by Mandy Rosko
The lock heated in her hand like an oven burner but she didn't let it go. She felt no burn even as it darkened and turned red. It popped like a gun and pieces flew in all directions.
Upstairs she heard a clatter of footsteps.
"Hurry!" Evey said, and she all but threw herself on the steel floor and played dead again.
The second lock popped faster than the first, and she was on her toes with the third lock in her hand when the heavy door at the top of the steps flew open. Claire ran downstairs with her hand outstretched straight in front of her and a holding a silver blurred object. Gun.
"What are you doing!" She shrieked, stopping in front of her and pointing the gun. Her teeth were clenched and a blue vein in her forehead was preparing to burst. "Let go of that lock."
With her back to Evey, Claire didn't see her rise to her feet. She reached her long, skinny arms through the bars and grabbed Claire by her scrawny neck and pulled her backwards. Jackie flew away from the bars in case the gun went off in their struggle. When she looked up, Evey had the gun in one hand and Claire's throat in the other, her open mouth within kissing distance of Claire’s neck.
Claire's cheeks were puffed out and red from how tightly Evey held her, though she didn’t struggle with her words. "Let go of me you blood sucking freak!"
Evey sunk two of her pointed fingernails into Claire's creamy flesh and hissed in her ear, ignoring the blood dripping down her neck. "One more word, and I'll turn you into a blood sucking freak."
Claire went silent and Jackie could only imagine the repulsion on her face.
Evey nodded to her. "Get back to work. I've got her."
Jackie got back to her feet and lifted her good arm to the top lock. She held it in her fist and called every ounce of Magic inside of her. It exploded like the last two, and the steel door swung open.
"Can you get me out?" Evey asked when Jackie inspected her locks. “Her mother will be down soon.”
She grabbed one of the locks and tried to perform the same warming charm, but the charm on the locks was stronger and absorbed everything she put into it. It was like trying to pour water into a sink with the drain open and hoping to fill it.
She slapped the lock which clanged loudly against the steel. "No, it won't let me."
More footsteps moved around on the floor above them. Jackie heard Charity's muffled call for Claire.
"You need to get out of here." Evey shoved the gun she took from Claire through the bars. Jackie took it and held it like she would a dead rat. By the tail. "I don't know how to use this."
"If she doesn't know that upstairs then it doesn't matter. Now go!"
Feeling as though she were leaving a piece of herself behind, Jackie did as she was told and ran for her life.
***
Kyle knew she was inside. He could feel her heart beating erratically from his perch on the neighboring roof, and he thanked God because it meant that she lived. Thick snow fell in slow clumps that made seeing anything beyond the house difficult. Much like it had the night they first met.
The suburbs of Griffon City were as unimaginative as any other suburb in the world. Only in one innocent looking house were horrors he couldn’t imagine. And Jackie was inside.
He didn't need to see her to be able to feel her fear, her breathing, or her pulse. His own heart beat in time with hers under his skin.
Good, this was very good.
He was not too late. She was alive inside and that gave him time to get her out.
But he couldn't just go charging inside, as much as his limbs itched to do just that, he had to stay put, literally, because being a vampire left him incapable of entering the house without the permission of the people inside.
He was stuck. For the moment. He just needed a plan, a way to trick them into allowing him inside, if only for a second.
He heard Carter speaking over the radio they gave him. "This the place?"
Carter and his aid Miller sat in a car someplace where Kyle couldn’t see them, but where they could see him. There were other men with them he knew, but he couldn’t see them either.
He held the little black button that would send his answer. "I can feel her inside. What do I do?"
"Stay there. We’re getting into position."
His inside froze. Stay? Was he out of his mind? How could he expect him to—?
Kyle's thoughts screeched to a halt and crashed when the side door of the two-story soccer-mom house opened and Jackie ran into the snowfall, unharmed and alone.
"She's out, she's out!" He called into the radio and leapt down between the two buildings.
She spun when his boots thudded flat in the snow. She pointed a gun directly at his forehead, screamed at the sight of him, dropped it, and fell into his arms crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
He stroked her hair, smelled her scent and made shushing noises. He bent down enough, while still holding her, to grab the gun and backed out of the cramped space with her. He didn't think she even knew he was moving with her. He kept the gun ready in case someone or something tried to surprise them. "You're alright. You’re safe, Gorgeous. We need to get you out of here."
"We can’t! Oh God, Evey's still inside!"
He didn’t care. She was a big girl who could handle herself for another two minutes while he dragged Jackie into the street, flashing cars immediately surrounded them. Carter jumped out of his vehicle and ran to them so fast his hat flew off.
He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her out of Kyle’s hold and forgetting her one arm was still in a sling.
“Careful!” Kyle snapped.
Carter ignored him. Lucky for him his actions didn’t irritate Jackie’s injury. "Are you alright? What happened in there?"
"Evey's still inside!" Jackie said again, pointing her finger at the house. Kyle felt her anger and hatred for the place rolling off her when she pulled away from Carter and wrapped her good arm where it rightfully belonged, around Kyle.
Carter barked orders to the men suddenly swarming the street to proceed with caution as they surrounded the house, warning them of a possible hostage situation.
"I had to get out of there. They knew you were coming for me and wanted to get you too and turn you both into ferals." She clung to him while she cried and told him of their plan. “I couldn’t let them do it.”
"Who?" Carter said. "Who is Claire working with?"
She sniffled and tears poured out of her eyes. "Charity's with her. Oh God, they’re working together." Now he felt her regret, but he couldn't tell what it was for as he tightened his arms around her. "I can't believe I thought she wasn't involved."
Oh.
"How did you get out?" Kyle asked, holding her at arm’s length, inspected her for anymore damage, though he didn't feel any when he held her in his arms, moving his hands about in case there was something under her clothes that he couldn't see.
She smiled up at him through her tears. "You told me to observe. You told me that blowing things up with magic would help save my life, you were right."
The hand that squeezed his heart and clawed the inside of his chest went away, and he held her close again. An insane part of him would’ve loved to charge in there and save the day, but knowing Jackie used his advice to save herself was better. "Good girl."
Carter saw the gun in Kyle’s hand. “Where’d you get that?”
He looked down at Jackie, wondering the same thing. Did she even know how to use it?
She answered them both. “Claire came downstairs, we were in the basement, and she got too close to Evey’s cage. She grabbed her when I got out. I took her gun and ran.”
"The house is surrounded now. No one's getting in or out of there without us knowing." Carter said, regret in his eyes as he watched Kyle comfort the woman he'd loved. Kyle felt neither jealousy nor any possessive anger. Jackie was his, and they both knew it.
"We need to get Evey out of there right now.” Carter said, clearing his throat. “Jackie, were there any ferals left in there?
Did you see the device they used to control their collars?"
"I—I didn't see any ferals or any machines. But I know they have guns, or had one. I'm not sure if there are any others of those either."
That explained where she got the gun from at least.
A man wearing bulletproof armor, a helmet, and holding a big gun ran up to Carter. “We got them trapped in the basement sir. Hostage is confirmed.”
Carter nodded and looked at Kyle. "I need you in there, McKane."
"What?" Kyle stepped back at the offer that he hadn't been expecting.
Carter found his hat in the snow, cleaned it off and put back on his head so that he looked more like a cowboy instead of a cop again. "You're the only vamp I've got with me tonight, and I don't want to risk that she's got anymore down there aside from Evey. We might need your strength. It'll only be for a few minutes. ‘Sides, she’s asking for you."
Jackie's hands tightened on his. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "I'll come back for you."
She wet her lips and nodded, raised herself to her toes to meet his mouth, then stopped. She hissed and pulled back. "I can't kiss you until you come back out."
Kyle clenched a fist. That was right. Though she had some control when she concentrated hard enough, so much as touching her lips to his forehead would possibly be enough to turn him back into a man when his strength might be needed. But he wanted her lips on his.
"McKane, either you’re coming or you’re not." Carter snapped.
Kyle took her face into his hands and pressed his lips to her forehead, the top of her eyes, and then her jaw. He kissed her in the thick snowfall but did not touch her lips. "I'll come back for more. Don't worry."
He left her in the hands of the paramedic who wrapped her in a blanket and gently pulled her towards the awaiting ambulance to check her arm.
Kyle turned away from her, his focus returning to the women in the house that had him so angry minutes ago until all he could think of was getting in there and bringing out the people who'd hurt her.
EIGHTEEN
Although only one was needed to invite him inside, there were many cops in the house now. Kyle was led down a narrow hall toward the door to the basement. He was allowed to walk down to speak to the trapped women alone.
There were no ferals in the house waiting to spring at him, and at this point he doubted there were anymore downstairs, but the occasional claw marks he passed on the walls brought a spidery shiver up his spine and the heavy feeling of dread in the bottom of his gut.
This was definitely the house where vampires had been starved to monstrous madness.
Charity must’ve heard his footsteps approaching because he didn’t even knock on the thick wooden door before it opened enough for a desperate woman to point a gun at his face.
The guns from the men behind him clicked as their safeties were disengaged, but it brought him no strength. He wondered if the women downstairs chose this house for the purpose of this hall. Should the men behind him open fire, not even his vampire speed would get him out of the way of their bullets. He’d be a human shield to their true target, whom had her shiny medium framed Smith and Wesson barrel pointed right between his eyes.
“I just want to talk,” he said.
Charity’s hand shook as she held the gun. “I should kill you.”
“If you do that I won’t be able to save your daughter.”
Charity’s eyes flashed, and the gun lowered a fraction of a hair.
He nodded. “Jackie got outside. She told me what happened.”
The revolver was brought up again. “That thing down there has my baby. I want her to let my little girl go.”
“And I’ll work on getting that done for you. You asked to see me; you might as well put me to work.”
Her small hand stopped shaking around the big steal weapon. “I don’t believe you.”
Despite his training and the advantages of being half vampire, Kyle had never gotten used to having the barrel of a gun pointed at his head. It got his blood pumping in a bad way, knowing she was going to kill him.
“Your safety’s on, y’know.”
Oldest trick in the book. She probably knew he was pulling one on her but the forces of nature dictated that when someone told you that, while you held a gun in your hand, your eyes flickered to the weapon to check. Regardless of the fact that most revolvers didn't have a safety feature.
That flicker was all he needed. His arm flew out and he grabbed her hand and forced the deadly end of the weapon up. She clawed his wrists and squeezed the trigger. The men down the hall ducked for cover as the shots fired into the ceiling.
When she emptied her weapon harmlessly into the plaster, he twisted and pulled Charity over his back and threw her under him. She screamed as she landed, he turned her to her stomach and secured her hands with the handcuffs he'd been given earlier.
She screamed and wriggled like a mad woman. He didn’t care. To piss her off some more he winked and pat her cheek. “Smith and Wesson revolvers don’t have safeties.”
She opened her mouth and screamed so hard he jumped back.
Two men in uniform took her out of his hands. Kyle didn't watch as she was dragged out of the house.
He ran down to the basement where Evey and her captor, or rather, Evey and her hostage were waiting for him.
He ran down the feeble wooden steps, kicked in the door and stopped dead. Thick, tall cages lined the walls. Some had chains in them and others contained dried blood. Just to his left was a plain wooden desk with a single laptop humming on it and a few of the burned or broken collars strewn around.
“Hey, over here.” Evey called from one of the cages in the back, patiently holding Claire by the neck against the bars of her cage.
Kyle started walking. “I never forgot you, don’t worry.”
She smiled at him. "For a second I thought you did."
Mike rushed in after Kyle, weapon drawn and ready.
“There aren’t anymore ferals down here.” Kyle said.
Mike tucked away the weapon. “Standard procedure.”
“Will someone get this thing off me?” Claire’s hostile demand was made less threatening by the mascara streaming black rivers down her cheeks.
Mike slapped Kyle’s shoulder. “Good work, McKane. You can let her go now, Evey. She ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
Mike made his arrest and things suddenly got busy in the damp room.
Kyle wanted to inspect the cages before leaving to give the photographers and other specialists their space to work.
These were no animal cages. At least not any sold to local people. The things were made custom, he could tell by the sloppy wielding work of the bars.
They were made to hold people, strong people. Kyle stood in the torture chamber where so many vampires lost their minds, where Charles Clayton was held until deemed worthless and thrown away, like his daughter.
Thoughts and emotions that weren’t his rushed him and swelled inside his head. Painful cries and memories that made him ache inside.
He turned for the door but stopped. The emotions he experienced did not belong to Jackie. He was sure she was the only one he could read, yet these emotions felt as real as anything that came from her.
Gradually they calmed themselves and disappeared. Kyle was left feeling … empty somehow that they were gone. Saddened. It made breathing difficult.
He ran back upstairs, through the halls and out the front door. When out of the house he sucked back a fresh breath of cold, snowy air. Freedom swept over him, rushed him like the emotions he felt in the basement, and he couldn’t get enough of it.
He'd been in and out, hadn't experienced the horror that Jackie had surely gone through but the house crushed and pressed on his chest. He was glad to be out of the place that held so much suffering for the people Claire and her mother kidnapped and killed.
A firm hand gripped his shoulder. He turned and saw Carter. “You alright?”
He shoo
k his head. “Down there … I felt—”
He nodded. “It happens sometimes. Poltergeists.”
Kyle gaped at him and turned back to the house. “You mean there are ghosts down there?”
Carter shook his head. “Tourists. Yes, when people die like that their spirits tend to stay in that spot.”
The idea that people could be trapped like that even after their death horrified him. “So then, what are they going to do now?”
Carter smiled, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to have a haunted basement to deal with. “We’ve got someone coming to take care of the stragglers. But after what happened today, having their killers arrested and taken away, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them went to the other side on their own. Prob’bly what they were waitin’ around for.”
“I’m never going to get used to living here.”
“You’re staying?”
Carter’s eyes on him were cautious.
Kyle nodded. Somehow he’d made this decision with himself without fully realizing it until now. The burn to return home no longer alive and on fire in his chest. “Yeah. I think I got a good reason to stay.”
Carter inhaled deeply through his nose. “Good. I think that good reason wants to see you.”
Kyle spun as Jackie hopped out of a parked squad car. He opened his arms when she ran to him and closed them so tightly it felt like he would never let her go.
She babbled relief and worry into his chest but he didn't hear a word she said.
Nervous laughter bubbled out his throat. "When I found out you were gone, I was so scared."
She looked up at him and he stared into her eyes, saw his reflection there, and knew she was where he needed to be. "I love you."
Her eyes brightened and he feared she would cry. She grabbed him by the ears and kissed him instead, kissed him without the worry that he might need his strength. Kissed him like she knew she belonged with him too.
The air became cold and his teeth returned to normal as he melted back into a human, but paid no mind to the change.