Love, Immortal (Alchemy Book 2) Page 17

  She barked a short laugh and shrugged. “They gave me Hogan.”

  Ethan grinned. “That’s reassuring.”

  After maneuvering the car into a parking spot in front of a cozy little shop that sold coffee and sandwiches, he asked, “What time should I pick you up?”

  Davey stepped out onto the curb and shook her head. “You don’t have to. Lana will give me a ride home from here.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ll be back at TruGreen Labs tomorrow, Davey. I promise.”

  Davey flashed a warm smile. “Thank you, Ethan.”

  She stood on the sidewalk, watching him drive down the narrow side street until the all-black Charger turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Then Davey squared her shoulders and walked into the Cool Bean Bistro. She spotted Lana almost right away. Seated at tiny round table tucked in the far corner, her best friend sat facing the door, gorgeous features furrowed with worry. Her shiny black curls glistened in the sunlight that filtered through the bistro’s tall, wide windows. Looking up from her cell phone, she spotted Davey and smiled, but the expression faltered before reaching full bloom. Taking a preparing breath, Davey walked over to the table. She was fully committed to being as honest as possible, with the caveat of not revealing anything that might endanger her friend’s well-being.

  Standing up from her chair, Lana embraced Davey, and she returned the gesture with equal affection. When they parted, Lana kept ahold of Davey’s right hand and squeezed it. “A few days ago, you loved your job and were considering moving in with Travis. Now you two have broken up? Please tell me what’s going on.”

  Davey took a seat and guided Lana to do the same. The waitress appeared, stalling the inevitable for just a bit longer as the girls placed an order for two espressos.

  “Ethan’s back,” Davey blurted out after the waitress had gone. “I tried to be faithful while I sorted things out in my head, but I cheated. I cheated on Travis with Ethan.”

  Lana looked completely horrified. “Oh, Davey, how could you?”

  The crushing weight of renewed guilt settled on Davey’s chest. It was like high school all over again where she was the selfish girl only capable of leaving destruction in her wake. “Don’t look at me like that, Lana,” she begged. “Please try to understand. I was so angry when I met Ethan all those years ago. I was alone and afraid of feeling anything good, but being with Ethan changed everything. He changed my life. It used to be that I couldn’t open up to anyone, and the only meaningful relationship in my life was with my five-year-old brother. Being with Ethan made me feel like a real person. He was my first love. My true love.” Taking a shaky breath, Davey rushed on. “And those feelings just don’t go away. I loved Travis. Part of me may even always love him, but we were over from the moment Ethan came back into my life. I’m so sorry I hurt Travis. I wish I had done things differently, and I really should have been more honest from the beginning.”

  “Did you tell Travis any of this? Because the guy I talked to is completely mystified as to why the girl he was head over heels in love with suddenly dumped him for some jerk who walked out on her five years ago.”

  Davey gritted her teeth. “Ethan didn’t walk out on me. He was given a new assignment by the people he works for. He had to leave.”

  “But without saying goodbye?” Lana threw her hands up in disgust. “For five years, you never got a single phone or a text. I was there, Davey. When he left, it almost destroyed you.”

  “Ethan wasn’t given much of a choice in the matter,” she whispered. “He was hurting too.”

  Lana’s expression softened as she sighed. “So, how did Travis end up with a broken arm? Did Ethan really do that to him?”

  “Travis got really angry when he found out who Ethan really was. I’ve never seen him so furious.” Davey paused. “He hit me. Hard. Ethan was there when it happened, and he lost his temper. He shouldn’t have done that to Travis. He knows it. But Travis is hardly free from blame.”

  “He hit you,” Lana repeated. Her face darkened. “Why, that piece of shit.” Shaking her head, she looked away. “You were right,” she admitted. “Travis didn’t give me the whole story. I’m sorry for doubting you.” When Lana finally made eye contact again, the shame she felt was evident. “And I’m sorry for doubting Ethan. I should have known better. That guy was always so in love with you.”

  “It’s okay.” Reaching across the table, Davey took her friend’s hand again. “There were times when I doubted Ethan too.”

  “Well, that makes us both stupid,” Lana said with a little sniff. She wiped the corner of her eye. “He’s a keeper.”

  Davey smiled. “I know,” she said.

  ∞∞∞

  Davey called the repair shop and, after learning it would take a full two weeks for the damages to her car to be repaired, she decided to get a rental. Lana was kind enough to take her to the airport where brief negotiations secured a blue Volkswagen for the next fourteen days. The little sedan cornered nothing like the wrecked M2, but until Ethan was successful in getting Davey reinstated at TruGreen Labs, the only place she would be driving was to Welling and St. Aire to drop her kid brother off at school. Besides, the upcharge in price to rent any of the fancier luxury models was borderline insane.

  Double-checking the time, Davey sent a text to Ethan to let him know she’d be able to collect Hogan after school and then drove to the private academy, crossing her fingers she was early enough to garner a favorable position in the parent pick-up/drop-off line. Even after a jostle with an over-made suburban mom with a face Botox-ed beyond recognition to get a better position, Davey still had to wait for over an hour. But that was partly because Hogan had opted to stay after class and make copies of his notes for a cute classmate. Davey didn’t have the heart to reprimand him. She was just happy he was being a normal kid and making friends. That good mood was only slightly dampened when Botox face gave her a disapproving stare down as she circled back through the line-up. Ten years ago, Davey would have promptly answered the woman’s contempt with a middle finger. Today, she simply bared her teeth in a politely fake smile.

  Affected by a moderate amount of guilt as she pulled into the Big Burger Way to pick up dinner, Hogan had soon distracted her, insisting on ordering a Sasquatch Double with extra cheese for Ethan.

  “Let me guess,” she said, laughing. “If Ethan doesn’t eat this monstrosity, then this incredibly unhealthy pile of grease and cheese is going to find a way onto your plate as a midnight snack.”

  Hogan wrinkled his nose and stared at her thoughtfully. “I’ll split it with you.”

  “Deal,” Davey said, agreeing without hesitation.

  But when dinnertime had come and gone with still no word from Ethan, she found herself too worried to eat. Davey stood at the counter, well away from where Hogan was watching television in the dining room, and tried Ethan’s cell for the fifth time. After seven agonizing rings, the call went to voicemail.

  Slamming the phone against the counter, Davey swore. Something was wrong. Considering the countless frightening possibilities of what that could be was a useless, ulcer-inducing endeavor, so Davey grabbed the car keys instead. Instructing Hogan to deadbolt the door and stay inside, she jumped into the Volkswagen and peeled out of her own driveway fast enough to leave tire treads on the concrete.

  If anyone had answers to Ethan’s whereabouts, it would be Aaron Eleazar, the acting commander of Global Cure’s military sector. Of course, her chances of getting past multiple security checkpoints might have been slim, but she had to try. Losing Ethan again was not an option.

  She was still about ten miles from base when her cell phone rang. Davey’s heart immediately skipped a beat, lurching forward with hope, until the name on the display registered.

  Travis Kane.

  With trembling fingers, she reached for the phone and answered. “Hello?”

  “Davey,” Travis said in hurried, strained whisper. “I’ve made a te
rrible mistake.”

  “Travis, I can’t do this right now. I know there’s more we need to say to each other. I owe you an explanation—and so much more. But I can’t right now, Travis. Please understand.”

  “No, Davey, you need to understand. I just—” his words broke off with a soft whimper. “I just wanted to get him away from you,” he finally said.

  What sounded like a muffled scream and the crash of heavy equipment falling to the floor echoed in the background. “Travis,” Davey called in a voice loud with concern. “What’s happening?”

  His reply turned her blood cold.

  “He’s killing everyone.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t come here, Davey. You’re going to see it on the news, and you’re going to think you can help. But that is exactly what he wants. Do not come here.”

  “Travis!”

  “Don’t come, Davey,” he repeated. And then the line went dead.

  16

  Hitting the brakes, Davey put her flashers on and wrenched the car to the shoulder of the road. On her cellphone, she searched the local news coverage until she found it. Helicopters, at least a dozen police cars, S.W.A.T, and numerous unmarked black government SUVs all swarmed the parking lot of Global Cures. It wasn’t the subsidiary building where she worked, but the same place where Ethan had relinquished custody of Mason Drekker less than twenty-four hours ago. Why would Travis be there? Getting an awful feeling in her gut, Davey nearly swooned beneath the wave of dizziness that overtook her. This was bad. Ethan was missing, but there was no way he could be responsible for the killing spree Travis had described. Had Drekker been revived? Aaron had promised that wouldn’t happen.

  Shit.

  Despite Travis’s warning, Davey saw no other choice but to go. Ethan was missing. Global Cures was on lockdown. And she had to find out why.

  As expected, gaining access to the base was no easy feat. Even amidst the chaos, security was tighter than ever. Her conversation with the soldier guarding the outermost gate started with professional negotiations, reasoning, and logic, and then the pleading began. But when those earnest entreaties also failed, things quickly deteriorated into an all-out shouting match, during which Davey wondered at what point she would be dragged from the rented Volkswagen and wrestled into handcuffs. A godsend came via an unexpected crackle of static on the lawful soldier’s radio. The guard’s entire disposition changed in an instant, and then suddenly, Davey was being waved through without a second glance. Clearing the next two checkpoints without further hassle, she was then confronted by a blockade of uniformed men and a hundred flashing lights.

  She had barely gotten her bearings when a figure she recognized strode forward from the chaos and met her just as she exited her vehicle. The new commander was tall and broad—even more imposing than Ethan—yet smaller than their older brother.

  “You shouldn’t be here, Ms. Little,” Aaron said in a deep baritone filled with suppressed urgency. “This situation is extremely volatile.”

  “I have to be here,” she insisted. “Where’s Ethan?”

  Aaron answered, though he looked as if he really didn’t want to. “He’s inside. Out of contact.”

  “For how long?”

  “I’m not sure.” He paused, turning around to bark an order at two uniformed men who were standing idly by a patrol car. “He was spotted in the building before the security feeds were disabled, but we were never able to establish communication with him.”

  “He left this morning and came here to talk to you,” Davey offered.

  Aaron’s face darkened with concern. He swore harshly, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he stared up at the central building. “That’s not good.”

  “I know,” Davey whispered. “I have to go in there.”

  “Mason Drekker has killed countless and taken the rest as hostage. I can’t allow you in there, Ms. Little.”

  “Then don’t allow it. Just don’t stop me.”

  Aaron sighed, frowning.

  “Ethan is in trouble. I don’t know how much he has told you about Drekker, but it’s me who that madman truly wants. Commander, I’ll be in little, if any, danger.”

  Aaron ran one hand through his spikey blond hair. “Ezra was much better at this shit.”

  Davey smiled with understanding. “But you believe in Ethan, don’t you? You know he’s your brother.”

  “I don’t know what he is,” Aaron said unconvincingly.

  “I think you do.”

  Taking her by the arm almost roughly, Aaron led her past the barricades and soldiers, not stopping until they were a few yards from the main entrance. “Once you go in there, I can’t help you. You’ll be on your own, Davey. Come what may, an assault team will breach the building within the hour. We’ll do it blind if we have to, but whatever intel you can get me will go a long way.”

  She nodded. “I understand.”

  “Okay, then,” he said. “Go help my brother.”

  ∞∞∞

  Thirty feet down the corridor of the main entrance, Davey turned a corner and encountered the first dead body. The scene only became grislier from there. Scientists and soldiers alike—no one had been spared. She stopped counting the dead after twenty, and stopped looking for signs of life because there were none. Following the endless trail of blood-stained floors and crimson-smeared walls, Davey reached the elevator. She knew what level she needed to reach. She knew it was where Ethan would be. Whatever security protocols might have prevented unauthorized visits to the eerie basement prison had been disabled, allowing Davey freedom to descend to the belly of the beast, Global Cures.

  Down here and within those dimly lit cells, were the only living things left in the building. Not much had changed about the strange creatures of odd human and bestial appearance. Disturbingly, the red-eyed man with the bleeding forehead was missing. His cell was empty, but the blood smears from his self-inflicted wounds still smeared the thick glass paneling.

  The double, floor-to-ceiling doors constructed of reinforced steel loomed before Davey. But the doors were no longer sealed. In fact, they looked as if they’d been pried apart. The control panel next to the entrance was a destroyed mass of wires, ruptured plastic, and twisted metal. Davey stood at the entryway, examining several grooves gouged into the edges of the doors. She placed her fingers into the impressions and inhaled sharply. The doors had definitely been ripped apart. But what kind of strength did it take to accomplish such a thing? And who was responsible? Ethan or Drekker? Nervously licking her lips, Davey stepped through the opening and into the lab. What she saw knocked the wind from her lungs.

  “Ethan,” she whispered breathlessly.

  He was bound to a chair, his head bowed low, partially hiding a face contorted by concentration and pain. A metal rod, measuring at least nine feet in length and six inches in diameter impaled the upper half of his abdomen—just beneath where a human diaphragm would have been—and shredded through his right shoulder blade as it exited his back. Synthetic blood and other fluids ran down his body, pooling onto the floor and beneath the chair. Visible microcurrents moved across the bloody puddles and rippled over his skin in tiny waves, intermittently pulsing like little beacons of light. The only other movement came from the fingers of his left hand, constantly twitching a repetitive pattern against the chair’s steel framework.

  If he’d heard her call his name, he didn’t show it. Davey moved closer, wanting to run to him, but she knew the situation warranted more caution. Eventually, she reached his pitiful form. As her fingers neared his skin, the microcurrents parted, allowing her to pass unharmed. Ethan didn’t react when she touched him. Davey gasped. It felt like a fire raged beneath the surface of his skin. He was burning up. Then she noticed the sheen of sweat beading across his brow.

  In a trembling voice, she whispered his name once more, and he flinched. The tightness that slowly suffocated her, eased from within her chest. Ethan lifted his head, giving Davey a full view of his condition. His
face was unharmed, but his eyelids fluttered at a rapid rate—almost faster than her limited human sight could register. Beneath the blurred motion of those errant appendages, his irises were black and green, transformed by an infinite numerical series that scrolled in a repeating loop. She had witnessed his eyes do that before, but never while he was in such a weakened condition.

  “Ethan,” she whispered, but got no response. “Ethan?”

  “He can’t hear you, Davey.”

  Startled by the unexpected voice, she turned to discover the source and came face-to-face with her ex, Dr. Travis Kane. Crouched on all fours, he was across the room, hiding beneath the shadows of a large specimen table. “I told you not to come here. It’s far too dangerous.”

  “I had to come,” she answered defiantly. “What’s wrong with Ethan?”

  A look of sneaky guilt slid across his features. “That rod—it pierced his central power cell. I tried to remove it, but he’s put up some sort of electrical barrier, and now I can’t get near him.” Expression darkening, Travis cradled his casted right arm and looked away. “That’s the second time he’s nearly killed me,” he said angrily.

  “You just admitted to trying to remove Ethan’s main source of power. That’s like killing him—even if only temporarily. Of course he stopped you.”

  Shaking his head, Travis’s eyes widened with something akin to panic. “I don’t think you quite understand how the robot you’re fucking generates power. With that kind of damage, radioactive decay is inevitable and the cell could become completely corrupted within the hour. The explosion will vaporize this facility, and the entire city will become a crater rivaling the Grand Canyon in size.”

  “Ethan won’t let that happen.”

  “Ethan has no control over what’s happening right now!” Travis almost shouted.

  “Keep your voice down,” Davey ordered in a terse whisper. She narrowed her eyes. “And he seems to have enough control to stop you from laying a finger on him.”