“Both bombs would go off and we’d all be dead.” Auggy’s expression was grim.
“I don’t get it. Isn’t this stuff supposed to affect electronics, satellites and communication stuff, but not humans or vamps?” Craig leaned forward, pulling on the chains with his arms though his hands were limp beyond the cuffs.
“There are different kinds, and we’re not dealing with someone dropping this in the sky over a city. We’re dealing with two vamps connected to the bomb itself,” Auggy replied.
“What if we had something to absorb the electricity attached to the chains?”
Auggy shook his head negatively. “Nothing can absorb electricity. It’s basically free electrons. They can only be transmitted, passed through something, or blocked.”
“You know a lot about electricity.” I hadn’t decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Maybe it makes me a bad person, but we test it on vamps in the concentration camps.” His voice was devoid of emotion; he had to be numb to a degree to torture others, I supposed.
“Let me be ignorant of that for now. If I survive this, then we will be having a talk about those places. The High Authorities are more like Hitler in that regard, and quite frankly it disgusts me.” I gritted my teeth, blocking out any visuals.
“It’s nothing compared to what a human endures as a prisoner of war.”
“But those vamps aren’t prisoners of war.”
“Maybe not war, but they’re still prisoners. The human justice system can’t handle them, so we do.” Auggy’s voice bellowed throughout the space, his conviction a foundation to his words.
Will cleared his throat. “Wood and rubber are excellent electricity repellants.”
I struggled to recall everything in elementary school science I’d learned about electricity. “A conductor is part of the circuit. Electricity always needs a circle of flow. It’s why birds don’t get shocked when they land on live wires. The bombs are the conductors, which are connected to the chains wrapped around the guys, who are standing on the ground. The four components are the circuit.”
“Go on,” Auggy prompted.
“A conductor has electricity flowing through it before it’s sent it out of it; it’s part of the circuit. So if I grab a cuff in each of my hands, you can pull the guys off the cuffs and I will become part of the current chart. The bomb will go off and the electricity will travel through me, the ground, and the chains. If we’re lucky, I’ll have the same charge as the bomb, so if I light myself up, the two charges will repel each other and I can break away.”
“I brought you rubber gloves,” Will offered, pulling a pair of yellow gloves from his pocket and passing them to me. “They won’t repel that high of an amount of electricity, but they will help lessen the sting of it passing through you.”
I tightly gripped the gloves, trying to disguise my unease. “Do I make it?” I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye, where I knew the truth would be.
“I hope so, but no city is the same as it was two hundred years ago. Every prediction has its flaws, particularly when electricity didn’t exist at the time it was written.”
I popped my head up. “They didn’t mention this?”
“Claire and I will free Kellan; you release Craig, Augustine,” Will directed. He ignored my question. I was beginning to feel like a pawn.
“I would argue and try to tell you to stop, but if those three are letting you do it, then there must be some validity to your idea. I failed science, though, so I wouldn’t know.”
“I hope there is. Some things sound logical but turn out to be all wrong. Just know that I’m willing to try because I love you.”
”I’ve never doubted your love.”
I studied my ring on my left finger. I slid it off my finger. “Aunt Claire, will you please hold onto this?”
She frowned but acquiesced. I placed my ring in her palm and then put on the yellow gloves.
“You don’t have to do this, love,” Craig said.
“I know, but I have nothing to lose.”
“We do,” he replied.
“Not if you survive.”
“Not if you don’t survive,” he countered.
“Shut your gabber, mate.” I tried to imitate his Australian accent but didn’t quite pull it off.
“Way to cut the tension.” He laughed, quickly sobering again. “Thanks, Lex.”
I forced myself to keep my fingers straight, not balled in fists at my sides. It was important to focus on the task rather than the risk.
“You better not leave me.” Aunt Claire’s voice bit through my concentration.
“I love you.”
“No. None of that goodbye crap, Lex. You better not leave me.” She swung on her heels to face Auggy. “Augustine, if she doesn’t survive this, you better make room in one of your damn camps because I will go postal on my father’s ass.”
“We all will,” Kellan stated.
KELLAN
I was in awe of her strength. She never ceased to amaze me. Damn if I didn’t feel inferior and weak next to her. How many times was she going to have to save me? I’m the man. I was supposed to be saving her.
I knew I didn’t have much of a chance against the gang of vampeens that attacked us, but had I been carrying a weapon, we would have had a fighting chance. That was the first thing I planned to do. If Lexi died by their hands, I’d rob every bank I had to in order to afford the weapons necessary to wipe him and his entire army out. I was tired of being pathetic; I was tired of losing. We weren’t puppets. Our lives weren’t toys to be played with, and I’d see to it that no one else had that power over us again.
She walked over and gently kissed my lips; her emotions grazed the surface of my mouth. I inhaled her scent, the smell of her surrounding me, squeezing my heart. She kissed my shoulder before squatting before me. She pushed her small, delicate rubber-gloved fingers between the tiny space between my leg and the metal cuff.
“Move them closer together,” she said. Will lifted me at my waist and moved me a couple feet from Craig, whom Auggy had carried over. “When you free them, I want all of you out of here in case anything goes wrong. Get as far away as you can. No ‘we can’t leave Lexi’ crap. Just go. Auggy, get Dr. H. to take care of them.”
“You go it, sweetie.” Damn. The gruff man sounded soft all of a sudden. That didn’t bode well to me.
“What about you?” I pressed.
“I’ll probably pass out for a while. If you don’t—”
“Wait. Why don’t we have someone solder these off?” Claire perked up.
“Because there are live wires running through those chains and the cuffs. That’s how they’ll go off.”
“Wouldn’t the heat melt the metal, but leave the wires intact so they could get out?” Her brows furrowed. She was trying hard.
“No. It’d melt the wire casing and probably set them both off,” Auggy answered.
“Oh.” Her tone was defeated. It was obvious her hope had deflated with it.
“I’ll be okay, Aunt Claire,” Lexi tried to assure her, but the woman didn’t hear it.
“Do you know how damn hard it’d be if I lost you, Alexa? Are you even thinking about that?” Her voice went up an octave, revealing her worry.
“I’m not planning on dying young, Aunt Claire. I’m not planning to let a little electricity send me to my grave. What I am planning is to give you all the opportunity to get away. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“I know.” Her eyes watered as she studied Lexi.
“Enough of the dramatics. This isn’t the theater; it’s life. Now let’s either do this or leave them to rot.” Auggy’s words echoed through the confined cellar, a growl in his tone.
Lexi immediately sat down between Craig and me. Her body was dwarfed by our towering figures looming above her. I felt her hands shaking as she gripped the cuff. She was putting on a brave face, but I could tell she was scared shitless. I’d known that when she immediately closed
off her thoughts the second we came into view.
“On the count of three, you two rip open the cuffs on his wrists and then his ankles. I’ll do the same here. You ready, Lex?” Auggy asked. She nodded, staring at the floor. Her entire body tensed with anticipation. “One, two…three!”
In a flash I was free and being whisked outside. My feet and hands were numb; no pain hitting me when Will slapped part of me into a tree, the bark scraping my skin. I lifted my head and saw the flash in the sky.
“Oh, God, Lex. You have to come back to me. Concentrate, babe. Stay strong.”
It was all I could do. I could only encourage her from afar. I wasn’t the one Sir Staten had cursed; I wasn’t the one who sassed vamps. I was her weak fiancé, and the reason she was enduring all of this right now.
Chapter 4
I kept my eyes closed as the first shockwave ran through me. It was almost as if I was floating on a cloud for a brief moment in time, the white light blinding me before blue washed it away. Pain stung my body, my hands burning, aching to let go. I clenched my jaw, struggling to keep my teeth from chattering as my body trembled beneath the force of the bomb. I fought to push past the overwhelming tingling scorching through my limbs; I battled to pull the cuffs together. My skin was dripping with sweat, my vision a muddled mess of blue and white.
Digging deep, I grappled, fighting myself along the way, to bring the chains together. The second they touched, lightning crackled loudly, as if water had touched boiling oil. I doubled back, my body quivering uncontrollably. I was amazed to find no sign of the electricity racing through or around the chains. Had I not felt the currents and heard the telltale sounds of charges connecting, I would have doubted the existence of an actual e-bomb.
I shook my head, blinking several times in succession. I was here; I was alive but didn’t quite feel right. My mind was present, racing, but my body was still prickling in the sky. Feeling hadn’t fully returned to me; my nerves were loose wires fighting to be reconnected.
After what seemed like a lifetime, I was finally able to roll onto my knees to face the stairs. I knew I needed to get out. I needed to escape the constant low, buzzing noise. I needed to find Kellan and Craig, make sure they were okay. I closed my hands, leaning on my elbows on the concrete floor as I lifted my foot, attempting to place it flat on the ground to haul myself up, but it wouldn’t cooperate. Was it possible for a vamp to become paralyzed? No, I wouldn’t be able to move my lower extremities at all if that was the case.
I collapsed onto my stomach. Yanking off the gloves carefully, I tossed them aside, determined to get out of the dungeon. My camp had left, but I didn’t know if my grandfather’s would return.
Gathering the little bit of strength I had left, I wiggled my midsection over the rough floor. After several minutes of attempting to reach the stairs, I stopped. I now knew why a worm moved slower than a turtle.
“Lexi?” I heard Al call.
“Down here!” I couldn’t describe the relief that washed through me. I’d survived the physical demands of the job but couldn’t seem to do anything beyond it.
Footsteps moved towards me at a rapid pace. I couldn’t stop my heart from thumping excitedly in my chest at the sight of him coming towards me.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
Al didn’t reply. He bent down to touch me but immediately yanked his hand back. I looked down and frowned. My body was aglow in blue. I didn’t understand why it was happening. I wasn’t having an extreme mood swing; I actually wasn’t feeling anything.
“I’m so sorry, Lexi. I can’t pick you up right now without being electrocuted.” Lines creased his forehead. He began to search the room, but at the spark of electricity that lit up the space, he backed up. He continued looking around the room from where he was. “Wait. I can use the gloves.”
“Don’t touch them! I touched the cuffs with them, and they were laced with something.” I sighed as Al frowned. I was weary, defeated. Normalcy was far from reach. Even as the tingling began to subside, a new, infinitely stranger sensation overtook me. My eyelids grew heavy. I… I was blacking out. “Oh, God, not…not—”
***
My eyes fluttered open, revealing a fluorescent light overhead.
“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep all night.”
My head shot towards the male voice. I smiled. “Hey, stranger.”
“Stranger? Last time I checked, I was your fiancé, your lover, and I’m sure a few more things.”
“Partner in crime?”
“Nah. I leave that job for Mel.” He grinned, his emerald eyes sparkling as his dimple appeared on his left cheek.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, sitting up. It took me a moment to recognize the space as a doctor’s office. I scrunched my forehead as I studied the teal padding I’d been sleeping on.
“Me? How about you? According to their satellites, you took a million-volt shock.”
“I didn’t even know that was possible.” I wrung my hands together in my lap, thankful that all feeling had returned.
“It’s not. At least, it’s not supposed to be,” Dr. H said as he entered the room.
“They ran some tests on you while you were out,” Kellan announced.
“Oh.” I didn’t know how I felt about that.
“From what I’ve gathered, Staten changed your ion channels to that of electricity. His blood carried the equation to your cells and worked at an impeccable speed to rewire the membrane potential of your cells to be charged by your emotions. What has me somewhat perplexed, though, is no human being or vamp would ever be born this way. He had to have manipulated himself or had a partner administer it. Either way, it was done on purpose,” he said, his expression grim as he studied the manila folder in his hands.
“And in English, that means?” I prompted, grabbing Kellan’s hand for support.
“The most basic way I can explain it is he changed your ion channels to that of electricity; rewrote the membrane potentials of your cells to be charged by your emotions. The problem is you’re mostly human, which means your mood swings are strong. Essentially, in order to avoid these little episodes, you need to attend an anger management course and learn how to control your emotions. Basically, be more like a vampire and don’t have any.”
“But… I mean, there has to be a way to block this. Can’t you block stuff from certain cells in the body?”
“Of course… if you had the proper counter-formula. But we don’t. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like this, and I really wouldn’t know how to fight it. You will just have to control your emotions for now.” He snapped the folder shut and propped his forefinger against his chin casually. “I wonder… Of course, this is getting quite personal, but have you had intercourse since this change in your molecular makeup?”
I felt my eyes widen as I looked up at him. Was he really asking me this question? I fidgeted. Truthfully, I suppose it was a perfectly good question, considering that was something you did when you loved another person. At the height of the moment, the height of your emotions, your feelings for the other person were prominent.
“Um, no. We haven’t.” My voice was small, and I knew my cheeks were red.
“Please, do share with me once you have. I’d be interested in knowing how your body reacted to him in particular, as it seems your willpower is strongest around him. It’s the only conclusion I have as to how you survived.”
“You think I believed myself into survival?”
“No. I think you shut off the pain. Electrocution to a vamp would overwhelm its body with pain, which is both a mental and physical experience. Ultimately, it’s the brain that controls the management of the pain. Most vamps don’t have the mental strength to withstand the pain, and ultimately, that is what kills them.”
“I thought you had to destroy a vamp’s physical body in order to kill it?”
“If the brain is dead within the body, then no limb will move since it controls the body.”
<
br /> “But, technically they wouldn’t be dead, only brain-dead.”
“I could argue semantics with you all night, Alexa, but ultimately, I believe it was your willpower that subdued the pain and allowed you to survive, not what Staten infused you with.”
“Is that even possible?”
“The phrase ‘mind over matter’ exists for a reason. The mind is what acknowledges pain; the body only responds. It’s one’s willpower that determines whether or not they will withstand the pain. Look at women who give birth without drugs versus those who opt for the maximum dosage available. It’s a choice, Alexa. You made yours and survived.”
I watched as he opened the folder again, lifting a few papers.
“Do you think my willpower could keep me from lighting up like the Fourth of July?”
“Absolutely,” he replied, allowing the pages to drop back into place as he peered over the rim at me. “I believe you are capable of much more than you are even aware of. It will be interesting to watch what unfolds in your world over the next several years.”
I bit my lip, considering his words. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“Why not? I suppose it’s only fair, considering all I know about you.”
“What do you think of the feud between vamp kinds?”
“Hm. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been asked to speak about politics. Nonetheless, I believe it is a waste of time and energy, but it keeps my wallet full. I’ve cared for countless vamps who were injured by the opposite party. To me, these hate crimes are doled out in fear. Vampires are of an historical era, an historical government. Despite their claims, they fear democracy, which is surely what would ensue should we all unite in peace.”
“Why is it that vampires let you medically tend to them?”
“Because they have no other choice. Dr. Zhan and myself are the only physicians in the Western Hemisphere with scientific knowledge and understanding of the vampeen and vampire body.”
“I suppose I don’t understand how they can make an exception for you, but turn around and lash out at another vampeen.”
4 Vamp Versus Vamp Page 3
