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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 
MARCUS
“Hey,” Claude says as he sits down next to me on the porch steps. The snow is coming down harder and it’s frigid out here, but I could freeze for all I care because I’ve failed Finn.
“It’s been twenty-four hours,” I announce, even though Claude is well aware. “I have absolutely nothing to show for it. I know nothing. I have nothing.”
Claude wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me in close. “Marcus, you are doing everything you can. We know Ender wants him for a reason or he wouldn’t have saved him. He physically had to come looking for him to save him.”
“I don’t know what the fuck to do,” I admit, feeling absolutely useless.
“Here’s the thing, Marcus… Ender wants something and was clearly watching you or Finn enough to know when they struck. What if we keep working, we find what Ender wants, and offer it to him in exchange for Finn.”
“You mean what he was wanting to know about Watson?” I ask.
“Right.”
“We have no goddamn way to reach him. I have no idea where he is in this city,” I say, feeling an overwhelming weight bearing down on me.
“Yes, but he knows where we’re at. He said that something was taken from him. We figure out what it was. Maybe Watson took it. We have no idea. When we find it, he might come,” Claude says.
“Yeah, and if he doesn’t? I’ve wasted time that should have been spent looking for Finn!”
Claude squeezes me again. “Marcus, all we can do is try.”
I nod as I let myself gain strength from his touch. “Okay… I guess… I’m going to go back to Watson’s. Maybe there’s a clue there if Watson was who turned Ender… he could have even kept track of him like he did Finn. I wouldn’t put it past him to keep tabs on those he controlled.”
“Right,” Claude says as he stands up and takes my hand, pulling me up. “I’ll call Charlie to meet us there.”
“Okay. Thank you,” I say. “Thank you for pulling me out of that headspace.”
Claude pats me on the back. “Marcus, you never have to thank me for anything of the sort. I’m always here for you whether you like it or not.”
I nod and hurry over to the car as Claude follows me. Alexei is out with DeGray, trying to follow up on some leads about the car that Ender had carried Finn into, but the city is vast and finding the vehicle that disappeared into the night as soon as it left this street seems next to impossible.
When I reach Watson’s house, my phone rings and I see that it’s Kaden.
“Hey, I don’t have anything on the vehicle, but I have some information about when Landall and the others arrived in America. Are you at the department?”
“I’m not. I’m at Watson’s house.”
“Can I meet you there?”
“Fine,” I say as Charlie lets me in through the front door.
Claude heads straight to the computer as I walk back upstairs to where Finn found the journal. I upturn the desk and scavenge through it all before sitting down on the mattress I’d torn in half just to see Finn’s expression.
I ache thinking about it. How have things come to this? No… I have to stay focused.
Flipping open the journal Finn had found, I skim it again. I just… don’t see anything in here that’ll help. There is no information on the patients that would lead me to them; not that it’d even help us if there was, since they’re likely all dead. Alexei had tried to see if any missing persons reports from back then matched them, but they didn’t. Watson probably didn’t grab anyone who would be noticed so when he killed them, their deaths would just disappear.
I hear footsteps before Kaden peeks into the room. “Hey.”
“What’d you find?” I ask as I get up.
“Um, right. So I finally found a video of this woman who’d snuck here with Landall. That Isabella woman,” he says as he holds his work phone before me and presses play.
I watch as Isabella hurries down the street with a child in her arms of about six or so. “We never found a child at the apartment. There were no reports of a child. Landall never mentioned one either,” I say.
“That’s what I thought. I just… didn’t know if you knew anything about it that I didn’t,” he says.
“Marcus!” Claude yells from downstairs.
“Excuse me a moment,” I say as I head downstairs to see that he has a laptop sitting next to the computer Watson had left. “Is that yours?”
“I… maybe borrowed it,” Claude says with a beaming look. “I perhaps managed to get a hold of the copy that was initially made from Watson’s computer after his death. I told you it looked like things had been deleted, and as I go through it, they don’t match.”
I process this far too slowly. “What are you talking about? Someone at the VRC removed information from the computer?”
“That’s sure what it looks like,” he says.
“But then why wouldn’t they have deleted it from the VRC’s archives as well? Someone purposely copied and kept it,” I muse.
“Right, telling me there’s something on here that they wanted to be able to access. It could have easily been someone who became involved with River’s case,” Claude says. “Hell, Chief Bowman could have asked for it before being caught and never had the chance to delete the evidence.”
“True. So what’s different about it?” I ask curiously.
“For one, the information on Finn.” He clicks on it, pulling it up. “It mostly looks like medical information on Watson’s… patients. I’m going to assume that absolutely no one would ever think to examine it closer than that. But knowing what we know from the journal, we’re aware that these patients are the ones that Watson was testing the prostheses on. That should be proof enough for the council that Finn isn’t up to some weird shit,” Claude says as he glances at Kaden.
“I feel like we don’t even need it after the stunt Harris pulled,” Kaden says. “Harris seemed to dig himself a very nice grave with this.”
“What’s important about it is that it also shows information on his other victims,” Claude says as he clicks and pulls up a chart on a man. It’s far too quick to scan, but I can tell it says much of what Watson’s journal already told us. This one just gives many more details on the victim including the dosage of things given to them, medical information, and details on the surgery. But Claude points to the most important part.
Their date of death.
“As suspected, he killed them all,” I say as Claude starts flipping through the charts until he hesitates on one.
“Besides this one… unless he just forgot to add it in.”
I look at the information but shake my head. “Watson doesn’t forget.”
“Was she one of the last victims?” Kaden asks. “Maybe she lived because he’d given her what he later gave Finn?”
Claude scrolls down to her chart that seems well past the length of the other ones.
“Wait, stop,” I say and Claude stops scrolling. He hadn’t even reached the end yet. “Look at the date of this entry. It’s years after the surgery.”
“Oh interesting…” Claude says. “This was like nine years ago… he kept tabs on her.”
“He sure did,” I say. “So he let her go and kept an eye on her. Do we have a name anywhere?”
“Not that I see,” Claude says as he scrolls through it some more before sending it to the very end where I realize that this last part isn’t about her at all but her child.
“If he gave her a drug that Miller created…” I start.
“Would she have given birth to a true vampire?” Claude asks.
“Oh shit,” Kaden says.
“Oh shit is right,” I say as I look at a picture of the very girl Isabella was caught carrying in the video.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 
FINN
I’m back on the couch, wondering why I’m still here. Why I’m a prisoner that’s now some weird kind of babysitter, I have no idea. The clock above the TV says it’s past ten and Rylee is clearly close to falling asleep.
“Go to bed,” Ender says.
“I don’t wanna,” Rylee decides.
Ender, who is back at the table after obliterating both of us at Clue, shifts his eyes to her. “Bed. Now.”
She lets out a huge sigh and gets up before rushing over and giving him a hug and a kiss.
He kisses the top of her head, and I can’t help but stare at this monster. Does she have any idea of the kind of person she cares about?
“Will you tuck me in and read me a bedtime story?”
“I don’t have time.”
“Can Finn?” she asks eagerly.
“Sure,” he says, and I look at him in disbelief. It’s like he has absolutely no recollection that I’m in the process of feeling like death and can’t even walk to her bedroom, but hell, it’ll give me time to scope out the house.
“Go get ready and I’ll make my way there,” I say, not quite sure how I’m going to do that. She hurries back without a care in the world as I glance at Ender. He doesn’t even acknowledge me, so I grab the chair I’d used earlier and drag it after me as my only means of support on the way through the kitchen into the hallway. That’s when I see a car key sitting on the counter. I make a scene of stumbling, which does nothing but fucking hurt, but it allows me to grab the key without alerting him. Slipping it into my pocket, I continue using the chair to aid me as I move down the hallway.
Her bedroom is, of course, the very last one. She beats me inside and jumps into her bed while smiling at me.
Quietly, I swing the door shut. He clearly trusts me or maybe he realizes that there’s absolutely no way I could hurt a child even if it meant my escape. I tip the chair nonchalantly in front of the door as I ask her what book she wants to read.
Rylee already has one in hand that she waves at me. “This one! We’re already four chapters in.”
“Okay,” I say as I sit down on the far edge of her bed, closest to the window. “Can you tell me what it’s about?”
She rattles on for far too long as I finger through the book and assess the room. The window looks new, which means it should open with no issues. There’s a screen in it, but that’s easy enough to pop out as long as she doesn’t stop me or catch me. She’d been dozing off on the couch, so there’s a possibility that if I read long enough, she might fall back asleep.
“Do you mind if I start over? So I know what’s going on too?” I ask, feeling that she’d be more likely to fall asleep if it’s something she already knows is going on.
“Yes! Start over! And read the whole book!”
“I’ll try,” I say as I start from the beginning.
She’s eager at first, but as one chapter turns to two and two to three, her eyes grow heavy, and she finally slips off to sleep. I don’t stop reading. I keep going because I know Ender can hear me. Meanwhile, I creep over to the window and look out. From here, I can see the front driveway and the car sitting in it.
Trying to prop the book up so I can keep reading, I unlock the window and slide it up before hooking my finger on the tab of the screen and slowly lowering it down outside of the house. Getting through the window isn’t going to be easy like this and then getting to the car will be even less so. Especially when I’m sure he’ll know the moment I’m gone.
“What are you doing?” Rylee asks.
Fuck.
“You want me to read more?” I ask as I turn to her.
“Yeah… what were you—”
I sink back down on her bed. “Rylee,” I say quietly. “I don’t want to be here, okay? I’m hurt. I want to go home. Will you please help me get home?”
She seems uncertain. “Ender says you’re helping us and you have to stay.”
“I can still help you and go home. What do you need help with?”
“Ender said I can’t talk about it,” she says.
“How can I help if we can’t talk about it?”
Biting her lip, she watches me closely. “You promise if you go that you’ll come back to help?”
“Of course. I’m not going to leave you without help,” I say. “I just need to get help for myself first from a doctor. And I need to get my arm and leg fixed.”
“Okay. What do I do?”
“Can you read for a bit? Loud and clear. That’s all I need.”
Rylee hesitates but nods and when I pass her the book, she starts to do her best to read. It’s clear the book is advanced for her, but her sounding out the words she doesn’t know is enough to help. She glances at me as I get up and scoot over to the window. I give her a smile and a thumbs-up. She doesn’t seem overly certain but doesn’t say anything as I painfully hoist myself up. It tugs at my stomach, but I manage to get through before trying to lower myself onto the ground. It’s not smooth and I end up falling forward so when I catch myself with my arm, it buckles and I hit the snow-covered ground, but I’m out.
Thankfully, the car’s not far away, so I keep on the ground in the hopes he doesn’t see me and quietly open the door. I don’t even bother shutting it out of fear of the noise. I quickly press the button for the ignition a moment before I feel a hand slide into my hair.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Ender says from the back seat.
I nearly crawl out of my skin as fear spikes through my body. He’s going to fucking kill me. He’s going to kill me. “Ender, please—”
With my hair in hand, he yanks my head back. “What? Are you going to beg for forgiveness? Plead for me to let you go when you’ve done nothing I’ve asked?”
Fuck. Fuck. He must have known I took the key. He must have been waiting out here for me. I’m such a fool. “You talk in fucking riddles. Just tell me what you want to know, and I’ll try!”
“I’ve asked you about your blood and you refuse to answer.”
“Because I don’t know!”
Ender’s hand tightens. “Because you’re lying.”
He starts dragging me over the seat into the back and opens the door before pulling me out into the driveway. I can’t get my leg under me, but it doesn’t even matter as he drags me toward the house. I end up losing my shoe as he pulls me into the house and down the steps back into the cellar.
“Why don’t you fucking work on remembering?” he asks before dropping me onto the ground and slamming the door shut.
What a goddamn mess.
      
It’s dreadfully cold in the cellar. I’d lost my coat at some point, probably because I’d been dunked in the damn pond. My clothes are wet from my failed escape in the snow, and the cement floor does little to keep me warm.
I’m not sure how long it is before I hear the door open, and I look up at Ender who has Rylee with him. He directs her in front of himself as he glowers down at me.
Rylee seems highly uncertain as she watches me. It’s clear she’s conflicted about what’s happening, seeing as she’s quite dependent on and close to Ender even if he’s a crazed psychopath.
“She is sick. Fix her,” Ender says.
“W-What?” I ask.
“Your blood kept that vampire from dying, why is it not working on her?” he asks, voice sharp.
I sit up and look at the girl who looks relatively healthy, other than how pale and a little thin she is. If she really is a true vampire, how did she get sick? I wasn’t aware that they could get ill.
“They took her from me and wanted to use her because they’re selfish and unforgiving. They cry that I’m the savage one, but she was not theirs to take. After I found her and took her to safety, I hunted down those who were involved, but whatever they did to her made her ill. Why isn’t your blood healing her?” he demands.
Is he lying to me and knows that the only way he could possibly get me to act is to help Rylee? I’m honestly uncertain, but I can’t imagine leaving her to suffer if I could help her. “If I help you, you will help me?”
“I already helped you when I killed Landall. They’d have taken you and used you for your blood. There’s no telling what they’d have done to you.”
“And… I greatly appreciate that, but I want to go home.”
His eyes narrow like he can’t possibly see why I’m having an issue with this. “Humans are always selfish.”
I can’t believe the shit he is spouting. “S-Selfish? You think me wanting to go home is selfish?” What the fuck is wrong with this man? Being obstinate is clearly getting me nowhere, so will caving? Or will that keep him from ever letting me free? “I honestly don’t know much, but according to Watson’s notes, he would mix the drug he gave me while performing surgery on me with his own blood. I don’t know if that works, but it could explain why it helped Claude when you nearly killed him. Marcus and Alexei had both given him their blood before I gave him mine. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, though. It might only work on physical wounds… I really don’t know.”
He doesn’t say a word but just picks me up and carries me up the stairs before pushing me into a chair. He grabs a Disney-themed cup, cuts his wrist, and drains the blood into it like this is just a normal thing to do. Then again, I’ve been around vampires long enough that it doesn’t even faze me anymore.
“Does she need the vampire blood first?” he asks.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
He seems irritated that I’m not all-knowing about this thing I’ve literally just found out about but passes her the blood which she merrily drinks before he aims my arm toward her. She seems less certain about that one.
“Just bite him,” he encourages.
Rylee glances up at him with round eyes full of apprehension. “I don’t want to hurt him. He’s nice to me and plays games and reads me books.”
“Bite him, Rylee,” Ender says, voice more demanding than it usually is when pertaining to her. “It’ll hurt him worse if I have to cut him and drain his blood.”
She seems uncertain but I have to agree that I’d prefer not to have another wound to deal with when the punctures from their teeth heal over quite quickly.
“I’d rather be bitten than cut if I had a choice,” I say.
Rylee cautiously takes my arm and bites it. It hurts, but not much more than Ender poking around on me looking for a vein.
“Why would they want her?” I ask.
“Because she was born from a human. If knowledge about how Watson created her got out, it could lead to a whole revolution for vampires. True vampires are stronger and there are fewer regulations around them. It’d be a long game to play but vampires have time more than they have anything else.”
“And you’re trying to tell me you don’t want that to happen? The man who has spent the better part of his life slaughtering and killing vampires doesn’t want the world overrun by them?” I ask.
His stare is very uncaring. “Does it look like I want any competition?” he asks. “Does it possibly look like I want anyone to have Rylee?”
She pulls back even though she looks like she could feast off me all day long. She probably doesn’t have fresh human blood too often. “You killed vampires?” she asks.
“Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t know me,” Ender says.
I decide that while I could easily break her little heart with all the shit Marcus has told me about Ender, I’ll keep it to myself.
“You’re saying Watson gave her mother…” I turn to Rylee. “Was your mother an amputee?”
She nods as her eyes flick back down to my arm that has a drop of blood on it. I wipe it on my shirt, hoping to keep either of them from chewing on me again.
“Yeah. She lost her arm in a car crash, but she didn’t have a cool arm like you!” she says.
Her mother was one of the ones Watson experimented on, but… he let her go? Why? “Your mother… escaped?”
Rylee doesn’t seem to know what I’m asking, so she shrugs.
Surprisingly, Ender decides to share some information with me. “Watson insisted that I keep an eye on her. I didn’t truly understand why until Rylee was born.”
“Is she yours?” I ask in disbelief.
“No. I quickly realized that woman was an intolerable annoyance, but Watson was thrilled to keep her around, and I soon found out why when Rylee was born. He was curious whether the drugs affected her mother like they had women in Miller’s past. And now that others know, they want what they can’t have. Miller and Watson are dead and, presumably, their information gone with them. So now the only hint of how to recreate what they did is Rylee… and you.”
“Are they the same people who want me?” I ask.
“Of course. Because if they can’t have her, they can use you.”
“And her mother… right?”
“I don’t know that they’ve realized that her mother is like you.”
“Who are they?” I ask.
“Well, the council, of course.”
I stare at him in disbelief, unable to accept that he’s trying to do anything other than rile me up. “No… their job is to protect humans and vampires.”
“Is it?” he asks, looking amused now that he’s thrown this information at me. “Oh… you didn’t realize that was Kaden after you, did you? Marcus’s very own ‘child’ hunting you down.”
“What? No, Kaden was helping us,” I say.
“Was he? Or was he just learning more about you? Gaining your trust? You think someone else broke into the council and killed Eugene? You honestly think an unknown vampire could sneak into an office packed full of some of the most prestigious and self-centered vampires and absolutely no one would notice?”
“You could.”
The look on his face tells me he takes this as a compliment. “Of course I could, but I don’t give a flying fuck about Eugene. He’s fodder. Eugene is someone I could have slaughtered at any point, but I had no reason to. If I was going to kill off someone from the council, it would have been someone with some power behind them.
“See, the issue is they couldn’t ever get you alone. How could they possibly when you had Marcus and Claude breathing down your neck to protect you? So Kaden knew that if he killed Eugene and planted the idea in Harris’s head that Marcus did it, he’d be able to get Marcus inside a secure facility and away from you. See, just having you separated from Marcus wasn’t enough, they needed it so he couldn’t come save you. Especially with the way Harris likes to talk, it’d take him hours before he would finally let Marcus free, hours before anyone would look for you.”
He’s just getting in my head, right? I mean… I guess I have no proof, but… who the hell do I trust? The man who threw me off a fucking bridge and tried to kill Claude or someone who is literally on the council and has helped me?
“Kaden was the one you shot in the pond. I would have murdered him, but Landall is unpredictable. The possibility of him accidentally killing you wouldn’t have been that unlikely. So I killed the woman who’d been assisting Landall, and wouldn’t you know? She’s a woman who works at the council hall. Then I chopped off Landall’s head, and when I turned around, Kaden was gone. Of course he’s not going to try to fight me when he suddenly found himself all alone. I’m sure he ran back to the department to show himself to Marcus so Marcus wouldn’t suspect him.”
“You threw me off a fucking bridge!” I say. “You expect me to trust you? You expect… you’re just trying to get in my head.”
Ender growls, like he’s annoyed I wouldn’t immediately believe him. Not trusting Kaden isn’t the issue, it’s that Ender thinks that I need to trust him.
“Rylee, go to your room,” Ender orders.
Rylee doesn’t fight him; she quickly hurries off to her room as Ender jerks my chair to face him.
“Let me tell you something, Finnigan. I don’t give a shit about you. I don’t give a shit about anyone but that girl that just walked away. And while you still prove useful to me, I will take care of you and protect you because you have something I want, but the moment you are no longer useful, I’m done.”
“So if my blood just now miraculously healed her, you’re going to kill me?”
“Not yet, you’re still useful,” he says.
“Then can I go home, and I’ll ship you your very own bottle of blood once a week?” I ask, knowing that there’s absolutely no way he’d actually agree to this.
He smirks. “Go take a shower. You’re filthy and I’m tired of wiping dirt and blood off shit you touch.”
I glance in the direction he’s pointing. “If Kaden really is doing this… then Marcus needs to know.”
“You think I’m going to send you off to tell him?”
“I wouldn’t expect that, but maybe… you could tell him.”
Ender actually grins then laughs. “The next time Marcus sees me, he’s going to kill me. You know that, right? He knows I have you.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
He’s clearly amused. “Of course you don’t.”
I lean back in my chair. “You understand that if what you’re saying is the truth, the people who are after Rylee and me… if they can’t get a hold of me, they’ll go for her.”
“Good thing I’ll protect you both,” he says.
I’m not quite sure this is considered protection. “Your protection needs some work.”
“Hey, you’re still alive, aren’t you? I haven’t killed you yet.”
“No, I’m just bleeding, fucking freezing, and the only food I’ve eaten is some damn gummy bears Rylee gave me. You’re doing fantastic,” I say. “A five-star stay.”
He grins at me. “Thank you. I’ve always been known for my five-star amenities.”
I sigh and find my way to the full bathroom deeper in the house that I haven’t yet gotten to go into. Inside, I realize exactly why he’s not afraid for me to shower alone because there’s no other way out of the small bathroom. I strip my clothes off and drop the filthy things on the ground before climbing in the tub. Exhausted, I sit down in the tub as the water falls from the showerhead, beating down on me. A hiss escapes my mouth as the water stings the wound on my stomach that I really need to unwrap, but even that sounds dreadful.
Closing my eyes, I try to think through every piece of information I have. Do I trust the man who has both saved my life and tried to kill me? I’m pretty confident he’d have just watched me die or be dragged off if I hadn’t been of use to him. Hell, he might have even joined in on my slaughter. So do I trust him or Kaden?
Honestly, I don’t have to trust either… I just need to get out of here.
What he’s saying does make sense, and it’s easier to trust that he’s telling the truth when he clearly wants something from me and has been quite upfront about everything else. Whereas Kaden’s tune changed completely after Ender nearly killed him, and Marcus has never truly trusted him.
But if I think about it logically, if Ender was telling the truth, what Kaden will do is work with Marcus. If he or the council wants me and Rylee, the best way will be to kill Ender. And the best way to kill Ender is to piss Marcus off. Fuck… not just Marcus… if Ender has me and Marcus finds out where I am, he has Claude and Orin and a fucking ex-vampire hunter… Brooks… DeGray… Ender might have been able to stop Marcus, but could he fight off my very own mini army?
I don’t know the answer to this. Do I allow him to kill Ender? I mean, the man clearly deserves to die, but will Kaden use it as an excuse to get one of us? No… no… why am I believing him? Why am I trusting him? But should I?
My mind spins as the water pours down on me. I don’t know the answer to any of this, but all I do know is that if I don’t figure out something soon, who knows what mistakes we’re going to make.
I stay sitting in the tub for at least an hour as the water warms up my limbs. Even then, Ender never gets on me for it. I only noticed the door open once, and when I’d peeked out, I found a pile of clothes had been left inside.
Is this like a peace offering of sorts? Or now that he’s in my head, he’s going to use that to keep me on his side? Fucking hell.
I shut off the shower, grab a clean towel, and dry myself off. Dressed, I use the wall to help myself back into the kitchen where the smell of food attacks my stomach. Ender drops a plate on the table like his ability to care is next to none.
“There. Now if you starve, it’s not my fault,” he says.
“And I’m fixing your arm!” Rylee says as I see her trying to stuff my prosthetic arm into a bag of rice. “Ender said it got wet, and when my momma’s cell phone got wet, she put it in a bag of rice!”
“Oh… wow, thank you. That’s definitely going to help,” I say, wondering how Charlie is going to take it when I pass her off an arm that’s water and rice-logged. If I ever get free, that is.
Rylee is quite proud of herself as I sit down at the table and pick up a fork.
“Did you poison this?” I ask Ender.
“Considered it.”
“Wow, such hospitality.”
I quickly realize that the man has absolutely no idea how to cook, but I’m hungry enough that the half-raw eggs taste like heaven.