C-Vamp: C-Vac Series, #2

By Stephanie Henry

In the nail-biting conclusion to the story that began in C-Vac, Briella’s worst nightmares have come true. First, she was separated from her boyfriend, Trey, and now she keeps losing everyone else she’s ever been close to. To top it all off, since she’s become a C-Vamp herself, she’s her own worst enemy. Now her only friend in the world is the last person she ever would have expected to be there for her.

Jake knows that Briella is his brother’s girl, but there’s something about her that brings out his humanity. Can he protect her from herself, as well as from new enemies, all while keeping his feelings for her at bay?

With Trey’s fate hanging in the balance, will a cure be discovered before it’s too late for not only him, but mankind altogether?

• Language: English
• Publisher: CreateSpace
• Release date: Oct 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781978366879

Book preview

C - V A M P

C-VAMP

Copyright © 2017 by Stephanie Henry.

Edited by Amy McNulty.

Cover designed by Molly Phipps at We Got You Covered.

Formatting by Key of Heart Designs.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distrusted, or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical reviews and certain other non-commercial permitted by copyright law.

This novel is fiction. That means all of its content including: characters, names, places, and brands, are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictional matter. Any similarities to actual people, living or dead, places or events are purely accidental.

For everyone who read C-Vac when it released and not only still supported me after that cliffhanger, but continued to wait patiently for this conclusion.

However long the night… the dawn will break.

— A f r i c a n P r o v e r b

C H A P T E R  1

j a c o b

I walk through the doors and the smell of rubbing alcohol immediately overwhelms my senses. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the stale smell of this hospital. No one pays me any attention as I walk over to the elevators. Everyone goes about their business, oblivious to the C-Vamp walking among them. I could take their lives at any moment, but none of them give me a second glance because they don’t know. Even the secretary in the basement barely acknowledges me anymore. It’s all very routine, my trips down here. She waves me through, unaware of the fact that I can practically see her blood pumping through her veins. I could sink my teeth into her now, draining her bone-dry, and hide her body before anyone ever notices. As tempting as her blood is to me, that’s not why I’m here.

She twirls her dark hair around her finger and chews her gum as she flips through her book with her free hand. I shake my head and ignore the call to feed from her.

Once I’m in the research lab, I sit down with my brother for our weekly chat. He looks worse than normal, and by normal, I mean how he looked last week. He hasn’t actually been normal for quite some time. His face is discolored, his skin is bruised up all over, and he’s lost a lot of weight. His once-vibrant green eyes are dull, lifeless even. These tests are really taking a toll on him.

To be honest, I hate coming here. I’d rather not see him like this at all. I’d rather stay away, while pretending I don’t know what he’s doing. It would make it easier in the end. However, he insists on me coming here to give him updates on Briella ever since she turned into a C-Vamp. I know I’m not the best brother. I’m an ass, but there are limits to even my asshole behavior. I can’t bring myself to deny him this simple request while he’s literally sacrificing himself to save us all. If he needs updates on Briella, then I’ll come here once a week and witness his suffering to keep him updated. Whatever helps get him through this.

You look like shit, I tease with a sly grin in a poor attempt to raise his spirits.

Nice to see you too. He fights back a smile, the ghost of his dimples peeking back at me.

What are they doing this week? I ask, but if I’m being truthful, I’m not certain I want to know.

He shrugs, the motion tiring him, furthering my concern for how he’s coping. Honestly, I started tuning them out when they try to explain anything to me anymore. I got tired of getting my hopes up that this would work or that would work, so I just sit back and let them do what they have to do now. It’s taking longer than I thought it would. He sighs as he runs his fingers through his dark hair with effort.

The bags under his eyes are deep and dark. He’s exhausted. They are killing him. It could take longer than you have, you do realize that, don’t you? I feel like a dick as soon as the words leave my mouth, but I don’t take them back. He needs to hear them.

I’m fine. They’re not killing me. They’re actually pretty… He struggles to find the word. Humane.

Humane doctors? Impossible. I scoff. Looking around the room at all of the equipment, I beg to differ. They cut out his spleen—who knows what they’ll take next? A shiver runs down my spine as my eyes land on a tray holding vials of blood—Trey’s blood.

No, really. We all have the same goal and they need me. They’re not bad people.

Not yet, I want to say, but I swallow the words. It’s no use arguing with him. Trey is determined to see this through, apparently, no matter what the cost may be. But true to myself, I can’t bite my tongue. They’re not bad because they know that you’re sacrificing a hell of a lot more than they are for this mutual goal. Just because they’re nice doesn’t mean they’re not killing you.

He hangs his head down low and then picks it back up a moment later. How is she? He changes the subject to one we can agree on—Briella.

Folding my arms across my chest, I tell him, The same.

He rolls his eyes. I need more than that, Jacob.

I don’t know what to tell him. I never know what to tell him. So I give him some nonsense that he eats up to make him feel better and so that I can get going.

Every second I spend here is one too many. What if they try to take me too?  I don’t trust them or the fact that they say Trey is free to leave of his own free will. He hasn’t attempted to leave and I don’t think they’d really let him walk out of here willingly. The moment he’s no longer viable, they’ll come after me—or Briella even.

She’s adjusting nicely. Won’t be long before she can try to get her job back working in the cafeteria. You really should think about putting on regular clothes next time she’s here instead of this garb.

Trey’s sad eyes narrow on me, and I’m not sure he buys the bullshit I’m feeding him, but he doesn’t say anything more.

What I should say is that he should be home with her himself, then he wouldn’t need my updates at all. He should have never agreed to do these tests in the first place. He should have been there for her when it happened—her turning.

I did the best I could for her, but I’m not Trey. I tried helping her myself, but she was out of control and I was afraid for the first time in a long time. Me, a C-Vamp, afraid of Briella. It sounds ridiculous, but by then she was a far cry from the girl my brother fell for.

Luckily, I had stolen a couple needles full of sedatives while we were at the hospital. They stock them in bulk, so it was easy enough to throw a couple in my pocket with no one the wiser. I figured it could come in handy one day, but I was thinking more in terms of if my parents turned. Regardless, I was glad to have them in my truck at the time. I stuck Briella with one as soon as I got her outside of the bar that day and then I rushed her to the hospital right down to her father’s lab.

I didn’t know what else to do. I knew the sedative would only last a few minutes and then she’d probably flee or hurt someone. I couldn’t risk either one of those scenarios. I knew if anyone was going to help her, it would be her father or Trey.

Her dad had said that if they could get a C-Vamp’s blood vessels to look like Trey’s, then they could go one step further and get Trey’s to look normal again. Evidently, there’s something about C-Vamps’ blood vessels that trigger a brain receptor in a way that makes us crave human blood. But Trey’s and mine are less defective than most, causing us to have more control. When I took Briella into her dad’s lab that day, I knew they didn’t have a cure yet, but I was hoping they’d be close to creating what he was talking about, something that can turn a normal C-Vamp into a semi-controlled one, for Briella’s sake.

I carried her into the hospital and down to the lab, hollering at the receptionist that I had a C-Vamp, while hiding Briella’s face from her view. She let me go without the usual security measures. She didn’t want to risk a C-Vamp waking up and attacking. When I got into the lab, I rushed to the back and placed Briella into one of the open cages.

Lock her up and fast! She’ll be up any second now! I screamed, panicking. The drugs would wear off soon and the girl my brother loves would be one of us, or a monster.

Trey, who appeared weaker with each passing moment, gave me a confused look until it finally dawned on him what was happening. He couldn’t help her; he was too weak from all of the experiments and testing he had undergone.

Briella’s dad rushed to lock her in. His white lab coat was speckled with blood and I wondered if it was my brother’s.

Sure enough, within seconds of him securing the lock, she jumped up, ravenous, rattling the bars and beating on them. A primal scream ripped from her throat. Briella was thirsty and would bite anyone who dared to come close. She was a monster, a walking nightmare.

No, no, no, no, no. Briella’s dad kept repeating the words over and over as he shut the soundproof door. There were tears in his eyes. He was losing the one person who mattered the most to him. The one person he wanted to save. The man, who had always seemed so strong and determined to find a cure, looked at his daughter through the clear door, having lost all ambition. He appeared broken…defeated. I would have felt sorry for him if it weren’t for all the pain he’d put my brother through.

His wide shoulders sagged in despair. Why wasn’t he doing something, anything, to help her?

Trey looked stunned as he ran his hands through his hair, staring in disbelief. This can’t be happening, he muttered more to himself.

Get to work, I growled at them, losing my patience. They needed to get busy. Why was I the only one interested in saving her? Had they given up the fight? I wasn’t going to let them give up on her so easily. I didn’t even know why I cared. Briella wasn’t anything to me but my brother’s girlfriend. Still, something inside me wanted to protect her, save her even. The good I had seen in her with how she cared for my brother—I didn’t want to see her light snuffed out and fading to black.

It’s not that easy. I need time. I have to research and do trial experiments. We don’t have a cure yet. Her father paced the room, wringing his hands.

I looked at her father, who appeared more vulnerable than ever. I snapped at him, fighting the urge to tear into him. My rage was building with every wasted moment. "This is your trial experiment. You don’t need a cure. You just need to turn her blood vessels into something that resembles Trey’s. I heard you say that it’s the first step. You don’t need to cure her. You just need to control her. Hurry up and make it happen or you’re going to lose your daughter forever."

My words struck him hard. The expression on his face changed from defeat to determination.

He jumped to work along with his assistant. They busied themselves with mixing samples and creating new formulas. I sat and waited, determined to stay there until they figured it out.

I wasn’t leaving Briella’s side until they helped her.

C H A P T E R  2

b r i e l l a

One minute I was at a bar drowning my sorrows with Jacob of all people, and the next I found myself in my father’s lab with a thirst like I had never experienced before. In those moments that I vaguely remember all I wanted was to lunge at my father and drink his blood. I wanted to quench my bloodlust.

He was no longer my father. He wasn’t the man who taught me how to ride a bike without training wheels. He wasn’t the man who had cared for me and loved me. He was a means to an end, and I had become what I feared most. I was a C-Vamp. I was like Rachel was for a fleeting moment. It still hurts to think about her. The best friend whom I lost, the one Trey killed to save my life. I miss her and wonder what she would have to say about this. She always had a great sense of humor and could find something good to focus on in the lousiest of situations. Sometimes I wish I were more like her in that way. I never will be though. I’m not even fully myself anymore.

My father hasn’t cured me exactly, but whatever he did to me has helped me gain some control of my urges. I don’t exactly want to attack him, but the bloodlust is still there. It bubbles just under the surface and it’s a constant struggle to urge it down. The disease tries to claw its way out, but I keep fighting to control it and myself.

I only see my