Chapter 21

Humans are fascinating creatures. Though genetically separated from other mammals, they share a number of similarities. In this instance, it's in the way they experience the emotion of fear. Like animals, when humans are in danger, there is something in their genetic make-up which produces hormones and forces their minds into a state of panic. Their thoughts pose a single ultimatum: to act or run. To flee or fight.

Guard One fought and lost. If Nate follows his footsteps, he will lose too. I tip my chin up, sensing the way Nate's brain processes the emotion with an obvious hesitancy. Unlike his counterpart, he wants nothing more than to flee. Every twitch of his limbs and tremble in his voice makes that clear.

Unfortunately, I need him.

For now.

My fangs elongate and Nate backpedals. He worries he'll be my next meal. If I had any sense of humor, this may cause me to let out a genuine laugh. As if I would waste my appetite on a man who reeks of dread and piss.

I widen my stance and tower over him, glowering at the sweat beading across his forehead.

"We will not be going to the infirmary," I murmur. "You will take me to the lab, where they keep the serum. Then you will take me to where they are holding the vampires hostage."

Nate sputters in disbelief. "I can't – we don't - "

"Patient Zero is dead," I hiss, cutting him off. "I know what comes next, and I am not ignorant enough to think your infamous Mr. Primary hasn't been hunting down vampires and holding them against their will in preparation of this day."

Nate's jaw goes slack, confirming all my suspicions.

"Take me to the lab," I growl. "Now."

What I fail to mention is I also know what is happening to my human behind closed doors. Now that Reyo knows my human's blood can remove the entire vampire species from existence, he'll be draining him of every drop. Only a single flicker of disdain shows on Nate's features before he nods in submission. Mr. Primary has gained quite the loyal followers. But not loyal enough.

Nate drags his feet as we shuffle down the narrow hallway, and my limited patience wanes. It has been decades since I have put the phrase 'time is of the essence' into motion. To vampires, time is meaningless as it is endless. We are never in short supply, running parallel with it as opposed to running against the hands of time.

I step in front of Nate and curl a hand around his throat, lifting him up into the air. His feet wiggle in an attempt to find the ground, but his attempt is met with nothing but stale air. His life is in my hands, and he frantically claws at my wrists as this realization sinks into his thick skull. The kicks and flails are futile.

Two sharp pinpricks pierce the skin along the inside of my elbows. I glance down, wondering if Nate somehow wounded me. I will admit, if this is the case, I will be impressed. Yet my skin remains unscathed. My fingers tighten around Nate's neck. No, this is the pain my human is experiencing at this very moment. My fury triples. Reyo has begun taking his blood, leaving me at the mercy of Time's doorstep.

"If I wanted a romantic walk," I sneer, "I would have held your hand and asked for your favorite color."

The pain in my elbow doubles, and it's enough to break my hold on Nate's meaty neck. He thinks it's my way of showing mercy. It's anything but. He staggers to his feet. The color blooms back into his cheeks as he coughs and gasps for air.

Imbecile.

He attempts to run and falls once. Twice. The smell of his urine-soaked pants lingers in the air. He does not look back as he winds through hallway after hallway. Odd that we do not pass anyone along the way. Silently, I take note of this. Normally guards are peppered throughout the corridors, but it appears Reyo has determined this undertaking large enough to pull his guards out from even the deepest trenches.

We move into another corridor and the surroundings become familiar. The lab is close. Very close. I outpace Nate, moving in front of him and pulling him into a chokehold. He struggles against me. It's far weaker this time, his fight for his own life. He has not recovered from our last exchange. My human would tear his bleeding heart out at my coldness, but I refuse to take any more chances. Nate twitches a few, final times before the last breath of life leaves his lips.

I discard his body to the side and wait for a sense of guilt to follow. It doesn't. A figure emerges from the shadows, and I hone my senses to get their blood's scent.

"Did you have to kill him?"

Gabe whispers the question knowing that even at this distance, I will hear him. The disappointment in his tone is palpable. I may have his loyalty from years past, but now it's hanging on by a thread of dwindling hope. I may not remember who I was before, but I am sure it is not the monster I have become.

"He was a danger," I respond and close the distance between us.

Gabe's eyes rake over my face. He tries to find a glimmer of the man he used to know, used to love. He tries to find the man I pretended to be only a short time ago when I convinced him to abandon his cause and help me instead. He moaned my praises, whispering that he knew I would come back. Knew I would remember.

I played my part well, just as I promised my human I would. Little does Gabe know that when I closed my eyes, I had to imagine my human to get hard. I had to picture my human as I moved against him, practicing restraint of boredom and going soft as he writhed beneath me in pleasure.

Gabe unclasps the lock and glances around, checking for the all clear before pushing the door ajar. I step inside the lab and focus my vampiric senses on locating the scent of the serum. Gabe hovers near the door. His eyes bounce between me and the hallway, back and forth. It's a swinging pendulum, no doubt mirroring the internal war churning within.

I can almost hear my human urging me to trust him, but I do not. This man appears willing to go to the end of the world for someone who died many, many years ago. For someone who is merely a physical shell and reminder of love lost.

It seems too far fetched that after so much time, Gabe is willing to cast aside his alliances to once again claim a spot by my side. It is not believable. The Secondaries are a curious mix of humans and vampires. The softness of their emotions and their loyalty only go so deep, which tells me teaming up with Gabe could easily be a trap.

I am prepared for this. I must be.

Besides, trust is not a concept with which vampires hold much stock. It is tossed into a category along with ice cream toppings and fashion sense. It holds no value to us. Meaningless.

The prickling sensation in my elbow doubles, and I hiss out in surprising pain. Gabe swings his head in my direction.

"You find it?" he whispers.

"No."

The last time I felt this pain, I quickly realized I no longer needed my accomplice. Perhaps my current one is not needed, either. I raise a brow and turn towards my ex-fiancé.

"It is not here, is it?" I question.

I watch and study every reaction. The speed of Gabe's heart increases, an extra four beats per minute. His jawline tightens around his slender face. His face puckers into an obvious frown, though the confusion does not match what he is experiencing internally.

Now I must decide: do I follow my vampire instincts and assume this is a set-up? Or follow what my human has taught me and allow him a chance to live?

"Answer me," I command.

Gabe shifts his weight from foot to foot. The moment seems suspended. He walks closer to me, and I straighten my spine. His heart rate continues to spike the closer he gets, and rather than desire, I smell his nervousness bubbling to the surface.

"I had no idea it was taken from the lab," he mutters. "They should still be in here."

His words are almost believable. Almost. Surely it would convince most humans, leaving them susceptible to whatever plot was about to unfold. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of being an immortal vampire.

We are not so easily convinced.

I see the vial of serum shimmering in Gabe's pocket before he has a chance to fully extract it from his pocket and plunge it into my leg. I catch his arm, tightening my grip to prevent him from making contact. The effort exacerbates the pain in my elbow, but I push through it without indicating the weakness acting against me.

Gabe does not give up so easily as the pissing guard. He grunts under the strain of my strength. After a minute, he attempts to reach for the radio on his belt. I swat his hand away.

"Drop the vial," I warn.

My voice remains even, but the effort is draining. My human's blood is coursing through me, but we are bonded. The blood Reyo is forcing from him is weakening me as well.

"I can't," Gabe says through clenched teeth. "It's – it's the only way."

The pain in my elbow ceases long enough for me to gather all my strength to use against him. I lunge forward, sending both of us toppling to the floor. I bump a table on my way down, and glass tubes crash around us, their tiny particles littering the floor as a macabre blanket of doom. Gabe winces as the small shards of glass dig into his skin, but I do not relent.

"Tell me," I say. "Did precious Mr. Primary know of this plan?"

A glossy shine forms across Gabe's eyes. Whether it is from sadness, yearning, or fear, I will never know. He swallows hard and his throat bobs up and down.

"I was helping you both," he admits weakly.

Small trickles of blood begin seeping out from beneath him. Unlike a human, he cannot suffer a death from blood loss. The portion of him which is vampire protects him from that.

"Reyo wants you dead," he says. "I came up with a plan to save you."

My eyes narrow, and Gabe vehemently shakes his head.

"Please," he whispers. "You have to believe me. Reyo was devising a means to have you killed, but I begged for your life. As a vampire, you are an enemy. But as a Secondary..."

"I become an ally," I finish for him.

He nods, just slightly. "He gave me one of the only vials we had after we extracted blood from the Nirv."

My human.

"I said I'd find a way to earn your trust, then inject you, to get you back," Gabe finishes, but not before his throat closes up with emotion.

"To get me back as a Secondary?"

"Yes," Gabe says. "But also, to get you back to me."

It is the first time I believe him. I tilt my head to the side, studying the man below me, waiting for a memory or a feeling to surface. Pinning his arms down with one hand, I reach for the serum. A single tear slips down his cheek as he resigns it to my possession.

The greenish hue of the liquid glitters and glows in the darkness. Such a deadly serum from such an innocent human. A small smile touches my lips. I bite off the cap.

"Patient Zero," I say into the darkness. "Was someone from my human's life. Ironic that it was my human's blood that was the very cause of his best friend's death." I lower the serum to my thigh and rest the tip of the needle against my skin. "But Reyo knew this. Yes, the serum causes reversal, but it also causes death for anyone too weak to overpower it."

Gabe shakes his head. "But it won't be like that with you. You're strong. Stronger than him. He was weak – a human in prior form. He stood no chance against it. No vampire who was human in prior form stands a chance. But you do. Don't you see? This serum will bring all the Secondaries back to true form."

The way he talks so easily of disposing humans, including my human, gives me the fuel I need to finish this interaction.

"Perhaps," I say. "Or Reyo simply told you this so you'd inject me with the serum."

When Gabe stills with confusion, my smile tightens on my lips. "The blood of a Nirv kills off vampires. Perhaps humans are too weak to withstand the reversal process. However, vampires are too weak to withstand the blood of a bonded Nirv."

Gabe swallows again. He frantically searches my face. "What are you saying?"

With quick movements, I change the position of the vial, lodging the needle into Gabe's side. He howls with pain as the liquid leaves the vial and enters his system. His face washes over with betrayal. For reasons unknown to me, I lean down and place a single kiss to his forehead. Maybe it's from pity. Maybe it's something close to sadness of my own. Or maybe it is merely my way of saying goodbye to a past I do not remember.

"What I am saying is I hope, for your sake, that this serum holds the good in it you say it does," I whisper and silently push off of him. "Then your life will be spared. If not, you will soon greet a death you have doomed to many others."

Gabe's body begins convulsing. The serum, and my human's blood, are working through his system, shutting down his frozen organs, and wreaking havoc on his immortality. Just as I knew it would. Just as I knew Reyo designed it to be.

"Why?" Gabe whispers to me through tears, and I know the question holds so many others within it.

"To get us one step closer to saving humankind," I say, yanking the radio from his hips. As his eyes roll to the back of his head, I whisper, "and for Kelly. The human, the vampire...and my friend."