by Tanja Neise
“Yooouuu,...” The naked beauty rose from my arms and straightened up. Feigning anger, she threatened me with her tiny fist. This fist wouldn't be able to harm me; she had her weapons on other parts of her body, which were enchanting me and tormenting me.
Resolutely, I lifted her up and put her on my lap. She sat on me as if I were her throne, and looked down on me with her big eyes. My Queen. She didn’t hesitate for long and seized her chance. With a demanding smile, I surrendered to her and she slowly pushed me into her. We made love to each other, tenderly and full of devotion, as if there was no turning back. As if we didn't know what awaited us and whether tomorrow would ever come.
Anne Rumsfield
When I saw the man hidden in the shadows cast by the densely positioned buildings, I stopped abruptly and said out loud, “Oops, we've taken the wrong road.”
I frantically turned around and pushed Sally in front of me, but at the other end of the alley the passage was blocked by a whole group of men. Okay, then I’d aim for the smaller obstacle. A single man was the easier choice, so I turned back on myself once more and carted Sally along with me, who stumbled. She remained silent, though, quickly regained her balance and then ran with me towards the man at the end of the alley.
I suddenly recognised him as I approached, and the look on his face seemed more than familiar. In this filthy alleyway at the back of beyond, I was faced with someone I hadn't even remotely anticipated meeting. There he stood, well trained as always, and grinning as if he’d hit the jackpot – Harrison, my boss. His lifeless eyes were fixated on me and followed each of my moves.
An ice-cold hand clasped itself around my throat. It could only have been a trap. That pig. Tyron, my colleague – the one who had brutally attacked me in the basement of the Centrodynamics building. Brutally, in the truest sense of the word. If it hadn't been for him, then human genetics would still prevail in me, considering he’d beaten the life out of me. This could only mean that the whole thing had been orchestrated by Harrison. With a growl, I made a giant leap straight towards him. I bared my teeth and tried to grab hold of him by the throat. One jerk and his neck would be broken, but I didn't get that far, because what I hadn't realised was that I’d landed on a metal platform that was activated as Harrison's slender finger pressed on his communication device, and was transformed into my prison. Bars to the right, to the left, in front of and behind me, had appeared out of nowhere and removed the opportunity to kill my former superior. Another metal platform slid over my head from above. I jumped up, but wasn't fast enough; the hole had closed and I was trapped.
I wrenched at the bars in rage and tried to escape from the metal prison, but it was a waste of time. I had no chance against this kind of metal, even with my vampiric powers. Meanwhile, two soldiers had got Sally in a headlock and were battering her in the lower back with their fists. She’d tried to fight back tooth and nail, but that, too, had obviously been in vain. I kept my fangs exposed the whole time because I couldn’t control the anger that was seething inside me.
Harrison stared at me in disbelief and came as close to me as he could without me grabbing hold of him. “But this is impossible!” Then he turned around, seeking the other soldiers’ attention. All of them men I knew and had partly trained with. “She’s a vampire! Who would’ve thought it? Anne Rumsfield has turned into the very thing that she abhorred so much.” He laughed. A rare emotion. I couldn't remember ever having seen him laugh. Then he turned his head back to me. “If it weren't so sick, we might feel sorry for you. Actually, we just wanted to lure you here and grill you a little. Bring you back to the nest, as it were. Then we could’ve got the Centrodynamics security chief in the net. With your help, of course.”
“What do you mean by ‘back’?” I barked, striving for self-control.
He shook his head reproachfully. “Rumsfield, we put a lot of time and money into your training. We wouldn’t just dismiss such a high-quality product as yourself from active service. And we wanted a vampire for obvious reasons.”
“What reasons?” I growled.
Incredulous, his eyebrows shot up. “Don't you realise what possibilities would be open to us if we were to apply today's knowledge of genetics to create an elite unit far above the standard of our unit?”
“That's forbidden!” My voice almost turned over on itself. This self-opinionated guy actually wanted to act against the law. “The president would not approve of such experiments. She’s completely against genetic manipulation.” I knew that from my own experience, because I’d been forced by her to limit my research. She’d also made a speech to the Ethics Committee, which I’d watched live. She had very impressively highlighted the dangers of such genetic selection. At that time, I’d been furious as she’d condemned not only me but also, indirectly, my father, who’d spent half his life researching this kind of genetic manipulation. But today I saw it with different eyes. My stomach turned just at the thought of what they’d do to me if I didn’t manage to escape.
Harrison pressed another button and the mobile prison cell was lowered into the ground through a shaft. The last thing my eyes caught a glimpse of before the darkness swallowed me was Sally, who lay lifeless on the floor. Blood was running out of the corner of her mouth. Profound distress and worry devoured my consciousness. This wasn't good at all. I had to get out of here as quickly as possible!
Claustrophobia wasn’t necessarily something I suffered from, but when I saw only stone walls to my right and left, I became a little anxious. Down into the lion’s den. Inevitably, fear hit me.
Olivia Morgan / Margaret Rumsfield
Louisville lay in darkness; I could only see light in a few houses here and there. The car glided along silently. Kat had sent one of her fighters to pick us up – a rather taciturn man. That was all right with me, because I was completely exhausted and cuddled up to Robert in his arms instead. In a way I envied him for this never-ending energy he possessed – for the fact that he didn’t need sleep, or at least, very little.
“What’s happened here in the meantime,” Robert asked the man.
“We've smuggled someone into the barracks complex.”
Surprised, I raised my eyebrows and looked briefly at Robert, who seemed to be just as flabbergasted as I was.
“That sounds good. What’s the plan?”
He described, in a nutshell, how Sally was in a women's shelter and that someone would now be on their way to free her with a cunning strategy. It sounded pretty horrifying, and I didn't know how it could work, but Dark and Kat were experienced in extreme situations and Robert trusted them, so I did, too.
Something doesn’t feel right about this, I heard Robert's voice in my head.
I immediately stiffened up. What do you mean?
The man’s hiding something from us. I wanted to straighten up, but he pressed me close to him, so I stayed exactly where I was.
What makes you think so?
He didn’t look me in the eye once, neither when he greeted us, nor just now during his description. I’ve dealt with him once before and he wasn’t like that, Robert enlightened me. We'll be there soon – we’ll see if I'm right.
A sense of worry immediately spread within me. Maybe something was wrong with Dark. Or with Anne? Time had passed so quickly that I hadn't been able to think much of Anne. I’d been too busy with myself. I was immediately struck with a guilty conscience. What if neither of them were all right?
As soon as the car stopped at the dilapidated hut in the woods, we jumped out. Kat was standing in the doorway, with a face as long as a fiddle. Robert's intuition had not betrayed him. Something had happened here that we wouldn't like. I was almost afraid of what she was about to tell us. No, I was afraid.
“Kat?” Robert snarled, grouchily.
“Robert, I'm sorry.” She lowered her gaze and timidly kneaded her hands. Why couldn't Kat just get to the point?
Dangerously quietly, as he took a step towards Kat, Robert asked: “What exactly are you sorry
about?”
She breathed deeply again before she began to speak and tore the rug away from beneath my feet. “We’d used bioscanning to find someone who might be able to be smuggled into the barracks complex. The programme resulted in a hit.” When she was silent, her eyes flitted to me for a moment. “Anne Rumsfield was the one we sent in, after dying her hair.”
“What?” I asked, although this question was completely unnecessary. I stood there paralysed, staring at Kat in bewilderment.
“It seemed the right thing to do,” she tried to apologise.
“And now it doesn’t?” Robert demanded.
She shook her head, self-consciously. “No. It was a trap.”
In the blink of an eye, Robert was standing right next to Kat. “And what makes you think so?” The way he asked his question, the closeness he had now established to Kat, all of this frightened me. He was clearly on the verge of losing control.
“We received an email.” She swallowed hard because she, too, was aware of the danger in which she was hovering. Robert's anger was almost tangible. It was spreading like a thick, undulating mass. “A certain Major Harrison thanked Dark for successfully leading Soldier Rumsfield to her elite unit.”
“Where – is – Dark?” Placing such strong emphasis on every single word, Robert's voice roared through the night.
“He went with the remaining men to the military base. We’ve lost contact.” Kat’s voice broke and a tremor ran through her body.
Robert grabbed her throat and pushed her against the wall of the building. “Give me one reason why I shouldn't punish you for this,” he growled.
Wheezing, Kat replied: “There isn’t one.”
Anne Rumsfield
When I woke up with a pounding headache, I realised that, once again, I’d fallen victim to Tuminasil. Meanwhile, I cursed this damn poisonous gas from the bottom of my heart. Groaning, I opened my eyelids and immediately closed them again because I was blinded by a glaring, artificial light. Furthermore, I felt weak and could hardly move. I feebly attempted to raise my hand, but my arms and feet were trapped in steel cuffs, against which I probably couldn’t have resisted, even if I were in top physical condition. All these myths about formidable powers in vampires were not entirely true. At least, the extent of my own capacities resulting from my transformation didn’t fit the stories.
“Ah, she’s waking up,” I heard a deep voice say. It wasn't Harrison. There was probably some kind of professor hiding behind him, who would chop me up into tiny pieces in order to be able to use as many details as possible for his research.
What exactly had I got myself into? Where was Sally? I fervently hoped she was all right, although the last I’d seen of her diminished that hope. The last time I saw her she was badly hurt and I doubted that anyone would have really helped her.
“That's good, because sooner or later the vampire will notice her absence.” It was clearly Harrison's voice, which dripped off my mind, cold and smooth. “Rumsfield! Open your eyes!” His commanding tone resounded in my ear.
I didn’t move and showed no reaction. The next moment I felt hard fingers on my neck – someone was squeezing the air out of me. I frantically opened my eyes and tried to shake off my attacker, who turned out to be Harrison. I almost succeeded, but my face was suddenly burning terribly, my eyes started watering and I had the feeling that the little power I still had was flowing out of me like liquid butter.
“Amazing what a bit of simulated daylight can do to creatures of this species! Fantastic!” Next to Harrison, a small, portly-looking guy appeared, who was clapping his hands euphorically. I secretly decided to call him Doctor Jekyll.
So this was because of the damn lamp they were pointing at me. I directed a few curses at them, but that didn't help any more than my attempts to fill my lungs with oxygen.
“Yes, and the ludicrous thing about the situation is,” Harrison began, after he let go of my throat again and I eagerly sucked in the air, “that all these discoveries come from her father's experiments.”
This fool was amusing himself at my expense! Once again, the desire to kill awoke in me, and if I hadn’t been so debilitated, I would have torn him to pieces. My mind was working like mad to think of a way out of here. I had to find Sally as quickly as possible. Hopefully, these idiots hadn't left her lying in the filthy alley that was probably swarming with rats.
“Highly amusing, Major Harrison!” Someone squealed like a pig being led to the slaughterhouse. I attributed it to the little man. The man disgusted me.
“Rumsfield, you are a clever, young woman. In the meantime, you must have realised that you have hardly any chance of escaping. If you work with us, I’ll make sure no experiments are carried out on you.” Harrison's nose was about to touch mine and I could smell his disgusting, bad breath.
I raised my head in one quick, volatile movement and was pleased to hear the cracking sound of his nose breaking on impact.
“You miserable bitch,” cried my former supervisor in a shrill voice, as the blood gushed out of his nose. Blood! Immediately, my hunger set in and I had to hold myself back so as not to lick the one drop that had landed on my lip. He was vaccinated and I was a vampire! For me, his blood was pure poison.
“I'm afraid, Major, we’ll have to proceed to plan B.” The joy in Doctor Jekyll's voice was unmistakable.
“You’re right. Bring the human woman in,” Harrison ordered a man standing at the door, and whom I’d only just noticed.
Human woman? Sally! Oh no, that couldn't mean anything good. An ice-cold breeze tickled the edge of my self-control.
Robert Tensington /
Raphael
The air around us seemed to stand still; not a single animal in the forest could be heard, almost as if nature understood the forces I needed to keep my anger under control. Suddenly I felt a tender touch on my forearm and detected the smell of apricots. Olivia!
“Let it go, Robert. I think Kat acted like any of us would have in her situation.” Olivia's soft, calm words slowly forced their way into my subconscious. It was as if she was simply casting the anger out. Involuntarily, I loosened the grip around Kat’s neck and finally let go completely. Kat landed on all fours and desperately gasped for air. Her damp forehead glistened in the headlights of the car we’d arrived in. Only now did I remember the man who’d driven us. He was standing next to the car gaping at me with eyes wide open from fear. He seemed to be paralysed from what he’d observed. Was I such a terrible sight to behold? Was I becoming someone like my father? A ruthless tyrant? Me?
No, Robert! You’re anything but a tyrant.
Once again I’d forgotten to keep my thoughts under control. Shaken, I turned to Olivia. She was standing right behind me and in her eyes I could see so much love; despite my outburst she was on my side. This helped me collect my thoughts and come to my senses again.
I cleared my throat and glanced at Kat, who was now back on her feet and furtively rubbing her throat. “Okay! Back to the agenda. Kat?”
She looked at me, quizzically. I didn’t detect any resentment in her face – only concentration. What had I done to deserve such unrestricted power and subservience of my people?
“Please log into the military base system. This time please stay completely under the radar. Remember, they’ve worked out someone’s on their heels. They know about me and Dark at least. But they certainly don't suspect that so many of us are vampires. What about the local vampires? Are there still vampires here?”
Kat shook her head. “No, none of us have settled around here. Too dangerous with all the soldiers about. But I've already announced via our network that we need help. I was able to muster up fifty who should arrive within the next hour. Should it take longer, more vampires will surely join us.”
“Very good, Kat. Then let's get to work. We have to find out where they're holding Anne, Sally, the boys, and in the worst case, Dark and the others captive.” Accustomed to giving orders, I issued my instructions, but then I saw Kat
shake her head. “What?”
“We don't have to find the boys anymore. Dark has already rescued them. Nobody noticed, as he made it look like the mine where the children had to work collapsed. Now we have another little problem, though,” Kat explained to me.
“And what would that be?” At some point I’d have to have a serious word with her; these constant insinuations were driving me crazy. Why couldn't she just get straight to the point?
“This hut is bursting at the seams because Dark didn't just bring Tom and Marc, but fifteen more boys.” She quickly pointed behind her, where it was surprisingly quiet, considering there was supposed to be a horde of children in there.
This was so typical of Dark. On the outside, he came across as an ice-cold killer – frightening people he met – but on the inside, he was a good-hearted guy. I had to admit, however, that I probably wouldn't have been able to leave the children there either. However, we now had the problem of having to house them somewhere and conceal our true identity from them.
“We can take care of that, too,” Liv replied for me. Had I revealed my thoughts again? This was slowly becoming creepy to me. She quickly winked at me, which could have several meanings.
I calmly shrugged my shoulders; from now on I had to get used to the fact that I was no longer alone. And as my wife – wait, she wasn't that officially yet, at least if you considered it from a human perspective. We definitely had to make up for that at some point. In any case, I accepted her opinion and she’d be allowed to make it public knowledge in the future, too.
I turned to the silent listener. “What's your name?”
The man blinked, nervously. “Sir, my name is Marvin.”
“Marvin, you’ll see to it that the children get away from here. Tom and Marc, too. If the worst comes to the worst, I don't want them to be caught in the middle of it – they’re too young for that. Think of something. A hotel, or for all I care, you can fly them to New York with my private jet. I'm sure there are still rooms at the Regency, one of my hotels. My assistant, Mary, can play the babysitter.” The man diligently nodded and set off towards the hut.
