by Lisa Marie
“Fuck you,” Ash spat, his voice raspy from how dry his throat was. Confusion drew his brows together. This wasn’t exactly what he’d figured Sebastian would want to talk about.
“How eloquent.” The older vampire’s mouth stiffened with disdain as he peered down at his prisoner. “I must admit that despite your crude manner, you fascinate me, Mr. Marshall.”
Ash snorted and ignored the pain shooting through his head and the need for blood that was starting to claw at his stomach, to look his captor in the eye. “Glad to make your day,” he quipped, lifting his upper lip in a sneer. “Where’s Eve?”
“Since I first found out who you were,” Sebastian continued as if Ash hadn’t spoken. “I wondered how it was that a vampire with your reputation could turn into the pathetic creature in front of me today.” He looked truly baffled, and he started to pace the small room while he pondered. “All mention of Celine’s childe stops as soon as she disappeared. I wonder, what happened to her?”
Ash merely raised a brow in response. It was nobody’s business what happened to Celine. And he sure wasn’t about to amicably soothe Sebastian’s curiosity about it while he was chained up and Eve’s whereabouts were unknown.
“Not willing to talk? No matter.” Sebastian waved a hand in the air, dismissing the question as if it were of no consequence. He looked over Ash’s shoulder when the door opened behind him and a thin, chilling smile spread across his lips.
Ash smelled the werewolf before he saw him. The look in the older vampire’s eyes told him that Edward’s presence would not bode well for him. He gave an experimental tug on his chains, wondering what it would take to break them and if he could take down both creatures even if he were able to get free. He had no clue how long he had been unconscious and he hadn’t fed since the morning of the party, before he’d gone to bed. He wasn’t at his physical peak.
“But do you know what I wonder the most?” Sebastian asked as Edward came into view, holding a thin, black box.
Here it comes, Ash thought, convinced that whatever was in that box was going to be used to get Brie’s location out of him. He steeled himself, preparing for the torture that was about to come. Sebastian lovingly opened the box, then pulled out one of the most wicked looking knives Ash had ever seen. It was ten inches long, with a double-sided blade. A cross had been intricately carved into the handle, and Sebastian was careful not to touch it. It was polished to a high shine, the dim light from the lantern glinting off the mirror-like surface.
“I wonder what it would take to change you back into that vampire.”
Confusion washed over Ash once more, and he narrowed his gaze. This was not what he had expected at all.
“Tell me, Mr. Marshall, did the cross branding itself into your skin hurt?”
Ash glanced down at the scar in question sitting just to the right of his heart, and back up at the vamp. The small, simple silver cross had been tucked inside his uniform when Celine had turned him. It had amused her to leave it on him when he had awoken, therefore allowing it to burn into his skin.
“No, it tickled,” he sneered, with a snort of disgust.
Sebastian merely arched a brow at the flip answer and drew the knife threw his fingers, caressing it the way he might a lover. “The man that sold this little trinket to me assured me that it had once belonged to Van Helsing himself and that it had been blessed by the Pope.” He fondled the gleaming silver, his eyes never leaving Ash. “Tell me, Mr. Marshall, do you still believe in God? I never had much use for him, myself, hence my ability to touch this wonderful artifact. So, tell me, does this hurt?”
Ash couldn’t contain the scream that ripped from his throat when Sebastian thrust the pristine blade deep into his stomach. He’d expected the pain from the cut, had prepared for it. What he hadn’t expected was the fire burn it left behind. He balanced on his toes and tried to pull away from it, but Sebastian followed his movements. When he pulled it out, Ash didn’t even have the comfort of the burning ceasing. It was almost as if the blade had been dipped in holy water, and the blessed liquid was now working its way into his skin. He felt his blood dripping from the wound, sliding down his skin to soak the pants of his suit.
Several small slashes across his chest and stomach followed seconds later, making his eyes burn with tears, and he desperately struggled to get away.
“It’s a bit ironic, don’t you think, that I—a vampire—am using it against one of my own? Of course, we both know that there is no honor among vampires. After all, you’re accustomed to killing your own, aren’t you?”
“If you’re going to kill me, just fucking do it,” Ash told him through clenched teeth when he could shake off some of the pain haze.
Sebastian let out a long, humorless laugh and pulled back the bloodstained knife to contemplate its scarlet color.
“Oh, I don’t intend to kill you, Mr. Marshall. Death would be a gift.” As he spoke, Sebastian moved closer, until Ash could feel his cool breath on his face. “I’m going to destroy you.”
Another scream ripped from Ash as the knife was thrust deep into chest, the resulting pain allowing blackness to overcome him once more.
* * * *
“Let me go, you son of a bitch!” Eve struggled as best she could against the vise grip on her arm. Unlike Ash, Edward and two of his cronies had left her conscious after they came inside her apartment. With Ash knocked out, she’d had no chance of getting away. Not that she hadn’t tried. The one manhandling her now still had a nice chunk of his cheek embedded under her nails. But it had been of no use, really. Even her screaming hadn’t caused anyone in her apartment complex to stick their nose out the door to see what was up. It seemed chivalry was indeed pushing up daisies.
If the police had been called, she had no idea. Edward had had them out of the apartment within seconds and left no real evidence of a disturbance behind. After all, Ash had been the idiot to leave the door open.
Great vampire instincts there, Ash, she thought sourly, pulling again at her arm. The man holding it didn’t even seem to notice. He just kept dragging her down the hall until he came to a door. She wasn’t sure where they were in Sebastian’s mansion, or why she hadn’t been taken to Sebastian right away, but she had a pretty good feeling she didn’t want to go into the room behind that door. Not that she had high hopes of escaping, but something told her that it would be impossible if she went inside.
Too bad, she didn’t have a hell of a lot of choice. The thing holding her was a vampire, and even if she wasn’t five three—with heels—and one hundred and seven pounds, she’d still have a hard time getting loose. With great ease, her captor located the key in his pocket, unlocked the door and opened it, all the while dodging Eve’s hand that was looking for more of his skin and her well placed kicks at his shins. He shoved her unceremoniously through the door, sending her across the room to land hard on a meager mattress that was propped against the opposite wall.
She would have laughed at the look of relief that crossed his face before he slammed the door shut, if she wasn’t already flying across the room again to try to get out. It only took a few seconds of fruitless, painful pounding for her to give up. She gave one last, agitated kick to the door, before turning around to inspect her prison. Concrete walls, concrete floor, probably concrete ceiling. Wonderful. No windows, one door leading out, another door leading to a half bathroom. That surprised her, but it didn’t matter really. All of it was painted in dull gray.
Probably to complement the drab blue of the mattress, she thought testily. The mattress that had been leaning up against the wall had fallen to the floor with the impact of her body, the blue and white print of the old mattress faded, dingy and stained. With what, she didn’t even want to contemplate. A few measly blankets were thrown in the corner, and she assumed that she would be expected to wrap up in those to keep warm. Well, she’d freeze to death before she touched those threadbare pieces of cloth to her body. She could only imagine what might be crawling around on them.
And her imagination was excellent.
She shivered at the coolness of the room and rubbed her hands over her arms, still eyeing the blankets warily. She wondered where Ash was, if he was all right. She was still as mad as sin at him, but it didn’t negate her worry for his safety. Sebastian was not all there, mentally. Who knew what he was capable of? As soon as they had pulled up to the mansion, Eve and Ash had been taken in separate directions. She had tried to keep track of the twists and turns as her captor led her through the dungeon-like basement. But there were so many, that she quickly began to doubt herself. Not to mention, if she did manage to get away from Cro-magnum man, she had no idea where Ash was. And she knew herself well enough to know that if she had escaped, she would have wasted precious time looking for him.
Eve prayed that Brie and Mark were far away and that Brie, once she found out—if she found out—what happened to Eve, wouldn’t come back. She would die a thousand deaths if it meant Brie was safe.
She did harbor the small hope that Mark would get Brie to the safe house, come back, find out what happened, and mount a rescue effort. Her logical side told her not to hold her breath.
She had expected to be taken straight to Sebastian. When she had been brought down here and Ash had been taken off to God knew where, panic had threatened to take over. She refused to let it. It wouldn’t do her any good if she went all hysterical female. Freaking out and quaking with fear would be what Sebastian wanted. And she absolutely refused to give him the satisfaction.
Eve didn’t want to listen to the little tiny voice in the back of her head that was asking “What if Ash tells?” Was there some code of honor among vamps that made it impossible to lie to each other? She highly doubted it, but you never knew. She hadn’t known Ash was a vampire until tonight, so she had little or no information on how they dealt with each other.
Sighing heavily, Eve paced around the room, the concrete floor chilling her feet. She didn’t know where or when she had lost her shoes, but she missed them now. Each second that passed, she was getting the feeling that she was going to have to find refuge on the sorry excuse for a bed Sebastian had provided.
With a sigh of resignation, she went into the bathroom and took care of her personal needs. When she walked back out into the room, she scowled as she stared at the mattress. There was really no other choice, unless she wanted to curl up on the concrete. Which she didn’t.
Stubbornly refusing the blankets, she crawled onto the mattress and lay down, breathing shallowly in case there were any mysterious odors wafting up from the material. To her surprise, the only smell she detected was the distinct pine scent of disinfectant cleaner. Relieved, she curled up in a fetal position, facing the door, her head resting on her arm.
All she could do now was wait. Another sigh, a little shift in position and, finally, she settled down. She was determined to stay awake. But the adrenalin charge she had been running on was wearing down and the sheer boredom of nothing to do had her eyes drifting closed, an image of Ash her last conscious thought.
* * * *
Three hours after she had woken up, Brie decided that there were decidedly better ways to travel than in a car with a total stranger that had nothing to say. Who also chain smoked. Not that it really bothered her, but she had never seen someone that couldn’t go ten minutes without having a cigarette dangling from his lips. She had tried a few, half-hearted attempts to draw her “rescuer” into conversation. After only receiving grunts in response, she gave up to look out the window.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to see. For the first couple of hours, the night was thick and black, giving the trees lining the road a distinctively eerie feel. All that changed when dawn broke and the sun arched through the sky, bathing the land in a sea of pink and orange. She hadn’t seen anything so beautiful since she had left the island, and she savored it until the great, yellow sun rose fully in the sky.
Once morning was in its full glory, the scenery didn’t get much better. Trees, cows, the occasional farmhouse and water tower seemed to be the only thing this part of the country held. She couldn’t even get excited about the winding mountain roads with no one to share it with. When Mark stopped at a rest area, she was surprised to read they were in West Virginia.
When they got on the road again, she became so accustomed to the monotonous sights that when they suddenly found themselves driving past several chain hotels to the middle of a bustling town, she glanced over at Mark. He briefly looked at her, and she saw for the first time that his eyes were impossibly black. Her heart sped up at the intensity of them, even in the split-second eye contact.
“Parkersburg,” he told her, as he turned into the first gas station they came to. “We’re almost there. Head to the bathroom if you have to.”
Mark looked up at her when Brianne didn’t acknowledge him, to find her staring at him as if she hadn’t just spent the last five hours sitting next to him. “What?”
“N-nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. She quickly looked away, embarrassed that she had been caught staring. He looked at her for another long second before sliding out of the car and heading inside to pre-pay for the gas.
Brie took a second to compose herself, mentally berating herself for being so silly. Since she had woken up and they had started this little journey, she had pretty much ignored Mark. Even when they had stopped for the bathroom the last time, she hadn’t really looked at him. But, just now, with the car stopped and the full sunlight on his face, she had been stunned. She had noticed the night before that he was good looking. It took the light of day to really emphasize how much. The strong lines of his face; the firm yet incredibly soft looking mouth; the eyes … oh, God, the eyes. And that wasn’t even mentioning the long, muscular body that would have had her people fighting over him for breeding. She had a feeling that she could be in deep trouble, and not just because she had an insane vampire on her tail.
She shook her head again and ran a hand over her hair. She didn’t need these thoughts, or another man, she reminded herself firmly. With that in mind, she got out of the car and headed inside, determined to ignore the animal magnetism of her companion. Even if it meant she wouldn’t look him in the eye again. Ever.
By the time she entered the mini-mart portion of the gas station, Mark was already up at the register, a carton of cigarettes on the counter in front of him. She had the inane thought that the way he smoked, the carton might last him a day, two at the most. Reminding herself that was none of her business, she sidled up next to him and asked the man at the register where the bathroom was.
The man—boy, really—had bright red hair and a face full of freckles. He’d looked up when she started to speak and had merely stared, wide hazel eyes stuck on her face. His hands had paused in counting out Mark’s changed, and they hovered over the cash box. Brie heard Mark’s snort of disgust, but ignored him and repeated herself.
“Uh, uh, yeah. It’s around the side of the building. You need a key,” The kid managed to get out, his eyes never leaving hers. She waited a beat, keeping a hold on her annoyance to see if he would give it to her.
“Can I have the key?” she asked impatiently.
The young man blinked once, twice, then finally seemed to realize he was making an ass out of himself. His face turned red to the tip of his ears, and he dropped Mark’s change in his haste to get her the key.
After Brie took the key, thanked him and walked away, he bent down to pick the bills up off the floor and wound up cracking his head on the still open drawer. Mark was stuck somewhere between pissed off and highly amused at the way the clerk was straining to catch sight of Brie through the window when he straightened, still rubbing his sore head.
“Ahem.” He cleared his throat loudly when pissed off won out. The cashier blushed furiously once more and hastily handed him his money. He stammered an apology. Mark pocketed his change, grabbed his cigarettes and walked out, not sparing him another glance.
Inside the restroom, Brie too
k care of the needs of her bladder and refused to contemplate the last time the toilet had been cleaned. After finishing, she washed her hands, having to dry them on her shirt when she discovered that the paper towel dispenser was empty. She pulled Eve’s letter out of her back pocket and turned to lean against the sink. After pushing an errant strand of hair behind her ear, she slid a finger under the flap and pulled out the letter with a smile. The little tufts of paper were still clinging to the edge from where Eve had pulled it out of her notebook.
“Good old, Eve. Always in a hurry.” She couldn’t remember a time since she had arrived in America that Eve hadn’t seemed to be in a whirlwind of motion for some reason or the other. Chuckling, she unfolded it and scanned her sister’s slanted handwriting.
Brie,
I figured I’d better write this and let you know what’s going on before we meet up again. Especially since I’m pretty sure Mark won’t. (He looks good, but he’s more the strong, silent type. And real suspicious, too.)
“You can say that again,” Brie agreed with a laugh. With each word she felt lighter, her situation seeming a lot less frightening with Eve’s voice echoing in her head.
Basically, I paid Mark, his grandfather Cyrus Tanner and Ash Marshall to help me kidnap you. Now, sweetie, I know you hate it when I stick my nose into your business, but I couldn’t let you stay there another day. Each time I saw you, it was like another piece of you had been chipped away. I was afraid that if I didn’t do something, there would be nothing left. I couldn’t sit by and watch that happen. And I couldn’t do it alone. So, that’s why you find yourself in the company of tall, dark and gorgeous. (Hey, do I get points for sending a hottie after you?)
Brie gave an unladylike snort. Leave it to Eve to think of that. Although, she couldn’t deny, he was a hottie.
Mark is taking you to a safe house. If all goes well, I’ll be joining you soon. Please don’t hate me for interfering. You’re my sister. I hope that’s enough for you to forgive me.