I was breaking piece by shattered piece as I looked at the mother of my children, my beautiful wife, who’d been so excited to start her new job. She’d been happy that we were home and about to begin a new chapter in our lives. I was right there with her.
Tripp returned and grabbed my arm. “Sam.”
I didn’t want to leave. I couldn’t. But I was about to lose my shit, and Tripp was right. I needed to let Doc take care of Layla.
“She’ll be okay, man,” Tripp said.
I listened to her heart, which was beating rapidly.
Tripp nudged me. “Come on.”
Reluctantly, I left, my pulse pounding in my ears. “Why was Rianne in the infirmary?” I asked Tripp.
“She was having a seizure. Doc gave the order to the chief on duty at the prison to bring her up to a secure room in the new wing just for Noah, Carly, and Rianne.”
My father loomed over Rianne’s dead body in front of the entrance. The tightness in his muscles was a clear indication that he was ready to snap like me. He loosened his tie. He was dressed in a suit to accompany Layla as they gave the reporter a tour of the base.
I heard voices in the hallway before Webb and Petty Officer Peterson came in.
“Tell them what happened,” Webb ordered Peterson.
Peterson, a six-foot-tall vampire with a broken nose, brown hair that was covered in white dust, and a bloody face, regarded Rianne’s dead body. “Everything happened so fast. One minute she was seizing, then when we reached the entrance to the infirmary, she jolted up as if she heard a familiar voice or smelled something. Next thing, she yanked her restraints off like twigs. My partner and I tried to wrangle her, but she ripped out his heart, then threw me through a wall in the hallway. I radioed for help as soon as I could but not fast enough.”
“You’re telling us that Rianne stuck her hand into your partner’s chest?” Disbelief weaved through my tone.
Peterson nodded as he briefly regarded Rianne. “She was extremely strong.”
Jordyn hugged herself as she stared at her evil sister lying next to my dad’s feet. “And she was faster than vampires. When I walked out of the room, Rianne was a blur. Then Layla was on the floor. I’m dumbfounded at how everything happened in a blink of an eye. Layla and I were just talking about whether or not we should keep Rianne alive. It’s too bad we couldn’t save her.” Jordyn sounded choked up.
I could understand her heartbreak over her sister. But no matter how hard Layla had tried to talk Rianne down off the ledge of giving up her humanity, she hadn’t listened. Once that serum was in Rianne’s system, there was no turning back or saving her.
“With the data we have on her, we might be able to save others in the future,” my father said. “I know that’s not what you want to hear, Jordyn, and I’m sorry for your loss. But by studying the genetics of Rianne, Noah, and Carly, we might be able to formulate a medical solution to stop the process, prevent it, or maybe even reverse it one day. I have no doubt there will be more people like Adam Emery out there. So it’s important to continue to study any and all data from those affected by the serum so we can get ahead of the genetic-engineering war. If we don’t, we’ll never win, and the revolving door will keep turning and turning until we’re living in a dystopian landscape.”
While I agreed with my father’s thought process, I prayed Layla didn’t die because of it.
I returned to the doorway of her room and sucked in air. “What the fuck?”
Dr. Vieira was doing chest compressions.
I sharpened my hearing and listened. My wife didn’t have a pulse. I staggered into the doorjamb, pain clutching my chest, tears stinging my eyes, and my ability to breathe was waning at a rapid rate. I had to be dreaming. This wasn’t real. That wasn’t Layla’s limp body with white foam bubbling from her lips and a thick film of perspiration coating her wounded face.
I swallowed the unimaginable grief that clogged my throat as I stared at her in shock, feeling like my soul was being ripped apart.
“What is it?” Jordyn squeaked out, sidling up to me.
“Prepare the defibrillator,” Doc said to Wendy.
Jordyn fell into me. “Is Layla dead?”
Tripp and my father came up behind us.
Jordyn hung on my arm. “I don’t understand.”
I didn’t know what to tell her, as I certainly was having a difficult time wrapping my mind around what the fuck was happening to my wife. Layla had to have been allergic to Rianne’s bite or whatever the scientific terms were.
Wendy cut open Layla’s blouse, then snipped her bra in two.
Doc was giving Layla mouth-to-mouth.
