Captivated (30 page)

“What weapon should I use?” asked Markus.

“What makes you think you’re going?” I coldly retorted.

“She’s my friend. I want to help.” Markus sadly said.

“You’ve helped enough. I’ll handle the rest. The mansion will be filled with vampires. I don’t need you getting in my way.”

“This is bull! You wouldn’t have found her if it wasn’t for my investigation!” Markus blurted out in an effort to convince me. It wasn’t working.

I reached the front door and turned to him. He was a slow boy. I noticed that during the times he would follow me. He discovered what I was and hadn’t left me alone ever sense. He was trustworthy though, I had to give him that. He never told Mindy he was spending most of his time trying to help me. I would always brush him off, but he clung on. I couldn’t let him get hurt. He was much too slow to be able to react in a vampire fight.

“Markus. You can’t come. I won’t have it.” I stepped outside and left him standing before the doorway. The look of disappointment and sadness etched his face. He was a child being denied a trip to the toy store and left behind. I forced myself to shut the door on his face and not look back.

And I was off to be in the biggest battle of my life.

I
DIDN’T KNOW HOW MAY HOURS HAD PASSED, it had to be several. My stomach was roaring for me to feed it. I couldn’t tell if the sun was still out or not because of the blacked out windows. I stared at the bodiless statue on the ground. I lost count of how many times I had thrown it against the window in hopes that it would break and I could run free. It must have been bullet proof or something because I couldn’t get it to crack. My eyes stung from all the crying I did when I found out about Dean’s death. I thought it might have left me dehydrated. I closed my eyes to calm the sting, but it didn’t make a difference.

A knock came at the door followed by it opening. Shane popped his head in with a bright smile. I stayed sitting on the bed. When he saw that it was safe to come in, he slowly walked in shutting the door behind him. One of his arms was pulled behind his back, like he was hiding something back there.

“How are you feeling?” Shane asked as he stepped right up to me.

“Let me go.” I responded.

“I brought you something to make you feel better.” Shane said with hope. He brought his hand out exposing a bouquet of lavender flowers, just like the plant in my room. “I wanted to get you the ones on your night stand but you never invited me in your house so…” he shrugged his shoulders.

Shane set them in my hand, but I didn’t bother to grab them. Noticing this, he gently closed my fingers on the bouquet. I held on and in one quick motion, I threw it at the black window. The lavender crashed softly against it, then fell to the ground. Purple stems bounced against the ground and separated from each other. There were small purple petals scattered. “There goes my theory of flowers being able to break windows.” I said coldly.

“Wow. That’s not how I had this pictured in my mind at all.” Shane examined the flowers and then looked at me in surprise. “Good thing I didn’t bring you a kitten.” he sighed out in fake relief.

My stomach growled again.

“Hungry? You want me to bring you something?” Shane asked casually. I looked away and nodded my head. “No?” He walked over to the dresser and pulled himself up to it in a sitting position. “I know what you want. Answers.
Then
can we have a truce?” he asked.

“What do you want with me?” I asked right away.

“All I can say is my boss has plans for you.” He said as he rested his hands on the edge of the dresser to keep the balance I knew he didn’t need.

“What plans? What the heck would he want with me?” I hissed.

“Persistent are we?” Shane half smiled. “Believe me beautiful, I’m eager for you to know, but rules are rules. Next question?”

“How is Dean involved in any of this?” I asked with hurt in my voice. The mention of his name made me want to break down again, but I refused to in front of Shane.

“Ah…the question that sums it all up.” Shane paused as if to think of how he would start. “I am a vampire, as you know. And Dean…” He said his name with annoyance. “….is a slayer, vampire hunter, the big bad, whatever you want to call it.”

“Then why were you guys so buddy buddy at school? Why didn’t he ever kill you if you’re a vampire?” I asked.

“Well, Dean is like the law in my world. You have your police officers that only make arrests when crimes have been committed and there has to be proof or evidence. Dean can only kill vampires when we have harmed a human. Which sucks because how can we feed? Right? Totally unfair.” Shane jumped off the dresser and began to pace back and forth in front of me. “Anyways, that’s why he could never do anything to me. I’m innocent. Believe me, when he got in my face the first day I showed up at your school, I had to give him a reminder of the rules. I’m not powerful enough to beat him just yet.”

“What if he had broken the rules?” I asked.

“Then, the head of the slayers takes his abilities away. Then he’ll be like the rest of the humans.” Shane said with a smile.

“I wish he were alive so he could kill you.” I said to myself darkly.

“Ouch!” Shane brought his hand up to where his heart should be and pressed. “Even if he were alive, he still can’t touch me. I haven’t harmed you. But he
can
go after my boss because he gave the order to take you.” He jumped off the dresser and walked up to me. “By the way, I was the one watching you at night.”

“What!” I screeched.

“I was sent to your school to collect you. That night you were with your dog in the forest…if Dean hadn’t showed up, I would have taken you that night.” Shane began to pace back and forth across the room. “In fact…he was in the way all the time watching over you. Like that night I walked you home, remember that figure behind the tree? That was Dean. If it wasn’t me looking up at your window at night, it was him. That’s when I realized he had a thing for you and pretty soon after, you two got close. I had to assemble a team to take you by force because my time was running out.” He turned to me with a broad proud smile that belonged on a toothpaste commercial. “And now…here you are.”

Someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Shane answered.

A girl with long black hair stepped in. She was the same one that helped Shane kidnap me. I’d recognized that Asian doll anywhere. The strangest thing was that when she saw me sitting on the bed, she smiled at me. It was a smile of appreciation. What kind of kidnapping was this if they were so nice to their captives?

She turned back to Shane and said, “He’s here.” then, she spun around and made her way out of the room closing the door behind her.

“Looks like it’s time for you to get some answers.” Shane said as he reached his hand to me. An invitation to go with him?

“Please Shane. Let me go.” I pleaded.

“No can do.” Shane said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the bed. “And I don’t want to.” he admited shyly.

I followed behind him as he guided me through the long hallway, contemplating on whether I should try to make a run for it. But I knew it would be no use. Vampires were too strong and too fast. I was just a human.

A
S WE APPROACHED THE FOREST, I examined the map to see what tree marked the entrance we were supposed to take. The map looked like it was etched up by a five year old. There were two squiggly circles with a crooked line below them drawn right next to each other. I scanned the trees to see if there was anything similar. One grew up sideways, then reached up. There was another one next to it with similar attributes. It looked like they purposely grew this way together. Markus had done a good job at finding this place. He was great at investigating. After all, he did figure out what I was while everyone else was blind to my actions.

The vampire walking next to me had smoke coming out through the blanket. I imagined myself tearing the blanket off of him to see him fry up and disappear. I smirked at the enjoyment of just imagining it. We drew in closer to the entrance between the two deformed trees. I shouldn’t have looked at the ground. Damn it. There were trickles of dry blood on the dirt. Lina’s blood, Markus wasn’t sure it was hers. I on the other hand always thought the worse. Anger wouldn’t have even begun to describe what had started up inside me. My eyes were burning from the fire blazing under my skin. I turned to the demon I had chained around the neck. If it wasn’t for him, I would have caught up with Lina. I could have saved her. This thing was blocking the entrance when I finally approached it, taking precious seconds away. The little weasel kept slipping through my fingers while I was fighting him, just enough time to make me lose track of Shane and Lina. The fire inside me wanted to burn him to a crisp. How I hated keeping this one alive. The same thing with Shane, everyday at school, I had to put up with him. He acted natural with his jokes and comments. People around us might have thought we were actual friends. He was only hanging around me to taunt me because he knew I couldn’t touch him. Not being allowed to lay a hand on vampires that didn’t hurt humans was the most ridiculous rule. The only rule that bound me as a slayer. Waldron, the one who changed me, made it very clear that my abilities would be removed if I did. He called them class V, the one’s that didn’t feed off humans. To me, they should all burn in the flaming depths of hell. Shane made a sure arrangement to be there when he made my Lina bleed.

I pulled on the chain to make the thing pick up the pace, even though he already was walking the same speed. A little reminder of who was in charge wouldn’t hurt.

It was shaded in the woods. Rays of light were scattered in our path. The thing stopped sizzling while we walked under the shade, but it still kept the blanket on. After what seemed like hours of taking rights, lefts, circles, we finally approached where the house was supposed to be. From a distance the area looked like a bunch of trees huddled together. I checked out the map. There was a round squiggle much bigger than the others with the word finish on it. This had to be it. I carefully approached the bundle of trees and peaked in through an opening. It was the biggest house I’d ever seen. Large full trees surrounded the place like a gate made out of nature. The house had to be as wide as an acre, with the whole forest as the yard. The windows were black like a limo. Smart move on keeping the sun out.

“Give me an idea of what I’m looking at.” I told the vampire as we crouched down.

“That house has nine bedrooms. Three masters and…” He started counting with his fingers. “I think six bathro-”

“I’m not buying the house! Tell me where she is. Where they would keep her? How many of you there are.” I lashed out.

“I don’t know. There’s a basement. There are a lot of hidden passageways though.” He trembled out.

“Why would you things need that?” I sternly asked.

“Well…it was in case you ever found the place. We are prepared.” He said with a hint of pride.

“Where do the passageways lead to?” I asked.

“Some lead outdoors. Others that are in the bedrooms lead either to the outside or to the room connected with it. Only one leads to the basement.” He said.

“Where is the one that leads to the basement?” I asked growing impatient with his short answers. I wanted all the information at once, so I could get to the killing already.

“The fridge. It’s a place you would never look because…you know…” It looked away. “We don’t eat food. I mean we can but-”