She braced herself for Vicky’s answer. She’d kill every last one of them. She planned to help do that as it was, but she’d also make them eat their balls before she delivered the death blow. Tears slid down her face, wetting Abby’s shirt.
“No, they were more focused on our blood, but I felt so violated, so helpless, and it hurt so bad…” Her voice broke off as she sobbed again.
“It’s okay,” Abby whispered as she brushed Vicky’s hair away from her face. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to be so helpless, afraid, and abused. Vicky’s anguish tore her heart to pieces.
She grabbed Vicky’s hand and squeezed it. Those hideous chains rattled before falling silent. Her gaze fell to the bruises and bite marks marring her sister’s pale flesh. She may make them eat their nuts anyway by the time she was done with them.
A knock on the door drew her head up. “It’s Brian,” she said to Vicky when she scented him on the other side.
“Let him in,” Vicky said as she wiped away her tears.
“Come in!” Abby called.
Brian opened the door and poked his head in before stepping inside. Vicky threw back her shoulders as she sat up to welcome the group hovering on the other side of the door. Their brothers stepped aside to allow a tall, muscular vampire entrance to the room. Abby stared at the man she assumed was Lucien. He had sandy blond hair and eyes the color of raven’s wings. He carried himself with the confidence of one who knew their power and owned it.
Stopping beside the bed, he gazed between the two of them before setting a bag on the floor by his feet. “Let’s get these things off,” he said to Vicky.
“Those are the sweetest words I’ve heard in weeks,” Vicky replied.
Abby slid from the bed as Vicky scooted to the edge, dragging her chains with her. She was back to acting blithely as she smiled at the handsome, heavily muscled vamp and thrust her wrists forward. Lucien bent and pulled a vacuum flask from his bag before pulling on a pair of thick, rubber gloves. Brian stepped forward and rested his hands on Abby’s shoulders when she shot him a troubled glance.
“It will be fine,” he murmured near her ear.
She watched as Lucien pulled out another set of gloves and slipped them onto Vicky’s hands before placing a piece of thick plastic above the cuff on her wrists. Vicky’s smile faded away. “Are you going to cut my hands off?” she asked with a nervous laugh.
“No, this is to keep your skin as protected as possible,” Lucien replied.
Not the most reassuring words, Abby thought as she watched him. He pulled out a bucket and uncapped the flask. Mist or something drifted from the flask before he turned and poured it into the bucket. More of that strange mist flowed upward as he poured.
“What is that?” Vicky asked. When she leaned forward to get a better look, Lucien nudged her back.
“Liquid nitrogen.” Uneasiness turned in Abby’s gut, and Vicky’s playful demeanor vanished. “You’re going to stick your hands in the bucket for two minutes. The gloves will protect you, as will the plastic, but if any does get on your skin, it’s going to hurt. You’ll heal, but you’ll also have to take the pain and not pull your hands out.”
“I can take it,” she assured him.
He gave her a doubtful look she returned with a haughty expression and a raise of her chin.
“After these past couple of weeks, I can take it.”
Abby bit her lip at her sister’s words. She wanted to turn away but felt helpless to watch as Vicky placed her hands in the bucket. Her sister’s face remained impassive, but a twinge in her cheek alerted Abby that some had gotten onto her. Lucien kept an eye on his watch. After a little bit, he bent and pulled an iron mallet from his bag.
He tapped his foot as he watched the seconds tick by on his watch. Abby was certain far more than two minutes passed before he gestured for Vicky to pull her hands free of the bucket. He grabbed hold of the chains, moving them to the nightstand and resting them against it before raising the mallet and smashing it down on the bolts holding the cuffs together.
Abby bit back a cry when Vicky winced but remained mute. The first cuff shattered beneath the impact. Another loud thud and the second cuff fell away with a clatter of metal onto the ground. Vicky eagerly pulled the gloves off and dropped them on the floor. She rubbed at the bloody flesh hidden beneath the cuffs—from jerking against the bonds, her skin had pulled back to reveal her muscle.
Lucien gathered his supplies and dumped them into his bag. “Are the others who were with me all free too?” Vicky inquired of him.
“Yes. We’ve sent the ones who have family home, with the understanding they have to relocate, preferably to somewhere in another country until all of this is settled. The rest we’re relocating ourselves.”
“What about our family?”
“They’ve already been spoken with, but you were not taken from your home as some of the others were. We see no reason to relocate them right now, but that could change in the future,” he replied.
“Why did they only take one member of those families and not all of them?” Abby inquired.
“A whole family vanishing is a lot more noticeable than one wayward child,” Lucien said. “The families notice of course, but they believed them to be runaways or away at college. Because of this, they didn’t contact others and decided to deal with it on their own. The ones you removed from that room and brought here were all young. Some hadn’t even hit maturity yet.
“From now on, when a purebred goes missing, it will be reported immediately. I’m sure it’s already gotten out amongst the vampires that our blood is stronger. Many had probably assumed it anyway, given our vampire births, but they weren’t foolish enough to try something like this. The punishment for this will be swift and merciless. Vampires who speak of this retribution will shake with terror over it for centuries to come.”
“Good,” Abby muttered.
“I want to be involved when it happens,” Vicky said.
“It’s going to be ugly,” Lucien replied as he lifted the bucket from the floor.
“I don’t care. I am going to find Duke,” Vicky said. Abby almost told her that Brian could help find him, but she bit the words back. She’d already put his life at risk once; she wouldn’t drag him into this if he preferred not to be involved. “I’ll go after him alone if I have to.”
“You won’t be on your own,” Abby assured her.
Vicky smiled at her before focusing on Lucien. “That’s two purebreds—”
“Three,” Aiden said.
“We will also go with them,” Ethan said.
“You’re going home,” Vicky replied. “I’d never forgive myself if you missed the birth of your child, or if something happened to you. The same with you two,” she said with pointed looks at Ian and Stefan.
“We’re not going to let you do this alone,” Ethan told her.
“Not alone,” Abby reminded him.
Brian’s hands tightened on her shoulders, but he didn’t protest, and he didn’t tell her she couldn’t help her sister. He had to know it would only result in a fight. However, she had a feeling there would be a lot of rules and demands placed on her before she was allowed to leave this place again. She may actually follow some of these rules. She was in no rush to die, and the warehouse had been too close of a call for her liking.
Brian gritted his teeth against the urge to argue with her, but he knew it would be pointless. She would make sure everyone who had mistreated her sister ceased to exist, and do anything to protect her twin. And he would do anything to protect her.
* * *
An hour later, Abby sat on the bed with Vicky again, her arm draped around her sister’s shoulders. The fresh rain scent of the shampoo and soap from Vicky’s recent shower still couldn’t mask the odor of refuse wafting from her.
It had taken a lot of convincing, but eventually Ethan, Ian, and Stefan had agreed to leave in the morning. In the end, it had been the chance of someone stumbling across t
heir home and taking one of their younger siblings or children while they were away, that convinced them to return.
Vicky had just finished telling them about her capture and subsequent imprisonment. She didn’t cry again, but her voice broke when she spoke briefly of the abuse she’d endured. Ethan rose and paced away. He ran his hand through his hair as he muttered curses and threats. Ian sat on the other side of Vicky. He took hold of her hand while David and Aiden remained unmoving at the foot of the bed. Brian sat in the chair beside Abby, his hands clasped before him and his elbows on his knees.
“Death was too good for those vampires,” Ethan said.
Another question formed on the tip of Abby’s tongue, but she really didn’t know how to ask why or whom Vicky had killed. The others must have felt the same way as none of them uttered the question, yet she knew her siblings would all be able to smell it too.
“For the first week and a half, I wasn’t given any blood,” Vicky said. Her grip on Abby’s hand became bruising, but Abby didn’t pull it away from her. “I hadn’t fed for a few days before they took me, so the hunger… I’d never been so hungry before. The burning, the need, it was so intense. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad under normal circumstances, but they kept draining us and not giving us anything back. It was horrible…”
Vicky’s voice broke, and Abby was sure the bones in her hand were going to crack as Vicky continued. “Then, one day, they threw a human in with us. She ran screaming from the others as they lunged at her from the shadows, but I remained hidden, too weak to make a move toward her. She never saw me until she was falling before me. They’d… they’d cut slices across her wrists and neck. The scent of her blood…” Vicky shuddered as her voice broke off.
“You don’t have to,” Abby whispered.
“It was all I could smell,” Vicky continued. “It invaded all of my senses and made me burn with thirst. I had no control over myself when I fell on her. She never had a chance. She…”
Vicky broke off and abruptly released Abby’s hand. “I need some rest,” she said.
The others remained unmoving as her words sank in. Ravenous, drained, and beaten, Vicky had attacked the girl, and the girl hadn’t walked away. Brian may not have been able to smell the death on Vicky, but he didn’t give the impression he was surprised by this admission, as his face remained expressionless. David’s mouth parted, but he refrained from saying anything.
Brian kept his hands clasped as Vicky revealed what he’d already known upon seeing her again. The slight shift in her soul hadn’t been there when he’d seen her in the hotel, or in the picture of her and Abby. He’d seen the same kind of shift when Stefan had been forced to kill a human. Ethan had also experienced the shifting, and he was sure he had too.
It wasn’t so much a dimming of the soul, but more of a new knowledge or a heaviness that vampires who refrained from killing humans didn’t carry. Those who killed for pleasure did so without regret, and those who refrained from killing had no idea about the weight of another’s soul on their hands.
He would have to let Lucien and Ronan know what had occurred with Vicky. Lucien already knew she’d killed by smelling her, so there would be no way to hide it. They would overlook this, unless Vicky decided she would prefer to be a killer. Then they would put her down without hesitation or regret.
“We’ll let you rest then,” Ethan said and jerked his head toward the door.
“Would you like me to stay?” Abby asked anxiously. She didn’t want to leave her sister, not yet.
Vicky glanced at Brian before replying. “No, I want to be alone right now.”
“Do you need anything?”
“No, go on. Stop worrying about me, Abs. I’m going to be fine.”
She said the words, and Vicky was resilient, but Abby knew her sister would never be the same again. How could she be after what she’d endured and been forced to do? Leaning over, Abby kissed Vicky’s temple.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.
Vicky smiled tremulously at her, but she wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Come,” Brian said. Rising, he extended his hand to her. After a moment’s hesitation, Abby took hold of it and allowed him to pull her to her feet.
“If you need me, for anything, call or send for me,” she said to Vicky.
Vicky settled back in the thick mound of pillows. She grabbed the remote for the TV they’d pulled from storage in the basement off the nightstand. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got TV and these pillows, what more could a girl ask for?”
Ian and the others all hugged her before they reluctantly shuffled toward the door. Abby had to fight the impulse to bolt back into the room when the door clicked shut behind them. She wants to be alone. Abby stood staring at the wood before forcing herself to step away from the door.
She waited until they were far enough away that Vicky wouldn’t hear her before she gave into her overwhelming urge to cry.
Brian swept her into his arms as sobs wracked her body. He didn’t look back at the others as he strode purposely away from them and toward their room. Running his hands over her hair, he didn’t bother to try to hush her; there was no stemming this flow.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Abby blinked her eyes open. She had no idea what time it was as Brian had closed the thick, metal shutters over the windows last night with a click of a button. Her eyes felt grainy, but then she had cried herself to sleep in his arms last night, arms that were now noticeably absent.
Frowning, she turned to search the room for him, but it remained empty. She bolted up in the king-size bed and scooted to the edge of it. The thick red curtains draped over the canopy swayed with her movements. She caught her reflection in the floor-length mirror across from her. Her hair stood up in places, her eyes were swollen, and she realized she’d fallen asleep in her rumpled clothes.
The armoire she passed on her way to the door was large enough to hold three wardrobes and looked as if it had come from the seventeen hundreds. It was a masculine room, but she didn’t get the impression anyone stayed here, as all she could smell in the room was she and Brian.
Before she made it to the door, it opened and he stepped inside with a tray in hand. His ice blue eyes lit up when he smiled at her. His face was freshly shaven, and he looked more rested than he had yesterday.
“Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,” he greeted and nudged the door shut with his heel. The scent of blood wafted to her from the decanters he had on the tray. “I thought you might be hungry,” he said as he walked by her and set the tray on the table.
She started to say starving but bit back the word. After Vicky’s words last night, she realized she had no idea what starvation was. “I am,” she admitted as she followed him to the table in the corner of the room.
The table was old with ornate, swirling designs carved into the legs, and on the tabletop. She may have no idea where they were located in New York, but she pictured the home as more of a castle, due to the elaborately fine furnishings she’d seen in the small sections of the house she’d been through already.
He pulled the top off the decanter and poured some blood into a glass before handing it to her. He poured himself his own glass and leaned against the wall, watching her as she sipped at the liquid. “Do you know if Vicky is awake?” she asked.
“She’s with Aiden in the gym, beating the stuffing out of a punching bag.”
“I didn’t think Vicky knew what a punching bag was.” And if she had known, she would have avoided it like the plague before all of this, because it would have damaged her nails.
“She does now and Aiden doesn’t seem at all pleased with being the one holding it for her.”
Abby took another sip. “She’s got a lot of anger to get out.”
“She does.”
“What about the rest of my family?”
“Stefan, Ethan, and Ian left early this morning. They told me to say good-bye to you and to have you call as soon as you could. David has deci
ded to stay a little longer.”
A twinge of regret tugged at her. “I had hoped to say good-bye.”
“They were eager to get home.”
“Understandable.” She waved her hand around the room. “So what is this place? Is it a castle or something?”
He chuckled as he shook his head. “No, it’s not that big, but it’s close. The new recruits come here to train for battle. Aiden has been under Lucien’s supervision, but only because the last training instructor lost control and started killing humans. They’re still hunting for him. Lucien normally isn’t here, and I’m sure he’s eager to get back to Ronan and the others.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. I could find them if I chose to, but they’d kill me if they ever found out I’d located them. My relationship with Ronan is based on the understanding I will never try to locate their main residence. Only pureblood vampires who complete the training ever learn the location of it.”
Abby set the empty glass down and went to grab the decanter, but Brian lifted it before she could. He poured her a glass and settled into the chair across from her. “So once Aiden completes the training, he’ll know where they are.”
“Yes, if he completes it. Few do. It’s a year of Hell from what I’ve been told.”
“Aiden will make it.”
Brian smiled at her and leaned forward to brush back a strand of hair that fell over her face. “So sure,” he murmured as his fingers lingered on her cheek.
“I am. How many other recruits are here with him?”
“To be a member of Ronan’s order, he’s the only one.”
Abby almost choked on her blood. “Really?”
“There aren’t that many purebloods in existence,” he reminded her. “Aiden is their first new recruit in fifty years.”
“So he and Lucien are kicking around this massive place all by themselves?”
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 136