Benjamin Read online

  “Soon, you’ll know what it’s like to really hurt, to lose someone you love.”

  Sabrina felt a chill run up her spine as she closed the door on Mira. What the hell is that supposed to mean? She couldn’t hurt Ben if she claimed to love him.

  ●●●

  Sabrina and Benjamin arrived at the Independence Dude Ranch after lunch. She would join the ladies for their book club meeting while Benjamin met with the men in Corbin’s office.

  Jase began explaining his plan to everyone. “We need to get someone to infiltrate Pickens’ army. This person would need to get into his inner circle of trust, find out what his moves are, and report back to us. This way, we can find his weaknesses.”

  “Are you sure it will work?” Cade asked.

  “It looks good on paper,” Jase replied.

  “There’s no guarantee, but the theory’s perfectly feasible,” Benjamin said. “Pickens knows all of us. We don’t have any vampire friends.”

  “We’ve got a better plan, right?” Corbin asked. “It would take months, years even, to get someone into Pickens’ inner circle.”

  Eloise knocked on the door before poking her head in. “Dinner is ready, guys.”

  “We will be right there, sweetheart,” Corbin said. “We’re not getting anywhere. Let’s go eat.”

  ●●●

  It was 9:30 pm on February 28th, Benjamin’s birthday. Ben had told her how worried his mother had been that he would be born a Leap Year baby. Luckily, he decided that he had waited long enough to meet the world and was born at 11:45 pm. Talk about cutting it close. He said that he enjoyed hearing his mom tell everyone the story each year on his birthday.

  “Are you ready to go to bed now?” Sabrina asked.

  “Sure.”

  She turned the television off. They closed the blinds and Benjamin set the alarm. She went upstairs, knowing he would soon be following her. She tossed her kindle and cellphone onto the bed as she headed to the bathroom as she did every night when they went to bed over the last three years. When they were first mated six years ago, she never read in bed. They had made love on a nightly basis, but something changed in the last three years and she couldn’t figure it out.

  She had gotten into the habit of reading for an hour or two before falling asleep. He, of course, fell asleep right away. Tonight would be different, though. He had made suggestions during the day that they would be making love this evening. It had been months since they had made love.

  She heard Benjamin come into their bedroom and tell their Alexa to set the relaxing sleep music and set the sleep timer. Disappointment washed over her like an ocean wave. She wanted to say something but was afraid of his rejection. Was he bored with her? Was he no longer attracted to her because she was so fat? He said that she wasn’t fat, that she was full of curves.

  Sabrina made excuses as to why there had been no sex since returning from Câmpulung Moldovenesc. In January, he was sick with a sinus infection, in February she had gotten pancreatitis caused by her gallbladder and was hospitalized for a week, and then the doctor put her on bed rest for another week. Then Benjamin had gotten appendicitis. He was working long hours trying to not only run their clan, but also working with others trying to bring Pickens down.

  Today was his birthday. They went out for a nice dinner. They hung out together, basically doing nothing except catching up on their favorite television shows. So why did he get ready for bed? He kissed her goodnight and crawled into bed. Sadness and a bit of loneliness filled her. She kept looking at him. She grabbed her kindle to read a book from one of her favorite authors. She skipped over the sex scenes. It was hard to read about sex right now. Well, maybe he was too tired and they would make love in the morning.

  The morning had come and gone. She fixed a small breakfast for them. Then he went out to clean up the yard. Winter snows had melted, and there was a lot of debris that needed to be cleared up to be ready for spring planting. It was now midafternoon. He had to be at another meeting by 4:00 pm and wouldn’t be back until after midnight— another weekend of no lovemaking.

  What was she doing wrong? Why had he lost interest in her? All her old self-doubts crept back into her mind. She was useless, just like her father said all her life. They had no children. Her dogs were her only companions for most of her days. Sabrina had friends, but this was not something she could bring herself to talk about with them. They were all happily mated. Benjamin mated her for political reasons, she knew that, but she had thought that he was growing to love her as much as she loved him. If only the mating bond would completely form. Sabrina could sense where he was and communicate through the mating bond, but that was it. She couldn’t tell what Benjamin was thinking or feeling. Of all the things she felt, she feared he’d reject her once and for all.

  There was no way Sabrina could talk to Henrietta about this, either. Sabrina had to keep the impression of them being a happily mated couple. Benjamin was alpha and couldn’t be seen as weak. Her mother wouldn’t understand. When Sabrina was twelve and had her first period, they were on a camping trip. She had opened her sleeping bag and saw it was full of blood; she thought she was dying. Her mother took her to the bathroom and helped her clean up while Conrad went to the nearest market to buy sanitary napkins. Henrietta told her that this would happen once a month for the rest of her life. When they got back home from their trip, Henrietta bought a set of books titled The Lifecycle Library and told her to read it. Yes, that was Sabrina’s whole talk about the birds and the bees.

  ●●●

  “WHERE ARE YOU?” Scott shouted.

  She froze. The outrage in his voice frightened her. She needed to leave. Escape. Her body lurched into the darkness before twisting to lock the door behind her. The pounding of his footsteps made her feel so helpless. Her body slid to the cold planks beneath her, wracked with pain. Her bruised chest and stomach blended into the dark. Tears welled in her eyes, flowing against her wishes. Holding everything in had become second nature— but too many storms can burst any dam.

  “Baby?” Scott asked.

  Her hands clamped tightly over her quivering mouth as fists pounded on the other side of the door. If she squeezed her eyes shut and whispered a prayer, maybe she would wake up.

  “Please, God, can I just wake up?” Sabrina whispered.

  “I know you're in there, baby. Open the door,” Scott said, trying to coax her out.

  Silence.

  “Baby, please. I'm so sorry I hurt you,” Scott pleaded.

  Her head perked up. Was he sorry?

  “You disobeyed me and broke several rules. I told you never to speak in public without my permission, and you did anyway, even if it was a slip-up. When that store clerked smirked at you, and you smiled back, I knew something was going on between you two behind my back so forgive me for being infuriated. Now, if you don't open this door on the count of three, I will knock it down and what happens to you after that...” Scott said.

  He didn't dare finish the rest of that sentence. Sabrina’s eyes widened and she sprung up and then darted to the window at the far side of the room.

  “3...”

  “2...”

  “1...”

  A searing shot of pain ran up Sabrina’s body, a scream escaping her pale lips as the devastating sounds bounced off the living room walls. Scott sat opposite a weeping Sabrina, an iron fire poker by his side. His hands were firmly clasped under his chin, a gleeful grin stretched across his face. He was handsome, yes, but his charm had long gone. His black hair was long and unruly, and dark circles outlined his bloodshot blue eyes.

  Scott didn’t seem at all bothered by the screams that came from his victim. If anything, he seemed amused by her pain. His stony eyes stared down at the twitching body before him as if he were inspecting a freshly plucked turkey, all ready to go into the oven. The flames that licked up the sides of the fireplace reflected off the beads of sweat that had settled on Sabrina’s forehead.

  Her agony was his entertai
nment.

  After a time, her screams had subsided, and her tormentor had grown bored with her silence. Sending a single kick to her stomach, Scott stood and left, but not without giving one last, lingering glance to the woman he claimed to love.

  Sabrina woke with a scream stuck in her throat. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins; if she could just curl up into a ball, she wouldn’t have to face real life, she’d be protected from everything around her.

  But she’d still have to live with herself, with the tormented memories swirling around in her head. Her eyes, already red and puffy from crying, squeezed shut to push more tears out. She let her head fall onto her knees and she pulled her legs closer to her. No matter what she did, there was nowhere she could hide from the thoughts in her head.

  Glancing around the bedroom, Sabrina noticed that Benjamin was not in bed and that the sun was shining. He must have left for work. She slowly made her way into the bathroom for a long soak in the tub. As she relaxed in the bathtub, her thoughts wandered among the stars.

  Emotional pain flowed out of her every pore. Sabrina couldn’t take it anymore. A lone tear involuntarily slid down her cheek, and just like that, the floodgates opened. Salty drops fell, so many tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. Her chin trembled as if she was a small child. Her eyes became glacier blue under the sheen of water, constant, yet allowing the tears to flow without pause.

  Her lungs screamed for oxygen. She started gasping over and over, yelling, ‘get ahold of yourself’ in her head. She breathed heavier than she ever had before. She was gasping for air that simply wasn’t there. Her throat burned as she tried to form a silent scream. Her body was wracked with great sobs, and she shook like a leaf. She couldn’t stop.

  It was raw, everything, fresh tears, raw emotions like the pain was still an open wound. The sound of her sobs filled the air. I can’t stop... I can’t stop. Why can I not stop crying?

  Chapter 5

  Pickens never liked even odds. Playing fair was for idiots. His army was seven hundred strong, but the shifters were only three-hundred-fifty strong. He placed his army in strategic positions, each with a different weapon, and waited. He wouldn’t take part himself; he was more of an order giver.

  “A shifter is the most unfit person on Earth,” Vincent Raileanu said.

  “In the morning, take a mounted patrol of thirty men for reconnaissance,” Pickens said.

  Pickens’ militia had been gathering a stock of weapons and supplies at Leadville, as well as an even more considerable amount in Aspen. This had the unforeseen effect of alarming many residents of the towns and increasing their preparedness. Word reached Corbin and he instructed the people of the cities to remove the weapons and supplies and distribute them among all the nearby shifter camps and towns.

  ●●●

  Holding the police deputy of the town of Independence at gunpoint, Vincent ordered him to show him where the guns were buried.

  “Please, don’t kill me!” the deputy cried. “We stored weapons in the basement of the town hall.”

  The locals were able to misdirect searches from several caches of supplies. Many of the businesses in town had hidden supplies in their basements or attics. Corbin had told the residents that if the mercenaries came, they were to give up the town hall location as it would be the most logical place to store the weapons and other supplies.

  “You four go check,” Vincent ordered. “You better not have lied to me, deputy, or I will kill you where you stand.”

  The mercenaries broke down the door to the town hall and made their way into the basement. They discovered the weapons, smashing grenades and burning guns.

  Unfortunately, Corbin and the locals hadn’t counted on fire, and the Independence town hall soon was ablaze.

  Vincent ordered a small group of mercenaries to attack the Independence Dude Ranch located a mile from the town. He had others searching the woods for hidden ammunition and shifters. Some mercenaries were also guarding the only entrance to the town of Independence to ensure no vehicles wandered in off the highway.

  Shots rang out, and the four mercenaries that set fire to the town hall were killed. As more shots were fired, even more of Pickens’ army were shot and killed. Several others fired immediately after that, shots splashing in the nearby stream as well as into the shifters. Four more men were wounded, the remaining mercenaries in town tried as best as they could to take out the shifters.

  “Fire, for God’s sake,” shouted Vincent.

  Three shifters were wounded by the shower of bullets coming from the mercenaries. Vincent regained control over the army by pulling the divided forces back together. Knowing that they would soon be outnumbered, he had them gather the dead and wounded, then moved them back to Gilman where the dead would be buried and the wounded healed. Vincent knew they would have to come back with a bigger attack force next time.

  Corbin saw Vincent and his mercenaries fleeing. Now was time to call for the healers and put out the fire that hopped from the town hall to a few of the surrounding businesses. The shifters picked up their wounded and fled to the safety of the basement below the medical building in the town of Independence. The shifters were stunned by the attack. It was the most brutal attack so far.

  As the healers did their work, Corbin, Cade, and Jase sat in another room discussing the events and strategies.

  “I believe we could have killed almost everyone there was,” Cade said.

  “They’re not afraid to go, even without the proper training in combat. We have been fighting these little battles for over five years now,” Jase said.

  “It’s time we brought this to Pickens and finish it once and for all,” Corbin said.

  “We will need to get Benjamin and his clan to join us. Maybe Sabrina can talk to her father and get them to join us in the war,” Cade said.

  “We have nearly five-hundred shifters that have pledged to join us. They understand that if Pickens wins and gets the molybdenum mine, he will be unstoppable in creating his super-soldiers,” Jase said.

  “If he does succeed in creating his super-soldiers, that will be the end of shifters and other paranormals throughout the world. We cannot let that happen,” Corbin said.

  ●●●

  The old town of Gilman, Colorado is a ghost town that sits atop Battle Mountain overlooking Eagle Gulch. It was the perfect location for Pickens to set up his base and only an hour and a half drive to Independence. For close to a century, mining operations poured so many toxic pollutants into the ecosystem that the EPA declared the area off-limits. It made the perfect location for Pickens, his laboratory, and army to stay. Today, weeds pushed up through the gravel between the railroad ties and boulders had tumbled onto the old, unused rusting railroad track that once hauled ore from the Eagle and Belden mines.

  Massive amounts of gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, and lead were excavated before the mines were abandoned. Pickens had his geological team search for molybdenum in the mines when he first discovered the area, but there wasn’t any. The only location that had any in the Rocky Mountains was the mine in the town of Independence.

  Hidden cameras surveyed the grounds, the perimeter. The security force was dedicated. No laboratories were accessible to ordinary vampires and mercenaries.

  The new military arsenal Pickens set up had a war room for strategic planning and a military-like hospital. It was well-provided with laboratories. Today, not only have these scientists identified hundreds of forms or species of shifters, but knowledge of their biology was so comprehensive that Pickens had his entire laboratories equipped for their study and vast libraries devoted solely to this subject.

  A staff of one hundred lived and worked within these walls, assisting in experiments. In rooms that had once held patients, new super-soldiers were resting after their injections. These super-soldiers were once men but now had molybdenum in their veins. The doors were kept locked as they needed to be restrained while
being studied. There had been little success so far. The doctors were still trying to find the right balance of molybdenum to make them durable, but so far, they had only lasted a few days before their bodies disintegrated. Soon, they would be immune to diseases and able to heal rapidly.

  Pickens remembered what Doctor Carter Scheele said about his experiments.

  “The precise genetic transformation of specific human genes will give these soldiers distinct advantages on the battlefield, bringing about the most amazing abilities and performances. Shrouded in mystery, these new shifters will make future wars completely new playing fields.

  “Smarter, faster, more focused, and physically stronger than the enemy. These soldiers will be capable of telepathy, will run faster than any animal, lift record-breaking weights, possess a super-strong immune system, and will be able to go for a week without food, water, or sleep.

  “Then there’s the emotional side. These soldiers will have their empathy genes deleted and show no mercy while devoid of fear. Shifter DNA can make it all work.

  “Genetic alteration is the direct handling of an organism’s DNA. A set of technologies used to change shifter genetics, including the transfer of genes within and across shifters and humans to produce improved organisms. In simple terms, we should be able to isolate the regeneration genes from shifters and inject them into our super-soldiers.

  “So, with molybdenum and shifter DNA, we will be unstoppable.”

  The laboratory rooms were glass, stainless steel, and white ceramic tiles, making them easy to sterilize if things got… messy. Dr. Carter Scheele remained in his lab, cleaning up the remnants of his latest scientific adventures. The lab was a disaster with glass covering the floor and counters flipped on end.

  The new doctor had the posture of a soldier. Doctor Mavis Leif began her medical studies at uliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 1591. It was the oldest medical education institution in Transylvania. While there, she met Pickens and was gleefully turned into a vampire herself. Every action she took was meticulous and purposeful to avoid disasters. She smiled coldly and distantly as professionals do. Her eyes were devoid of any make-up, and her hair was in a tight bun, not a strand out of place. Through the examination, she gave commands rather than requests.