“In some places they do. When you’re in therapy, or in lockdown.”
“Do they know about the super hearing and sight we develop?”
“No, not that we can tell. You’ll notice a lot of us talking only loud enough for other vamps to hear.”
“Where are the camera’s?”
“In the walls behind pictures.”
“In our room also?”
“No I checked when I first came here.”
Phoenix let out a sigh of relief and then looked at the walls surrounding her. Four pictures decorated them.
“Yeah, there are camera’s in here. I guess a vamp had tried to destroy the laundry once so they installed cameras.” She waved her hands around. “Like we all want to obliterate their washers and dryers. Morons.”
Phoenix lowered her voice. “This entire place just gives me chills.”
“They can’t hear us over the washers, so don’t worry. That’s kind of why I brought you here. I was worried after Nan took off with you.”
“I met public enemy number one.”
“That’s because you caused trouble when they brought you in. He doesn’t tolerate people messing up his grand plans.”
“He knew my real name. Does he know everyone’s history?”
Cloud shifted in her seat and leaned on her arms taking in a deep breath. “Do you ever remember having your mouth swabbed?”
Phoenix’s forehead wrinkled indicating that she was thinking. “Do you mean with a Q-Tip; like it was just for fun”? she motioned up and down with her fingers.
“In high school biology we studied DNA,” Cloud explained. “That’s how the record keeping started.”
“I’m not following.”
“School kids were easy.” Her hands waved again. “Hey kids, lets practice taking samples.” Then she clasped her hands together and got serious. “Even college kids fell for it. Adults in the workforce were different. Get pulled over for DUI then the cops would swab you. They were told it was a new way to test blood alcohol level or whatever drugs the person was on; it was, but as soon as they stuck the swab into the analyzing machine, boom, DNA was in the governments system. Others that followed the law had their samples taken for health insurance companies, you know stuff like that.”
“Shit. Not good.” Adam’s face was all that she could see. “Alright, how do you know all this?”
“I’m a hacker. And a total snoop.”
“And my best friend.” Phoenix said grinning.
Cloud pumped her fist. “Let’s Snoop Dog this. And by the way I got my name because of the cloud people store info on. Secrets can run but they can’t hide from these.” She wiggled her fingers back and forth along the table.
WHEN PHOENIX STEPPED outside her room Hell Raiser was standing outside the door.
“Mr. Lachance would like to speak with you.”
“And I’m guessing I can’t just crawl back into bed? Shoot myself? Cut my eyes out?” she replied with a snarky grin.
Hell Raiser bit down on his lip, then cleared his throat. “I’m instructed to take you to his office before you go to breakfast.”
“Well then I’ll follow your big Arnold Schwarzenegger ass.”
He chuckled at that.
As she walked down the hall he followed.
“You know you’re as big as a damn house,” she said.
“I was a pretty good linebacker before the bombs.”
“Pro?”
“It was my rookie year for the Brown’s.”
“I can see why you’re bitter.”
“Trust me; everyone is.”
“Good, because we are going to need that anger. I have to find Adam.”
“He’s in the restricted section. You want my advice—play extra nice to Lachance. He wants you or you would be dead. Butter him up and he may let you see your man.”
As they climbed the spiral staircase both were silent. Phoenix’s mind contemplated whether she could charm the ultimate evil.
This time Lachance was sitting at his desk. His fingers tapped away at his keyboard. As soon as Phoenix entered he stopped and looked up at her.
“Have a seat.”
Hell Raiser stayed by the doorway.
Phoenix sat and leaned back in the chair, resting her arms on the sides and waited.
“I was hoping that you had contemplated changing your position.”
I hate fucking kissing ass, she thought to herself.
“I’m not saying the world is even going back to the way it was for me.” That was all she could think to say.
Lachance’s perfectly combed hair, primped beard and blue eyes made her want to vomit. He reached up and loosened his tie, then removed it. “I can make your life better than you ever had it.” His voice was full of arrogance.
“How can you do that? You won’t let me see Adam. I have one pair of clothes. No hairspray, toothpaste or toothbrush. If it weren’t for my amazing roommate I wouldn’t have the one pair of pajamas I own. I don’t see life here being so great.”
“Mr. Mathers?”
“Yes Mr. Lachance,” Hell Raiser said.
“Miss Williams will be taken to the general store and supplied with the items she needs.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Do you see how easy that is? You corporate and life is easy for you.”
“And seeing Adam?”
“We’ll work on that. For now let’s get you more comfortable.”
Okay new tactics “Can I ask you a question?” She leaned forward and Lachance waited.
“How would you feel if the only person you loved was taken away and you weren’t allowed to see them?”
“Miss Williams…” She cut him off.
“I said that’s not my name anymore. You want my respect then give me yours. My name is Phoenix.”
“We don’t use those types of rebellious names here. It gives the wrong impression. Now as far as Adam—I will let you see him; I give you my word. Today is not that day. I need to know I can trust you if you want the respect you speak of.”
“Have you hurt him?”
“You haven’t come to any harm despite your outbursts, why would you assume he has?” Decklin stood and buttoned his suit jacket. “I think we understand each other. Mr. Mathers will take you down to the store. Let’s meet again soon.” He walked over to the fireplace and stirred the logs.
“Time to go,” Hell Raiser said.
As she left the room Phoenix looked over her shoulder and watched Lachance stick the fire poker in a slot on the floor. The fireplace along with its burning fire slid back and he descended a set of stairs. When the fireplace slid back into place she followed Hell Raiser out.
“Where does that go?”
“Helicopter pad.”
“There has to be more than that. Nobody has a secret passage to board a chopper.” Just as the words were out the sound of helicopter blades sliced through the air and she watched a streamline, black, bird fly and turn out toward the open fields.
At the bottom of the stairs gasps and screams erupted. Phoenix jumped over the railing and landed firm, and gracefully at the bottom. Hell Raiser was running down the stairs to catch up.
The secretaries were backing away from three of their fellow workers. One male and two female workers were slouched over in their chairs. Their faces had blisters and bruised peeling skin.
“What happened?” Phoenix asked.
“We need to get you out of here.” Hell Raiser tried pushing her to get her moving. When she didn’t budge, he picked her up and carried her out. He didn’t put her down until they were outside her room.
“What the hell?” she asked annoyed.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yeah,” she said shrugging her shoulders.
“Don’t worry about it. Not right now.”
“So when?”
“I’ll take you down to the store.” He replied when another guard approached.
The store was a shrunken down version of a
Super Target.
“Get a cart and fill it. You’ve been given permission to shop, so take advantage of it.”
Hell Raiser followed her around as she got some spare clothes and other necessities. As she rounded the row Adam’s disheveled hair went gliding by the window. Shoving the cart aside she sprinted into the hall.
A guard was escorting him, but she shoved right past him. “Adam?” she said taking his arm.
“Thank God.” He pulled her into an embrace.
“You’re gonna have to go,” Adam’s guard said.
Hell Raiser was at her side. “I got this.”
“I need to get this guy back to his room,” the other guard said with panic filling his eyes.
“The dog left the house. You’ll get him back.” Hell Raiser waited for the other guard to acknowledge what he said then he turned to Phoenix. “Come with me, and move quick.”
He stuck a key in a door, which opened into a large closet. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes. Stay in there.”
As soon as the door clicked closed Adam took her face and kissed her. She felt like it had been years since she had seen him.
“Why were we just shoved into a closet?”
“Because there are no camera’s in here or microphones.” She wasted no time and ripped his clothes off.
Adam pulled her pants down and shoved her against the shelves holding cleaning supplies. Three bottles of glass cleaner smacked the floor and cracked leaving blue liquid running across the concrete.
Without wasting a second of their time Adam slid himself into her. Phoenix reached above her and held onto to the rocking shelf.
“I can’t hold it,” Adam said with a grunt. He thrust into her hard and let out a loud moan, which she muffled with her hand.
“I made a mess out of you,” he said stroking her hair.
She slipped her clothes back on and he did the same.
“What’s happening?” he asked as he buttoned his jeans.
Phoenix didn’t answer. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
“I was so afraid they knew who you really are,” she said stroking his face.
“They keep asking what my real name is because Adam Danzel doesn’t show up in their computers.”
“Did you ever have your mouth swabbed?”
“What? No. Why would I?”
“That’s the only thing saving your ass right now. I met Lachance and he knows who I am. You can’t let them know who you are; do you hear me?”
Adam nodded. “Ben?”
“They turned him. I haven’t seen the others.”
“Fucking pricks.” His face turned red with anger.
“It’s bad. I’m trying my best to get info.”
“I can’t be away from you,” Adam said stroking her cheek.
“I wish I could change that. I just don’t know what to do about any of this right now.”
“Will you try something for me?”
She waited. “If our blood is our life force and has healing abilities why couldn’t it help us stay connected?”
“You think that could work?”
“It’s worth a try.”
Phoenix ran her lips gently down his jugular, and then bit into him. Adam cringed as she drank. That familiar feeling of power and strength hit her.
“Now I want nothing more than to rush up to Lachance’s office and pummel him.”
“I don’t like you being around that guy.”
“Trust me I don’t like it either.”
Tilting her head she gave Adam full access to her neck. It wasn’t pleasant when he bit her. The throbbing pressure wrapped around her neck. He didn’t take long and the pain subsided in seconds.
There was a knock at the door then the key slid in. Hell Raiser stood there motioning with his hand. They filed out quickly.
“We gotta go,” Adam’s guard said.
Adam took her face. “Seriously, stay away from Decklin Lachance.”
“I’ll try, but he keeps calling me to his office.”
“Play sick, do whatever you need to do.” His voice was urgent and pleading.
Adam kissed her one last time and held her hand. Their fingers stayed latched together as he turned to leave.
Phoenix watched as he walked away with his guard. He blew her a kiss and smiled. She mouthed to him “I love you.”
“Thank you,” she said walking back into the store.
“Let’s get your stuff. I hear the dog is back.”
Hell Raiser walked her back to her room, but let her carry all the bags. “Sorry for not being a gentleman, but I have to keep the gun.”
Phoenix chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.”
He looked up and down the hall, and then talked as low as he could. “Those people in the office were humans that Lachance was trying to turn. Didn’t work out; what you saw was radiation burns.” By that time they were at her room and he turned and walked away.
She chucked the bags onto her bed. Her stomach turned. Ben hasn’t seen Vera so maybe she met the same fate as the office workers she thought.
Cloud walked in. “You scored.”
“Courtesy of Lachance.”
“Milkin the pimp daddy.”
“Just thought I would take advantage of the situation. That guy needs to go down.”
As she pulled the bathroom items from the bag she told Cloud she had seen Adam.
“The guards let you get down, huh? That’s cool.”
“You don’t know that.” Phoenix nudged her.
“It’s all over your sex filled face.”
Shaking her head back and forth, Phoenix walked to the bathroom with the supplies.
“So what about you? Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Growing up in upstate New York doesn’t exactly make being gay copasetic.”
Phoenix leaned against the bathroom doorframe. “Don’t ever care what others think. You need to live life for you.”
“Before everything changed I actually told my mom. She wasn’t shocked. My dad on the other hand was never told about me. He would never accept a gay child.”
“Did they survive?”
“My dad did.” Cloud picked up a magazine straight out of the 1980’s.
“Where is he?”
“I got snatched up by a bunch of camouflaged bandits. That was a pretty big payday for them. I have no idea what happened to my dad.” Cloud was good at deflecting away from personal situations and did. “These two Corey dudes look like douche bags she said turning the page of the magazine.
“Maybe you’ll find your dad again.”
When Cloud looked up her eyes brimmed with tears. “I hope so, but at the same time I’m scared shitless.”
“After what I saw today, I would be too.” Phoenix dug in the bags and tossed a bag of chips and a candy bar to Cloud. “I also found this,” she held up a Cosmo from 1973.
“Yes,” Cloud said pumping her fist. “We can take the sex test.”
Cloud flipped through the pages and found the test. “Rate your mate.”
As she asked the questions the only thing Phoenix could think of was Adam. She had only been away from Adam for a little over an hour, but she missed him as if it had been months.
That ache and loneliness turned to full blown panic. Something was wrong; she could feel it deep down in her soul.
ADAM WAS SITTING on his bed when there was a knock at the door. When he opened the door a Decklin Lachance and a guard stood on the other side. Without asking permission they shoved past him and entered the room. Lachance had a file folder in his hand, which he tossed on a small table. Hiking his pants up and unbuttoning his suit jacket he sat down. As the cream colored folder opened Adam swallowed hard.
“It seems there has been a failure on your part to communicate,” Lachance said. He motioned toward another chair across from him. “Please have a seat.”
Adam sat, but didn’t reply. He looked straight ahead into Lachance’s eyes.
“I haven’t talked to my family in many years, nor been a part of that family.”
Lachance grinned evilly. “Again with the lies.” He turned a couple of pages over and slid one across to Adam. “Here are copies of checks your father sent you; probably while you were living like scum in Los Angeles getting your pathetic rock band together.”
“You seem to know it all, why are you asking me?”
“Oh, let’s not misunderstand the situation. I’m not asking you a thing. I’m telling you.”
“And?”
“And that puts us in a situation where I need to react.”
Feeling how fucked he truly was Adam didn’t care to give him any respect. “Maybe you need to grow some balls and spit it out.”
Lachance closed the folder and slid it aside making sure it was perfectly straight and all the papers were tucked inside. “I will not be dealing with you, just as I didn’t tolerate you father.”
“Is he still alive?”
“For now, but I just found the way to exterminate him.”
“Good luck with that. For you to think I would kill my own father pretty much makes you an idiot.”
Lachance chuckled and stood. He adjusted his pants and re-buttoned his jacket. “Guard,” he said running his hand over his hair.
The vampire guard took Adam by the arm. When Lachance was out of hearing distance the guard whispered, “Sorry man.”
“Please tell Phoenix.”
The guard nodded his compliance and marched him down the hall.
Walking down several levels of stairs they entered an underground cavern. The open room of the cave was quite large with stalactites and stalagmites filling the space. In the middle was a large, barred cell. The iron was fused into the rock.
“So you’re gonna lock me up like an animal?” Adam asked.
“An animal is what you will become,” Lachance replied. He turned to the guards. “Strap him in.”
Adam backed away as they approached, scanning for a direction to run. The two large vamps took his arms and drug him across the cell to a chair you would normally see in a dentist office. They tied restraints around his arms and legs anchoring him horizontal. As his normal guard tightened the strap he leaned into Adam’s ear. “Stay strong. We’ll get you out.”
Rise of the Phoenix (The Phoenix Trilogy Book 1) Page 11
