Enduring Service

by Regina Morris

  The unknown vampire had already stopped in his tracks. Obviously he had detected the other vamps nearby. He ran down a side hallway leading towards the morgue. At vampire speed, the team chased the vampire who slipped on the freshly washed floor and slid across to the end of the hallway and its double doors. Sterling also fell once his feet hit the wet tile. He landed on his back and the team jumped over him, pursuing their prey who had just managed to open the double doors and make his way into the room.

  Raymond caught the ground running after jumping over his son. He heard at least one other team member stumble and even heard his wife as she helped Sterling up. Raymond didn’t stop to look around. He focused on the double doors and barreled into them with a resounding thud.

  Once inside the morgue, he found the place empty. No doctors, no technicians, and, more importantly, no rogue vampire. But the predator signs remained strong. He sensed the vampire nearby and paused to listen to any sounds as his team followed him into the room.

  The morgue was a tiled room with two empty exam beds attached to monitors and scales, with large metal drawers that lined the adjacent wall. The meager rectangular room contained a small desk and computer at the opposite end.

  Deathly silence filled the room as the team filed in and spread out. Sterling covered the door, Alex the outer perimeter leading to the desk and Ben and Raymond walked towards the drawers. The lack of windows or an exit kept the search limited to just these few square feet, and Raymond knew they’d find answers before leaving this room.

  Alex quickly searched the desk area. There was little to check and she soon made her way to the wall of drawers. Raymond started with the top left drawer and worked his way down. The drawers slid effortlessly against their metal gears and were well weighted. The empty ones slid freely while the others moved more slowly, but still just as gracefully.

  Three dead bodies and nearly half the drawers were inspected before Raymond’s tug on a drawer in the middle row yielded the prize. Raymond had opened the drawer barely a foot, exposing only the vampire’s head. Still, the vampire tried his best to spring himself from the metal coffin.

  Raymond’s face grew red with anger as he slammed the vamp’s shoulders onto the metal tray and pinned him down. Raymond didn’t have time to be polite or nice. This scum knew the location of his sister and he would squeal or die. He didn’t remove his hands until Ben came to the other side of the drawer and took Raymond’s place pinning the vamp down.

  With his hands now free, Raymond gripped the vampire’s head. Using his special ability to read and compel vampires, Raymond began plunging into the vampire’s mind. He read through recent memories quickly, not caring about the pain it inflicted. Tearing further down the neural passageways of the mind, Raymond pulled the information he wanted. Name. Family. Sulie’s location.

  The vampire, whose name Raymond discovered was Julian, slumped and moaned in pain. He offered no resistance. Raymond continued ripping the sought after information from him. Location. Cord blood. The details spilled from him like an open wound. The information came fast and Julian sagged in defeat, his face pained by the torture.

  Before releasing Julian’s head, Raymond slammed it against the metal tray once more. He paced back and forth in front of the nearly unconscious vamp. Raymond’s jaw tightened, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. The team stared at him with widened eyes, waiting for the next move.

  Raymond pointed back to the vamp. “Julian gave me what we need to know.” He paced again with a disgusted expression on his face.

  “What?” Ben asked.

  “They’re using her. Like some prized dog, they want to… mate and breed.” Raymond now looked at Julian. “He believes Charles and Sulie are in love, even though they kidnapped her.” He pulled out his cell phone and called William. “What’s the big guy up to right now?” he barked into the phone.

  “The usual when he’s on vacation,” William answered over the phone line.

  Raymond’s face hardened. “So you’re not covering him right now?”

  William huffed into the phone, “His girlfriend is covering him right now. I’m just helping Daniel and Brandon watch the house.”

  “Good. Leave him there and meet me at the address I’m texting you. Be ready for a fight.” Raymond hung up the phone and punched in the address on his phone. He now glared at their prisoner. His eyes narrowed as Julian moaned and stirred back to life. “Him,” Raymond said, pointing at Julian, “He doesn’t die.” He looked at the team members. “He is our only link to Sulie. He dies when I say so.”

  Chapter Twenty–Seven

  Sulie downed the second glass of blood. She wasn’t sure how long the gift sat on the floor this time while she napped, but the drink tasted delicious at room temperature. Thinking that her new found friend was like Santa and only arrived with presents once you were asleep, Sulie considered the possibility of taking more naps.

  She had just finished hiding the glass out of sight, with the other one she had collected, when she heard the tumbler of the outer lock. She wiped her mouth clean. Normally, accepting help from anyone would have bothered her, but she was grateful for the mysterious blood. The amount wasn’t enough to fill her, but enough to keep her aging somewhat manageable.

  Charles emerged from the shadows, keeping at a safe enough distance from the lock. In his hands, he held some official looking papers and a phone. Sulie sat on the bed. If he wanted to talk to her, he’d have to enter the room. There was no way she was going to play by his rules any longer.

  “Baby doll, I have something to show you.” When Sulie looked away, he added, “I think this video of Johnny would be of interest to you. But, I guess if you don’t want to see it…” he said, his finger over a display button.

  Neither Sulie nor the rest of the Colony called Dixon by his first name, but when Sulie heard the name “Johnny” her heart sank. She rushed to the door as fast as her old vampire stamina could muster.

  “What video?” she said as nonchalantly as she could.

  He turned the phone so the video displayed sideways, giving her a larger picture for her failing eyes. Sulie watched in horror as Trudy tore into Dixon’s flesh, and his body crumpled to the ground.

  “Trudy was a bit peckish,” he said as he put away the phone.

  Sulie’s eyes widened with fright and a gasp escaped her throat. They had her Dixon. Somehow, somewhere, they had found him. Her mouth was dry. All she wanted to do was cry out, but there was no one to come to her rescue. It was her own selfishness with the Verheiratet’s Schlange that had put all of this into motion. Only she was to blame. She would find a way out for Dixon.

  Charles waved the papers he held towards her. “Our marriage license, baby doll.”

  Her tear–filled eyes narrowed in on the paperwork.

  “Sign this document. Give me a child. Or I will kill him.”

  With trembling fingers, she accepted the license. To her horror, she recognized the original contract drafted on their first engagement. Her mother had signed the document with her own blood giving consent to the union as Sulie’s closest relative in her bloodline. Sulie’s chest tightened and she struggled for breath as she looked down at the purple signature. Tears streamed down her face, but she went to the effort to read the entire contract line by line. She noticed the original purity section indicating Sulie was a virgin had been crossed out and initialized as an approved change by Charles. Overall, it was a standard marriage contract and her signature meant saving Dixon’s life. That’s all that mattered.

  Charles held out an antique quill pen. “For your signature to be legal, you must sign in your blood.”

  She allowed him to stab her finger. Losing more of her precious blood, she signed herself away to the one man she hated most on earth, so she could save the man she loved the most.

  Snatching the paperwork immediately on its completion, Charles took the pen and pulled them both through the bars of the cell. “Good choice, baby doll.”

&n
bsp; Sulie called out to him as he turned to leave. “Where’s Johnny?” she yelled, using Dixon’s first name.

  “All in due time.” He removed the locket from his pants pocket and dangled it in front of the bars to her cell. His eyes widened and he took a step back as her hand flung through the bars in an effort to grab it. With his movements, she failed to grab the treasure, but managed to slap the locket from his hand. She watched as it flew to the wall opposite her cell and slid across the dirty floor.

  Charles’ jaw tightened. “First, I file this paperwork to make the marriage legal. Our union will be approved immediately since your blood is dark purple. Plus, I’m not willing to wait the three months to confirm you’re not with child. It’s obvious by the color of your blood.” He smirked as he glanced over her aged body. “I’ll be back when the paperwork clears. Then, once the rabbit dies, I’ll consider setting your Johnny boy free.”

  Chapter Twenty–Eight

  Dixon woke to a stench that nearly caused him to vomit. His back ached as he felt the hard floor beneath him. He was not accustomed to sleeping on such a hard surface, let alone the ground. Knowing he’d be stiff for days, he opened his eyes and looked around. He found himself locked in a cage with other humans. The cage was in the dining room of the abandoned restaurant and he lay on a rug in the center of it. All he could remember was Trudy compelling him to remember the pain, but to forget what she was, that instead he had been attacked by a wild animal. Wild animal was right. The bitch tore into his neck like she hadn’t eaten in a week. He reached up to feel the scar, but evidently Trudy had sealed the wound shut. Of course, the pain, the bruise soon to be formed, and the blood all over his shirt were mementos of the humiliation he had suffered.

  The fact that the wound on his neck had been sealed terrified him. He was meant to suffer, and to live a long time so he could suffer as long as possible. Why not kill him outright? Probably because he was meant to be a pawn in a sinister game against Sulie. He took a deep breath. Pawn or not, he was closer to saving her. At least, he hoped as much.

  Stretching, he felt the stiffness of his neck where Trudy had fed on him. She really was a bitch — a very hungry bitch. He felt woozy sitting on the floor. He had never been fed on before, at least not like that. Twice in the line of duty, he had allowed a team member to feed from his wrist to keep them alive, but that was different. Being bitten from the neck was more intimate, more personal. And to be forced like that… Dixon shuddered at the memory.

  The dining room. How apropos he’d end up here, served up like a meal. He wore no shackles, no gag, nothing that would keep him still in this cage. Trudy had compelled him like a dog to stay. He wasn’t a dog, but he recognized a bitch when he saw one. Thankfully, her compelling could not get past Raymond’s protective subroutine. Dixon remained aware of who she was and what she was doing the entire time.

  He carefully stood up and nearly fell over backwards. He stumbled onto another human man in the cell and grabbed the man’s shoulders for support, but then plopped down onto the carpet as his legs gave out. He looked over at the man. He could make out his face in the darkened room. His expression remained stone–cold with his eyes staring off into the distance. Studying the others in the cage, he noticed they all had the same look on their faces. All had blood on their collars and necks. All were human. Or, more to the point, cattle to the vamps. Both men and women sat quietly on the floor, a good dozen of them, with the weaker ones lying down.

  He needed his iron pills or he’d be flat on his back and useless too. He still suffered from anemia and had just lost a large amount of blood for the second time in one day. He remembered Trudy complains of the taste, but saying nothing could compare with cord blood, so she probably didn’t pick up on his illness. He must have fainted at the blood loss. Fainted, looked weak. Maybe he could use that against her. Dixon pulled out of his pocket the small pill case containing iron pills and the nearly full vial that held the Devolixion. Of course, there was nothing to wash the pills down with. Then he remembered that Sulie had always said that Devolixion was a safe drug with no issues if he took too much. He removed the dropper and used all the liquid Devolixion to wash down the iron pills.

  The Devolixion tasted extra strong when not diluted in coffee. He licked his lips, wiping away all of its sweetness. He tossed the empty dropper bottle aside and put the container of iron pills back in his pocket as he took some extra deep breaths to awaken his tired body. After a few minutes, he felt a surge of energy like a jolt of caffeine.

  He was tempted to sit and rest, to gain even more strength, but the thought of Sulie being so close by fueled his resolve. He took several more deep breaths and then began to inspect his surroundings. It was dark, but he could see none of the humans were chained up. At first he had assumed they sat or lay lifeless from lack of energy or compellings, but as he moved around the cage, he noticed that some were not alive at all. They had been bled dry by multiple feedings. Their clothes covered in their own dried blood.

  He searched the humans to find anything of value for survival. Their pockets yielded random car keys, Kleenex and lint — nothing electronic. On the women, he found Bobby pins and barrettes, which he placed in his pocket. The most valuable discovery was three silver necklaces, at least he hoped they were silver and not white gold. He clasped them together to form one long chain and placed the weapon in his pocket as well.

  He stood and slowly made his way towards the cage door. A standard padlock secured it and kept him from his freedom. Using one of the found hair pins, he began picking the lock.

  Chapter Twenty–Nine

  “We need to move him,” Raymond said. He held Julian’s arms down in the cold metal drawer, which prevented the mentally exhausted vampire from gaining any leverage to escape. In response, the vampire kicked his legs violently within the drawer, the echoing noise resounding within the room and presumably down the hallway. Ben forced the vampires head to remain still and his eyes open while Raymond used his special ability to compel the vampire to lie still and comply with his demands. Julian’s eyes, first wide in fright, immediately changed to stare blankly at the ceiling once Raymond was done.

  Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin silver chain. As Ben began securing Julian’s hands—only touching the leather tips on the ends of the chain— Raymond heard Sterling out in the hallway compelling some humans who had come in search of the commotion. From the chatter in the hallway, the noise sounded as though several humans now kept his son busy.

  “Help Sterling. Check for video feeds in the hallway and then go back to the lab and fetch all vials of the cord blood,” Raymond said to Alex. As she walked away, Raymond pulled Julian from the cold, metal drawer. The prisoner was small in frame, barely reaching six feet — a weakling by all accounts in the vampire world, but still a threat to be dealt with carefully. Raymond pointed to a hospital smock draped on the back of the chair by the desk. Ben grabbed the smock and helped put it on Julian to cover his cuffed hands.

  The team led Julian out of the morgue and to the nearest exit. Alex returned, carrying the cord blood from the lab. She nodded back towards the opposite way they walked. “One camera. More will probably be on the roof outside.”

  “Here,” Raymond said, handing her the keys to the van. “Sterling drives. Have him pull the van up.”

  Raymond and Ben waited until they heard the van before they walked outside with their prisoner. The vampire’s dim expression and relaxed compelled state changed once the bright sun hit his eyes. Julian came out of the compelling halfway to the van and stopped mid stride. He let out a fierce growl as Raymond and Ben picked him up on each side and carried him the rest of the way. The vampire twisted and Raymond heard a pop from his shoulder as his bone pulled from the socket.

  Alex ran ahead and opened the sliding door, and got in. Raymond and Ben threw the vampire in the van. Without the use of his hands, he hit the floor hard. As he cursed at his captors, Raymond and Ben got into the van, pushing the vam
pire’s body aside to make room. Raymond closed the door and the scene reminded him of Sulie’s abduction, which seemed so similar to this one. His boot hit the vampire square in the jaw even before the door locked into place.

  Raymond felt a sigh of relief as he realized his wife and hybrid son now sat the farthest away from their prisoner, leaving the two strongest vamps of the group in the back with him. From what he had gathered from Julian’s mind, he called out their destination. “Drive to Mohler Street. There is a shopping mall there. The building is old and abandoned.”

  Alex leaned her head. “Vinos?” When her husband looked questioningly at her, she explained. “It’s a big restaurant with small shoppettes in a mall. It served good Italian food… well, for a while it did. The restaurant closed down a few years ago.”

  Julian glanced up at his captors; his eyes widened with disbelief. “So it’s true,” he said, wincing in pain as he shifted his body to lay his shoulder straight on the floor. “You are some type of mind reader.”

  Raymond looked over at Julian. Waves of pure hatred emanated from their captive vampire. “Are Sulie and Dixon in the restaurant?”

  Julian blinked a few times. The compelling to walk casually with them to the car was now over, and his blank stare became more focused. He glanced away from Raymond towards the other team members and then to the door, which was locked.

  “There’s no escape,” Raymond said. “You will talk — either on your own or with my help.”

  Julian’s jaw clenched. “No wonder Sulie is terrified of you,” he said.