“Hurry!” Elliot hissed to the others, and they trotted by into the trees. “How are you feeling now?”

“I’m fine, Dad, stop fussing. She’s not heavy.”

Elliot eyed the senseless vampire draped over his daughter’s shoulder sceptically. It looked very wrong the way she so casually carried the vampire; like a child carrying an adult. She was petite and looked too small to be this strong, but it was damned convenient, and he was thankful that knocking Chani out had not affected her at all. He didn’t understand their bond, but he believed in its power. He’d known almost from the first that killing Chani had been out of the question even if he had managed to summon the courage to try. It would have killed Susan too, but the bond was not an equal sharing. Susan’s death would not kill Chani, for example, though it apparently would have weakened her and hurt emotionally. He wasn’t sure about that last part. He had seen scant emotion on Arcadian’s face when he stabbed Morgan in the chest, but absent other data, he was willing to take it on faith for now. The inequality had suggested to him that there were loopholes in the bond and that they could be exploited. Loopholes such as the one he’d used to incapacitate Chani. It meant not only was short-term freedom possible, but that ultimate escape was as well. It meant he could control the vampire, keeping her alive while he found a way to free his daughter of her reliance upon the bond. It meant her eventual return to full humanity was feasible. She did not have to endure stasis, this unending half-life he had condemned her to when he shackled her to the vampire she carried.

“Let’s get out of here. I can’t hear the fighting anymore, but—”

“I can,” Susan said. “They’re killing everyone.”

He shivered and not at the thought of the slaughter back at the house. They deserved their deaths, most of them. He felt sorry for the specimens downstairs, but even they had to die. They were unnatural creations. More unnatural than any undead to have gone before them. At least Chani and others like her were true to their natures. The abominations he had helped Jennifer create were something new and dangerous. No, it wasn’t the thought of the slaughter that made him uneasy. It was the changes in his daughter. She was stronger, faster, and more... more… just more. That she could hear the fighting at such a distance was proof of profound changes. Would he be able to sever the bond? If he did, would she truly return to her previous state, or be stuck at some point in between?

He shook his head. “The others are getting away from us. Let’s try to catch up.”

“I hear them too. They’re not far ahead.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Susan led the way quickly into the trees, but slowed to allow him to keep up. He was puffing and gasping for breath. He was out of condition. Too much sitting at a desk he suspected. Her concern made him consider lightening his load, but the samples and data the case contained was too precious to discard. The research had been loathsome, but the computer and blood samples represented almost two years of his life. Jennifer was right when she’d said to him that knowledge itself wasn’t evil, but that its applications could be in the wrong hands. The Arcadian’s hands were definitely the wrong ones. Besides, he might need to refer to it when he tackled his daughter’s bond with Chani.

Susan abruptly stopped and swayed. The vampire slipped from her shoulder and thumped to the ground. “Daddy?” she said plaintively and crashed face first upon the earth in a dead faint.

“Susan!”

Black clad forms abruptly appeared out of the trees carrying lethal looking automatic weapons, and wearing night vision goggles on blackened faces. Two men dragged him back when he tried to reach Susan and Chani. More men hurried forward with heavy looking rune engraved manacles, and efficiently shackled them at wrist and ankle. Thick chains connected the runecuffs to the wide silver bands around their ankles. One of them men aimed a gun and shot Susan in the leg. He did the same a moment later to Chani.

“Professor Massey?” One man said, pulling off his goggles to reveal his face a little better. “I’ll be taking that if you don’t mind.”

Elliot relinquished his burden, not caring in the least. His eyes were all for Susan.

“The drug will keep them docile, but no more than that,” the man said looking back as his men lifted the two woman and carried them away. “They’ll be fine for now.”

“This is an outrage!” he blustered.

“Hmmm,” the man looked disappointed. “My name is Barrows, Agent Barrows, and what I find outrageous is a man such as yourself having the boldfaced effrontery to react this way when at the very least he should be charged with terrorism, and at worst crimes against humanity. Genocide, Professor, you’ve heard the term I’m sure. Your work for the Arcadian equates to little more than that. The charges rate the death sentence if convicted, but I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say that this incident will never become public. Lucky you. No trial.”

“What are you going to do with us?”

“You’ve begun to understand your position now have you? How truly good. What am I going to do with you? Well, that depends upon you doesn’t it? Come along, I don’t want to keep all the others waiting.”

Elliot stumbled along behind Barrows. His men kept a firm grip upon his arms, but they needn’t have bothered. He would have followed them without the need of force. They had Susan and Chani.

They exited the trees, crossed an empty road to the opposite side, and marched him up to the back of a black van like the police sometimes used. It looked armoured like those he had seen on the news, but it was plain black and didn’t have the usual SMT markings. He didn’t think this one belonged to the police. The doors were open and waiting to receive him. Jennifer and the rest of his colleagues were already sitting inside looking frightened. They were under guard by well-armed men wearing military uniform. His heart sank when he realised he had escaped one trap only to fall into another.

The military was about to become his new paymaster… if they even cared enough for the niceties to do that.

“Well, here we all are,” Barrows said cheerfully, as Elliot climbed up into the van to join the others. Barrows handed the case containing the precious research to one of the soldiers sitting near the doors. “I’ll be leaving you now, but we’ll see each other again at debriefing. A little bit of advice. Think very hard about how you can be useful to your government. I assure you, that your lives do depend upon it. Who knows, in a few years you might even be allowed out on your own again!” He let the false cheer drop from his voice and face. “Get these idiots out of my sight!”

The van doors slammed closed.