The Forever Song (Blood of Eden 3)

No. A growl rumbled in my throat, and I grabbed his arm, dragging us both to our feet. Anger and determination burned hotly in my stomach as I turned him to face me. “Sarren is not going to win,” I said, making Zeke blink. “I am not giving our forever to that sick bastard. This isn’t over yet.”

A groan echoed nearby, as Dr. Richardson shifted and struggled to a sitting position, Kanin looming over him. He tried to get up, but gasped and grabbed his left arm, cradling it to his stomach. The elbow was soaked with blood, and something sharp poked out from beneath his lab coat.

“Broken,” he gritted out, clenching his jaw in pain. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere with you, vampires.” He looked past Kanin, to the burning lab, and grimaced. “Though I do thank you for not leaving me to that.”

“Dr. Richardson,” I said, sweeping up to him. “You said that Sarren left not long before we arrived. Do you know where he went? Where he is now?”

The human nodded. “He’s going to spread that virus,”

Richardson murmured darkly, his expression taut with pain.

“But he needs to get off the island first. So, there’s really only one place he could go.”

“The docks,” Zeke said, his voice suddenly hard. “He’ll be at the docks. If we catch him there, we can still stop this.”

I blinked. The lab was gone, the research destroyed, and the cure was lost. A second ago, he’d seemed ready to give up. I’d thought I would have to convince him to keep going. But he didn’t look defeated or horrified anymore. He looked like a pissed-off vampire. His fangs were out, and his eyes gleamed with anger and determination as he backed away, beckoning to us all. “We’re not far,” he said. “I know the fastest way.”

He paused, giving the human a solemn look, as if realizing we couldn’t take him with us. “Dr. Richardson…?”

“Go,” the scientist whispered, waving us on with his good hand. “Don’t worry about me. Stop Sarren. Stop Requiem.

Nothing else matters.”

Zeke nodded once, and we went.

The streets were chillingly empty of rabids as we fled back the way we came, following Zeke down the narrow, twisty roads of Eden. I wondered where they all were, until I took a quick breath, searching for hints of rot and decay on the wind, and caught a trace of fresh blood in the air. No wonder the streets were empty. Wherever that smell was coming from, that was where we’d find the rabids.

Zeke turned a corner, and the rows of buildings suddenly ended, coming to a stop at the edge of a road. Across the street, I could see a parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence, and beyond that, a long cement pier stretching out over Lake Erie.

It was empty.

We hurried on to the dock, leaping the fence, and ran to the end of the pier, frantically gazing around. Several boats bobbed on the surface of the water, simple rowboats, probably used for fishing and now forgotten in the chaos. But Sarren wasn’t in any of them.

Then Kanin gave a weary sigh and pointed out over the lake. “There.”

We followed his gaze. Far away, over the vastness of Lake Erie, I could just see the hull of a massive ship, vanishing into the darkness. Even from this distance, it was huge, one of those enormous barges like the one outside Old Chicago that held all the raiders’ bikes and vehicles. I glared at the ship, frustration and helpless despair threatening to crush me. We were too late. Sarren had been right here, and we’d let him get away.

“Shit.” Jackal’s voice was tense. He kept one hand at his neck, his voice tight with pain. “Looks like our ship just sailed.” He grimaced and leaned against a post, looking exhausted as he stared after the vanishing ship. “Though why the psychopath would use a slow-ass barge to get off the island is beyond me. Unless…”

He trailed off, as the realization hit us all at the same time.

Behind us, Eden lay empty and abandoned…because Sarren had loaded a huge barge full of rabids and sailed it right into the heart of the city. And now…“Oh, God,” I whispered. “The checkpoint. That’s how he plans to spread Requiem. He’s taking the infected rabids back, to turn them loose on the refugees. Once that barge hits the checkpoint…”

It would be over. Requiem would be loosed on the world.

The rabids would slaughter the refugees and then spread out, carrying the virus to every rabid and human they came across.

It would be the end of everything, just like Sarren said.

“No,” Zeke growled, heading back the way we’d come.

“It’s not too late. We can still catch up. Follow me!”

He led us down the pier to another set of docks, where several smaller boats bobbed in the water, small, sleek crafts with engines instead of paddles, built for speed. Steel drums stood at the edge of each pier; fuel for the boats, I guessed.

But instead of heading toward the docks, Zeke jogged up to a tiny building at the edge of the pier, almost a shack. It had a simple wooden door on the side and a window with a counter at the front, and I had no idea what it was for.

“Zeke, what—”

Ignoring the window, Zeke walked up to the door of the small hut and kicked it open, flinging it back with a crash.

“The boats on Eden are communal property,” he stated as we ducked inside. Jackal and Kanin hovered in the frame, as the room was barely big enough for two people. Fishing poles, spears, nets and other supplies leaned against the walls or on shelves, and a single stool sat before the window. “Anyone can use them,” Zeke continued, “as long as they bring them back. This is where they record which boats are gone and when they’re returned.”

A panel hung beside the counter with several keys dangling from hooks in the board. Snatching one, Zeke checked the tag that hung below it and nodded before turning around.

“All right, let’s go.”

A shrieking sound interrupted him and made my blood freeze. From a nearby warehouse, rabids emerged, a pale swarm against the darkness. I drew in a breath, and the scent of blood hit me like a slap in the face, coming from the long metal building. Sarren had been one step ahead of us, again.

The rabids screamed and turned toward us, and my skin crawled. It was the same pack from earlier that night, except for one thing. Several of them had fresh gouges down their arms and faces, and many were ripping at their skin even as they came forward, moving like jerky puppets.

“Shit, they’re infected,” Jackal snarled, and shot a hard glare at Zeke. “Come on, puppy, let’s move!”