Page 19 of Black Bird

There was a long moment of silence between them before Rhaena pulled another file from the bag and started flipping through it. Athan watched her and moved forward to sit back in the chair next to her. “What is that?” His voice was low and defeated.

“These are her charts from the hospital. Everything they have here about the bite matches the crime scenes from our reports whenever Dahlia and her grunts dump a body. The only thing that’s different about it is that Sarah lived through hers. Thehowis still a mystery, but I’m guessing that after what you just said … had any of these vics lived, they’d be going through the same things wouldn’t they?”

“Probably. When we feed on a human, we leave the DNA of every person we’ve ever drank from. Once their heart stops beating, it’s like they’re branded to us … forever. They become just as much a part of us as our own skin. Whatever victim doesn’t die is usually because—because they were meant to be turned at the same time they were used.” Athan grew quiet and couldn’t look at Rhaena. Not when he knew that the person who’d picked him out in Old London was the face she was seeing now.

“Used …” she breathed, shaking her head and staring down at the paper in her hand. “Has anyone ever left a victim alive? Other than you?”

“That’s just it, Rhaena. She wasn’t alive. I told you. I checked her pulse and there wasn’t one. Sarah was dead. I know that over thecenturies I’ve been damned in this coven there have been times, especially when a vampire was first turned and learning to feed, that they stopped before the heart did. They die within minutes, maybe hours after … not days. And from the time they’re fed on, until the time they die … they’re marked. But I’ve never known anyone to come back. Ever. Something has to be in here.” He grabbed the papers from her hand and started tearing through them, reading every detail about her wound, her medication … her blood. He cursed again.

“What’d you find?” Rhaena asked, scooting closer.

“Look at this lab report.” He held it between them, and they both peered over it, Athan’s finger trailing over different parts. “It mentions some enzyme in her bloodwork that’s fighting off the antibiotics.”

“That isn’t caused from the bite?”

Athan pointed out another line. “No … see? These are all the strands of DNA they found in her wound.” He moved his finger across the page. “The codes here match. This isn’t being caused by someone else’s blood. It’s being caused byhers.”

“But how?” Rhaena asked as they met each other’s eyes. Athan’s shoulders shrugged.

“How did this happen to me when I fed on her?”

Rhaena shook her head, rubbing her face and raising out of her seat. “Shit … this just got a lot more complicated.” Glasses clanged from behind his chair, and he scented the whiskey before he heard her pour it. She handed him a glass as she sat down and they drank, both of them staring off at the wall. “How long do you think she’s got?”

“I don’t know. She shouldn’t be alive now.” Athan stared down into his whiskey.

“What are you gonna do, Athan?”

He grew quiet. Killing Sarah would be a mercy. She didn’t deserve a sentence like this. Living an existence like this. But how could he kill the girl that had given him a second chance? The alternative would be to somehow find the balls to tell her the truth and give her the choice to live this way. If she’d even let him turn her when she found out what he’d done. It would devastate her. He knew that only because it had devastated him over two hundred years ago when the life he knew had flipped and became this dark, unforgiving eternity. There was no chance of her living forever and being his while she did so. Sarah would hate him for this.

Damn it, he’d fucked up … so bad.

His eyes caught a list of abbreviated names tucked into the corner of the lab report. Every one of them were time stamped. “Rhaena … what is this?” He pointed at it, and she brought her face close to the sheet, taking it from him and looking closer.

“It looks like—” She paused, her mouth dropping open, and she glanced over at him. “Get the hospital on the phone … now.”

Conrad Stratford stewed over the documents in his hands as he sat across from Nick—the CEO of EverLife Inc. Nick’s office was bright. It was clean and had a modern feel to it. Not like his own in his festering mansion across the city, and not like the rutting gloom of Dahlia Van Hausen’s in that club that reeked of old blood and sex. Partnering up with a vampire coven had been a bold move, even for the likes of him. Keeping that partnership concealed from the wrong people proved more difficult than he’d imagined. Thankfully, the sparks he’d kindled between his lovesick son and the golden ticket he’d painstakingly tracked down, ignited quickly. Now, if he could just keep that fire burning, he’d be untouchable.

“There’s nothing in here that gives me what I need, Specter,” Conrad started, removing his glasses and dropping the papers into his lap. Nick interlocked his fingers over his desk and leaned forward.

“It didn’t take much to get those reports as we’re in direct lines with every hospital in this state and the ones surrounding our borders. I got her foot into the door, senator. She’s still got to walk through it. Unforeseen circumstances aren’t my problem.”

“No, your problem, it seems, is the breach that lost you a good amount of your plasma a few weeks ago.”

Nick’s expression tightened. “It’s a problem we’re dealing with.”

“And the documents from Seattle? I don’t see them anywhere.”

“Those documents are sealed. It’s a great deal harder to pull strings regarding that kind of thing. I’m sure you know all about that.”

Conrad stood, plopping the stack of paper into the chair, and stepping over to stare out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the side wall overlooking the EverLife campus. “I know you’ve already been paid quite a bit of money on my end to get me what I need. I know you’re currently being paid off by someone who could ruin us both or put us in an early grave for blood that isn’t steadily leaving this research center anymore.” He turned to face the CEO who paled at his remark. “If I were you, I’d be hiring anyone and everyone that could help push this forward … unless your own blood is the price you’d rather pay.”

“Is that a threat, sir?” Nick bristled, looking the senator dead in the eye.

“If you don’t help me fix it, it’s a promise … forbothof us.”

“You have a government funded position. Wouldn’t it be easier for you to get what you need from thegovernment?”

Conrad stepped toward the desk, toying with the glass name plate sitting near the front. “I don’t have the access you’ve acquired when it comes to medical records. That’s why I paid off your mortgage …Nick.” He adjusted his puke-green tie. “You’re already in over your head. Too late to start begging for a life ring.”

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