by Jan Dockter
“Kenzie isn’t answering.”
“Are you sure it’s your friend?” I thought fast. If they were putting more than one girl in a cell, maybe we were due for more company.
“Yes, she had her hair in a braid.”
“Okay, good. Touch her face. Can you feel her breathing?” I waited.
“Yes, yes, she’s alive!” Becca sobbed, her voice thick with emotion. “Oh, God, Kenzie, wake up!”
“Becca, how long have you been awake?”
“Only since right before I heard you.” I thought for a moment. I must have been taken long before the others, and whatever they’d done to put me out had worn off, but not before they’d come back with Becca and her friend.
“Becca, I’m sure she’ll wake up soon; okay, just stay calm and we’ll figure this out together,” I reassured her, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of my own stomach. I’d been awake for at least a couple of hours; but who knew how long the effects would last.
In a panic, I ran my fingers down the line of my neck on both sides, following the carotid artery and jugular veins. I did the same with my arms, checking the veins at my elbows and wrists. I was almost afraid to continue, but I undid my pants and slid them off. I felt over my hips, down my thighs, and down my legs to my ankles. No bite marks; I hadn’t been bitten anywhere on my body.
I started shivering; I had no idea if it was from relief or shock! Tears formed a lump in my throat; I hugged my knees to my chest and rocked while I cried until I could speak again. Becca and I had been silent for a few minutes as she tended to her friend, but I had to know if either of them had been bitten either.
“Hey, Becca, are you still there?”
“Yeah, are you all right?” She paused before continuing. “It’s okay if you’re crying; I was too. I just meant are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. I do need you to do something for me. I need you to check your veins for puncture marks.” I sighed, waiting for the questions that would lead to her telling me I was crazy.
“Do you think the guys that took us injected us with drugs?” It was as good a reason as I could give without sounding like a lunatic, and she was already in a black hole with no idea if her friend was hurt or sick. I was worried a vampire had put her under so deeply that she might never wake up.
“Yeah,” I replied, rubbing my face with my hands. “So, you know, anything like that. It might not even be noticeable, except for a sore spot over a vein, like… like a bruise you don’t remember getting.” I took a shaky breath. “I checked myself, and I didn’t find anything, I just want us all to be sure. Your friend,”
“Mackenzie.”
“Right, Mackenzie. When she wakes up, we’ll have her do the same thing to herself.”
“I’m doing it now.” Stuck in the dark halfway from nowhere I couldn’t see or hear her moving, so I had to take her word for it. Maybe all the time in the dark or the time in the Venatores lamiae had made me paranoid. “The only bruise I have is on my butt. Maybe that’s where they stuck the needle. It’s pretty sore.” I grinned. With no easy access to major arteries or veins, it was unlikely she’d been bitten on her butt. Her voice was as giddy as I felt.
We were stuck in the dark, hungry; I was about to have to pee in a corner. But we were alive, and fang-free; at least for the moment. I felt fresh tears sting my eyelids, but I was okay. Becca was okay and hopefully Mackenzie would be okay. The next step was to figure out how to get free. We had to get word to David and Clay in order for the hunters to come for us.
There was so much I didn’t know yet, so many things that weren’t taught to us until we’d been initiated. So I started with what I did know: the truth and the lore of vampires.
Chapter 5
Becca and I chatted for a long time about where we came from, who we were, and how we were taken. We talked so long that I started to worry about her friend, Mackenzie. The upside was that we’d been gone long enough for David and Clayton to notice, and that meant hunters were already looking for us. I hated that my own stupidity and jealousy had left me alone and off-guard. I’d practically begged to be taken by naively wandering off on my own. David and Clayton had probably been happy to be rid of me, the fifth wheel of the group.
Before dating had become a focus of their lives, we’d been inseparable. I should have known it was inevitable that I’d be the one who didn’t fit in the group anymore. It was gut wrenching how easily David had chosen flirting with someone new over our lifelong friendship. I wondered if he’d ever thought we were family, or if that was just forced on him too.
I mentally slapped myself out of my self-pity and started thinking about the monsters instead. They could have killed us or infected us on the spot. That was unless we were being given to a master, as a gift or maybe food. Hopefully the master was old enough that he couldn’t pretend to be human anymore. I shuddered, and bile rose in my mouth.
The ancient ones; the oldest of the vampires; had thin, papery skin stretched over their skulls and their teeth were so prominent that they appeared lipless. Their eyes burned like coal in braziers and their hair receded to mere tufts at their temples and ears. The illustrations in our textbooks, of the few ancient ones the hunters had been able to capture, were horrific and nightmare inducing. The textbooks said that masters that old were almost impossible to catch or kill; especially since they retreated from humanity.
If the master still needed to eat, where were they getting their food? The thought made me nauseated as I leaned my forehead against the wall to cool off and change my thought process. Hunters and vampires killed each other, but we tried to keep it civilized. We knew the consequences of war for the human world.
If the vampires that took us (if they were vampires and not organ thieves after all) could fly; they had access to hundreds of years of wealth and the toys that came with them. I had done some research on the geography of the California coast and most likely we’d been taken because we were convenient. The pitting I felt in the stone of the walls could be from proximity to the ocean; where salt spray and ocean storms would have broken the stone down faster than in drier locations.
“Becca, Becca, how is Mackenzie doing?” I called out, becoming more alarmed that she still wasn’t awake.
“Her breathing is shallow and uneven. I can touch her face; I even pinched her arm! She didn’t wake up or even make a sound.” That one statement turned my blood to ice in my veins. If they hadn’t bitten us to put us under, then we’d been “glamoured” or charmed to knock us out, which meant that the vampires that took us had gotten inside our heads.
My shields hadn’t been enough to protect me. I wasn’t surprised, but I was still ashamed of my weakness. Perhaps Dominique had been wrong about my ‘raw talent,’ as she’d called it. Maybe I was in a cell about to be drained of my blood by an impossibly terrifying predator; maybe that was just my fate. The vampire that killed my mother and father hadn’t bothered to kill me. Now, my destiny to die as fang-feed had caught up to me.
For a moment, I’d imagined myself as “the girl who lived”. Now, I just felt stupid. My lip slid between my teeth to stop me from biting my fingernails, which would be the next thing in my mouth if I couldn’t come up with some sort of solution. I might not have been much of an expert, but I was the closest thing Becca and the still-unconscious Mackenzie had to a hunter.
“Becca, slap her. Hard,” I ordered. “Hit her as hard as you dare with your open hand. We’re running out of time, and we need her awake.”
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Really? What chance do we have to get her out of here, if she’s still unconscious?”
“You think beating her up will help us get her out?”
“I think getting her awake gives us a chance to fight together, or at least negotiate for our lives. Right now, she is dead weight we can’t carry and she can’t argue for her freedom if she’s unconscious.” I didn’t think vampires had a parlay system, but I was willing to bet if we were all a
wake, we’d stay together; whereas if Mackenzie was still asleep, they’d take her first, because she’d be easier for them to feed on.
Distantly, I heard the familiar slap of an open palm against skin, and another, and a third. Becca was screaming at Mackenzie and slapping her again, and again; almost hysterical as she begged her friend to wake.
“Becca, stop!” I shouted down the hall. I repeated myself, and the only sound I heard was her sobbing. “I’m sorry Becca. You tried.” There was a long silence, and I wondered if I’d lost my only friend in the darkness.
“Caroline?” Becca’s hoarse voice sounded like she’d been crying for days.
“I’m here, Becca.”
“She isn’t awake, but she moved. Oh, my God, she moved!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her what I feared. Maybe the vampire that had put her under was awake, which meant it was night, or nearly so. My heart sank! We’d been here at least a full day by then with no hunters showing up to save us. Worse; if the vampires had been sleeping, it wouldn’t be long now before we had company. I’d considered why we were still alive and unmarked, but I hadn’t figured out what came next.
I felt my way back to the side wall using the torch, felt around until I felt the clip that locked it in place and lifted it out of the holder. I sat in a crouch with my back against the far wall and my butt resting on my heels. This way I could spring up and launch the torch at the face of the first blood sucker through the door.
I knew that I couldn’t fight, but maybe I could make them mad enough to kill me fast. I no longer remembered the details of my parents’ deaths; my mind hadn’t wanted to hold most of the images even when I was young. Time had been my sweetest friend and stolen the remaining images from me over the years. However, I would never lose the terror and soul-numbing hate that filled me at the thought of seeing another vampire. I tried to focus on the things Signora Borgia and Professor Eldritch had been teaching my Anthropology and Mythology of Vampires class. Their energy came from living blood, but only the very strongest could stay awake during daylight hours. Their psychic powers were varied; just like humans. There were some who had no mental powers to draw upon, just like some couldn’t fly, and others had every imaginable power.
Obviously, we were dealing with one or maybe several that could get inside our heads and glamour us. Poor Mackenzie was weak-willed enough or had a master vampire strong enough to completely roll her. In the books, people like her were called Renfields, after Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. These were humans who could no longer think for themselves; sleeping when their master slept and doing their bidding without question.
If we’d been brought here at the same time, then maybe I was strong enough to fight it off for at least a little while. I’d been awake for a long time ; it made sense that we’d been sitting down here all day. My stomach would attest to that; if nothing else. Becca had awaken on her own several hours after me. I was about to call out to her and check in on Mackenzie when I heard a scream from that end of the corridor.
“Becca! Becca answer me!” I screamed into the darkness; pressing my face against the bars desperately wishing I could conjure a light in the darkness. Then, as though I’d created it with my mind, a tiny flare of light floated and bobbed in the far distance. As tiny as it was; it was blinding after the hours of darkness and my eyes burned behind my eyelids as I blinked and squeezed them tightly shut, trying to acclimate to the change.
“Caroline!” Becca screamed, her voice breaking off into a choking sound. The light flickered in the place where I imagined her door would be.
“Becca!” She didn’t answer. I gripped the ancient, iron torch tighter and fell back from the door to the side opposite the hinges. The silence was thick enough to touch as my palms grew wet and slick against the metal . I waited to befall the same fate as Becca and her friend.
The seconds ticked on; my thighs and arms began to cramp from the position I was holding. I strained to stay still and not give away my position, as I realized the light outside my door was growing brighter. I rolled my shoulders and shifted my weight from the balls of one foot to the other; ready to spring. My scant training might be enough despite aching muscles and lack of food to draw blood when I swung.
Chapter 6
There was a scraping sound of metal against metal as a key turned in the door. Then it swung open. In the light was the shadowed face of a beautiful girl, not much older than myself. But, the age that I sensed in my mind was much, much older than she appeared.
“Well, now!” she exclaimed in a sugary voice. “I bet Vittorio didn’t catch that little ability of yours when he grabbed you.” The lit torch moved directly in front of my face, blinding me, and I swung out blindly. “Now, now, little witch. No need for that,” the girl chided in her lilting voice, as she grabbed the iron out of my hand like it was nothing. I heard the clatter as it hit the far wall and clenched my jaw to keep from whimpering. “Now, let’s go get you cleaned up and fed; then you can tell me what other powers you’ve got little witch. I’m always interested in a pretty girl who can feel me inside her.” Despite the youthful sweetness of her voice, I trembled at the threat behind the sexual innuendo.
“Kill me now. I won’t be made into vampire fodder,” I hissed, my voice shaking.
“Oh, you’re a tiny hunter.” My eyes had gotten used to the soft torchlight and I could see her shake her head. “What kind of people are they; sending a tender little thing like you out all by herself? You poor thing. I’ll take care of you.”
“You’ll protect me?” I asked my voice soaked in disbelief.
“Of course. Don’t believe all you hear from one hateful, frightened group of racists, darling. I for one love sweet little morsels like you. I couldn’t bear to let anyone else touch you, except the master.” She held out her hand and I walked hand in hand with her up a long spiraling set of stairs. I then realized she’d glamoured me again! I wrenched my hand away and she laughed in delight, a clear lovely sound that froze me to my very core, paralyzing me with terror.
Her hard, blue eyes held mine as I focused on my psychic shield; straining against her power pressing in on me until she pulled back, a look of genuine surprise on her face. She was silent after my small victory over her. My heart swelled with fierce pride and made me braver as I walked into the unknown behind her.
She left the torch in a sconce on the wall at the top of the stairs and pushed open a wooden door, it was similar to the one that had shut me into my cell, but far larger and heavier. She motioned me through with a bow at the neck and followed close enough behind me that her skirt brushed my legs. Occasionally I caught images from her that chilled me and each time she got me to react she would laugh at me. She couldn’t really violate me; which made me glad, but seemed to frustrate her.
“You’d be surprised how enjoyable my company can be, little witch,” she huffed, when I balked at a particularly explicit image she was projecting of the two of us.
“You know you and I are almost the same size and height, don’t you?” I replied, refusing to acknowledge what I was starting to believe was her flirting.
“But you have so much more to learn and so much growing to do in here,” she giggled, tugging my head back with one hand and tapping my temple. I fell silent again, hoping she would grow bored and leave me alone again. While we walked I concentrated on my shield until I wasn’t sure if I had finally got it right, or she really had gotten bored and given up. I let the shield drop, and staggered as a picture of her bathed in my blood slammed me against the wall, choking on my own scream.
“Oh, Colette, leave her be! She isn’t for you! She is for the Master of the City.” She turned to me “Child, you may call me Rachel.” The voice was kinder and older, and hushed me as new power clamped down on my vocal cords. How could I hope to escape, or fight, when these beings had all the power they needed to make me submit to them against my will?
Colette, the vampire who had brought me up from the dungeon, huffed and stormed off to t
he far end of the room. She started brushing her hair, all the while watching me in the mirror. The older vampire led me to a large copper bath in the middle of the room. It was big enough to hold four of me and was deep and steaming from the hot water under the fragrant bubbles. She took my hand and helped me into the bath, the water and lavender fragrance instantly beginning to unknot my aching muscles.
I watched Rachel as she took away my dirty dress and laid out fresh clothes, presumably for me. The care they were taking with my appearance was confusing. Surely the master vampire I was meant to feed didn’t require his food in the Victorian dress that was laid out in front of me? The grey-haired vampire saw me watching her and smiled gently.
“You are quite safe in here, no matter what Colette said to frighten you,” she sighed. She picked up a thick sea sponge from a cart next to the bath and set it on the water in my lap. “Wash up, the master awakes, and he will have need of you.”
“The Venatores will come for me,” I said it softly, but she stiffened and turned back to face me.