Memory Zero Read Online Free Page B

skin.
    Jack was behind her. And this time, he felt wrong in a way she couldn’t even begin to explain.
    Slowly, warily, she picked up her weapon and turned around. He stood ten feet away. Blood ran from the wound in his thigh, gleaming darkly against his rain-soaked jeans. Fear swept her again. On a night like this she shouldn’t be able to even see the blood.
    She flicked off the auto safety catch and pointed the gun at him. “I have to take you back. You know I do.”
    He didn’t smile. Didn’t do much of anything, really. “Can’t. Kill if you want.”
    She didn’t pull the trigger. Nor did she lower her weapon. “Why did you really call me here tonight?”
    “To join.”
    The sense of wrongness was growing. And why was he speaking like that? Like he’d suddenly lost all capability of speech? Surely it couldn’t be from blood loss—if the wound in his leg was
that
bad, he wouldn’t have been standing on it, vampire or not.
    “And that thing you were with? Did it kill the old man?”
    He lowered his gaze, but not before she’d seen a brief flash of amusement. A chill ran down her spine. Jack had watched that thing strip the old man of his humanity. Had enjoyed it.
    “Dreg. Didn’t matter.” His gaze flashed up again, cold and hungry. If there was any humanity left in her partner, it quickly fled as the vampire rose fully to the surface.
    “Sorry,” he continued. “We were good.”
    Were. Not are
. She swallowed. It didn’t ease the aching dryness in her throat. “Don’t move, Jack. This time I’ll shoot to kill.”
    His laugh was a low, almost inhuman, sound. It wasn’t the laugh of the Jack she knew. It was the laugh of a stranger. “Wait for help to arrive?”
    Sweat trickled down her back, and her palms felt slick against the cool metal of the gun. “That’s my plan, yes.”
    “Not mine.” He flashed a familiar smile, all confidence and teeth.
    Too many teeth, in fact.
    The vampire was getting ready to feed.
    “
Don’t
make me kill you,” she warned softly.
Please don’t
.
    The sudden ferocity in his eyes made her take a step back. Even as she did so, he leapt.
    Jack had once told her the best way to kill a vampire was to blow its fucking head off.
    So that’s exactly what she did.

G ABRIEL S TERN LEANED A SHOULDER against the wall and watched dawn color the sky a bright, almost bloody red. The rising sun played across his face and arms, pleasant and warm. But if the gathering clouds were anything to go by, it was going to be a bitch of a day. God, he hated Melbourne in winter.
    He crossed his arms and studied the stark white building across the street. Situated on the western edge of the central business district, close to the law courts, the building housed both the State Police and the Special Investigations Unit. With the precision of ants, men and women clad in the stark black of the State Police moved in and out of the building—a tide that was occasionally interspersed by the dark gray favored by the SIU. As yet, there was no sign of the woman whose life he’d saved last night.
    “It may be hours before she gets back. You know what the cops are like when one of their own gets shot.”
    The voice rose like a demon out of the darkness,setting his teeth on edge. Gabriel turned from the window. Though it was still dark in the small office, he could see the old desk, chairs and recording units well enough. Martyn stood in the deeper shadows of the far corner, idly sipping a bottle of dark fluid.
    Gabriel’s stomach rumbled a reminder that he hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to ignore it. “I want the SIU called in on this. Me, specifically.”
    Martyn’s smile was fleeting. “That has been arranged.”
    A fact Gabriel knew, simply because he’d started the arrangements earlier. Still, there was protocol to follow if he didn’t want too many suspicions raised. And, technically speaking, Martyn was supposedly his one and