Exsanguinate

by Killion Slade

  And of course we don’t want to involve the police now do we? Just think of the damaging publicity your game will get on how you secretly breed women to sell babies to bleed every day to satisfy the never ending-hunger of vampires. The headlines would be fantastic – Cheyenne O’Cuinn, head programmer uses monthly revenue from the game ExsanguiNation to sadistically breed and traffic babies for vampire blood orchards.

  Of course, the public version would be along the lines of sex trafficking young girls. But you get the picture.

  Be in the game at three a.m. We have a few riddles to answer. Be there or delivery trucks will bring one of your sisters in little bitty pieces by noon.

  Oh and one more thing, if you try to involve the police or that idiot Stovall, you’ll soon find other loved ones missing as well – if not already.

  The parchment disintegrated in Lady Cazenove’s hands and vanished. The whole building dissolved around her as if it had never existed. Everything gone, the women, the sound of the milking machines, the barn, that horrific image of Sheridan being raped. Gone. I had no proof to take to anyone except the print screen. Lady Caz now stood in the middle of a lonely, dark cornfield surrounding by nothing but the haunted melodies of the wind rushing through the dead corn stalks.

  After viewing the incomprehensible horror in the haunted barn, seeing those women savagely hung from life support harnesses with their swollen, pregnant bellies – I just didn’t know what to say. Was this the fate of my sisters?

  Bright red, bloody tears oozed from my eyes. In a few hours, I would be challenged to solve puzzles and play Ludovic’s stupid games. They were going to be tortured even more than they had already been if I failed them.

  Khaldon stood up and pulled a few Kleenex out of the box and gently wiped at my tears. He put his arms around me. His face seemed just as shocked and stunned as mine to gawk at the horror we just witnessed. He leaned against the counter and pulled me closer into his chest. I finally lost it. I was flat out scared of everything that had happened to me and my family. I succumbed to the grievous pain over the past week. I ached at my sisters’ misery. I mourned my own mortality. I sank to my knees and he followed. He held me, rocking me back and forth on the floor.

  Moments seemed like eons, and all I could do was pathetically weep. I begged the Goddess for answers that weren’t coming.

  “Why did this have to happen to me? What did we do to deserve such ridiculous crap served up to all of us?” I sniffed and wiped at my face. “Maybe … we’ve been cursed for setting fire on top of ‘Ole Man Flannery’s headstone? It was only a simple séance to tell him that the new owners of his ranch were real jerks, and he needed to come back and haunt them.”

  As slow as the decent was into my own self-pity and grief, I ascended out of it in a flash when I realized the immediate danger of Ludovic’s last words: you’ll soon find other loved ones missing as well – if not already.

  Roxas!

  In an instant I was on my feet, pounding at the keyboard. Recalling his words. “Khaldon, Ludovic said he would be hurting more people I loved if I didn’t comply. How do I know he hasn’t already started?”

  I was at this jerkoff’s mercy, and he knew it. Trying to catch my breath, to calm myself down with my father’s breathing techniques, I found it hard as anxiety spooled around my rib cage tighter than a corset on a beer wench. I tried again in vain to find Roxas online. Panic overpowered me steamrolling me into submission.

  Khaldon stood up off his knees and sat back down in front of his computer. My fingers smoked the keyboard searching for any possible place Roxas might be logged on. “Roxas never signed off without saying goodnight to me, Khaldon. Never. He wouldn’t have left me. He would have called, texted, Skyped, or something.”

  Khaldon looked at me and bit his lower lip.

  “My chat logs recorded our last conversation the night before the attack. Everything else is server side.” I checked my messages once again for every conceivable place Roxas communicated. “The last entry was the afternoon I left the hospital. I can’t find another data log from that point.”

  “Who is this Roxas person? Your brother?” Khaldon asked.

  “Umm. No. He’s … well. He’s my boyfriend, albeit online virtual boyfriend, but we met in the hospital after my attack. He’s never been unreliable. If anything, Roxas is my cornerstone programmer for the game. He’s been my rock for over two years now. He wouldn’t abandon me during this.”

  “Come on, come on.” I continued to hammer at the keys. “Where are you, Roxas?” Typing desperately into the chat window, I looked to see how long his avatar had been idle. His avatar inside the game had sat idle and away from the keyboard since the day I got released from the hospital. I stepped away from the keyboard and held my hands on the side of my head. “Khaldon, I believe they have Roxas too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Breeding Facility #42

  Dakota O’Cuinn

  Ludovic hung up the phone and gloated. “Other than your little outburst, Dakota, that went over rather well if I do say so myself.” His eyebrow arched so high into his forehead it disappeared into his hairline.

  I wanted to pluck it off his face. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to react, so I just gave him with my best go-fuck-yourself glare.

  Ludovic turned and looked out the window. Moonlight streamed in on the concrete floor. He opened the wooden window sash and allowed in the night’s humid air. The rain had abated a bit. He placed his elbows on the sill. “So, Dakota, do you think your sister took the bait?”

  His brother, Edric, stood behind me, breathing heavily against the back of my neck with his hideous breath. “Do you believe our trap is complete enough to get your sister here?”

  His hot breath tingled the tiny hairs inside my inner ear canal. I pulled away from him as best I could, being shackled to the chair.

  Afraid to answer him, and afraid to not answer him, I closed my eyes wishing for invisibility. I didn’t want that man ever touching me again. My body ached after the last time he used me for his personal punching bag. I was afraid the violence would escalate if I aroused him in any way.

  Edric showed me pictures of Sheridan on his digital camera. He pointed to his erection every time he forced me to look at the hooded figure naked between her bound legs. His capabilities scared the holy hell out of me. I didn’t know why Ludovic had done this to us.

  Our mother once told us hell existed. I couldn’t have been but eight years old when she told us a story of an evil queen. Now I wished I had paid more attention.

  Oh God, how I wish I could see her again.

  Silently I prayed Cheyenne would find us, but I knew that Ludovic and Edric would capture her and do the same to her as they were doing to Sheridan. I didn’t want that either. Why they weren’t doing it to me already, I had no idea.

  Low, painful-sounding moans came from a corner of the room, but I couldn’t turn my head around far enough to see what it was. Edric spun my chair around, walked over to turn on the light, and I gasped out in horror. Trying to stifle a scream, I saw a woman hanging in a hammock with her pregnant belly hanging below her and her head elevated. She was harnessed and shackled to the posts, unable to move. She had tubes, an IV, and monitor straps taped over her chest and belly. She didn’t look alive, but I watched the pinging of heart beats across the machines. I guessed one was for the baby’s heartbeat as well. Both heartbeats escalated as the unconscious woman moaned louder. She was giving birth!

  “Ludovic, hand me the chart on number thirty-three over here,” Edric called out over his shoulder. “She’s looking like she’s ready to pop any time now. Her blood pressure is spiking, and her cervix is effaced. It won’t be long for this one. You might want to go ahead and call the Priestess and let her know we’ll have another one soon.”

  Ludovic left the window and whispered in my ear, “You might be wondering why we haven’t found you your own little cozy cubby, huh?”

  I looked at him, afraid to a
nswer.

  “I want you for myself. Soon you will be my eternal mate. I have plans for that bitch Priestess who shows up here every other week to take the squalling babies.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze as I stared at him in morose terror. “With me by your side, you can challenge the Priestess and we shall rule together.”

  Rule together? Eternal mate?

  He laughed at me and flashed that wicked smile again revealing his sharp canine teeth.

  “What the hell? Get me outta here, you gawd damned freak!” I thrashed against the chains to get out of my chair. Edric shoved a ball gag in my mouth to muffle my screams.

  The ball gag made it difficult to breath. I had no choice but to settle down. Ludovic walked away in a peacock strut as he picked up the medical chart held in a rack along the wall. I grimaced looking at the rack – it must have held fifty or more.

  How many women are in this place? Is this happening to Sheridan?

  I watched in sheer panic as the woman’s abdomen spasmed and contorted. She couldn’t have possibly been conscious because she didn’t scream even though the fetus writhed and contorted her belly. She looked as if the Alien was getting ready to burst through her stomach at any minute.

  Bone-breaking sounds echoed off the concrete, and Edric donned a pair of blue surgical gloves.

  “Want to get a better view, my pet?”

  I shook my head, but it was too late. He had that wicked gleam in his eyes already. Ludovic popped the brakes on my chair.

  “You should see the climax of our operation here since you are going to become the new mistress of our army.” He rolled me over to the woman giving birth.

  Edric walked over to me and backhanded my cheek. His smack knocked my head to the side, causing me to see stars. I tasted blood. “There’s more of that if you scream. You understand? I don’t want you disturbing the patients.”

  I nodded as best I could, still dizzy from the blow.

  Ludovic removed the gag from my mouth, and I gasped for air. The woman moaned louder as her body wrenched up in convulsions. Her harness kept her movements to a minimum, but the contorting fetus inside her shifted again.

  Not sure if I could speak, I asked one word with trepidation. “Army?” I ducked my head down into my shoulders waiting for another blow, but one didn’t come.

  Instead, Ludovic stood proud. “Yes, the world’s finest dhampir army bred with ancient heritage pure-blood lines.” I looked at him as if he had smoked one too many bowls. Edric’s punch must have left me fuzzier than I thought.

  “Dhampir?”

  “Ah, yes my love. You haven’t quite yet enjoyed the fruit of our knowledge, have you? What a beautiful poetic way for you to experience the birth of your empire.” Ludovic pushed my chair closer. Much too close for my comfort, but I didn’t have a choice.

  The woman arched her back, and a scream came from her that brought tears to my eyes. A head crowned between her legs, and Edric stood ready with a birthing table and various implements. The table with all the bloody tools looked more as if he were going to eat the child as opposed to clean it and care for it.

  Edric turned his attention to us for a moment. “Ludovic, what’ll it be this time? Boy or girl?”

  Ludovic turned my chair around to get in my face. “Hmm. Let’s see what my eternal mate thinks it will be.” I looked into his eyes — really looked into his eyes, and felt nothing but fear. He was on board with this mess, but he certainly wasn’t in control of it.

  “What is the sex of the baby, my love?”

  My stomach was queasy with rot. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes glossed over with a film. I tried to shake it off, but he held my gaze and asked me again.

  “Boy or girl?”

  I felt a pull on my consciousness. Afraid I would black out, I whispered, “Boy.” Ludovic released his gaze from me as my head fell limp against my chest.

  Slapped back to consciousness, I heard the familiar sound of a baby’s cry. I opened my eyes to see a baby nursing from his mother. Not from her breast; it sucked blood from the inside of her thigh – from her femoral artery.

  A wave of aversion came over me looking at the monstrosity in front of me.

  “Well, well, well Ludovic, looks like your gal pal there just might have the gift.” Edric finger quoted around the words the gift. “Or maybe it’s just dumb luck, but it’s going to be a gwrywaidd dhampir for sure.”

  I continued to stare at the devil child in front of me and dared to venture forth with another query.

  “What is a dhampir?” I asked again.

  Ludovic, excited by my inquisition, seemed happy to oblige my question. Not realizing one of them had untied my hands, Ludovic handed me the bundle of baby with blood smeared on his rosy cheeks. “A dhampir is the union of a male vampire and a human mother. We get the best of both worlds. The dhampir has half the vampiric traits and yet born to destroy any vampire it is programmed to kill. This makes them a valuable asset to the Queen’s army.”

  Ludovic watched me with what looked like blissful admiration. “Dakota, I would like to introduce you to our newest male scion.”

  “Scion? Isn’t that the name of a car?”

  Edric sewed up the woman and gave her a shot of something in her IV. Not sure if she was still alive, I looked to find her heart still beating in the monitor. Thankful she wasn’t conscious, I wondered if she would ever know that she had given birth to the monster I held in my arms.

  “Ludovic, that makes four for her. She’s gonna have to go to the mending wing for a couple months before we can knock her up again.”

  “I don’t understand. You keep them pregnant all the time?”

  “Siring a dhampir only takes three months.” Ludovic squatted next to me and tickled the baby’s toes. “One month per normal human trimester. Dhampirs grow extremely fast until they reach seven years when they are grown.”

  My heart dropped. This whole place sickened me. One way or another, I knew I needed to get out of here and help the rest of the women held captive by these lunatics.

  “What are you doing here? What is this place?”

  “This place is called breeding facility number forty two. We have about 130 top breeders at this facility. But this is nothing. Where I was trained in Romania, we had over four hundred women.”

  Edric broke in. “The stupid, human authorities think young girls traveling in Europe are kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Yes, some are. But mostly, the girls are sold to the Vampyric race through online bids from the game portal on ExsanguiNation.”

  I gasped at thinking our game could be the venue for such horrific trafficking of women.

  Ludovic pulled up a chair beside me. “ExsanguiNation is a haven – the perfect playground for supernaturals. Whatever they want, they can get through the game. If they know who to ask. It’s the perfect set up – the perfect lie. Authorities will always think it’s just a game. They’ll never suspect how real monetary gains come from the online selling of human hosts, their body parts, and their blood to the highest bidders.”

  I looked at this seemingly harmless baby in my arms with his glowing red eyes and sweet chubby cheeks. He cooed up at me. I felt a strange pull in my heart when I touched his silky, porcelain skin. The baby smiled at me. Feeling something as simple as a smile fall across my face, it gave me a chance to forget this terrible place of torment for just a brief moment.

  “OUCH!”

  Ludovic howled in laughter as I held up my finger dripping in blood. I held the baby in my other arm with blood on his teeth, making sucking movements with his mouth. My eyes grew in alarm as the innocence of this babe, gave way to the horror of what it truly was.

  “The Priestess has arrived,” Edric announced.

  Before me stood a hypnotic woman dressed as pure evil, decorated in lust and greed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Breeding Facility #42

  Dakota O’Cuinn

  A blinding light forced me to shield my eyes behind the child
while juggling the infant away from any fleshy body parts it could bite. Pure evil incarnate stood before us. The Priestess commanded the sheer air within the room and dominated the breaths she took from me.

  “Bring me the suckling,” she commanded. Her voice demanded attention.

  Ludovic looked up from his position of respect and did as directed. As he took the baby from my arms, instantly and for the first time in my life, I held empathy for mothers who had their babies taken away at birth. I wondered if the child would ever know his mother. Will the mother survive this hellhole long enough to ever know if she had a son? Or several sons?

  “What will you do with him?”

  The Priestess sing-songed at me. “Ah, Dakota, my sweet. I have been waiting decades for you and your sisters to arrive. Soon my Dhampiric soldiers will be completed with the Irish triad bloodline.” Her voice dripped as if vile poison oozed off each syllable.

  “When was she inseminated?” The Priestess looked at a chart on the wall and pointed at me. “I gave specific semen to impregnate her and Sheridan both. You better not have wasted it!”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What insemination?” This lady was crazy. “What triad? What in God’s name are you? And just what the fuck is all this bullshit?”

  The Priestess’ eyes shut as she smirked at me. She flicked her spiked pinkie finger at my mouth and sealed my lips as though they were sewn together with invisible thread. Panic surged through me as I found it difficult to breathe again. I bellowed muffled screams as streams of briny tears fell and stung the invisible needle holes where my mouth had been sewn shut.

  What the hell?

  I glared at her, but was afraid that she might blind me too. The Priestess walked away.

  “Ah yes, my dearest Priestess.” Ludovic bowed in her honor. “I wanted to surprise you with redheaded triplets — to have all three sisters bear you a dhampir general at the same time. Until I have them all, I chose not to inseminate the second sister since we are so close to obtaining the third.”