Exsanguinate (18 page)

“Who is this Roxas person? Your brother?” Khaldon asked.

“Umm. No. He’s … well. He’s my boyfriend, albeit online virtual boyfriend, but we met in the hospital after my attack. He’s never been unreliable. If anything, Roxas is my cornerstone programmer for the game. He’s been my rock for over two years now. He wouldn’t abandon me during this.”

“Come on, come on.” I continued to hammer at the keys. “Where are you, Roxas?” Typing desperately into the chat window, I looked to see how long his avatar had been idle. His avatar inside the game had sat idle and away from the keyboard since the day I got released from the hospital. I stepped away from the keyboard and held my hands on the side of my head. “Khaldon, I believe they have Roxas too.”

L
udovic hung
up the phone and gloated. “Other than your little outburst, Dakota, that went over rather well if I do say so myself.” His eyebrow arched so high into his forehead it disappeared into his hairline.

I wanted to pluck it off his face. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to react, so I just gave him with my best
go-fuck-yourself
glare.

Ludovic turned and looked out the window. Moonlight streamed in on the concrete floor. He opened the wooden window sash and allowed in the night’s humid air. The rain had abated a bit. He placed his elbows on the sill. “So, Dakota, do you think your sister took the bait?”

His brother, Edric, stood behind me, breathing heavily against the back of my neck with his hideous breath. “Do you believe our trap is complete enough to get your sister here?”

His hot breath tingled the tiny hairs inside my inner ear canal. I pulled away from him as best I could, being shackled to the chair.

Afraid to answer him, and afraid to not answer him, I closed my eyes wishing for invisibility. I didn’t want that man ever touching me again. My body ached after the last time he used me for his personal punching bag. I was afraid the violence would escalate if I aroused him in any way.

Edric showed me pictures of Sheridan on his digital camera. He pointed to his erection every time he forced me to look at the hooded figure naked between her bound legs. His capabilities scared the holy hell out of me. I didn’t know why Ludovic had done this to us.

Our mother once told us hell existed. I couldn’t have been but eight years old when she told us a story of an evil queen. Now I wished I had paid more attention.

Oh God, how I wish I could see her again.

Silently I prayed Cheyenne would find us, but I knew that Ludovic and Edric would capture her and do the same to her as they were doing to Sheridan. I didn’t want that either. Why they weren’t doing it to me already, I had no idea.

Low, painful-sounding moans came from a corner of the room, but I couldn’t turn my head around far enough to see what it was. Edric spun my chair around, walked over to turn on the light, and I gasped out in horror. Trying to stifle a scream, I saw a woman hanging in a hammock with her pregnant belly hanging below her and her head elevated. She was harnessed and shackled to the posts, unable to move. She had tubes, an IV, and monitor straps taped over her chest and belly. She didn’t look alive, but I watched the pinging of heart beats across the machines. I guessed one was for the baby’s heartbeat as well. Both heartbeats escalated as the unconscious woman moaned louder. She was giving birth!

“Ludovic, hand me the chart on number thirty-three over here,” Edric called out over his shoulder. “She’s looking like she’s ready to pop any time now. Her blood pressure is spiking, and her cervix is effaced. It won’t be long for this one. You might want to go ahead and call the Priestess and let her know we’ll have another one soon.”

Ludovic left the window and whispered in my ear, “You might be wondering why we haven’t found you your own little cozy cubby, huh?”

I looked at him, afraid to answer.

“I want you for myself. Soon you will be
my
eternal mate. I have plans for that bitch Priestess who shows up here every other week to take the squalling babies.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze as I stared at him in morose terror. “With me by your side, you can challenge the Priestess and we shall rule together.”

Rule together? Eternal mate?

He laughed at me and flashed that wicked smile again revealing his sharp canine teeth.

“What the hell? Get me outta here, you gawd damned freak!” I thrashed against the chains to get out of my chair. Edric shoved a ball gag in my mouth to muffle my screams.

The ball gag made it difficult to breath. I had no choice but to settle down. Ludovic walked away in a peacock strut as he picked up the medical chart held in a rack along the wall. I grimaced looking at the rack – it must have held fifty or more.

How many women are in this place? Is this happening to Sheridan?

I watched in sheer panic as the woman’s abdomen spasmed and contorted. She couldn’t have possibly been conscious because she didn’t scream even though the fetus writhed and contorted her belly. She looked as if the
Alien
was getting ready to burst through her stomach at any minute.

Bone-breaking sounds echoed off the concrete, and Edric donned a pair of blue surgical gloves.

“Want to get a better view, my pet?”

I shook my head, but it was too late. He had that wicked gleam in his eyes already. Ludovic popped the brakes on my chair.

“You should see the climax of our operation here since you are going to become the new mistress of our army.” He rolled me over to the woman giving birth.

Edric walked over to me and backhanded my cheek. His smack knocked my head to the side, causing me to see stars. I tasted blood. “There’s more of that if you scream. You understand? I don’t want you disturbing the patients.”

I nodded as best I could, still dizzy from the blow.

Ludovic removed the gag from my mouth, and I gasped for air. The woman moaned louder as her body wrenched up in convulsions. Her harness kept her movements to a minimum, but the contorting fetus inside her shifted again.

Not sure if I could speak, I asked one word with trepidation. “Army?” I ducked my head down into my shoulders waiting for another blow, but one didn’t come.

Instead, Ludovic stood proud. “Yes, the world’s finest dhampir army bred with ancient heritage pure-blood lines.” I looked at him as if he had smoked one too many bowls. Edric’s punch must have left me fuzzier than I thought.

“Dhampir?”

“Ah, yes my love. You haven’t quite yet enjoyed the fruit of our knowledge, have you? What a beautiful poetic way for you to experience the birth of your empire.” Ludovic pushed my chair closer. Much too close for my comfort, but I didn’t have a choice.

The woman arched her back, and a scream came from her that brought tears to my eyes. A head crowned between her legs, and Edric stood ready with a birthing table and various implements. The table with all the bloody tools looked more as if he were going to eat the child as opposed to clean it and care for it.

Edric turned his attention to us for a moment. “Ludovic, what’ll it be this time? Boy or girl?”

Ludovic turned my chair around to get in my face. “Hmm. Let’s see what my eternal mate thinks it will be.” I looked into his eyes — really looked into his eyes, and felt nothing but fear. He was on board with this mess, but he certainly wasn’t in control of it.

“What is the sex of the baby, my love?”

My stomach was queasy with rot. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes glossed over with a film. I tried to shake it off, but he held my gaze and asked me again.

“Boy or girl?”

I felt a pull on my consciousness. Afraid I would black out, I whispered, “Boy.” Ludovic released his gaze from me as my head fell limp against my chest.

Slapped back to consciousness, I heard the familiar sound of a baby’s cry. I opened my eyes to see a baby nursing from his mother. Not from her breast; it sucked blood from the inside of her thigh – from her femoral artery.

A wave of aversion came over me looking at the monstrosity in front of me.

“Well, well, well Ludovic, looks like your gal pal there just might have the gift.” Edric finger quoted around the words the gift. “Or maybe it’s just dumb luck, but it’s going to be a gwrywaidd dhampir for sure.”

I continued to stare at the devil child in front of me and dared to venture forth with another query.

“What is a dhampir?” I asked again.

Ludovic, excited by my inquisition, seemed happy to oblige my question. Not realizing one of them had untied my hands, Ludovic handed me the bundle of baby with blood smeared on his rosy cheeks. “A dhampir is the union of a male vampire and a human mother. We get the best of both worlds. The dhampir has half the vampiric traits and yet born to destroy any vampire it is programmed to kill. This makes them a valuable asset to the Queen’s army.”

Ludovic watched me with what looked like blissful admiration. “Dakota, I would like to introduce you to our newest male scion.”

“Scion? Isn’t that the name of a car?”

Edric sewed up the woman and gave her a shot of something in her IV. Not sure if she was still alive, I looked to find her heart still beating in the monitor. Thankful she wasn’t conscious, I wondered if she would ever know that she had given birth to the monster I held in my arms.

“Ludovic, that makes four for her. She’s gonna have to go to the mending wing for a couple months before we can knock her up again.”

“I don’t understand. You keep them pregnant all the time?”

“Siring a dhampir only takes three months.” Ludovic squatted next to me and tickled the baby’s toes. “One month per normal human trimester. Dhampirs grow extremely fast until they reach seven years when they are grown.”

My heart dropped. This whole place sickened me. One way or another, I knew I needed to get out of here and help the rest of the women held captive by these lunatics.

“What are you doing here? What is this place?”

“This place is called breeding facility number forty two. We have about 130 top breeders at this facility. But this is nothing. Where I was trained in Romania, we had over four hundred women.”

Edric broke in. “The stupid, human authorities think young girls traveling in Europe are kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Yes, some are. But mostly, the girls are sold to the Vampyric race through online bids from the game portal on ExsanguiNation.”

I gasped at thinking our game could be the venue for such horrific trafficking of women.

Ludovic pulled up a chair beside me. “ExsanguiNation is a haven – the perfect playground for supernaturals. Whatever they want, they can get through the game. If they know who to ask. It’s the perfect set up – the perfect lie. Authorities will always think it’s just a game. They’ll never suspect how real monetary gains come from the online selling of human hosts, their body parts, and their blood to the highest bidders.”

I looked at this seemingly harmless baby in my arms with his glowing red eyes and sweet chubby cheeks. He cooed up at me. I felt a strange pull in my heart when I touched his silky, porcelain skin. The baby smiled at me. Feeling something as simple as a smile fall across my face, it gave me a chance to forget this terrible place of torment for just a brief moment.

“OUCH!”

Ludovic howled in laughter as I held up my finger dripping in blood. I held the baby in my other arm with blood on his teeth, making sucking movements with his mouth. My eyes grew in alarm as the innocence of this babe, gave way to the horror of what it truly was.

“The Priestess has arrived,” Edric announced.

Before me stood a hypnotic woman dressed as pure evil, decorated in lust and greed.

A
blinding light
forced me to shield my eyes behind the child while juggling the infant away from any fleshy body parts it could bite. Pure evil incarnate stood before us. The Priestess commanded the sheer air within the room and dominated the breaths she took from me.

“Bring me the suckling,” she commanded. Her voice demanded attention.

Ludovic looked up from his position of respect and did as directed. As he took the baby from my arms, instantly and for the first time in my life, I held empathy for mothers who had their babies taken away at birth. I wondered if the child would ever know his mother. Will the mother survive this hellhole long enough to ever know if she had a son? Or several sons?

“What will you do with him?”

The Priestess sing-songed at me. “Ah, Dakota, my sweet. I have been waiting decades for you and your sisters to arrive. Soon my Dhampiric soldiers will be completed with the Irish triad bloodline.” Her voice dripped as if vile poison oozed off each syllable.

“When was she inseminated?” The Priestess looked at a chart on the wall and pointed at me. “I gave specific semen to impregnate her and Sheridan both. You better not have wasted it!”

“What the hell are you talking about? What insemination?” This lady was crazy. “What triad? What in God’s name are you? And just what the fuck is all this bullshit?”

The Priestess’ eyes shut as she smirked at me. She flicked her spiked pinkie finger at my mouth and sealed my lips as though they were sewn together with invisible thread. Panic surged through me as I found it difficult to breathe again. I bellowed muffled screams as streams of briny tears fell and stung the invisible needle holes where my mouth had been sewn shut.

What the hell?

I glared at her, but was afraid that she might blind me too. The Priestess walked away.

“Ah yes, my dearest Priestess.” Ludovic bowed in her honor. “I wanted to surprise you with redheaded triplets — to have all three sisters bear you a dhampir general at the same time. Until I have them all, I chose not to inseminate the second sister since we are so close to obtaining the third.”

An outrage of toxic energy flew from the Priestess and shocked the room with throbbing, painful blasts. The oxygen left the room. Her fiery fury caused the suckling to wail.

I crouched in my bonds as I watched Ludovic and Edric scramble to remove the sharp implements off the birthing table. A fierce, banshee-like scream communicated the Priestess’ vexation.

She slammed her fist onto the table, shattering it with one blow. Shards of wood and metal peppered the fumbling duo with table shrapnel.

“This will be your heads if you continue to make any decisions without my permission. The Queen will have as she wishes, not what you choreograph.” The Priestess turned toward me as she continued to wail at the men. The child’s screams emulated the Priestess’ anger. “I want her inseminated tonight. I will not wait until you obtain the final sister. Am I clear?” The baby continued to scream with moxie. His little hands outstretched to grasp any form of safety. His face reddened to the color of beets as his wails echoed and bounced off the concrete cinder block walls.

In unison, both Ludovic and Edric said, “Crystalline, my Priestess.”

Then Edric turned and punched Ludovic square in the jaw. “I knew I shouldn’t have listened to you. Idiot!” Sensing the Priestess’ approval, he did it again until Ludovic fell to the floor clutching his jaw.

An overwhelming scent of lavender filled the air, calming the energy and quieting the room. It seemed where fury emanated from the Priestess just moments prior, it now had been replaced with grandmotherly kindness.

I felt the needle pin pricks gone from my face and I could open my mouth. The Priestess held up a hand of advice warning me to tread with caution.

I touched at my lips. “What do you want from me? From my sisters? What are you going to do to the baby?”

Rocking the infant gently, the Priestess fed him from her breast. I noticed it wasn’t milk she delivered to him. He was attached to the inside of her cleavage suckling away at her artery. “I believe I’ll answer your third question first. This child, being born dhampir gwrywaidd will be groomed and taught the finest art of slaying none other than impure, rogue vampire scum.”

“Vampires? Is that what you are? Queen of the night? Nosferatu? I
vant to suck yer blood
kind of vampire? Are you fucking serious?”

The Priestess raised a curious eyebrow. “Precisely, my dear one. We’ve hunted lineages the world over to find the truest, most pure-blood of our ancestry. And you, Cheyenne, and Sheridan are the purest I’ve found. Together with each of you, my dhampiric army will guarantee me the global domination I deserve in the vampyric realm.”

I swallowed hard.

The Priestess continued, “Once I have a son from each of you, the trinity will be complete. The prophecy upheld, and my plan will be in place.” She held the child sound asleep in her energy.

“Are you telling me that you are planning to use me and my sisters to make – those?”

“My, my, Dakota you learn fast don’t you?”

I tried to get out of the chair again, I had to escape this insanity.

“Relax, my dear. You are here to sire my generals. These other women are creating minions for your sons to command and control. Your sons will take over this rogue-infested planet and bring order to the race. You should be honored to be held in such esteem. Hold your head in the honored greatness you and your sisters warrant and join us willingly. Your every whim will be addressed.”

The Priestess walked around the back of my chair. She rolled me to where my nose came within a hair’s whisper of touching the belly of the woman who had just given birth. “For if you don’t, this will become your fate.” The woman’s bowels let loose, splashing my legs with fecal bloody mess.

I turned my head and stole a look at her. Her smile could etch steel.

“Take your honored position of prestige in my lineage, and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imagination.” The Priestess’ head turned to favor the men in the room. “Be done with it! Edric, continue with the protocol we discussed earlier.”

“Yes, my Priestess.”

Before I could blink, Edric had more strapped restraints around my arms and pressed my chest. The Priestess and the baby were gone.

“No! No! Please, let me go!”

Edric wheeled me into a room with four poles and a medical table. I thrashed up and down in the chair until Edric slammed his fist into my temple again. Everything went black as my vision blurred and swirls of colorful pain burst behind my left eye. I could’ve sworn I heard my brain slosh inside my skull.

* * *

C
oming to
, I desperately tried to maintain consciousness. My left eyelid must have been swollen shut because I couldn’t open it. I felt as if I had been hit upside the head with a crowbar. The pain was so intense vomit erupted and ran down the front of me. With every ounce of energy, I fought the notion that I would either die in this room, or my fate would be the same as Sheridan's if I didn’t. Ludovic grabbed my face and tried to calm me.

“Dakota, listen to me. We don’t have much time. Edric will be back any minute.”

I tried to focus on Ludovic as he wiped my mouth clean with a towel.

“Please. Help me.” My words were barely audible to my own ears as my vision faded once again.

“Stay with me, okay? This is what’s going to happen, but I need you to play along. I’m going to get you out of here, but I need you to stop fighting. He’s going to seriously harm you if you keep fighting him. I’ve seen him do it. It’s what gets him off.”

I nodded. Tears filled the corners of my eyes. “How could you do this?” I tried to calm my voice, but my words shook with sobs. “Why would you do this to me? I thought we had more than this. You said. You said you loved me.”

“Shh. I know. He’ll be back any second.”

“Please, I’m begging you. Don’t do this to me. I’ll do anything. I’ll be your eternal mate, whatever. Just don’t impregnate me like that. Ludovic, please don’t do that to me!”

Edric walked in through the door. I braced my leg to kick him. He lunged at me and grabbed my ankle. He squeezed my shin until I heard my ankle crack.

“Ahhhhg!” Raw, hot razorblades ran up my nerves and into my low back. No matter how I moved, the pain down my leg was excruciating to the point of absolute paralysis. My foot sprawled in a grotesque backward heap.

At that moment I knew there wasn’t any more reasoning. They weren’t going to listen to any amount of pleading. Weakened as I was, Edric shot a syringe of yellow goo into my arm with no resistance.

Ludovic shoved Edric away from me. “What the hell, Edric? Why did you shoot her full of that?”

Edric shrugged as if it were an everyday event. “Dakota here is prepped to become a part of the Solunarae blood testing. I needed to bathe her muscles in relaxant, or she could have fugued on us.”

Ludovic shut his eyes and took several long, deep breaths. When he opened his eyes, he looked down at me.

“Why?” I tried to shake my head. “Why?” The muscles in my body were seizing.

Helpless to move or defend myself, all I could do was wait in terror as to what they were going to do to me next. I prayed Cheyenne would understand my message for the geo-cache and, find us. Would she get it?

“We should put her in the same ward with her sister Sheridan,” Edric mused. “How fun it will be to have all three redheads swinging in their hammocks, in a row.”

I heard every foul scheming word fall out of Edric’s mouth. I swore to the Mother Goddess that if I ever got the chance I would run a hot poker through his eye and feed him to zombies if I didn’t eat him myself first.

“Shut the hell up, Edric. I’ve had enough of your shite tonight. I’ll set them in the same bay. Soon we will have Cheyenne in our possession and we can deliver the Priestess what she wants.”

I watched through blurred eyes as an evil shroud consumed Edric. A black aura hovered over him. Ludovic held his face over mine for a moment, perhaps to check if I was conscious. I couldn’t move my lips, my face absolutely frozen from the injection.

He bit his lips.

“Edric, don’t perform the insemination until I get back. Do you understand? I’ll handle it myself. Just prep her for surgery. We’ll Cryo a bunch of her ova tonight just to be safe if for any reason she can’t carry. The follicle stimulating hormone injection should have her releasing several of them.”

Edric opened his mouth, but Ludovic exploded. “I said,
DON’T touch her
.” There were a few additional words in Romanian that I couldn’t understand. Whatever they were, Edric backed off from his brother and nodded in acknowledgment.

Ludovic turned to look at my face again. His forehead furrowed in what looked like concern.

Grateful for his help this time, no matter how slight it might have been, I watched as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dakota.”

I pleaded with my eyes for him not to leave me with his brother, but my body held me prisoner, incapable of talking or moving. He stole one more glance and kissed my lips. He sighed hard as tears ran down my cheeks and into my ears. He turned and walked away.

Please don’t go. Please don’t abandon me!

I had heard the soft swoosh of the door close behind Ludovic. Edric was already posed against me. I could feel his excitement pushing through his pants. My face and body frozen, I had no weapons but my eyes, as I glared at him.

I swear to the heavens above, if I ever get out of this place, I will kill you!