I shot up, sucking air into my lungs as the jolt from the familiar dream woke me. My entire left side screamed as sharp pains ripped into my flesh. Oxygen seemed to scorch my throat as I tried to catch my breath, and although my sight blurred, I could see that I was somewhere I really didn’t want to be.
I shifted on the hard sleeping platform and leant my back against the cold metal wall, giving myself a minute to shake the grip of my premonition, hating that my ability manifested while I slept. Weird little dreams that I never understood and couldn’t remember in every detail until I lived the vision. And the new premonition confused me. I’d dreamed the same thing several times since my Gran died, and I just couldn’t understand the meaning; hadn’t, since the first night. Not that it ever lingered long enough for me to dissect.
I opened my eyes and looked into the darkness of the room, which held only the platform and a toilet. How classy.
My mouth felt dry and tasted strange. The last thing I remembered was looking at Michael’s smug face, before everything went dark.... The bastards sedated me. Christ. God knew where I could be.... Brendan.
I hopped lightly off the platform and patted myself down. They had taken my weapons—naturally. Shit. In a damn prison cell with no weapons, none of my mixture, and I had no idea where the hell I could possibly be. Could this night get any worse? That’s if it’s still even night.
I walked over to the door and hammered my fist against the metal.
“Hey! Is this how you treat all your beloved enemies?” I thumped the door until I heard shuffling footsteps and jangling keys. I moved back, ignoring the throbbing pain which danced from my left kidney all the way up to my face. That jerk-off would pay for these bruises.
The metal door swung open and two buff Vampires, all kitted out in black, walked into the room, followed by a tall female with blood-red hair, lips, eyes, and nails. Her white lab coat fluttered around her as she stopped.
Lab coat? Oh, this isn’t good. And it is definitely not my night.
“Glad you could finally join us.” Her crimson gaze wandered over me.
“Well, if I hadn’t been sedated, we could have said our hellos a lot earlier.”
She ignored my comment and looked at her clipboard. “You’re to come with me.”
The bald Caucasian standing to the female’s left approached me with a pair of handcuffs.
“Where am I?” I asked, as the male clamped his sausage fingers around my right wrist to attach the cuff. “You could have asked me to raise my hand.”
He ignored me and grabbed hold of my left wrist. Pulling my arms behind my back, he locked the cuffs in to place.
“If you refuse—”
“I’m not refusing. I asked you a question. Where. Am. I?”
The redhead’s eyebrows rose in unison, as she shook her head. “Where you are is none of your concern.”
“You see, I would have thought being drugged and kidnapped would be my concern.”
“Not when you’ve had this coming to you for a while.” She smiled sweetly.
The overwhelming urge to smash her head into the wall flooded my system. Damn these handcuffs.
“Where is Brendan?”
“I took your mutt for testing.”
“Testing?” My heart stopped. “What the hell do you mean by testing?”
“You shall soon see.” Her blood-red lips twitched. “As I was saying, if you refuse to cooperate, Kane and Jackson will be more than happy to assist you.”
I looked at Tweedle Vamp and Tweedle Leech; their cold eyes pinned me to the spot. The female turned and walked from the room. The two large Vampires moved aside, and reluctantly, I followed the redhead out into the dim corridor.
“What the hell is this place?” I asked, walking behind her.
The empty corridor had a dirty, concrete floor, and rusty metal panels covered the wall. The lighting strips were dim, and the entire place smelled like bleach, musty damp, and blood. I shivered.
“A facility.”
“No shit. What type?”
She ignored my question and turned left.
This corridor was a lot longer than the last one. We passed one set of double metal doors, the muffled sounds of clinking glass and chatter briefly meeting my ears.
The female pushed open the set of double doors at the end of the corridor. I followed her into a giant lab. My gaze immediately landed on Brendan, strapped to a stainless steel table, tilted upright. The silver daggers had been extracted from his bared torso, but two savage, bloody wounds stared out at me. A male walked toward him with a syringe of purple liquid.
“Hey?” I rushed over to Brendan. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Two beefy hands landed on my shoulder, pinning me to the spot.
“Relax, Heather.” A male with long black hair stepped round Brendan’s table and stood in front of me. “I’m happy you are finally awake. My name is Lance.”
“Well, Lance, I’d relax better if I didn’t have these cuffs on.” And had my hands around your throat.
His grey eyes lit up and a wide smile emerged on his lips.
“You have a sense of humour, I see.” He turned and glanced at Brendan. “Your friend doesn’t. He doesn’t really do much but growl and grunt, but that’s dogs for you.”
“I assure you, he is very talkative. Leave him alone, and when he wakes up, I am sure he will show you how fantastic his humour can be.”
“I’m sure he would, but as you already know, I can’t do that.”
“No, I don’t know that. I have no idea why I am even here or for what reason. Michael, it seems, is incapable of explaining things.”
Lance’s smile faded. “I would be careful, Slayer. It isn’t wise to insult a King before his knights.”
I laughed sharply. “A King? You’re all more fucked up than I thought.”
The beefy hands squeezed my shoulders.
“Enough, Kane.” Lance looked at the Vampire behind me. “Breaking her won’t help me, now, will it?”
I looked over Lance’s shoulder at the other male, who walked away with an empty syringe. “What the hell has he just injected into him?”
“Wolfsbane. I believe that is a term you understand.”
Okay, I really don’t like this.
Some people believed giving a Werewolf monkshood—wolfsbane, or aconite—could cure them when, in truth, it poisoned their system, weakening them and making it impossible for them to heal themselves. Too much could kill them, and by the look on Lance’s smug face, he knew that simple fact.
Lance slid a glance at Brendan. “I want to slow down his healing process, keeping him weak so he is unable to change.”
“Why?”
“Well, the last thing I need is a Werewolf running all over my facility, especially when the full moon is only two more nights away.”
“Apart from that obvious answer.”
Lance’s smile reappeared. “I’m interested in knowing how he ticks.”
“Ever heard of books, or the Internet? You can get lots of information on what makes Werewolves tick with both of those.”
“Ah, but that’s not as valuable as testing your own theories.”
“And what theories would those be?”
“Ack, Lance, just tell her what you’re planning to do with her,” the redhead said. Her Scottish accent seemed to be getting broader by the minute. “All this dancing around the reason is beginning to irritate me. Tell her. It’s not like she is going to be able to go anywhere.”
“How I do hate to see you irritated, Katrina.” Sarcasm laced each of Lance’s words. “You think her knowing the truth will make her co-operate?”
“She has no choice but to co-operate.”
“There is always a choice.” I met Lance’s stare.
“Not for this, wee Infected,” Katrina whispered into my ear. “We can make you do whatever we want. Dig your feet into the ground, and we will chop them off and drag you. Dying is the only way you will get out of here
, and no one in this facility is going to kill you.”
“Like I said—” I turned and met her crimson eyes, “—there is always a choice.”
Dying wouldn’t be the one I preferred, but if death was the only option, then so be it. But I refused to believe I couldn’t find a way out of here. There had to be one.
Is this what you saw, Grandma?
“So, come on, Lance, tell me what’s going on?”
“I think I shall show you.” He moved closer to me. “Seeing is believing, after all.” He walked past me.
Kane pushed me forward.
“Believe it or not, I can actually walk.”
Kane grunted and continued pushing me until we stood next to Lance and Katrina in front of a large windowpane. Lance pushed a small silver button and spoke into the grid. “Lights.”
The room behind the glass lit up. Three males strapped to upright metal tables faced the glass. They each wore an oxygen mask, which moved rapidly with the rise and fall of their chests. Their bodies looked frail, and each had tubes in their wrists and necks.
“What the hell are you doing to them?” I looked at Lance, who stood admiring the humans.
“Each of them is an Infected.”
“Don’t you kill or change Infecteds?”
“Yes. These three wished to be changed, but instead, I put their bodies to better use.”
“It doesn’t look like you’re getting much use out of them.”
“Oh, but we are. You see, we are trying to reverse the usual effects of an Infected. Our experiments haven’t been successful so far, but now that you’re both here, hopefully that will all change.”
“Why would you want to reverse the effects?”
“Because Infecteds can go out in the day and, if fed properly, their bodies have half of our strength. They have none of our weaknesses, just our thirst. I mean, can you imagine it? Two types of—”
“Vampires.” I finished for him, while my gut continued to knot rapidly. My brain pieced together what my Gran and Michael had said...and possibly meant.
He turned to face me. “Exactly.”
“Why would you want that?”
“Why wouldn’t we? We would have protection 24/7. They are easily disposed of, if they cross the line. We would be the ultimate race.”
“So this is just a fucking power trip? If you wanted to be the ultimate race, you would need to be indestructible.”
Lance’s lips peeled back, revealing pearl-white teeth. “All in good time.”
Ah fuck, this isn’t good. This is so, so far from good.
“You see, Heather, you’re sort of an inspiration to us all.”
I snorted. “If that’s the case, your entire sick little species wouldn’t be trying to kill me all the damn time.”
“What you sow, so shall you reap,” Katrina said.
“I wasn’t the one who started the sowing.”
“As I was saying,” Lance continued, “you’re an inspiration. You are the first born Infected, and one can only presume that since you are still standing twenty-one years later, that the virus and your DNA have done something very interesting.”
“I hate to say it, but that is an obvious answer.”
“Perhaps, but I also wish to know how you tick.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so? Let’s go sit down and I will tell you all my little ticks.”
Lance chuckled softly. “Talking won’t give me the results I need. I want to examine your DNA and blood. I want to know how you have survived and kept your sanity for the last twenty-one years, and then I am going to use my knowledge to do the same to every other Infected.”
He wanted to create sane Infecteds. Half the senses and strength of Vampires, but stronger than humans, with the highlight being that they could walk around during the day.
“There is one problem with that, though, isn’t there? I was born this way. I doubt you can do the same for normal Infecteds.” I tried not to smile. “But you’re the Vamp in the white coat, so you must know what you’re doing.”
“Well, if all else fails, we will just have to take a leaf out of your book.”
I didn’t like the sound of this, any of it.
“Some will want to use you.” My Gran’s voice echoed in my mind.
Marko knew about me. Hell, every Vampire on Earth probably knew about me. Michael said Marko had plans for me, something both Luca and Constance had hinted at, and I ended up in a facility where Vampires experimented on Infecteds. And I am an Infected.... Fuck. This is really, really not good.
Lance smiled. “Shall we begin?”
“Wait a damn minute.” I tried to stop the slight panic cracking through my voice—and failed. “None of that explains why you have Brendan. Why don’t you let him go?”
“We can’t let him go. We would have to kill him, but I simply can’t do that. He is far too precious to me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch a Werewolf?”
We walked toward the door; Kane had finally decided to give me my shoulders back. My focus remained on Brendan as dread stalked my entire body with each sentence that fell from Lance’s mouth.
“They aren’t easy to capture, you know? I have sent many a distraction their way these last few months, and all in the hope of getting my hands on just one Werewolf, but alas, no such luck. Our scent gives us away, you see, and Werewolves have such sensitive noses, which makes it very hard for us to surprise them. It was an easy problem to fix, though. All I had to do is bathe my little experiments in bleach; I figured that would do the trick. Capture some bait, a little sedation, some careful mapping, and well, it was a perfect trap.”
He shook his head. “And I had been so sure my little setup would work, and yet, it turned out to be a complete waste of time, but I suppose none of that matters now. I have Brendan. He wasn’t the one I wanted, but beggars can’t be choosers. I have very special plans for him.”
“Which would be?” I asked before being pushed out of the room.
“All in good time, Heather.”
Chapter Eleven
The scream vibrated in my throat as I tried to keep it contained while the bitch at my side pulled out the silver dagger she had just stabbed into my right arm.
“Now, we shall see what your heal rate is.” Katrina grinned as she stood in front of me.
“I could have fuckin’ told you that.” I sucked in a sharp breath and forced myself to breathe through the pain. I could also tell her that my heal rate increased when I had drunk a lot of my mix, and if I got some rest, but I didn’t think that anything I could tell these Leeches would help me.
The scent of my own blood slapped me in the face and irritated my ongoing thirst. I ached everywhere; and despite the fact I had slept, the exhaustion in my body felt like a heavy weight. The tension in my muscles kept winding. And although my body had stopped throbbing from Kane’s little beating the other day, the cool air in the room hurt my tender skin. The fresh wound just punched in my right arm burned, sending slices of pain shooting up into my throbbing temples.
I was in trouble, and would gladly admit it.
“Seeing is believing, as Lance likes to say.” Katrina scribbled something on her clipboard. “You might be happy to know that we have completed all our tests.”
“Oh really, so soon?” I sneered as the pain shrank to a throbbing numbness.
“Oh, don’t worry. We still have plenty of use for you.”
“Can’t wait.” Sometimes, I hated myself for not knowing just when to shut up.
“I thought that attitude would have been gone after these few days. You are clearly quite stupid if you haven’t figured out that we can break you.” She walked over to a workbench.
Two days down, and this was only the beginning of day three. My body ached in areas I didn’t know existed. The last two days had been spent with all the Vampires watching me perform stupid tasks like some monkey. I refused at first, which made Kane very happy because then he got to throw the “Infected bitch”
around for a while. Unfortunately, his fun had been cut short because Lance wouldn’t allow him to break me. Such a sweetie.
When they finally figured out I wasn’t simply going to bend over and take it—mostly due to a fractured rib or two—they got creative and brought Brendan into the room and began filling him with more silver. He had still been pretty out of it, but a few knocks to the face had woken him up enough to feel what they did. As soon as they threatened to cut out one of his eyes, I gave in and performed my heart out.
I had run on a treadmill until Lance told me to stop, all so they could see my stress EKG, measure my pulse rate and blood pressure. They tested my oxygen rate, and then my eyes, ears, and nose; and then I had to play with the weights to see where my strength measured—which had been next to nowhere, since I was battered and bruised. Every time I lifted my right arm, the pain from my fractured rib made me scream. When I finally stopped, my muscles burned and exhaustion cradled me, but I wasn’t finished, oh no. Then it was time for the concentration tests. Ridiculous tests, like primary school children had to do. By the fourth one, I kicked the table over with my remaining strength and got escorted to my room—naturally unbandaged—where I finally collapsed on my bed. The full body MRI took place on day two. I wanted to vomit at the feel of the contrast fluid circulating around my system, but I didn’t even have the energy to retch. They extracted samples of my blood and saliva then tested my senses.
I had not consumed any of my mixture in three days. Thirst wound my body tightly; my muscles tensed, my body already exhausted due to dehydration and the shit those bastards had me doing. On top of everything, I was ravenous. So when they placed four plates of food and a glass of water in front of me, I dove in without hesitation; then, my nose picked up traces of blood, mould, and poison. The stale food had been the easiest to pick out. Of the three plates remaining, I inhaled the smell of cooked food, but also blood, the blood being the second easiest to locate. I sniffed the water: fresh. After knocking it back, the tension in my body subsided slightly. I pushed the poisoned food plate to one side, only to have the fourth plate taken from me. Having passed that little test, I got pushed back into my room.
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