Page 20 of High Stakes

For a long time, I saw Victor as a savior of sorts. He gave my grief – my life – a purpose. And maybe what I was really afraid of was that if I killed Enoch, I wouldn’t have that purpose anymore.

I scrolled through the images on the screen until Enoch’s enigmatic face emerged and finally laid on my bed, staring at my target. He was a monster. He had to be stopped.

I had to stop him.

Chapter Eight

Dressed in a brand new, stark white tech suit, I stood in the circular room on an illuminated spherical platform and let the medical staff and scientists poke and prod me and ask questions. I answered them with precision, somehow able to keep my voice steady and strong.

I was going to do this. My head was in the right place.

Land. Strike. Run. Jump. Those words were on repeat in my mind.

When I came back I would let them remove the disc from my hand, and then I would use the enhancements they gave me to disappear. I wasn’t a thing, I was a person, and after this, I deserved a peaceful life. One I’d take if I had to.

The neck of my tech suit rose almost to my ears and stretched to my wrists and ankles. The fabric was not only impenetrable to vampire fangs, it could keep our body temperatures regulated in extreme conditions, and was filled with more batteries, circuits, and microchips than I could fathom. Its only function was to amplify. To amplify healing, to amplify our body temperature for survival… and to amplify speed.

The nurse tested my reflexes, my hearing, and my vision before asking if anything felt ‘off’. “I feel normal,” I lied. Truthfully, everything about me felt ‘off’. Everything about this felt bad and wrong. I had a terrible feeling that Victor would ask us to jump off the roof and the three of us would splatter onto the sidewalk below.

A nurse scanned my body with her tablet for anomalies. “You don’t feel short of breath or feverish?”

“No, I feel perfectly fine,” I answered tonelessly.

She smiled up at me. “Everything looks good.”

Titus and Abram echoed my answer, Titus on a platform to my right and Abram on the other side of him. Maru, true to his word, sat quietly on the other side of the room, crouched beside the rows of seats reserved for Victor, Kael, and the peers they deemed fit to witness this momentous event. Cameras were hung all around the room, capturing every movement, every second.

Victor cared more about getting this on tape than he did about the vamps intercepting the transmission. Part of me wondered if he wanted them to know.

Titus was more serious than usual.

“You ready, Eve?” Titus asked, trying to puff out his chest.

“I am. And I know you’re ready for the fame and women.”

“As long as you’re first in line,” he tried to tease, strapping his stake holder to his thigh. I went to strap mine, but Maru’s movement caught my attention. Holding something in his hand, he quickly crossed the room. “A gift,” he declared, securing a new holster to my side.

“These aren’t my stakes.”

“They’re better.”

“How so?”

He leaned in to whisper in my ear, “They contain blessed water, and one holds a little something extra.”

“What?”

He opened his mouth, but before Maru could answer, the doctors and nurses stepped away, holding their thumbs up to signify the three of us were ready.

Victor stood. “It’s time. Everyone step away from the Assets.”

“Maru, you’re going to watch, right?” I yelled over the din.

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

I gave him a nervous smile before soldiers escorted us to the elevator. Two of the men, equipped with guns longer than my leg, rode to the roof with us. I glanced from them to Titus with a question in my eyes. Why all the security?

He shrugged and rolled his neck.

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