Hunter Of The Dead (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

People have got to stop knocking me out.
Three times—or was it four?—in a week was too many. Eden felt loopy, which meant she wasn’t dead. Someone had given her drugs, probably something for the pain. Her eyes didn’t want to open, but she forced them apart just the same.

She was in a whitewashed room in an honest-to-God bed, complete with IV and a machine to monitor her vital signs. A hospital. How the hell had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was the sound of helicopters and Alejandro’s blood on her hands. And a medic sticking her full of drugs. Bitch.

The door to her room opened and woman walked in. Before Eden could say anything, the woman held up a hand. “I need to check your vitals before you can talk to anyone.”

Eden nodded slowly. Questions pressed against her lips, desperate for answers, but she forced them back. There would be time as soon as the nurse left. So she played the good patient, letting the woman poke at her. A few minutes later, the nurse announced herself satisfied. “There are some people with questions for you.”

Before Eden could protest, she slipped out of the room. The pair of men who came in after her had obviously been partners for years. They moved almost in sync, the short, thin one slipping through the door first and holding for the older, larger one. The second gave her a smile that rose the small hairs on the back of her neck and it was everything Eden could do not to pull the blanket higher on her chest.

“Hello,
señorita
. How are you feeling?”

“Like crap, thanks for asking.”

The thin one chortled, his voice unexpectedly deep. “My name is Jorge, and this is my partner, Carlos. We have a few questions for you concerning the events of the last week, in the village of Paitos.”

So the village did have a name. What a silly thought. Of course it had a name. Eden shook her head. “I don’t know much.”

The large man—Carlos—lowered himself into the chair next to her bed. With his size, it felt like he was invading her space, despite his being easily four feet away. “Shall we start with the easy part? What is your name?”

“Elena Velazquez.” It was the identity she used whenever they were in South America. Elena was a Brazilian citizen, born and raised in Salvador. Or at least that was what her passport said.

Jorge pulled out a small notepad and made a note. “And what were you doing in Paitos,
Señorita
Velazquez? It is not exactly a tourist destination.”

Eden offered a sheepish smile while she wracked her brain for a likely story. “I was traveling with my sister and some friends from Chimbote to Iquitos. We got lost.”

The men shared a look that could have meant anything. Carlos took the conversational lead, reaffirming Eden’s earlier guess about them having been partners for years. “It’s rather difficult to become lost in Paitos. There is only way to and from the village.”

Hell if she knew. “We didn’t know that.” The words fell flat, tainted by the events of the valley. These men had no idea what went on there, would never have to deal with something so horrific. Having to make excuses to them made Eden sick. Or maybe that was the after-affects of the drugs.

“I see,” said Carlos, giving Jorge another significant look. “I don’t suppose you happened to see anything odd while visiting Paitos?”

Like the dead roaming the streets, searching for their next meal. “No. Why?”

Jorge’s furry eyebrows rose. “Why? I believe that is the question we should be asking you. You were, after all, found in the middle of a firefight, surrounded by enough weapons to fuel a revolution, next to fifteen bound children. Perhaps you should tell us exactly what happened.”

Too late, Eden realized where this was going. It must have been the drugs still in her system making her stupid or she would have known sooner. They were going to blame her for this mess.

She forced her lower lip to quiver and let a few tears leak from the edge of her eyes. “I...I...” Eden dropped her head into her hands and curled in on herself. One of the men cleared their throat, but she waited another full two minutes before raising her face. “Where is my sister? My friends?”

Jorge leaned against the doorframe, looking singularly unimpressed with her show. “There were several people found with you. I suppose the beaten woman in the tent is your sister?” He continued without waiting for an answer. “She’s fine, more or less, but she hasn’t regained consciousness. The man with the stab wound who you attacked the medic over is in stable condition.”

Thank God. Alejandro and Jordan were okay. They didn’t mention Taro, which meant there was a good chance he had escaped. More tears flowed down Eden’s face and she made no move to wipe them away. “Thank you for telling me.”

Carlos cleared his throat again. “Enough with the theatrics. Do you know how many people lived in the village of Paitos,
Señorita
Velazquez?”

“No.”

“Three hundred. And do you know how many survivors we found yesterday when we scoured the valley?”

Eden shook her head, keeping her mouth shut.

Carlos’ beady eyes pinned her to the bed, taking in her every reaction. “Nineteen. I suppose you have no idea how the entire village came to be slaughtered?”

She didn’t have to fake her fear. They really were trying to pin this on her. “Three hundred people slaughtered? You must be joking.”

“We wish we were.” Jorge pushed off the doorframe. “Men, women, and children, all with their heads chopped off or impaled through the skull.”

There was no way they’d believe the truth. It was impossible to prove the dead bodies were anything but victims of a psycho with a penchant for destroying heads. The only reason her team had bothered destroying the bodies was to avoid uncomfortable questions. Once the zombie’s brain was destroyed, all evidence of the infection itself disappeared, leaving what appeared to be a normal body. And now Eden was going to pay for it. Her voice shook with her effort to keep from screaming in frustration. “That’s...that’s horrible.”

“Yes, it is.” Jorge glanced down at his pad. He started to speak but the cell phone attached to his belt went off. “Excuse me a moment.” He slipped from the room as quietly as he’d come.

Which left Eden alone with Carlos. “Who would have done something like this?”

He didn’t blink. “A psycho who deserves to be shot dead. Why don’t you stop playing games,
señorita
, and tell me what really happened?”

Crap. “I don’t remember.”

The door opened and Jorge leaned in. “Carlos. They found something.”

After one long look at Eden, Carlos rose. “We’ll be back tomorrow morning, bright and early.”

Eden pulled her legs to her chest. “I hope you find whoever did this.” Because she was getting the hell out of here and taking her team with her.

“Oh, you can be assured of that, S
eñorita
Velazquez.”

The door had barely closed when she reached over and ripped off the tape holding the IV in her arm and the monitors sticking to her skin. She bit her lip and pulled out the needle, tossing it aside. A quick check told Eden she had no serious injuries. She felt like she’d been hit by a truck, but she could walk.

It was only when she slid off the bed that she realized she was wearing one of those nasty backless gowns. A thorough search of the room found nothing useful so she pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around herself. Eden opened the door and looked around. It could have been any hospital in the States, its dull white flooring worn down from hundreds of feet passing over it, the faded floral wallpaper doing nothing to brighten the misery seeming to hang over the whole place. There was no one around so she stepped out, the linoleum cool beneath her bare feet.

Eden went left at random, peeking into each room. She found Jordan four rooms down. Her delicate features were lost beneath the swelling, leaving her sister looking misshapen. Closing the door softly behind her, Eden was several steps into the room before she noticed the man sitting next to the bed. He looked vaguely familiar, but it was the discolored skin along his jaw that gave his identity away. The pudgy redhead Eden punched when he tried to get her away from Alejandro. He looked up and she noted the blue eyes. Damn, he couldn’t even have original coloring. And she’d bet her best knife that his skin had only two tones—pasty and lobster. Eden rubbed her face, wincing when she touched her throbbing jaw. Nitpicking on this guy wasn’t going to solve anything. “Who are you?”

“Jeremy Carmichael. Who the hell are you?”

This
was Jeremy? This was the guy Jordan lied to her for months over? He didn’t look like much, although Eden had to give him props for coming in and saving the day. Guess she would have to apologize to her sister. “Eden.”

Some of the tension left his body. “Jordan’s little sister.”

“Yeah.” Now they’d gotten the pleasantries out of the way so they could get down to business. “We have to get the hell out of here.”

He glanced around her at the closed door, something like fear sliding through his eyes. “What are you talking about? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

This was why she hated dealing with people outside her team. If she’d told Kaede they had to go, she would have instinctively known what was going on. But Kaede was gone and Eden would never tell her anything again. She ignored the bottomless pit waiting to open up inside her and went to Jordan’s bed. The doctors had already put casts on her right leg and wrist, and most of the rest of her was covered in bandages. She would have liked to give her sister more time to recover before they tried to move her, but it would have to be good enough.

A pale hand latched onto her wrist when she reached over to take out Jordan’s IV. The reporter was stronger than he looked. “What are you doing?”

Eden resisted the urge to punch him again. Barely. “You’re a smart kid, right? Who do you think they’re going to blame for all those bodies? I’m sure the soldiers didn’t stick around to be scapegoats.”

He shook his head, his too-long hair falling into his face. People shouldn’t have hair the color of tomatoes. It was just wrong. “You are the victims. They aren’t going to blame you.”

“Pretty to think so.” Eden knew better, especially after the pointed questions she’d gotten from Carlos and Jorge. Their employer—who may or may not be this Mr. Lauren—had enough pull to get them through any airport security in the world. Pointing an investigation their way would be child’s play to someone like him, especially when the locals were already spooked.

“You can’t just move her. She’s injured.”

“Is there internal bleeding?”

Jeremy frowned. “No.”

“Is she in a coma?”

“No.” His thin lips took on a stubborn set. Fine. He could look stubborn all he wanted, but she was getting her sister out of this hospital.

“She’s taken worse hits than this and kept on coming.” A lie, but a necessary one. The nurse would be checking on Eden soon, would know exactly where to come looking when she found her patient gone. “And, as bad as she looks now, she’ll look a whole lot worse if they stick her in prison.”

Jeremy’s internal battle was plain on his face. Obviously not a natural born liar. It made her think better of him even as she wanted to smack him for wasting time.

Before she could, though, Jordan’s eyes opened. “Eden?”

Oh, thank God. This would make things easier. Eden leaned down, ignoring the redhead. “We have to get the hell out of here. Now. There were investigators in my room, asking all sorts of pointed questions. They’re going to try to pin this shit on us.” She quickly filled her sister in on what happened at the camp before the choppers got there and what the investigators said, exactly.

Jordan’s eyes cleared. “Help me up.”

She started to but Jeremy was suddenly there. “Jordan, baby, you need to rest.”

“I will once we’re out of here.”

Eden cleared her throat, hoping to distract them before they got all lovey-dovey. “The question is how do we get the hell out of Peru?”

Jeremy glanced up. “Oh, that. Jordan didn’t tell you?”

Eden stared at him. Of course Jordan didn’t tell her. Apparently her sister told her nothing these days. But it didn’t matter. It was a petty fight they could take up when they weren’t poised on the brink of life in prison. “No, Jordan didn’t tell me.”

He actually shuffled his feet. It might have been cute when he was a child, but the move looked ridiculous on a grown man. “I, ah, own a private jet. Or rather, my father does.”

Eden barked out a laugh. “Of course you do.” It explained how they’d been able to see each other without her knowing it. There was no time to worry about it now.

“Eden—”

She shook her head at Jordan. “We’ll talk about it later.” Yeah, that and about a billion other things.

The door opened, and they froze like kids caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Eden’s breath sobbed out when she recognized the man who backed through the door, wearing hospital scrubs and wheeling a narrow bed behind him. “Taro.”

Chapter Thirty

Eden forgot herself and threw her arms around him. Taro awkwardly patted her back until she got the picture and let him go. Then she took the time to look at what he’d brought. Two sets of women’s clothes. “Taro, you’re a genius.”

“What? Why is he a genius? And who is this guy?” Jeremy was damn close to wringing his hands in frustration. He was even bouncing from one foot to the other. What Jordan saw in this guy was anyone’s guess.

“This is one of my team,” Jordan said, using her balm voice. “He’s here to help.”

Taro’s gaze was unnaturally flat as he looked down at Eden. She reached out and took his hand between hers. After a quick look found Jeremy watching them, she lowered her voice. “I know who our employer is, who’s responsible for killing Kaede.”

Something stirred in those depths, a monster surfacing. Eden hoped the God he wouldn’t turn on her for what she had to say next. “We have to get out of here. All of us. And then, when we’re all healed up, we’ll go after him. Only then.”

His grip tightened, grinding her bones together, but Eden held his gaze. It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done because she wanted the same thing he did. But now wasn’t the time to go rushing off on a hunt, not when they were half dead and grieving.

Finally Taro gave a tight nod and stepped back, releasing her hand. He passed her two sets of clothes and Eden moved to the side of Jordan’s bed not occupied by her boyfriend. “Let’s get you dressed.” She glanced at Jeremy. “Turn around so we can change.”

He opened his mouth, took one look at Taro, and turned around. Eden helped Jordan maneuver out of her hospital gown and get a shirt on. The fabric pulled on her cast, unwilling to stretch. Eden cursed. “Taro, a knife.” She caught the one he tossed over and split the sleeve, ignoring Jeremy’s sputters. There was no way they’d get the jeans over her leg cast. Damn. “Make yourself useful and get us a wheelchair.” They could cover Jordan’s legs with a blanket and no one would be the wiser.

“You can’t honestly mean to—Jordan talk some sense into her.” Now he really was wringing his hands. Jeez.

Jordan took a deep breath and winced. “Please, Jer. Please don’t argue. If Eden says we have to get out of here, then we have to get out of here.” Eden rocked back on her heels. As far as she could remember, she’d never heard her sister come to close to begging. Not even when she was trying to convince Dad not to add Eden to the team officially.

His blue eyes narrowed, but Jeremy finally nodded. “If you think we need to do this—”

“I do.”

“Then I’ll find you a wheelchair.” After one last distrustful look at Taro, he walked out the door.

Eden dropped her blanket and pulled on the pants. “We have to get Alejandro too.” She had no idea how they were going to transport him since his injuries were so much worse than Jordan’s, but Eden couldn’t leave him here to rot. “How do you want to do this, big sister?”

Jordan sat up, slightly hunched over, her pain written across her face. “We can’t all go for him. Where’s the vehicle parked, Taro?” There was no question about his having a vehicle; he did.

He pointed to the fire escape map and Eden crossed the room to peer at it. “West doors, parking lot directly to the right.”

“Jeremy will take me directly out there while you two get Alejandro. If he’s in stable condition, there should be no problem. If he’s not...” Jordan hesitated, meeting Eden’s gaze. “If he’s not then you have to leave him.”

“No.”

“Eden, if we take him when he’s not stabilized, you’ll kill him. I might be a medic, but I’m not a surgeon. He’ll die.”

While she knew and understood what Jordan was saying, every cell rebelled at the thought of leaving Alejandro here. “He’s stable.”

Jordan gave her a long look and turned to Taro. “Do you know where he is?” Of course he did and he probably had every escape route mapped out. “Good. Give me the keys and go now. We’ll meet you at the vehicle.”

Taro passed over the keys and a small piece of paper with the make and model written on it. A gray van. How serial killer of him. Eden smoothed back her hair and tried to calm the nerves jumping in her stomach. They could do this, could get Alejandro out of here without getting caught. They had to.

She hugged Jordan. “Be careful.”

“You too.”

By the time she turned around, Taro was halfway out the door, wheeling the cot in front of him. Eden followed, keeping a careful distance behind him. Alone, dressed in scrubs with his head down, Taro could be any nurse. And Eden was just a visitor, maybe one with a too-rough boyfriend, but just another woman roaming the halls.

There weren’t a ton of people, and the number significantly fell once Taro took a turn into the area for patients recovering from surgery. Family wasn’t supposed to be back here, but Eden saw no doctors or nurses before Taro led her into a room.

She gasped at the figure lying on the bed. He seemed so small and...breakable, huge circles beneath his closed eyes, dark enough to match his hair, his tanned skin sallow and waxy looking. “Oh, Alejandro.”

Taro hadn’t stopped when she did. He lined up the cot next to the bed and started transferring over the IV drip and unhooking the rest of the equipment. Alarms sounded, but he silenced them with ease, all while Eden stood there and watched, unable to move. She finally forced herself forward, gently lowering the blanket covering Alejandro’s chest to reveal bandages, lots and lots of bandages.

She startled when Taro reached across the bed and tapped her chin. “I’m okay.”

His look told her that he saw through her lie, but would let her get away with it for now. He slipped his arms under Alejandro and moved the larger man onto the cot, Eden holding her breath all the while.

She brought the blanket over and covered him up again. “Let’s get out of here.” Taro nodded and Eden slipped past the bed to open the door. He wheeled the bed into the hall and took a right, strolling along as if he were a nurse taking a patient for another test.

Eden wanted to walk next to the cot, wanted to hold Alejandro’s lip hand and reassure herself that he’d be okay. She couldn’t though. The hallway narrowed down to Taro’s back, Eden mirroring every step he took. She half expected someone to stop them, to yell that they were escaping, but there was nothing. They got a few odd looks, but no one stopped them as they walked out of the hospital. Eden chalked it up to the old trick of acting like you belonged. People saw what they wanted to see, always had and always would.

She looked up and down the street, a plain gray van snagging her attention, a very familiar redhead sitting behind the wheel. They might just get out of this mess with their team alive yet. Or half their team. Eden frowned, pushing it from her mind. She’d mourn later. Right now they had to get Alejandro into the van. After she’d opened the doors, she helped Taro collapse the cot and slide it into the back.

The ride to the airport was filled with uncomfortable silence, broken only by Jeremy and Jordan’s quiet murmuring. Alejandro didn’t wake up, which was probably a good thing. Or at least that was what Eden kept telling herself.

The private jet was exactly what one would expect: small, cozy, and decorated with an understated luxury. She hated it. Eden shook her head as she climbed out of the van and went around back to help Taro get Alejandro’s bed out. But she wasn’t going to complain since they no longer had their employer to grease the wheels at the airport and it was really hard to fly into the States with no passport or ID.

Once they had Alejandro settled comfortably into the bed situated in the tail of the plane, Eden gave Jeremy their destination. The property in Montana. Dad bought it ten years ago under a false name, and kept it off the grid. She hoped. Their house in Arizona was no longer an option, so they had to take their chances and hope for the best.

Taro took one look at the plane, sat down in an overstuffed chair and proceeded to fall asleep. She figured he was faking it, but he was entitled. Eden couldn’t sleep. She knew there was unimaginable nightmares waiting and couldn’t bear facing them.

Kaede was dead. Eden had killed her.

Funny how it didn’t get any easier to think those words. She dropped her head into her hands and closed her eyes. Her teammate was dead. And while part of her was curled up in a ball and grieving, a larger part was lost to the building anger. It was a cold, cold feeling rising slowly inside her, spreading through her entire body. Someone was going to bleed for this, for all of it, and soon.

But not yet. “We can’t go rushing in,” she spoke softly. “I’m not even sure if the name Christopher gave me is really the guy responsible. It’s a starting point, but we can’t go rushing off without making sure. I don’t want more innocent blood on my hands.”

She thought back over what Christopher said and gave a short, mirthless laugh. A fucking teeth-whitening company. Of all the bizarre things. But the more she thought about it, the more it made a sick sort of sense. There was no telling how someone went from something so mundane to making zombies, but it would certainly explain why the infection was only passed through bites. The problem was they had more questions than answers right now. Just like always. They had a name that might be the man responsible. They had a company that may or may not be their employer.

Frustrated, Eden pushed to her feet and crossed to the mini fridge. Above it, lined up so nicely, were small bottles of liquid forgetfulness. Perfect. She grabbed three of them and went back to sit down. But once she was there, she could only sit and stare at them.

Jordan’s hand appeared in her field of vision and gathered them up. Eden looked up, frowning at the way her vision went watery.

“I don’t know what to do.” The hole inside her was eating at the edges of her soul. Soon enough there would be nothing of Eden left, only an endless pit of nothingness. Maybe she should stop fighting, should give in. It would be so peaceful, she just knew it.

“Go to him.”

“He’s not even awake.” And she didn’t know if she could stand sitting there, seeing how frail he was now, when he’d always been larger than life to her.

“Just go, Eden.” Jordan leaned back with a groan. “That’s an order.”

She pushed to her feet, stumbling a little, and walked into the back room. Green eyes zeroed in on her as soon as she walked through the door. “
Mi amor
.”

“How long have you been awake?”

“Come sit with me.” He started to sit up and winced.

Eden rushed to the side of the bed. “What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t try to move, you’ll pop your stitches.” And then he’d start bleeding again, and they might not be able to stop it. He could die.

“Where are we?” He looked around. “This looks like no hospital I know.”

Eden followed his gaze, taking in the fancy textured beige wallpaper and thick bedspread. “I know. It’s Jordan’s boyfriend’s jet.” Wow, that came out on the far side of bitter. She cleared her throat and tried again. “How much do you remember?”

He shrugged, closing his eyes. “It does not matter. We are safe now,
no
?”

Maybe so, but not for long. This Mr. Lauren wouldn’t like that one of his teams had gone rogue. “I suppose so.”

“Come here,
querida
. I need to touch you.”

Eden moved to sit on the edge of the cot, taking his hand. Tension she wasn’t aware of eased from her shoulders. Alejandro was alive. “I really do love you, you know that, right?”

He smiled, and she warmed as if the sun had appeared on a rainy day. “
Si
.”

“I don’t know how to do this.” She motioned between them.

“One day at a time,
mi amor
, one day at a time.” He tugged on her hand. “Come, this bed is large enough for the both of us.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “No funny business.”

“Would you take advantage of me in my delicate situation? I think not.” Even as she watched, his eyelids drooped, no doubt losing their battle with the drugs filtering through his system. “Lay with me. Please,
querida
.”

By the time she stretched out next to him, making sure only to touch the hand she held, Alejandro was already asleep. It would be a long time before he was healed enough to do much more than hold hands. But maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that they’d be forced to go slow. Besides, there was more than their relationship to worry about now. Soon it would be time for a hunt, with live prey instead of zombies. This Mr. Lauren and whoever else was responsible the infection deserved to die a horrible death and, this time, she didn’t mind being the one to deliver. After all, she had a promise to a little girl to keep.