Darkened Days (6 page)

“You think so?  You have so much to learn about vampires, little Star.  I’m not letting you go in there alone.  It’s my way or we’re gone.”

She shrugged.  “Okay.  But I warned you.”

Leading him deeper into the darkened cavernous basement, she moved around several pallets of boxes that looked like they had been there for decades.  Finally, a dim light came from beyond a distant wall.

“That’s where we sleep.  It’s safe for daytime.  And pretty defensible if someone found us.”

As they reached the final turn around a dust-covered large industrial machine, Jacob had an immediate sense of terror.  Someone in that room was terrified, he could feel it.   Starla had surged ahead of him and he rushed to pull her back.  But it was too late.  He saw several young people in various positions all around the room.  None of them were moving.  He knew immediately what it meant.

“Starla…” he started to say as she ran over to a tall young man frozen in position in the center of the room.

It was all he got out as he felt his entire body stop, unable to move a muscle, or even speak.  It wasn’t unfamiliar to him, he’d felt it before.  Once.  A year ago in Vancouver
.  The ability of a first blood.  Freezing humans and vampires was just one of their skills. 

He could still
hear and see what was happening around him although he couldn’t move anything.  Starla was within his line of sight and he saw her press her hands against the still face of the tall young man.

She called out “Henri” and turned toward Jacob just as she froze, her body twisted and locked in the movement of turning.  Jacob saw the panic in her eyes.  He wanted to be able to reassure her th
at it was alright but he couldn’t speak. 

She couldn’t know what was going on.  He did. 
The first blood that resided in Paris, the one his friend Sarah was blood-bonded to.  He must be here to deal with the cadre.  They’d broken too many covenants to be allowed to continue unchallenged.  Jacob and Starla were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and swept up in his wake.

He knew eventually he could sort this out. But for the moment, all he wanted was to assure Starla it was okay.  They were trapped until the first blood decided to let them move again.  He knew they’d be transported to a secure location before that happened.

A flash of movement to his right drew his attention.  Someone was moving amongst the frozen bodies.  He came into view a moment later.  A huge vampire.  Koen’s size.  Long blonde hair tied back.  Sharp cut jaw, intense glowing eyes.  First blood, without doubt.  Sarah’s vampire, Xavier.  He stopped briefly to stare at Jacob.

“Huh,” the first blood said, then turned away.

A moment later Jacob lost consciousness.

CHAPTER FOUR

He woke
disoriented.  Every muscle in his back and legs ached.  With a push, Jacob lifted himself off a hard concrete floor.  Even his eyes hurt as he moved them around the room to assess the situation.   The air had a cool dankness, a certain dense, moist quality that told him they were underground again.  Only this time he was in a cell, the thick iron bars crossing the front of the small enclosure were evidence he was exactly where he thought he would be.  In a holding cell.  When he was steady enough on his feet, he walked over to the cell door and tried to disengage the lock, but it didn’t budge.  He didn’t expect it to.  First blood skills.  It was
spelled
to stay locked. 
Shit!

After his eyes adjusted to the low light, he looked around to see if he could find anyone else, but could only see the front of many cells lined up and down a corridor.  Between his cell and the adjacent cells, a concrete wall kept him from seeing his neighbors.  He heard no other sounds so he assumed the others were still unconscious.  All he cared about was Starla.  Just before he’d gone out, he’d had a desperate need to get to her.  To protect her.  He’d awakened with the same need.

Jacob hated the loss of control more than anything.  Vampires generally did what they wanted to do, so to be at someone else’s mercy was awful.  He should be able to break free and find his woman with no trouble.

He dropped back and l
eaned against the wall. 
His woman?  Hardly.  Never
.  She was his mission, was all.  He’d be an idiot to think of her as anything more.  Eillia entrusted him to get her back safely and he would do that if it killed him.  Or anyone who got in his way.

A loud scraping sound and then the screech of hinges on a heavy metal door let him know someone was coming.  He pushed upright quickly and was at the front of his cell when a smaller figure came into view.  A woman.  Vampire.  Not first blood, he thought.  He hoped. 
Bleached blonde. Pretty.  Pitch dark eyes like most vampires.  Brilliant electric red lipstick that seemed to hurt his eyes when he looked at her.  She smiled.

“So.  Are you the leader of this misbegotten group of baby vampires?”

Oh, fuck!
  They thought he was responsible for this.  He was the only older vampire on the premises.

“No.  Just unfortunate. I was there to bring someone home who had been turned against her will.  If you would want to…”

The smile faded and she cut him off.

“You’re a pretty one.  No wonder you were able to charm the kids.  Of course, you weren’t smart enough to figure someone would take an interest.   Our own little Fa
gin.  You have been around long enough to know the rules.  Probably shocked the fuck out of you when he froze you.  It shocked the fuck out of
me
the first time he did it to me.  Now, I’ll take over.” 

She stepped closer to the cell.

“He doesn’t get his hands dirty with this part of it.  I’m Crystal, and you’re all mine now.  You see, I get to be judge, jury, and executioner.  We don’t change humans against their will.  We don’t build obvious groups of young feeding vampires to make the human community take notice.  We don’t use our “makes” for sex and playthings.  You, sir, have a lot to atone for.  I don’t know yet how this will play out for you.  My investigation and recommendation will determine that.  So, comply and maybe you’ll live to see another summer.  For now, here’s your dinner. 
Bon appétit!”

She threw a clear plastic bag into the cell, then turned away.  Nothing Jacob said brought her back. 

This was a totally fucked up rescue from day one to now.  Two months of hell to end up here in serious jeopardy of taking the fall for all of this.  Bas and Eillia would look for him, but he didn’t know how soon.  And he didn’t think they would know where to start.  This was something he could never have anticipated.  Being implicated in this was serious unless he could get his friends to clear his name.  Or if the young vampires would clear it.  He turned to sit down on the cold floor again and rolled the blood bag between his hands.  He doubted the arrogant young vamps would be any help.

“I’m humped,” he said out loud as he tore open the bag, turned it up and squeezed. 
God, that was awful!

Starla woke so abruptly she twisted her neck.  She grabbed it and massaged the strained curve as she stood
and looked around.  Okay. 
They were in jail?  What the
hell? 
Well, a jail cell couldn’t hold a vampire.  She started toward the cell door to open it and leave when she saw Marina balled up in the corner.  How did they get here?  The last thing she remembered was Jacob.  With his arms around her.  She felt a flood of warmth between her legs at the memory. 

No
.  Not the last memory
.
  The warehouse.  They’d gone there so she could say goodbye to Henri.  And found something terrible going on.  She remembered Jacob calling her name before she lost consciousness. 
Wait.
  There was something else.  Something weird.  Yeah.  She’d been frozen in place.  Couldn’t move a muscle.  So had Henri.  What were they, that they could freeze powerful vampires?

For a moment she thought about kicking Marina with her foot to wake her.  They weren’t friends.  Marina had treated her worse than anyone these last months.  Repeatedly told her she was puny and ugly when she knew she wasn’t.   But it rocked her confidence, which was never that strong before she was a vampire, and only a little better since.

The nice girl buried inside the wild vampire still reared her head sometimes.  So she squatted and shook Marina gently.

The ill-tempered vampire woke up ill-tempered. 
Surprise
, thought Starla as she stood up and backed away.

Marina rolled upright and looked around, bounced accusatory eyes back to Starla.

“
Il n aurait jamais du te transformer!”

“English, bitch!”  Starla barked.  The nice girl inside approved.
“And I wish he hadn’t changed me too.”

“What have you done?”

“Well, contrary to popular belief, I do not run the world.  In case it missed your notice, I’m trapped in here with you.  If I had done anything to put us here, it sure the fuck wouldn’t have been with
you
.  I was just getting ready to open the door and see if we can find the others.”

She went to the door to disengage the locking mechanism, pushed to open the cell door.  It didn’t budge.  She tried again.  Still locked.

Marina came over and shoved her aside.  She tried it herself with the same results.  Then she turned to Starla.

“What the fuck?”

Starla always thought that phrase sounded so funny with a French accent.

“I’m guessing this isn’t the local
gendarmes.
  Jacob mentioned the cadre was breaking vampire protocol.  I think we’ve been arrested by vampires.”

“You turned us in?”

“Idiot. Hardly. Like I said before, I’m trapped too. If I had turned us in, believe me, I would have been smart enough to be far away from there when it went down.  Like anyone would want to be trapped in a ten by ten cell with
you
!”

“Why can we not open the lock then?”

“That’s a mystery.  Have you ever encountered a lock or door you couldn’t open?”

“Never.  I have not heard of such a thing.  Where are the others?”

Starla just stared at her.  This was the longest conversation she’d ever had with Marina and it was quite illuminating.  No wonder Marina was so focused on her looks and sexuality.  She was definitely not brilliant intellectually.  Starla almost felt sorry for her.  The old kind Starla came out again, so instead of stating the obvious, she took lead on trying to figure out what to do next.

“I don’t know.  But we need to get out of here and find them.  We have a lot of strong young vampires, and together I think we can get away from whoever attacked us.  We just need to figure out what…”

A woman walked up to the cell door so suddenly, both women behind the bars jumped.

The new arrival laughed.

“You babies are so timid!  Okay.  I’m Crystal and I am your world right now.  So you need to relax and do what you’re told like good little vampires.  You should have already guessed that you are being held by a vampire council for your dangerous activities.   When a group poses a threat to the community, there will be repercussions.  Think of me as your sheriff.” 

She paused and looked both women over carefully.  Then she pointed to Marina.

“You’re common.  Cheap, really.  Pretty, but obvious and over-painted.  Not anything special at all.” 

Then she turned to Starla.

“You, though.  A natural beauty.  I bet you were lovely as a human.  But now, with your vampire genome, you are radiant.  Your inner glow is transcendent. You are the type we want brought over.”

Starla stood, stunned and concerned. 
Radiant?
 
Transcendent?
  The woman was crazy.

“Hardly,” she responded.  “But I would like to know what you’re going to do with us.  And when we can leave.”

“Oh, dearie, it may be a while.  You have all broken some sacred covenants.  There will be an individual investigation.  Starting with your leader.  I’ve already spoken with him.  He’s defiant and quite powerful, but I’m good at what I do.  He’ll break.  Once I’m finished with him, I will begin with you.”

She pointed to Starla.  “Here’s dinner, girls.”

Two bags of blood were tossed lightly against the floor and the red-lipped sheriff was gone.

“Leader?”  Marina said.  “Does she mean Malice?  He is, as much as any, the one who makes the choices for the group.”

“Yeah, but powerful?  Not even remotely.”  Suddenly an awful thought struck her.  Could she have decided it was Jacob?  He was the oldest here.  Certainly the most powerful. 
Oh, her unfortunate hero
.  Stuck in trouble because she was stubborn and difficult.  Well, he would explain it and be released. 

She hoped he would wait for her.  He’d made an impact on her she hadn’t expected. 

Marina shook the bars on the cell violently.  And then again.  And a third time.

Starla walked over to her.

“If they have a way to make the locks impenetrable, don’t you think the bars would hold up to a vampire’s strength?  These people
froze
us!  They are obviously something more powerful than we are.  You may as well sit down and drink your blood meal.  I don’t know when we’ll get something else.”

She took her own advice and slid down the concrete wall to tear open the plastic bag with her fangs.

Oh, God, that was rank.  Note to self.  Always, always drink fresh blood if you survive this.

As she drew the vile stuff into her mouth, her mind wandered to Jacob.   If they released him, she hoped he would come for her. 

Oh, hell
.  Now she was actually
expecting
him to be her hero.  
Garbage.  Real life didn’t have Prince Charmings and fairy tale endings. 

Gagging down the last of the nasty blood, she admitted to herself
, she still hoped he would come.

Marina sat on the wall opposite Starla and glared at her.  Her eyes dropped to
Starla’s attire, the knee high boots and knee length men’s shirt.  She wrinkled her nose.

“Nice dress,” she sneered.

Crystal finished the rounds to all the cells to let the young vampires know their status.  A shame, really, but Xavier was pretty intolerant when it came to protecting his kin.  If he thought they were truly a threat, he would order their execution.  But she figured most of these youngsters probably just didn’t know better.  Her thoughts returned to the handsome older vampire she had determined must be behind the cadre.  He was an exciting man.  She’d creamed just watching him as he woke and stood, his excellent body naked from the waist up.

These days, she’d been choosing women.  Only because after five hundred years of men and their insinuating cocks, she’d been ready for something softer.  But this vampire made her think she was ready to feel that penetration again.  And while the female body was lovely, the male body really was the one that had always excited her sexually.

She smiled as she watched him on the surveillance cameras.  Interesting that the first man to make her wet this century was completely under her control.  She could do with him whatever she wanted.  Was it wrong that she loved that power?  That he was, literally, slave to her urges?  Yeah, probably.  But the turn-on was intense.  She slipped her fingers beneath her waistband and tucked them under her thong.  Fingering the moistness, she caressed herself.  She was already wet at the thought of Jacob’s cock sliding up and down inside her. 
Hmm.  Maybe tonight?