Secrets [5] Echoes: Part One by A.M Hudson Read Free Book Online Page A

moving my shoulders upward.
    “Precisely. You’re not designed to shoot them. You’re a whole different kind of negative energy to the vampire’s positive. Like nothing we can measure with today’s technology. But I liken your power a little to Anvil Crawlers at this point. My theory may change.”
    “Okay,” I said slowly, wondering where he was going with this. “So, you’re saying I was born to shoot vamps.”
    “Something like that.”
    “What am I then, some kind of vampire hunter?”
    “No. Even better. I think I was right.” He wagged his finger at me, as if some vital piece of the puzzle was about to come together. “I think your light is the key to turning vampires back to humans.”
    “How?”
    “That’s … that’s the part I haven’t figured out yet. But,” he added with another flick of his finger. “I may have a theory. It’s a long-shot, but I’ll need venom for it— your venom.”
    “Why?” I pressed my thumb to my fang.
    “Because I think that, while Lilithians you personally create can kill a vampire, only your venom can really do what I think it can do.”
    I rolled my eyes. “You’re not going to tell me until your theory’s complete, are you?”
    He shook his head, grinning impishly.
    “Okay, so you need me to sign off on a supply of my venom?”
    “If you could.”
    “Sure. Where’s the paperwork?”
    He handed me the rolled-up sheets by the keyboard.
    I grabbed a pen from the pencil pot but paused over the dotted line. “Jase?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What was with the shipment of human men I saw walking in here the other day?” I looked over at the observation room; the curtains were drawn but the lights were on. “Did you kill them?”
    “No.” He pulled up a chair and sat down again. “I … need them.”
    “What for?”
    “I’m going to turn them all into vampires and try to cure them.”
    “What?” I put the pen down. “Then what’s my venom for? To kill them if you fail?”
    “No. It’s for the cure.”
    “Jase?”
    “Look, don’t make me explain it now—it’ll ruin the surprise if I’m right. Just—” He took my hand. “Trust me?”
    “And what if it doesn’t work?” I motioned to the observation room. “What if you can’t turn them back, or if you kill them in the process?”
    “Well, if I can’t turn them back, I will kill them.”
    “Jase, you can’t—”
    “Relax, Ara, no one will miss them.”
    I stood up, shoving the wheelie chair back way too far. “Why, because they’re homeless or something?”
    “No, no, Ara, of course not.” He jumped up, too, reassuring me with a steady pair of hands to my arms. “They’re criminals—convicted and sentenced criminals.”
    “So, what, you just plucked them from the prison?”
    “No.” He looked over his shoulder. “I snatched them after they’d done their time.”
    “Jase, that’s not fair. They—”
    “They’re convicted child sex offenders, Ara,” he said dully, and I shut up. “I figure I’m doing the world a favour.”
    “Oh … okay.” My lips sat slightly apart, my head moving in a nod. “Well, in that case, go ahead and kill them. But …”
    “But?”
    “What if we succeed? What if we actually turn them human again? You won’t just put them back out there in society, will you?”
    “No. I’ll snap their necks,” he said with a casual shrug. “Or, better yet, feed them to the Damned.”
    “Now that is poetic justice.” I grinned and grabbed the pen to sign that venom order. “There is just one thing, though.”
    “Which is?”
    I put the pen down again and turned to face Jason, propping my hands on my hips. “How do you turn them into vampires?”
    “How?” he repeated as if he wasn’t sure about my question.
    “Don’t play dumb with me, Jason Gabriel Knight. I want the secret, now, or I’m not signing this.”
    He looked at the paper, then at me, and his eyes narrowed.
    “I’ve got you by the proverbial balls now, Jase. You have to tell