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, Terrywho'd brought her hereand Ginger, 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.
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 ultra-private lawn in back, where they gathered morning and evening for Chi Kung and Rung 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 otherthey 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 girlwho would be twenty-two 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 prisonerone 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 anew 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 ultra secret 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 email 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 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 asI'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 withone 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 behind and quickly moved behind the desk, where, without even sitting down, she began tapping 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.
He woke at sundown with Lilith curled in his armsjust 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 placethough 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 thereto leave her
"You have to. Now, Ethan."
He nodded, hearing the soft whisper from beyond the window, Callista, one of the keepersbut 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 further. 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 nightbird 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 cage 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'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."
"A so-called Bloodliner? No, that's true enough, I'm not. But there's right and there's wrong, Ethan. And what's happening here is wrong."
He nodded.
"You've no idea how wrong," she added.
He tried to nod again, but nothing happened.
"Listen to me," she told him. "You're going to want to sleep right after this is finished, but there's a burst of strength, and you have to use it. You have to jump that fence. You have to be brave and take a leap of faith, believe you can clear itbecause you can. You will." .
He looked up at the looming fence and doubted.
"Once you get over, run as fast and as far as you can, fight the sleep hard. And then rest only when you've found a place where you will be sheltered from the sun. Do you understand?"
"I under" His lips went numb, then, and he gave up trying to reply. Soon he felt her sliding a fresh bit of tubing between his lips and heard her telling him to drink. He did, sucking until he tasted fluid that made him want to retchbecause his mind knew what it wasbut also to guzzle it all at oncebecause his body craved it.
He drank. Callista withdrew the needle from his arm and taped the pinprick hole with as much care as if it were a terrible gaping cut. All the while he drank until the fluid was gone, and he was still trying to extract more when she took the tube away.
"You have to go now. I promise I'll do what I can for her. But you must never come back, Ethan.
Never. They wouldn't let you leave a second time. And I tell you truly, that if I can protect her, she'll be safe, and if I can't, she'll be dead long before you can make your way back here. So don't try."
"I can't believe I'll never see her again."
"Then don't believe it. Maybe you will. This place won't stand forever."
He frowned at her then, shocked to realize he could suddenly sense her thoughts, though he was having trouble deciphering the specifics. "Who do you really work for? Does anyone else know where you are?
I could contact them, tell them"
"I can't tell you that. Now go. Go."
He tried to probe her mind, but he could feel her blocking him and, already overwhelmed and distracted by all he could feel and see and hear now, he stood, took a deep breath and bent his knees. He focused on clearing the fence and pushed off. And then he was sailing straight over top, through the night, hearing the wind whistling past his ears as he landed hard on the freedom-scented grass on the other side.
Then he got up, ranand left her.
Now, more than anything else, he wished he could keep her from ever knowing any of that. And yet, sooner or later, she was going to have to know.
Leaning close as she stirred awake, he pressed his lips to hers and whispered. "I'm going out to put the horses in. We'll talk when I get back."
She nodded, and closed her eyes again.
Gone. He was gone, and I couldn't believe I'd let him go. Last night he'd seemed on the verge of telling me why he seemed familiar to me, why he
Wait!
I frowned, hard, because there was new knowledge inside my brain. I felt as if it had been told to meno, shown to me, like the film reels they'd shown us during our lessons. I remembered those films. The classroom.
Ethan.
But this new bit, this was not a memory. Or not my . memory. It was Ethan's. And I realized that he must have been lying there, holding me in his arms and thinking or dreaming or remembering, and that I, being a vampire like him and no longer truly asleep but only enjoying being held in his arms, feeling safe enough to linger there, had been reading his thoughts without even intending to.
I saw what had flickered through his mind. I felt him staring at me as I slept. I saw the womanCallista, her name was Callista!leading him away. I saw her take him into the brush and drain his blood, then feed him more. I saw her talking to him. What she said, though that I did not know. I could feel its essence, though. He had no choice. He had to go.
And then I felt him leaping the fence and running away into the night.
I felt him abandoning me to my prisonor whatever that place had been.
How could he? And how could he lie to me now, when I had no clue who I was, and he knew? He'd known the entire time and let me suffer. How dare he?
Furious, I flung back the covers and stalked to the closet. There were no clothes that would come anywhere close to fitting me, but I yanked down a T-shirt, a sweatshirt with a hood, a pair of jeans that would be far too long and a belt I could use to hold them up. I located a pair of socks and wished for women's underwear. I took it, all of it, with me into the attached bathroom.
And then I paused and stood staring in wonder. My God! The bathtub was huge and square, the shower stall small and private, with frosted glass doors. I dropped the clothing I'd pilfered and opened those doors. Though the thought of a long soak in the oversized tub tempted me, I was in too much of a hurry to take the time. Cranking on the shower's taps, I stepped under the deliciously hot spray. All my anger melted as I relished a shower all to myself, the fruity smell of his shampoo and the herbal smell of the soap. Oh, it was heaven, all of it, right down to the thick, fluffy towels I wrapped myself in when I emerged.
Smiling, I decided that I'd never had it this good beforeat The Farm. The place from whence Iand hehad escaped. I didn't know what it was, or what went on there or how we'd come to be there, but I knew more now than I had before. And I would make him tell me the rest of it before this night was done.
I dressed quickly, brushed my hair more slowly, and then decided to bundle up a bit and walk down to the stable, rather than putting our conversation off until he returned. I would need footwear, and some sort of a coat.
I found a pair of hiking shoes, which I laced up as tightly as I could, and then I clomped down the stairs and went to peer out the window.
And then I froze, because I saw what I should have sensed far sooner. Ethan was standing beside a car I'd never seen before, talking to the stranger behind the wheel.
Every nerve in my body began to tingle with warnings. The car was small and bluenothing like the one that had accosted me under the bridge. I narrowed my unnaturally keen eyes as its window lowered, and I saw the woman who occupied the driver's seat.
Maybe it had been a woman in that other car, too. A deep-voiced female, or someone disguising the sound of her voice by trying to sound like a man. How could I know? I never saw the face, only the black barrel of a gun.
She had auburn hair, with a strand of gray here and there, which I shouldn't have been able to detect from this distance. She had a gentle face, and brown eyes with crow's feet at the corners. She also had a dire, desperate feeling about her that belied the smile on her face.
As I watched, the woman spoke to him and held something up for him to look at.
Pressing still closer, I honed my senses and found that, if I tried, I could hear her voice. I could feel his thoughts. I could
"I'm looking for this young woman," the stranger in the car told him. "She could be in danger if she's not found. Have you seen her?"
Snapping my vision to the object in the woman's hand, I saw that it was a photograph. And it was of a face that was familiar to me in a way no other face could be. There had been no reflection in that cursed mirror of Ethan's, but the photograph in the woman's hand was of me. I knew it. I'd seen my face before I'd been made over. I knew it well. Knew it deep in my gut.
And even as I stared at it, the memory of me, of how I looked and, more, how I thought and felt about things, came surging back to me, almost as if it had never been gone.
"No, I haven't seen her," Ethan said. I heard his voice, but I heard his thoughts, as well. This is exactly what I was afraid of. And then, aloud again, "What makes you think she's in this area? It's pretty remote."
"She was spotted by some locals who said she was headed this way."
"Well, she must have veered off, or else your witnesses were mistaken. You say she might be in danger.
From what?"
"I'm afraid I can't go into any detail on that,"
"I see."
"But she is in danger. Dire danger. And so is anyone who might be with her. Please take my warning very seriously. I want nothing but to help. There are people after her. People who are going to find her quite easily."
I felt Ethan frown as his suspicions rose. "How?"
The woman twisted her car key. "If you see her, please, give me a call." She lowered the photograph and handed him a card instead. "It's important."
Yeah, I'll just bet it is. Aloud, Ethan said, "May I keep the photo?" The woman frowned at him. "Just in case," he added.
The woman handed it to him with a nod, then put her car into gear. "Don't try to help her on your own, Ethan, or you could both end up dead. Call me. I can protect her. Both of you, if need be."
"Thanks for the advice." But I can protect her just fine all by myself.
Yes, I thought furiously. Like you did when you ran away and left me in that prison? Was that your idea of protection, Ethan? And then other thoughts rushed in. Since when had I ever needed anyone to protect me? I still didn't remember everything, but I did know myself, at long last. And as I watched the woman drive away, I knew I wouldn't want anyone's protection but my own.
By the time I realized that my angry thoughts had reached Ethan's mind, projected by my rage, I was already in flight. I'd yanked the plush white blanket, lined in thick buff-tinted fur, from the sofa, and pulled it around my shoulders and over my head, like a hooded cloak, to hide my face and my long hair from that woman or anyone else who might be looking. Then I headed out the back door, racing through the night at the speed I'd discovered was a common thing among my kind.
The Undead.
Vampires.
Were theywere weall hunted, as Ethan seemed to believe he was? As I apparently was? Were we all in danger? Or was there something special about the two of us that made us targets? Maybe he was lying about that, as well, telling me he was a target for reasons of his own. He'd certainly shown no compunction about lying to me about plenty of other things. Like the fact that he'd known me before.
And left me behind to save himself. To save us both, a small voice in my mind argued. But I was too angry to listen.
