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Instead of answering, he lunged. One second he was by the end of the bed, and the next Carmina flew across the room and a streak of gray slammed into me, knocking the gun from my hand. My body slammed backward into a side table that sent a lamp and other items crashing to the floor.
“Zed!” Carmina’s shout was almost lost in the growls and hissing of the pissed-off vampire on top of me.
Dr. Death was slight in frame but not in temperament. He giggled as his hands closed around my throat and his fangs flashed like twin daggers in the low light.
His breath stunk of copper and his eye glowed with the sort of insanity only those truly g
enius possess. “The only way you’re getting into my lab is as a test subject.”
Black floaters swam in my vision as I gasped like a fish out of water.
Behind his head, Carmina appeared wielding a lamp, but before she could strike the vampire with it, he let go of my neck long enough to strike her and give me a few seconds of much-needed air. The lamp shattered on the ground and Carmina cried out in pain. Even though she was hurt, she didn’t give up and came at him with her fists this time. This was my chance. If I didn’t manage to dislodge him we’d both be dead soon.
I bucked with my hips at the same time I threw all my weight to the left. He fell toward the right and I managed to pull myself out from under him. Carmina immediately intensified her attack, swatted him with her fists like two pistons. Though my windpipe felt crushed and my neck throbbed, I pulled myself up to go help her.
The gun lay near the chute. Before I could reach it, Carmina screamed. I looked back in time to see the vampire’s fangs sink into her forearm. The bastard growled and ripped a chunk out like a dog with a juicy bone. Carmina’s skin went white and she fell, cradling the arm to her chest. I grabbed the gun and spun around.
The first bullet lodged in his shoulder. The impact knocked him back, but he stayed on his feet.
“Stop or the next one goes into your skull.”
Carmina’s blood smeared across his lips, which spread into a smile. “Your bullets don’t scare me, human.” As I watched in horror, he reached into the bullet wound in his shoulder and dug around until he pulled the slug out of the hole. He didn’t even break a sweat. “The humans have a name for me, yes? Dr. Death.” He chuckled. “It’s precious, this name. Do you really think I’d have access to all of this technology and wouldn’t formulate a way to become even stronger and more immune to your puny weapons?”
I pulled the trigger. The bullet exploded from the muzzle and drilled into the space between his eyes. His face exploded.
An instant later, Carmina started screaming.
Twenty-One
Meridian Six
The instant it happened, I felt as if I’d been shot. One second, Zed faced down Dr. Death while I waited for the right moment to attack. The next, Zed had done the one thing I’d explicitly asked him not to do.
When the gun fired and blood mist slapped against my skin, it took me a moment to comprehend what had happened. I screamed, not because I was afraid or sickened by the blood or the stench of copper. I screamed because it was better than attacking Zed.
“Carmina, hush.” He grabbed my arms and shook me. I fought him off and went to check Dr. Death’s pulse. Zed pulled me away. “Stop it. He’s dead.”
I fell back on the floor, not caring about the blood and bone shards.
“Come on,” he said. “We have to get out of here.”
I wiped the blood from my face. “You said you’d give me the kill.”
His mouth worked for a moment, as if he couldn’t make sense of my words. “I had an opening, so I took it.”
I looked him in the eyes. “You had no right.”
He reared back as if I’d struck him. His expression hardened. “You weren’t getting the job done.”
The verbal jab hit home, but I wasn’t ready to accept that if Zed hadn’t been there, I’d be dead. “You didn’t give me a chance. I was about to make a move. I just needed you to distract him for two more seconds.” I stopped talking as the pressure of my frustration pushed against my ribs and made my head feel like it would shatter just as surely as the vampire’s had. When word got back to Saga, he’d use this to trap me. He would use this as an excuse to back out of our agreement. He’d claim that since I hadn’t dealt the deathblow that I’d broken our agreement. I looked at the terrible, bloody display beside me. There’d be more missions, each worse than the last. Each putting me one step closer to my own grave.
Zed ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t get you. You—”
Something collided with the door that led out to the corridor. Guards pounded the metal panel and shouted for Dr. Death.
Our conflict momentarily forgotten in favor of survival, Zed and I jumped up. “The lab,” I said. “Quickly.”
We ran to the panel opposite the one being worked on by the guards. Zed’s bullet had fried the control box the guards were trying to access, but I didn’t hold a lot of hope that they wouldn’t find a way to manually bypass the system. The corresponding panel next to the lab door had lots of flashing buttons and a pad about the size of a palm.
