by Laura Hysell
Too bad I didn’t have any bobby pins or paperclips to try and pick the lock with. Not that I knew how to pick a lock anyway. I fumbled at the sheath on my side, carefully pulling the knife out. I held the blade against the edge of the cage and attempted to swing my arm. I had little room to move and the blade did nothing but make a loud cling when it hit the cage. I sighed in frustration and sat back against the edge of the cage, trying to stretch my legs as far as possible. Probably the knife was useless and that’s why I still had it. It was just another symbol of how pathetic I was. I put the knife carefully back in the sheath. Useless or not, the knife made me feel better.
“Damn it!” I muttered angrily, slamming my hand into the cage. “Damn, shit, damn, fucking piece of crap!” Again and again I slammed my fist into the cage, muttering obscenities under my breath with each punch. My fist hurt and I felt blood, but it quickly healed and dried on my knuckles. I punched the cage again, releasing my anger and frustration as tears began pouring down my face.
“Are you about done? Some of us are trying to sleep?”
I sniffled and wiped at the tears on my face. “Jared?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Kirk is here too, in another cage. I must say, I’m surprised you’re still alive with the way Sarah flung you all over the place,” Jared’s voice replied from somewhere to my left.
I wasn’t sure if it was better to be alive and in this cage, or dead. The vampire blood I had drunk must still be prevalent in my system. That was the only explanation for me still being alive. “I’ve been dosed with a fair amount of vampire blood,” was my muttered response.
“Really?” he asked, sounding surprised. “By who?”
“A vampire named Patricia. She’s the one that Jin was talking about fighting with. I also got dosed with that vaccine.” I ached, but it was mostly from being cramped and unable to change positions. I scooted my butt back into the corner of the cage and put my feet in the far opposite corner, and I still couldn’t stretch out completely.
“Sarah made it clear that none of the vampires are to give us blood. None of us got the vaccine either.” I heard shuffling and assumed Jared was trying to get comfortable in his own cage.
“That’s strange. I thought the vampires were giving the vaccine to everyone.” I pulled my knees to my chest and tucked the bottom of my jeans around my toes. It helped, but I still shivered from the cold.
“They’re mass producing it for the general public, yes. We’ve been kept as Sarah’s pets, and she said she doesn’t want to use her powers to break us,” Jared remarked angrily. “We aren’t special enough to be rewarded with the healing effects of vampire blood.” I looked toward his voice, straining to see anything in the darkness. He sounded angry, but I was glad he hadn’t been given vampire blood. He was still his own person, for now.
“What about my brother?”
“I don’t know,” Jared replied. “We saw him every once in a while, but he was never allowed to talk to us. Sarah took care of him, though. She needs him for something, so I don’t think he’s been injured.”
That was comforting news, for my brother at least. “How long have you been her…pet?”
Jared laughed, but it was humorless. “I’ve lost track of time. She wasn’t always the one in control. When she first turned we had her contained, but she was growing stronger each day. Then one day she just disappeared.” He stopped talking and cleared his throat loudly before continuing. “When she returned she had vampires with her, under her control, and we were helpless to stop her. I filled her body with bullets, but they did no good. It just made her angry. That’s when she took over, and made us her pets. Jin was originally one of her pets too, but he broke too quickly. After that she turned him into a vampire.”
“Jin does seem off,” I remarked.
Jared laughed again. “He’s a fruit cake! Something went wrong when she changed him. Maybe it was because he’d already gone nuts beforehand. Sarah’s not the same person she was as a human, either. I’m sure you noticed that. She’s cruel and power-hungry, and even the other vamps are scared of her.”
I thought about that, and I had to wonder about the changes vampirism seemed to have. Sarah had been ambitious before but never cruel. And her love of pink seemed to have multiplied. Maybe being dead would be better. “Where’s Kirk? I thought you said he was in here too?” I asked suddenly, looking around as though I might see him.
“Hey, Rover, wake up,” Jared said suddenly.
“I’m awake,” Kirk's voice responded quietly.
“Kirk, are you okay?” I asked.
I waited, but he didn’t answer. “He only responds to Rover now,” Jared commented. “Hey, Rover, Isabella is here. Do you remember her?”
“No,” Kirk answered simply.
“Rover, you remember Isabella. She was your girlfriend. You used to talk about her nonstop.”
“No,” Kirk answered again.
I fought back tears that threatened to overwhelm me. My voice still came out strained. “Kirk, uh, Rover, don’t you remember me?”
“You’re Muffin,” he responded.
“I’m what?”
Jared answered, and it sounded as though he was trying not to laugh. “Sarah had a hard time coming up with a name for you. It was a big debate between Muffin, Oreo, Cocoa and Pumpkin.” He suddenly stopped chuckling, all humor gone. “I’d be concerned about her choice of name. She was convinced your new pet name had to be some sort of food.”
Oh, great, she was going to use me for a snack. I pushed the thought away. “Kirk, please, you have to remember me. You’re not a pet, you’re a person. I’m Izzy and you’re Kirk, not Rover.”
“Master told us to sleep,” Kirk responded simply and I heard shuffling from his direction. What had she done to him? This was not the man I remembered.
“He’s gone Izzy,” Jared whispered softly and I heard the pain in his voice. “You don’t know what it’s like. Not yet, anyway. She’ll break you too, eventually.”
I shook my head even though no one could see it. “She hasn’t broken you,” I replied.
He sighed loudly. “Almost,” he said softly. “I’m glad you showed up when you did, although I’m sorry you’re stuck here with us. I was close, Izzy, so close. It’d be easier to just give in instead of fighting her all the time. She’s incredibly inventive in her methods of persuasion.”
“She tortures you,” I stated, remember the welts that marred his back.
“Sometimes,” he responded. “Sometimes she gives pleasure, sometimes pain. You never know what’s going to happen. She locked herself up with Jin for two weeks straight, and when he came out he was completely nuts. I don’t know what she did to him, but I could hear his screams for days.”
“What did she do to Kirk?” I asked, wanting to know and afraid to find out at the same time. Kirk had always been strong and arrogant even. I found it hard to wrap my mind around the way he was acting.
Jared was quiet for a long time, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he did speak, his voice was quiet and resigned. I wondered how much of him had given up already and how much fight he still had left in him. “Kirk fought a long time, Izzy. I hope you understand that. It wasn’t like one day he was normal and the next he wasn’t. It’s all a game to Sarah. She has all these memories of her life as a human, and she used those memories to warp and twist things. She’d make up these stories about all of us, twisting them for her own purposes. She made us memorize them, so that we’d start to think they were reality. I don’t know what’s real and what she made up half the time. To top it off she only calls us by the names she gave us, and you are punished if you answer to your real name. And the punishments…” he trailed off and didn’t say any more.
“I’m so sorry, Jared.” It wasn’t enough, but it was all I could say. There was obviously a lot more, but I didn’t think Jared was in a place to talk about it. I’d heard enough for now anyway.
“We should sleep,” he said, abruptly chang
ing the subject. “Rest when you can, Izzy. Trust me on this.”
I curled back up on the floor of my cage, still shivering from the cold. I cried again, softly this time so I didn’t disturb Jared. But this time I cried not for myself, but for Kirk and Jared. I even cried for Jin and the torture he must have endured before going completely insane. Finally as my tears subsided I fell asleep.
I was thankful for my dream this time, because at least I was warm. I woke up on a soft bed, covered in thick blankets with a fire blazing from a giant hearth. The blond vampire, Henri, lounged in a chair beside the fire, watching me intently. He was dressed in only a pair of pink silk boxer shorts. I peeked under the blankets and rolled my eyes. I was wearing absolutely nothing. I quickly imagined myself wearing a pair of my favorite thick black sweats and a sweatshirt before I crawled out of bed.
“Nice shorts,” I commented, pointing at the pink boxers.
He shrugged. “This is your dream. I am here because you wish me here, wearing what you wish me to wear.”
I tried imagining him wearing jeans, but the pink boxers remained. “You’re lying,” I retorted.
He laughed as he leaned forward and casually rested his elbows on his legs. “Am I?” he asked, his eyes crinkling with mirth.
“Yes,” I responded adamantly.
Henri laughed again and stood up, moving close beside me. “Things have changed,” he mused softly, trailing a hand across my cheek.
I backed away from him and moved toward the fire, relishing the warmth. Henri moved up beside me, mimicking my movements as I warmed my hands in front of the fire. I cast a sideways glance at him, but he stared straight at the fire. I shivered and imagined a thick blanket around my shoulders and a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. The items appeared and I sipped at my hot chocolate, but I still couldn’t seem to get warm.
“It must be cold wherever your body is,” Henri commented. “I’d love to warm you, but I can only do so much in a dream.”
“Why is it that sometimes I sleep and it’s just a normal night of sleep, and then other times you’re here?” I asked, looking directly at Henri.
Henri smiled and turned toward me, his eyes a brilliant blue color that looked amazing with his pale golden hair. I’d never been this close to him and just admired his face. He smiled warmly at me, and the difference made him seem almost human. “We have a connection. You need me and here I am. You want me here.”
I didn’t want him here, did I? I shook my head. “I have a connection with Patricia too, but she doesn’t invade my dreams constantly.”
“Dreams are my realm. I have power here that others do not.”
I shivered again and sipped at the hot chocolate. It tasted delicious, but I knew it was only illusion. “If you have power in dreams, can’t you make me warm?”
“I could make you believe you’re warm, but so could you. Your body is cold, so it reflects in your dreams because your mind is translating that information, making you shiver. If you wish to ignore it in your dream, then do so. Try it,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes and imagined away the hot chocolate and the blanket. I removed everything from the room, including Henri. When I opened my eyes I was in a small cage in what looked like a cargo trailer. I had a moment of panic as I felt the walls of my cage. Then I noticed Henri standing in the trailer, looking down at me with a frown on his face.
“This is not what I meant,” he said softly, looking around the trailer at the other two cages that contained sleeping forms of Jared and Kirk. “This is where you are?”
I nodded as I curled myself into a ball, shivering more than before. “It’s completely dark though. I guess this is what I imagine it looks like.”
“Well, this won’t do at all,” Henri muttered and suddenly I was lying on a beach with the hot sun scorching my skin.
I sat up and looked around, marveling at the white sandy beach that ran on for miles next to a brilliantly blue ocean. My skin looked sun-kissed already and I once again had my long blonde hair. I was wearing a very tiny teal bikini and was sitting in a lounge chair with a tropical drink of some kind in my hand. I glanced to my left and saw Henri lounging similarly to me, wearing a pair of tight teal swim shorts that left little to the imagination.
My eyes trailed across his defined chest and arm muscles. He smiled over at me smugly and took a sip of his drink before setting it down. “Isn’t this better?” he asked, and I grinned in spite of myself.
“I have to admit it is definitely an improvement.” I took a sip of the drink, letting the tropical flavors tingle over my tongue as the alcohol warmed me. “At some point I’m going to wake up though. You helped with the Patricia situation. Can you help me with this?”
“You’re willingly asking me for help?” he laughed, his deep voice rumbling.
“Yes,” I responded testily.
“Unfortunately my physical body is a considerable distance from your own, and our connection is not very strong. My ability to help is limited. Perhaps if you gave me some insight into your circumstance…” he trailed off, motioning to me.
“I’m being held by a vampire named Sarah Ellister. She has a penchant for pink and last I knew we were somewhere in southeastern Washington.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “I know the vampire you speak of. She’s a recent addition, and not one of mine.”
“What do you mean she’s not one of yours?”
“She is not of my line.” He shrugged. “I could contact her, but I do not know how she would respond. You would be better off with Patricia.”
“I thought you didn’t like Patricia.”
He smiled humorlessly and shook his head. “Patricia has been disobedient of late, but if she is still in close proximity to you she may help. You need help in the physical form.”
“What about my brother? Do you know where he is?”
“Who is your brother?”
“Justin Howerton,” I replied.
I was watching Henri closely when I mentioned my brother’s name, looking for a reaction. He looked directly at me and pursed his lips minutely. “That explains the interest in you. I had wondered before why Patricia chose to give you her blood, despite orders to the contrary.”
“What do you mean? What orders?”
He waved off my question and stood up, walking toward the water. I set my drink down and hurried to catch up with him. The sun that had been bright overhead just moments before was now setting, painting the sky beautiful colors. We walked into the waves, letting the cool water lap over our feet. Henri stared out at the sea and I stood beside him, waiting and hoping for answers before I woke up.
“You are just a pawn in a vast game of chess,” Henri said suddenly, startling me.
“And what are you?” I asked, looking at his handsome profile.
“I am a king, of course,” he replied, looking at me directly now. “But in this game there are many kings, all fighting for control of the board and of the pieces. Your brother is just another piece, albeit an important one.”
“Why is he so important?”
“Because,” Henri replied softly, “he started this game.”
I didn’t know what to say. A thousand questions raced through my head, but I couldn’t pick just one to ask. Henri moved suddenly, banishing all thought as his mouth met mine in a kiss that startled me with its intensity. His arms wrapped around my body, holding me to him as his tongue explored my mouth.
After several moments he finally stopped kissing me and moved his face back so he could look at me. “I will do what I can to help you, my dear Isabella, but you must help me in return.”
“What could I possibly do to help you?”
“Oh, I’m sure I will think of something. Just know that you owe me,” he said, and I felt a shiver of fear at his words.
“How will you help me?”
“I will give you strength, as I did before. And a small portion of my powers. Embrace the strength I give you, and it will help you survive.
Then, when I call, you will come to me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Henri shook his head. “You don’t need to. Just trust me.”
Trust a vampire again. Was I crazy? Henri was different though, I told myself. Of course, I hadn’t met him in the real world yet. He seemed to want to help me, but he did ask for something in return, and that bothered me. “What am I going to owe you? I need to know before I agree to anything.”
“You will die without my help, and still you waver in accepting.” He laughed at that before turning his beautiful face toward mine. He leaned forward and kissed me again, and I found myself responding to his kisses eagerly. He pulled away and looked down at me with his piercing blue eyes. “I do not know precisely what I will require of you in the future, but I promise it will not involve hurting or killing any humans. Does that help?”
“Add werewolves to that as well. And no sex! I’m not a prostitute.”
He scoffed at that. “I would never treat you as such. When you give your body to me, it will be completely willingly.”
“Werewolves?”
“I will not ask you to hurt or kill any werewolves either, Isabella. Anything of the sort you do will be your choice alone. Does that suffice?” I nodded and he smiled as though he had just won a great victory. “Now we share blood.”
“But, this is just a dream.”
“And I am the Master of Dreams,” he responded just before he bit me.
The pain in my neck was sharp and immediate, but it quickly changed until I felt light and euphoric. It was as though I was floating without a care in the world. One of Henri’s hands held my head tightly while his other trailed down my body, increasing the pleasure I felt from his bite with each caress. I felt as though I was teetering on the edge of a precipice and the slightest breeze would topple me over the side. There was no pain or worry, just a feeling of bliss.
Henri stopped drinking after just a few moments and kissed me lightly across my neck. I was still floating without a care in the world when he bit his wrist. Two small beads of blood had formed on his wrist and he held it before me, waiting for me to take it willingly. I grabbed his wrist, closed my eyes and licked his skin. I swallowed the salty taste of his blood and felt a rush to my head, as though I was drunk. Henri pressed his wrist close to my mouth, urging me to drink more.
