Kate nodded. “Don’t lose it before then.” She glanced down at the map of the school on her phone. Ben handed her the superglue for the locker. “Let’s do this.”
*******
Kate slipped into the school. It amazed her how one high school looked much like any other. Pep rally banners were tied to the ceiling, school election posters were on the wall, and most of the lockers had a sticker for either band, theater or art on it.
She walked down the main hallway, careful to avoid anyone. The numbered lockers made it easy to find which one belonged to Brooke. It was on the ground floor. Brooke’s last class of the day was in a room in the 200s – so upstairs. Kate opened the superglue and traced the lock. After a minute she tried the dial; it was frozen stiff.
She glanced down at her watch. Five minutes remained until the bell rang. She crept over to the back entrance of the school, near the gym, where the buses would be lined up. The smell of sweat filled the air as she walked by the locker rooms. Her eyes started tearing up and she realized there were things about high school she would never miss. She had always hated gym class, for many reasons. She held her breath as she walked past the gym and closer to the back doors. Occasionally a child entered the hallway, but they didn’t ask any questions. Perhaps they weren’t supposed to be out of class either.
Once the bell rang, Kate gave herself only one minute before walking out the back door. On her way there, she spotted Brooke coming down the stairs talking with some friends. This was cutting it too close for Kate’s comfort.
Walking outside, she stood in the middle of a sea of children. Loud and noisy. Just one more thing not to miss about high school. She rode the tide as the wave of children pushed her further towards the buses. There was no way any kidnapper would be able to read Brooke’s name on the backpack, let alone assume she was the girl. She walked to the side of the crowd, and as she did she covered her mouth and yelled, “Bye, Brooke. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Turning, as though someone had called her name, Kate waved and yelled back, “Ok. See you tomorrow.” She then walked slowly towards bus #116, which was the last bus in the second row.
All the kids around her seemed preoccupied with their iPods and phones. The hurry to get to the right bus, and the sense of final relief that the school day was over, had the kids flooding into their designated buses, each in their own headphone covered world.
Looking about, Kate sensed no vampire nearby. Of course, she was still several buses away from #116 and from Sterling. With no sign of Brooke anywhere, Kate slowed down as she walked.
Now only two buses away from Sterling, she sat down on a large rock just a short distance from the sidewalk. The boulder sat in front of a fenced–in perimeter which blocked off a wooden area behind the school. She sighed as she realized most of the high school boys were over six feet in height. Any adult man would blend right in. She removed her backpack and leaned the bag against the rock so her name could be read by anyone approaching. She thought about standing on the rock and making herself look more pronounced when she heard the snap of a twig from behind. A hand quickly covered her mouth as she was pulled backwards.
The smell of ether was prominent. She twisted in the man’s arms and knew she could easily escape. The attacker pulled her behind the fence before she could react. The trees covered up her attacker’s escape route. She bit down on the man’s hand, her fangs easily cutting his frail human skin. The blood tasted human. Her freedom was brief however. His fists pelted her jaw and head, causing her to sink to the ground. She balled her fist and aimed for his jaw, but missed. She did her best to run, but tripped on her own two feet.
Overall, the plan seemed to be a good one. It just had two flaws. Kate didn’t know how to fight and her feet and hands didn’t work as well as a trained killer’s did. She swung again at the man, but was still lying prone on the ground. She watched as the man picked up a rock. Pain was the last thing she knew before she passed out.
*******
Sterling stood in a pile of rubbled stone by the sidewalk of the now lonely bus turnaround holding Kate’s fake school backpack in his hands. The fence behind him now had a large opening, the foliage just past it shredded. The squeaking of the car breaks coming around the corner told him that Ben would soon be there.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Sterling roared as he jerked the car door open. Sitting down, he threw the backpack directly at Ben’s face. “She never even made it to the bus! The bastard took her right here out of my eyesight.” Ben remained calm as he sped past the school and on the public street. Venting, Sterling slammed his fist into the glove compartment and broke the latch.
“We’ll get her back, Sterling.”
Sterling flung his hand up in a halting gesture. “You’re dead to me!”
“I’m already dead. Look, we knew this might happen.” Ben handed Sterling his phone. “We have her on radar. She’s only a few miles away.”
Sterling briskly took the phone, giving Ben a sharp look of determination. “We better get her back – and in one piece.”
*******
The bumpy van ride awakened Kate. All she felt was pain. She wasn’t used to the sensation, and yet there was a part of her that was happy to feel anything at all. She opened her eyes and studied her surroundings. Only two kidnappers. She lay gagged and her hands and feet were bound by chains, silver chains – she hadn’t counted on that. Her head hurt and that’s when she remembered the attack from behind. If she had been human she would have a concussion, or worse, a cracked skull and possibly be dead right now.
Through the dim interior light, she could make out the man closest to her. He was husky with a square jaw, blond hair, and the meanest eyes she had ever seen. He was past due for a shave, and when his mouth broke into an evil grin, Kate could see the unevenness of his stained yellow teeth. He reminded her of her gym teacher back in high school – the one who was constantly criticizing her clumsiness. It wasn’t like Kate needed a reason to hate her kidnapper, but the image of her old coach fueled the flame.
She watched as the man picked up a syringe with clear fluid inside. He jabbed the needle into her arm and pushed the plunger down. Drugs. They would have little to no effect on her, but she needed to pretend to be subdued.
The knife he held picked up what little light there was in the van. Kate recognized the knife from the pictures the police had shown her. She couldn’t read Latin, but suspected the words on the dagger were from the Hands of God, exactly like all the others. Kate tugged at the silver chains around her hands and feet, but nothing gave way, so she waited to see what the human had in store for her.
The man lifted the knife to Kate’s cheek and she felt the coolness of the blade. When her cheek tingled it confirmed to her that the blade was silver. Never before had she been so thankful for her shield, for it made her look quite human since her skin wasn’t currently being burned off. Her eyes grew wide as the tip of the knife traveled down her face, past her chin, and slowly across her chest.
The man sneered at her as he moved the knife down to her bare legs. Kate slowly counted to ten expecting the cut to prove her humanity. She only got to the number three before the blade tore into her flesh. Thankfully, with all the blood she had consumed the hour before school let out, her body was saturated. The excessive blood helped repair the damage she had taken from the blow on the head.
She squirmed and let out a muffled cry, only to be slapped across the face by his meaty paws. She did her best to appear scared, and truth be told, she was, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch for her. She glanced down at her still bleeding leg and wondered how long it would be before her body would heal itself. A moment later, the bastard reached behind her and pulled out a dirty rag. He then tied the grayish–white cloth to her leg to sop up the blood and stop the bleeding. She knew the bandage would cover up the fact that her body would eventually heal. She was grateful for that. However, there was no doubt in her mind that bacteria were quickly gaining ac
cess to her body. It wasn’t like she would get an infection, but Brooke would have. Brooke probably would have died of the head blow alone. Kate focused on that.
Grabbing at her face, the man pulled down her gag and forced her mouth open. He pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and inspected her teeth. Keeping her fangs retracted wasn’t difficult. What Kate worried about was the transmitter. The device must have cut the muster, because the man didn’t seem concerned. Instead, he poked at her tongue piercing.
“You shall not make any cuts on your body or tattoo yourself, so sayeth the Lord. Leviticus 19:28.”
Bible quotes? She didn’t know the Bible. If only Sterling were here – for so many reasons.
The man touched the cross around her neck. “You’re a Christian?”
Ok, for the moment she was one. “Yes.”
He let out only one word, and Kate thought it was eerie the way he said it. The word was “Good.” The man began tearing at her piercings starting with the ones on her hands first. She heard herself scream ‘no’ and then a sharp blow was belted across her face.
She did her best to fight the man off, but with each beating she took, and each rip she felt of the pin being torn from her body, she lost the use of her limbs. When he removed the piercing from her tongue, she even lost the ability to speak.
CHAPTER TWENTY–FIVE
Kekoa needed to get word to Rebecca. The interaction between the boys and the girls at the camp had always been sparse and carefully guarded. Now that Kekoa was older, he noticed his time with the girls had been dramatically limited. He had noticed that Rebecca was allowed less and less time with the boys as well, now that she was well into her teens.
He had to defile a Bible by tearing out its blank title page to write a note to her, but if the word of God was already being twisted, then a missing blank page was minor in the list of sins. As long as the guard wasn’t looking while he hid the note, and as long as Rebecca still remembered their old system, the message would be delivered without a problem.
Thanks to a freed nail from a shut window pane, Kekoa wrote the note in his own blood. Kekoa watched in awe as his finger healed slowly. He suspected the wound would have healed quicker if he ate blood, but he didn’t want to put such a theory to the test, at least not yet. The fact the words were written in a purple hue, and not crimson red, was enough to tell Rebecca he had completed his transition. The note contained details of his plan for tonight, and Rebecca was a part of that plan for the safety of the girls. He securely placed the note in the crux of a tree branch as he marched the boys along for their afternoon exercise. He knew the girls would be by on their own march, so he placed the stones on the ground in a circle which would signal her to check the tree.
The time was still early, just before the last meal, and Kekoa did what he could to carry on the normal routine. Of course, all the metal he touched was silver. He had ripped a small piece of his t–shirt so he could manage, but his fingers were already blistered. Knowing the strain on his body would cause him to age as his body tried to heal itself, he had to put his escape plan into action.
He took the boys to dinner and found himself staring at the veins in their necks. He could hear their heartbeats and he wanted to taste their sweet blood. He choked on the first bite of dinner, which tasted like sawdust. His stomach jerked and he threw up the morsel, catching the food in his napkin. Fortunately, Henry, the guard, didn’t notice. Since Kekoa couldn’t eat his meal, he put the contents on another boy’s plate while Henry looked away.
Henry walked past the rows of boys as they ate. Everything was separate but equal, with Rosalie across the way walking past the tables where the girls sat. This was the closest Kekoa could get to Rebecca to see if she recovered his note. Over the course of the meal, Kekoa kept trying to make eye contact with the girl. While the guards weren’t looking, Rebecca quickly pealed back the lapel of her shirt and flashed him the note she had tucked safely into her bra. She then nodded his way to let him know his message had been received.
Kekoa’s sense of relief was brought suddenly to a halt as Henry began yelling. The guard had begun to tear into one of the younger boys for not eating the peas on his plate. Kekoa stood up. “It’s time for bed.”
Henry spun around and smacked Kekoa hard on his head, knocking him into a table. As Kekoa crumbled to the floor, he noticed his head was bleeding. He couldn’t allow Henry to see the new color, so he quickly said, “Thank you for showing me my place, sir.” After suffering years of beatings at Henry’s hands, Kekoa learned what to say to survive. Kekoa gathered the last of the children and quickly left.
Kekoa was never alone with Henry, or any of the other guards. With children always around, attacking Henry in daylight would be too risky. Even if he could take him out, he still had the guard Rosalie to dispatch, with Deacon Victoria after that.
With his mind no longer clouded by the poison from the food, Kekoa watched as the children walked drowsily out the cabin door. He slumped his shoulders and mimicked their behavior.
There would be several humans dead by his hand tonight. Kekoa took a deep breath. He hated these humans, and wished many times for their death, and tonight was the night. It looked like Rosalie had pulled tonight’s guard duty. Henry must have the night off, because Kekoa saw a different guard watching over the boys’ cabin.
As the last boy in his care settled down, Kekoa glanced over to Michael, a ten–year–old boy who was sound asleep. Kekoa liked the boy, but he was a snitch and reported on everything Kekoa did. Of course, no one ever ate with the young boy, talked with him, or considered him a friend – but who would? Kekoa could hear Michael softly snoring so he went to the lights and flashed them on and off several times – signaling that all boys were accounted for and in the cabin. He waited by the window for Rebecca to return the signal. He waited a long time. As he paced the floor waiting, he heard Stephen restless in his bunk. “Whatcha doing?”
Keeping an eye out the window Kekoa answered the young boy. “Just watching the girls’ cabin. I want to make sure Rebecca and the girls are okay.”
“Rebecca? She the tall one?” Stephen asked sleepily.
“Yes”
“She’s probably,” he said, yawning, “busy with the new girl.”
Kekoa’s heart skipped a beat. “The new girl Tiffany?”
The boy shook his head. “Brooke somebody. She came in today.”
Kekoa’s jaw tightened. He could see Rosalie from the window. Still no signal came from Rebecca. Kekoa shook Stephen more awake. “Tell me everything you know about the new girl.”
Stephen yawned as he wiped his eyes. “I don’t know. She came in after dinner. I didn’t see her, just heard about her from one of the girls. Rebecca had to get her cleaned up for tonight. Something about special prayers. I heard she’s older than Rebecca, so I guess, Deacon Victoria will put her in charge of the girls.”
“What?” Kekoa always feared the possibility of one of the kids being separated. And it now explained why Rebecca wasn’t flickering the lights. Not all the girls were safe and sound.
Kekoa knew Rebecca was only about sixteen and had seemed to be Henry’s chosen favorite. If a new girl was culled from the herd, it was so she could be raped, killed, or both. It had been a long time since there had been a girl at the camp in their late teens, and Kekoa still remembered the haunted looks the girls had after nights with Henry. His heart sank as he realized he didn’t know where Henry was at this very moment.
Kekoa heard the soft snoring of Stephen as he drifted off to sleep. Taking inventory on the boys, he realized they were all passed out.
He knew there were no special prayers. If there were, Henry’s bed was the Alter. Kekoa had to move now.
CHAPTER TWENTY–SIX
As darkness fell, Sterling paced along the camp’s western perimeter, growing more impatient by the minute. Never having attended a summer camp before, he wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t this. The camp seemed like a prison with it
s border fencing and guard dogs near the gate entrance. The two vampires stood downwind of the dogs and out of sight. According to the tracker Ben was watching on his phone, Kate was somewhere inside this depressing jail. The child she had cared for, Tiffany, as well as all the other kidnapped children, were also somewhere inside.
Human smells filled the air in the camp and surrounding woods, even as far away as where they parked their car. No trash collecting trucks would come out this far, especially since he suspected the humans did their best to keep the camp secret. The trash bins overflowed with garbage and leftover food. The stench hung in the air and smelled sickening to Sterling.
As he and Ben waited, movement stirred in the camp. They watched as the humans patrolled the campground. Once or twice they caught a glimpse of the children as they walked from one building to the next for various activities. The guard dogs had ignored the children.
It wasn’t until what they guessed were evening exercises that Sterling recognized Tiffany from the pictures he had seen of her. The child marched up and down the walkway that wound its way around the tiny buildings. Based on the kids’ sluggish movements, Sterling assumed they had all been drugged.
A human female guard marched with them. Sterling swore she looked exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger in a wig, but not as attractive. The guard yelled at the girls and kept them moving even though the girls appeared tired enough to drop.
“No boys,” Ben noted. “Only girls.”
“We know boys were also taken. They must be elsewhere.” Sterling noted the obvious exception to the lineup of girls was that Kate was not with them. At first Sterling thought that Kate may do something foolish, like taking on the humans on her own, but then he realized the huge flaw in that scenario. Tiffany was with the other girls. Kate wouldn’t leave her once she had found her. That could only mean one thing. Kate had been pulled apart from the girls. Sterling’s jaw clenched at the thought.
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