Cross My Heart

by Elizabeth Morgan

  “Fuck.” I grit my teeth. “What?”

  “You expect me to believe you heard nothing? No grunting.” Her strokes became quicker, firmer. “No growling, or screaming?”

  “I heard nothing. Last thing I remember was the redhead hooking up blood to my drip and then rolling me into a white room—”

  “And then you went bat shit crazy for hours, as if someone had given you a mixture of chocolate and cocaine.”

  “And then what?”

  “I woke up in here like ... fuck.” I bit the inside of my cheek as her nails dug into the underside of my junk. “I don’t know how long I’ve been in here. I blacked out. The blood she gave me tasted weird—”

  “So, you heard nothing?” Her hand disappeared. “That is a shame for you. I only reward good boys.” She moved closer, so her breasts were squashed against my chest. Her hair felt like silk as it brushed against my shoulders. “Then again, I suppose it was not your fault. Your notes do indicate that the Were’s blood was not kind to your system.” She popped the button on my jeans. “You have apparently been in and out of consciousness for days.”

  “What blood? I don’t …” My words died as she sank down to her knees.

  “Okay, I’m going into the hall. I can’t watch this shite. She could bite your dick off or anything.”

  Bite my dick off? My gaze snapped to Elle’s back as she left the room, before dropping down to the wicked, black gaze of the temptress.

  “You really did not hear anything?” She pulled my zipper down. “Even in your futile state, nothing sank through?”

  What the fuck? Elle? The Vampire’s fingers curled around the seam of my jeans. Will it grow back if she does bite it off? Elle!

  Every muscle in my body was already tense, but I was rigid. Unable to do anything but helplessly look down toward my prize jewels. Would this be it? Would I die from having my dick torn off? Or would I be a dickless Vampire for all eternity?

  “You’re already one, if you ask me. What kind of Vampire puts up with being strapped up for so long?”

  Fuck you, Elle! You have no idea what I’m going through right now!

  “Woman, I haven’t a damn clue what you’re fucking on about, but if I did—”

  “Constance?” a male called.

  A sigh escaped her.

  “To be continued.” She straightened, zipped up my jeans, and gave my crotch a pat. “Drink up, N. That is the last batch you will get before we leave.”

  “Leave?” I gritted. forcing myself to focus on what I was saying and not the raging boner I was now sporting—or the relief that was building up so rapidly, I was scared I was going to black out again. “You can’t leave me like this. What’s going t’happen t’me if everyone here is dead-dead?”

  “Oh, do not worry, we still have use for you yet.” Twisting on her heel, she exited my cell, closing the door and leaving me in the dark once more. Not to mention leaving me even more fucked up than when she had walked in here.

  “What the fuck?”

  A slurping noise met my ears, and that’s when I realized I had sucked the blood bag dry. I spat the tube out and settled for whacking my head against my platform. A pulse of pain swam round my skull, but the pain was short-lived compared to the throbbing agony currently taking place in my jeans.

  “What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Elle passed through the metal of the door, pausing in front of me, arms folded and her right eyebrow cocked. “Bad enough you’re a Vampire, but you don’t have t’be attracted to them either.”

  “Who says I’m attracted? I’m still a guy, and surprisingly, my parts still work. More to the point, it’s been a while since I had sex, so—”

  She held her hands up. “TMI.”

  What was wrong with these creatures? They were insane, violent, greedy or horny. Most of the time, they were all fucking four.

  Christ. “I gotta get out of here, Elle.”

  “That’s what I keep telling you.”

  “Well, tell me how? How do I get out of here, Little Miss Smarty Pants? What do I do?”

  “She said, “Drink up. That is the last batch you will get before we leave.”

  “And?”

  She rolled her eyes. “They are taking you out of here.”

  “Shit, you’re right. Where the hell do you think they are planning on taking me?”

  She walked over to the sleep platform fixed to the wall on my left and took a seat. “No idea, but if I were you, I would make my move when we’re all out in the open. That’s if, you know, they don’t sedate you again.”

  “Fuck.”

  ***

  Time meant nothing here. A second could have easily been an hour when you were alone in the dark, staring at nothing, listening to every sound outside. Except it was quieter now; quieter than it had been before. I couldn’t make out distant chatter, or footsteps. Nothing but silence, which made it worse, made the isolation even more suffocating.

  No, time meant nothing when you were locked away, the only benefit being that it gave a man a chance to think and put his life in perspective. Do some soul searching. Did I even have a soul anymore? When time was all you had, what else was there to do but reminisce, regret, and wish?

  “You’re reminiscing too damn much lately. It’s making me nauseous.”

  “Well, what else would you have me think about?”

  “Duh, a way t’get out of here.”

  “Erm, duh, I’m strapped down, and in case you haven’t noticed, the metal of these straps burns my skin.”

  “Jesus, did you ever pay any attention to anything that I told you about Vampires?”

  “I did, actually, especially the part where you said that they had to bite people to turn them. So, what in the name of merciful Jesus has happened to me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I glanced at her, lying on the platform. “Yet again, you’d never admit that you didn’t know something.”

  “Yet again, that’s because I’m not the real Elle. I’m a memory of her, and I’m only relaying information that teen Elle told you. If you had bothered talking to adult Elle—”

  “We kept in touch.”

  “But you haven’t spoken for the last four years. An email essay on her birthday and at Christmas hardly counts as keeping in touch.”

  “Look, that’s beside the point. You said Vamps bite people t’turn them. You were wrong.”

  “You’re clearly special. The female just said you were an experiment t’prove they could create Vampires differently.”

  “Okay, so I’m different, but why?”

  “I don’t know, but don’t y’think you need t’find out? You’ve been kidnapped, turned—”

  “Molested.”

  “I don’t think that counts.”

  “Does too. Do you really think I’d have let her do that if I was free from these restraints?”

  She turned her attention to me, eyebrows arched. “Is that a serious question?”

  My focus strayed back to the door. “I don’t want t’die here, Elle. I don’t want t’die in some cell or wherever the hell they’re planning on taking me.”

  “I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Than. You’re already dead.”

  A bitter taste rose on my tongue. Horrid reality snuck up on me once more. “I’m dead.”

  How long had Freddie and I been missing? Had anyone even noticed? Had our parents? I had been sending postcards to my mother every week since our little backpacking trek across Europe had begun. Surely, she would know something was up by now. How would she find me?

  “She can’t, Than. Hard enough for police t’find people in the country they live in. Backpacking ... you two could be anywhere. More to the point, you’re undead. You can’t see her or anyone else y’knew ever again. They wouldn’t accept you, and shit would really hit the fan if people found out Vampires existed.”

  “So, what’s the point in escaping then? There’s nothing for me.”

  “You can still have a life, T
han. You can have a very long life if you get away from this place. Being dead sucks, being a Vampire has a lot of complications, but being free and immortal is still something you can achieve and work with.”

  “I am not wheeling him through the forest. That is a ridiculous idea.” Voices echoed in the hallway.

  “What do you suggest? He needs to be detained. We have no idea what he is capable of.” Constance’s voice was easy to recognise.

  “And neither does he by the sounds of his paperwork or from the look of him,” a male replied. “I say we kill him.”

  “No, Michael will want him alive.”

  “For all Michael knows, he could be dead already like the other one.”

  The back of my head hit the platform. “Freddie.”

  They had brought us here together as far as I was aware; he had been ‘turned’ like I had. We had passed each other on many occasions as we were wheeled in and out of laboratories. He had been incoherent most of the time, but like me, he had still been mobile, which was better than nothing.

  “The Pack could have killed him. Michael is not going to know either way, and I hardly think he is going to care.”

  “We take him with us. Michael is already pissed that the Infected Cunt got away, at Lance for not being more careful or swift, and that Marko has refused to give our Colony a second chance.”

  “And do you not think that Marko would be pissed if he were to hear that Lance was straying from his orders? This facility was for harvesting, testing, and preservation, and yet, Lance was not only conducting his own experiments, but—”

  “Lance got what he deserved.” Constance cut the male off with a grunt. “He is dead, and our discovery of his outside projects are shocking, but will at least give some form of explanation to what went on here and how the Pack were able to find this place. All of which will no doubt piss both our Master and Marko off, but regardless of this evidence, it will not change Marko’s mind. Our Colony is to have no further involvement in his plans. Lance blew it for all of us.”

  “I cannot understand how he figured out how to isolate and keep the virus alive.”

  “Did you not see the stamp on the envelope? They were findings from the facility in Italy. That stupid bastard had eyes over there as I suspect someone was planted here, which would be the only reason Marko found out so quickly that the Infected had been rescued.”

  “It is wrong when you cannot even trust your own kind.”

  Their voices grew louder, as did the echo of their footsteps.

  “Do not be so naive, Jonathan. Our kind have never trusted each other, but since Marko revealed his plan ... these last ten years have been different.”

  I glanced at Elle. “What are they on about?”

  She hopped off the platform and stopped by my side. “Beats me, but since they’re talking about you, I would say you’re involved in something pretty big.”

  The distinct sound of chains filled the hallway right before the door to my cell was pushed open. Constance was the first to walk into my room, followed closely by two males, one of which held a long silver chain in his gloved hands, two thick shackles hanging from each end.

  “Time to go already?” I looked at Constance.

  “No time like the present, as the saying goes.”

  The other male moved closer, pulling gloves onto his large hands. In quick succession, he gripped each of the padlocks attached to each strip of metal holding me place, and with a whine and sharp tug, broke each one, throwing them to the floor as he went. He pulled open each strap, and as soon as my ankles were released, my body slumped like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

  “You really want to bring him?” asked the male who had just released me from my bindings.

  “He has been locked up for days. You know the silver particles in the restraints can weaken our kind even if they have been fed, which he has,” Constance replied. “He will be fine in a few minutes.”

  “Well, we are not waiting for him to recuperate.” The male, who I had to presume was Jonathan, caught my arms in his gloved grip and pulled me up as if I weighed nothing. With me sagged against his chest, he gripped my arms and held them out before me so the other male was able to cuff me.

  The thick metal sat on my skin, and within an instant, the hot prick of a thousand needles bit into my wrists as the silver laced inside got to work. I gritted my teeth, fighting past the burning pain, ignoring as the rank scent of singed flesh fluttered in the air.

  “Be strong, Than.” Elle moved beside the chain master. “The pain will subside in a minute. Y’need t’focus on walking so that you can get out of here, so man up.”

  I scowled at her as the male Vampire finished locking my ankle cuffs. With a tug on the chain to check I was secure, he led me out of my prison cell. I tripped over my feet, my shoulder landing right into the rusty, metal-panelled wall of the hall. The lighting strip hummed above us, and even though it wasn’t the brightest light, it still smarted my eyes.

  “Move.” Jonathan yanked me off the wall and shoved me forward.

  I kept my eyes downcast, focused on the dirty concrete floor, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light.

  “This place is so quiet.”

  I shifted my gaze to the pair of green Converse walking in step beside me, her footfalls making no sound, not like the three Vampires I was currently with, but she was right. Apart from their footfalls, the place was deadly silent. In all the time I had been here, there had always been signs of habitation, subtle background noises.

  Blinking, I lifted my head as the male led me through a set of double doors. The underlying hint of musty damp still lingered in the atmosphere, but even the air didn’t smell the same. We turned left, and Constance’s earlier questions suddenly made sense.

  “What the hell?”

  Large black patches stained the walls and floor of the corridor we moved down. Strange silver weapons lay abandoned on the ground.

  “You sure you do not remember hearing our kind being butchered?” Constance asked from behind me.

  “So that’s what the black stuff is, Vampire blood?”

  Shouldn’t you know that? I angled a look at Elle.

  “I only know what you know, remember?”

  Well, whatever it is, it smells vile.

  “Last thing I remember is being in that white room,” I replied to the she-devil.

  “What could have done this?”

  Beats me.

  My guard stopped as we reached a large door at the end of the corridor with a single window. He hit a red button, and the door rolled open to reveal a rickety cage, which he stepped into, pulling me right along with him, before shoving me into the left corner so Constance and Jonathan could step inside also. Picking up a yellow remote that was on the end of a long black wire, he flipped the switch. The door slid shut. The cage rattled then started to ascend.

  “Well, this is a huge health and safety risk,” Elle commented, eyeing the top of the cage.

  After a moment, the makeshift elevator came to a grinding halt. Jonathan rolled the door open and stepped out into the small scruffy room, followed by Constance. My guard stepped out before me, giving the chain a firm tug. My gaze clocked bricks and ivy before I was pulled out of the single door and into the great outdoors.

  It was magnificent. My eyes couldn’t absorb enough. Everything was so alive and lush. The air felt cool and soft against my skin, but the caress remained only skin deep. I didn’t feel a tremble as the chill surely should have gone straight through to my bones, nor did I feel the urge to drink in the fresh air. I’d been locked up for ... weeks surely. I should want to breathe, to refill myself, and yet, despite how wonderful it was to be back outside, my body felt empty. Dead.

  “Move.” My guard tugged on the chain, pulling me away from the odd little building nestled away in the vast forest that surrounded us.

  “Did you get everything?” Constance asked two Vampires leaning against a nearby pine.

  “Everythin
g we could,” replied the female who held a box filled with papers.

  “Well, that will have to do.”

  “Let us get out of here,” Jonathan interjected, taking the lead on our ‘escape route.’

  The two Vampires fell in step behind me as we followed.

  The undergrowth of the forest was dry and brittle against my bare feet, but it felt like Heaven to have grass sliding between my toes, and the dry scratch of earth. I mindlessly continued to follow the Vampire in front of me who had a strong grip on the chain wrapped in his gloved hand.

  “Now’s your chance.” Elle appeared beside me, walking backward.

  For what?

  “To escape.”

  I snorted. “How do you suppose I do that?”

  “Silence.” The Vampire leading me snapped his head round and glared, bringing to my attention that I had just spoken out loud.

  “You’re a Vampire; you’re strong and fast. You need t’kill the guard with his chain. Wrap it around his neck and yank hard. You will decapitate him.”

  What?

  “You don’t have much choice. If you continue t’be a little bitch, they will just take you somewhere else, lock you up, and eventually kill you for real since that’s what the big guy at the front wanted to do to begin with. It sounds like you should already be dead and buried.”

  Did you just call me a bitch? You can’t use language like that at your age.

  “Realistically, I’m now twenty-five, and for all y’know, I could cuss like a sailor.”

  Still. I glanced down the line at the three Vampires before me. One against five—Vampire or not, I didn’t like my chances. Say I do it. Say I manage to decapitate this guy, then what?

  “Run, obviously. Run, and if they chase you, it will be easy t’take them one on one, but you need t’run and to not stop until you’re far away from here.”

  What if I can’t decapitate him? What if I’m not that strong?

  “Then they will either kill you now or knock you out for the rest of the trip.”

  I’m not liking my odds.

  “That’s only because you still think you’re human. You’re not.”

  I’m not.