Captivated (An Affliction Novel)

by Raven

  “This is bull! You wouldn’t have found her if it wasn’t for my investigation!” Markus blurted out in an effort to convince me. It wasn’t working.

  I reached the front door and turned to him. He was a slow boy. I noticed that during the times he would follow me. He discovered what I was and hadn’t left me alone ever sense. He was trustworthy though, I had to give him that. He never told Mindy he was spending most of his time trying to help me. I would always brush him off, but he clung on. I couldn’t let him get hurt. He was much too slow to be able to react in a vampire fight.

  “Markus. You can’t come. I won’t have it.” I stepped outside and left him standing before the doorway. The look of disappointment and sadness etched his face. He was a child being denied a trip to the toy store and left behind. I forced myself to shut the door on his face and not look back.

  And I was off to be in the biggest battle of my life.

  DIDN’T KNOW HOW MANY HOURS HAD PASSED, it had to be several. My stomach was roaring for me to feed it. I couldn’t tell if the sun was still out or not because of the blacked out windows. I stared at the bodiless statue on the ground. I lost count of how many times I had thrown it against the window in hopes that it would break and I could run free. It must have been bullet proof or something because I couldn’t get it to crack. My eyes stung from all the crying I did when I found out about Dean’s death. I thought it might have left me dehydrated. I closed my eyes to calm the sting, but it didn’t make a difference.

  A knock came at the door followed by it opening. Shane popped his head in with a bright smile. I stayed sitting on the bed. When he saw that it was safe to come in, he slowly walked in shutting the door behind him. One of his arms was pulled behind his back, like he was hiding something back there.

  “How are you feeling?” Shane asked as he stepped right up to me.

  “Let me go.” I responded.

  “I brought you something to make you feel better.” Shane said with hope. He brought his hand out exposing a bouquet of lavender flowers, just like the plant in my room. “I wanted to get you the ones on your night stand but you never invited me in your house so…” he shrugged his shoulders.

  Shane set them in my hand, but I didn’t bother to grab them. Noticing this, he gently closed my fingers on the bouquet. I held on and in one quick motion, I threw it at the black window. The lavender crashed softly against it, then fell to the ground. Purple stems bounced against the ground and separated from each other. There were small purple petals scattered. “There goes my theory of flowers being able to break windows.” I said coldly.

  “Wow. That’s not how I had this pictured in my mind at all.” Shane examined the flowers and then looked at me in surprise. “Good thing I didn’t bring you a kitten.” he sighed out in fake relief.

  My stomach growled again.

  “Hungry? You want me to bring you something?” Shane asked casually. I looked away and nodded my head. “No?” He walked over to the dresser and pulled himself up to it in a sitting position. “I know what you want. Answers. Then can we have a truce?” he asked.

  “What do you want with me?” I asked right away.

  “All I can say is my boss has plans for you.” He said as he rested his hands on the edge of the dresser to keep the balance I knew he didn’t need.

  “What plans? What the heck would he want with me?” I hissed.

  “Persistent are we?” Shane half smiled. “Believe me beautiful, I’m eager for you to know, but rules are rules. Next question?”

  “How is Dean involved in any of this?” I asked with hurt in my voice. The mention of his name made me want to break down again, but I refused to in front of Shane.

  “Ah…the question that sums it all up.” Shane paused as if to think of how he would start. “I am a vampire, as you know. And Dean…” He said his name with annoyance. “….is a slayer, vampire hunter, the big bad, whatever you want to call it.”

  “Then why were you guys so buddy buddy at school? Why didn’t he ever kill you if you’re a vampire?” I asked.

  “Well, Dean is like the law in my world. You have your police officers that only make arrests when crimes have been committed and there has to be proof or evidence. Dean can only kill vampires when we have harmed a human. Which sucks because how can we feed? Right? Totally unfair.” Shane jumped off the dresser and began to pace back and forth in front of me. “Anyways, that’s why he could never do anything to me. I’m innocent. Believe me, when he got in my face the first day I showed up at your school, I had to give him a reminder of the rules. I’m not powerful enough to beat him just yet.”

  “What if he had broken the rules?” I asked.

  “Then, the head of the slayers takes his abilities away. Then he’ll be like the rest of the humans.” Shane said with a smile.

  “I wish he were alive so he could kill you.” I said to myself darkly.

  “Ouch!” Shane brought his hand up to where his heart should be and pressed. “Even if he were alive, he still can’t touch me. I haven’t harmed you. But he can go after my boss because he gave the order to take you.” He jumped off the dresser and walked up to me. “By the way, I was the one watching you at night.”

  “What!” I screeched.

  “I was sent to your school to collect you. That night you were with your dog in the forest…if Dean hadn’t showed up, I would have taken you that night.” Shane began to pace back and forth across the room. “In fact…he was in the way all the time watching over you. Like that night I walked you home, remember that figure behind the tree? That was Dean. If it wasn’t me looking up at your window at night, it was him. That’s when I realized he had a thing for you and pretty soon after, you two got close. I had to assemble a team to take you by force because my time was running out.” He turned to me with a broad proud smile that belonged on a toothpaste commercial. “And now…here you are.”

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Come in.” Shane answered.

  A girl with long black hair stepped in. She was the same one that helped Shane kidnap me. I’d recognized that Asian doll anywhere. The strangest thing was that when she saw me sitting on the bed, she smiled at me. It was a smile of appreciation. What kind of kidnapping was this if they were so nice to their captives?

  She turned back to Shane and said, “He’s here.” then, she spun around and made her way out of the room closing the door behind her.

  “Looks like it’s time for you to get some answers.” Shane said as he reached his hand to me. An invitation to go with him?

  “Please Shane. Let me go.” I pleaded.

  “No can do.” Shane said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the bed. “And I don’t want to.” he admitted shyly.

  I followed behind him as he guided me through the long hallway, contemplating on whether I should try to make a run for it. But I knew it would be no use. Vampires were too strong and too fast. I was just a human.

  S WE APPROACHED THE FOREST, I examined the map to see what tree marked the entrance we were supposed to take. The map looked like it was etched up by a five year old. There were two squiggly circles with a crooked line below them drawn right next to each other. I scanned the trees to see if there was anything similar. One grew up sideways, then reached up. There was another one next to it with similar attributes. It looked like they purposely grew this way together. Markus had done a good job at finding this place. He was great at investigating. After all, he did figure out what I was while everyone else was blind to my actions.

  The vampire walking next to me had smoke coming out through the blanket. I imagined myself tearing the blanket off of him to see him fry up and disappear. I smirked at the enjoyment of just imagining it. We drew in closer to the entrance between the two deformed trees. I shouldn’t have looked at the ground. Damn it. There were trickles of dry blood on the dirt. Lina’s blood, Markus wasn’t sure it was hers. I on the other hand always thought the worse. Anger wouldn’t have even begun to describe what h
ad started up inside me. My eyes were burning from the fire blazing under my skin. I turned to the demon I had chained around the neck. If it wasn’t for him, I would have caught up with Lina. I could have saved her. This thing was blocking the entrance when I finally approached it, taking precious seconds away. The little weasel kept slipping through my fingers while I was fighting him, just enough time to make me lose track of Shane and Lina. The fire inside me wanted to burn him to a crisp. How I hated keeping this one alive. The same thing with Shane, everyday at school, I had to put up with him. He acted natural with his jokes and comments. People around us might have thought we were actual friends. He was only hanging around me to taunt me because he knew I couldn’t touch him. Not being allowed to lay a hand on vampires that didn’t hurt humans was the most ridiculous rule. The only rule that bound me as a slayer. Waldron, the one who changed me, made it very clear that my abilities would be removed if I did. He called them class V, the one’s that didn’t feed off humans. To me, they should all burn in the flaming depths of hell. Shane made a sure arrangement to be there when he made my Lina bleed.

  I pulled on the chain to make the thing pick up the pace, even though he already was walking the same speed. A little reminder of who was in charge wouldn’t hurt.

  It was shaded in the woods. Rays of light were scattered in our path. The thing stopped sizzling while we walked under the shade, but it still kept the blanket on. After what seemed like hours of taking rights, lefts, circles, we finally approached where the house was supposed to be. From a distance the area looked like a bunch of trees huddled together. I checked out the map. There was a round squiggle much bigger than the others with the word finish on it. This had to be it. I carefully approached the bundle of trees and peaked in through an opening. It was the biggest house I’d ever seen. Large full trees surrounded the place like a gate made out of nature. The house had to be as wide as an acre, with the whole forest as the yard. The windows were black like a limo. Smart move on keeping the sun out.

  “Give me an idea of what I’m looking at.” I told the vampire as we crouched down.

  “That house has nine bedrooms. Three masters and…” He started counting with his fingers. “I think six bathro-”

  “I’m not buying the house! Tell me where she is. Where they would keep her? How many of you there are.” I lashed out.

  “I don’t know. There’s a basement. There are a lot of hidden passageways though.” He trembled out.

  “Why would you things need that?” I sternly asked.

  “Well…it was in case you ever found the place. We are prepared.” He said with a hint of pride.

  “Where do the passageways lead to?” I asked.

  “Some lead outdoors. Others that are in the bedrooms lead either to the outside or to the room connected with it. Only one leads to the basement.” He said.

  “Where is the one that leads to the basement?” I asked growing impatient with his short answers. I wanted all the information at once, so I could get to the killing already.

  “The fridge. It’s a place you would never look because…you know…” It looked away. “We don’t eat food. I mean we can but-”

  “Is there any way out of the basement to the outside?” I harshly interrupted.

  “There’s a window in one of the rooms, but that’s it.” The vampire said.

  “How many are there?” I asked.

  “There’s the five that stayed home to wait for us. How many did you kill again?” The vampire asked.

  “Three escaped.” I said coldly.

  He cleared his throat. “So that’s eight. Wait. Do I count myself?” He asked.

  “Not unless you want to be one of the nine that dies.” I dared.

  “Eight! There’s definitely and only eight.” He paused. “Can you not kill one of them? The girl with the long black hair? Crystal.” He asked. I could tell by the look on his pathetic face that he was scared for her.

  “If you lead me to Lina. I won’t kill the female. Just make sure to keep her out of my way.” I tugged on the vampire’s chain to make sure I had its complete attention. “If you dare trick me. Your witch will be my target.” I warned.

  “Deal. No tricks.” He assured me and exaggeratedly shook his head in agreement.

  The vampire took the blanket off and left the glasses on. When his skin made contact with the shade, small amounts of smoke rose off his skin. I removed the chain from its neck and tucked the chain in a bush next to me. The vampire jerked its head toward the house and we were off. We ducked behind tree after tree until we reached the front steps to the door. It looked like the double doors to a castle. The thing signaled me to follow him to a window. I started to smell the burning scent of its skin. The shade really wasn’t enough for them. The vampire cracked the window and peeked through it. Then the thing opened it and pulled itself in. I pulled myself up to the window and made sure the room was secure. Then I followed behind.

  I’d never seen a bathroom so elegant. It looked like something out of a five star hotel. Everything was spotless. The thing shut the window behind us and the room became dark. The house was already covered by the shade of the trees and the dark windows letting in only a miniscule fraction of light.

  “I can hear someone.” The thing poked its ear out to get a better read on what he was listening to. “There’s someone sitting in the hallway. There’s always one of us out there on patrol. He’s on the left side in a squeaky chair.”

  I felt around my chest and took out a dart. My aim was good, but I never tried it out in the dark. A training method I’d have to start practicing after this was over. Carefully I opened the door. I didn’t stick my head out yet. Vampires could see in the dark, I didn’t know how clearly. In a split second, he was already at the door. Immediately I stabbed him in the gut with the dart.

  “That’s not going to do anything.” The vampire helping me whispered. Then as he finished saying that, the vampire I had just stabbed dropped to the ground.

  “Holy water.” I informed.

  “That kills us?” He asked softly.

  “No. It paralyzes you temporarily.” I added. Then I took my knife out and sliced his neck. “This kills your kind.” A poof of lighted ashes took over the body. It looked like fireworks in the middle of the night. One vampire down. I grabbed the clothes left behind by the ashes and threw them in the bathtub. The hallways weren’t as dark as the bathroom. There were night lights spaced every so often. I didn’t hear any noises. I didn’t believe there were anymore vamps on that floor.

  “Some of us sleep during the day out of boredom.” The thing whispered. “The rest are most likely guarding her.”

  “To the basement.” I ordered as quietly as I could.

  “You’ll be able to see better down there. There are dim lights everywhere. It takes some energy out of us to be able to focus in complete darkness. It’s more comfortable when it’s dim.” He whispered.

  “Will they smell me?” I asked. It was better to be ready if I couldn’t sneak around.

  “Not unless you have an open cut.” The vampire whispered.

  We reached the fridge. It was like having the front of a fridge as a door. After opening it, it was a normal entrance. There was a hallway that led to a stairway. We quietly tip toed to the stairway. I heard voices, but above all, I heard Lina. She was screaming. She was alive. The opening to the stairway was huge. I saw the vamps walking around. Not knowing that death was upon them. The one with the black hair crossed. She was skinny and had big eyes with a chest that couldn’t be real. I remembered how difficult it was getting her to let loose of me. Right when I was about to slash her, she was pulled away by the other two.

  “That’s her.” Whispered the excited vampire next to me. “She’s alive!”

  “Just remember our deal.” I told him.

  “I’ll keep her away. We’ll flee when I get to her. I promise. You’ll never see me again.” he smiled while staring at her.

  “How many rooms are do
wn there?” I controlled my breathing. The adrenaline was surging through me. The time was here. I was going to kill them all.

  “There’s a huge room at the very end. A hallway leads to it. The two rooms before it are small. There’s a cage in the big room. She’s most likely in it.” The vampire added quietly.

  A pale figure crossed the entrance. He was pacing. This figure didn’t have stylish hair like the others. His head was buzzed. This guy was bigger than me by far, especially his arms. A flash back hit me with a painful blow. The bloody arm I had seen when I was just a kid appeared in my head. My parent’s blood was on that same arm. The blind rage took over me.

  Darcel. I found him.

  ears ago, after I found my parents dead, a large man approached me offering me something I didn’t care to understand. I just accepted it if it meant revenge.

  “I am Waldron. Consider me somewhat of a mentor; I was your fathers for many years.” Waldron stood a few feet away from me. He began rolling his sleeves up over his massive forearms. The skin lying under was like a bronzed copper. A combination I didn’t know existed. From the details of his face, I thought he might have been African American, but his skin was different.

  When Waldron mentioned my father, I glared up at him. “Who did this? Why?” I froze, the strange man that grinned at me down the street passed through my head. I remembered the blood splatter on his arm and I realized, he was the one who murdered them. Rage burned through my eyes because I had been face to face with him after it happened. “He was there, in front of me.” I clenched my teeth together and squeezed my fists so hard they were losing circulation, “And I did nothing!”

  “Calm yourself. I need you to relax.” All of a sudden, Waldron’s eyes were glowing blue. He was focusing right on my face, my head…my brain. His body was stiff. I looked down at his hands, they were also glowing. Then, blue flame like figures appeared, dancing in his palms. The glow on his eyes grew brighter.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I jumped to my feet.