by T. J. Quinn
She cuddled up to his chest. Jared was surprised at how quickly the other males melted into the background, even in the confines of the garage. It was evidence in his mind that absolutely nothing could break into the small, safe world he had created for her. They felt the intimacy of their bond, even when they were with others. That surely meant it was a bond that would never be broken.
Jared knew they would be together always because vampires were drawn to their mates on an instinctual level, in a way that most humans couldn’t understand. He’d grown up with many vampire children in the orphanages and one learned certain things from living in close quarters.
He’d worried that he would not feel the mating instinct the same way because he was a half-blood vampire. With Selene the feeling had been almost overpowering. It felt like recognizing his soul mate in a way that had nothing to do with sex or romance. He’d always had the knowing.
Jared was grateful to have found his mate so early in her life. He felt sorry for the people who spent their entire lives looking for their special someone. He pulled her aside for a brief feeding and joined his mother with the other hunters.
She tossed him a water bottle when he walked up. He caught it in midair, unscrewed the top and guzzled it down. Before speaking. “Somehow, I didn’t think it would be so difficult to find one unassuming vampire.”
Dakota teased tiredly. “It’s always more difficult than I imagine it’s going to be. It’s why I am paid the big bucks.”
Jared looked up at her and replied. “Only, in this instance, you aren’t.”
Screwing the cap back onto her own water bottle, she glanced up at him. “This time, I’m getting something money can’t buy, your respect. That reason alone makes this the most important hunt of my life. It’s the reason I absolutely will not stop until I find him, no matter the outlay of time or resources. I’m here to the end.”
Jared felt Selene stiffen beside him. He murmured quietly. “Thank you, mother. It means a lot to hear you say that.”
“We should get going.”
“I’m going to wait here for you.” Selene tugged on his arm. “Is that alright?”
“Of course, I’ll call you moment we know anything.”
Gazing worriedly up at him, she sighed. “Be careful.”
“I’m wearing a full set of state of the art body armor and I’ll the world’s most prominent hunter at my side. What could possibly go wrong?”
Selene frowned. “Don’t let your guard down for anything. I mean it.”
Dropping a chaste kiss onto her lips he pulled back to look her in the eyes. “I’ll always come back.” Unwilling to give her a chance to argue, he headed for their vehicle, with his mother at his heels.
Chapter 8
Interrogation
~ Dakota ~
Her back up crew had tracked down the former owner of the venture capital firm. Oscar Draden was a stinking disheveled mess when they got to him. Though it was early morning, he was tipsy already. Oscar was young, attractive, and Dakota could tell, at one time, he’d probably been ambitious. The dispirited man was now spiraling down into a bottle of whisky.
Durk shoved him down into a kitchen chair, and Dakota began her questioning. At first he denied everything, then His dark brown eyes flashed his anger over Mr. Sharden destroying the substance he was hired to analyze.
There was something about this one. Not only was he angry but he seemed to be drinking away some guilt. Dakota automatically got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, as it occurred to her that he may be feeling guilty because he was involved in Mr. Sharden’s death. Feeling it was get tough time, she immediately grabbed the drink out his hand and slammed him back into a chair. The man’s anger got the upper hand and a long string of slurred expletives fell from his lips as he flailed his arm around trying to strike her.
Dakota pressed one hand firmly against his chest. “You’re the only one with motive, so don’t waste my time or yours. Tell me where he is.”
“I don’t have to say anything that might incrim…incrimidate myself.”
“That’s incriminate, you fool.” Dakota leaned forward and looked into his eyes. “Have a look around. Do we look like law enforcement officers to you?”
He quickly shook his head no. His mouth opened and then promptly closed again.
“Do you think that makes us more or less dangerous to you?”
As intended, the man appeared to be all kinds of alarmed at her insinuation, but he sealed his lips. Sighing, Dakota took out her hunting knife. “The answer you are looking for is more dangerous.” He jumped slightly at the sight of the knife, but did not come off with any information.
She sunk her knife about two inches deep into his leg until it hit bone, waited patiently for him to stop screaming, and then asked tried again. “Did you, or did you not, have Mr. Sharden abducted?”
He nodded his head yes. His eyes were riveted on her, filled with pain and fear.
Dakota knew she’d just crossed every ethical line in the book, but she couldn’t stop now. “Where is he?” The man squirmed in his seat. Dakota pulled the knife out again.
She could see him thinking hard, and realized he was about to fabricate. She could tell because telling the truth rarely took so much forethought and because small beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. It would be her job to sift through his words, separating the lie from the truth.
He quickly relied on a half-truth. “We had him in a warehouse about two hours from town and someone broke in and took him. That’s the God’s honest truth.”
“You know, as far as criminals go, you are a bit of a disappointment. Do you actually expect me to believe that someone kidnapped a hostage from a kidnapper? You must think me very simple.”
He stubbornly stuck to his story, saying, “You can go there. You will probably find DNA evidence and all that. You will see that what I am saying is the truth.”
“We’ve already been there. What do you think led me to you?”
“Well there you have it.”
Tipping his chair back, she glared at him. “Want to know what I think? I think you realized that the merry band of fools you hired to abduct him weren’t capable of torturing information out of him, you declined send someone more proficient at that kind of thing. That tells me that, even now Mr. Shardon is being harmed. It’s one reason I have no qualms about harming you to get information. What’s good for the good is good for the gander, Mr. Draden.”
“You can’t torture me.”
Pressing on the seeping wound on his leg, she murmured. “A bit late for complaining, the torture already started. This is just a little taste of what I’m capable of.”
“Fuck, he’s at the old cemetery at the edge of town. The caretaker works for me, or he did back when I had money.”
Spinning on her heel, she turned to Durk. “Get this ignorant fool to a medical center. We’ll head out to the cemetery and see if his report is accurate.” Turing to glare at Draden, she stated flatly. “Call it in. If I don’t find what I’m looking for, we’ll have another talk with Mr. Draden at the police station.”
Grabbing her arm, Draden looked up at her imploringly. “Look, there’s no need to get law enforcement involved.”
“It’s too late. We all pay the piper, Mr. Draden. It’s your turn.”
Chapter 9
You Must Drink Now To Live
~ Dakota ~
Dakota was growing frustrated. They had combed over every square inch of the caretaker’s apartment and found no leads. The cemetery seemed quiet and the caretaker was nowhere to be found.
Her mind slipped back to her one and one of the few conversations she had with him. A couple of Christmas’ ago, he came to a party at the academy. He was dressed impeccably and he smelled like expensive cologne and sexy vampire. As always, he was aloof and polite but she had thought him attractive in a very non-traditional kind of way. He was kind of geeky and just a tiny bit socially awkward, which looked good on him. His
girls fussed over him all night, leaving her with the feeling that they were a very close knit family.
Suddenly, a memory came flooding back she had totally forgotten about. The party was shortly after she found Jared and she had invited him to attend. She remembered that Jared was extremely standoffish but did mix and mingle with her throughout the room. She had a vague memory of Arianna introducing her father and of herself introducing Jared. She remembered that Jared had gone to get punch for the girls. Was she the one who introduced Jared and Selene?
When they danced, Dakota had though him smooth and conversational. He seemed to blossom when it was just the two of them. Being a good dancer and an interesting conversationalist made him stand out in her memory. His charming smile was disarming. Because that beautiful smile was noticeably missing from the people in his life, it was up to her to find him. So far, she’d let him down.
Glancing around the caretaker’s room one final time, the magnitude of her failure hit her square between the eyes, giving her a huge migraine. Good old fashioned deduction and just tracking down leads generally brought her the results she was looking for. This particular search seemed to be on a long road to nowhere. She was no closer to finding him than she had been on day one.
Based on the information obtained from Oscar, she was reasonably certain Mr. Shardon was still alive. They wouldn’t kill him until they got the information they were looking for. Dakota hoped he would not give up the information. If he did, that would be the end. She was now racing the clock to get to him before he gave up.
This was the grim determination phase and she had only been there three times before. She dreaded opening that private drawer to add yet another picture. Her heart turned to stone as she imagined his beautiful blue eyes closing for the last time. It spurred her to immediate action. She folded the picture, slid it into her pocket, and walked outside again, joining Jared. Squeaky and his two partners had joined the search. Dakota gave them a basic chin jerk acknowledgement, unsure just how she felt about the trio. Squeaky had alerted them of Mr. Shardon’s whereabouts, so she had some level of respect for him. The other two seemed like they honestly wanted to help, but they were a day late and dollar short in her opinion.
They all spread out to give the huge cemetery one final walk through before settling down to wait for the caretaker to arrive.
A middle aged punker in black leather caught her eye. He was tall, looked like he had not bathed in about a year, and she could smell him at twenty paces. The man was taking a small bag of groceries into a crypt. Normally, dead people didn’t eat; workers normally carried less food and it was usually enclosed in a lunch box.
He fit the description of the suspect but at this distance, he bore little resemblance to the photographs of him they had recovered from his apartment. This could not possibly be Donovan? Donovan was a research assistant and this person actually did appear homeless. Maybe he was just a random homeless person. She decided to follow him. Hell, she had followed up on less. Where was Jared?
He slipped into the crypt and she followed close behind him. Her steps were noiseless and she her drawn weapon was clasped tight in both hands. She stepped into the damp confines of the enclosed cement room. A nauseating scent, assailed her nostrils. The vagrant had his back to her. He froze when he sensed movement, slowly turned around. Instead of looking panicked when he saw that she had a weapon trained on him, he barked a dark soulless laugh.
He would be able to tell by the black strap of leather she wore wrapped over her chest and around her waist that she was a hunter. Few were crazy enough to provoke an experienced hunter. That was her first clue that he was not playing with a full deck.
Dakota asked cautiously, “What are you doing in here?”
When he smiled, his mouth revealed grimy teeth. His voice was raspy and his eyes were bloodshot and strange. He replied, “Just looking for a place to crash.”
She glanced briefly around the room and saw that he had pulled a dead body out of the one of the crypts and for some godforsaken reason, had it chained to the wall. Then her blood ran cold as she saw the body move. He turned her head toward her and opened his eyes. They were clear blue and filled with pain and misery. Her heart went out to him a second before she realized he was alive. She felt a surge of adrenaline as she realized he was actually alive and she had found him.
As the realization of what she was seeing flashed through her mind, the filthy man lunged at her. She rolled past him and headed toward the vampire. She was certain he was the one she had been looking for. The poor man looked almost like a corpse. She immediately suspected it because he had been chained to the wall and drained of blood. There was a device connected to his arm that apparently pulled all the blood out of his veins. She could tell because it had tubes with red blood running through them.
This would be what a vampire looked like if he had all his blood removed. He was dry as a bone and beginning to simply waste away. He looked pitiful. It was a degenerate thing to do to a vampire.
The filthy man tried to grab her but ended up knocking her weapon out of her hands and wrestled her backward onto a crypt. Dakota cursed under her breath for allowing herself to become distracted by the pitiful sight. She was more than a match for a research assistant but she needed to maintain her focus.
She was nauseated as he spoke. The stench of his body and his breath was overpowering. She said, “Why in the hell are you doing this.”
He responded with a lie. “Because some of us still believe in freedom and preserving our way of life.”
She glanced around and said, “What do you mean? The right of all humans to refuse to bathe, brush their teeth, and live with dead bodies?”
His grip tightened on her throat and he said, “No, you stupid bitch. My parents fought and died in the alien wars for the right of every human to live without having to look over our shoulders constantly and worry about having our blood sucked.”
She replied through clenched teeth, “No vampire I know would want to put their mouth on you, so I don’t think you have to concern yourself about things like that.” Getting some leverage, she kicked him back off of her. Coming to her feet, he hand landed on her backup weapon in the small of her back.
“Hands where I can see them, bitch. The fucking vampire’s not one of us, so why do you care what I do to him?”
“Is senseless violence all you know?”
“My boss said make him talk. I decided to take the long scenic route.” He lunged for her again, and she stepped back.
“I know who you are. Don’t think I haven’t seen your posters and billboards. For all your fame and glory, you’re nothing special, little hunter. Like me, you put your pants on one leg at a time. The vampire belongs to me and I will not give him up.” Going for the old fashioned revolved peeking out the top of his boot, Dakota knew he was finished talking.
She didn’t have time for this. She needed to get that device off Alek’s arm and blood into his body while he still had a chance of surviving. It was obvious the mangy human had totally lost touch with reality.
Stepping back, she angled her body sideways to make a smaller target for her opponent to aim at and pulled her back-up gun out and shot him in the face. She was shocked when laser fire hit him from two guns outside the doorway at the same time as she got her shot off.
Glancing over, she caught a glimpse of her son and Faran. They were standing in the huge arched doorway, with their laser pistols still raised. Jared was staring at the dead man and the shock on his face sent a twinge of remorse up her spinal cord. She probably should not have allowed him to hunt with her until he was a little older.
Dakota immediately pulled her wireless device from her shoulder and called for backup. Snatching up a metal bar, rushed over to the vampire, knelt across his lap, and began to work the chain that had held his arms above his head.
Jared knelt beside her and the large Kalian grabbed the metal bar and gave it several strong twists, breaking the chains away from th
e wall. His hands came down but were still shackled together. Jared gently pulled the device off his arm.
Faran looked at Dakota and said, “You must feed him now, if he is to have hope of survival.”
When the Kalian spoke, Alek looked up at him and whispered, “Faran…what…how?”
She immediately took out a knife, cut a shallow wound in her wrist, just enough to get him to bite. She brought her wrist to his mouth. He turned his head sideways to avoid taking her blood but she was persistent.
The Kalian reminded her, “He only drinks synthetic blood.”
She leaned over, stoked his face. “Don’t worry, help is on the way. You must drink now, if you want to live.”
She brought her wrist to his lips again and he let the blood flow into his mouth. She stroked his hair and explained, “We’ve been looking for you. We know you sacrificed yourself to keep the mutagenic material from getting into the wrong hands. Oscar has been arrested and both your daughters are safe, sound, and waiting for you to come home.”
His blue eyes showed gratitude but he said nothing. He nodded to the Kalian and wondered, once again, how he got involved with the hunter. If felt strange for one of his abductors to somehow become a rescuer.
Dakota knew that he probably was in no condition to speak but at least he did bite. She continued to force blood into his mouth and pulled spider webs off him, smoothed his hair, and caressed his face with the other hand.
He closed his eyes and continued to drink for the first time in over a month and it was such sweet ecstasy. He realized going a month feeding only very little would have been difficult but not impossible. However, going for a month with most all of his fluids removed off and on…well, that was causing real problems. He couldn’t organize his thoughts properly.
When he seemed well enough to sit up, Dakota helped him up and offered him her neck. He bit her gently, allowing the blood to flow directly into his mouth. She whispered, “Suck, my friend, you need the blood and I have much to give.” She could feel him feeding gently on her vein and it calmed her a bit.
