Exsanguinate (28 page)

O
f course
just when I thought Khaldon and I might have a moment alone, my cell phone chirped at me. I really tried to ignore it. I kept on kissing him, knowing it was most likely the guys looking for us. But then, it came across as Dakota’s text message ringtone. Whenever Elton John’s “The Bitch is Back” came across my phone, I knew it was Dakota.

I pulled away, mid-lipped from Khaldon, and grabbed my purse in the car. The text display read:

“It’s definitely from her phone, but I don’t think the message is from her.” Khaldon was instantly at my side. He was the one who, as Roxas, had helped me pick out the ringtone for Dakota and knew this had to be from her. “Just another way for Ludovic to mess with your mind.”

“Use the Force? What is he some kind of Star Wars nut? Is he gonna send a Sith after me now?” I cursed at the campiness of his riddle. “Seriously, does he think I’m stupid or something? Anyone who lives in Orlando knows exactly what he’s talking about.”

Khaldon looked at me with a raised eyebrow. He was trying to understand the riddle. “A dragon and a virgin. Well we really don’t have any castles around here except for Cinderella’s Castle at Disney. But I don’t recall seeing a pineapple or a dinosaur in the mist around the moat.”

“You’re close,” I said. “It’s Downtown Disney. They have a dragon made of Legos floating in the water, a huge Virgin records store. The Pineapple is a Cuban Café, and then there is the T-Rex Dinosaur Café. It’s all right there.”

“He must have something waiting for you then. He couldn’t have them in such a public place. Let me read the text again.”

I held the phone up for Khaldon.

“Use the Force to find your way. What do you suppose that means?”

I slapped at my arm where a mosquito tried to spear me with its bloodthirsty straw. “Why in the hell do mosquitoes drink from vampires? I thought for sure I would be rid of these damn things once and for all! Anyway, I don’t know about the Force part, but I know someone who will.”

I had Harris on speed dial, and within seconds I could hear them singing to “Friends in Low Places” when he answered.

“Cheyenne, when you get the guys, tell them to meet us at my place. I want to pick up a few things before we go.”

I nodded at Khaldon while I spoke to Harris.

“Hey, Chey, where are you guys? We beat you back to the house.”

“Harris, listen. Meet us over at Khaldon’s place. I think we have a lead on where Dakota and Sheridan are being kept.”

“No shit! Okay – we’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Harris replied.

“I’m gonna forward you a text I just got from Dakota’s phone. See if you guys can figure it out, but I’m pretty sure it’s Downtown Disney. It’s just the Force part I can’t figure out. I’m hoping you guys can Star Wars the logic out of it and we can come up with an answer by the time we get to Khaldon’s. I’ll explain more then.”

“Okay – you got it. Send it over, and we’ll meet you there.”

“Oh, Harris – wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you walk the pups for me, or bring them with you? Either way, they need to go out I’m sure.”

“No problem – will do.”

“Thanks, see you soon.” And with that I shut the phone and we hopped back into the car. I smacked another vampire mosquito as it bit into my cheek. It actually hurt. “Ouch! Damn mosquitoes.”

“It won’t be long and they’ll stop biting you. Right now, they aren’t sure what you are, so you are inviting. Soon your smell will change, and then they’ll just buzz on by.”

“My smell will change? Okay, that one will have to wait for another day. Right now I need to concentrate on this Force thing. Why do you want us to go to your house first?”

“I just don’t think you should go into a potential situation unarmed. I have katanas, a cross bow, and several pistols. I haven’t had the need to kill any of my own kind for a long time. I also haven’t used these weapons in years except on a firing range, but I keep them clean and in good shape.” Khaldon rubbed the back of his neck. “I think it’s a good idea to arm ourselves, to be prepared, but you have to remember something – we immortals live in a regulated society among humans now. We can’t just go walking around with these kinds of weapons in public places and not get arrested. Downtown Disney is a family vacation spot. Granted, there won’t be many people there at three in the morning, but still. We must heed caution.”

“Okay, I get it. You’ve got a point, but still the next clue leads there, and I don’t want to be caught off guard. You’re right. I do need something to defend myself with. Do you have any ultraviolet light bullets?”

Khaldon snorted a hearty laugh at me. “Cheyenne, I think you watch way too many vampire werewolf movies. There is no such thing. Well, at least I don’t think there is. Anyway, why would I have UV bullets? I seldom need to kill a fellow vampire.”

I felt kinda stupid for asking, but I just had to. It was worth a shot anyways. How was I supposed to know those things weren’t real? Hell, vampires and werewolves weren’t real a couple weeks ago.

“Ludovic doesn’t know I have any of you helping me. I’m sure he is expecting me to be alone when I arrive.”

“We need to figure out a plan to keep us out of sight, but keep you protected at the same time,” Khaldon said.

It wasn’t long until we arrived at his condo. The guys had decided to bring the pups with them. “C’mere, baby. Gimme some sugars.” Beano and Stormy followed us in as if they’d been there a hundred times before. Stormy ran up to Torchy, and he scooped her up into his arms.

“Here, they can play out back. It’s fenced.” Khaldon slid open his lanai door and the dogs ran outside.

Walking through Khaldon’s home, I took a moment to look at his place again in a different light. There was a different feel about it this time. I looked around again at the shrine he had created to our relationship. It was amazing.
He
was amazing.

“Damn, somebody’s got a hard-on for the Lady Caz!” Briggs let out a long whistle as he walked into the condo.

“Welcome to my humble abode, Briggs. And yes, you could say that.”

I blushed.

Khaldon moved with an elegant grace, pushing buttons to reveal hidden closets and desk drawers. Gathering the troops and getting armed made this situation feel kinda badass. Breathing in an anxious breath, he took a single second to kiss me on the forehead before he picked up a deadly looking weapon. He set the spiked bowling ball hanging from a chain down on the table and handed me a baseball bat.

“What am I going to do with this?”

“I’m not sure at the moment, but it’s wood, and it might come in handy.”

Briggs threw a huge bag onto the sofa and opened it, revealing guns, knives, clips of ammunition, and even a handheld crossbow. Harris and I peered at his arsenal.

“Why do you have this kind of stuff, Briggs,” I asked.

“It’s nice to have connections,” he grinned.

“Remind me never to cross you or your connections.” Khaldon laughed at him.

Briggs continued to unpack his bag and explain what each weapon was and what kind of bullet it took.

I saw blue glowing light bullets. Picking it up and pointing it toward Khaldon I said, “But I thought, these weren’t real. Only used in movies?”

“They’re real. Especially when you need to kill vampires. I also have a few clips loaded with silver bullets and some filled with colloidal silver.” I saw both Harris and Khaldon take a couple steps backward.

“It’s all right guys. I’m on your side, remember?” Briggs teased.

“Why would you have these kinds of weapons, Briggs?” I asked again.

“Well it’s like this, Chey Chey. When you live in a big city for as long as I have, you tend to make connections. Sometimes those relationships go sour, and the need to collect on those connections becomes a necessary evil.”

I looked over at Khaldon and Harris and they eased back up towards the table where the weapons were laid out.

Briggs continued, “So I had a few of these made up when some scum bag didn’t fulfill his end of the bargain. Well. Let’s just say I put a cap in their ass.”

Between the arsenal Khaldon had and the bag of goodies Briggs supplied, I thought for sure we had enough stuff to open our own Army Navy Surplus store. “I’m glad you guys are on my side.”

“
W
e have
another couple bodies to incinerate,” Edric radioed over the walkie headset.

Ludovic stretched his legs in his chair as he watched Dakota in her coma. He brushed the red locks from her face and kissed the sleeping beauty before leaving the room.

How the hell did I get messed up in this crap?

Ludovic walked down the flights of stairs to the main floor of the breeding facility. Rows upon rows of women strung up in hammock nets hummed in tune with the electronic equipment maintaining their life essence. Everywhere, tubes going in, tubes going out. Babies growing. Women in labor. Normally, Edric had calculated the timed births down to a science, but occasionally his calculations were off on the dosages. That’s when the breeders woke up and realized where they were. Echoes of the terrified screams always haunted Ludovic. Thousands of babies had been born at this selective breeding den in Orlando. It was convenient to the airports and easy for The Priestess to take the children via private transport to South America to begin their specialized under the Queen’s guard.

Ludovic rounded the corner. “Jeez, Edric – what are you doing to these test subjects? Why have so many of them died?”

Edric shrugged. “We won’t have any more die on us. The Priestess is shifting test subjects. Those two over there need to go in the incinerator.”

Ludovic wheeled the toe-tagged victims over to the hot box. Toe tag number 736 was a budding girl, couldn’t have been older than nineteen. Opening the scorching furnace revealed fiery hot steel where they destroyed any physical evidence of the body’s existence. Ludovic shook his head as he loaded the second corpse – toe tag 198 – into the fire and cranked it up high. Every time he threw another female into the furnace, he wondered – who were these women? Would their families ever know the truth about their disappearance?

I’m sick of this shite. I’m tired of being The Priestess’ patsy.

Ludovic walked back over to Edric and found his Dakota being rolled out of the elevator and wheeled over to a table in front of him.

“Edric. What are you doing with Dakota?”

“The Priestess said to stop using the polluted human test subjects.” Edric grinned at his brother. “We are going to use the Abarhtac lineage sisters to assess the Solunarae blood. The Priestess feels if we start with a pure lineage, then their bloodstream should be able to handle the changes.”

Ludovic stopped Edric from rolling the gurney. “You’re not going to do anything like this to their father, are you?”

“No, she was adamant about that. We’ve been given clear instructions not to harm him in any way, or the Queen will have our heads! He’s resting peacefully. Not particularly happy about where he is, but at least he’s safe from any other threats.”

“There’s just no need to stress him any more than he already is. If anything happens to him, we might as well meet our undeniable deaths right now. We have to keep him safe.”

“Well, he’s safer here with us with those rogues on the loose in the area. If they get hold of him, there’s no telling what the Queen will do.”

Ludovic pulled Dakota’s gurney away from his brother. “Please, Edric, reconsider this. Have you thought through the consequences? We don’t know if the Solunarae blood will kill them, too. And if it does, then we will have lost a tremendously valuable resource.”

I can’t lose Dakota. I’ve got to get her out of here, somehow.

“The Priestess wants us to remove oocytes from each sister. We’ll extract the eggs needed to impregnate the prepared hosts for in-vitro fertilization. We’ll cryopreserve the embryos until more hosts are ready, including the sisters, and that can take up to two to four weeks depending on their cycles. The Priestess also said they were moving in a few hundred more hosts, from other facilities, to become impregnated with the sisters’ oocytes.”

Ludovic’s mouth grew as arid as a desert. “What exactly are you doing with Dakota now?”

“I’m prepping her for surgery, of course. We need to take out her first batch of eggs for insemination with the sperm specimens The Priestess brought us yesterday. We’ll examine the oocytes in the Solunarae blood bath and see if they are viable. If they are, we’ll impregnate Dakota with the embryos and continue feeding her the Solunarae lunar blood.”

Not wanting to comply with the Queen’s plan for Dakota, Ludovic’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“What’s your problem? It’s what the Queen wants, Ludovic,” Edric said. “And of course, when I find the winning formula, I will get credit for discovering how to harvest humans and win back the integrity of our race. I’ll be famous.”

“Let’s try this out on Sheridan first. She’s older and healthier than Dakota. She’s been doing yoga. No drugs in her system. Dakota might not be such a pure sample. Let’s see how her eggs react first.”

“I don’t care. We just need to get it done.” Edric shrugged. “But first, I have been ordered to start the preliminary injection on Dakota to learn how she reacts to the Solunarae blood.”

Edric had the syringe prepped before Ludovic could stop him. Edric screwed it into the blood supply line and pressed the plunger. Dakota didn’t move. Her body lay still until her eyes shot open in alarm. Her arms and legs thrashed.

“Hold her legs, Ludovic.”

“Edric, she’s going to hurt herself. We’re gonna have to restrain her.”

Her violent convulsions caused her body to flail. They held her limbs down as best they could, but her spasms fiercely rocked them off their feet. Her hand shot up and smacked Edric in the face, bloodying his lower lip. As abruptly as the spasms came on, they disappeared. Dakota’s heart rate steadied. Her respirations became normal once again. Her blood pressure had stabilized.

“That was weird. Never seen any of them do that before.” Edric wiped the blood off his lip. “I’ll schedule her for regular doses for a few days until we understand how the tests are running. Let’s get the older sister prepped for surgery in the morning. I’m ready for bed.”

“Sure, Edric. Let me clean up in here. What kind of Solunarae blood did you try on her?”

Edric smiled wickedly. “Lunar Blood. We will consider the solar blood on Sheridan and study how they differ.”

Ludovic nodded while clenching his fists. “Thanks. Good to know. Wouldn’t want to get them mixed up on my rounds.” Ludovic grabbed the edge of Dakota’s gurney and wheeled her back into her patient area.

In the elevator heading back to her room, Ludovic lovingly touched Dakota’s skin as he rolled her into the hammock harness. Emotion overflowed down his cheeks as he secured her catheter and other excrement tubing. Ludovic pressed the button to hoist her into the air, suspended above the floor. He checked the netting to make sure nothing was cutting off any circulation, and the air temperature in the room was set to keep her comfortable.

I can’t let them kill you, Dakota. I love you too much. How am I going to be able to help you? I’m so sorry I didn’t know this was going to happen. My plan was to -

Ludovic’s phone rang out in a text message.

[Cheyenne O’Cuinn] Okay – I got it. I’m standing here at Downtown Disney. I’ve got R2D2, C3PO, and Darth Vader next to me. How much more “Force” do I need to find?

Ludovic thought fast. He texted back to Cheyenne.

[Fang Boy] Change of plans. Meet me at Club Mordez Moi at noon tomorrow. If you don’t, Dakota will die. Period. Come alone. If you bring anyone, I will have your father killed immediately.

* * *

E
dric slid aside
the curtain of Dakota’s room. He had another bag of blood to hang for her IV. “I’m gonna stay and watch her for a while, Ludovic. I’ve got a steady drip going into her system with the lunar blood, and I just want to make sure she handles the volume well. She’s due for another dose here in about a minute.”

Ludovic swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll go finish the prep for Sheridan’s morning procedure.”

“I already have the room done. Prepped it earlier today thinking I needed to deliver that ten pounder via C-section. But the human host crashed, so I just finished cutting out the suckling. It’s in the nursery now. I put the host mother next to the incinerator for you.” Edric droned on as if it was just another dull day on the job – killing women and birthing babies.

Ludovic left the room for his nine p.m. rounds. He made notes on his tablet for host #492. She was in the early stages of labor. He increased the oxytocin level one push. Sometimes these things took days, sometimes hours, and for the top breeders, it was usually calculated to minutes.

When his phone alerted him that Dakota’s life support machines were reporting distress, Ludovic took off running to get to her patient area. Slamming back the curtain he found Edric had left Dakota unattended. Her arms and legs bent in macabre contortionist positions. The spasms were more intense than he had witnessed before in any other test subjects. He saw drops of blood falling onto the floor from her mouth. She was dying!

Ludovic disconnected her feeding and excrement tubes. He immediately lowered her onto a gurney table and removed her from the hammock harness. Dakota’s heartbeat escalated to deathly levels. Panting as if she were giving birth, her face contorted in pain, Dakota wailed an unconscious, involuntary cry. He held her at arm’s length as he watched her eyes roll backwards into her skull.

She’s in pain! I have to do something to stop this!

He pulled her close and whispered, “Dakota, I want to help get you out of here. Edric is killing you.” Ludovic sank his teeth into her throat and injected his vampire DNA into her. If anyone was going to kill her, it was going to be him.

He savored the flavor of her blood – deliciously intoxicating. He wanted more. Pulled in by the taste temptation of Solunarae, he released his mouth from the succulent feed. He quickly grabbed a syringe plowing it into his own artery from his arm and sucked out his blood to give to her. Within seconds, he plunged the full syringe deep into Dakota’s still beating heart and filled it with his vampire blood.

Her breathing and her heartbeat slowed. Her arms and legs relaxed as her eyes rolled forward once again. It would only be a matter of time before Dakota’s body began to support and nurture the vampire DNA. He didn’t have long to get them both to safety. He laid her back down onto the table and breathed a sigh of relief that her life was no longer hanging by a thread. Now they were both in serious jeopardy and needed to escape.

When the Priestess found out about this, she would kill him. He needed to get them both out of there tonight. He whispered into her ear once again, “I’ll be right back, my pet. I must confiscate some computer files, and we can get you to a safe place.” He left her on the table and ran for his office.

Ludovic’s phone alerted him once again to Dakota’s medical emergency as he heard a scream and a crash from her patient area. He heard the scream again – but this time it was from Edric. Ludovic rounded the door and beheld a bloodcurdling scene – even for a vampire.

He saw Edric, ten feet in the air and plastered against the wall, pinned by a bloodied, winged monster with taloned gripped claws.

Edric screamed at the top of his lungs. “Help me, brother!”

Ludovic couldn’t find Dakota anywhere in the room. He threw a fire extinguisher at the demon’s head – that only managed to piss it off. The demon turned to face Ludovic as he gasped out in shock, “Dakota!”

With that, she speared her other clawed wing into Edric’s groin and savagely gouged her teeth into his throat.

Ludovic watched in horror as she feverishly dug and tore at his neck and ripped his unit off him. She flung his penis and man sack across the room. Her wings pinned his body immobile to the wall, shredding him apart as she sucked deep, heaving pulls of life essence until his mere eight pints were drained.

When Edric was sucked dry, Dakota removed her speared talons from his flesh, and let the body hit the floor. Dakota turned towards Ludovic. She lashed out at him with her tongue and wrapped her long serpentine muscle around his neck. She tightened a hold of him and squeezed. Ludovic on the verge of turning blue, reached for a pen out of his pocket and stabbed her tongue repeatedly with it. Dakota released her neck hold and recoiled. She sent out a sirened scream to make any Banshee duck and hide. She looked up to the overhead glass ceiling.

Ludovic followed her gaze. He choked out the words, “Dakota, wait – I can help you!
Don’t
…”

Dakota jumped and shattered the domed glass ceiling into a shower of deadly slicing projectiles onto Ludovic. He covered his head to protect his eyes and face from the falling danger as he ran out the building to see where she had gone. But she was just that – gone.