The Eternity Cure (41 page)

Cages. There were
cages
surrounding the old hospital building, wire kennels built for dogs. Except, these were filled with humans. Humans that bled from self-inflicted wounds, who muttered and giggled to themselves, heedless of the snow falling on them.

Looked like Sarren was here…and expecting us. “Can we sneak around?” I whispered to Kanin. But, at that moment, whether from a timed latch or some kind of wire that I couldn’t see, all the cage doors opened with a bang, and the bleeders leaped up, howling. Lurching into the open, one man spotted us over the grass and gave a scream that alerted the whole pack.

So much for sneaking in.

With shrieks and wails, the bleeders flung themselves across the snowy ground, rushing us in a chaotic swarm. I roared my hatred, for them, for Sarren, for this whole stupid mess, and lunged forward with Kanin right beside me.

The first human didn’t know what hit him, as my sword passed through his middle in a crimson spray and out the other side. I ripped the blade free and slashed at the pair of attackers filling my vision, carving through one and into another. Tendrils of blood filled the air, and I kept my mouth shut in case any hit me in the face. A huge man with one eye swung a rusty chair at me with both hands. I rolled beneath it, cutting at his leg as I passed, hearing him crash to the ground behind me.

“Allison!”

Kanin stepped in front of me as I was lunging to my feet, blocking a club with his arm. The wood splintered against his forearm, and he roared with pain, driving his blade beneath the man’s chin. A woman wielding a steel bar leaped at his back, coming from nowhere, and met my katana slashing down between them, splitting her open.

Another bleeder rushed me, screaming. I snarled and started to meet him, raising my katana to take his head off, but Kanin spun, grabbed my collar and yanked me backward. As I was jerked away, a flash and a sudden boom erupted at the human’s feet, the stench of explosives, smoke and charred flesh searing the air.

“Watch out for mines,” Kanin warned, setting me beside him. “Sarren likely has this whole place trapped.” Another explosion rang out ahead of us, accompanied by a painful screech.

Wary now, I pressed close to Kanin as we faced the last of the bleeders, rushing us from different sides. I dodged the coil of chain whipped at my head and plunged my sword between the man’s ribs, while Kanin simply grabbed the face of the human trying to stab him, lifted him off his feet and calmly slit his throat.

As the last of the bleeders crumpled into the snow, I gazed around the trampled, blood-laced field, now eerily silent once more. “Think Sarren knows we’re here?” I asked Kanin.

He snorted. “Let’s be careful.”

Very cautiously, we made our way through the lot, wary of mines, traps, trip wires and other nasty things Sarren might have planted. I trailed behind Kanin, who had an uncanny sense of knowing where hidden dangers lurked in the snow and long grass, sidestepping them with ease. I literally followed in his footsteps, matching my strides to his, stepping where he stepped, until we were past the field and had ducked into the charred, crumbling remains of the old hospital.

Still wary of traps and mines, we picked our way through the ruins. Near a collapsed wall, a yawning, narrow hole plunged straight down into darkness, bringing with it a storm of memories. Me and Kanin, our lessons that had taken place down that dark tube, our hasty retreat from New Covington. I met Kanin’s eyes over the gap and wondered if he was thinking of the same.

Or was his mind solely on what waited for us, deep in the bowels of the hospital?

“I’ll go first,” he said softly. “Stay here. Wait for my signal to come down.”

I nodded. Kanin stepped up to the edge and, without hesitation, dropped into the black.

I crossed my arms and listened, trying not to be impatient, trying not to imagine all the things that could happen to Kanin when I wasn’t there. Sarren might be lying in ambush. He could’ve placed mines at the bottom of the elevator shaft. He could have another wave of bleeders waiting in the hospital foyer, ready to attack. I fidgeted and shuffled my feet, stifling the impulse to leap down after him, until Kanin’s voice drifted up from the darkness again.

“It’s clear.”

I dropped into the shaft, not bothering to grab the cables, falling maybe thirty feet to the ground floor. I landed with a grunt and a cloud of plaster dust, and Kanin turned with a look warning me be to be quiet. Ducking a beam, I stepped into a familiar room.

It seemed everything was as we’d left it the night that we fled New Covington. There was the huge desk on the back wall, its tarnished gold letters hanging skewed on the wood. The space in front of the desk where Kanin had taught me to use my katana was clear—no rubble, no debris. The room had a hollow, desiccated feel, the air here not having been disturbed in years.

But, somewhere in this dark, empty tomb, our enemy waited for us.

Kanin jerked his head at me, and we began walking, gliding, across the tiles, making no sound as we moved, two vampires on the hunt for their prey. We didn’t bother with the countless rooms down the narrow hallways, Kanin’s office and my old room, where I’d slept on the lumpy cot in the corner. Sarren wouldn’t be in any of them. There was only one place he would be.

The room past the red door at the end of the stairs.

And once we reached the top of the stairs, it became grimly apparent that Sarren was waiting for us.

Blood coated the steps down to the red door, smeared in thick swaths over the walls, wet and black. Hands and feet had been strung by wire to the ceiling, and a severed head seemed to float in the air among them, lips pulled back in a crazy grin. Above the red door, written in large bloody letters, was:
Revelations 21.

“Ready for this?” Kanin asked softly.

Reaching over my shoulder, I pulled my katana, gripping the hilt tightly. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” The severed head suddenly dropped from the ceiling, landing with a wet thump that made me flinch. “Let’s get this over with.”

We descended the stairwell, stepping over discarded limbs and congealing puddles of blood, making our way to the red door. It was unlocked, the handle turning easily in my palm, the door swinging back with a creak. Beyond the frame, the hall was smeared with more red, the word
Revelations
written over and over again with different numbers beside it. Kanin put a hand on my shoulder and nodded to the top corner. The broken security camera blinked a tiny red light at us, the lens trained on me like a staring black eye. I shivered, knowing Sarren could be on the other end, watching us right now.

The round door at the end of this hall was also slightly open. Exceedingly wary of traps and ambushes, I edged forward and pushed it back. It groaned as it swung open, and we stepped through the opening, into the room where, six decades ago, monsters were born.

The cells lining the walls were empty, which was a relief. I’d been half expecting them to be full of bleeders that would burst out and attack us. But everything about the room was silent and still. Sarren, unless he was hiding in one of the cages, wasn’t in the room.

“Not here,” Kanin said in a low, barely audible voice. “We have to go through the last door at the end.”

I’d never been through the last door. The farthest I’d gotten was this room, where Sarren had found me after he’d tracked Kanin to the city, and I’d jammed a pocketknife into his eye. I doubted he’d forgotten that.

Kanin’s blade was suddenly in his hand. No turning back now. For Kanin, for Zeke, for all of New Covington, we had to face the madman. We moved steadily toward the last door, finding it unlocked, of course, and pushed it open.

For a moment, Kanin didn’t move, and neither did I, staring into the darkness beyond the frame. From where I stood, I could make out a few old cots, covered in mold and dust, scattered around the room. Thick leather straps and cuffs dangled from the edges, just like the ones in Old D.C., making my skin crawl. Against the wall, an ancient computer, its screen cracked and distorted, sat beside an odd device with a long tube poking into the air. More cells lined the other wall, with thick steel bars running vertically across the windows and metal doors barred from the outside. Cold, stale air wafted through the door fame, laced with the faintest hint of blood.

A hissing chuckle slithered out of the dark. “Ah, there you are,” purred a soft, sibilant voice, somewhere in the shadows of the room. “Step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly. We have a lot to talk about.”

A chill crept up my spine. Gripping my sword, I started forward, but Kanin put a hand out, holding me back. “After me,” he muttered, in a voice only I could hear. “If this is a trap, at least you’ll be in the clear.”

I swallowed. “Be careful, Kanin.”

He lowered his arm and stepped through the frame into the room. Nothing happened immediately: no explosion, no sudden projectiles, and the door didn’t slam shut behind him. Kanin gazed around calmly and raised his voice. “Sarren. You’ve obviously been waiting for me. Here I am.”

Another evil chuckle. “Oh, Kanin,” the voice purred, and
he
appeared, melting out of the dark to stand before us in the center of the room. My skin crawled as his hideous, scarred face lifted to meet ours. “I have enjoyed our games, old friend,” he said, folding his hands before him. “You were a most compelling quarry, and I shall miss our time together. But you have already played your part in this symphony. Your voice, your music, is dying and will soon fade to nothing.” His hollow, mad eyes flickered to me, and a smile stretched his face. “I am more interested in the songs the little bird can sing.”

I wanted to recoil. Instead, I stepped through the door to stand beside Kanin, giving Psycho Vamp my best challenging glare. “You want me? Here I am.”

“Yes,” Sarren agreed, clasping his bony hands. “Here you are, little bird. Here you are, and here we are, and the world spins and dies around us.” He cocked his head at me, appraising. “But where is your prince? I would think he’d want to be here, to see the end of this symphony.”

“He’s gone,” I snapped, baring my fangs. I was suddenly glad Zeke wasn’t here, standing in this creepy room with this insane vampire who would use every weakness to his advantage. “Your virus took him,” I went on, not needing to fake the fury and hatred in my voice as I faced Sarren, who raised his eyebrows. “And you are going to give us a cure, right now, or we’re going to beat it out of you.”

“A cure?” Sarren feigned surprise. “What makes you think I have a cure, little bird?”

I growled, bringing up my sword even as I felt Kanin’s warning hand on my arm. I was tired of talking to crazy Psycho Vamp, and I was
not
in the mood for his sick games. “Do you have one, or not?”

“Oh, let me think. A cure, a cure…” Holding up his empty hands, Sarren took two steps to the edge of the counter. “Do you mean…this cure?”

I should’ve known not to trust him. I should’ve been more wary, more on guard, but in the split second I realized he was up to something, his hand flipped a switch over the counter and a brilliant light erupted right in front of us, pinning us in the glare. Blinded, I hissed and turned away, shielding my eyes, hearing Kanin do the same. And in that moment, something grabbed me from behind, clamping my sword arm beneath it, and a sharp wooden point was shoved under my breastbone, angled up toward my heart.

“Hello, sister,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear. “Bet you didn’t expect to see me again.”

Chapter 20

I went rigid. As the light faded, I became aware of my surroundings all at once. My attacker stood behind me, pinning my arm, a wooden point shoved into my chest. It dug painfully into my skin, making me stiffen and arch to get away from it, but I couldn’t escape.

“I’d drop the sword, if I were you,” the cool, smug voice said into my ear, punctuated with a sudden jab of the stake, making me wince. “Don’t make me use this, sister. Drop it. Now.”

I cursed, and my katana hit the ground with a clang. “Dammit, Jackal,” I muttered, craning my head back to look at him, smirking at me. “You two-timing bastard!”

“Oh, come on,” Jackal said mildly, pulling me a few steps away from Kanin, who stared at him with eyes that had gone cold and terrifying. “You act like this is such a stretch. Don’t move, old man,” he warned Kanin, maneuvering me into a corner. “One little slip, and I might just impale your favorite little spawn here. Wouldn’t want that.”

Sarren suddenly moved across my vision in a blur, striking Kanin with a vicious snarl, sending him reeling back. Kanin recovered and lashed out with a kick as Sarren came at him again, flinging him back several yards to crash into one of the cots. I tensed, but Jackal growled and twisted the stake into my flesh, making me gasp. Kanin froze.

A chilling laugh made my stomach curl, and Sarren staggered to his feet, eyes blazing. His tongue licked out, dabbing a corner of his cut lip, and he smiled. “For every drop of blood I lose,” he promised, stalking forward again, “I will make your little bird scream for an hour. Her song will seep into the very walls and will remain here forever, and everyone who hears it will know how much she wanted to die. The longer this goes on, the longer her music will last, until she is begging for it to end. But it will not end, as long as you are still alive.”