“She’s not dead,” Alette said softly. She didn’t sound pleased, though. She sounded resigned. “But—she’s no longer precisely alive, either. On the third night she’ll wake again as one of us.”
Leo had turned her, made her a vampire. Had he seen the opportunity to possess something of Alette’s and been unable to resist? I remembered his laugh when Alette asked him what he’d done to Emma. Maybe he’d done it as a joke.
“What are you going to do? What—what is she going to do?”
Alette smiled sadly. “I don’t know.” She leaned forward and kissed Emma’s forehead. Emma didn’t stir. Her face was white, bloodless.
Alette took a blanket from a trunk at the foot of the bed and spread it over Emma.
Flemming held the spear gun down by his side and slumped against the wall.
I swallowed, to make sure my throat was still human, that I still had a voice. “Why? Why are you here? Why did you do . . . that?”
“He was dangerous.”
“Dangerous to whom? To you? To your research? Aren’t you worried about losing your recruiting agent?”
“But would he recruit for me, or handpick the people he wanted on the inside of an elite military unit? I know he was spying on me.” He glanced at Alette, then lowered his gaze. “I was being used. By everyone. Duke, Leo, the DOD—”
“Wait, what? The DOD?”
“Department of Defense. One door closes, another opens. Isn’t that what people say? The military sees possibilities in my research. The NIH isn’t going to continue my funding, not after this.”
“Damn straight. Why did you ever go along with Duke? He’s a nutcase.”
“We both wanted government recognition. He wanted his control; I wanted funding that didn’t come from the military. He was able to get my research a public hearing; I was able to give him his proof that the monsters are real. I thought—I believed that in the end, my science would trump his fanaticism. That Congress would take my proof and do some good with it.”
Good defined as funding for his own project. That was the trouble with politics, everyone only believed their own personal idea of what was good and right. And science could become its own brand of fanaticism.
Flemming continued. “Duke misjudged public opinion. He really believes you aren’t human, and that Congress could enact laws to set bounties on you, to let people hunt you to extinction, like they did with wild wolves a hundred years ago. He wanted to be a national Van Helsing, and he wanted my help to prove that he was right.”
“I think you both came off looking like assholes,” I said. “I think Jack London won. So the NIH cuts your funding, and the military welcomes you with open arms? You looked for military funding—Fritz gave you ideas. You don’t care where the money comes from.”
His voice turned harsh. “I got very good at telling the people with money exactly what they wanted to hear. Most researchers do. I told the DOD what I thought I could do, and by the time I decided that wasn’t what I wanted . . . But I’m done, now. After this, I’ll tell them all that I’m finished.”
I wanted to wring his neck. “You can really just walk away? I don’t believe you.”
The expression he shot back at me was conflicted, full of hurt but also tinted with anger. His jaw clenched. The grip on his spear gun tightened, and with a pang I realized he was standing between me and the stairway.
“Kitty, that’s enough.” Alette rose from the bed and brushed off her skirt as if she’d just come in from a stroll. “Dr. Flemming, I suppose I ought to thank you for your timely arrival. Then again, I suppose it was the least you could do for helping to bring about this situation in the first place.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” he said. “I’m tired of being a pawn.”
“You very nearly decided that too late.” She set her gaze on him, and for all that she was a slighter, slimmer figure than Leo, she radiated a menace that he hadn’t been able to manage. Leo had been all about bravado.
Flemming reached to a long pouch strapped over his shoulder, which held more spears.
I thought I was going to have to break up a fight between them, but we were all startled by noises pounding on the floor above us, echoing over our heads. A door slammed open, several sets of footsteps ran, probably across the foyer.
Upstairs, in the kitchen, a male voice said, “Clear!” Another said, “The basement?”
I could fight. To the last breath, I could do it. Alette joined me in the center of the room; we stood side by side. Flemming remained at the base of the stairs, looking up.
The stairs creaked as someone made his way down, slowly and carefully. Another one followed. Two people. I took a deep breath, my nose flaring to catch a scent. Male sweat, leather jacket, an air of taut nerves and tired bodies, gun oil—
Cormac emerged from the shadow, gun raised and ready. Ben followed a step behind him, a stake in one hand and mallet in the other. Flemming pointed his spear gun at Cormac, and for a moment the two looked like they were going to face off.
My knees turned to pudding. I thought I was going to faint. “Hi, guys,” I said weakly.