‘Hey, you think he would have let you do otherwise? She’s his girl, Alec and he wants to protect her.’
Whether he’s capable or not, I felt like saying, but I let it go. It had been my stupid mistake in the first place.
For a Tuesday night, the traffic was ridiculously heavy. On top of that, we seemed to catch every red light between Vaucluse and Balmain. We needed to get there before them, but at this rate it wasn’t looking good.
I glanced in the rear view mirror to see Luc’s champagne-coloured BMW close behind us. Jean was with him. I could hear him talking on the mobile to Marcus Antonius informing him of events.
I drove through the city, down George Street and up the Western Distributor hoping we wouldn’t come across a police patrol car, but there was no way to avoid the red-light cameras located at just about every intersection. We sped over the Anzac Bridge and zigzagged through the traffic to get to Victoria Road, which for once, ran smoothly at peak hour. It was usually gridlocked. I turned right into Darling Street and dodged a few startled pedestrians ambling across the road.
Sommers’s car was parked in front of her building. It was empty. I tore out of my car just as Luc skidded his to a halt behind me and raced to Laura’s flat. The others were right on my heels. I could sense humans all around me in the building, but no blood drinkers. A faint heartbeat came from Laura’s flat, but it wasn’t hers. The door was ajar and Sommers’s body lay face down on the timber floor. His gun lay nearby, not fired. There was no smell of gunpowder, only the scent of blood. Much of it was smeared along the doorframe and down along the floor.
I crouched by the prostrate form. A deep laceration on the right side of his head bled profusely. He must have been slammed into the doorframe, as I could smell his blood, not Laura’s. She wasn’t here and for a moment I was torn between following her scent, or doing my duty as a doctor.
Whoever had taken Laura wouldn’t harm her—the blood in her veins was too precious. But I couldn’t let myself dwell on that at the moment. Ignoring the enticing scent of his fresh blood, I concentrated on the man’s injuries while Luc and Jean ran through the flat in search of Laura.
‘She’s not here. They took her,’ Jean said vehemently, and his eyes began to change.
‘Mmmmm, he smells good.’ Cal’s fangs slid out.
‘No.’ I gave him a warning look. He returned it with a challenging stare of his own, then recovered and his fangs retracted.
‘Sorry. Better if I go and scout outside.’ He disappeared into the night.
I bent back down to Sommers while the others fanned out through the unit trying to detect traces of a recognisable scent, and one that could be followed back to its source.
‘Luc, throw me that towel will you?’ He was leaning out the kitchen window, scanning and sniffing the air and a towel was draped over a chair beside him.
He threw it to me. I caught it, pressed it around Sommers’s head wound to stem the blood flow and took out my mobile phone. After calling for an ambulance, I checked for any other injuries. His shoulder had been dislocated, so I popped it back into place. He would wake up very sore. There was the real possibility he could have a fractured skull as well as a serious concussion. Only a CT scan would determine whether he had any underlying brain injury. The sooner he got to hospital the better.
I turned his body around and placed him in the recovery position. It would make him comfortable till the paramedics arrived. Whoever took Laura would have regarded a human like Sommers as dispensable. The only thing that saved him was that they must have sensed us coming and hadn’t had time to feed.
I became aware of another scent on him, one I’d been taught to recognise and avoid. I searched his pockets and pulled out a small box. It contained six bullets made of the substance most deadly to my kind—white oak.
Son-of-a-bitch! They weren’t in his possession Saturday morning. Sometime between then and now he must have made the decision to kill us. Why else would he be carrying them?
Sommers stirred. He was regaining consciousness. ‘Laur-a,’ he groaned and attempted to sit up. I pushed him back down.
‘Lay still, you’ve been seriously injured. I’ve called the ambulance.’
He did as I asked and closed his eyes. ‘They—took her. I—couldn’t stop them…’
‘I know. There was nothing you could have done.’
His pulse was steady and his eyes closed again. My medical oath was the only thing that held me back from taking his life. How easy it would be and Laura would believe he’d been killed trying to protect her. End of the Sommers problem. Instead, I made a snap decision.
‘Open your eyes, Sommers. Look at me.’ Slowly, he did so and I projected my will into his. ‘When you wake again, you will have no memory of Laura Dantonville, nor Lucien Lebrettan nor Alec Munro. Those names and faces will be strange to you as will the knowledge of vampires in this city. You will have no memory of any events before July this year.’ Satisfied my mesmerisation was successful, I told him to sleep.
His eyes closed and once again he lost consciousness. Every now and then I checked by pressing down hard on his fingernail, but he didn’t respond to the painful stimulus. I pulled out his mobile phone and erased all images of Laura, then wiped my fingerprints clean with my handkerchief before placing it back in his pocket.
I kept the deadly bullets.
Cal came back in with a sword in each hand. ‘Found these in the bushes.’
They belonged to Sam and Terens. Dried blood was smeared on both, but it wasn’t theirs; we had the scent of Laura’s kidnappers.
‘From the smell of the blood, I’d say they were taken just before sunrise,’ he said.
‘How many did you sense outside?’
‘At least eight. Our guys put up a hell of a fight judging by these.’ He raised both swords in the air.
‘They came here right after the Ritual,’ Luc said. ‘The other three must have come just after sunset and laid in wait.’
‘We’ll get her back, Luc,’ Jake promised.
When the paramedics arrived I gave them a quick briefing, passed them my card and watched them carry Sommers out.
I then handed Luc the white oak bullets I’d found in Sommers’s pocket and his eyes widened. ‘Fils de salope!’
‘Said the same thing myself.’
‘Why didn’t you kill him?’
Jake and Cal both swore when they saw what Luc held.
‘And make him a hero in Laura’s eyes?’ I shook my head. ‘Oh no! I mesmerised him instead—wiped away all trace of us and Laura from his memory.’
He pursed his lips. ‘I hope you did the right thing.’
I hoped so, too. Now it was time to go hunting.
Chapter 23
Taken
LAURA
A massive headache woke me. The right side of my face ached and I remembered something hitting me as I opened my apartment door. A tremor of fear rippled through me as I opened my eyes and realised I was bound. Someone had manacled me by the wrists to a metal pole suspended from the ceiling. I tried moving, but my legs had been tied and secured with a short rope around my waist so I couldn’t extend my legs.
I panicked and a scream welled up in my throat when I heard a vaguely familiar voice.
‘Finally, you’re awake!’ Took you long enough.’ Douglas, the surfer boy who had danced with me at the Ritual crouched low, his face directly against mine. A nasty sneer marred his features.
At the same time another voice intruded—female, cold and hard. I didn’t recognise it, but somehow I knew exactly who it was and turned my head in the voice’s direction.
‘Perhaps if you hadn’t struck her so hard, she would have been with us much sooner,’ it said accusingly.
‘You told me to bring her, no matter how, and I did.’
‘I want her wide-awake before we send Alec our little message. Don’t we Laura?’ She crouched down and I was face to face with the vampire-in-red. Maris.
I swallowed back the scream and
tried to keep my breathing even as something about her comment sent a shiver through me. It took all my control to stare back at her, defiant, hoping she couldn’t sense my fear. It wasn’t made any easier seeing them both of them wearing long black cloaks. The hoods were thrown back.
‘I wonder how different her blood tastes to all the others.’ Douglas said. ‘It’s got to be a hundred times better.’ He licked his lips, giving me a glimpse of fangs.
Remain calm, I told myself. Don’t let them smell your fear.
‘Give it to me.’
Douglas placed my mobile phone into Maris’s outstretched hand. She stood, took a step back and aimed. ‘Smile,’ she said, but not to me. Was she holding someone else captive? My eyes had begun to adjust to the near dark and I was able to make out shapes and faces.
‘Laura, pet?’ A weak voice said somewhere to my left.
I knew that voice, too. Terens. Ignoring the pain in my head, I turned and tried to focus. They had him in some sort of metal cage, on his knees, hands bound behind his back. A long, sharp piece of wood attached to the metal bars—like a stake—was only inches from his chest.
I was shocked by what they had done to him. His fine, pale skin was blackened and horribly blistered and almost all his thick, auburn hair had been burned off. If not for the diamond stud in his ear, I wouldn’t have recognised him. He’d been deliberately exposed to the summer sun, but not long enough to kill him. It must have been agonising.
Only monsters could do something like that!
‘What have they done to you?’
‘You’ve been hurt and strung up like a chicken and you’re worried about me?’ He croaked and tried a pathetic sort of laugh. ‘They’ve got Sam as well.’
Ignoring the pain, I turned my head. Sam, burnt and blackened, was caged and tied as well. A low moan escaped his lips.
My breath caught in my throat as my fear began to turn to terror.
Maris laughed and I looked up in time to see her throw my mobile phone to Douglas. She bent towards me and her cold fingers slithered across my exposed abdomen. ‘Your blood is too sacred to be spilt, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have my fun with you.’
I recoiled from her icy touch but that only made her smile. My mind began to envisage all the ways a person could be tortured and I was convinced she was well acquainted with them all. Without warning, she whipped me across the stomach with a riding crop. I hadn’t seen her holding it.
A sharp, searing pain flared across my body with the same intensity that comes from a bluebottle sting. I screamed and doubled over but my manacled hands prevented any further movement.
Douglas laughed.
Tears stung my eyes and as the pain spread and intensified she whipped me again, this time with more force. I screamed again and dry retched as my body reacted to the pain.
‘Stop it, you demented bitch!’ Terens yelled.
I gasped and struggled for air as the dry retching continued and wondered how much I could endure. I knew she wouldn’t kill me—yet—but what other pain was she going to inflict on me. Was this only the beginning? I began to shake.
‘Enough for now. Smile for the camera, sweetie!’ she cooed, then roughly grabbed my hair and pulled my head so far back I thought my neck would snap. Having done that, she struck me hard across the side of the head.
Chapter 24
A Hunting We Will Go
ALEC
There was one scent I recognised—Douglas. The others were unknown, but not for long. Luc showed me Laura’s bag. She must have dropped it when they took her. Nothing was missing except her mobile phone. Why?
‘There were definitely three of them here, for one defenceless girl!’ he said angrily.
‘I know one of them. Any idea who the others are?’ I asked.
‘No, but let’s go find out,’ he answered, his smile dangerous with fangs.
‘The scents all merge.’ Jean had come back from scouring the immediate area. ‘They left together. Seems they all had turns carrying her—there’s an unmistakable trail.’
‘They want us to follow,’ Jake said.
My mobile rang. I retrieved it from my back pocket, and checked the screen—Laura’s number. Now I knew why they took her phone. I’d given her my card on our first meeting and she must have added it to her contacts. I alerted the others before answering, then put it on loudspeaker.
‘Alec, darling.’ It was Maris’s silky voice. ‘I thought you might enjoy seeing this.’
An image rolled across the screen. It showed Terens and Sam on their knees in a cage, hands tied behind them, with sharpened stakes a hair’s breadth from their bare chests. They must have been exposed to the sun; both looked blackened, blistered and too weak to raise their heads.
The image swung to Laura and Luc inhaled sharply. She was seated on the ground, legs tied together and folded at her side. Her hands were manacled and drawn up high above her head.
Maris appeared next to her.
I tensed as she ran her fingers along Laura’s exposed midriff before producing a whip and striking her with it.
Laura screamed and her body convulsed.
We could only watch helplessly as Maris struck her again and the sound of her screams filled the quiet street. Luc roared and the vampire was free. There would be no holding him back this night. Maris would die at his hand. I recognised Douglas’s laughter in the background.
He was mine!
‘Smile for the camera, sweetie!’ Maris struck Laura so violently across the head she lost consciousness.
We didn’t see any more as my hand crushed the phone into carbon and silicon dust. I loosened my own beast and from the collective snarls around me, so did the others.
We got back into the cars and sped after the scent. It led to a disused theatre in Rozelle. The men were blocking so no one inside would sense our presence. I had no need to do the same as the Serpent Ring on my hand did that for me. Luc had used it many years ago when he and Judith wanted to be together, just after I had become Princeps. I’d pass the ring to him and slip out of my apartment. None of our kind ever knew he was there.
Now it’s my turn to use it, I thought.
As we stood outside, planning our next move Laura’s voice whispered through my mind. She must have regained consciousness and remembered the telepathic powers of the ring.
‘I’m outside. Hold on,’ I told her.
Wary lest any of the Brethren overhear us, I mouthed my words. ‘Luc, she’s okay for now.‘
He looked at me then down at my hand.
I nodded. ‘Twenty-two.’
‘We can take ‘em,’ Cal mouthed.
‘We need something more subtle. Laura’s in there and if we attack, they could kill her in spite.’ Luc stroked his chin.
‘I’ve got an idea but there’s no time to discuss it. You’ve got to trust me on this one.’
‘Give us a hint, at least,’ Cal mouthed back.
I shook my head. ‘Stay here and cover the exits. I’ll go in alone, get some idea what they’re up to and make it look like I’m going along with them.’
Jake frowned and shook his head vigorously. ‘As if they’ll—’
‘Jake, Maris is in there. All I need is a few minutes with her.’ When no one made a move, I mouthed, ‘It’s the only way. They can’t sense my presence while I’ve got the ring. It’ll shield me, not all of you. I can get in among them before they know I’m there, find out their plans then confront her.’
The others exchanged looks.
‘Give me ten minutes and if I don’t call you by then…’
‘You realise how risky that is? They could kill you!’ Cal said.
I shook my head. ‘Not straight away.’
They didn’t like it but we had few options. ‘We can’t stand here arguing. Trust me on this one and whatever you hear me say in there… don’t react. Don’t barge in until I give the word. Just cover the exits and wait. I have a feeling they’ll come charging out.’
‘All right. Ten minutes, no more.’ Luc gave me the nod and from the expression on his face, he was ready to remove a few heads.
‘There’s a flaw in this somewhere, but I’m in. At least I’ll get to see that venomous bitch suffer!’ Cal said.
He wasn’t alone in that.
‘Maris belongs to me,’ Luc added.
No one argued with that.
I took a deep breath and walked in the front entrance.
Chapter 25
Maris
LAURA
Pain woke me. How long I’d been unconscious I have no idea, but my body felt as if on fire and my hands were still manacled high above my head. I glanced down. Two large, red welts swelled on my abdomen. Maris had left her mark on me.
Myriad thoughts swirled through my head. What had happened to Matt? Was he lying hurt, or even worse? A dreadful fear clutched at my heart at the thought that Matt could be lying hurt on account of me, perhaps still in my apartment. The neighbours would find him, surely, and ring the police.
‘Laura, can you hear me?’ A voice called softly and I turned my head in its direction. ‘It’s me, Terens. I’m here, pet. How are you?’
‘Everything hurts!’
Terens strained at the manacles that held him captive inside his cage. ‘I’ll kill that creature. Not one of them will leave this place with their heads still attached. I promise you.’ His voice sounded stronger.
I was exhausted from the pain and my body ached from its cramped and bound position. Trying to manoeuvre my legs to the other side was pointless, so I tried to relax my muscles instead and flexed my fingers in the tight manacles to restore the circulation. Terens swore loudly and rattled his cage.
‘Where are we?’ I asked.
‘An abandoned theatre. See the dark curtain in front of you? We’re on the stage.’
I could make out the dark walls, floor and the heavy roped curtain. Why a theatre? Was it because it was an abandoned building suited their purpose, or was there a more sinister reason? If I trusted to the old adage about bad feelings then I had a distinctly foul one.
‘Why did they take you?’
‘I’m assuming they’re capturing as many of us as possible to reduce Alec’s chances of fighting back.’
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