am the one. I am the one who is bound to her.”

Antonio looked like he wanted to strangle her.

This conversation irritated the hell out of me. They were talking cryptic nonsense about me as though I wasn’t even there. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Antonio cocked his head, giving his full attention to Lea. “Because I am a true Cazador. You are like a ghost that doesn’t realize it is no longer alive. You are the very creature you seek and destroy. She needs a
real
Cazador to help her complete her mission.”

“I agree with Rachel,” Ivan said, his voice hard. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Lea remained still for two agonizing seconds before turning and grabbing a canister of antidote from the truck. “It is nothing we will discuss now.” She shot a glance at Antonio. “We need to keep our focus on this village.” She handed the canister to me. “You and Antonio spray any villagers you see. Ivan and I are the protectors.”

I shuddered, knowing what she would do as my protector. “Let’s go.”

The four of us were quiet as we entered the village, the tension between us thick and taut. Part of me wanted to kill Antonio for adding just one more layer of anxiety to an already anxiety-packed night. But another part of me wanted to know what he and Lea had been discussing.

It was obvious Lea hadn’t kept it from me purposefully. Whatever he’d proposed had clearly never occurred to her. Right now, the mystery was just one more thing added to my monstrous pile of things to worry about. But if it didn’t affect the outcome of what we were about to do, Lea was right—it could wait.

The moans were louder now that we were closer, and my muscles were as tight as coiled springs. I wasn’t sure I was prepared for what I was about to see. I wasn’t sure I could handle the slaughter of children. Again.

Lea shot me a quick glance.

Get the fuck out of my head
, I mentally shouted at her.

I heard a scraping sound, followed by the click of shattering glass. Twenty feet away, a door swung open and a man staggered out. Or what was left of him. His face looked like it had been partially melted, leaving a beak-like nose with a long hook. His hands looked like bird talons with sharp claws. When he saw us, his still-human eyes rounded and he lurched toward us as best he could with his bent and twisted legs.

When he got close enough, I aimed the nozzle of the can on my back and drenched him from head to toe, which only seemed to infuriate him more. He let out a long squawk that drew squawks from deeper in the village.

“Shit,” Ivan mumbled. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

The drenched man continued toward us, lifting his talons as if preparing to strike.

“It’s not working,” Lea said, lifting her gun to shoot.

“You don’t know that!” I argued. “Give it a minute.”

“Rachel.” Her voice was tight as he moved closer.

“No.” This man didn’t deserve to be turned into a monster. Didn’t deserve to be killed for the grisly fate someone else had forced on him. Maybe that was why I didn’t fully understand Lea’s self-hatred—her vendetta against her own kind.

How could she wipe out an entire race simply because they existed? She was proof enough that just because a person’s warm blood turned cold, they were not destined to prey on the lives of innocent people. If anything, she strove to protect them—even if she saw the deaths of some innocent humans as collateral damage. How did we know none of these villagers could be saved? They were victims, and I couldn’t bring myself to destroy them.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” I told the man as he continued to approach us, blind rage in his eyes. “We only want to help.”

“Rachel.” Lea sounded more panicked.

“
No
,” I spat.

“I’ll do it.” Antonio’s hand dropped to his side and he lifted his handgun before I even realized what he was doing. The blast echoed off the stone buildings and the man dropped face forward to the ground.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because in this instance, she’s right.”

But the gunshot had set loose a cacophony of moans and shrieks, and doors began to burst open all across the village. Within seconds we were facing close to fifty men and women moving toward us at a slow gait. I could have handled the sight of all of them and more, but a figure in the front made me freeze in horror.

The pack was led by a child. A toddler who lifted the talon that had once been a hand and let out a cry of anguish and anger.

I took a step back, bumping into Lea’s chest.

“Oh, fuck,” Ivan groaned.

I couldn’t agree with him more. My worst nightmare had come true.