Hopefully Derrick, my so-called bodyguard, had seen what happened and followed up. And, if not, Malcolm would start looking for me soon if he wasn’t already. He’d been tracking Abel, circling him. Maybe he already knew about this place. Those thoughts should have been comforting, but my stomach knotted painfully. And then there was Mickey.
She was laughing as she reached the bottom of the stairs, a soft noise like one makes in her sleep. She swayed as she walked. Emil held her elbow with one hand and a bag with the other. He could have been good-looking if not for the smirk splitting his face, and that little thing where he was an amoral piece of shit. They were supposed to like humans, this group. Not kidnap, enthrall, and attack them.
He unlocked the door of my cage and pushed Mickey inside. Not gently, but not roughly. A businesslike push. She spun, arms wrapping around his neck, and plastered herself against him. Moaning, she kissed him, as if all the pleasure in the world came from his lips. Emil extracted himself, filling her arms with the grocery bag instead of himself.
“But you said you’d kiss me,” she protested.
“And I kissed you. Now, be good. And eat.” His gaze hardened when it landed on me. “You need to use the toilet?”
As if I’d go anywhere with him.
“No thank you.” I wanted to spit curses at him, but it wouldn’t hurt to make them believe the bite had worn away some of my will. He left without so much as a shrug.
“Isn’t he something?” Mickey asked as she weaved across the space and collapsed beside me. “He’s a Finn, but he’s been living in Canada for the last fifty years. In Quebec. It is more French than—”
“Mickey, what did he do to you?”
She waved dismissively and started pulling items out of the bag.
“Why did you kiss him?”
“He promised to kiss me if I was good.”
“Good at what?”
“If I…” She paused and the bottle she held started shaking before she set it down. “If I helped him and his friends.”
She was fully dressed and her clothes didn’t look rumpled, but blood was already seeping through the white gauze taped to her neck.
“Are there any other humans up there? Anyone else…helping them?”
“Maybe.” She scowled. “But only I get to feed Emil.”
“Did he or his…friends…” I cleared my throat before I could go on. “Did they ask for you to help them in any other way, something besides the blood?”
She snorted and shook her head, angry. “No. And I was almost begging them to.” She stared up at me with dark, glassy eyes. “It feels so good, when they bite. I want to crawl on top of them. I want to, God, just…anything.”
I dropped my head back against the bars and crammed the heels of my palms against my eyes.
“Hey.” Her hands pulled mine away from my face. “It’s okay. Shhhh. It’s okay. Emil said he will not let me embarrass myself. He’s looking out for me. Here. You must be hungry. This is…confusing. We’re okay.”
We weren’t okay. Nothing was fucking going to be okay. I couldn’t meet her eyes as I accepted the bottle she shoved at me. It wasn’t her fault and I wouldn’t—not ever—judge her for it. But the guilt that clawed through me was savage.
“Thank you.” I drained half the bottle of water, watching numbly as she started opening packages of crackers, cheese, and fruit.
“Mickey, did you see Derrick at the spa?” I smiled encouragingly when she looked up. “The bodyguard guy. He was driving a beige Buick today.”
Her brow furrowed, and she winced when she shook her head. Her hand rose toward her neck, then drifted away before making contact.
“No, no bodyguard. There was a pair of women. The one who came down awhile ago, the chameleon. And Emil and the other men. Males. They like to be called males, yes?”
“I don’t think they care. Humans call them that.” As if their gender became more formal in the undeath. “Is it night? Could you see out while you were upstairs?”
“I couldn’t see out, but it’s night.” She bit into a cracker. “They had to wait for night to bring us here.”
“Do you remember the roads? What kind of place are we in?”
“It’s a house, a nice house. Three stories, very pretty lamps. It’s not a neighborhood, though. It’s like…” She thought while she chewed. Dark moons made her eyes look sunken. I pushed the fruit and cheese toward her. There had to be more nutrition in that than crackers. “There are many spaces for houses, but this is the only one. Do you understand?”
“It’s a development, maybe. They haven’t finished building?”
“Yes. The roads are there, but it is only holes where the houses should go. It is far off the highway.”
“Is there equipment out there? Machines or materials?” Hope made my voice float.
“No. It’s very quiet.”
And so much for hope. The addresses Mal had didn’t describe the surroundings, and I didn’t remember any sketches of unfinished building sites. I finished the water and tore at the paper label.
It was okay. He’d worked out all kinds of places Abel had occupied, and Soraya was some kind of super tracker. If she wanted me found, that is. She hadn’t been too thrilled with me earlier.
My pulse picked up again, which made my wounds throb. I breathed deeply and wiped my hands on my pants then tried to make myself eat. Who knew how long we’d be here, or when they’d remember to feed us again. Vampires weren’t known for their care, generally speaking, and we weren’t guests.
When I glanced at Mickey again, her eyes were half-closed. She hummed to herself. As if it were okay to sit in a cage in the basement, all chewed up, and eat out of a bag. She clearly didn’t get what was happening, but maybe it was better that she wasn’t afraid. If we could get out of here soon, get her away from the vampires who’d enthralled her, she’d be okay. Until she woke up.
My hands tightened into fists. I pulled myself up and paced stiffly, then stopped as a door opened overhead. Tilting my head up, I strained to listen. After a couple minutes, the rumble of an approaching car shook the ground around us. A powerful engine and heavy body probably meant a vampire-proofed car. My chest tightened at the hope that Malcolm had found us. With Bronson’s soldiers at his back, it could be that simple. He’d drive up and get us the hell out of here.
I glanced back. Mickey had pulled her knees up to her chest and was resting her head on her folded arms. If I could get her out of here tonight, now, she’d be good. We’d get her patched up and somewhere warm and comfortable, surrounded by her family, by people who would never have put her in this kind of position. And she’d recover. She’d thrive, as Thurston had said. Tears stung my eyes and I closed them. Heart thudding, I waited to hear a voice I recognized, to feel a thread of energy that felt like home.
Voices sounded, muddled and unfamiliar. Doors slammed, then the engine revved. And my heart sank as the car pulled away. Not coming. The car was picking up and going. Realization flared. Malcolm had invited Abel to Tenth World, tonight only. If Abel had wanted to throw us in Malcolm’s face, he would have taken us. He hadn’t, which meant he had other plans. It also meant that Malcolm wouldn’t be coming tonight.
No wonder Abel hadn’t touched me himself. Emil and Sophie, the ones who had, were still here. Malcolm would have no idea.
Adrenaline filled me and I walked the cage, standing on my toes and trying to see everywhere in the basement. Surely there had to be a tool or weapon, something useful.
“Mickey, I think we can get out of here. Help me move these bags.” I knelt and reached out with my right arm, trying to shove away the sandbags I’d been working on. This time pulling them off the sides rather than pushing. If we could get them clear, we could lift the cage and escape. Her answer was a light snore that made me growl with frustration.
Even with her, I was alone. It wasn’t her fault, but right now she couldn’t even help herself. If I pushed her, she’d probably only rat me out to Emil.
I’d been in bad situations before, with humans, but still. At some point, hope and reason were crushed by anxiety. Even if we managed to get upstairs, we’d be caught. There were still eight, maybe ten vampires up there. My arm would always carry a thick, nasty scar and, even in darkness, the fang marks on the top of my breast would be obvious. I didn’t want any more scars, any more pain.
I held on to the bars as the strength drained out of me, then dropped beside Mickey. When I tipped her into my lap, she whimpered and wrapped her arms around me.
Abel was right. Strong feelings trumped rational thought. I’d thought he hated me, though all I’d ever done was defend myself from him, but he hated Malcolm more. A lot more. And that didn’t bode well for us, insignificant humans caught in the crossfire.
“You’re okay,” I whispered, repeating her earlier words as I stroked Mickey’s hair. “You’re fine. You’ll be fine.”
* * *
The sound of a car roused me from a light sleep. Mickey rolled away, muttering to herself, and I stood stiffly. Doors slammed, then all was quiet for a moment. I held my breath as I listened, then jerked when the door at the top of the stairs opened.
“Mickey,” I whispered. She rolled onto her back and blinked blearily at me.
The footsteps on the stairs were uneven thumps, too loud for a vampire, and they were accompanied by an excited male voice. They rounded the corner, Emil and…Kevin. The tech from Goya. When the human stopped to look around, Emil grabbed him—or rather, the backpack he wore—and pulled him forward.
“I have to use the toilet,” I announced as Emil unlocked the cage. His gaze was on Mickey, now struggling upright, the back of her wrist pressed against her forehead. She looked like she was going to be sick.
“Not right now.” He pointed at her. “Come over here, fun girl.”
She rose immediately, then almost fell when I grabbed her arm.
“Let her go,” Emil ordered, influence forming a mist inside my mind, cold and sharp.
“He won’t hurt me,” she murmured, smiling sleepily at me. “He’s nice. Everything I could have wanted.”
“Mick, come on.” With my eyes, I pleaded with her to wake up from the glamour.
Emil shoved Kevin into the cage and stalked up to me. He showed me his teeth and I stood my ground, but when his fingertips grazed my throat in a soft threat, I staggered back. His hand closed around Mickey’s nape. His eyes narrowed on the bandage on her neck as he led her out and locked us in.
My hands fisted uselessly at my sides, anger forming a frozen rock inside me as I watched them climb the stairs. I turned to Kevin, who looked rumpled—one side of his face was covered in sleep lines—but otherwise whole. Were they kidnapping the whole world?
“How did they get you?” I asked.
“I d-d-don’t… The n-normal way, I guess. Holy shit.” His eyes bugged behind his glasses and his face was flushed. “That’s hot. Have you been here since yesterday?”
“Yeah. What do you have in your bag?” A gun with hollow-tip bullets would be nice. A lock-picking set would also be nice. Not that I knew anything about lock picking, but I’d sure as hell try to learn on the job.
He swung it off his shoulder. I knelt next to him, one eye on the stairs as he unzipped the backpack and extracted a hard plastic case. A phone fell out next to it and I snatched it up.
“Dead,” he said absently, setting the case on the other side of him.
“Damn.” Their energy had fried it. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. “Got anything else?”
He pulled out a box of non-latex gloves.
“What the hell is that for?”
“I didn’t have time to just get a few.”
That made no sense. I looked at him, really looked. He wasn’t bitten anywhere that I could see. He didn’t seem enthralled, but he also didn’t appear scared. He looked excited. We’d been locked the fuck up in a basement by vampires. Excitement wasn’t appropriate.
“What else do you have going on in your life that this isn’t scaring the shit out of you?” I demanded. He snorted, then sobered. His gaze wandered, taking in my scabbed forehead and smudged makeup. It landed on my arm, dark with dried blood. His eyes widened.
“You didn’t v-v-volunteer, did you?”
My brain short-circuited. I stood up and he rocked back.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I mean…” His head swiveled twice and he gripped his knees. “I mean f-fucking volunteering. For the e-e-experiments.”
I kicked him. He scrambled back with a high-pitched shriek. I kicked him again and he popped to his feet with a yell. Grabbing his hair, I pulled his head back, and punched him. It wasn’t a glancing blow and it but it still jolted me clear down my spine. He flailed with arms and legs, rattling the cage.
“You stupid son of a bitch! You fucking work for them?”
The door wrenched open and Sophie grabbed me, nearly tearing my arms from the sockets when she pulled them back.
“You, be still. You”—she nodded toward Kevin as he danced around, his hands pressed to his mouth to muffle a high-pitched wail—“finish what you’re supposed to do and get out of here.”
Sophie pulled until I dropped hard to my knees. Extensions tore out of my hair. She was only a little bigger than me, but her strength felt massive and effortless. Kevin fumbled the box, finally tearing it so that gloves flew everywhere. He pulled on a pair, snapping them over his palms, then opened his case. It was full of needles and vials.
“Kevin, you are a grade-A piece of shit.”
“Be nice,” he said, still breathing hard. “I’m good at this, but I c-could make it hurt if I wanted to.” He glanced up, a thin smile hardening his features. I lifted my chin and glared at him. I wasn’t about to apologize or ask him to be nice. In fact, if I got my hands free, I’d close them around his dumbass neck. His smile disappeared.
“I need one of those arms,” he muttered. The sucker’s hold on me shifted, then she pulled my right arm away from my body. Kevin tied a rubber tube around my biceps and probed my veins. A lab tech who spent his day watching stains dry shouldn’t be so good at this.
“So it’s not Bill that’s doing the Radia,” I said. “It’s you?”
“Bill? Pssh. He doesn’t have the balls to do what I do. Or the brains.” Too proud not to talk about it. “I had a bunch of samples and gave them out at the club one night. My…” He glanced up at the sucker, who was still as stone behind me. “My dance partner got real calm after using it. I made a few enhancements, and voilà.”
He stuck me with the needle, and I turned away at the unwelcome reminder of fangs piercing my skin. Sophie shifted a fraction, her energy skittering over me. Fuck it. If she wanted to be this close, I’d use it. I drew on her, hard, and shivered when cold power pooled inside of me.
“Hold still.” Kevin released the tube. “Side effects are common. You see those ads on TV for eye medicine that’ll make it so you can’t piss and stuff? This is like that, but where Radia’s pretty inert in terms of side effects with humans…” He jerked, his head looping around to the left. I clamped my teeth together when the needle squirmed under my skin. “Sorry. It doesn’t do anything to humans. Maybe two percent get a rash, that’s it. But it sure as hell works on vampires.” He snapped off one vial and jammed on another.
“What are you using this for?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Someone woke me up and said to take blood, so I’m taking blood.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Look for odd properties. This one chick, her blood made all the suck…the vampires break out in boils or some shit.”
“What happened to the chick after that?”
He was quiet for a moment. Then his gaze flicked up before dropping again. “Look, I didn’t know it was you when they came for me, okay?” He shook his head, his voice heating even though I wasn’t arguing. “It’s only a little blood. You’ll make more, and these guys are pretty cool.”
>
Pretty cool? I wanted to punch him all over again. The sucker’s arms tightened around me.
“Do you know what it does?” I asked, gritting my teeth when Kevin did that looping tic again. “Radia? After a vampire takes it for a while?”
“I don’t care.” He pulled the needle free and wadded a piece of tissue against my arm. “I sell it. They buy it. I don’t have a doctorate in anything. Never been all that good at school—shit, that’s hot—to tell the truth. But vampires are people, too. They want drugs just like anyone else, and not that suppressive shit the government offers them.”
“Radia kills them.” I grimaced. I felt full, like I’d been eating rocks. Or maybe it was the way the vampire was holding me, like an overly ambitious boa constrictor. “But not before they kill a lot of people. A lot of humans. Do you understand?”
He blinked then shook his head, his face reddening. “It’s not that strong…and it’s not like I invented the stuff.” As if he had no responsibility.
“You’re a piece of shit, Kevin.”
“You keep saying that.” He shoved the case into his bag as he stood up. “But you’re the one in the cage and I’m free. So who’s got the higher value?”
He headed for the stairs, and I got to sample the taste of cement when Sophie shoved me down. She held me against the floor until he was upstairs. I pushed up to my knees when she stood to lock the cage.
“What you said about Radia,” she asked, hovering outside the door, not looking at me, “is it true?”
I considered ignoring her, but she didn’t merely sound curious. She sounded interested.
“It’s true that it subdues the hunger at first. But then you need more for the same effect and, eventually, the hunger becomes stronger than the suppressant. At that point, you’re fucked. Either it kills you or someone puts you down.”
She didn’t move, her gaze turned inward.
Falling from the Light (The Night Runner Series Book 3) Page 15
