Bastian’s lips twitched at his words and settled his back against the stones. Once the sun set, he could hunt down the woman once again forcing him to do things he never thought he would and find out who she called master these days, kill anyone who stood in his way.
For Catherine, Bastian would destroy the entire Caribbean if it brought her back to his arms. He would kill them all.
***
Catherine glared across the cave at Ridley. He had not stopped eyeing her since Victoria and the others had closed their eyes for rest. She’d come to when Charlotte had thrown her onto the hard stone floor of the dank cave, protecting them from the sun. The horrors of the night replayed over and over in her mind and she could not find enough solace to sleep.
Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on Ridley, waiting for him to try something. The hunger in his eyes was for more than blood and she fought the urge to shake. Not that she could do much else, but sit there in silence. Victoria had seen to that.
Before the woman had closed her eyes, she’d turned her vicious glare on Catherine and ordered her to remain sitting, silent, and unable to try and break free.
Ever since, Catherine had been struggling against the compulsion, but it was too strong. Her limbs did not respond to her commands to move, though her bonds had loosened throughout their travels. If she could force her hands to move, she could slip free. Run from them into the sunlight. She needed to warn Bastian of what awaited him if he continued to follow her.
Where is she even taking me? Bastian never said anything about another vampire controlling so many.
Catherine pictured Bastian’s face before her, his hands running down her arms to try and soother her building fears. Escape. She needed to escape.
”I wonder if he’ll have us turn you,” Ridley said suddenly and Catherine flinched to hear his voice. “You are a pretty thing. I’d hate for Victoria to destroy you completely.”
She could not answer between the gag and the compulsion to be silent, so she simply stared back at him with a narrowed gaze. Turn her. Who was this he? She needed him to keep talking and when he scooted closer, her eyes followed. She tried to look more curious instead of angry, but when he laughed at her, she knew she failed.
“You should be frightened. There is much you do not understand yet.”
Again, she stared. Shift your hands. Move something! You have to break free!
“Bastian is just one of the many we have been ordered to track down,” Ridley went on, lifting his fingers to trail down Catherine’s cheek. “Victoria spoke so highly of him, our master simply had to have him in his collection.”
Collection? You have to get free, Catherine! Think of Bastian! Her hands shifted in her lap and a flicker of hope shot through her. Ridley didn’t seem to notice her movements as she tried to work her hands free. She kept her gaze solely focused on him, encouraging him to stare into her eyes.
“Would you like to be a vampire, Catherine? You could be mine. Bastian is old, too old for you, but I am barely five years turned. Same age as you are now when first bitten,” he said, but there was no sadness to his words. “I relished in that change, being reborn as something greater.”
I’ll relish knowing Bastian is going to kill you, she thought and her hands twitched again.
“Such a beauty to have at my side. Victoria will drain you and torture you out of revenge, but I would rather have your body preserved to be used for…more delectable activities.” His hands gripped her shoulders as he ran his fangs along her neck.
If Catherine could have shuddered, she would have, but her body remained frozen, except her hands. His fangs moved lower as did his hands, finding her waist and massaging her hips. Catherine flinched against her bonds. She needed to break free! Get out of there before he went too far.
Then suddenly Ridley pulled back and his eyes filled with fear. “Haddie, I did not hear you rise.”
Catherine breathed heavily out her nose in relief until the old vampire turned her red glare on Catherine instead of Ridley.
“Whatever you are thinking, stop,” she whispered and Catherine’s mind went blank.
No…no, remember! What is happening here? Remember, you have to tell Bastian! What is it? Do not lose it!
“Victoria will not take kindly to you touching what she has claimed as hers.”
“I meant nothing by it,” Ridley said quietly. “I only wanted her body, not her blood.”
Haddie stepped closer and the young vampire shrank away. “You will not touch her again or I will have your head. Go, sleep, I will take the next watch.”
Ridley sulked farther back into the cave and Haddie remained standing before Catherine. She kept her gaze lowered, away from the old vampire’s and tried to remember what was quickly slipping out of her grasp. They were being taken somewhere…to another vampire. That was it! Catherine kept her excitement to herself, her hands still twitching against the bonds that held her.
“You will not break free,” Haddie said calmly. “Even if you manage to break the compulsion over you, Victoria will simply track you down and beat you for it. There is no escaping your fate now, child.”
Catherine’s hands stopped fidgeting as her gaze met Haddie’s.
“I suggest you rest while you still can. When Victoria awakens, you will wish all you could do was sleep through the pain.”
Haddie walked to the entrance of the cave, staying out of the sunlight leaving Catherine’s mind to race with what was going to come next. Bastian, she needed to get to him. Though it seemed hopeless, her hands began to fidget once again, loosening her bonds even more.
Chapter 6
Catherine’s eyes shot open when her body was yanked back to its feet. She didn’t remember falling asleep and her bonds were tightened once more around her wrists and now they were tied behind her back.
“She nearly broke free,” Victoria hissed close by in the darkness.
They had left the cave. The night breeze was cooling on Catherine’ sweaty skin and she welcomed it, glancing around them. Tree cover blocked the stars and moon and she couldn’t tell where they were headed except deeper into the jungle terrain. Were they even still in the Caribbean? She kicked her legs out and whoever carried her grunted and dropped her to the ground.
“Ah, so she is awake,” Victoria crooned and suddenly appeared before Catherine’s face.
Catherine’s hands were bound behind her back this time and the gag was still in her mouth, but Victoria reached over to remove it. “Where are we?”
“That is what you want to say to me?” Victoria asked, flashing her fangs with a laugh. “Where we are? You will not be able to leave a message for your dear Bastian, at least not one to your liking.”
“He won’t fall for it,” she muttered. “Whatever you’re planning, he won’t make it there. He’ll know you’re taking him to someone.”
Victoria rose and glared at Ridley nearby. “You told her.”
He shrank back into the shadows. “I gave nothing away. Haddie made her forget.”
Haddie raised a brow, tilting her head as she studied Catherine. “Clearly I underestimated the power of this girl’s mind. Maybe there is another reason Bastian was so drawn to her.”
“It matters not,” Victoria snarled. “By the time he finds us, she will be dead and whatever warning she wanted to give him will die with her.” She dragged Catherine up by her hair, making her cry out at the sharp pain along her scalp. “Scream louder, dear, we need Bastian to find us.”
No! Don’t scream! She’s setting a trap for him! You mustn’t!
“I said to scream!” She snarled in Catherine’s face before she opened her mouth and bit Catherine’s neck.
She bit her lip, but Catherine didn’t scream as Victoria fed viciously from her. Victoria pulled back, blood trailing from her mouth and glared at Catherine in her hands. Her eye flared red and she held out her hand to Ridley.
“Knife,” she snapped.
Catherine’s eyes widened and she struggl
ed to get away, but she couldn’t budge. The blade appeared before her and Victoria held it to her cheek. The pain was slight at first until it opened up the skin on her cheek and warm blood swelled in the wound.
“Scream for me,” she whispered and moved the knife to the other cheek.
“I won’t,” Catherine whispered. “I will not lead him here.”
“If you do not scream for me,” Victoria hissed, “then I will leave enough blood for Bastian to believe you are dead.” The blade pressed against Catherine’s cheek. “Scream.”
Catherine cringed in pain, biting her cheek to stop the scream welling within her. She couldn’t lead Bastian here. Not until she knew what Victoria was planning for him. More blood flowed down her face and the blade was slashed across her face. She would have fallen to her knees if Victoria was not holding her up still. The blade went to her forearm, the point digging into the flesh and the vampire began to carve across her arm. Catherine tried to hold back the pain, think of Bastian, but it was no use. Her mouth fell opened and she screamed to the night as the knife moved swiftly across her arm.
When Victoria released her, she fell to her knees, unable to see what she had done to her arm. It throbbed in pain and Victoria’s eyes flared as she bent down, her tongue flicking out to lick up several drops before she gripped the wound and squeezed. A blood curdling shriek flew from her mouth as more blood welled up and soiled the dirt at her feet. Catherine’s vision blurred from the pain and her stomach twisted in knots, bile rising in her throat.
“Come to me, Bastian,” Victoria whispered to the night. “Come to me and find your true master.”
Catherine tried to stay conscious, but then Victoria’s fangs dug back into her throat, she screamed until darkness consumed her once again.
***
Bastian and Tula finished searching the dead vampires Victoria had brought with her, but found nothing to give them an idea of where she was headed to with his beloved Catherine. They reached the coast at the opposite end of the island, Tula checking for signs of boats across the channel to another island when a scream ripped through the night.
“Catherine.” Bastian snarled into the darkness and made to take off in the direction of the scream, but Tula grabbed his arms. “Let me go, Tula.”
“It may be a trap,” he said. “Please, wait.”’
“She’s going to die!”
“No, Victoria will not kill her this quickly. What would be point?”
Another scream and Bastian lunged forward so hard he dragged Tula with him through the sand and up to their knees in water. “I have to get to her!”
“Wait, please, think this through. What is Victoria doing?”
“Killing my soon to be wife,” Bastian snarled, fighting against Tula’s grip, but the man didn’t let him go. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, Catherine’s scream still echoing in his mind though it had died on the night air.
“She did not turn all those vampires herself,” Tula said. “She has a new master, Anton all but admitted there was someone else. Why drag Catherine away if not to simply pull you into whatever trap has been laid? If she wanted Catherine dead, we would have found her body by now.”
Bastian stilled. His words rang true and he stopped his struggling until Tula finally released him.
“What do you suggest we do then? Let Victoria drag her off to wherever this man is waiting for me? She might not kill her, but she’s torturing her, Tula.”
Tula nodded. “I know. I can hear her screams as well, Bastian.”
Bastian forced himself to focus and not take off again. “What do we do, Tula?”
“Where is Victoria heading? This master of hers must have set a meeting place for her to bring you and Catherine.”
“I do not know where this would be.”
“Think, Bastian, she is leading us there. Where is she headed?”
Bastian closed his eyes and pictured where they were. The plantation was behind them to the south. If Victoria was going to Jamaica, she would have taken the boat and left from his island heading the other direction. Instead, the trail in the sand pointed northwards.
“The mainland,” he said quietly. “She is headed in that direction. If she gets there, I don’t know if can track her.”
“Then we best cut her off before she gets there. We need a boat.”
“I can’t abandon this trail we’re on,” Bastian argued. “If Victoria leaves her body somewhere…I need…I need to find it and bring it back to her brother, if nothing else.”
Tula placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. “We need a boat, Bastian. Catherine is still alive. I’m certain of it. We need to sail around and try to find the path she is taking.”
“You think we can find it?”
“It’s better than trying to chase after them blindly and most likely walking into a trap.”
Bastian’s instincts raged at him to continue forward and find Catherine before Victoria could hurt her again, but Tula was right. He was falling into Victoria’s plans and whoever this new master was she served. He couldn’t let himself be taken until he knew Catherine was safe. Whatever game this vampire was playing at, Bastian would hunt him down and end him before he ever let anything happen to the woman he loved and he was not going to be a pawn in this vicious game of chess he found himself trapped in.
“Then I believe we are in need of a boat, Tula.”
“Very good. To Jamaica?”
Bastian gave him a solid nod as he turned away from the island that he sensed Catherine was on. “To Jamaica.”
***
Liam sat back on his haunches, taking a breather as he watched the rest of the slaves and overseers still living work on gathering the dead for burning. There were too many to bury and the vampires under Bastian’s leadership made it clear that their kind needed to be burned to ensure those who attacked did not manage to rise again, head or no head.
And Liam was more than happy to watch them burn.
The shacks were nearly all destroyed so the slaves had taken up residence in the main house, guest house, and any other standing structure while they figured out what to do. Many were still in shock after the attack and wandered aimlessly through the sugar cane fields. The rest celebrated their freedom and the sudden kindness of their old master, giving them means to leave the island and create new lives for themselves. The stores of food and supplies were brought out to be divided, the vampires seeing to it that slave and overseer received equal share of whatever they required.
Liam wanted to hate them for what they were, but these vampires were not the ones who attacked the island, or kidnapped his sister.
Those were being hunted down by the master himself, a vampire who loved his sister.
A soft hand landed on his shoulder before Mary sat down in the dirt beside him, wearing a simple dress instead of her usual clothing for her work in the main house. “I still can’t believe this is real,” she whispered.
He reached up and took her hand tightly in his, sitting down all the way beside her. “Most don’t. I’m still trying to understand what I saw…those things I killed…they were vampires.”
“And yet there’s more helping us.” She shook her head and leaned against his shoulder. “This whole time, Master Lavelle was a vampire…they all were.”
“Yes and he’s my soon to be brother in law.”
“Vampires in the family, what a strange place we’ve found ourselves in.”
Liam’s lips twitched in a smile before he started to laugh. She joined him, sitting there in the dirt laughing together at where their lives had landed them. They had been kidnapped, sailed across the world, made into slaves, and now they were suddenly free again, to go where they wanted. Start their lives together. He could truly be with Mary now without fear of what would happen to them on this island.
But he couldn’t leave the plantation, not yet. He swore he would see everyone else taken care of first and he needed to know his sister was alive. That Bastian would fi
nd her and bring her back to them. Liam’s laughter faded as the rest of what Bastian had told him passed through his mind.
He would do whatever was necessary to keep Catherine alive. Not breathing with a beating heart, just simply alive.
“My sister might come back as one of them,” he whispered.
“Catherine a vampire?”
Liam nodded. “I don’t know if I can handle seeing her as one of them.”
“They are terrifying in their own right,” Mary said, shuddering. Liam knew what she was remembering. She’d told him what happened to her during the attack, the vampire that saved her from having her throat ripped out by another. But where he came from, these were beasts from the darkness, demons of hell. Not beings he wanted to be around if he could help it. And his sister turning into one? Would she remember who he was or who she had been?
Would she be tempted by his blood?
“Liam? What is it?”
“Just praying my sister is still alive,” he whispered. “I don’t understand how any of this happened. She fell in love with a vampire and now she is going to get herself killed because of him.”
Mary frowned. “Bastian was ready to marry her because he loved her, Liam. He went after her because he loves her. He will not let your sister die.”
“No,” Liam muttered darkly, “he’ll just turn her into what he is.”
“Would you rather your sister die and never see her again or have a second chance at life even if it is as one of them?”
He chewed his lip, watching the slaves and overseers move about. The vampires were making ready to take shelter for the day, away from the harsh rays of the sun. Many would be departing the island soon enough and Liam would help see them to whatever boats were available to get them to the main ports of the Caribbean.
“Will you stay with me?” he asked quietly. “Stay until they return?”
Mary squeezed his hand and leaned over to kiss him. “You know I will never leave you, Liam.”
“Good, that’s good.”
“Well,” she said and grinned, “except now so we can get out of the dirt.”
SV02-06. Slave to a Vampire Page 14