“Well, hello, my tasty prisoners,” she called cheerfully as she entered the room. The guards stepped back to let her get to where Isabella and Stewart sat chained to the wall. She had bound their powers, of course.
Isabella sat with her knees pulled up close to her chest. She was still wearing her tee shirt and socks which were thoroughly soaked with her own blood. The cold stone floor combined with the horror of the trauma caused her to shiver violently.
Levine kneeled down next to her. “You’re pathetic.” She spat out. “How dare you try to take that child from me. I should have killed you but I have a feeling we might need you later on.”
Isabella sucked in a muffled sob.
Levine reached out and ran her index finger through the blood that covered Isabella’s arm. “What’s the matter, sweetie? Are you scared?” she asked in a mock baby voice. Then, she brought her finger to her lips to let Isabella watch her lick the blood.
“Stop it,” Stewart said in a weak voice. “Leave her alone.”
Levine looked over at him. “I will do anything I want to either of you because now I am your God.”
Stewart smiled at her. “You can torture me, you can kill me, you can do whatever you want but you will never be any kind of god to me. I will never, ever do anything you want me to.”
She could not believe that guy; after everything he had been through, he still had the gall to be a cocky little bastard.
“We may need her,” Levine tilted her head toward Isabella, “but we certainly don’t need you anymore.”
The lack of blood and exhaustion seemed to make him delirious because he laughed at her, he actually laughed at her.
“How dare you laugh at me. Stop it!” She started to crawl toward him. Anger erupted inside her but he kept laughing. “Shut up! Stop it, now!”
Still on her hands and knees, about a foot from him, she hissed loudly and opened her mouth wide so that both Stewart and Isabella could see her fangs grow right out of her teeth.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Isabella screamed so loud it echoed throughout the caves. “Stop, Stewart, stop laughing!”
He managed to speak between chuckles. “What’s the matter, Levine, you don’t want me to be one of the cows for your farm?”
“Stewart, don’t make it worse,” Isabella begged. “Please stop.”
Levine raised her dress and straddled Stewart’s lap with a leg on either side of him. While he continued laughing, she slapped him hard with her diamond laden right hand.
“You are a fool,” she told him.
His laughing tapered to a stop and he looked into her eyes.
“They will win,” he whispered to her.
She grabbed his hair in her left hand and yanked, snapping his neck.
Isabella screamed long and loud.
Levine ignored her and brought her lips to the exposed side of Stewart’s neck. She immediately pierced his skin with her razor sharp fangs and covered the punctures with her entire mouth.
While she drank, she moaned with ecstasy and moved her hips back and forth. The taste of blood, the revitalization it gave her, the intimacy of the bite. All of it was her love; it was her greatest pleasure.
Finally, after she had gotten her fill, Levine reluctantly pulled away from Stewart’s dead body. She touched her chin and discovered that she had gotten blood on herself. With one hand, she removed a white cloth napkin from the neckline of her dress and dabbed at the droplets of blood that still lingered on her chin.
A soft whimpering reminded her that Isabella was still there. She looked over and saw that Isabella had scooted as far away from her as she possibly could without the cuffs slicing her hands to ribbons.
“Please,” Isabella begged, “please don’t hurt me.”
For some reason, her begging angered Levine.
“Don’t hurt you. Don’t hurt you,” Levine repeated. “I am going to hurt you. I am going to make you wish that you were never born. And even though I want to do it now, I need to wait.”
Levine rose and towered above her. “But now,” she tilted her head toward Stewart’s corpse, “you know what to expect.”
She watched how Isabella started to cry again and sighed.
“Pathetic,” she said mostly to herself and turned to leave the room. “Don’t move his body,” she told the guards. “Leave him there to remind her to be good.”
They nodded at her and said, “Yes, Miss Levine” in unison.
Back at the throne room, Levine discovered that her husband was not there.
“Where is he?” she asked one of the guards.
“I believe he went to check on the baby, Miss Levine.” The guard stood at attention while he spoke to her.
Levine didn’t bother to thank him; she spun around and went in search of Malcolm.
Indeed, she found him in the room they had prepared for the baby long ago. The room actually disgusted her. The entire thing was pink; pink rugs, pink blankets, pink canopy over the crib.
Levine could hear Jaiden screaming before she even got close to the doorway. She stood in the doorway and watched for a moment before she entered. Malcolm leaned over the crib and appeared to be trying to calm the baby.
“Hush, hush,” he told her softly.
Surprised at his patience, Levine wondered why he was even trying to visit with the baby at all.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she strode into the room.
He looked up. “I’m trying to make friends with her.”
“She’s not a dog, Malcolm.”
“Well, I want her to love me so that when the time comes, she is prepared to do whatever we ask. I need her to want to do it,” he responded.
“She will do it regardless of how we treat her,” Levine told him.
Malcolm stood up straight and took both of Levine’s hands loosely in his. “My love, imagine the possibilities. If she grows up loving us as her parents, she will want to rule.”
Levine yanked her hands away. “We still need the book for her to do that, anyway.”
“We will have it, in time.”
Levine spun toward Jaiden. “Shut up!” she shouted, but instead of quieting her, it only made her scream louder. “Damn, what’s wrong with her?”
Malcolm moved closer to Levine and put his arms around her. “We’ll figure it out. We have a lot to learn.”
“I don’t want to learn anything about raising a child. I want that book.”
“The book is the easy part, my love. We already have the other things we need.”
Levine rolled her eyes.
“They will be coming for their friends and for her very soon.” She waved her hand at Jaiden.
“Yes, they will be coming…if they can find us.”
Levine feared that Stewart was right; Malcolm did seem to underestimate the council every time.
“You know they will find us eventually. You and Alexander have been battling it out for years. I would think you would know by now that nothing stops them when they want something.”
Malcolm finally appeared to get frustrated with her negativity. “So, what if they do find us? They come, we fight, we kill them, and then we don’t have to deal with them anymore.”
Fool, Levine thought. “It’s not going to be that simple and you know it. Corrine is with them and they have slayers too.”
Malcolm threw his arms in the air. “We, my love, have an army with a lust for blood.”
At his words, Levine found herself anxious for more blood. She went to Malcolm and reached up both hands to caress his pale cheeks. “When can I have the girl?”
“We need to save her, Levine. Why don’t you take the other one?”
Levine smiled seductively. “I already did.”
Malcolm shook his head. “I should have known.”
“Well, he was taunting me.”
“He does have quite the mouth on him, doesn’t he?”
“Let’s leave the child alone and let’s go see if the girl knows anything abo
ut the book. Even if she doesn’t, I want to see her scream out in pain.”
“Darling, what is it with your infatuation with torture?”
“We’ve been together for how long, and you still don’t know the answer to that? Don’t make me want to see you scream out in pain too.”
She watched humorously as Malcolm used his right hand to sweep the side of his cape around. “Whatever you wish, my love.”
“Come on.” Levine held her hand out to him, and together, they went down to the lower chambers.
32
Alex paced across the kitchen. He literally steamed with anger. How could this happen?
“Damn it!” he cursed and gave Corrine’s melted toaster a swift kick which sent it flying across the linoleum.
“Alex, calm down,” Corrine said from the kitchen door. She had appeared just in time to bend over and pick up the toaster. “We will find them,” she said softly.
He threw his hands in the air. “How? How will we find them? We can’t just waltz in there and say ‘Hey, I’m here for my friends.’ That would be suicide.”
“I think you need to have more confidence in your fellow council members.” She nodded toward the living room. “Come with me.”
He followed her and was surprised to see Michael and three of the slayers sitting among the group. Tension showed on everyone’s faces. Alex knew they were stressing out about what they were going to do but all were staring at Michael questioningly.
“What’s going on?” he asked and sat down next to Chris.
Michael spoke. “I think we might have a plan for when we actually find and are able to get into the mountain.
“Oh.”
Michael saw sheer disbelief on Alex’s face. “What?”
Alex shrugged. “Well, tell us.”
Michael lifted his right hand toward his friends. “First things first, this here is Jeff; he is our designated computer geek.”
He pointed to the next one, who was a woman with short blond hair and a sleek body which fit excellently into her jeans. “And this lovely lady is Tessa; she’s our weapons expert.”
Victoria cleared her throat and said, “Since when does sharpening a few stakes and arrows make someone a weapons expert?”
The room filled with sighs and moans from the group. Alex couldn’t help thinking, Victoria, just shut it for once.
Tessa refused to be offended. She brushed her bangs away from her green eyes and said, “Ma’am, we are living in the times of technology; we have weapons that will outdo most of your magic.”
Before Victoria could respond, Michael continued, “And this is Cameron; basically, he just likes to kick some vampire ass.”
Alex watched Michael’s face fall as he remembered Alex and Chris were vampires.
“Sorry, guys.” He looked over at them and apologized. “Anyway, Cameron is the one who came up with this idea. So, I’ll let him tell it.”
Alex ran his gaze over Cameron. He was big, not fat big but burly big, with an innocent looking baby face.
Boy, the girls must love him.
Cameron began, “Here’s the deal. First, we have to find out where they are. We can do that with the co-ordinates from the map and the snazzy GPS system we have in the truck. Then, someone will have to go in and scope out the inside of the mountain, which means we need someone who can get in there and move around without being seen.”
Alex watched Cameron look around the group and let his eyes settle on Victoria. He had obviously been told about her.
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “No way!”
“Come on,” Damion told her. “You’ll be fine.”
“Do you realize what I have to do to appear completely invisible?” Victoria continued to shake her head.
“No one is going to see you. You will have your clothes on before you reappear.”
“No! I’m not doing it.”
Alex smiled and laughed to himself at the image of Victoria running around naked in Malcolm’s caves.
Chris, on the other hand, could not contain himself; he laughed out loud.
“Christopher!” Victoria chastised him. “Get those thoughts out of your head right this second.”
“Sorry.” Chris sucked in his breath and did his best to stay quiet.
Michael continued to persuade her. “Victoria, this could be our only opportunity to save Jaiden, Isabella and Stewart. You were given the power of invisibility for a reason and I think this may be the reason. You are the only one who can do it.”
“That’s not true, Danielle can do it.”
Danielle shook her head, “no, Victoria, I can’t. I am an angel and I am earthbound, therefore I can only use my powers to help you in time of dire need.”
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Oh please, like this isn’t a time of dire need.”
“Dire need means it must be a matter of life or death, Victoria.”
“Why can’t we just storm the place?” she asked.
It was Damion’s turn to shake his head. “Because that would mean certain death. We have to know exactly what we are getting into here. We have to have a plan.”
“So, what exactly would I have to do?” She appeared to be on her way to consenting.
Michael answered, “We need you to remember exactly what the place looks like. You have to look at the walls of the caves and tell us if there are holes or crevices in them. Explore the place and remember it. Then, your friends can tap into your memory and recall exactly what it looks like so we can go on with the next part of the plan.”
“Which is?” Alex asked.
Michael glanced at Cameron and nodded for him to continue.
“The next stage will be these babies.”
He reached down into a bag Alex hadn’t noticed before and pulled out what looked like a weird flashlight.
“These are hand-held ultraviolet lights.” He glanced at Alex and Chris. “For certain reasons, I won’t demonstrate. One of these couldn’t kill a vampire but two probably would.” He paused to let the information sink in. “We need to spread these throughout the entire lair and hope no one finds any of them. They will all be on timers and most will have bombs inside them as well. Between the time we set these out and the time they are supposed to go off, you need to have found your friends and the baby.”
Deanna finally cut in. “What about the people in there, the ones they are using for blood?”
Danielle shook her head. “We can’t let them into the world. Others would put them into a mental hospital, that is, if they don’t kill themselves.”
Alex was appalled. “You mean we have to murder those people?”
Danielle nodded.
“How can you be so all right with that? You’re an angel!”
“My being an angel has nothing to do with the balance of humans on earth. Do you honestly think it would be ok for all those people to run around telling everyone how they were kidnapped by vampires who fed off their blood?”
“But do we really have to kill them?”
Damion took over for Danielle. “There is no other choice. If we kept them contained and locked up, we would be no better than Malcolm is, and it wouldn’t do them any good, either.”
Deanna looked upset and struggled into an upright position. “There has to be another way.”
Damion shook his head and stayed firm. “Nope, we have priorities.”
Once again Alex could feel his anger rising. “Our priority is to the human race.”
“Alex,” Danielle interrupted, “we are the great council; we are here to make the laws and create a balance of supernatural which will make it possible for humans to stay dominant. That is our mission. Jaiden is the only one we need to make sure to get out of there.”
“What about Isabella and Stewart?”
“If one of them or one of us dies in the process, then so be it. We knew this job was dangerous when we agreed to take it. Isabella knew she would be in danger and Stewart took an oath to the council; they both knew the
possibilities.”
“I won’t leave either of them,” Alex told her firmly. “I will ignore the fact that hundreds of innocent people will be killed in this process but I will not leave our own behind.”
“Neither will I,” Damion stated.
Deanna looked up from inspecting the bandages on her arm.
“Me neither,” she told them.
Victoria and Jeremiah looked at each other, shrugged and both mumbled, “Me too.”
Alex glanced at Michael and regretted how he had felt at first about having to hang out with vampire slayers. He decided to invade the privacy of Michael’s mind and discovered that Michael was actually impressed with the amount of loyalty the council held for each other and for innocent people.
He snapped out of it quickly and directed his attention back to Cameron.
“People, I cannot impress upon you how important the timeline is going to be. You need to find your friends and get out of there, no messing around.”
Victoria had more questions to ask. “Who is going to go in and plant those things? And also, I never actually agreed to do this.”
“Well, will you?” Michael asked her.
“I’m old. It will take me an entire night to do that.”
“Don’t put more pressure on yourself than you need to. We know they won’t hurt the baby so we just need to hope Stewart and Isabella are alive. If it takes you all night, then it takes you all night,” Michael said.
“And we, the slayers, will be planting the bombs.”
“Well, if I do this, I don’t want to hear anyone complaining about how slow I am.”
Michael raised his eyebrows. “So, you will?”
“Yes, but only because it’s my duty to do it.”
Alex smiled. As hard as she tried to fool everyone, they all knew she was a good person. She couldn’t be part of the council if she wasn’t.
Michael rubbed his hands together. “Well, then, the first thing we need to do is to find this mountain. We can work on the details of the plan on the way.”
“Wait.” Corrine stood. “Before we go, there are some very important things in this house that need to be moved. We can’t leave them here now that Levine knows where I am.”
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