be taken to one of our research facilities. You’ll be given individual apartments and anything else you need to be comfortable. You will be supplied with bagged blood and food as well. But you will not be able to leave the building without an immortal escort. We can’t risk your killing an innocent.”
Cliff’s stomach sank.
Joe frowned. “Research facility?”
The leader nodded. “Our scientists are attempting to find both a cure for the vampiric virus and a treatment that will alleviate or prevent entirely the madness that inevitably afflicts your kind. Perhaps you would like to be of some assistance.”
A faint glimmer of hope flared. Bastien had enlisted the aid of a scientist to do the same: find a cure for the virus or alternately a treatment for the madness it induced. Unfortunately, he’d had little luck. But these guys looked like they had a lot more resources at their disposal.
Vince snorted. “So you want us to be your guinea pigs? Your lab rats?”
“Look,” Cliff said, not as ready to dismiss the idea, “if there’s a chance they can keep us from going crazy, it’s worth it.”
“I agree,” Joe said somberly.
“But we’d be like their prisoners,” Vince protested.
Yes, they would.
A tense silence ensued.
The big warrior threw another knife.
Joe shook his head. “Killing pedophiles is one thing. I don’t want to end up killing women and kids and people who aren’t violent criminals. If being locked up is the only way to ensure I don’t…”
Cliff nodded. “Yeah, I don’t want to end up like the one who turned me. He didn’t just feed on people, he tortured them.” At least, the vampire who claimed he’d been the one to turn him had. That bastard had been seriously depraved.
“The guy who made me tortured people, too,” Vince admitted reluctantly.
“So did mine,” Joe added.
The Immortal Guardian lobbed another knife at one of two vampires who fought the female, who had abandoned her guns and now wielded shoto swords. “You won’t be treated badly,” he assured them. “And should we not be able to help you, when the madness grows too uncomfortable, you can choose your own end. We won’t force you to linger in such a state.”
The three stared at each other for a long, somber moment.
It really seemed the only way. Dying today wouldn’t help Bastien. If this immortal was truly on the up-and-up, then maybe Bastien, Vince, Joe, and Cliff could all make it out of this alive and get help staving off the madness as well.
“Fine,” Vince said finally. “Let’s do it.”
The formidable immortal sheathed his other katana. “I don’t have any rope with which to restrain you so… sorry about this.” Lightning quick, he punched Vince and Joe. Cliff drew in a breath to protest. But the immortal was quicker.
Pain exploded in Cliff’s face as a big fist struck. The room around him tilted as all strength left his legs.
I hope this isn’t a mistake, Cliff thought just before darkness enveloped him.
Chapter One
Two years later
Cliff listened to the activity in the hallway outside his apartment. Male voices murmured. Boots clomped on the floor as additional guards joined the already large contingent that manned sublevel 5 of network headquarters. Weapons clicked and clacked as guards checked magazines. Rustling sounded as tranquilizer guns slid into holsters.
One might not think all that would be necessary to keep two vampires in check. And on an ordinary day it wouldn’t. But apparently Bastien was bringing in a new vampire he had managed to recruit.
Cliff, Joe, and Vince had been the first vampires in history to essentially surrender to the Immortal Guardians when the latter defeated Bastien. Cliff loved the two-century-old British immortal like a brother. But damn, he was glad Bastien hadn’t won that last horrific battle in the basement of Bastien’s home. He knew his friend wasn’t happy. Seth, the immensely powerful Immortal Guardians leader who had punched Cliff in the face that fateful day, had pretty much forced Bastien into the fold. And neither Bastien nor his new immortal brethren were the least bit thrilled with the situation.
Cliff still held out hope, however, that Bastien would eventually find happiness among their ranks. Particularly now that Bastien had clearly developed feelings for Melanie Lipton, one of the doctors Cliff worked with on a daily basis.
Seth had delivered on his promises. Or most of them anyway. Cliff, Vince, and Joe had not been thrust into jail cells. They had been given very nice apartments at the headquarters of the East Coast division of the human network