Crimson Crown Read online

He took the device and rolled it around in his palm. “What’s on this thing anyway? What kind of evidence are we talking about?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.”

  Getting out of bed, I walked across the room to my laptop, which sat atop a desk carved from the cavern’s natural limestone. Reece handed me the flash drive, and I inserted it.

  A page came up asking for a password.

  “It’s encrypted,” he said from over my shoulder. “Did she give you a password?”

  I looked at the letter again, then checked inside the box, searching for anything that might be a password. Nothing looked likely. We tried Sadie’s name, her birthdate, even a couple of phrases from the letter. Nothing worked.

  “Why would she give you a flash drive you couldn’t open?” Reece wondered aloud.

  I shrugged. “Maybe she expected to still be around to give me the password herself. Or maybe she felt the most important thing was keeping the data away from the wrong eyes. I don’t know. Is there anyone you know of here who can hack into something like this?”

  “I’ll check into it tonight first thing. We’ll find someone. In the meantime, we should put this drive somewhere safe—and keep you far from the public eye... maybe even here in your chambers under guard.”

  Though his suggestion was ridiculous, his desire to protect me was endearing. “Aren’t you the one who said I need to start leading my people?”

  “At the moment I’m most concerned about your safety,” Reece said. His brows dropped low, giving him a glowering appearance. “I thought being queen would make you safer—you’d be guarded at all times, you’d have the loyalty of your people. I never thought it would put you in more danger.”

  “I guess every position of visible leadership carries with it some risk. The more you stick your neck out, the greater the chance an ax will fall on it.”

  Reece frowned, clearly disliking my choice of words. Stepping close, he encircled my neck with his large hands and met my gaze with fierce intensity.

  “That will never happen to you. Not while I live.”

  Stroking the underside of my chin with his thumbs, he tilted my face up for his kiss. As always when he kissed me, it was like my brain and body disconnected. Emotion and sensation took over.

  The taste of him, the possessive, greedy grip of his hands, the feel of his powerful body pressing against mine stole my breath and tempted me to forget the bizarre, life-changing events of this night and spend the daytime hours wrapped up in him, to forgo sleep altogether and dive headfirst into the sensual escape he offered.

  But I couldn’t.

  For one thing, I was exhausted. For another, the Bloodbound soldiers posted outside my door would know Reece hadn’t left my chambers, and their enhanced hearing would tell them exactly why.

  I broke the kiss and stepped back. “As much as I’d love to spend twenty-four-seven, letting you ‘guard’ me, you should probably go so I can get some sleep. I have a full agenda tomorrow—starting with helping Larkin get everything she needs for her research.”

  He smirked. “I got the distinct impression that Nolan would be more than willing to give Larkin ‘everything she needs.’”

  “You noticed that too?” I laughed. “I also noticed that Kannon ‘escorted’ him from the room a little more forcefully than was necessary.”

  Reece gave me an alert glance. “You think he’s attracted to her?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “He says she drives him crazy. And he’s not a fan of the whole cure idea—which is what she’s all about. Besides, he’s Bloodbound.”

  “So are you,” I reminded him before pressing a lingering kiss to his full lips. “You’re vampires, not machines. And he made his vow to Imogen, not to me. Imogen’s dead.”

  Reece nodded. “That’s a good point. You should have a ceremony when you give the Bloodbound your queensblood for the first time, give them the opportunity to publicly swear fealty.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I said.

  “Good.” He studied me. “It seems like maybe you’re coming around to the whole idea of being queen.”

  “Well, seeing the VHC members today after so long reminded me of something. Sadie believed vampirism was the result of a cosmic mistake, that vampires should never have existed, and the species should be allowed to lapse into extinction. But she still devoted her entire life and all her energy into advocating for the ones who were here already. I can do that—or try my best to—at least until a universal cure makes it possible for everyone to become human again.”

  “You’re still putting all your hope into that cure, aren’t you?” Reece sounded disappointed.

  “Honestly? Yes.”

  “I think it’s a mistake.”

  “Well, at the moment, I don’t have anything else to put my hope in. For a few minutes there, I thought there might be a hot vampire king who was going to take over and solve all my problems, but I guess he’s not up for the job.”

  Reece laughed then his voice dropped into a lower register and became deliciously threatening. One of his dark eyebrows lifted. “Speaking of up for the job... there is one problem I can solve for you.”

  I feigned ignorance, but my breathing was quick and shallow as I backed away toward the bed and he prowled after me.

  “Oh really? What’s that?”

  “You haven’t been kissed nearly enough tonight,” Reece said. “As one of your faithful drones, I am here to serve you.”

  Well... maybe once wouldn’t hurt anything.

  10

  Grumpy Guard

  Abbi

  Emerging from the tight corridor leading to it, I stepped into the cavern housing the new offices of the Vampire-Human Coalition.

  Kelly and Heather both looked up from their work and smiled at me. Everyone else bowed.

  Even after three months, I still hadn’t gotten used to it. Acknowledging the gesture of respect was the quickest way to get the vampire lawyers, paralegals, and other volunteers upright again, so I said, “Good evening everyone. Carry on.”

  The workers resumed whatever they’d been doing before my arrival, and I went to talk to my friends. At least they weren’t bowing. Thank God.

  “How are things going?” I asked, surveying the pile of burner phones spread across the table in front of them.

  “Not bad,” Heather answered. “I’ve learned a few new insulting terms for ‘vampire.’ Gotta love phone campaigns—people feel like they can say anything to you when you’re not standing there in front of them.”

  Kelly laughed. “Yes, but there are a lot of nice people too. In fact, I’d say it’s about seventy-thirty, with the vampire-haters being in the minority.”

  “It’s a loud minority.” Heather raised a sardonic brow. “And rude. Don’t they know our hearing is acute? They don’t have to yell.”

  “Still, I like the sound of those numbers. What about the email and postal surveys?” I asked.

  My friends were spearheading a human outreach effort, trying to gauge support for President Parker and his cronies versus support for vampire rights.

  “Same breakdown,” Heather reported. “At least on paper, people seem to think we should be allowed to have jobs and families and generally live our lives. Unfortunately they’re not the people in charge right now.”

  I frowned. The new VHC was operating underground—literally and figuratively, keeping a low profile, as opposed to seeking media coverage as the organization had done under Sadie.

  But we’d need to go public soon. It was important to keep communicating, to keep our plight in the public view and to show humans who we really were as opposed to letting President Parker and his narrowminded followers control the conversation.

  The Bastion’s population was growing larger by the day as more and more refugees streamed in, seeking shelter and protection from harsh new public policy efforts to drive them from their homes and jobs and generally make life as a vampire hell.
r />   Of course President Parker was behind it all. He had to be stopped, but I wasn’t sure how to do it.

  No one had been able to decrypt the flash drive so far, so I still didn’t know exactly what kind of evidence we had on him. It must have been bad—he’d ordered the bombing of the VHC to try to cover it up.

  But I needed to know just how bad—and how much leverage I had to get him to back down on his aggressive anti-vampire rhetoric and policies before I requested a meeting with him.

  “You don’t happen to know any hackers, do you?” I asked my friends.

  “There’s a guy here who was a videogame designer,” Kelly offered.

  “Oh, I met this really cute guy in the Rainbow Cave the other night,” Heather said. “He said he used to work for the Pentagon in IT before they instituted the federal vampire hiring freeze and he got laid off. Why? What do you need? Want him to screw up Parker’s social media accounts?”

  She grinned widely and wiggled her fingers in front of her like some sort of cartoonish villain. It was hard not to laugh at her enthusiasm for the idea.

  “No. His people may be domestic terrorists, but we’re not,” I said. “I do have a tech problem though, and we need some help to solve it.”

  I hadn’t told them about the flash drive—Sadie had said she hated to tell me about it because having it put a target on my back, but I was getting desperate.

  “I need a flash drive decrypted. What was the IT guy’s name?” I asked.

  “I don’t remember.” Heather blushed. “But I do know where he lives—I went home with him that night. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing him again. Want me to let him know you’d like to talk to him?”

  “That would be great.”

  Turning to Kelly, I asked, “How’s your love life?”

  “Non-existent. You know me, I’m a Bloodbound fangirl.” She giggled then added in a teasing tone, “And they’re not available because someone is monopolizing them.”

  “Believe me, I wish I could give them to you.”

  “All but one, right? How is Reece, by the way?” She gave me a silly eyebrow waggle.

  Now I did laugh. Apparently our regular sleepovers—as in every night—were the worst kept secret at the Bastion.

  “He’s great. He and Kannon have been a huge help keeping those Bloodbound in line—in spite of the fact I’m not monopolizing them,” I said. “Okay, gotta go. I need to stop by Larkin’s lab and see how things are coming along.”

  On my way to the research lab, I veered into one of the caverns where construction was being done on new living quarters. With the vast influx of new residents, conditions were becoming a little tight inside the Bastion.

  Though the cavern system had been mapped as far as five miles into the earth, only a small portion of it had ever been used for living space.

  When this place had been a tourist attraction for humans, only the first few caverns past the opening had been explored. In the years since it had become a vampire habitat, there had been a good deal of expansion—sixty-four acres worth to be exact—but that was being stepped up exponentially now.

  Workers were framing walls, installing plumbing and electrical lines. As I strolled through the expansion zone, the work crews stopped and bowed—once again giving me major imposter syndrome. But I went with it and acted the part because what else could I do?

  It was a relief to get to the lab where once again I could be around someone who knew me for who I really was—just Abbi.

  When I arrived, Larkin was bent over a sample, conversing closely with her research partner, Nolan. They were laughing about something.

  “I had no idea science could be so funny,” I said as I approached the worktable.

  They simultaneously lifted their heads.

  “Oh, Abbi—hi. I didn’t hear you come in,” Larkin said.

  Nolan dipped his head. “My queen.”

  “How’s it coming along?”

  “Well, I’ll put it this way. If we didn’t laugh, we’d cry,” Larkin said. “We keep running into the same problem. It works, the vampires revert to their human condition, and then not long afterward, they die—even the younger, healthier volunteers.”

  She literally wrung her hands in distress. “Which means we won’t be having too many volunteers in the future. I mean, the ones who volunteered so far were so miserable as vampires they were willing to take the risk, but how many of those are there really? And how long can I go on in good conscience injecting people with a formula that most likely will end their lives? If I were testing a drug for humans, the trial would have been stopped already. I’m sorry. I know how much you’re counting on this. I’m not sure what’s going wrong. On paper it works. In real life it’s a disaster.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.” Nolan reached over and rubbed her shoulder. The contact wasn’t lascivious—it was more a gesture of comfort—but he let his hand drift down to her back and linger there.

  Hmmm. They’d been spending every night here together for weeks, but she hadn’t mentioned any developing feelings between them to me. I wondered if she even realized how Nolan obviously felt about her.

  Erasing any remaining doubt—in my mind at least—he added, “This lady can do anything she sets her brilliant mind to.”

  “Oh hush, you’re the brilliant one,” she argued, but I could tell from her expression she was pleased by his compliment.

  A harumphing noise from my right drew my eyes to the corner of the room. Kannon was there, wearing a look as dark as the shadow that had hid him from my notice earlier.

  Because there was some controversy surrounding the necessity of a cure, we’d agreed a guard would be posted inside and outside the lab twenty-four seven. I was a little surprised to see Kannon here though. He was too high-ranking for a relatively menial job like this—and he didn’t seem very happy to be here.

  Maybe he’d had to fill in at the last minute for someone?

  He stepped into the light. “My shift is up.”

  His announcement was aimed in Larkin’s general direction, though he didn’t make direct eye contact with her. “Tyrone will be here in a few minutes to replace me. My queen, I’ll wait outside the lab for you—I need to speak with you, if you have time.”

  “Of course. I’ll be out in a sec—I just dropped by for a quick update.”

  When he’d left the room, I turned back to Larkin with a quizzical glance.

  “What’s his problem?”

  She shook her head rapidly and darted her eyes away. “I’m not sure.”

  The way her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths made me wonder if she knew more than she was letting on.

  Seeming oblivious to his partner’s abrupt change in body language and to Kannon’s elevated position in the Bloodbound hierarchy, Nolan volunteered a guess.

  “He’s probably just mad his boss stuck him here guarding the ‘boring science nerds.’ He comes here every night, stands in that corner frowning like a gargoyle, and doesn’t say a word aside from the occasional grunt.”

  Larkin’s breaths grew even more audible, and her cheeks flushed a deep pink.

  Interesting. Maybe Larkin wasn’t aware of Nolan’s attraction to her because she was attracted to someone else.

  “Every night, you said?” I questioned Nolan. “That’s unusual. The Bloodbound usually rotate shifts. I’ll have to look into it.”

  “Don’t bother. You’ve got enough to do as it is,” Larkin said. “A grumpy guard is the least of our problems. Speaking of... Nolan, we should get back to work on this batch, or we’re going to have to re-chill it and start again.”

  Instantly, his full attention was back on her.

  Which I strongly suspected was the usual state of things in the lab—and the reason for Kannon’s surly attitude.

  11

  No Wonder

  When I met Kannon in the corridor outside the lab, I decided to test my theory.

  Keeping my tone nonchalant, I said, “Nolan cert
ainly has a lot of confidence in Larkin.”

  Kannon’s scowl returned. “That’s not all he has a lot of.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The big soldier’s lips twisted to the side before he answered, “Nothing. It’s just... he tells a lot of stupid jokes and stuff, trying to be amusing.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “I don’t know. Isn’t science supposed to be all serious? I mean, they’re literally dealing with life and death stuff in there. They should... focus.”

  I had to bite my own lip to keep from laughing at his obvious jealousy. “I think a little levity can be good—especially when you’re dealing with life and death issues. They can’t be serious every second. They’ll die of stress before they find a cure.”

  His brows drew together. “They’re vampires. They can’t die of stress.”

  Now I laughed out loud. “I was being figurative. Listen, if his personality bothers you that much, you don’t have to take shifts in the lab. I’m sure we can find someone else to do it.”

  Kannon’s lips rolled in then out as he glanced over at the closed lab door.

  “Nah. It’s fine. I want to make sure sh—everyone is safe here. I don’t exactly agree that we need a cure, but if other people want it, it’s fine. I’ve seen a lot of vampires coming in here hoping it’ll work, so I guess the idea does have some value. And anyway, I’m not letting what happened at the VHC happen here.”

  “Well, I appreciate it. I’m sure Larkin does too... although I know you two don’t get along all that well either.”

  Kannon opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Then he shut it again and made a little sniff sound as he studied the cave wall beside us.

  “Anyway...” he said. “That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you located anyone who can get into that flash drive yet?”

  “Not yet. I’m still putting out feelers. And new people arrive every night. As you know they fill out questionnaires about their job skills—eventually someone will show up who can decrypt the thing. Then I can make a plan to meet with Parker.”