“Alright, but I want to be here to see her face. What do you think of Darcy?” Emmy asked with a sly look in her eyes.
“Darcy . . . she is . . . very . . . feminine.”
“You mean she is sexy as all bloody hell, don’t you? You want to sleep with her, I can tell. Hell, I might even sleep with her since she looks so good.”
I blushed, “Yes, she is very sexy. Why exactly was she chosen to be a bodyguard? Is she a cyborg like Tanaka?”
“No, vampire.”
“Vampire?!? But we walked out in the sunlight, why didn’t she burn? And where are her fangs? Don’t all vampires have fangs? Although it does explain the eyes.”
“She’s special. Kind of like Marsala.”
“A guardian of the Vampire Council?”
“Yes and no. Her powers are actually beyond that of the Council Guard. She is stronger and faster than either Tanaka or Marsala, and completely impervious to sunlight unlike Marsala who still gets bad sunburns. Let me explain,” she finally offered to my confused look. “A normal vampire will rise from the dead three days after the human form dies. It takes that long for the vampire virus to mutate the body and resurrect it. Once they rise, it takes a few months for them to regain their minds. Until that time they are nothing but animals searching to quench the thirst. Most all attacks on people anymore are from new vampires that haven’t regained their minds yet. There are more than enough living donors and blood banks to keep the vamps fed. There are even professional victims, people that let vamps attack them for money.
“Anyway, Darcy was attacked by a gang of rogue vampires just before your mind switch. The very same night she died, she was reborn as a vampire. Stranger even yet was that she retained her mind. She thought just as clearly then as she does now. Along with rising from the dead so fast, she inherited knowledge of fighting and weapons from whoever it was that turned her. Some sort of genetic knowledge transfer. So here she is. Strong, fast, trained, oh and she can even fly. She is one of only a handful of vampires that can, like Yuric. As for her fangs, they’re retractable, a trait even more rare then flight.”
“Sounds amazing, so why haven’t I heard of her before?”
“Marsala was hiding her from the Vampire Council. He was afraid that they would destroy her because of how powerful she already is and the way she was turned. Of course, he could have been hiding her away because of her killer body. . . . Kidding, it was a joke.”
I gave her a glare of death. Marsala was still on my shit list, sort of.
“Very funny.”
Julie burst into the room in a rush.
“Mr. Tanaka has found something at the house we investigated earlier today. He requests your presence at once.”
“Help me up.”
I lifted my arm and Julie expertly ducked underneath it and effortlessly lifted me into the nearby wheelchair. Cassie joined us at the door. Darcy was close behind.
Hell, I just met her three hours ago. Supervamp or not, I don’t trust her, yet.
“Darcy stay here, we won’t be long. And don’t eat Mary . . . or Emmy . . . or anyone. . . . Oh, and don’t eat the cats!” I called out as Julie pushed me into the elevator.
As the doors closed, I heard her grumble, “Feel the love.”
Chapter 13
Like before, the house was like all the others. Except this time it was crawling with cops. The entire street was light up with red and blue flashes. We pulled up and unloaded. No one commented on us being there as we moved towards Tanaka and Ren.
“I thought you were supposed to be in bed?” Ren and I asked each other at the same time.
Tanaka stepped between us. “We have three movement signals below the house. Two of them are humanoid and moving in a very inhuman like manor. The third is also humanoid, but moving slowly, like it’s sedated or something. We have yet to find an entrance. No idea at all how they got down there. The plan is to blast a hole in the living room floor and drop down on top of them. Cassie is with me, Kieran and Ren. . . . Neither of you two are up to a fight tonight. I want you both to move out to the west perimeter and observe. Keep an eye out for any strange comings and goings. Don’t want to be surprised by anything. And take Julie with you for protection. ALL RIGHT MEN, LET’S MOVE OUT!”
As soon as the orders were given we were ushered away to the end of the block.
“We can barely even see the house from here. How are we supposed to be any help way over here?” I was angry at being left out.
“Relax Kieran. We made the mistake of getting injured and leaving Tanaka in charge. Next time let’s not get hurt, then we won’t be in this embarrassing position,” Ren sighed as she balanced herself on her crutches.
The silence stretched on forever. Suddenly the muffled explosion came from the house, and the cops all rushed around in a flurry. We tried to watch, but could barely see anything.
“What was that? I thought that Tanaka had the entire street evacuated? What’s a kid doing here? Over there in the trees,” Ren pointed.
“There is a thermal reading coming from the trees. It appears to be human. I will go investigate.”
Julie left us and entered the trees. A minute later there was a muffled grunt from the direction she went.
“Julie? Julie report! Julie?! Are you injured?”
“Stay here, I’ll check it out,” Ren stated as she hobbled away on her crutches.
I wasn’t staying anywhere. Guns in hand, I wheeled after her. She left her crutches on the grass and limped into the trees. I wheeled up as close to the trees as I could and was quickly stuck on a fallen branch. Just my luck. The silence was thick as I waited.
THUD! The sound of something heavy hitting a body came from my right. I glanced up in time to see Ren flying through the air in front of me. Without thinking I stood up. And instantly fell against a tree as the world spun around me. I held on for dear life as I waited for the world to stop.
“BUUUURRRRNNNN!!!” the voice called before I could smell the stench.
Carefully I turned, trying not to go too fast and make myself sick again. I glanced around as best I could, and saw nothing. Nowhere in sight. Nothing but Ren laying on the ground by my feet not moving. I knelt down and felt her neck. Her pulse was steady. At least she wasn’t dead. Rustling noise grew behind me. I spun around gun ready.
The immortal erupted from the darkness pinning me underneath it. I struggled to push it off as the world spun. A growl came from deep within it. The rotten looking teeth parted. I could smell it just before I could see the cloud of puke-green smoke it belched at me. I coughed trying to force the smoke out of my lungs. Then it became harder and harder to cough, to move, to breathe. Panic flared inside me. I willed my muscles to move, but nothing happened.
A hand reached up and closed my eyelid. I could hear and feel, but I couldn’t see, or move, or scream.
Somebody fucking help me dammit! Over here! FUCKING HELP ME!!! I screamed silently to myself, my pleas never heard by anyone.
* * *
It felt like weeks had passed, perhaps a month or two. I never slept. What day is it? The smell of the immortals was thick in the air. So thick I would have choked on it, if I could have choked that was. No matter how bad the nausea was either, I couldn’t throw up. All I wanted to do was throw up, pass out, and scream, not necessarily in that order.
Yea, if only I could scream. Or curse, or sing, or belch, or spit, or puke, or KICK THE FUCKER’S ASS THAT DRUGGED ME!!!
Footsteps entered the hollow room and walked up to me. Suddenly I felt a hand on my head tearing off the bandages. Then fingers poked and prodded the side of my face that had been crushed earlier. If I could have moved, I would probably have flinched under the touch since it hurt so bad.
Everything hurt. I felt like I had been a punching bag. I had been carried and thrown down more times than I could count. I had absolutely no idea where in the world I was. Then I was stood up and left. Frozen in place. Just me and my thoughts, my slowly turning homicidal t
houghts.
Fingers pulled open my good eye. It took a few seconds to adjust to the lights.
FUCK!!! There’s three of them? How in the hell do I get outta this?
The closest one belched that green gas on me again. I wonder if they have to keep gassing me to keep me from moving. I wanted to cough, but couldn’t. No surprise there. Disgustingly old hands started to delicately remove my clothes.
Please God, I never prayed to you before, or even went to church, but please, please don’t let them rape me! I thought the prayer silently to myself.
They never talked. In fact, the only sound they made was footsteps on the concrete. It looked like we were in a basement somewhere. I couldn’t look anywhere but straight ahead, my eyes wouldn’t even move around, but there were shelves on the wall holding a number of things I couldn’t identify without getting closer, and a single bare light bulb hovering over an old blood covered wooden table.
As soon as I was naked, I was lifted and placed on the table with my head propped up so I could see down my body. One of the immortals at my feet widened his evil-looking skeleton grin at me.
Oh what I would give to puke all over them right now.
I felt, and saw my foot being lifted. The corps looking immortal then licked the sole of my bare foot with a shriveled black tongue. My body screamed to let me cringe and have shivers run up my spine. My nerves were on overdrive, every sensation was intensified. Even its breath against my skin felt like more than it should of.
Something cold and metallic was drug along the back of my leg. The skin picking up every little movement.
As soon as I saw the pliers I’d wished I hadn’t. The pliers clamped down on the nail of the big toe. My body knew what was coming, and I couldn’t react to stop it. The monster lifted the pliers away from my foot, tearing off the nail little by little.
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG YYOOOUU FFFUUUCCCKKKEEERRR!!!!
The pain was bad enough that I should have passed out. Especially as I lay there and they removed each nail, one by one. I screamed to myself, tried to pass out, or move. I was helpless. It took forever for them to finish removing all the nails from my body. By then I had sworn destruction to them and most of the world.
A scalpel appeared in front of my eye. I panicked and thought they were going to cut out my eye. Instead, I felt something incredibly hot searing into my skin just behind the right ear.
I’m being branded!?!
Every impulse in me said to run, but I couldn’t move. The smell of burnt flesh made me wish I could get sick again. As soon as the branding was over, I felt, and heard the skin being cut. It was surprising how loud cutting the skin that close to the ear was.
I felt the skin be cut and sliced off along with a chunk of flesh. The fingers dangled the dripping flesh in front of my eyes. All three of them started a chuckle, a sickening, wet, gurgling chuckle. Then my mind finally made sense of what I was seeing. It was a J.
Jacob’s brand! I’ve just been branded with Jacob’s brand! These fuckers are working for him!
The flesh was tossed to the old guy at my feet. The black tongue snaked out and licked the chunk of flesh.
Please let me die! Or at least let me be sick!
Scalpel man lifted my right arm into view. He took the middle finger and delicately sliced straight down the finger from the missing fingernail. I screamed in my head constantly as the pain erupted with each growing cut.
I’M BEING SKINNED ALIVE!!!
* * *
Inch by inch, they removed my arm. Some parts they threw out, others, well, they ate. Still I could not move, or be sick, or pass out. My prayers were not being answered.
While two of them worked on my arm, the third was busy torturing me. He started by touching me in all my private places until the extra sensitive skin betrayed me. It was like an unwanted orgasm, but only in my mind, my body still ached for release. As he teased me, he picked up a scalpel and removed both of my nipples around the areola, very slowly. I was forced to watch, and feel, everything. Then he took his blade and went between my legs.
The pain was so much I couldn’t even tell what all he was doing down there to me. Again and again I tried to pass out from the pain. Nothing ever worked. Suddenly something that looked like my shoulder blade was passed across the table in front of me. Then they all started chuckling again.
A full size mirror was brought over me. I tried not to look, but I couldn’t even move my eye, much less close it. They tilted the mirror so that I was forced to see what all they had done to my body so far. Of all the cuts and chunks of missing flesh, it was the fact that the entire arm had been surgically removed, including the shoulder, that angered me the most right then. They were toying with me as they took me apart piece by piece.
The mirror was removed and I heard footsteps going up the nearby staircase. The two that remained returned to cutting me away one chunk at a time. I screamed wordlessly in my mind as I waited to die.
All I wanted was to die.
* * *
Time passed strangely. It felt like they had been torturing me for over a year. I wanted nothing more but to die. I glared at the monster cutting away the skin from my foot. It was the only thing I could do, glare. I’d quit screaming in my head. It hadn’t been helping anyway. All I did was wish to die.
Movement flashed across my vision. Something tackled the immortal at my feet. Sounds of fighting filled my ear. I desperately tried to see what was going on, but I could only hear it. Minutes, or days, passed as the fighting drew on. Then footsteps running up the stairs, then nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just silence.
Was I alone again? Did the attacker win? Did he die?
“Oh my fucking god, what did they do to you?!” Darcy silently appeared in front of my eye, moving with vampire stealth and grace.
She held the back of her hand to her mouth as she tried to keep from being sick. She shook herself back to reality and walked up to me. Cold metal was pushed against me in a few places, then finally onto the inside of my left arm. WHOOSH!
“That was an antidote to whatever they used to freeze you. It was supposed to go in your neck, but. . . . I-I’m going to get you out of here. There is a medical team waiting for you.”
I heard her dig around the room, and saw her place a number of bones and other body parts on my stomach. Then she wrapped my parts and me in a tarp. Before she gathered me in her arms, she used her fingers and gently closed my eye.
“Ssshhh. Don’t worry. I’m here now. You’re going to be okay. I’ll make sure you get fixed up. Everything will be alright, I promise.”
Ever so gently she kissed my forehead. With a sudden jerk, I felt myself being lifted and carried again.
Chapter 14
ACTIVATING PRIMARY PROTOCOL.
The bright red letters flashed in my eye. Then the flashing stopped and the letters faded away. I groaned and felt sore all over like I never had in my entire life. Slowly I parted my eyes. The ceiling looked like a hospital. Beeping noises filled the room from nearby equipment. I tried to focus my eyes on the ceiling. Suddenly the tiles appeared to come crashing down on me. I gasped. Movement at my side pulled my attention. When I looked over, the room shifted and Darcy came into view.
I looked at her sleeping in the chair next to the bed a second, and then my eye reacted. My vision telescoped out bringing her skin close enough to my eyes to count each individual pore on her chin. I slammed my eyes shut and thought to myself, STOP IT! When I opened my eyes again, my vision was normal. I brought my hand up and rubbed my head.
HAND?!?
My eyes flew open to stare at my right hand. I twisted it back and forth. It looked and felt real, and it responded the way it was supposed to.
Was it all just a dream? A hallucination? A really sick twisted fucking nightmare from the depths of hell?
I grabbed the bed rail with my right hand and pulled myself to sit up. The metal groaned under my hand. Once I was up and stable I glanced at the rail. It had a perfect print
of my hand in it where I had smashed the steel tube as easily as if it were made of clay.
“Before you freak out, I can explain.” Darcy was suddenly awake and using a cautious soft tone in her voice like she was afraid to spook me.
I lifted my hand to my face. It looked so real. I lifted my left hand, my left hand covered in bandages. I tore the bandages off, yanking out the IV at the same time. Red lines on my skin showed where the old immortal bastards had cut me as they tried to remove the hand. The fingers looked alien without fingernails.
“It was real . . . it was all real?” I whispered to myself as I tried to hold on to reality.
The entire incident played back in my head instantly. An eternity of torture in the blink of an eye. The room began to spin and I felt my stomach lurch. Darcy helped me when I lunged from the bed. She practically carried me into the bathroom, and ever so dutifully held my hair for me as I emptied my stomach into the toilet. I had the dry heaves for a full ten minutes before Darcy leaned me against the wall on the floor. From nowhere she had a wet rag in her hands and pressed it to my face and neck.
NECK?!?
My hands shot up around my neck. I could feel the scars from where they had cut out a chunk of my neck. I pressed around at the skin on my neck behind my left ear where I had been branded. Suddenly a small panel opened, exposing a data port just behind the ear. I tentatively touched it. It was the same type of data port that Julie had behind her ears. I had one on each side.
I dry heaved into the toilet a few more times, then stared at Darcy as she re-wet the cloth in the sink.
“I’m more of a cyborg now? How much?”
“I honestly don’t know. I do know that your arm had to be replaced, and that your eye was as well. Also I was told something about your brain being partially cyber-enhanced, and computer access data ports. But I think that’s all. Emmy will know for sure.”
“You saved me?”
“It’s my job. By the way, my job is a lot easier if you let me come with you. Especially when you go to work. Oh, and don’t worry I didn’t EAT anyone, not even the cats,” she grumbled at me.
Immortal Death (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter Book 3) Page 13
