03 - Evolution (16 page)

But not for long.

As his demonic form receded into the distance, she saw
Marcus rise slowly to his feet. The ugly bastard had survived! Grimacing
in pain, he tried to close his wings, but the injured pinions refused to
tuck back into his shoulders. Scrapes and bruises covered every inch of
his unsightly flesh. Blood trickled from multiple wounds. He glared
murderously at the fleeing truck, but made no move to continue his
pursuit… for now.

We’ve hurt him,
Selene
concluded.
That will have to be enough for now.

Checking on Michael, she saw that he had finally managed
to make it back into the truck bed. He watched Marcus’ dwindling figure
warily, before finally accepting that the chase was over for the time
being. His hybrid attributes dissolved back into his flesh as he
reverted to his human guise. He lifted something from the floor of the
bed, then made his way toward the cab.

A weary groan issued from him as he awkwardly climbed
through the shattered rear window and dropped into the passenger seat
beside her. Cold air invaded the cab through the broken windows. Bullet
shells and shattered glass littered the floor and seat cushions.

He was visibly exhausted. Sweat covered his face and
chest. He was breathing hard.

She knew just how he felt.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She massaged her bruised throat, which was still tender
where Marcus had throttled her.
That’s nothing,
she thought.
I got off easy.

She gave Michael a reassuring nod.

He stared blankly at the snow-covered road ahead. She
could tell he was trying to process what had just happened. “He’s a
hybrid, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said. There would be time enough later to
share her theory as to what might have triggered the Elder’s
transformation. Her own mind was still reeling at the concept.
Something is seriously wrong here,
she
realized,
even more than I had anticipated.
Why had Marcus attacked them, especially if he didn’t care about
Viktor’s death?
What did he think I was hiding?

She gave Michael a serious look, just to make sure he
understood what deep waters they were in. He nodded back at her and held
out his palm. She saw that he was holding Sonja’s pendant, now
splattered with hybrid blood; she realized that was what he had
retrieved from the floor of the truck bed.

“He wanted this,” Michael said. “Why?”

I have no idea,
she thought.
He had explained to her the historical significance of the crest-shaped
pendant: how it had once belonged to Viktor’s daughter, Sonja, before
the coven executed her for consorting with a lycan. Lucian had stolen
the precious keepsake and treasured it until his death earlier tonight.
But what did Marcus want with the pendant?

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

A brilliant red glow on the horizon, clearly visible in
her rearview mirror, reminded her of a much more urgent issue. After
creeping up on them for what felt like hours, dawn was finally arriving.
Was it just her imagination, or could she already feel the heat upon her
skin? Sonja, she recalled, had been destroyed by the sun….

“We have another problem.”

The sky above was growing brighter by the second. Selene squinted at the
spreading radiance. The daylight obviously hurt her eyes, making it hard
for her to see. Michael suddenly wished he was driving instead.

Thankfully, the dawn had no effect on him, perhaps
because he started out as a lycan before becoming a hybrid. He leaned
forward in his seat, peering through the windshield for some place they
could take shelter. At first all he saw was endless trees and snow, then
he spotted some sort of structure up ahead, off to the left. “Keep
going,” he urged Selene. As the truck raced down the road, he got a
better look at the building.

An access road led to some sort of huge mining facility,
which looked like an enormous brick warehouse built into the side of a
mountain. An unmoving ore breaker climbed the slope to one side of the
warehouse. Smokestacks rose from the roof of the complex, but Michael
didn’t see any fumes billowing from them. A sign posted just before the
turnoff announced that the mine had been shut down due to environmental
concerns, which probably explained the lack of activity.
Perfect,
Michael thought.
If we’re lucky, nobody’s at home.

“There!” he said, pointing toward the turnoff.

Just then, the sun peeked over the horizon behind them.
Sunlight flashed upon the rearview mirror and the shards of broken glass
scattered around the cab. Selene gasped out loud and Michael heard a
sound like bacon sizzling in a pan. She yanked her hand away from a
stray beam of light. Michael saw that her knuckles were burned bright
red. Wisps of smoke rose from the scorched skin. The smell of burning
flesh, familiar to Michael from his nights in the ER, filled the cab.

Jesus Christ!
He’d known, of
course, that sunlight and vampires didn’t mix, but he’d never actually
witnessed the phenomenon with his own eyes.
That
happened so fast!

Selene ducked her head, trying to keep her face in the
shade, but a ray of bright sunlight struck her cheek. Her smooth white
skin blistered instantly, and she bit back a scream of pain. She lost
control of the wheel and the truck veered alarmingly toward a
snow-filled ditch at the side of the road. A wall of oaks and beeches
loomed beyond the ditch.

“Get down!” Michael shouted. He grabbed the wheel,
experiencing a sudden flashback to the first time he had gotten into a
car with Selene. Wounded by Lucian, she had passed out behind the wheel
and plunged her Jaguar into the Danube.
No way,
he thought.
Not again!

Selene crouched down below the dashboard, away from the
deadly sunbeams. Michael smelled the smoke rising from her scalded face.
The plaintive whimper that escaped her lips offered only the barest hint
of the pain she had to be going through.
That’s a
second-degree burn at least,
he thought. She needed immediate
first aid.

The turnoff to the mining complex was right in front of
them. Selene floored it as he cranked on the wheel. Acting in tandem,
they took the access road leading up to the main building. Michael
spotted railroad tracks and empty steel carts lying alongside the road,
but didn’t see any workers going about their business. He silently
blessed whatever environmental agency had shut down the seemingly
deserted facility.

Sunlight continued to infiltrate the interior of the
cab. Michael knew that the dashboard wasn’t going to protect Selene much
longer. A wooden garage door blocked their way, but he didn’t ask Selene
to let up on the gas. “Brace yourself!” he warned her as the five-ton
truck crashed through the garage door into the building. “Now… hit the
brakes!” Their front fender clipped a parked jeep, sending a shudder
through the entire cab, before the truck skidded to a halt.

Michael let out the breath he had been holding and let
go of the wheel. A quick look around revealed that they were inside the
facility’s motor pool. Auto lifts, engine stands, lathes, jacks, oil
stands, wheel dollies, battery chargers, tire machines, and other
equipment were arrayed throughout the cavernous space. Tool racks lined
the walls. Dried grease stains marred the concrete floor. A number of
freight trucks, in various states of repair, were parked all around
them. Their stolen truck fit right in, especially after all the damage
they had inflicted on it.

If we get through this
, he
thought,
we’re going to need another car.

Selene lifted her head, then quickly thought better of
it. Deadly shafts of light penetrated the unlit garage through dirty
windows and cracks in the brick walls. She curled herself up into a
tight little ball upon the floor of the cab. The collar of her trench
coat
almost
covered her head.

“Hang on!” Michael told her. He hopped out of the truck
and looked around for something to block the sun. Grabbing a greasy tarp
off an abandoned engine stand, he flung it over the truck’s windshield.
That should buy us a few more seconds.
He
worked frantically to make the vast garage more “vampire-friendly”. He
punctured some metal cans with a wrench, then splashed black paint all
over the windows. Hybrid muscles shoved heavy steel racks and tool
cabinets in front of the gaps in the walls. The smashed garage door
posed a bigger problem, but the sunlight had not yet made it all the way
across the floor of the motor pool. Michael figured he still had time to
get Selene to a safer location… if they moved quickly.

The garage was noticeably darker by the time he got back
to the cab. Tugging open the driver’s-side door, he tossed her a gray
wool blanket he had found. “Come on!” he said. “Let’s get you out of
here.”

Selene didn’t need to be asked twice. He caught a
glimpse of her blistered hands and face as she hurriedly wrapped the
blanket around her and scrambled out of the cab. Michael hustled her
across the garage toward the rear of a semi-trailer. A padlock guarded
the trailer from intrusion, but he snapped it apart with his bare hands.
He rolled up the back door of the semi and helped Selene inside before
climbing up into the trailer after her. The metal door clanged loudly as
he yanked it back down.

By now he was convinced that the remote mining complex
was completely uninhabited. If all this commotion hadn’t attracted any
agitated guards or employees, then nothing would.
If a truck crashes into a building and nobody hears it,
he
thought facetiously,
is there really a crash?

The back of the truck was loaded with crates of engine
parts. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark, while Selene
took off the blanket and laid it down on the floor of the semi. He
winced at the ugly burns and blisters scarring her face. Years of
medical training kicked in, and he bent down to take a better look at
the burns. She forced a smile, but he could tell she was still in pain.
She tried to turn her seared cheek away from him.

“Hold still,” he told her.

“There’s really no need,” she insisted.

Michael admired her courage, but she didn’t need to play
the stoic warrior with him, not when there was something he could do to
help her. He jumped to his feet and headed for the door. “Be right
back,” he promised.

There had to be a first-aid kit around here somewhere!

True to his word, he returned within minutes,
clutching a bright red first-aid kit. “Found this in a restroom,” he
explained breathlessly. Selene guessed that he had sprinted all over the
building before he’d found the kit.

He dropped to his knees in front of her and popped open
the kit. She was struck by his obvious sense of purpose as he rummaged
through the kit for what he needed. He really was a born healer, even
after everything that had happened to him. She recalled how he had
selflessly rescued her from drowning three nights ago and bound her
wounds after Lucian had stabbed her with that spring-loaded blade of
his.
He didn’t even know my name then, but he still
risked his life to save me.
He had done the same for that mortal
girl who had been caught in the cross fire during the gun battle at the
Metro station. Selene remembered Michael dashing across the platform to
see to the girl, despite the bullets flying back and forth across the
station. She had taken note of his bravery then. She was even more
impressed now.

I’ve never known anyone like him.

He turned toward her, his hands full of clean dressings
and antiseptic wipes. His brown eyes radiated care and compassion. She
couldn’t help being touched, and more, by his anxious concern for her
well-being, even though she was not really in need of his ministrations.
The vicious burns were already healing; all that remained of the searing
pain was a faint stinging sensation. Still, she let him gently lay his
hand against her cheek and turn her face toward him, so that he could
see for himself that her injuries were all but passed. He gaped in
surprise as the last reddened patch of skin grew smooth and white once
more. She almost laughed at his dumbfounded expression.

“See.” She raised her hands to show him her unblemished
knuckles. “No need.”

His initial shock gave way to obvious relief. His eyes
brightened as he gave her an impish grin. “You don’t need much of
anything, do you?”

I’m not sure,
she thought,
suddenly at a loss for words. The moment hung between them, laden with
possibility. He put down his first-aid supplies and looked into her
eyes. His deep brown orbs seemed to drink her in. Vampires didn’t blush,
but Selene felt her blood rushing beneath his ardent gaze. She knew how
much she meant to him, how much he wanted to take care of her. Not
because he was a doctor, but because of the undeniable chemistry between
them. For once, it seemed, their enemies were far away. No pressing
danger threatened them with immediate extinction. It was just the two of
them, alone together.

Selene was no virgin. Over her six hundred years,
curiosity—and loneliness—had lured her into the occasional carnal
encounter with another vampire; not every immortal was a pig like
Kraven, after all. But such liaisons had been infrequent and always
without consequence, temporary indulgences quickly put behind her. She
had shared her body, but never her heart.

Now, with Michael, she didn’t know what she felt.
Everything had changed for her, including the ironclad code of conduct
by which she had long governed her ageless existence. The prospect was
both thrilling and terrifying.

Do I want this?

Taking her silence as consent, Michael leaned forward
and kissed her. She responded tentatively for the first few heartbeats,
then parted her lips to accept him. His own lips were warmer than any
vampire lover’s.
Just like his blood.