Another Day

by C. L. Quinn

  “Not ever. And Lipnicki, when I get free, and don’t even think that I won’t, I’m going to kill you.”

  “Not ever,” he parroted.

  The grin on his face made Margot’s blood run cold.

  Stepping back, he folded his arms as if he was commanding a business meeting.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to strip you, lick you, fuck you, and if you’re really lucky, I won’t hurt you. Yet. Then, you’re going on your knees and I’m going to pound into your mouth so deep and so hard, you’ll be lucky if your tonsils don’t end up in your ass. Gorgeous, I’m going to tear you up. You’re welcome.”

  He turned to Cheeky. “Now you, you betraying little whore. You, I’m going to fuck and beat, my favorite combination of activities. You remember, it’s not like it’ll be your first time.”

  Next, he walked over to Robert. “Interestingly, I’ve never had any proclivities for men. However, I do like the idea of someone getting a chance to watch me work. You’re my first voyeur, intern. See if you can learn something now.”

  Lipnicki moved to where he was equidistant from the three people he had paid handsomely to have abducted and restrained. “This is the highlight of my year. I know you think I’m awful, and most people would find my appetites distasteful, but here’s a truth. The powerful have always used the powerless for entertainment. My appetites are different, I know that, but my God, they get me off. And gaining control of someone like you, lovely Margot, who thinks that you are so much better than me, is icing on my considerably large cake. So, yum, yum. Now, this room is completely soundproofed, so scream all you want.”

  Margot rattled her chains to get his attention and pinned him with her eyes. She tilted her head to try to engage him.

  “Michael, you won’t get away with this, you know that. And you just admitted that your, um, needs are wrong. We can get you help for that. You have a lot of money, and you’re young and healthy, you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in prison, do you? Or worse, dead? This is crazy, Michael, I work for you. There are people who won’t stop until they find me. Michael, it’s not too late.”

  “Let the opening statement begin. I knew you’d try it. Attorneys can never stop bargaining. No, I don’t admit that what I do is wrong, I just admit that others don’t understand it. I love what I do. You’ll find out.”

  Suddenly, he pushed up close enough for her to smell his breath. “And it is too late. You want to see why? You’re not the first. Someone else in the office knew about my, uh, sexual preferences. Look!”

  Lipnicki danced his way across the room to tarps piled in the corner of the room. He whipped his hands up as if he were presenting something, then ripped the top tarp away.

  She almost gagged as horror tore through her.

  “Jonas,” she whispered. His body lie tangled in another tarp, his head twisted in an unnatural position, and he was covered in something dark, which she assumed was his dried blood. God, poor Jonas. He’d had a good excuse for missing their lunch date.

  Still dancing, and giggling now, Lipnicki threw the tarp back over the dead man.

  “See?” he commented. “It’s too late. I’m in for a pound. So, no illusions, counselor. There’s no jury to convince here. You won’t leave any more than poor Colbert will. Does the defense rest?”

  Margot watched Michael Lipnicki preen and posture. This was real. God, poor Jonas and his family! The man they had both worked for was a rapist and murderer. None of them would leave here alive.

  Not only was Lipnicki looking forward to sexually assaulting her and Cheeky, but that he had an audience of three to perform for was just as exhilarating for him. He was much sicker than she’d ever imagined. The only thing that could happen to make this right would be for him to be locked away forever behind iron bars.

  Glancing at the iron that now held her to a solid metal structure, she figured she wouldn’t be the one to do it. Poor Cheeky, the sweet girl…so young, and convinced that testifying against Lipnicki was the right thing to do. God, she’d suffer so horribly before that inhuman creature finally killed her. And Robert. Smart, handsome, loving, altruistic Robert. Somehow, she knew that he would be the first one Lipnicki would kill. He would be a novelty for a while, the token audience, but eventually, Lipnicki would begin to pare down his threats, and since Cheeky and she would be providing his entertainment, he’d be the first to go.

  Xavier, she thought, would never know what happened to her. She hoped that he would find out who he was and get to go home. And, if she really cared about him, and she did, she hoped that a wonderful woman who missed him with all her heart would be waiting there for him. Her mind was on a roller-coaster, whipping back and forth over her life, these unfortunate people who got mixed up in it, the future she had thought she might have, Freddie, who would actually be the only person who would truly miss her.

  “Bitch!”

  The word penetrated her stream-of-consciousness rambling and she pulled out of her mental journey. Michael stood inches from her again, smacking her in the forehead.

  “You in there? Don’t think that trying to check out will help. I’ll make sure you know every little thing I do to you. Like this.”

  She summoned her voice. “Like what?”

  Margot had opened her eyes to Michael’s face, too close to focus on, but he stepped back and bright light shined into her eyes. He was holding something reflective near her face. “What, you motherfucker?”

  “Yeah, that’s the attitude I want. It makes this that…much…sweeter.”

  Seconds before she felt the slice, he pulled away enough for Margot to focus on what he wielded in his hand. It was a blade, shiny silver, with a carved handle of some kind. That was all she noticed before pain struck and her vision blurred. Her cheeks burned, pain intense and sharp, and as wetness suddenly slid onto her chest, she realized he’d cut into her face.

  She knew he was waiting for her to cry out, she knew it, but she would not do it. He could fucking cut her ears off, she refused to give him that thrill. And, he just might. She didn’t need her ears for him to fuck her. Before she ever gave this deviant one moment of pleasure, one moment of satisfaction, she’d force him to kill her.

  Somehow, given the flashpoint rage she’d seen in him, she thought it might not take too long.

  Funny, Margot thought, I know I’m badly wounded, and yet I’ve already adjusted to the pain. Maybe it’s a built in survival mechanism. Thank you, Mother Nature, if that’s so. I’m going to need a lot of your help.

  “I guess that wasn’t painful enough for you, Counselor Cunt. It’s enough for now, though, I don’t want to disfigure you too much. Part of the reason you have always fascinated me is how beautiful you are. That has changed now. Just a bit. I still want to fuck you, but I guess I’ll have to wait a few days for the slices to heal on your cheeks before I pound into your mouth. My bad. I just get so cross. Ah, for the moment, I think I’ll just pound into your pussy.”

  Margot felt her skirt tear as he ripped it away. She hadn’t put her underwear back on after she and Xavier had been together on the rooftop.

  The rooftop. Just think of the rooftop…

  The blood from the cuts must have clotted, she didn’t feel it dripping anymore. Her eyes hadn’t moved from Michael’s face since he tore her clothes off. Now, he just stood there staring.

  “I didn’t think I’d ever get to see you naked, but believe me, Napier, I pictured it quite often in my big office chair while I jerked myself off. You’ve been quite an obsession for me, did you know that? My father protected you, though, so when the old fart finally got too sick to have any say in my activities, I thought I’d have a chance. But you continued to deny me. Why, may I ask? I’m devilishly handsome, I’m charming, and wealthier than many nations. I practically own you since I pay your enormous salary. Why would you refuse me?”

  It took several tries to get her mouth to work. Her tongue felt numb, just moving her face hurt, and blood cak
ed her lips. He stood before her, the knife in his hand, his arms folded, and a look of expectation on his face.

  “Huh…” No pleasure. No satisfaction.

  She tried again. “You…are…as…sexy…as shit…on my boots.”

  He hit her then, open handed, a slap hard enough to rattle her teeth, or it seemed it did. All she knew was that he was maniacally crazy. Good. She wanted to keep his attention on her, away from the others, and away from raping her. Would rage keep him from getting excited? She didn’t know. Now, she didn’t care. It was apparent to her that he would make her wish she was dead long before she was. That wasn’t the option she chose.

  Also, she knew that when someone was blindingly angry, they messed up. If the opportunity came, she’d do everything she could to get them free and to safety.

  Then she’d come back and she would fucking kill this motherfucker.

  Eleven

  Claude entered the building, easily taking down the guards, all human, all worthless, and followed the voice of a screaming man down into the lower level of this filthy building that should have been destroyed long ago.

  A split second later, following a brief gun battle, more humans dead, he stood just inside a heavy metal door that had given his vampire skills no resistance. It took only seconds to assess the scene. To his left, a battered man slumped over, seated, bleeding, unconscious, his hands secured to a support post. It looked like he’d taken one of the many rounds fired in the supposedly secure room.

  A young girl, pretty, fuck-worthy for sure, chained to another chair in the center of the room. And to the right, the woman he sought, well described by one of his apes, a woman with shiny blonde hair, Xavier’s lady. She’d been described as beautiful, but he couldn’t tell that now. The man in front of her had carved her face quite horrifically.

  And that man was staring at him with a ferocious expression on his face. How human.

  “Who the fuck are you?” the man screamed.

  Claude smiled. He knew that his charming smile could bring an answering smile or freeze the blood of his enemies. This foolish human had no idea that he no longer held the winning hand.

  As anticipated, the man reached for a handgun lying on a table near him and pointed it at Claude.

  “You’ve made a big mistake, buddy. No one interrupts me!”

  Because he watched the gun fired, Claude easily side-stepped the bullets before they crashed into the wall behind him.

  Now, his hand around the human’s throat, the man’s feet clear of the floor, Claude pitched the gun across the room. “What was that about a mistake? Consider yourself permanently interrupted, worm.”

  Ahh, he’d missed this. Since he’d become vampire, Claude had stayed off the radar this past year by never leaving anything behind that could lead to him. Now, the vampires were here in New York, so the imperative to remain invisible was, at least for the moment, unimportant. Still, time wouldn’t allow him to play, the vampires would be here soon.

  He turned to face Margot, Michael still dangling from his hand.

  “Now, let’s take a closer look at Xavier’s human toy.”

  She looked bad, her face still seeped from recent cuts, her clothes torn away, a bite mark on her breast, not vampire. He glanced between her legs. No moisture. This creature must not have raped her yet. He himself wouldn’t have minded playing with her. But there was no time.

  This is where he’d fucked up with Xavier. He just needed to get her and go. Glancing at the man struggling to breathe in his hand, he grimaced, and threw him across the room toward the gun he’d tossed. The man hit the concrete floor hard enough to lose consciousness.

  Immediately, Claude turned his attention back to the woman, who had watched every movement he’d made since he came into the room. In spite of her damage, he’d noticed her sharp gaze and apt attention. She was bright and he could see that she was aware that the game had changed again.

  “Lovely eyes, madam. You’ll be coming with me now.”

  Before she had any idea what was happening, Margot’s head spun, so did the world, as she felt herself moved at an impossible speed from the room. Something in her memory surfaced, something that Xavier had told her, something as bizarre and impossible as what was happening to her now, and she knew that she wasn’t being rescued…that things had gone from bad to worse.

  As soon as Koen stopped the car, Xavier was out of it and into the building. Immediately behind him the other four vampires stayed on his heels, listening for sound, watching for movement, anything to let them know where they needed to go.

  “Split up,” Koen whispered, and they did.

  These large old warehouses had a lot of rooms and surface area to cover, but seconds into the search, Tamesine heard a voice, female, low, just a moan, something an ordinary human couldn’t have heard.

  “I have something,” she called out, as she moved down a floor and to the back of the building. A row of small rooms lined the back of the floor and near the center, a slice of light escaped from where a door had been left ajar. The voice was coming from there.

  Just as she reached the doorway, the others in her group caught up with her. Xavier pushed into the room first, Tamesine at his side, the others spread out to survey the scene.

  Xavier raced to a girl tied up on a chair, a gag tight around her mouth, her face swollen, lips split, her eyes red and wet.

  He gently loosened the gag. “Cheeky, where’s Margot?”

  Tears poured now, and he barely understood her.

  “He took her. The other man, the one that could move fast, he took her.” Cheeky was crying now, her breath coming in gulps. “He’s going to kill her, I know it. He was worse than that one.”

  Xavier held her for a moment, then handed her to Tamesine. “Watch her, I have to look for Margot.”

  Koen, David, and Bryn raced after Xavier as he disappeared from the room.

  “It’s okay now, sweetie, we have you. He won’t hurt you again.”

  “That one might,” she managed to get out, and Cheeky lifted her head to see Lipnicki beginning to move.

  Tamesine’s eyes, cold, went to the man lying on the ground, an animalistic growl coming from him. Claude had bested this human predator, and while Tamesine didn’t have a history with him, she knew he was a bad man.

  “Stay here, sweetie, I’ll be back.” Gently setting Cheeky again on the chair, Tamesine walked up to meet the man who had kidnapped Margot and the others. She put a foot on his throat.

  “Do you wish to live?” She asked.

  Choking, in pain, shocked and confused about what had happened, even in this state he understood the question. Lipnicki nodded.

  “Good. Where did he take Margot?”

  Lipnicki gurgled. Tamesine smiled and reduced the pressure of her foot on his throat. “Oh, sorry. No, I’m really not. Speak.”

  “I…don’t…know,” he croaked out. “What was he?”

  Dropping down, Tamesine pulled him up and captured his gaze. “You will do everything I tell you to do and you will only speak the truth. You really don’t know anything about Claude or where he’s taken the woman?”

  “No.”

  Sighing, she pitched him back onto the ground. “Don’t move.”

  Her eyes went to the man attached to a pole. Moments later she had him un-cuffed and fed him some of her blood when she realized he’d been shot in the side. The bullet had missed any vital organs, so her blood would heal him quickly. “Do you have any idea where that man took Margot? Did he say anything?”

  Robert, his hands numb as he tried to massage feeling back into them, shook his head. “No. He moved…fast. Insanely, impossibly fast. No, he didn’t say where he was taking her, but one minute they were there and the next they weren’t. What the fuck is happening? Who is he? Why did he take Margot?”

  “I’m sorry for this. Sleep now, and awaken when I tell you to.”

  Robert lost consciousness as Tamesine lifted him off the chair and laid him on the gro
und. She turned to face Cheeky, who had watched everything.

  “You guys aren’t normal. People can’t do what you just did. What are you?”

  Faster than lightning, Tamesine was beside Cheeky.

  “Friends,” she said, then used compulsion to put Cheeky to sleep as well. They would purge their memories after this was settled.

  One after the other, like flashes of light, the vampires returned.

  “You didn’t find them?”

  Koen shook his head. “No. He must have had too big of a head start. And he’s cloaked his life signal again.”

  “Of all the first blood talent’s for him to receive, that’s the worst one. Unless he’s near, I can’t trace him.” Her eyes moved to Xavier, who she thought might be melting down, his fury and worry nearly palpable in the stale air.

  Tamesine took point. “Okay, we’ll get her back, I’m certain of that. We have five powerful vampires here, and that covers a lot of territory. We put together a team of compels to help, and we search every square inch of this city. David…”

  Xavier held up a hand. “Nay. He’s too clever. He wants me, so he’ll contact me. Ye’re right. He only took her to get to me and I’ll go when he calls. So, I’m goin’ to be at the bar waitin’ for that call. All I want is that ya get her home, heal her, and wipe her memories so that none of this ever touches her again.”

  No one moved as Xavier walked over to Cheeky and picked her up to curl her sleeping body against his chest. “I’m sorry, little one. It’s goin’ to be all right. We’ll make it right.” He looked over at Robert. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s sleeping. It’s the best way to protect them when something like this happens.” Tamesine walked to Robert and placed a hand on his head. “Awaken.” His eyelids moved and then opened. He looked dazed as he struggled to sit up.

  When he saw Xavier with Cheeky, Robert pushed backward. “What happened?” With help from Tamesine, shakily, he stood. “It was Lipnicki. He took us. Then some strange man showed up. Where’s Margot?”