Читать книгу Bloodline - Maggie Shayne, Maggie Shayne - Страница 10

Present Day

Ginger Walters, head of the Appalachian Regional Branch of the Sisterhood of Athena, frowned at the telephone as it rang.

Serena looked over at her with curiosity, but nothing more than that. She’d been living with the sisters for more than twenty years now, and she knew how things worked. You knew what you needed to know, nothing more. Hell, aside from herself, Terry—who’d brought her here—Ginger and a handful of others, no one in the entire organization knew that she was the mother of one of the Chosen, one of those rare humans who had the potential to become a vampire. One of the people they watched. Ginger said they never would have let her in, if they’d known. “They” being the higher-ups in the organization. To say they were strict was an understatement. In her time there, Serena had picked up on the unspoken knowledge that once a woman joined the Sisterhood, she was never allowed to leave.

Never.

As they grew older, members were transferred to other branches, where research, record-keeping and the like became their jobs, while younger recruits replaced them in the ranks.

That no one left was extreme, perhaps. But she could see the need for such measures. And the need for secrecy, the need for all of it. She had become as loyal and as devoted to the cause as any of them.

They were just returning from the wide, fenced-in and ultraprivate lawn in back, where they gathered morning and evening for chi kung and kung fu practice. She had a towel around her neck, was wearing a sweat-damp gi with a black belt around her waist and was barefoot. So were the others who trooped through the house ahead of her, all of them heading to their rooms for a shower.

They’d come in through the rear door, so it was the kitchen telephone that had sidetracked the honcha, as Serena liked to call their leader. But when Ginger brought the phone to her ear and said, “This is Ginger Walters. Who is calling?” there was something off about her tone. Something that brought Serena up short.

And when she saw the look on the other woman’s face, she knew something big was going on.

Ginger’s eyes shot to hers. “Get Terry back here, and close the door. Hurry.”

Serena nodded and ran out of the room. The others had gone their various ways, but her shout brought Terry in a hurry. Maybe her own voice was giving things away, too. But even if it did, the others wouldn’t snoop or pry or try to listen in. It just wasn’t how they operated. They trusted each other—they had to. Their lives too often depended on it.

Terry joined her, and together they rushed back into the kitchen. Serena closed the door behind them, and Ginger said, “All right, Callista. Go ahead.” And then she pressed the speaker button and set the receiver down.

“Callista?” Serena whispered in disbelief, sending a quick stunned look at Terry. It had been twenty-eight months since anyone had heard a word from her. She was a sister who had begun a passionate affair with a suspected DPI operative, pretending to know nothing about his work the entire time. Eventually she’d become close enough to him to win his trust, and he had helped her get a job as a “keeper” at some mysterious place they called “The Farm.”

She’d planned to work undercover, to send back information on The Farm’s location and find out whether the place had anything to do with the missing children they’d been trying for so long to find, including Serena’s own missing baby girl—who would be twenty-one years old by now. But it had been as if Callista had fallen off the planet. And no amount of searching or digging had turned up any sign that she was still alive.

All of that whirled through Serena’s mind like a twister, and then she was focused again on the call.

“Go ahead, Callista,” Ginger said. “Where are you?”

“I’m at The Farm.” The words were whispered. Frowning, Ginger hit the volume button. “I’ve been here the entire time, but what they don’t tell you ’til you’re here is that once you’re hired, there’s no contact with the outside world. You’re not allowed to leave until your contract is up. And even then…”

“So how are you making this call?”

“They’ll kill me if they find out. I stole a cell phone from a guard who smuggled it in. If he reports it, they’ll shoot him, though, so I might be safe. And I had to get in touch.”

“Why?”

“Serena’s daughter—”

“She’s there?” Serena lurched closer to the phone, as if she could grab hold of it, and her child through it.

“She was,” Callista said. “A prisoner—one of many. But she escaped. I’m fairly certain she…she changed over first.”

Serena felt her body turn to stone. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t feel. She was devoid of warmth. “She’s…she’s a…” God, she couldn’t even say it.

“I think so, Serena. She goes by the name of Lilith. But after an earlier escape, the keepers instituted a new tagging program. The residents have all been implanted with a tracking device that can be remotely activated if they get away. All without their knowledge. They’ll find her in short order, and when they do, she’ll be executed. That’s why I had to risk everything to call you. You have to get to her before they do.”

Serena nodded dumbly. Terry’s arm came around her shoulders, as if to comfort her or soothe her tears. But there were none. She couldn’t cry. She’d lost her daughter. She’d lost her. Lilith wasn’t even human anymore.

“Callista, can you get out of there?” Ginger asked.

“I couldn’t before, and now that Lilith has gotten away, security has gone through the roof. I’ll look for an opportunity, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to stay another eight months, until my contract is up.”

“They let people leave after that?” Ginger asked. “They trust them to keep quiet?”

“Anyone who talks is tracked down and executed. They make very sure we all know that.”

Ginger nodded. “So tell me all you can now, then, if it’s safe.”

“It’s not. But I might never get another chance. I can’t tell you where The Farm is. They blindfold us when they bring us in, and we never leave until our time is up. I have no idea where I am. But I do know it’s about two hours from Athena House, maybe less. They could have driven me around in circles for a while to throw me off, for all I know.”

“Okay. What else do you know, Callista? What do they do there?”

“Program children. Brainwash them. Train them to…to kill on command. To obey without question. They’re taking any kids with the antigen that they can get their hands on and raising them here. When they’re grown, they transform them and take them elsewhere. They are…they’re creating a vampire army, Ginger. Loyal to the point of death to the United States’ government’s most ultrasecret agency.”

Ginger’s eyes went wide with horror, and she gazed at the other two. Serena felt her heart breaking.

“They couldn’t break your daughter’s spirit, Serena,” Callista went on. “You should know that. She never lost her will. She was a rebel to the core.”

A little frown bent Serena’s brows.

“She’s an incredible woman,” Callista continued. “Vampire or not. I…I loved her. You will, too. If you can get to her in time.” She paused, then added, “I’m sending you an e-mail from this phone with her picture. It should help.”

Ginger nodded slowly, then began to pace. “I don’t suppose you have any idea where she would have gone, do you?”

“Only one clue,” Callista said. “A month after I arrived here, there was another escape. A young man called Ethan. No last name, as far as I know. I sort of…helped him. But I had no choice.”

“We know about a vampire called Ethan!” Terry said. “He has a place in Mesina. We’ve had him on the radar for a year now.”

“He’s a legend here. So will Lilith be, before week’s end. But…she used to talk about him. And there was something in her eyes and her voice when she did…I don’t think I’m imagining it. And I know he had feelings for her. So maybe…”

“Good work, Callista.”

“Thank you. Thank you so, so much,” Serena said. “Please be safe.”

“I’ll do my best. I want to get out of here as badly as—I’ve gotta go.”

And that was it. The connection was broken.

Ginger hung up the phone and turned to look at Terry and Serena. “It’s time we notified the powers that be of what we’ve been up to. It’s going to take more than just the three of us to protect Lilith and rescue Callista.”

“It’s going to take more than the powers that be,” Terry said. “More than the entire sisterhood.”

Serena nodded. “If they have a vampire army, the only way we’re going to fight them is if we get one of our own.”

“Absolutely not.” Ginger shook her head firmly. “We do not interact with them. We try not to so much as reveal our existence to the Undead. That’s policy, and it’s one I agree with—one that’s essential to our continued ability to operate. Do not even think about breaking it. Is that understood?”

Serena nodded and lowered her head.

“Good. Now, let’s get out to that vampire’s ranch shortly after nightfall and see if we can find your daughter. If nothing more, maybe we can at least warn her.”

Lifting her head, Serena felt lighter. “My God,” she whispered. “I might actually see her…tonight.”

“You can see her now,” Ginger said, and, smiling, she led the way through the kitchen and the huge formal dining room, then into the library. She closed the door and quickly moved behind the desk, where, without even sitting down, she began tapping on the keyboard. After a moment, she straightened and smiled slowly. “She looks like you.”

Her heart in her throat, Serena moved around the desk and blinked away the tears that blurred her vision. There on the monitor screen was a photo of a beautiful young woman with spiraling auburn curls and vivid green eyes.

At her shoulder, Terry whispered, “She’s beautiful.”

Serena nodded but found herself too overcome with emotion to speak. All she could manage was to raise one trembling hand and press her fingertips to her daughter’s cheek as tears finally spilled down her own.

Ethan woke at sundown with Lilith curled in his arms—just the way he’d gone to sleep. Maybe he shouldn’t have done it, but he’d carried her into his room that morning. He’d changed his own clothes and left hers in place—though that still consisted of only his button-down shirt, which was far too big. Then he’d crawled into the bed and curved his body to fit hers, wrapping her in his arms, and he relished both his relief that she was okay and his admiration for her strength.

As he’d drifted into sleep, he’d traveled backward in his mind to his final night in captivity.

He’d kissed her that night, which had done nothing but leave him wanting more and aching at the impossibility of what he had to do: to leave there—to leave her…

“You have to. Now, Ethan.”

He nodded, hearing the soft whisper from beyond the window. Callista, one of the keepers—but one who was so different from the others that he wondered who she really was.

He stood by the barracks window, but for the life of him, he couldn’t move any farther. He stood as if rooted to the spot, relishing what he was certain would be his last sight of Lilith.

“Ethan, it’s for her sake, as well.”

He shook his head, but he somehow tore his eyes from her and moved away, careful not to make a sound as he slipped outside, watching and listening with everything in him.

Callista moved at his side. It had been a warm autumn night, that first night of his new life. And it had been…almost anticlimactic, the way it had all taken place.

She took him to the most remote area within the compound: a stand of brush and a handful of scrub-apple trees, between the southernmost outbuildings and the electrified fence. She led the way, hurrying, and nervous as hell.

Finally she pointed to a blanket on the weedy ground. “Lie down.”

He frowned at her. “I thought you were going to help me escape.”

“You can only escape if you can jump the fence, and you can only jump the fence if you’re a vampire. So I’m going to help you change over. Lie down.”

He went still and stiff, suddenly wary. “Is this some kind of a trick, Callista? Are you testing me, so that the minute I agree, the other keepers will jump out and punish me? Is this the challenge you said they were about to give me? The one you said I was certain to fail?”

“No, Ethan.” She knelt beside the blanket, opened a pack and began removing bags of blood and tubing from it. “The challenge they would have given you would have proven to them whether you could be trusted once you’d been transformed.”

He sat on the ground, but he didn’t lie down. Overhead, the stars gleamed bright, flickering like fireflies on the velvet blanket of the night. In the distance, a night bird mourned.

“And if I failed, they wouldn’t change me. I would stay as I am. I don’t see that as such a bad thing.”

“If you fail, Ethan, your fate will be far worse than death.”

“What could be worse than death?” he asked, arrogant laughter in his tone. But when Callista met his eyes, the look in hers made his blood turn cold.

“They would transform you anyway. And then they would drug and starve you to keep you weak, and drain your blood whenever they needed it to create another vampire. You would be nothing more than a machine to dispense blood, your entire existence lived in a tiny cell with no light, no heat, no human contact.”

He blinked and gave his head a shake. “Is that…is that how they do it? They have a captive vampire somewhere?”

“Mmm,” she said with a nod. “But he’s not going to live much longer. They need…new blood, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

He swallowed, his eye drawn to the bags. “This came from him?”

“With his blessing,” she said. “He wants you to get out as badly as I do.”

He licked his lips, then looked away from her very quickly. “I can’t go. I can’t leave her behind.”

“I told you, she’s too weak tonight.”

“Then I’ll just have to pass this challenge of theirs and stay in their good graces.”

“Pass the test and they’ll send you away all the same, but in their employ, not as a free being. But you won’t pass the test Ethan. You won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

She met his eyes, at the same time pressing against his chest to get him to lie down. He resisted, and she whispered, “Their plan is to order you to kill Lilith. They make every test fit the person, and they know you feel something for her, so asking you to kill her will test you in a way nothing else can.”

The strength went out of him, along with his breath, allowing Callista to push him flat on his back. Before he could even blink, she was rolling up his sleeve and sinking a needle into his arm. It led to a tube, which led to a pit he hadn’t noticed before, dug in the sandy soil. And even as he watched, his own blood began to seep along the tube until, within seconds, it was trickling out the other end into the two-foot-deep hole.

“And if you refuse to kill her, they’ll do it for you. She’ll be dead either way, and you’ll either be expelled from here to do their bidding or held captive until you die. It’s better this way, Ethan. I change you, and you escape.”

“What about Lilith?” he demanded, lifting his head. Dizziness hit him, and he quickly let it drop again.

“I’ll watch over her as best I can. I’ll try to keep her safe until the opportunity arises to get her out, as well.”

“You’re risking your life by doing this,” he told her. His words were becoming slurred with weakness.

“Yes, I know. That’s my choice.”

“But why? You’re not even…one of us.”