by Colleen Tews
The amazing part of feeding was that I got a sense of the person I drank in. Albert was headstrong and intelligent, a gentleman’s gentleman, which was made self-evident by his everyday presence, but there was more to him. In my mind I saw the colors of his thoughts. There were memories of his family before they were taken from him. The part that sang out the strongest to me was the love he still carried for his deceased wife, Eleanor. Childhood sweethearts that stuck it out together till the end. She was beautiful, slender with strong childbearing hips, light brown hair that went down back, dark green eyes, and a smile he never wanted to stop kissing. As much as his blood gave me sustenance his love for her gave me hope. I had a renewed sense of purpose, faith in my abilities, and the courage to carry on.
I stopped short. I didn’t want to hurt him or worse. I licked the bite indulging in one last drop while healing his neck. Fully satisfied, in more ways than one, I reclined back on the pillow. “Thank you.”
“You can thank me by doing what you have to do. Finish off Brutus and if you truly believe you cannot kill Khel then you need to teach the good father a lesson he won’t soon forget. Hit him where it hurts.” Albert smiled down at me.
"What do you feel when you give yourself to a vampire?"
He sat back. "It's hard to explain."
"Indulge me."
He stared out the window, searching for the right words. "With Priscilla, I saw her struggle with the respectful power she commanded and low self-esteem. As for you, I feel determination. Normally you come across as a little erratic, probably because of your youth and frustration and your desire to prove yourself. Underneath that is this unshakable force of nature fueled by your commitment towards those you care about."
"Do you get images?"
"Sometimes."
"And this time?"
"Why do you ask?"
I sat beside him again and held his hand. "I saw Eleanor. She is beautiful."
"Was. She was beautiful." He slipped my grasp. He walked toward the door. "I'll keep watch. You should warn Sasha about the Cabal's newest plan." He left the room.
I dug my cell phone from my coat pocket. While Albert took post at my bedroom door in the hallway I called Sasha. Much to my surprise, although by now it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, there was no answer. I didn’t even get her voicemail. That was the strange part. The phone rang and rang then disconnected.
I slouched. I called her phone again. Once again it rang then disconnected. I tossed the phone onto the bed. It bounced off to the floor.
“Fuck.” I got up in a huff and walked around to the other side of the bed to pick it up. When I bent down I heard arguing outside the door. This time I placed the phone on the nightstand and headed to the door.
“Let me pass, ol’ man!” Brutus ordered Albert. Then the scuffling began.
I flung open the door. Albert was on the floor with his lip busted open and bleeding. Brutus stood over him. His hands were balled into fists. Billie and Lester were a little ways down the hall but were close enough to join the fight.
“What do you think you are doing?” My hatred toward Brutus boiled deep within my gut. That feeling burned hotter than the need to feed.
“I came to see you, but when your ghoul wouldn’t let me in I reminded him of his place in our world.” The tone in which he spoke told me he wanted to hurt someone, anyone. His eagerness for violence couldn’t be concealed behind his quiet bottling any longer. Nor did he try.
“And where do you think his place is?” I folded my arms across my chest. It was the only way I showed defiance without lashing out.
He gave me a wicked smile. “Under the heel of my boot,” he said, and kicked Albert in the ribs.
I smashed Brutus against the far wall, stepping between him and Albert. “That is enough.”
He ricocheted off the wall and regained his balance in an instant. “I can do whatever the hell I wanna do, bitch. Since when do you have the right to order me?”
“Since Raphe sent you to be our guardian, not our jailor! Or did you forget the rights of a vampire in their own sanctuary? Now back the fuck off.” It was nice knowing the Cabal Ministries laws backed even a traitor.
He closed the space between us. His leather brushed against me. I stood sure-footed as he hovered over me. “I don’t know what your game is, but I’m on to you.” He spat in my face. “I’ve got my eyes on you.”
“Good then put them to work and make sure that the next person you attack is someone you are here to fight. Not my ghoul or we are going to have problems.” I warned him. To accentuate my point I reached inside to my place of power and raised that dark energy to the surface.
Brutus’ eyes fluttered close as he tasted my power. I was a fool to think I could intimidate him. The cool bronze shade of his eyes brightened from within to a color that compared to the sun. He rose what I knew to be a small amount of his power. He gave a deliberate nod of the head. “You taste good enough to eat.”
"You wish. Now back down."
He took a step back without turning away from me. Not until he was out of arms reach did he turn and proceeded down the hall. He snapped his fingers. The others followed him like well-trained dogs downstairs.
I kneeled down to Albert. “Are you okay?”
He wiped blood from his chin. “I will be.”
I helped him to his feet. With his arm over my shoulder we went back in the bedroom. He pointed to his cot. I shook my head and laid him down on my bed. “Rest here. I’ll take the cot.”
“I’ll be fine on the cot.”
“You’re hurt. This entitles you to the comfy bed. So stop arguing with me and let me be nice.” I tucked him in under the sheets and big fluffy comforter.
“I don’t feel right knowing you will be resting the entire day on the most uncomfortable bed in the house.”
“Fine, I won’t sleep on the cot. But you aren’t getting out of this bed. We can bunk together.” I walked over to the closet to get a pair of red flannel pajamas. When I first saw them I swore I would never wear them. Though the clothes were more appropriate tonight than a silk nightgown. I undressed, discarding what I had on to the floor, put on the pajamas and climbed into bed. Slumber party. Goody.
Instead of careless children with parents down the hall we had guards. We were prisoners in our home that knew that we needed to be wary of our protectors. It was a good thing they slept at the same time.
As Albert slept I did what I could to quiet my restless mind. I wrote in my diary. It helped me to sort through my thoughts. Clarify some unresolved issues. I tried to get at the heart of why I spied for Lucian. Was I risking my neck, and Albert’s neck, for purely selfish reasons? Why fight this hard night after night to keep this subterfuge going? If I came clean with Raphe, told him how I felt about him, how sorry I was for tricking him, would he forgive me or throw me to the wolves? The answer to that particular question scared me too much to think about.
I put the diary back in the nightstand, then I laid there as the minutes ticked by. I listened to the Maartens that wandered about my home. Music blared. The walls shook. After a few hours the weight of sunrise quieted them. I spooned Albert. Within seconds I sank into dreamland.
Chapter 35
The phone rang. I untangled my arm from behind Albert’s pillow and retrieved it from the table. Raphe’s number glowed in the dark room.
“Hello.”
“Hey beautiful, I won’t be able to make it over tonight like I thought. Anthony had a better success rate than I was betting on.” His voice sounded tired.
“He found someone already?” When I sat up I jolted Albert. He groaned and rolled onto his other side.
“Yeah, I can hardly believe he worked this fast.”
“Where are you?”
“We're at Vinchenzo’s place.”
“I’m coming over.”
“That won’t be necessary. Stay where it’s safe and relax.”
I had to know what they uncovered from whome
ver they captured. The sooner I knew the faster I could get the information to Sasha. “No, I want to be there. It was my plan. I want to see it though."
There was silence on the other end. Finally, he sighed. “Fine, but you get here fast or I can’t guarantee there will be much left to interrogate.”
“Consider me there already.” I hung up the phone. "Albert, wake up." I shook him. "They found one of Lucian's spies."
"What do you want me to do about it?" His eyes were closed.
"I want you to wake up." I rocked his shoulder. "Come on, you big baby. I need you to run an errand while I'm out. This way you aren't home alone with Flotsam and Jetsam."
He yawned and stretched, eyes still shut. "I take it you concocted a game plan."
"I did." I rocked him over and over again like a kid waking up their parent on Christmas morning. "Now get up sleepyhead."
Chapter 36
The Caravelli compound appeared dark and menacing far back from the road. The shadows were as still as baited breath, or perhaps that was anxiousness getting the better of me.
Security guard ghouls, dressed in their black uniforms, surrounded the building. A man with a clear wire protruding from his ear opened the car door for me. Brutus didn't get special treatment.
“Thank you.”
The guard held his hand out for my keys. I handed them to him. He stepped into the mustang and drove it behind the compound. The valet parking was new. Top secret interrogations required new perks.
Two big, burly ghouls let us in through the front doors. A headlight from a car cruising along the road flashed between the curtains. In the living room someone's red hair shined in its faint flash. “Elizabeth?”
“Hi, Veronica.” She got up from the sofa. Her shoulders hunched over. As she got closer I saw her mascara was smudged. She gave me a quick tense hug. “Everybody’s in the basement. Raphe asked me to wait up here for you.”
“Thanks. You okay?”
Brutus interrupted us as he went to the kitchen. "Meet ya down there."
She rubbed her forearm. “They caught Capron."
"Who's that?"
"She’s a Gancheru. The smell alone made me want to stay up here. And her screams, it’s beyond me as to why you want to be down there.” She walked toward the dinning room.
I followed. “They started the interrogation?”
“They’ve been at it for about an hour. Anthony and Meisha tried do to some mumbo-jumbo voodoo stuff on her; only to turn up empty. They can’t seem to get her to crack.”
Elizabeth led me into the kitchen. Next to the refrigerator was a white door. She stopped a few feet back and pointed, never looking at the door. “They’re down there.”
“You’re not coming?”
“You couldn’t pay me to go down there. If Vinchenzo asks where I am tell him I went out."
“All right, take care.” I rubbed her back.
“You too.” And with that she left.
From about five feet from the door I smelled the stench of rotten burnt flesh. I rotated my shoulders and cracked my neck, preparing for what I was about to walk into. Before I touched the brass doorknob the first scream cut through the air. The high pitch wail pierced my sensitive hearing and echoed. The strong scent of her skin being seared away under flame stuck in my nose.
I flinched from the door. Doubled-over I latched onto the counter. The cool marble felt solid and comforting. I had no idea what I expected. Maybe this was a bad idea? "I can't do this. I can't."
"I told you. I don't know where Lucian is."
Her scream started guttural then climbed several octaves. If the tables were reversed and she had a chance to save me Lucian would have ordered her to do so. We were soldiers fighting on the same side. I couldn’t leave a man behind. It was my fault she was down there in the first place. There really was no other choice. I swiveled back on my heel determined to make things right for everyone. I pulled open the door and descended the steep wooden steps. Her screams echoed my steps.
Now that the door no longer held back the scent I wanted to throw up. A humming florescent light swung from a hook in the corner of the unfurnished basement. In the center of the room, chained to a steel chair bolted to the cement floor, sat the naked Gancheru. Her baldhead was ethereal pale. Blue veins branched under the thin layer of skin. Fresh burns crossed along the length of her scalp. Shallow cuts were etched across her forehead. Trails of blood slid down her brow and trickled into squinting fearful eyes. Bloody gashes raced down her arms, flat chest, abdomen and legs. Tremors quivered down her body. A small, embroidered talisman hung around her neck. I assumed it was a binding charm of some kind.
“Tell us where Lucian is and this will all end child.” Father Khel examined a poker stoking in a pot of hot coals. He jabbed the coals with its glowing point, readying it for the next plunge.
The whole gang was here, Vinchenzo, Meisha, Grump, Anthony, Brutus, and Raphe. Their powerful overzealous presence caused the small beaten woman to shrink.
“Raphe?”
His eyes were an iridescent blue that created unnatural shadows across his cheekbones. He wore a black tank top spackled in her blood. When he saw me the power faded, the animalistic killer sank away. “I hoped you would've changed your mind.”
“I couldn’t. This is something I have to do.”
He brought the back of my hand to his lips and kissed it. His eyes beamed with both the pride in my strength to come here and concern for my mental stability. “Beautiful, you are full of surprises.”
“You have no idea.”
One side of his mouth curled up in a grin. “In more ways than one I’m sure.”
While everyone else kept their eyes trained on the vampire in question I felt her eyes follow me. The weight of her gaze was heavy in my mind. I couldn’t tell if she was fearful of what I might do to her or if she thought she knew me.
I should have thought about that. Just because Lucian never told me who worked for him did not mean he didn’t tell others about me. Shit.
Raphe and I walked into the darkest corner, far from the action. “Have you been able to get anything out of her yet?”
“No.”
I squeezed his arm. “What can I do to help?”
“We’re going to give Vinchenzo a shot at ripping down her mental defenses and try to pry the information from her mind. Physical torture hasn’t worked. Magical persuasion did all of jack and shit. Hell, I tried.” He stifled his gaze to the ground, shifted his weight, then glanced back at me. “Never mind.”
What kind of illusions had he performed to persuade her to talk? Something simple like creating an illusion of Lucian telling her it was okay to open up? Then again, he was sexually perverse enough to do more than just have him talk with her.
Vinchenzo, with his massive physical prowess, hunkered over the prisoner and positioned a hand on either armrest. She pulled into herself so tight he managed to hold on to the cold steel chair without touching her. “Capron, we’ve had enough games for one evening. The sun will be rising in two hours. I have far better things I could be doing with that amount of time. Would you like to see it again? Because that will happen if you don’t tell us where to find Lucian’s headquarters. We’ll Silence you, out there. Paralyzed in my backyard, you'll wait till the sun peeks over the trees. No muss, no fuss. Then tomorrow night, after my guards retrieve the stake, we’ll use it to repeat tonight’s fun on another traitor. Do you really want another one of your buddies to have to go through this? Stop wasting my time and talk.”
While he kept Capron’s attention Khel circled her like a hawk, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And strike he did; with the red-hot poker he jabbed her right kidney. She howled out into Vinchenzo’s face.
He didn’t flinch. Instead Vinchenzo grabbed her chin and forced her to look him in the eye. His power flooded the room as he attempted to enter her mind. “You will tell me what I want to know.”
“No.” She writhed beneath his firm grasp
. Her shoulders seized. She lurched as far away from Vinchenzo and the pain in her side as the chains allowed.
Unable to stand by and watch her be in such excruciating pain I had a breakthrough. I let go of Raphe. He fumbled to maintain his grasp. I slithered from his loose grip on my arm and ran to the middle of the contemptible display of power.
“Move out of my way.” Using my shoulder I made an effort to shove Vinchenzo out of the way.
He barely budged. His eyes were glued to Capron’s. He fought against me by planting his feet.
Raphe clutched my arm and attempted to pull me off of Vinchenzo. “Veronica, no. Stop.”
“I will not. He’s going about this all wrong.” I couldn't let Vinchenzo break her mental defenses. He could discover my secret.
He concentrated his strength. The room temperature heated with his clout. In her weakened state her mind would not last much longer. I figured out a way to save both of us.
“Raphe, hold on a second.” Meisha said from behind us. “If Veronica thinks she can get her to talk without hurting her then give her a chance.”
I stopped shoving at Vinchenzo. Meisha removed Raphe’s hand from my shoulder. We nodded out of a new found respect to one another before I turned my attention back to Vinchenzo. “Did you get anything yet?”
“I saw a warehouse, but can’t tell where.”
“Then back up, big guy and let me give it a go. If I don’t get it out of her then we’ll try it your way, again. Like you said we've got a couple hours to kill.”
He pushed off the chair. Vinchenzo gave me the same intimidating gaze that he saved for Grump half the time. His brown eyes gleamed with spite and ego. His confidence in his abilities was astonishing.
Like before with Brutus I stood my ground. Through everything I’d been through I seemed to have developed a backbone. I glared right back.