by K B Everly
She let out a curse. “Fine. I’ll be there.” Then she hung up.
I was thankful she didn’t ask questions or refuse to help. If this plan was going to work, I needed her with me.
Sawyer was true to her word and had parked at the side of the building. She slid out of her car when I pulled up, looking just as fierce as ever. She had followed my direction perfectly on dressing in something that showed off skin.
Her long, black hair was down and her makeup dark and smokey, showing off her golden eyes. She wore a leather skirt that barely covered her ass and rode low on her hips. A black leather halter top that had was held together in the front with straps that tied at the bottom, showing off her cleavage. She even had matching, black gladiator heels that tied all the way to just at the back of her knees.
“I got here a bit early and saw the STF pulling out of the place. Had to park across the street until they cleared out,” she said immediately after I exited my own vehicle.
“Did you see Hollis with them?” I asked her, hoping at least he was safe.
She nodded. “He looked worried.”
I sighed. “He should be. If Rogue has them, then we have to get to them fast before they’re dead.”
Sawyer crossed her arms and huffed. “What exactly do you plan to do, Claudia? What can we do that Hollis and the others couldn’t?”
I smiled a humorless smile at her. “We can get close enough to those who might know where they are. They don’t know the faces of the men who worked tightly with Rogue. I do.”
“Okay. I see how that might work, but what do you need me for?”
I shrugged. “Back up. You’re hot, and you’re a fighter. Brahm taught me how to defend myself, but you are lethal from what I understand. And you’re a shifter. The last thing they’d expect is you giving a shit about the whereabouts of two vampires. I call that an advantage.”
“Hm. Alright. Whatever you say. What’s the plan going in?”
I smiled again. “Just follow my lead.”
We trekked towards the entrance, both of us planting fake smiles on our faces and adding extra sway into our walks as we entered. A few heads turned, but it seemed business was continuing as usual like the STF hadn’t just been here. Rogue’s men were too cocky for their own good.
I spotted the vampire from the last time we’d been here, eyes lighting up when he saw us coming his way. The first time, I hadn’t recognized him. I saw his beauty but only felt unease. Now with my memories back, I knew him. He was one of the vampires Rogue had let feed on me after Brahm had left. I remembered him laughing as I screamed in agony. Now, I would make him pay.
“Well, well. Didn’t think you’d still be interested after I didn’t get a call back,” he said when we were close enough.
It didn’t surprise me he didn’t recognize me. I’d only been another meal. A fleeting speck upon his life. I’d make him remember though.
I hid my disgust and ran a finger down his chest, giving him a smoldering look. “I can’t help if I’m in such high demand, sugar. But all my other options for work just didn’t seem to fit. This place is where it’s at. Besides, I brought a friend.” I motioned to Sawyer next to me.
His red eyes slid up and down her body, gazing at her appreciatively. He licked his lips and grinned when his eyes came back to mine.
“And you both want to dance? How do I know you even know how?”
Perfect. He was taking the bait exactly as I expected.
“We could give you a private demonstration,” I purred, stepping closer to him.
His fangs showed as he grinned wider. “Well, I can’t say no to that can I?” He turned and walked over to a door set at the back of the club. A large man guarding it glanced our way as he spoke, then nodded.
The vampire looked back at us and tilted his head, telling us to come with him.
“Be ready,” I whispered to Sawyer as we walked towards the door.
“I’m always ready,” she replied.
We followed the vampire down a dimly lit corridor of doors, much like the ones at the Sassy Sanguine. An area where only those who had the money could pay for a private show. He brought us down to the last door on the left, right next to an exit door, leading out to where our cars were parked. Excellent.
“In here, ladies,” he said in a husky tone.
We filed in without question, finding ourselves in a wide room that had a small stage in the middle, red lights lining the vintage patterned walls, and a large, C-shaped black leather couch that faced the stage. He closed and locked the door, then walked over and dropped into the middle of the couch, relaxing back into the cushions and picking up a remote. With a tap, he played seductive music through the speakers mounted into the ceiling.
“Let’s see what you two can do,” he said, resting his arms on the back of the couch and crossing his ankle over his knee.
“Gladly,” I responded, then stepped up onto the stage. Sawyer followed behind me and waited.
My plan was working perfectly. He was step one to Rogue. It was possible he knew exactly where he was, but it was hard to say. He’d been within Rogue’s inner circle of men. I just wasn’t sure how far into that inner circle he was. Only one way to find out.
I started moving, letting the music take over my body while my mind still retained its goal. Sawyer was quick to follow my steps, mimicking me, yet adding her own moves into it. She was actually quite good at dancing.
The vampire kept his eyes on us without blinking, occasionally licking his lips and adjusting himself outside his pants. He fell deeper and deeper under our spell as we swayed, rolled our hips, and sometimes danced with each other. Sawyer played her part well.
As the song started to slowly come to a close, I stepped from the stage and moved towards him, working my way into his lap and giving him the impression I was about to make this far more intimate. He just had no idea what kind of intimacy to expect.
When his hands went to my calves on either side of him, I found my opening. I pretended to be feeling myself up as my hands traveled up and between my thighs. When my hand met the handle of the blade, I used my inhuman speed to grab it. Before he even knew what was happening, the blade’s tip was pressed between his ribs and angled right on his heart.
I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into me, making the top of the blade pierce through his shirt just a bit.
He choked for a moment, only just realizing his precarious position.
“Where is Rogue?” I growled at him, dropping the facade.
He balked at me. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” His hand went to grab at my wrist, but Sawyer was there with a blade of her own poised against his neck.
“Answer her, you worthless piece of shit!” She flashed him her wolf like eyes.
The vampire gritted his teeth and snarled at me; his face mere inches from mine. I pressed the blade harder and he stopped snarling.
“Why the fuck should I tell you, bitch?”
“Because he has the people I love, and I will kill anyone who tries to harm them,” I snapped back viciously.
He stared deeper into my eyes. It seemed to click with him who I was.
“You,” he said, eyes narrowing. “You were dead. How the fuck are you one of us?”
“That’s not important asshole. What is important, I will not cease to cut out your cold, black heart and turn you to dust if you don’t answer me. Where. Is. Rogue?” I pushed the blade in deeper, feeling his blood begin to drip on my leg.
“Okay, okay. Fuck! The old compound!” He shouted with a hiss of pain. “The one Bellamy used before he was dusted.”
My brows shot upward. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why there?” He stayed silent, grinding his teeth together in pain. I pushed the blade in deeper again.
“Fuck! Stop! Because he dealt BloodLust for him before it all went to shit. It had already been ransacked by the STF, so he figured they wouldn’t go back! That’s all I know!”
I glanced at Sawyer.<
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“It’s possible. That place was a fortress from what Sloan had said. And he’s right. They wouldn’t have found a need to go back after Lucy killed Bellamy.”
I turned my attention back to the vampire. “Is that all the information you have?”
“I’ve told you enough, bitch. He’s going to kill me just for telling you that.”
I smiled wickedly at him. “Well then you can choose a slow, painful death by his hand, or a quick, merciful one from me. Which is more than you deserve.”
If vampires could pale in terror, I was pretty sure he would have.
“I don’t know where he’s keeping them. Only that they’re chained and drugged on his left over supply of BloodLust. The compound is heavily armed and won’t be easy to get into. I can get you in. Just let me live.”
Feeling like I’d get nothing else out of him, I did what I promised I would.
“I’d sooner trust Rogue to give me mercy than you to not turn on me.” Without hesitation, I drove the blade fully into his chest and watched as he turned to ash beneath me, covering me with his remains.
I stood and dusted him off me. It felt good to get at least a taste of revenge for what he and the others had done to me. It wasn’t enough though. I needed to kill Rogue.
“So what now?” Sawyer asked.
“Now, we go to the compound. Call Bishop and tell him to get Hollis and the others over there.
She looked at me in surprise. “Why do you think I’d have Bishop’s number?”
I chuckled. “Everyone knows you snuck off with him after Lucy’s ceremony. There’s no way you don’t have his number.”
It was a funny sight, seeing Sawyer blush. I didn’t think it was possible. She muttered a few curses beneath her breath and pulled her phone out of a holster beneath her dress.
I was one step closer to my men. I just hoped when I got there, I would only have to avenge myself. Either way, Rogue and his men would be nothing but piles of ash by the time I was done with them.
Chapter Twenty
To say Hollis was pissed we went to Delirium would be an understatement. I was pretty sure he and other STF agents were breaking several speed limit laws trying to catch up with me and Sawyer. She had waited until we were ten minutes out of the city to call him, giving us a bit of a head start. I heard the entire conversation since he was yelling.
Lucy, however, laughed when I called her on the way to the compound to update her. She was impressed with my interrogation method and subsequent first vampire kill. She was still worried for us, but knew we would be cautious while finding Diego and Brahm. She made it easier by drawing a map of the inside of the compound as she remembered it, with Vex giving the extra details for her to use before sending it over.
“What the fuck kinda map is that? Did you use crayon? I expected better from a tattoo artist,” I laughed as I zoomed in and out of the picture she’d sent me through text.
“I won’t lie to you. Yes it was crayon, but that was Vex who drew it,” Lucy replied, amusement filtering through her tone.
“And with all those drawing materials you keep at your place, he chooses a crayon?”
I heard Vex’s voice in the background, but couldn’t make out what he said.
“Well, he had a pencil, but it kept breaking. He was too impatient to keep sharpening it, so he grabbed a crayon.”
I chuckled. “And why do you have crayons?”
“It calms him to color some of my outlines when he’s feeling a bit manic. He kept fucking up my markers by mixing the colors, and I ended up taking them away and bought him crayons to teach him a lesson. He got attached.”
This time Sawyer joined in on us laughing. Leave it to Vex to get attached to the most minuscule things. At least the hammer had meaning.
“Well, we’ll do what we can with the map. We should be at the compound soon. I’ll keep in touch if things go sour.”
Lucy sighed. “Just be careful, Claude. I know you two can kick some serious ass together, but you don’t know what’s waiting for you there. Just, stay vigilante. And bring those boys home so you can rub it in their faces that you saved them.”
“We will. Love you, Luce. Apologize to Hollis for us.”
She scoffed. “Oh, I’m not even touching that one. I’ll let you do that when you get back. Love you!” She hung up before I could respond.
“You know, I wasn’t sure if I’d like Lucy when Sloan told me about her,” Sawyer said from the driver’s seat. “She seemed too soft for him. But then, I saw how she handles that crazy vampire, and I knew my brother would be okay. Because it would take a saint to put up with his form of crazy.”
I chuckled a little. “Lucy is soft, but she’s got a toughness to her that makes her even with those stronger than her. And Vex had shit done to him that most vampires couldn’t come back from. Some actually didn’t after the siege. Many of those released from the BloodLust lost their minds and dusted themselves with a stake or in the sun. I think Vex’s form of crazy is what keeps him sane, and Lucy just soothes whatever is left. Your brother and Hollis help too. They complete each other and make each other stronger.”
Sawyer glanced at me as I stared out the windshield in a daze. Thinking about Lucy, and what her men do for her, only made me think of how much I needed both Diego and Brahm back with me. I hated that I’d left things with Brahm so strained and hoped he knew that even with all the shit that still assaulted my brain from the past, he was still key in helping me move forward. Simply by just being there to love me.
“We’ll get them back,” Sawyer said; her voice softer than what I was used to. “We may not like each other much, glitter, but I respect you. You’re stronger than you think and braver than what I gave you credit for.”
I gave her a soft smile. “Thank you for helping me, Sawyer. I’d definitely die if you weren’t tagging along.”
“Oh, without a doubt.”
I looked at her and saw a slight smile at the corner of her mouth. It dropped suddenly and she stomped the brakes.
“There it is.” She pointed to the top of the compound peeking over the thick trees about a half mile down the dark road.
“We should hide the car here and walk the rest of the way. We can use the entrance Lucy used to escape last time. It’s hidden around the east side of the building.”
Sawyer nodded and pulled the car off the road, slowly guiding it into an opening between trees. We exited the car and she walked around to the trunk.
“We’re gonna need to change and strap on some weapons.” She opened her trunk, revealing a large cache of blades and guns. She unzipped a duffel bag and pulled out some clothes, handing them to me. “Put these on then arm up. We’re gonna need to bring all we can carry.”
I wasn’t the greatest with a gun, but I could manage a blade pretty well. I stripped off my tight dress and quickly pulled on some tight, black pants, a long sleeve black shirt, and finally slipped on some military grade black boots. Sawyer followed suit, then started handing me several different holsters and sheaths to strap across my body.
One was a belt that held four blades, two on each side. Another crisscrossed over my chest and back, fastening below my breasts. Two larger blades went into the sheaths at the back. I strapped on my thigh sheath and another on my other leg. Sawyer had me holster at least one gun to the back of the belt, just in case. I even managed to slip a grenade into my shirt that would explode with fire and silver shrapnel.
By the time we were armed up, we looked like a badass mix of military operatives and Laura Croft. Especially Sawyer. She’d thrown her hair up into a high ponytail to keep the strands out of her face. I almost wish we had some black face paint to give us a bit of a meaner look. But when I mentioned that to Sawyer, she just snorted and turned away to lock up the car. Couldn’t hurt to try.
Thank goodness for supernatural vision. We decided to forego using any lighting just in case they were watching the woods surrounding the compound. We moved with silence and stealth. O
ccasionally, Sawyer would stop to sniff the air, making sure they hadn’t stationed anyone outside. It didn’t surprise me we didn’t find anyone, though. Rogue was a cocky bastard and would be feeling secure in his position here, knowing that no one but his own men knew where he was.
He was so wrong. And, I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when it was me driving a stake through his dead heart.
Thanks to Vex’s childish but accurate map, we found the door easily. The metal creaked as we pulled it open, forcing us to be fully alert in case it was heard. We left it open, not wanting to go through the trouble of closing it, then proceeded down the dark, damp corridor.
The building was silent as we made our way through. We were starting to worry that the lead had been false, when we finally heard the rumble of voices through the air vents. We paused, trying to figure out what part of the building they were coming from.
“I can hear them a bit through the ceiling as well. I think they’re above us,” Sawyer whispered.
We both pulled out our weapons. A silver blade in each hand for me, and two guns filled with silver infused bullets. We swiftly made our way around the corner and came to a hall filled with cells. These were the ones Diego and Lucy had been kept in. We walked up to each door, looking through the metal barred windows. Most were empty, but some contained the women that Rogue had been moving, all chained to the walls.
We didn’t have time to set them free just yet, but we’d come back.
We continued to the end of the hall where the stairs led up. As we made our way up the winding staircase pictured in Vex’s map, I couldn’t believe we were about to bust in like Charlie’s Angels. But I was ready. If the map was as accurate as it’d been so far, the floor above us was the one Vex had chased Lucy from when Bellamy injected him with BloodLust. If nothing had changed about it, the space would be wide open with barely any cover to hide behind. I hoped Rogue’s men didn’t depend as heavily on guns as Bellamy’s guys had.
We made it to the door at the top and glanced at each other, mouthing a countdown from three.
