Neon Blood (Neon Helix Universe Book 3) Read online

  Julian

  The sound of footsteps were the first thing Julian acknowledged, then came muffled voices echoing around the room though he couldn't make out any words. He managed to move his eyes, opening them slowly as a glimpse of light burned his retinas.

  "About time," a voice said as footsteps moved closer to him.

  "What have you done to him?" a male voice this time, something recognisable, but he couldn't be sure from where.

  Julian slowly became aware of a dull numbness in his arms and an ache in his shoulders. His head was hanging down, his chin against his chest. He tried to lift it, but his neck ached with the strain. Trying to focus his eyes again, they started adjusting to the harsh light.

  "I've just set things in motion, the match to the fuse, so to speak," the woman said.

  Julian squinted. His sight was coming back now, and he could see Persephone stood just before him; someone else was stood beside her, his face in shadow.

  "Let him go. This is between you and me!" The man stepped forwards, and Julian realised it was Prime. He tried to move his arms, but instead, his body swung slightly as he discovered he was hanging from a rope. His hands tied together above his head.

  "Prime?" he managed to whisper, a dryness in his throat causing him to choke on the word. The movement of his mouth caused the cuts from the smashed glass on his skin to reopen, and pain stung his face.

  "Julian? Are you okay?" Prime moved directly into his line of sight.

  "Arms… can't feel them," he swallowed.

  "I know, I'll get you out of this. I'm sorry."

  "Don't make promises you can't keep Prime," Persephone came forward. "It's a shame really, Julian was such an integral part of our lives."

  Prime reached forwards, moving to help Julian down.

  "Ah, ah, ah!" Persephone put one hand on Prime's shoulder. In her other hand, a small ornate dagger was held up to Julian's throat. "If you so much as move any closer, I'll slit his throat open right now."

  Prime backed away, his eyes locked with Persephone's.

  "That's better."

  "What is it you want?" Prime pleaded.

  "Simple, I want you to kill Julian. I want you to finally succumb to those desires that I know are bubbling beneath the surface. Peter was a killer, and he is inside your mind. I know it. I can feel it! I want you to release him."

  "That's what all this is about?" Prime laughed. "Peter isn't inside me; he's in you! He transferred his mind to you just before he died. If he's anywhere, it's in you!"

  "Oh no, no, no, Prime. He made a connection with you as well, I remember. He moved his thoughts to us both just before he died. To begin with, I was him, his full memories in my mind, but you brought the building down with me still inside. I was caught in the destruction," Persephone moved her hair aside, revealing a deep scar that ran across her scalp.

  "Head trauma?" Prime looked at the scar that ran from one temple and up along Persephone's scalp.

  "Something broke inside my mind, twisting Peter's memories, making me something, someone, else."

  "So you want me to become Peter? Why?"

  "To finish what we were made to do, Prime. To run this city, just as Peter always wanted." Persephone smiled, her black lips tight in a smile.

  "You're…crazy…" Julian whispered. He had been listening to the conversation and could hardly believe what he was hearing.

  "Kill him, Prime," Persephone turned to look at Julian, anger flashing in her eyes. "If you don't, then you leave me no choice."

  "I won't kill him; you need help. We can get it for you. We can return you back to what you were, to be your own person. It's what Peter would want. He is still in here," Prime tapped his temple, "I can hear him speaking to me. He's telling me to stop you."

  Persephone stared at Prime, looking into his eyes as if she saw Peter deep within them.

  "Have it your way, I warned you," Persephone spoke, her voice calm and low. Her hand shot out, grabbing Julian's neck. Her fingers wrapped around his throat and beginning to squeeze.

  Julian could feel the grip on his windpipe cause it to close, he was already weak, and the adrenaline in his veins did little to help him. He could see Prime frantically pulling at Persephone's fingers, but her grip was firm, the pressure gradually increasing. His eyes looked up at Prime, locking with his as his vision began to fade with a dark cloud around the periphery. He couldn't speak but tried to say that it was okay, that it wasn't Prime's fault. He hoped Prime understood.

  The sound of a crack rang through Julian's skull. He couldn't understand where it had come from. Was it a gunshot? Was someone here to save them? He tried to focus his vision and fight away from black clouds forming deeper across his eyes. He could see Persephone still holding him, Prime doing all he could to move her, but her grip remained intact. The feeling of pain became numbness that shot down his body, and he realised that crack hadn't been a gunshot but the bones of his neck fracturing under the pressure. The clouds covered his sight completely. He saw nothing and felt nothing. Funny, I always thought that when I died, it would be more dramatic.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bella

  Bella had managed to drag herself across the floor of the warehouse with one hand. The bullet wound on her side was weeping blood, leaving a crimson trail behind her, as each movement caused blood to seep through the other hand. Looking over, she saw Hammerfist still curled up on the ground. Her kick had knocked him out cold, possibly causing long-term damage. She had not held back. Taking short sharp breaths, which caused pain to shoot through her body, she ripped off a sleeve and used the fabric to create a make-shift bandage. Taping her PDA, she used the BioStim that was contained inside it to flood her body with chemicals, the pain subsiding slightly as they entered her bloodstream, but it didn’t stop the wound bleeding.

  “Where's a damn Bio-Tape when you need one,” she hissed as she propped herself up, trying to get to her feet.

  Looking around for anything to support her, she began to hobble through the warehouse. She needed to find Reilly, or Prime, whoever he was. She wanted answers for what was happening, bullet wound be damned. As she stumbled, the pain started to seep back through the numbness of the chemicals. Having moved out of the light, she was in almost complete darkness when the sound of raised voices echoed from ahead of her,

  The warehouse itself slowly revealed itself as her eyes adjusted to the light. Along each side of the path she could make out what appeared to be large machines on each side. The engines were dormant but looked clean, as though they were recently installed, each with a small satellite disc atop them. She moved further along towards the source of the sounds as she saw a door. Testing the handle it opened and from the other side, she could make out the voices of Prime and Persephone. They were arguing about something. Moving quietly, fighting the pain, she made her way into the room. Keeping to the shadows, she managed to get closer and saw another man hanging from a rope in front of the others.

  What on earth, before her thought finished, Persephone had grabbed the man by the throat and was squeezing.

  Bella considered her options. She was in no position to fight Persephone, even if she wanted to. She couldn’t not act though, moving forward, she fought against the pain that was getting more intense. Glancing down, she saw her makeshift bandage was now dripping with her blood. It was doing nothing to stem the bleeding, and her PDA indicated it had run out of BioStims. Regardless, she forced herself to focus, and took a step. Then the crack echoed across the room, it sounded like a twig snapping underfoot, but Bella knew what it meant. The man’s neck had been broken, his head hung limp against Persephone’s hand now, like a plucked flower. There was nothing she could do. She’d be risking herself for nothing by acting now. Her best option was to get away before Persephone saw her, while she was still distracted by Reilly.

  Turning back, she made her way through the door, and several steps in, she dropped to her knees. Pulling the bandage away, she looked at the wound, her own s
enses beginning to fade as her eyesight clouded over.

  “Shit,” she said, as her body fell to the side and hit the cold concrete of the warehouse floor. The cold stone felt good against her face, almost soothing.

  Her vision had gone, but she could barely hear Persephone talking to Reilly, followed by the high-pitched footsteps of Persephone’s heels as she walked away. Bella took a breath. She just needed a minute to recover. Barely conscious, she heard footsteps come towards her. It took all her effort to open her eyes and try to clear the cloud, fearing that she had been discovered. A pair of shoes came into view through the pinpoint of vision she had. Standing just ahead of her, she could see a couple of dirty black combat boots. Then the body crouched down, a hand touching her chest where the wound was still weeping blood. The hand held something which seemed to warm her skin immediately. A MediStim.

  “For fucks sake, Bella, what you got involved in now!” a man cured, it was a friendly voice that she recognised. Then she felt arms picking her up, one behind her neck and the other under her legs, before she finally lost consciousness altogether.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Prime

  Prime had been helpless to stop her.

  Persephone had stared him in the eye as she had taken Julian’s life, watching for a sign that Peter was inside hiding underneath the surface.

  I told you that you should have let me take over!

  Julian’s body hung limply from the rope which still held his arms above him. His head dropped forward between his shoulders.

  “Why? What’s the point of all this?”

  “I warned you. You’ve forced my hand Prime,” Persephone said, still holding his eye.

  Kill her!

  Prime glanced at the body of Julian, then back at Persephone. He lunged forwards, trying to strike. Instead, he got a cut to his cheek from Persephone’s blade as she leaned back and sliced upwards.

  “You’re just not fast enough, Prime. There’s something lacking in you. It’s no wonder you were just thrown in with the rest of us at the hotel. There’s nothing special about you.” She struck again. This time Prime moved out of the path of the blade, grabbing her wrist and twisting it until she dropped the dagger.

  “And you’re nothing more than a loose end, a spare part that should have died along with the rest of your brothers and sisters,” Prime hissed at her.

  “There he is!” Persephone smiled, seeing the flare of anger that arose from Prime.

  “No, this is just me.”

  Stop talking and just kill her!

  Prime threw a punch, but she avoided the strike with ease.

  “You have no idea what’s coming Prime, you could have been a part of it, by my side, but you’ve sealed your fate,” she scowled at him.

  From behind Prime, a metallic fist smashed into his skull, throwing him to the ground as stars twinkled in his vision. Putting a hand to the floor, he tried to get to his feet, but nausea ran through him, and he slipped back down.

  Get up, Prime!

  Prime looked up and saw Hammerfist stood above him.

  “That felt good,” he mocked, flexing his arm before kicking Prime across the face. The impact connected with his jaw and split his lip as he rolled across the floor and lay still, dazed and bloody.

  “Come along, Frazier, we’ve done everything we needed to do here,” Persephone waved Hammerfist to follow her.

  Prime reached out in a futile attempt to stop them, but he had no strength, his fingers grasping at air.

  By the time he had enough energy to stand, they had left the warehouse. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to chase after them. His head was still spinning from the impact.

  You’re probably concussed, don’t move too sharply. The voice was soft, almost caring.

  Prime moved slowly to look at Julian. The limp body was still hanging from the ropes. He needed to get him down. It wasn’t right to leave him there.

  Prime picked up the blade Persephone had left on the ground and began to cut away at the ropes that held Julian up. He was almost through the bindings when a door smashed open from behind him.

  “Prime?” Ally shouted out, seeing him standing in front of Julian's body, the knife in his hand.

  “What’s going on?” Quartzig said, coming into the room behind Ally.

  “Ally? Quartzig? Thank god you’re here!”

  They walked closer, getting a better view of the body hanging there, the head still hanging low, obscuring the face as Prime’s bloodied face stared at them.

  “Who is that?” Ally said, fear creeping into her voice as recognition filled her eyes. “What have you done, Prime?”

  “What? No, this wasn’t me! I…It’s…I’m so sorry, I tried to stop her,” Prime slowly realised how the scene looked.

  “Julian?” Quartzig said, his head tilting to one side, using his technology to analyse the hanging body. “He’s…he’s dead.”

  “Let me explain,” Prime took a step forward.

  “Don’t fucking move,” Ally flexed the grip on her staff causing her knuckles turning white.

  “Wait, please, let me explain,” Prime raised his arms up, the blade still in his hand.

  “I…I don’t understand, he’s dead.” Quartzig continued to stare at Julian's body, walking up to it.

  “Who did this?” Ally said, trying to understand the situation, seemingly given Prime some benefit of the doubt.

  “Persephone, the clone from the Fall, it wasn’t me,” Prime tried to explain as fast as he could.

  I think you should put the knife down, Prime. This isn’t going to go well.

  Quartzig had reached the body, doing a complete scan of the wounds. Pulling Julian's shirt away slightly, he revealed markings carved into his chest, ‘12357121.’

  The knife clattered to the ground. Quartzig moved towards it and picked it up, scanning it.

  “The knife…it matches the blade that was used for the markings,” Quartzig’s voice had become emotionless, losing the sense of innocence he had developed over time, returning to pure mathematical processes. “There are hand marks on the neck. I can pull fingerprints from them,” his eyes jerked sharply in their sockets as they worked. “They match Primes.”

  Ally gasped, trying to take a breath.

  “It wasn’t me! It was Persephone,! She’s a clone of me, of us Ally. Of course she has the same fingerprints!” Prime protested.

  Perhaps you should stop talking now.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Prime

  “Step away from the body!” A uniformed MPD Officer shouted. As several others piled into the warehouse behind him, guns pointed towards Prime.

  Prime watched as the officers marched around him, forming a circle, each holding a standard MPD issue pistol aimed directly at him.

  We could run, I think we could make it, Peter’s voice whispered.

  Xander walked into the warehouse, and tapped a hand on one of the officer's shoulder.

  “Are you sure this is the right guy? Mike,” he asked.

  “Danny, do an ID check,” Mike shouted to one of the officers in the circle.

  A nervous looking tech officer stepped forwards pulling a device from his pocket, a flat tablet with a large green pad along the top. He stepped closer to Prime, leaving about a meter apart.

  Quick! Take the advantage.

  “Sir, I need you to place your hand on the top of this scanner,” The tech said, extending his arm and stepping closer.

  NOW!

  Prime hesitated. He could visualise the movement. Lunging forward, grabbing Danny’s arm, twisting it, and using him as a human shield as he backed out of the warehouse. Shots being fired, people getting caught in the crossfire.

  “No, that wouldn’t help anything,” he whispered.

  “Excuse me?” Danny said, confused.

  “Nothing,” Prime stepped towards him and placed his hand on top of the scanner. It flashed as it took a sample and imprint before starting to analyse the data. Dan
ny stepped back quickly, a look of relief on his face.

  “Xander, what the hell is going on?” Ally and Quartzig had joined Xander beside the other officers.

  “They arrived just after you guys went in, said they’d had a tip-off that the Prime Killer was holding out in here. There’s a whole damn army outside surrounding the building. I got a medical team watching Ava. I thought you guys might be in trouble.”

  “There’s trouble, alright,” Ally’s words caught in her throat as she looked up at the body of Julian, which was now laying on the ground as MPD officers called over some medics. Prime, who could hear everything, felt his heart sink as he watched his friend's emotions crumble.

  “What?” Xander raised an eyebrow.

  “Prime’s fingerprints match the knife and the wounds on Julian’s body,” Quartzig continued.

  A green light lit up on the scanner in Danny’s hand.

  “ID confirmed, this man is a perfect match for DNA found on all the Prime Killer victims,” he announced.

  “Sir, you are under arrest for the murders of seven people,” Mike began to read Prime his rights as the other officers braced themselves, ready for any sudden movements from the man they now believed to be a serial killer.

  What are you going to do, Prime?

  “I’ll come peacefully. I did not kill anyone, but I’ll come willingly as long as I’m allowed a fair trial.”

  Oh good, we’re going to be locked up into a deep dark hole again.

  *

  The officers stepped forwards and handcuffed Prime behind his back with a MagLock, then began to walk him out.

  “What are we going to do?” Ally asked, looking between Prime and the officers, then began to move towards them.

  “Woah,” Xander put his hand on her arm, “we can’t do anything now. We don’t know what’s going on, but if we get involved with them, we could make things worse for both Prime and ourselves. Did Prime say anything before we got here?”

  “He said that it was Persephone that killed Julian, that she was the female clone from CyBio, the one that shot Owens.”