by S. L. Gavyn
“You stupid woman. You know nothing. It is not surprising you found nothing about us. Ever hear the words ‘secret society’?”
“Ah. So you’re that kind of group. You know, it’s the twenty-first century. Don’t you think it’s time to come out of the closet?”
“I know what you’re doing. You hope to infuriate me until I lose control and tell you information I would otherwise not reveal. You can save your tactics because they will not work on me. I will tell you that the Caduceus are in every form of government in every country in the world and the majority of their members are well connected. We have but one purpose. To eliminate the threat to the Humans of this planet.”
“And I’m assuming the Fabled are this threat you speak of?”
He just smiled.
“Okay, then on a more personal note. What the hell am I doing here? I’ve never killed a Human before. I was a Human before I was made Fabled. How do you justify capturing me and holding me prisoner?”
“You are not here because I see you as a threat. You are here because you quite possibly might be the answer we have been searching for.”
“I’m not following. If you think I’m going to help you kill innocent people you have the wrong woman.”
“I don’t believe you will help voluntarily but lucky for me your assistance isn’t really needed. Once we figure out how you were created we could possibly find the answer to destroying the Fabled for good.”
“Yeah, I’m not really seeing that happening. Here’s the way this is going to go. I’m going to get free. Then I’m going to rally a group of the baddest mofos you have ever seen and we are going to rain hell down on your little facility here. And me? I’m going to be coming for you. You have killed your last innocent.”
He laughed. “I don’t see how you are going to do that when you have no magic. You’re powerless and there are a great many guards between you and freedom.”
I smiled back at him. “You forget that I was Human too. I know how to survive without magic.” I shrugged. “You can heed my warning but I know an egomaniac like you won’t so we will see how this plays out.”
“I think it’s time for your first session with the doctor.”
He pushed a button on his phone and a few moments later the door opened. The same guard from earlier entered the room and I stood up.
“This has been a great chat Neil. We’ll have to do it again soon.”
“Absolutely. Take care until then.”
I winked at him before turning to follow the guard.
I was led to another room down the same hall I was kept in earlier. Only this room was setup like an operating room. There was a table in the middle of the room with several large, adjustable lights overhead. Cabinets and countertops lined the walls with various medical supplies laid out on top. The tray beside the table was what caught my attention the most. There were several scalpels, tweezers, a pair of pliers and a drill of some kind laid out. As well as a couple of syringes.
“I take it this is the torture, I mean, exam room?”
The man I attacked earlier walked into the room from a door off the side. His nose was swollen and his eyes were beginning to form bags underneath.
“Hey, no hard feelings about earlier. ‘Kay? It was the drug wearing off. Kinda made me testy.”
He looked at me with hatred in his eyes before he smiled evilly. “No worries pet. I like when they fight back.” He looked at the guard. “Strap her to the table.”
“Straps? Nah, straps won’t be necessary. I’ve been going to the doctor for years. I know how to hold still.”
He smiled again. “I don’t think you’ll hold still for what I have in store.”
Douche bag number two was just added to the list.
The guard made sure the straps were nice and tight. By the time we would finish here I’ll be lucky if I can still feel my fingers and toes.
“They call me the doc. It is my job to extract samples for testing and to obtain any information needed from the patients.”
“Hi doc. My name is Sunny, I’m a Sagittarius who likes her freedom and punching men in the face. Is there any other information you need today?”
“Oh, our session today won’t be about gathering information. After all, the Vamps who sent you here gave us more than enough. No, today I’m going to be gathering samples and paying you back for your little outburst earlier.”
I smiled at him. “Well, let’s get on with it then.”
He smiled in return. “My pleasure.”
He started it easy by taking blood samples none too lightly. Once he had that out of the way he grabbed one of the scalpels off the tray, lifted my shirt and proceeded to cut a small section of skin off my stomach. It was just the top layer so there should be no lasting damage other than a scar. Once he had that in a tube with the necessary information written on it he returned to the table and looked me over. My shirt was still raised so he placed his hand over the bandage where he had just taken part of my skin. He dug his thumb into the cut before rubbing his hand over my stomach.
“You are a very pretty woman.”
“Aw. You say the nicest things.”
“I’m going to love making you ugly. When I am finished no one will want you. Not that you will ever leave this place anyway.”
“Are you just going to talk or are we going to get this over with?”
He smiled before he reached back and slapped me hard. I just looked at him. I could feel the blood run across my face from where he had split my lip but I would be damned if I would give him the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me. He bent over and licked the blood off the side of my face. Now that was just gross.
“Mm. You taste good. Let’s see if I can’t get some more out of you.” He reached for one of the scalpels on the tray.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Takin’ out the man”
“Oh my Goddess. Sunny, are you alright?”
The guard pushed me into the room and I fell straight to the floor. “Just fine. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be right as rain.”
I tried to pick myself up but the drugs he had given me left me unable to move my limbs still. Unfortunately they didn’t deaden the feeling in them just the motor function.
Phaedra helped me up onto a cot then stood back uncertain. “I don’t know what to do. You have so many bruises and cuts. What can I do to help you?”
“There is nothing to do. I’ll be fine eventually. He made sure not to do any lasting damage. I’m sure he’s had years of practice at it.”
“Why did you anger him? He doesn’t hurt you when he’s not mad.”
I looked at her. This poor woman. What has that monster done to her during her time here? I reached for her slowly and took her hand.
“I’ll be alright. Don’t worry.”
There was a tear in her eye but she nodded.
That started a regular routine for me and the doc. He would try to hurt me as much as possible then he would give me a day or two to heal before trying something new. He explained to me that they wanted to test me to see what my tolerance was and what worked on me and what didn’t. They already knew electricity and their drugs worked like they were supposed to so they moved on to the tolerance part of the experiment. On the third day several probes were placed on me in strategic places to measure my heart rate and brain function before I was submerged in a tub of water by the good doctor for a period of ten minutes. He told me afterward that I wasn’t breathing and my heart stopped for almost five minutes but miraculously it started back and I gasped for breath. A series of tests were performed afterward to measure my brain waves. Doc said with much chagrin that they read normal. I was dressed in scrubs and given the next day to recuperate.
The following day I was again strapped with monitors before being taken to a locked room in the bottom level of the facility. There was a panel beside the door with a digital display showing it was negative five degrees. Doc unlocked the door and threw me inside. Though ther
e was a light inside everything was covered with a thin layer of frost. I knew what I would find here though. I ran over to the first Vamp. It was Elena Carter. I wiped the frost off of her eyes and she looked at me. Though she was frozen solid she was still alive and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Elena, my name is Sunny Dubois. I’m going to get us all out of here but I need you to hold on just a little longer. You can do that. You mother is worried sick about you and I’m going to return you to her. Just. Hold. On.”
She didn’t respond. I hadn’t expected her to but there is a lot to be said about hope. It can change the world or it can cause a scared Vampere to not let go even though she’s in pain. I visited the other three victims to tell them the same thing. Only the last victim was still alive but there was no way to tell for how long. After a while it became hard to keep moving so I took a seat in the corner to wait for them to release me.
Release didn’t come. My entire body began shutting down from the cold and I was lucky that my brain was one of the first organs to go into stasis. At least I wouldn’t have to feel the cold burn if I was unconscious.
I was in a tent and there was a flame dancing on the canvas roof. I watched the flame wishing I could touch it. Cold. I was so cold. Just the thought of it made me shiver.
“There is no cold here child. We are in the middle of the desert after all.”
I turned to see Aerystasia. She looked much better than when I first met her.
“And you look much worse. Time has not been nice to you.”
I tried to smile. I wanted to tell her everything. She was my only hope but that wasn’t what first came out.
“Did you find him?”
She smiled like I had not seen before. “I did. I owe you much.”
“I’m glad you are able to be happy, Aerystasia. You deserve it.”
She smiled again. “I know you are not just here to check on my love life.”
“I’m imprisoned by Humans. They have suppressed my magic and are…I don’t want to get into that.”
“You have went into such a deep unconscious state that you have been able to contact me on this plane. I would say they are trying to kill you. Freezing to death is such a nasty way to go.”
“Could you get a message to someone for me?”
“I will. You wish me to tell your father?”
“Yes. I am somewhere in the middle of wheat fields, maybe the mid-west. It’s a facility owned by Neil Niobe’s company LabTech and there are a bunch of windmills surrounding it. The windmills are powering the underground facility and, if I’m correct, whatever it is that is blocking my magic. Tell them to destroy the windmills first. That will give me a chance to protect myself if they decide to kill us.”
“There are more than just yourself?”
“Yes, at least two Vamps and a Phoenix. There may be more.”
“I will relay your message. You will protect this Phoenix. She is indeed the last. Promise me you will protect her.”
“I will do my best to protect them all.”
She smiled at me and there was a bright light forming over her face. I tried to reach for her but the light grew until it covered my entire sight. I blinked a couple of times and realized I was lying on the doc’s table. My limbs were still partially frozen and it burned intensely. I ignored it. My mind was reeling with the knowledge I was able to talk to Aerystasia. Hopefully I actually spoke with her and it wasn’t just a hallucination brought on by hypothermia.
After I thawed out I was returned to the room but I didn’t dare tell Phaedra about my encounter while frozen. I’m sure they were watching us all the time and I couldn’t take the chance of tipping them off. So I kept quiet and endured.
I was allowed to rest for the next two days. On the third day I was brought into Neil’s office again. I took a seat in the same chair and smiled at him.
“Enjoying your stay so far?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve been on worse cruises. At least you haven’t left me stranded on a deserted island yet.”
“Hm. We’ll have to consider it.”
“Nah, I’d just escape and where’s the fun in that?”
“I must say, you are quite resilient. It looks like you might live through almost anything. Of course there are still several test to go.”
“You know, I’ve come to wonder. What do you get out of this? I mean, the doc I understand. He’s just a sociopath. The pain gets him off. But you. You don’t seem to really enjoy the torture so why do it?”
“I was born into the Caduceus. My ancestor was one of the founders. I guess you could say it’s a tradition.”
“Some people celebrate Christmas you kill Fabled. Yeah, that doesn’t sound crazy at all.”
“To some it might. But I watched my parents’ throats being ripped out by Werewolves so I take my work rather personal.”
“I’m sure they didn’t have it coming at all.”
His eyes narrowed and I smiled sweetly.
“Okay, I get it now. I understand what your motives are but there is still one thing I don’t understand. Why work with Desiree? If you hate Fabled so much, why use them to collect your patients?”
“That is the thing about you Fabled. You are so ruthless it isn’t hard to find someone to turn against the others. Desiree for example. All it took was the promise to raise her up to rule the remainder of the Vampere population once we have culled the crop, so to speak and she was willing to give me anything I want. It certainly makes it easier to find applicable specimens when they are practically hand delivered.”
“I see. I suppose Desiree’s need for power has made her blind to the truth that you would rather slit her throat than make her ruler of anything.”
He smiled. “Now you, little abomination. You are one of the exceptions. I don’t think there is anything I could offer you that would make you a turncoat.”
“I don’t know. Maybe a one-way trip out of here and your head on a platter could change my mind.” I looked at him for a second. “Perhaps not.”
He just looked at me for a minute and it started to creep me out so I decided to change the topic to one he would like better.
“So what’s on the agenda for today? Electric shock? Oops. Did that one. Hm, let’s see. What haven’t you tried to kill me with? You know you could just shoot me but I guess that’s rather messy. Then again, the doc seems to like it messy. You could always cut my limbs off and see if they grow back. I’m guessing they won’t.”
“My, you are quite gung ho to have yourself tortured.”
I shrugged. “Might as well get it over with. You’re going to do it anyway and to be honest, you bore me. The whole holier than thou act has been played. Don’t you think?”
He got up from his chair and walked around to the front of the desk leaning on it. He reached forward and stroked my face.
“You are so lovely.” He took a lock of my hair and ran it through his fingers. “I really wish we could have met under different circumstances.”
“Nah, I don’t like the sadistic dickhead type.”
He smiled. “So lovely. We’ll see how lovely you are after today’s experiment.”
Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach but I kept my smile on my face. “I guess we’ll find out.”
The guard entered the room and led me down the hall to the lower level again. We walked past the cooler where the Vampere were held and continued until we reached the end. He opened a door and pushed me inside. There was another table in the center of the room but this one looked solid steel with shackles attacked to it. There was a furnace in the corner of the room with an open front and several pokers laid in it. I gulped. This was going to be extremely unpleasant.
The doc stepped out of a corner on the opposite side of the room and motioned for the guard to put me on the table. I tried to escape. There is no way in hell I’m just going to let him strap me to a table and burn me repeatedly. The guard grabbed both of my arms and lifted me off the ground. I tried head buttin
g him but he held me out too far. I kicked him in the knee as hard as I could but they didn’t allow me shoes so it didn’t do much damage. I screamed. Not that it would do much good. He carried me to the table and threw me on top but I continued to fight him. I managed to get my left arm free and punched him in the head. He continued trying to lock down my right arm while I punched him. Finally the doc grabbed my left arm so the guard could shackle my right.
An earthquake shook the ground beneath us. The entire room rumbled and plaster fell from the ceiling. The doc was knocked away from me but the guard managed to hold on. I stopped fighting and just smiled at him.
“I’m back.”
I used Vamp speed to slip out from under him and ran for the furnace. They want to play with pokers. I’ll play. I grabbed the first poker and ran back to the guard. It slid into his eye socket like a knife through butter and I kept pushing until I felt it break through the back of his skull. I turned to the doc.
“You and I are going to have so much fun. I would love to take the time to torture you properly but I’ve got innocent people to save.”
I knew it would be only a matter of minutes before Lucian and his team started ransacking the facility so I picked him up and threw him onto the table then cuffed both hands before I returned to the furnace to get another poker.
“The good thing is the heat will cauterize the wound so you won’t bleed out right away. The bad news is it’s gonna burn like a son of a bitch.”
I used Vamp speed and slammed the poker through his stomach all the way until it was imbedded into the steel table. His scream was so high pitched it was almost funny.
I patted his cheek and smiled at him. “Have fun. If I get a chance I’ll come back and play some more.”
“You bitch.” He was panting like a dog. I patted his cheek once more and left the room. I needed to get to the others before someone decided to kill them all. The explosion had knocked out the main power but there were still emergency lights throughout the facility. I made it to the freezer first and saw the lights were off the screen beside the door but there was still a lock on the door. I looked around for something to break it with but couldn’t find anything.