"That was only a dream. No, I… that never actually happened, did it?" he asked but he didn't sound sure of himself. He shook his head back and forth slowly.
"Yes, Victor it actually happened. You apparently went home, called the cops and reported it but they didn't take you seriously. You tried to get them to do something about it, but they told you that you were crazy." Victor was now listening intently. Steven had stopped typing at his computer and was listening to them as well.
"You started snooping around, asking questions near where you had seen the girl attacked but no one would tell you anything. So you waited one night in an alleyway close to where the incident happened. You figured the man would eventually return. And he did. Only this time, he found you and attacked you. Fortunately for you, there were other vampires in the area and they stopped him from killing you, but not before he had fed on you."
"That was in my dreams too… I… I was waiting there and suddenly he jumped me and bit my neck. I could feel his teeth in me." He shuddered.
"Then from out of nowhere this man appears, grabs the first man and slams him hard against the wall. They fight and then the first man just…disappears. Then one of the women does something to my neck and I’m taken to a huge house…then I wake up."
"From what I understand that is how it happened," Alec said quietly.
"How…why am I dreaming these things? Why don’t I remember them?”
"I'll explain that in just a moment."
Victor nodded slowly.
"You were taken to the Prot… uh… one of the mansions of the vampire clan I guess you could say, and were given a room and told to rest. The next night the vampires compelled you so that you were unable to speak to anyone about any of what you saw or experienced. They took you home and thought that was the end."
"Compelled? They used their mind control on me so that I couldn't tell anyone anything?" Alec nodded and said, “It’s pretty standard procedure.”
"What happened next?" Victor asked quietly almost afraid to find out.
"About a week later, you showed up at the mansion again. Somehow you had tracked down where you'd been taken by the vampires. Anyway, you wanted them to turn you, but they said no." Alec stopped here for a moment. He thought about it for a moment and decided to tell Victor the truth.
"Vampires have certain rules they follow in order to coexist peacefully and secretly with humans. They aren't allowed to feed on humans, and they aren't allowed to turn a human without…uh…permission."
"If they aren't allowed to feed on humans, how do they get their blood? And who gives them permission to turn people? Is there like a vampire President or King?"
Alec almost burst out laughing at that point.
"No and those are two of the questions I can't answer without putting both of our lives at risk." Victor looked like he was going to argue, but didn't.
"They explained to you that they couldn't turn you and you got upset. What they did next is where they…screwed up."
"What did they do?" Victor acted like he was afraid to find out but he needed to know.
"They compelled you to forget the whole thing, all of it.”
Victor didn't say anything for a moment, waiting for the rest of it. Alec just looked at him.
"Is that a bad thing?" he finally asked.
"Yes and no," Alec said. "A vampire can compel a human to forget certain things, but there's a limit to that. You can only make someone forget the last few minutes or so, but not a whole day, or in your case three weeks. The human mind can't handle that kind of blank space in the memory. That's why you've been dreaming about the incident. It's your minds way of dealing with it."
Victor nodded.
"But that's not all." He held up his hand to stop Victor from interrupting. Alec wanted to get the story finished so they could move on and end this. Marcus fed him additional details from his hiding place.
"You had obviously kept a journal of the whole incident with detailed notes. You showed back up at the mansion again a week and a half later with more questions, and you threatened to expose them. You told them that you had left your notes with a friend and that if you were to disappear they were to send copies to the media and the police."
Victor was quiet. This didn't quite add up to what he had thought was originally going on, but it certainly sounded like something he'd do.
"So, they compelled you again to retrieve your notes and burn them, delete everything off of your hard drive that had to do with vampires and to forget everything that happened. Again, not a good thing making someone lose that much time. It obviously had its…effect on you."
Victor nodded slowly.
"So, the vampires weren't after me…I was after them?" Something about it felt true to Victor. He was still confused though. After a moment he removed his sunglasses and the ski mask so he could breathe and think. They already knew who he was.
Once the ski mask was off, Alec could see that Victor wasn't a bad looking guy. His brown eyes looked troubled and were staring at nothing in particular. He looked tired and gaunt with dark circles around his eyes. His dark blonde hair was slightly curly and was longish. He almost looked like a surfer dude except he was way too pale. He obviously didn't get out in the sun much.
"If you had forgotten all of this, what led you here with a gun tonight screaming about vampires?"
Victor had been thinking and was getting more and more agitated.
"It doesn't matter," he said a little too loudly.
Alec frowned at him. He felt like he had reached Victor in some way and had gotten through to him, but suddenly it felt like the crazy was back.
"It doesn't matter," he said and aimed his gun at Alec. "They're going to kill me."
Alec started to ask a question but Victor continued.
"Don't you see? They compelled me so that I wouldn’t talk about what I'd seen. So I showed up and asked to be turned." He was getting more and more agitated.
"Then they made me forget and I came back a second time. Then they made me delete all my notes and forget and here we are, tonight. They will kill me after this."
"I don't think the vampires would kill you if you were in police custody." Alec’s words sounded lame and hollow. He knew as well as Victor did that the vampires could arrange an accident for a prisoner. People died all the time in jail.
"They are going to kill me now. They sent you to kill me, didn't they?" He shook the gun in Alec's direction.
"No. I've never killed anyone in my life and I don't plan on starting now." This was getting out of hand, quickly.
"Listen Victor, calm down and let's talk about this rationally. I'm sure we can find a solution of some sort and work this out so that no one has to die; not you and not the hostages."
“Listen to Michael, dude. We can all get out of this in one piece,” Steven said from behind his computer.
Victor however, had a wild look about him. Alec was afraid he might have finally come unhinged. Now that the mask and glasses were off, Victor looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His eyes were red and there were circles under them. Lack of sleep because of nightmares, plus having your memory wiped, twice and the fear that the vampires were now going to kill him had been too much for Victor. He looked like he was ready to explode. He started pacing back and forth talking to himself.
"Victor? Victor?" Alec was trying to get the man to look at him. “Stay with me, man.”
He finally did take notice of Alec. "How did you know my name?" He was suddenly completely still and glaring at Alec.
"When you got here I told you to call me Jinx. But then later you said you knew who I was and started calling me Victor. How did you know my name?" He was very calm now and Alec didn't like it one bit. He had to think quickly.
"That's one of those things that I can't tell you."
"Are the vampires communicating with you through telepathy?" His eyes narrowed at Alec.
"No. As far
as I know that isn't possible." Alec needed to change the direction of the conversation.
"If you don't remember anything that happened previously, how did you end up here with Chris and Steven as hostages demanding to speak to the vampires?"
Victor glared at him a moment longer. Alec wasn't sure he was going to answer.
"The three of us went to high school together, and now we are at the same college. Chris bullied me a lot in high school. He and his little band of thugs started picking on me again." He was agitated again but was focused on his memories and not Alec.
"I went to Senator Taylor to talk to him and he made fun of me and told me to suck it up and be a man." Victor looked like he was about to cry and blinked his eyes several times.
"I was furious and stormed out of his office. I stopped to catch my breath and calm myself down before I got in my car and I heard voices coming from one of the rooms. It was Chris's, so I decided to confront him without all of his buddies around. When I peeked through the open door there was this really beautiful woman in there with Chris. I mean really beautiful. I thought she was kissing on his neck until she pulled back and I realized she had fangs and that there was blood around her mouth." He shivered involuntarily at the memory. Obviously, this part of Victor’s memory hadn’t been erased.
"They didn't see me, so I left. I wasn't sure what was going on so the next day, I hacked into the Senator's computer and found all kinds of interesting information about vampires. I thought maybe that was why they were after me.”
"Wait… you said this woman was feeding on Chris?" Alec asked incredulously.
"Yes and he was just acting casual about it and laughing. There's more. Lots more."
"This is not good," Marcus said from his hiding place. Alec hadn't heard orders relayed from Silas recently and wasn't sure what the man was doing.
"Hold on," Alec said and walked over to Chris. The young dark haired man looked up at him expectantly. Alec reached forward and turned his head this way and that looking at his neck. Just like Victor had said, there were fang marks there.
"He has bite marks on his neck," he said out loud so Marcus would hear.
Chris jerked his head away from Alec and turned away from him slightly hiding his neck.
"You wouldn't understand," Chris said nastily.
"Oh, I understand all right."
"What would someone like you know? You're just the vampire's lap dog doing their bidding." His voice was very derisive and condescending. Alec narrowed his eyes at him.
"We're in love. We are going to be together forever. She's already agreed to turn me, soon. Then you will bow down to me.”
"You are nothing more to her than a play-thing Chris. You've fooled yourself into believing it's something more.” Alec leaned down and looked Chris directly in the eyes. “And I will never bow down to the likes of you.” Wow. He really had changed.
"How dare you!" Chris's eyes bored into Alec. "Who the hell do you think you are you snotty little piss?"
"I'm the one that's going to save your miserable ass from getting blown up." Alec hated bullies and had been bullied his whole life. He was trying to save this miserable piece of shit's life and he was talking to him like a dog. He was an arrogant turd.
"We will see what my father has to say about this when I tell him. I have powerful friends."
"Yeah? So do I. Get over yourself."
Chris sputtered and fumed. He wasn't accustomed to being spoken to like this. He was used to people being afraid of him, or his father.
Marcus said, "Alec we need to talk to Chris. We need to get those people out of there."
Alec needed time to think. “Why is Steven here and what is he working on?”
Victor smiled then. “Like I said, when I hacked into the Senator’s computer I found some very interesting files about the vampires and their dealings with the Senator. There were several important looking files that I couldn’t open. Steven is the best hacker I know so I’m having him work on opening the files.”
“Thanks for that,” Steven said dryly. “And I’d like to add, I’m being forced into doing this against my will.”
“When the files are opened and you find out all that I’ve dug up, the vampires aren’t going to be happy with the Senator or his son,” Victor said triumphantly.
“Okay Victor, let’s take all this information to the vampires and let them deal with the Taylors. We need to end this before someone ends up getting hurt. These people are victims, just like you.”
"Alec," Marcus said urgently, "something is wrong. Silas said he just saw several vampires go through windows on the second floor. All vampires have been ordered to stand down until told otherwise. I don't know who they are or what they want, but this can't be good. Silas is questioning Von Bell about who they might be. Get out of there, now."
"Okay," Alec said.
"Huh?" Victor looked confused.
Alec turned to Victor, then to the hostages sitting on the floor.
"Everyone out of here. Now."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Victor asked angrily.
"I’m not sure what’s going on, but right now, we are all in danger. Against orders vampires have broken in on the second floor and are working their way down. If you want to live you need to let these people go and turn yourself in. And turn that detonator switch off." The urgency in Alec’s voice scared Victor. He turned to look at the confused people on the floor.
"Go. You're free. Get out now!” Alec shouted. They didn't wait to be told a third time. They rose, helping each other as they stood, and walked to the doors giving Victor a wide berth. Alec tossed the key to the doors to a young man leading the way.
Victor was dumbfounded. He had just let it happen.
Alec looked at him and then the detonator switch. Victor sighed, but turned it off and took his finger off the trigger. It was over. He'd lost.
"I guess they'll come after me now." He sounded defeated.
"I'm sure they'll have some questions for you, Victor. Don't give up yet. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
Alec could hear the commotion outside as the hostages exited. He heard questions being asked about whether or not Christopher was still alive and okay. Most of the hostages were weeping and had no clue what was actually going on.
Alec turned to Victor and Steven. "We need to get out of here. How do I take this vest off?" He walked up to Chris and helped him up. Chris jerked his arm away from Alec as soon as he was up and glared at him. Alec didn't have the time to care. Steven was quickly packing up his computer and equipment. He was a little freaked out by what Alec had said.
"There's a key to the lock on the front."
"Where is it?" Alec asked impatiently. He could hear doors opening to the stairwells on the floor above him and what sounded like bodies hitting the floor. They were running out of time.
"It's in my backpack, over there." Alec looked to where Victor pointed and saw a black backpack lying against the service desk. It was close to the doors that were about to open and probably spill out several vampires that wanted to kill them. Not good.
"Is this thing disarmed? Will it blow up if I break the lock?"
"No. It's off, but how are you…"
Alec grabbed the lock and yanked. It broke free with very little effort. He removed the vest from Chris who rubbed his chest and winced.
"Get your stuff and get out of here." Chris glared at him but put on his shoes, stuffed his boxers and socks in his pockets and then put his shirt on as he headed out the door with his hands up.
Then, the doors to the stairwells slammed open on either side and several vampires dressed in black burst through and surrounded them. Without warning one of the vampires slammed his sword into Victor’s chest spraying blood all over. Alec watched helplessly as the man crumpled to the ground. So much for their escape.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lost and Alone
; Alec looked around and saw that five vampires all in black, with masks covering their faces surrounded him and Steven. Their suits were so tight that Alec could tell all five of them were male and built as well as, if not better, than he.
"Whoa guys," Alec said putting his hands up. He was still holding the vest with the explosives attached. Probably not his brightest moment.
"Easy now. I've got things under control." Steven had backed up right behind Alec. He was staring wide eyed at the five black masked figures that had just appeared around them. Alec could hear Steven's heart pounding behind him. Alec wasn’t sure what happened to Marcus, but he hadn’t heard anything more from his friend.
The five black clad figures each had short, sharp looking blades in their hands, one of which was covered in gore where it had struck Victor down. The blades were katana-like but looked more like something the military might use. Alec knew that Victor was dead but leaned down like he was checking the man’s pulse. Quickly he grabbed the detonator for the vest.
"What are you, ninjas?" Alec asked nervously.
One of the men, the one closest to his left said, "The Devil sends his regards."
Alec was stunned for a moment, but then all five of the vampires moved in to attack. Time slowed again for Alec and he burst into motion. From where he was on the ground, he reached over to Victor’s body and grabbed a handful of silver crosses and threw them at the vampires like a handful of glittering confetti. The crosses arced toward the five vampires and flew end over end but Alec didn't wait to see if they did anything major. He stuffed a handful of the crosses into his front pocket. The vampires attempted to dodge the silver projectiles but Alec had thrown them too quickly.
Steven had moved backwards outside of the circle of violence and stood panting in fear. Alec grabbed the gun hanging forgotten from Victor’s shoulder and in an instant he was standing again. The crosses had all found their marks, though none had really done a lot of damage, Alec had just been trying to buy some time. He turned slamming the handle of the gun into the face of the vampire nearest him. He whirled in place and caught another in the throat. Both vampires staggered backwards grabbing their injuries but remained standing.
Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles Page 19
