My eyes travelled unwillingly towards a wheeled cage. It was obviously used to transport vampires because, I could tell from here, it was made of blessed silver. The expense of such an item was almost incalculable. No wonder this guy had been so effectively able to buy his way into the pockets of the Lawkeeper high command.
"She seems docile," one of the guards added, staring at me where I lay in the trunk.
"She's G-doped," replied Gage.
Garlic isn't as fatal to vampires as popular fiction might encourage you to believe, but in a concentrated form, it can make us drowsy as fuck. I, of course, was not G-doped, but I knew how to fake it.
The guards dragged me out of the trunk and thrust me roughly into the cage, where I tried to stand in the middle, touching nothing.
"We'll try not to go over any bumps," one of the bastards leered at me.
They didn't try very hard. I fought to keep my balance but the guards delighted in bouncing my cage so I was knocked against the bars, which burnt like cold fire against my skin.
"Should have stripped her first," one of them commented. "The more bare skin, the more fun."
"You don't want to take any chances with this one," said Kael. "Treat her with extreme caution."
The guys were trailing behind Self, and I could almost feel their emotions on the air as they heard my cries of pain with each bump of the cage.
Finally, I was wheeled into a lavishly appointed reception room. Seated at the far end, by a stained glass window, was a thin, pale-faced man who could also have been a vampire himself. But as he turned his head to reveal watery blue eyes, there was an ascetic cruelty in his expression that only humans can master. Vampires are violent by nature, humans by choice.
"Miss Parish," the man spoke in a thin voice with an unmistakable edge to it. "I've looked forward to this moment."
"Can't say the feeling is mutual."
The man smiled thinly. "Of course, but nonetheless, here we are. My name is Cosgrove Lafferty, perhaps you've heard of me."
"Nothing good."
Lafferty smiled again. "She still has plenty of fight in her."
Self nodded. "I know that's how you prefer them." There was a quiver in his voice now, but I got the impression that he was always afraid around Lafferty, so was giving nothing away.
"Oh, yes. Where would be the point in collecting such powerful creatures if I was denied the pleasure of breaking them myself." He sighed, "A man must have a hobby."
"Indeed."
"I'm intrigued. I have been trying to collect this bitch for years, how were you able to trap her?" He was suspicious by nature, which probably accounted for his survival in a dangerous world.
"I can't take much credit," said Self. "These gentlemen," he indicated the guys, "represent the latest advances in bio-tech. Not quite the equal of a vampire, but together, they come close. They were able to ingratiate themselves and then betray her."
Lafferty shook his head. "It's almost sad to think that so powerful an animal was brought to heel by something so easy. Even a vampire may be brought low by human emotion. A lesson to us all. She will regret the error soon enough. Now, I believe we had a deal."
"We don't have to talk about that now." That was the first thing Self had said that didn't ring true and I knew why. Kael had smuggled in a miniature recording device - secreted beneath his own skin. Any hope Self might have had of getting out of this without being directly implicated was about to vanish.
Lafferty, too, noticed the change in tone. "Something wrong, Marin?"
Self recovered himself quickly. "No. I can count on your support."
"Financial and otherwise. Governor Self; has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
Self nodded, knowing that it would now never happen.
"Well, you've earned it," said Lafferty. He turned to his guards. "Take her to the main dungeon and get her ready. Take no chances."
I felt a blank pain at the back of my neck, then nothing.
When I came around, I was in the 'main dungeon', a metal-lined, antiseptic room with a door, a chair and few other distinguishing features. While I was out, I had been stripped naked and was now suspended from a hook in the ceiling, around which the linkers, which I still wore, had been hooked. Another hook on the floor held the linkers on my ankles so I was stretched between ceiling and floor, unable to move.
"Welcome back." The chair was occupied by Cosgrove Lafferty, smoking a cigarette. "This is the room in which you will spend much of the rest of your existence. You will come to fear it, and me. You may not believe that now, but by the end of tonight, I think you will. Shall we begin?"
He slid back one of the featureless walls to reveal a cupboard laid out like a tool shed - everything in its place. Everything gleamed with the wicked shine of blessed silver and I tried to hide my anxiety as my eyes travelled across the implements of torture. There were blessed silver knives, of course, a rack of thin, whippy canes made of the hated metal, but the sight that made my stomach contract in fear, was the shelf of sex toys. Dildos of various and imposing design, butt plugs and nipple clamps, all made of blessed silver.
"Let's start simply." Lafferty took down a blessed silver cane and swished it experimentally through the air. "I like to kick off with a simple beating. Others of your filthy kind have told me that this is the worst pain they have ever experienced, and I always enjoy telling them that it is merely phase one. It gets much worse. I have never had anyone as powerful as you in here. I am genuinely fascinated to see what you can endure."
I said nothing. What was there to say to a man like that? I know there are people who hate vampires - some with good reason - but most of them would still have recognized this as inhuman. Lafferty used his distaste for my species as an excuse to indulge his cruel and perverse desires.
"Your last words in this world," Lafferty went on - a man who enjoyed the sound of his own voice almost as much as he enjoyed inflicting pain, "are likely to be some variation on 'Please, please stop'. I always give my guests the opportunity to have their last words now, while they still have the coherence to come up with something. So, any last words before we begin?"
"Where is my sister?" I growled.
Lafferty laughed. "That little pussycat? She's upstairs in the tower. Don't worry about her. She would have made ineffective bait had we harmed her. Now, I have you, of course, I'll hand her over to my guards. She's too weak for my taste, but she's a pretty thing and I daresay they can have some fun with her for a few weeks. Do you feel better for knowing that?"
Here's the thing about Lawkeeper linkers - there are a few substances that vampires cannot break but the majority of them, like blessed silver, cause us pain. The Lawkeepers’ original intent as an organization was fairness between the species and so, causing vampires pain was a no-no. The linkers, therefore, were made of abraded carbon steel, an incredibly strong substance that is very difficult to make. Fifty percent of all linkers made are useless and are melted down again. Or, at least, most of them are melted down again. But if you have Lawkeepers on your side, then you might be able to get hold of a couple of these defective pairs.
With a cry of effort, I broke hand and ankle linkers and dropped nimbly to the floor. Lafferty - even whiter than usual with shock - rushed for the door and I charged after him. But I was in too much of a hurry, careless in my anger and desperation. Lafferty wheeled around and cut the cane across my face, making me flinch back, clutching the wound and screaming with the brutal onslaught of pain. It was only a momentary retreat but it gave Lafferty time to dive through the door, slamming it behind him. I charged into it, the metal bowing but not breaking. I screamed in frustration and put my shoulder to it again, but the door itself seemed to be made of abraded carbon steel. I could not break it.
I had to calm down, had to think clearly. I pulled on a gown I found in the corner and then searched the hated cupboard for something I might be able to use to get through that door.
Suddenly, noises from outside claimed my attention - sounds of
a fight. I rushed back to the door and banged against it.
"In here! In here!"
Seconds later, I heard bolts being drawn back and the door was thrown open by Gage.
"Come o..." A gunshot cut off the end of the sentence and Gage tumbled forward.
Snarling like a wildcat, I sprang across the room, over Gage's body and into the hall beyond, leaping savagely onto the guard there, who fired his gun uselessly into the wall behind me. My teeth found his throat and I ripped open his jugular, blood spraying. I turned my blood red gaze on the other guards who had just appeared around the corner and who now made a sensible retreat.
Hurrying back to Gage, I turned him over.
"Gage!"
"You'd think they could engineer me to make that sort of thing hurt less." He was joking but his face was ashen, and I could see how bad the wound was. I began to tear his shirt to make a bandage but he pushed me away. "Get Layla. I'll be fine."
"No, you won't."
"Well, I'll be damned if I've gotten shot for nothing!"
"Gage..." I had never been so torn in my life. I knew that Lafferty had gone for Layla when he left me, and what he might do to her did not bear thinking about. But Gage, who I loved so much, was here in my arms bleeding to death. How did I choose?
"Go get Layla." This time the voice came from behind me and I could have wept with happiness to see Kael and Milo, tooled up, their faces spattered with blood. "Milo, take care of Gage. Sonja, come the fuck on."
I didn't need telling twice. "She's in the tower."
"I know the way."
As Kael and I took off down the hall, I heard a gunshot behind us - Milo dealing with any guards who came near.
"Milo can handle it," said Kael, reading my mind.
I knew he could. I couldn't think about that now. I couldn't think about how Milo was risking his life or how Gage had been seriously wounded, all to help me. I had to focus on getting Layla back, to make whatever sacrifice they made worthwhile.
We tore up a flight of stairs, meeting five guards coming the other way. Kael took the first, smacking the man's face into the wall, while I grabbed the wrist of the second, driving his own blessed silver knife through his body and out into the body of the man behind him. The fourth's neck was snapped in Kael's powerful grasp. The fifth made a run for it, but he wasn't quick enough to outrun a vampire and I tore his throat out.
"We make a good team," nodded Kael as he caught me up and we ran on. "In a bloody sort of a way."
"In other ways, too."
Shots rang out as we reached the ground floor, and Kael fired back as I swiftly located the guards - too fast a target for them to hit.
"The tower?"
"Yeah."
"This way."
More guards were at the base of the stairs, letting us know we were going the right way, but meeting us with a barrage of gunfire that stopped even me.
"Wooden bullets," I growled. "Fatal to vampires."
"Not great for humans, either," Kael grimaced.
"Any other way around?"
"No. But the doors here are reinforced with steel - this guy has a security fetish - I reckon we can hide behind one."
I frowned. "You want to hide behind the door?"
Kael ripped a door off its hinges and held it in front of him like a shield.
I nodded. "Got you."
I helped myself to the other door and we charged out into the open space before the stairs. Wooden bullets pounded into the door I held and I could hear the shouts of the guards beyond. "Fall back! Fall Back!"
They were backing up the stairs. As the gunshots got fewer, I raised my door and hurled it up the broad staircase like a frisbee, cutting guards to the ground, knocking their guns askew so they shot each other. Those who escaped were far too distracted to aim and I was on them in seconds, with Kael to back me up. He hurled one back down the stairs while I sent another, smashing through a plate glass window.
"That looked expensive."
"He can bill me for damages."
But as we started up the stairs, more gunshots rang from behind. I didn't have time for this and Kael seemed to have the same thought.
"Go on. I can hold them."
"But..."
"Have a little faith, Sonja."
I had never had faith in anyone until now, but I had faith in him, and in Milo and Gage, too.
Leaving Kael to hold the staircase, I ran up the stairs at vampiric speed. Suddenly, I caught a scent that I would know anywhere - Layla was nearby and she was frightened.
I didn't even stop to think if the door might be reinforced with abraded carbon steel, and thankfully, it wasn't, because I burst through it like the wrath of God, splintered wood showering the interior of the room.
Inside, Layla was in a corner and, huddled behind her, holding a blessed silver knife to her throat, was Cosgrove Lafferty. He gave me a nasty smile.
"One step closer and you'll hear your sister scream."
I tried to stay calm. The red had faded from my eyes and I was trying to stave off the orange of panic - I didn't want him to know I was scared. "It's over, Lafferty. One way or another, you're going down. If you give up now, then you don't have to die."
Lafferty snorted in derision. "You think you've beaten me, vampire? I hold the cards." He squeezed Layla and she squealed in fear.
"You hold one card, and if you lose it, then I'll tear you limb from limb."
"But your friend will still be dead."
"If I turn around and let you go, then what? You're done. It's over."
Lafferty shook his head. "You're a vampire, and I'm a human. All I have to do is say you forced your way into my house and people will happily believe me. People always believe the human. Plus, I have money. You've cost me today, but it's nothing that I can't buy back. You've lost. Ironic, really. You've lost because your humanity won't allow you to let your friend die. If our positions were reversed, I would still win. Isn't that funny?"
That was the second time he had mentioned my humanity. Was there a tiny chink in his armor there?
With no choices left, I went for it. "Humanity isn't a weakness. I wouldn't have gotten in here without it."
Lafferty scoffed. "Too bad I trump you in that respect, too."
"Do you?"
"I'm human."
"Are you?" I shook my head. "From where I stand, you sold your humanity years ago. I don't know what happened to you that causing pain became the only way you could feel alive, but there's nothing human about it."
"Please don't say you pity me. I can't stand clichés."
I sneered. "Of course, I don't pity you. You're scum. A vile little reptile who could count all his friends on the fingers of one foot. Who'd come rescue you if you were held like you've held Layla? There are three humans downstairs who've put their lives at risk to help me. Who'd do that for you? It's not just that no one would risk their lives to save you - I don't think anyone would cross the street to save you. You called my species 'filthy'. You've got nothing on us."
For whatever reason, that seemed to do the trick. "You're comparing me to your kind?” he snarled. “You prey on the lives of others to survive."
"How many have you killed?"
"Vampires..."
"You're telling me you haven't killed humans?"
"I'm nothing like you!"
He didn't relax his grip on the knife. Quite the reverse, in fact, he pressed it harder against Layla, who convulsed in pain as the blessed silver touched her. When a vampire convulses, a human cannot hold them and Layla's movement knocked Lafferty's arm away from her. It was only for a split second, but for a vampire, a split second can be enough. I suppose I move faster than any other creature in the city or on this continent, maybe even in the world, but I never moved any quicker than I did then. My fingers slipped between the blade and my sister's neck, and with a force of will, I closed my hand to wrench it from Lafferty's hand.
I expect my scream of pain could have been heard across t
he city, but I'd have done it again in a heartbeat.
Layla broke free and rushed across the room.
"Get out," I said, struggling to bite back the excruciating pain in my hand. "There's a Lawkeeper down the stairs, you can't miss him."
She paused in the doorway. "Sonja..."
"Go!"
She went. I turned back to Lafferty.
"I'm unarmed," he whimpered.
"Don't worry, Mr. Lafferty," I said, an icy calm settling over me. I had dropped the knife, but the pain was still running riot through me. "I won't treat you with the cruelty you showed to my kind."
"You won't?"
"Thanks to you, I've acquired a greater sense of my own humanity than I have had in centuries. Maybe since I was human. What you did here, how you tortured my kind to death and reveled in their pain - there was a time when I would have done the same to you. But I've grown, I've learned. And because of that, I can show you mercy."
I saw the hope in his eyes.
"I'm going to kill you quickly."
His short scream echoed in the space for only an instant.
"Lafferty?" asked Kael as he met me on the stairs.
"Dead. Layla?" I demanded.
"Milo is with her."
"Milo? What about Gage?" I asked, worry still coiled in my belly.
"He's in the car. We need to move, now. Also, the building is on fire."
I was almost afraid to believe it was true as I ran alongside him down the stairs, heading for the exit. We’d all made it.
"What happened to Self?"
Kael shrugged. "He made a run for it early on. Men like him always survive because they always find a rock to crawl under."
We reached the car and I got in and hugged a trembling Layla, my heart so full, it felt like it might split in two. "You're alright."
Her eyes shone with tears as she met my gaze. "I can't believe you did this."
"You're my sister. I love you."
"I love you, too."
The security cordons were empty as we drove out, gunning the engine for all it was worth.
Apparently, no one had thought to stay and avenge Cosgrove Lafferty.
Her Deadly Harem Page 14