Vaulcron (Enigma Series Book 3) (8 page)

Chapter Fifteen

The sound of the iron door opening brought Mallory out of her exhaustion-induced sleep.

“I’m sorry to wake you, Miss Cahill, but it’s time to begin.”

Vaulcron shot out of bed and had Doctor Lambert by the throat before Mallory could process it all. “You will not touch her.”

Lambert’s face turned purple as he hung suspended from the floor, Vaulcron’s huge hands squeezing his neck.

Mallory sprang into action, rushing to the doctor’s side. She frantically gripped Vaulcron’s forearm. “You’re going to kill him. Please stop. This is not his fault.”

“I will not allow you to be further violated,” Vaulcron growled, tightening his grip.

“He’s being forced the same as us,” Mallory reiterated. “Killing him isn’t going to help. They’ll only bring in someone else to take his place. After they hurt Amy.”

Uncertainty flickered in Vaulcron’s eyes. He slowly opened his hands, allowing the doctor to drop to the floor at the Bracadyte’s feet.

Mallory lowered to her haunches in front of Lambert. “Are you okay?”

At his nod, she continued. “Look. I know none of this is your doing, but you’re the doctor here. Can’t you persuade them that they’re making a huge mistake?”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Lambert wheezed, rubbing at his obviously tender throat.

Mallory lifted the doctor’s chin, forcing him to meet her gaze. “Try harder. Breeding us is not going to give them what they need.”

“How can you be sure?”

“The head of the CDC, Martin Raducha, manipulated the bacteria from the Bracadytes, with a deadly human virus, hoping to destroy it or at least weaken it. Instead, he ended up mutating the bacteria into what it is today.”

“The Incola virus,” Lambert mumbled, understanding registering in his eyes.

“Yes. Force breeding a Bracadyte and a human is not going to solve their problem. Vaulcron and I do not hold the key to a cure.”

“Then who does?” Lambert glanced from Mallory to Vaulcron.

Mallory took a deep breath before answering. “The only person to ever contract the virus and live. Abbigail Sutherland.”

The doctor stumbled to his feet. “Why can’t we get her to help us?”

“Because she has a half-Bracadyte child. The government would destroy him and her both if they got their hands on them.”

Lambert shook his head. “Then we’re left with no choice here. I’ll never be able to convince them to stop this madness. And I can’t allow them to hurt my wife and grandchildren.”

Mallory’s heart sank in defeat. “I guess we have no choice.”

“I didn’t say that,” Lambert admitted, heading toward the door. “There’s always a choice.”

Mallory and Vaulcron followed close behind. She stopped the doctor before he got to the hall. “What are you saying?”

Lambert paused at the threshold. “I have no choice but to give you the injections this morning. Jefferies will be watching. But when the time comes to begin in vitro fertilization, I will have the opportunity to tamper with the sample we obtained from him.” He nodded in Vaulcron’s direction.

Mallory breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you sure that you can pull that off?”

“I’m not sure about anything, Miss Cahill. But I will do my level best to help you, if I can.”

“Thank you, Doctor Lambert. That means a lot to me.”

Lambert turned and strode into the hall. “Don’t thank me yet. You still have to endure the injections.”

Mallory could withstand anything if it meant her sister would remain safe. She could understand the doctor’s anxiety. Her own stress levels were through the roof.

The next two hours were spent in the lab. Doctor Lambert poked and prodded until Mallory was ready to scream. After numerous blood draws, an ultrasound, a vaginal examination, and a round of painful injections, Mallory was ordered back to her room.

Vaulcron walked along beside her. “Are you in pain?”

“No,” Mallory answered honestly, glancing back at the guard trailing behind them. “My pride stings a little, but I’m okay.”

She stepped through the door of the room she and Vaulcron had spent the night in and turned to face the freckled-faced soldier. “Where is Jefferies?”

“He’s in a meeting, ma’am.” The guard moved to close the door after Vaulcron cleared the entrance, but Mallory stopped him. “Wait.”

“Ma’am?” The guard’s eyebrows lifted.

“What’s your name, soldier?”

“Fredricks, ma’am.”

Mallory sent him a smile usually reserved for politicians she wanted an interview with. “Hi, Fredricks. I need to speak with Jefferies. It’s very important. Would you mind relaying that message for me?”

Fredricks blushed, Vaulcron growled, and Mallory bit back a sigh. “Please? It would mean a lot to me.”

“I-I can do that,” Fredricks stammered, glancing down at his hands. “In the meantime, would you like some breakfast?”

“We would love some,” Mallory admitted, waving a hand in Vaulcron’s direction. “Could you bring a bigger tray than last time? He eats a lot.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be back shortly.” Fredricks rushed from the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

“I do not like the way he looks at you,” Vaulcron growled in a low tone. “He is fortunate I did not remove his teeth.”

Mallory would have laughed under any other circumstances. But being locked up as a test subject took the humor right out of her. “You mean knock his teeth out.”

“Yes, that,” Vaulcron agreed, striding off toward the bed. He sat on the foot of the mattress.

Mallory joined him, fighting a smile that threatened regardless of their current situation. “You’re jealous.”

“I am,” Vaulcron admitted without guile. “I feel protective of you.”

Mallory laid her hand over his much bigger one. “I feel protective of you also.”

Vaulcron lifted his gaze, seeming to search her eyes for answers. “You mean that?”

She did mean it, she realized, staring back at him in wonder. Her life had changed in a matter of days, and with that change came a revelation. She was falling for Vaulcron.

“I wish it were possible to hear your thoughts,” Mallory confessed, leaning closer to his warmth.

He reached up and cupped her cheek. “Be careful what you wish for, Mallory Cahill. That is a bond you cannot turn back from.”

“A bond?”

Vaulcron let his hand fall away and lowered his gaze. “To bond with a Bracadyte is to share one’s soul, one’s life force. You would forever be a part of me, to know my thoughts, my feelings, my heart.”

Mallory’s own heart skipped a beat at the thought of knowing him on such an intimate level. But did she really want to be bound to him for the rest of her life?

“I can see your doubt. It swims in your eyes like the gulf’s current.”

“When you say bonded,” she began, “do you mean as in married to? A life partner? Or a friendship that can never be broken?”

“All of it…any of it. Whichever you choose. It is an intimate link that can never be broken.”

Mallory reached up and ran her hand down his face. “I trust you, Vaulcron. I’m just scared to death of creating a bond with you.”

Hurt flashed in his eyes before he glanced away. “I understand. I am different from you. I—”

“What?” she interrupted, guiding his face back toward hers. “It has nothing to do with you being different. I’ve never met anyone like you, Vaulcron. To say that I’m attracted to you would be an understatement.”

An indention formed between his brows. “But you do not want me.”

Mallory laughed without humor. “I want you in the worst kind of way. I have since the moment I met you. But we are in a hell of a predicament here. If something were to happen to you, it would hurt me deeply.”

“I will not allow anything to happen to either of us, Mallory. We will escape this place, retrieve your sister, and return to Cuba.”

“But my life is here. My sister’s life. If I’m not able to prove the government’s involvement in creating this virus, I’ll never be able to come back.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” Vaulcron whispered, covering the hand she still held to his face with his own.

Mallory watched him for several seconds without breathing, unable to voice the insecurities spinning inside her head. “I don’t know what I think anymore.”

Fredericks returned, holding a tray in his nervous hands. He set the food on the small table in the room and backed out the door.

Vaulcron retrieved the tray and brought it back to the bed where Mallory sat waiting. Together, the two of them finished off the food along with the milk and coffee.

Mallory wiped her mouth on a small napkin and got to her feet. “I’m going to take a shower.”

Chapter Sixteen

We have to get a message to my sister,” Amy insisted, taking a bite of the burger Glenn had picked up for her.

Glenn shook his head before realizing she couldn’t see the gesture. “There’s no way to get a message to her, Amy. She’s locked up at Winchester Industries. Even if I knew what floor they had her on, all calls are monitored. I’d never get through.”

“We could back to my place and leave her a clue.”

“A clue?” Glenn ran a hand down his face, silently praying for patience. Amy’s naiveté astounded him at times. “Jefferies has to know we’ve bailed by now. He’ll have people watching Piney Point and all surrounding hotels.”

Tears sparkled in Amy’s light blue eyes. “We have to do something. Mallory will go insane if she returns and can’t find me. She’ll do something stupid and get herself killed.”

If she hasn’t already, Glenn thought with a guilty conscience. “Fine. I have a friend that I can contact. But if Jefferies knows I’m in the wind, he may have already pulled him in for interrogation.”

“Please call him. I hate to sound so selfish, but it’s my sister. She took care of me when no one else would.”

With a sigh of resignation, Glenn pulled out his disposable phone and dialed a number he’d called many times in the past.

“Spivey,” his friend answered absently, picking up on the first ring.

“Leon,” Glenn greeted in a tight voice. “This is Anderson. Are you somewhere private where we can talk?”

“No, sir. But if you can give me a second, I will be.”

Long moments passed before Spivey returned to the line. “Hey, Glenn. What’s going on?”

“It’s a long story, man. I need your help.”

“Okay,” Spivey murmured low. “Whatever you need.”

“Thanks, Leon.” Glenn spent the next five minutes giving Leon the short version of a very long and complicated story. Ending with, "Can you get the message to Miss Cahill without drawing suspicion to yourself?”

“Glenn?” Leon hissed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? They’ll kill you, man. Or imprison you at the very least.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

Spivey grew quiet for a moment. “Then why are you doing it? I haven’t heard anything as of yet, so Jefferies probably hasn’t realized that you’re gone. It’s not too late to turn back.”

Glenn lifted his gaze to the young blonde sitting across from him. Innocence stared back at him from sightless blue eyes.

“I can’t go back, Leon. Will you help us or not?”

“I’ll deliver the message,” Leon conceded before blowing out a defeated-sounding breath. “Where will you go?”

Glenn hesitated. “The less you know, the better. It’s enough that you’re risking your neck for me with Cahill. Involving you any more would be too risky.”

Leon cleared his throat. “Will I ever hear from you again?”

“Probably not after tonight,” Glenn admitted. “Unless we can expose the cover-up, prove the government’s involvement, and have Howell impeached for kidnapping civilians.”

“Okay then. I’ll make sure the reporter knows her sister is safe.”

Glenn rubbed at the tension knot in the back of his neck. “I appreciate this, Leon. I’ll check back with you this evening.”

Disconnecting the call, Glenn laid the phone on the table and peered over at Amy’s half-eaten food. “You’re not going to finish that?”

Amy shook her head. “I’m not that hungry. What if your friend gets caught trying to relay the message to Mallory?”

“He won’t get caught,” Glenn assured her with more confidence than he felt.

Amy began bagging up her leftover food. “What happens now?”

“We wait.”

* * * *

Douglas Jefferies entered the lab where Doctor Lambert had been temporarily set up to work. He stopped next to a softly humming machine with small vials rotating inside. “Did you put the ecstasy in their food?”

Lambert stiffened, but kept his head bent over a small tray of concoctions in front of him. “Yes,” he spat in a low tone. “A large dose. Just as you instructed.”

“What are the odds of her becoming pregnant?”

The elder doctor lifted his head. “The IUD has only recently been removed. The hormones it exuded will remain in her uterus for days. According to her last menstrual cycle, she would have been ovulating in the next week. The injections will speed up the process. If she copulates with the alien between now and the next two days, there is a good chance she will conceive.”

“That’s great news, Doctor Lambert.”

“I said it was a possibility. Nothing is definite.”

Jefferies nodded. “We’ll be moving her to a more secure location soon.”

“What about Vaulcron?”

Doug narrowed his eyes. “You’re now referring to the alien by name?”

Doctor Lambert straightened, his face turning red with anger. “You have me violating that poor woman in an attempt to impregnate her with that alien’s seed. I deal with them on a very intimate level. The least I can do is show them a modicum of respect.
Sir
.” That last word was forced out between clenched teeth.

“I know you think I’m a heartless bastard,” Jefferies stated, turning to go. “But I’m only doing what has to be done. The fate of the world depends on it.”

“You’re wrong.”

The quiet admission of Doctor Lambert’s statement stopped Jefferies in his tracks. He turned back to face the elder man. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Lambert crossed his short arms over his chest. “It means that Abbigail Sutherland is the only hope of finding a cure. For whatever reason, she is immune to the virus. I can almost guarantee that Miss Cahill, isn’t.”

Doug threw out a hand in frustration. “Cahill may not be immune, but her child will be.”

The doctor shook his head. “Not true. The CDC’s mutation of the virus assures us of that. Somehow, Abbigail Sutherland was able to fight off the bacteria. My best guess would be that she’s been previously vaccinated against whatever the CDC used to mutate the virus.”

“And the alien child she carried built up her resistance against the bacteria carried in the Bracadyte’s barbs,” Doug finished for him.

Lambert nodded. “Something like that.”

Jefferies dropped into a chair. “Then we vaccinate Cahill before she becomes pregnant.”

“There’s no guarantee it’ll work. The virus has been rapidly mutating. If Cahill does become pregnant, the mutated bacteria could very well terminate her unborn fetus.”

“Then why didn’t that happen to Sutherland’s child?”

“I don’t know,” Lambert admitted. “But I don’t think Abbigail is the key to a vaccination. I believe it’s her offspring that’s the enigma.”

“We have to find them,” Jefferies snarled, jumping to his feet. “And soon.”